CHAPTER 55: CHAPTER 55: THAT BURIED PAST

Li Jian pushed open the door and walked into the interrogation room.

Chen He looked exhausted, appearing extremely frustrated.

Earlier, he used all the interrogation techniques he had learned at the police academy, launching a series of bombarding questions.

However, he did not obtain any valuable clues.

Li Dong kept insisting that he was innocent and had not committed murder.

This was worlds apart from the attitude when he first returned from Nanbu City, as if falling from the highest point to the lowest.

The interrogation work, which had initially been filled with confidence, ended in disappointment.

Mr. Li walked over, patted his shoulder, indicating to take a short break.

Then, Li Jian sat down and began to speak, "Li Dong, I have a few questions to ask now, please answer truthfully."

"Officer, go ahead!"

"As long as we can find the murderer, I will definitely cooperate with you all vigorously."

"On the condition that I am not the murderer that you all suspect."

Li Jian raised his eyebrows and said, "Are you the murderer?"

"It’s not up to you to decide."

"Nor is it up to me."

"It’s up to the evidence."

After a brief pause, Li Jian said, "You had a four-year relationship with Zhang Qian. During the time you were together, did Zhang Qian mention any conflicts with others?"

Upon hearing this question, Li Dong fell into thought.

He recalled for a moment and said, "Zhang Qian’s personality was a bit stubborn, but she rarely had conflicts with others. Even if there were minor frictions in life, they weren’t a big deal."

After a long pause, he added, "If you ask who she had conflicts with, from what I remember, she seemed to have a tense relationship with one of her university roommates."

"University roommate?"

Li Dong nodded.

"During university, their dormitory had four people, and one of the girls was from a remote mountain village."

"I heard that this girl had strong self-esteem, was very sensitive, and always felt the other three were excluding her, and there was discord in their interactions."

"During university, that girl was basically solitary.

"Near graduation, I remember that there was a quarrel in their dormitory."

"The argument was quite intense at the time, and there was some minor physical interaction between the girl and the other three."

"However, after mediation by the counselor and school, no major conflict occurred."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Li’s eyes narrowed slightly.

He was quickly thinking about the facts that Li Dong was presenting.

In Li Jian’s view, similar cases had occurred in universities, where someone was harmed due to wounded pride.

However.

Such cases were very rare.

Could this be the motive for a massacre?

Even if someone hated another to the bone, would they kill their whole family along with them?

After pondering for a long time, Li Jian asked again, "After graduating from university, have you heard of any continued grievances between Zhang Qian and that girl?"

Li Dong spread his hands.

He said, "After graduation, due to Zhang Qian’s parents’ obstruction, we broke up."

"As for later matters, I really don’t know."

"This is the biggest conflict she had after I knew Zhang Qian in her life with others."

Mr. Li nodded after listening.

Then he turned and looked at Chen He.

"Mr. Chen, is there anything you want to ask?"

Chen He said, "Besides university classmates’ conflicts."

"Did Zhang Qian ever mention conflicts with anyone before university?"

Li Dong shook his head and said, "Zhang Qian’s family background is quite okay, she grew up in the city."

"During my time with her, I never heard her mention having conflicts with others."

At this moment, outside the one-way glass window of the interrogation room.

Mr. Ma, Zhang Yean, and Jiang An were observing the inside of the interrogation room.

The sound of the interrogation could also be transmitted into their ears via headphones.

Mr. Ma nodded after listening.

Actually, regarding the situation Li Dong described earlier, Mr. Ma had also heard of similar cases occurring in Caiyun Province.

However, that case did not harm the family members.

Standing beside him, Jiang An fell into deep thought.

Before time-traveling, he had been a university professor, having frequent contact with college students.

People in the same dormitory came from all over the world, with different temperaments, and there might be some frictions in interactions.

However, to escalate to the level of murder, Jiang An had never encountered such a case.

Time can dissolve everything.

If after graduation the two had little contact, the grievances from back then would slowly fade.

From a psychological perspective, the possibility of crime due to university friction is very small.

However, he noticed that Mr. Ma, Mr. Li, and Mr. Chen seemed very interested in the clues provided by Li Dong.

Jiang An didn’t want to throw cold water on them, so he didn’t voice his different opinion.

This time.

Instead, Jiang An’s mind was filled with the clue provided by the suspect Jiang Yu from the previous case.

On the night of the incident, Jiang Yu left an internet cafe and brushed past two men in an alley.

The two men carried a faint smell of blood.

Judging by the scent of blood, these two strangers were likely connected to the case.

However.

Through analysis of the scene, Jiang An clearly discovered the existence of a third person.

Two male suspects and one female suspect.

The criminal act committed by the two men and woman, what was their relationship?

Was it an employment relationship?

Or a helping relationship?

Could it possibly resemble the extrajudicial punishment behavior in Agatha Christie’s novel "Murder on the Orient Express"?

But why didn’t the female suspect leave with the two male suspects when fleeing the scene?

Did she leave last?

Or did she leave first?

When the two men reached the end of the alley and got into a car.

Was this car just passing by, or did someone specifically drive to pick them up?

If someone specifically drove to pick them up, could the driver be the female suspect?

Suddenly, Jiang An’s thoughts became a bit chaotic.

He felt a slight swelling in his head, unable to comprehend the logic.

What to do?

How to solve these problems?

How to discover the time disparity of the perpetrator leaving the scene?

Five minutes later, Jiang An’s eyes suddenly brightened.

If according to the above analysis, there existed a time difference when the murderer left the scene, could there also be a time difference when committing the crime at the crime scene?

Or, during the commission of the crime, did the actions and purposes of these two male suspects and the female suspect differ?

The case had long elapsed.

The original crime scene had been destroyed, and the bodies incinerated and cremated.

Currently, the only data on hand was a file.

Suddenly, Jiang An thought of a solution.

Forensic death time deduction.