Chapter 77: Chapter 36 Continuous Crimes (Seeking subscription and monthly tickets, 2-in-1 Chapter)
The woman’s expression showed hesitation upon hearing this.
Yang Su noticed this and said sternly, "Did Zheng Bin come here yesterday? Answer honestly."
"Yes." The woman nodded lightly after hesitating.
"What was he doing here?" Yang Su asked suspiciously.
"He... he was here to see me." The woman said hesitantly and haltingly.
Yang Su and Luo Fei saw the woman’s expression and knew the relationship between her and Zheng Bin wasn’t simple, but that wasn’t their concern.
"When did Zheng Bin leave afterwards?" Yang Su continued to ask.
"He left at half past eleven." The woman replied.
"You remember it so precisely?" Yang Su eyed the woman suspiciously.
"Because when Zheng Bin left, my alarm happened to go off; I usually go to bed at half past eleven."
After asking, Yang Su frowned. If Zheng Bin left the woman’s place at half past eleven, it matched the time he was killed at the crime scene.
Yang Su then looked at Luo Fei beside him, suspecting the woman before them might be lying.
As it stands, the woman was the last person with the deceased, and Yang Su thought the woman was definitely a major suspect.
Luo Fei understood Yang Su’s thoughts when he saw his expression, shook his head indicating the woman had nothing to do with the deceased.
After some thought, Luo Fei looked at the woman and asked, "Ma’am, is your husband usually not home?"
The woman hurriedly said, "My husband left early. If my husband were still here, I wouldn’t be with Zheng Bin."
"Can I check the room?" Luo Fei pointed to the room behind the shop. He didn’t intend to check the second floor; there was no scent of the deceased near the stairs, indicating the deceased hadn’t been upstairs.
"Yes."
Luo Fei went to the back room to check; it was a bedroom, but besides the scent of the deceased, he found nothing.
Ten minutes later, Luo Fei and his team left the shop.
Luo Fei’s expression became much heavier. Originally expecting to find something, he found no useful clues.
"Luo Fei, do you think the woman just now has nothing to do with the death? She was the last to contact the deceased." Yang Su asked Luo Fei beside him.
Luo Fei shook his head and replied, "Leader, you know my nose is very keen. If the killer were the woman just now, I definitely would have smelled her scent at the crime scene, but I can confirm there’s no scent of the woman at the crime scene."
"Hmm, that’s true. You can track the scent of the deceased; if the woman really appeared at the crime scene, you’d be able to recognize it." Yang Su nodded.
"So, leader, how do we check now?" Xia Zheng looked at Luo Fei and Yang Su, asking.
Yang Su furrowed his brow, having no immediate ideas. He then looked at Luo Fei to ask if he had any thoughts.
Luo Fei thought for a moment and said, "Leader, I think the killer may have murdered the deceased for his reproductive organs. Otherwise, it’s inexplicable why we can’t find the deceased’s reproductive organs at the crime scene. So I’m wondering if we should investigate this angle?"
"But what would the killer do with the deceased’s reproductive organs?" Wang Lei looked at Luo Fei, puzzled.
Yang Su pondered and said, "There are some folk practices in Baihe Town and Tianshi Town saying that if a man is impotent or can’t have children, eating ’gangwan’ can solve it. Of course, these are just rumors and shouldn’t be believed."
Luo Fei countered, "We know it’s not true, but for someone with physiological issues, when medicine can’t help, they might pin their hopes on such remedies. As long as there’s a chance, they’ll gamble on trying."
"Would someone really kill for such a foolish rumor?" Wang Lei showed a doubtful expression.
"If it’s truly a person with physiological problems, long-term physical defects can psychologically distort them. Such people can’t be understood with normal reasoning," Luo Fei explained.
Yang Su hesitated for a few seconds and then asked, "Luo Fei, what do you think?"
"Leader, here’s my thought: if the killer is physiologically impaired, they must have been to a hospital for checks. Perhaps we can start by investigating hospitals, checking males with physiological issues in the past year and investigating them one by one?"
"That’s a huge workload. Ningjiang has eight hospitals. Let’s say each hospital receives thousands of males with severe physiological issues yearly; surely, at least hundreds per hospital, meaning thousands altogether," Yang Su said, frowning.
"To investigate so many people? Just the five of us?" Xia Zheng’s expression froze upon hearing this.
Luo Fei glanced at Xia Zheng, then looked towards Yang Su and said, "Among these male patients, we can further narrow it down, excluding those too old or too young. Moreover, we can prioritize investigating individuals from Baihe Town and Tianshi Town, since the rumor about curing impotence and infertility by eating ’gangwan’ circulates most there."
After pondering for a while, Yang Su said heavily, "Alright, although the workload is indeed large, it’s better than doing nothing. But I’ll report this to Captain Zhao first."
After Yang Su reported to Zhao Donglai, Luo Fei and the team split into two groups to investigate the eight hospitals in Ningjiang County.