The power restraining the old woman's body vanished in an instant.

Terrified, she didn't even think about what the youth was saying. With a scream, she turned to run.

But before she could take more than a few steps, her feet were inexplicably rooted to the ground. Her spine creaked and groaned, forcing her to slowly turn around.

"It's you, you killed them!"

The old woman screamed, her face twisted.

——————

"Qi Lianxiang, is it? What are you reporting now?"

"Someone, someone wants to kill me!"

"Who wants to kill you? Slow down."

"I don't know! They're all dead, everyone is dead..."

"Calm down first. You're safe here. Who died?"

"Officer, you have to help me.

After I got out of prison, I wanted to go home, but my two daughters hated me for trafficking children and wouldn't have me.

They said they suffered scorn and insults from the villagers for the ten years I was in prison.

Now they refuse to let me live there no matter what.

I knelt on the ground and begged them, but they just beat me out with sticks.

I could only go to old acquaintances, and when I found them, I discovered that

Zhang Deping, Tong Yongguang, and Ren Fa, Zhao Haining...

Everyone, everyone I used to know is dead!

Someone is murdering them one by one, making their deaths look like accidents or suicides.

I'm next, I'm definitely next!

You have to protect me. This is the only safe place now..."

*Click.*

The recording ended again. Wei Linglan frowned slightly and pressed the play button on the recorder again.

Qi Lianxiang was once an ordinary rural woman who felt that trafficking people was profitable, so she became an amateur and colluded with gangs to commit crimes in various places.

According to her confession, she trafficked at least eighty children, and the whereabouts of more than sixty of them are still unknown.

However, because Qi Lianxiang was not the mastermind of the gang, but only an accomplice, and because she confessed her guilt and actively cooperated with the work, and took the initiative to confess the upstream and downstream contacts she knew,

and because she behaved herself in prison, she was released after only ten years, and allowed to return home.

As a result, after she was released from prison, her two daughters who remained in the countryside refused to recognize her and drove her out.

She had no choice but to wander around, begging for a living. She had a miserable time since she got out of prison, and seemed to be a little mentally disturbed, firmly believing that a serial killer was hunting down her former accomplices.

——————

"I did it."

The youth smiled. "You see, you permanently destroyed my life and the lives of others.

If you were all sentenced to death, that would be the end of it.

But unfortunately, apart from Uncle Hou, Uncle Zheng and a few other masterminds, the price paid by the others was only a few years, ten years, or a few decades in prison.

From the principle of equivalent exchange, this doesn't seem fair, does it?

If it were anyone else, maybe they would have consoled themselves like this and moved on.

Even if they spent their days in tears, full of grief, they could only watch their enemies live freely.

But I don't want to move on like that.

My hatred is hard to quell, so I have to do something to express the frustration in my heart.

I have talent, determination, patience, and enough ability.

I'll take back the justice I can't get."

The youth looked at the terrified old woman and said with a smile: "Well... it was really difficult at the beginning.

I read a lot of books, learned a lot of knowledge, and practiced repeatedly in my mind.

I formulated plans, observed the area, and had to learn how to clean up the scene and create an alibi in order to clear myself of suspicion.

The more criminal investigation knowledge I learned, the more I felt awe for the current criminal investigation system.

The slogan that every homicide must be solved has a great deterrent effect on me.

But once the plan is exposed, there is no way to eliminate everyone on the list in order.

So I have to act cautiously."

The youth paused, enjoying the despair on the other's face, and said leisurely: "When you gave your statement,

because you were just an accomplice in the lower-level gang, you didn't know the specific details of the entire industrial chain, and you didn't even know the specific information of other people in the gang very well.

The number of people you confessed was incomplete, and there were still omissions.

So, I first found a gang member who was lucky enough not to be caught and got the names of the others from him.

That was the first time I tried to erase a person's existence."

The youth shook his head, "Do you know what the most difficult case to solve in the criminal investigation system is?

It's not the kind of suspenseful murder in a blizzard-hit mountain villa in a detective novel.

Due to Locard's exchange principle, even the smartest criminals can't guarantee that they won't leave any traces.

In the face of modern criminal investigation technology,

the more you do, the more mistakes you make.

The really difficult cases to solve are those with very few clues and almost no direction for investigation.

For example, *lu bian dao* (death by the roadside) and *shui li piao* (floating in the water)."

"*Lu bian dao* means the deceased fell by the roadside at night and was stabbed with a knife, and all his money was robbed.

Because there are no surveillance cameras before or after the section of road, there are no images of the incident or the appearance of the criminal suspect.

The type of case is an irregular robbery and murder, so it is impossible to start with the interpersonal relationships of the deceased—most murder cases are committed by acquaintances, and tracing interpersonal relationships alone can solve 90% of the cases.

In addition, there are very few clues that can be collected at the scene.

It is extremely difficult to detect and easily becomes a headless case with no direction for investigation at all.

*Shui li piao* refers to the deceased floating down the river to the lower reaches, floating on the surface of the water, and finally being discovered.

Because the body comes from the river, the specific time and place of the incident are unknown.

In addition, the body is swollen by the river water, the wound marks are destroyed, and the face is rotten and difficult to restore.

Unless the clothes on the body carry items that can prove personal information, it is difficult to find the true identity of the body and conduct an investigation."

The youth raised his finger, tapped his temple, and said with a smile: "This type of case is indeed difficult to solve, but once there are too many cases of this type,

it is easy to be noticed by the system or people, which will eventually lead to investigation.

The modern computer system has indeed caused me a lot of trouble and concerns.

However, as my knowledge became richer and my physical fitness became stronger, I also began to adopt other, more covert methods.

For example, accidents."