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墨書 Inktalez
“Qiu Yuan, you did well,” Luo Dachun suddenly straightened his expression, stood up, and began to pace slowly in the room. “However, as the Emperor just mentioned, the earliest incident occurred over a month ago, and the latest one happened seven days ago. The scene has long been devoid of any traces. In this attack on the Jiang Residence, the assailants were highly vigilant; they only exchanged a few blows before retreating. From the Murderer’s side, I’m afraid we won’t be able to gather any information.”
Nie Qiuyuan nodded. Luo Dachun continued, “However, looking at these cases, there are murders, but what can be gained from them is still unclear to us. Therefore, their objectives have not been achieved; this is merely a beginning, not an end. This means that new victims will definitely appear.”
Listening to his words, I couldn’t help but silently give him a thumbs-up in my heart. In the context of the Murderer’s continuous crimes, aside from studying the traces at the crime scenes, researching the connections between the Victims is undoubtedly a good approach.
Serial murderers often have specific goals. To achieve these goals, their chosen targets will invariably share some common characteristics. For instance, if it’s a robbery, the victims are often well-dressed individuals who walk alone on certain desolate roads during specific time periods and are not particularly strong.
If we can identify these common traits among the Victims, it would not only help determine the Murderer’s objectives and narrow down the suspect pool but also assist in predicting the next potential victim and prevent further tragedies from occurring.
Nie Qiuyuan smiled and said, “Da Chun, I agree. This time, let’s go to the next place and wait for our opportunity.”
“Brother Nie, where is the next place? How do we wait there?” Han Meilan asked eagerly.
“Melan, don’t rush,” Nie Qiuyuan gently reassured her.
I didn’t know what was wrong with me at that moment. Clearly, it was such an important time for organizing our investigation thoughts, yet Han Meilan insisted on interrupting Nie Qiuyuan while he was speaking, which inexplicably ignited a fire within me. Moreover, Nie Qiuyuan’s gentle voice calling her name made it somewhat hard for me to accept.
I understood that I absolutely could not break character now; however, no matter how hard I tried to suppress it, I couldn’t hold back any longer. I smiled slightly and pulled Han Meilan aside.
“Melan, why are you so anxious? Listen to Brother Luo; if you keep this up, Brother Luo's train of thought will be interrupted.”
Under normal circumstances, when I made such a reasonable point, Han Meilan would nod vigorously and then quickly close her mouth. But this time she didn’t. She stared intently at my idol for a while before shifting her gaze to Luo Dachun.
Nie Qiuyuan didn’t look at me; instead, he focused on her. Luo Dachun also didn’t make any jokes to lighten the atmosphere.
Even if I were oblivious, I should have noticed something was off here. It felt very uncomfortable—as if I had been left standing outside the door all alone. In short, it was extremely frustrating.
I closed my mouth and leaned back against the chair, feeling a surge of frustration alone.
Luo Dachun then took up his brush with a solemn expression, spreading out a large sheet of paper on the desk. As he wrote and sketched, he said, "If you think about the identities, statuses, times of death, and methods of death of these victims, there are indeed some commonalities. Firstly, all those who were murdered were key figures in charge of the commercial lifelines in Chang'an and Luoyang. Secondly, all the incidents occurred at the third watch of the night within their own homes. Moreover, their deaths were horrifying, with certain parts of their bodies gruesomely stripped down to the bone."
Indeed, this was information we all knew. However, there wasn't much that could be deduced from it. But when I focused on what Luo Dachun had written on the paper, I was taken aback.
It seemed he had listened to Li Shimin recount the case's overview in the garden of Jiang Residence and had managed to list the basic details of over a dozen victims in chronological order based solely on that memory.
This level of memory and summarization ability was something even I, a seasoned scholar accustomed to exams, could only admire.
"Look here," he pointed out. "The order in which these murderers struck seems rather strange."
Everyone gathered around to look at the paper, and upon seeing it, they suddenly understood—it was indeed so. The identities of the deceased were arranged in a sequence corresponding to jewelers, pharmacists, grain merchants, moneylenders, and transporters. It was as if the murderer had an obsessive compulsion; this order remained unchanged. Currently, there were twelve victims, and the thirteenth one attacked tonight was the boss of a grain shop.
Although it was an attempted murder, since we had already been alerted and interrupted them, it was unlikely they would strike Jiang Residence again in the short term. Therefore, according to this sequence, the next target should be the moneylender.
However, this was truly peculiar. Such a systematic approach seemed overly deliberate—as if they were afraid of leaving no clues behind. Moreover, using such distinctive and brutal methods to kill felt like an open provocation.
"If their goal is simply to eliminate merchants for commercial gain, then there’s no need to kill so many unrelated individuals. In fact, killing these people would only cause some chaos; it wouldn’t shake the nation’s commercial lifeline at all. Yet by turning this into a serial murder case, people will immediately feel that the nation’s commerce is severely impacted and that society is on shaky ground." Luo Dachun casually circled points on the paper with his brush. "This will certainly attract the emperor's attention; sooner or later, this sequence will be discovered, and then the night wanderer will be caught."
"Dachun," Nie Qiuyuan said quietly as he looked at him, "all your conclusions are based on assumptions that may not hold true, right?"
Luo Dachun paused for a moment before nodding. "Indeed, that's how I see it."
Nie Qiuyuan suddenly broke into a smile. He patted Luo Dachun on the shoulder and said, "The businesses listed here are ones we have both heard of; this arrangement is based on their scale. The next target should be the third-ranked moneylender in Jingji."
“Tongfu Guild.”
“Ah?!” I couldn't help but exclaim. Does that mean the next Victim will be Yan Shunqing, the owner of Tongfu Hall, whom we just met not long ago?
“We can't delay. If tonight's attack on the Jiang Residence fails, we don't know when the next raid will happen, so we must act now,” Nie Qiuyuan said. “We need to arrange for people to secretly set up defenses at the Yan Residence. Da Chun, we should pay a visit first and inform the owner, so he can make arrangements in case of unforeseen circumstances.”
Luo Dachun nodded and set down his pen. After a moment of thought, he frowned and turned to us. “Melan, Liuying, stay at the Inn. Do not go out under any circumstances.”
“No way!” Han Meilan suddenly shouted, her tone unusually firm. She rarely acted this way, but now she gritted her teeth and put on a defiant stance. “I want to go!”
Luo Dachun stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. After considering it for a moment, he said, “You would only be a hindrance. Melan, don’t worry; I’m not going alone.”
Melan was taken aback, her gaze shifting to Nie Qiuyuan. He reassured her, “Melan, everything will come to light. Da Chun will be fine.”
After a moment of silence, Han Meilan suddenly pouted and began to cry softly before storming out of the room. I heard the door to her room slam shut.
What on earth is going on? I felt dizzy; it was as if they didn't consider me one of their own.
“I’ll go pack my things; we’ll leave soon,” Luo Dachun said before stepping out. I followed him but suddenly heard Nie Qiuyuan call from behind, “Liuying, wait a moment.”
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