CHAPTER 44: CHAPTER 5 ONGOING INVESTIGATION (PLEASE FAVORITE AND VOTE FOR MONTHLY TICKET)

Zhao Donglai furrowed his brows again and nodded, saying, "That’s right, the murderer might not be from Ningjiang County."

Zhao Donglai thought for a moment, then looked at everyone and said, "Group One’s Luo Fei and Group Two’s Li Tian, both of you will search all the hotels in Ningjiang County, as Luo Fei just suggested."

In the central park of Ningjiang County, Luo Fei and Li Tian were preparing to investigate the hotels one by one.

"Luo Fei, where should we start our investigation?" Li Tian asked proactively. Since Luo Fei revealed his strength in the previous fight with the old man Wu, no one in the detective team underestimated him, whether it came to solving cases or his skills.

Luo Fei didn’t hold back, having some thoughts on how to conduct the investigation. He said, "Did you notice that the clothes and shoes on the deceased were relatively cheap? I also observed that the deceased had many calluses on his hands, indicating his economic condition was not particularly good. We should start from the Old Street; the hotels and inns there are relatively cheaper, and it’s more likely the deceased stayed around there."

"Alright, I’ll follow your lead." Li Tian agreed with a nod.

Then, Luo Fei and Li Tian went to Old Street and began checking the hotels and inns one by one.

At the same time, other members of the detective team were performing their respective tasks.

By around 7 PM, Luo Fei and Li Tian had completed their investigation of the hotels and inns in Old Street, but disappointingly found nothing.

Upon returning to the detective team, most colleagues had also returned, all with downcast heads, apparently as fruitless as Luo Fei and Li Tian.

The technical department’s DNA collection and comparison yielded no results either.

In summary, the detective team’s work today gained very little.

After work, as Luo Fei left the detective team, he began jogging home, his mind continuously pondering the events of the day.

"Why would the deceased go to the mountain behind Wuyi Town? Did he go alone or with the murderer? If he went alone, what was his purpose? If with the murderer, what were they planning?"

"Did the murderer destroy the deceased’s face to truly prevent his identity from being revealed? Does this mean the murderer and the deceased might have known each other?"

"If the deceased was from outside and had poor economic conditions, where else could he have stayed besides Old Street?"

These thoughts kept surfacing in Luo Fei’s mind.

As he ran and pondered, he suddenly stopped near his home’s entrance.

"Something’s wrong. The deceased might not have come to Ningjiang County alone. It’s very possible he arrived with the murderer, or the murderer is a local, and the deceased came to find him. If it’s the former, they might have stayed together, and after killing the deceased, the murderer might have checked out and left the county, making our hotel searches meaningless."

Realizing this possibility, Luo Fei felt a chill in his heart.

Over the next two days, Luo Fei and Li Tian continued to search the hotels and inns in Ningjiang County, though Luo Fei had low expectations.

As expected, after they searched all the hotels and inns in the county, they found nothing.

Other colleagues also had no good news. Yang Su and his team found no results from inquiries in the surrounding areas. Group Two and Three spent nearly half a month investigating missing person reports at local police stations without success. The technical department’s DNA database search also yielded no match.

In short, the investigation of the murder in the mountain behind Wuyi Town hit a bottleneck before it even began.

In the detective team’s meeting room, this was already the second meeting discussing the murder case in the mountain behind Wuyi Town. Yet after much discussion, there were still no results.

"Everyone, Director Wucheng called my office for the second time today, asking about the case progress. I don’t know how to answer him. If there’s no progress soon, we might all be questioned. I hope everyone can go out and find clues and not just stay in the office. Sitting here won’t solve the case." At the front of the meeting room, Zhao Donglai spoke sternly with a serious tone.

Then Zhao Donglai looked at Yang Mei, "How’s the forensic reconstruction of the deceased’s pre-death appearance going?"

Yang Mei replied, "The head model is done, but many details still need to be refined. It will take some more time."

"Hmm." Zhao Donglai nodded, then turned to the leader of Group Three, Wang Dong, "How is the investigation on the murder weapon?"

"There are too many similar knives on the market, and many people bought them. The shopkeepers can’t remember who they sold them to, making the investigation very difficult," Wang Dong replied.

"Even if it’s difficult, we need to continue. The murder weapon was likely purchased a few days before the crime, which might be a breakthrough for us. Find out as much as you can."

Zhao Donglai continued asking some questions before leaving the office with his notebook.

Luo Fei and some members of his group returned to the office.

"How do we investigate if we can’t even confirm the deceased’s identity?" Wang Lei sat down dejectedly.

Xia Zheng, leaning on Wang Lei’s shoulders, pointed to his panda eyes and said, "Look at these panda eyes, I haven’t slept properly in three days. If this continues, I’ll lose my title as the most handsome officer."

Luo Fei and Zhong Jun ignored the jokesters. Zhong Jun picked up his dumbbells to work out, while Luo Fei twirled a pen, pondering the case.

"Luo Fei, Zhong Jun, you two are really no fun," Xia Zheng said, feeling bored as they ignored him.

After about ten minutes, when Yang Su didn’t return, Luo Fei stood up and told Wang Lei, "I’m going to investigate, let the leader know when he comes."

Luo Fei then left the office.

"Where’s Luo Fei going to investigate?" Xia Zheng wondered, suspecting him of using it as an excuse for a date.

"No, I don’t think Luo Fei is like that," Zhong Jun answered seriously.

After leaving the detective team, Luo Fei headed straight to the bus station.

Just as Zhao Donglai said in the meeting, thinking alone in the office wouldn’t solve the case. Luo Fei planned to go out and search for clues. Even though the chances were slim, it was better than doing nothing in the office.

Luo Fei’s first stop was the bus station.

If the deceased and the murderer were from out of town, they might have arrived by bus, not car, and the station’s surveillance might have captured them, although recognizing them would be difficult as the murderer’s face was completely destroyed.

Moreover, Luo Fei didn’t know when the deceased arrived in Ningjiang County, so he planned to review half a month’s worth of surveillance footage before the victim’s death.