Qian Chuntao, seeing the hammer Qin Jiangshui revealed, was utterly terrified. Trembling, she said, "Jiangshui, I'm on your side. You can't lay a hand on me."
As she spoke, Qian Chuntao took a step back.
Qin Jiangshui advanced step by step, hammer in hand.
"When you killed Zhang Wenwen, I thought perhaps you and I were the same kind of person."
"But you've disappointed me too much!"
"To think you'd reveal your entire hand to a mere slip of a girl."
"Now that I think about it, you and I are not the same kind of people at all."
Qin Jiangshui muttered to himself, each step quicker than Qian Chuntao's.
Seeing the hammer in his hand, Qian Chuntao immediately turned and fled.
She had considered the possibility of Qin Jiangshui killing her, but not so soon.
Qian Chuntao ran frantically through the woods, her feet crunching on leaves with crisp sounds.
She dared not look back, fearing a hammer blow to the head at any moment.
She ran and ran, running for her life.
She didn't know how far she had run when she spotted a glimmer of light ahead. Joy bloomed on her face as she cried out, "Help!"
As she drew closer, the light ahead suddenly turned.
Qian Chuntao froze instantly, staring blankly at the scene before her.
"Bang!"
A heavy thud echoed, and Qian Chuntao collapsed to the ground.
Qin Jiangshui crouched down, grabbed her by the neck with his right hand, and slowly dragged her away.
Qian Chuntao let out a series of wild, maniacal laughs.
Blood from her forehead trickled down her nose and into her mouth, choking her throat.
Qin Jiangshui stopped, looking down at Qian Chuntao.
He couldn't understand why someone on the verge of death would laugh like that.
He knelt and placed the hammer on Qian Chuntao's forehead.
"Bang..."
He had expected Qian Chuntao to find an opportunity to contact them, but instead, he received her corpse.
A farmer gathering mushrooms discovered her in a pit.
Qian Chuntao's body had already begun to smell.
Based on the timeline, she had likely been dead for about three days.
Everyone's expression grew grim.
Even though they knew Qian Chuntao was the murderer from 1996, they felt indignant seeing her killed by the murderer.
Zhao Yan also arrived in the woods. Her eyes had recovered quickly; apart from a slight blurriness at a distance, her vision was otherwise unaffected.
She reached out and placed her hands over Qian Chuntao's eyes, closing her wide-open gaze.
Then, Zhao Yan stood up and searched the surroundings carefully. She found no trace of Qian Chuntao's soul.
This confirmed that Qin Jiangshui possessed methods for capturing souls.
"Qian Chuntao was hit twice; the second blow was the one that caused her death," Zhang Yi said, standing up.
A car had arrived to transport Qian Chuntao's body.
"Did you find anything?" Zhao Yan asked.
"The trail has gone cold. We only know it was Qin Jiangshui; beyond that, we don't know his whereabouts," Jiang Yu replied.
Zhao Yan sighed and rubbed her temples.
As Qian Chuntao's body was being moved, Zhao Yan noticed her fingers were slightly curled, as if protecting something.
"Wait a moment," Zhao Yan called out.
They stopped.
Zhao Yan quickly went to the body, grasped Qian Chuntao's wrist, and slowly lifted her hand.
She discovered a broken thread protruding from inside her sleeve.
Zhao Yan reached into the corpse's sleeve and searched carefully. A small note emerged from an inner pocket.
She gingerly took the note, opened it, and read it.
The note was written by her to Qian Chuntao and included her phone number.
The front only had her written phone number. Zhao Yan flipped it over and found six characters written on the back.
"Jiangcheng Sunshine Elementary School."
Zhao Yan paused for a moment and handed the note to Jiang Yu.
"This was left by Qian Chuntao."
Jiangcheng Sunshine Elementary School was the first experimental primary school in Jiangcheng City, located in the Huayang Port District.
"Let's go," Jiang Yu said gravely.
They drove to Jiangcheng Sunshine Elementary School and called over a teacher to inquire.
When he showed the photo of Qin Jiangshui to Teacher Wang,
Teacher Wang recognized him immediately as Hu Junsheng's grandfather.
They were surprised for a few seconds and asked for more details.
Qin Jiangshui was not Hu Junsheng's biological grandfather; he had been with Hu Junsheng's grandmother for over a decade.
He came to pick up Hu Junsheng from school every afternoon.
"Teacher Wang, please send us the family information for Hu Junsheng," Jiang Yu requested.
"Certainly," Teacher Wang nodded.
After receiving the information and examining it carefully,
they discovered that Qin Jiangshui had changed his name long ago and was now known as Ma Xiong.
The reason his face looked different after more than twenty years was due to plastic surgery.
When school ended, they staked out from inside a van.
At 5:30, Zhao Yan was watching the school entrance when she saw a figure and immediately nudged Jiang Yu.
The police officers inside the van quickly exited and rushed towards Qin Jiangshui.
Qin Jiangshui was slightly startled when he saw Jiang Yu and his team approaching, then immediately understood.
He didn't run. Instead, he waved towards the school entrance.
Zhao Yan looked over. He was waving at a primary school student. She had seen the file; this student was Hu Junsheng.
"Can you not put handcuffs on me? I'll go with you. Just don't let my grandson see," Qin Jiangshui said with terrifying calmness.
"Enough talk, let's go. You've killed so many people, aren't you afraid they'll see!" Jiang Yu said coldly and immediately shoved him into the van.
Zhao Yan had once imagined that the arrest of Qin Jiangshui would be arduous and might cost some lives.
As Qin Jiangshui was being escorted to the car, she found it hard to believe.
Instead, it made her realize the surreal nature of life.
Qin Jiangshui had been prepared for capture, and his expression remained completely unfazed.
"How did you know about me?"
His manner of speaking was ordinary, as if chatting with a familiar friend.
"Qian Chuntao left behind a clue," Zhao Yan replied calmly.
After Qin Jiangshui was escorted to the police station, some officers were surprised by his appearance. The wanted poster had not been released; only core members knew Qin Jiangshui's face.
They had all imagined the serial killer to be ferocious-looking, but he turned out to be a very ordinary old man.
Lost in a crowd, he would likely be unnoticeable.
Just a very common person.
His belongings were searched. Jiang Yu opened Qin Jiangshui's old mobile phone.
Zhao Yan glanced over. The moment the phone was unlocked, it displayed a photo of Qin Jiangshui with Hu Junsheng.
She immediately understood why Qian Chuntao had left the note.
On the left chest of Hu Junsheng's school uniform, the words "Jiangcheng Sunshine Elementary School..." were clearly written.