TFS Chapter 49

Seeing this, Zhang Shun was still replaying Rui Yichen’s actions in the drama, and walked towards the director’s office with a heavy heart.
After Yuan Guobin listened to Zhang Shun’s report, he took off his reading glasses and said, “You mean, none of these three are the murderer?”
“Yes, although they all have certain criminal motives, but thinking carefully about the time when each motive arose and the time of the crime, all the victims and alibis, I think we still haven’t found the key person. Also, there’s the Chen Yi and An Su line…” Zhang Shun hadn’t finished speaking when Yuan Guobin sighed, “Are you sure this is based on the judgment of an old criminal investigator, and doesn’t involve any personal feelings? We’ve worked together for a few years, and I can see some things, but I’ve never asked you about them. Are you prejudiced against your younger brother?” Yuan Guobin also knew that these two lines were related to Zhang Shun’s younger brother, Zhang Yu.
Zhang Shun was silent for a moment, “You are my old leader, you should know my character very well. No matter what the relationship is, I only know that a crime will leave traces. My suspicions are not groundless. I will still pursue the Chen Yi line to the end.”
“But it will involve questioning him?” Yuan Guobin asked, still somewhat surprised.
“Of course. Although An Su hasn’t confessed anything, it’s obvious that he received some benefits and wants to take the blame. But his employment relationship is indeed with Zhang Yu’s company,” Zhang Shun said calmly.
“Isn’t it necessary to investigate further? Don’t be too rash. He is not only your brother, but also not just an ordinary citizen. He is a well-known entrepreneur in Shengshi City. Have you considered the impact of this? Once you make a mistake, apart from you personally, it will be a kind of harm to public opinion and your father,” Yuan Guobin said earnestly.
Zhang Shun understood Yuan Guobin’s worries and concerns. Once the truth couldn’t be found, many people would be affected. So he said cautiously, “I will talk to him privately first, to judge his motives and the relationship with the victims.”
“Well, be sure to verify repeatedly. Safeguarding the city’s economic prosperity is also one of the jobs of our police. Also, don’t let yourself fall into an emotional vortex from which you can’t escape. You understand what I mean,” Yuan Guobin said finally.
Returning to the Criminal Investigation Brigade office, several people were communicating about the case in the small office. Seeing Zhang Shun coming in, they all perked up. Shen Qing said first, “Boss, Lin Zhen confessed.”
She narrated the whole story of Lin Zhen’s lawsuit against Pei Yue. Chi Zijian slammed the table angrily, “Isn’t this luring a female college student into having sexual relations? This can be regarded as the crime of seduction! Lin Zhen just let him go like that?”
Shen Qing glanced at him, “Do you know how high the rate of unsuccessful cases and withdrawals is in this kind of male sexual harassment report every year? Fighting this kind of lawsuit tests not only the psychological quality of the victim, but also the voice of public opinion. Victims usually have to swallow their anger, even if they don’t consider themselves, for the sake of their families.”
“Then what kind of justice are we guarding?” Chi Zijian’s eyes were like torches, causing everyone to fall silent for a moment.
Zhang Shun said, “You must fully understand and respect the feelings of victims who are unwilling to stand up and testify. Shen Qing, I will check whether there are any other female college students in the city’s universities who have had similar experiences to Lin Zhen and then withdrew their cases after the 619 case. Maybe we can find other breakthroughs to bring Pei Yue to justice.”
“Understood, boss, I’ll prioritize checking this matter later.”
Zhang Shun nodded, and said to everyone, “Although Fu Yunyao seems to have complete criminal motives and doesn’t have a specific alibi, according to what Shen Qing just said, Fu Yunyao’s relationship is at most linked to Yan Dongcheng and Shang Chao. As for Guan Linger, Chu Wenli, and others, whether they know Fu Yunyao completely is questionable, let alone Lu Jie and Gao Liyang. Our investigation direction still needs to be adjusted.”
Chi Zijian also expressed his opinion at this time, “Boss, I vaguely have an idea, but I don’t know if it’s right.” As he spoke, he scratched his head, looking a little shy.
Zhang Shun encouraged him, “If you have an idea, just say it. No matter whether it’s right or wrong now, it’s an expansion of ideas for everyone.”
Chi Zijian said, “We have now ruled out the suspicion of competing companies and individual investors, and we have been looking for the commonality of these people. These people are indeed related to this drama, but our focus has always been on the real social relationships of the crew. But I think that if we exclude conflicts of interest, for a massacre case, the motive of the murderer is usually revenge.”
Chen Can interrupted at this time, “Who would have hatred with seven people at the same time? Isn’t this range too broad?”
Zhang Shun concentrated his thoughts, he raised his hand, signaling Chen Can not to interrupt Chi Zijian’s words, “You continue.”
Chi Zijian, encouraged, continued, “No, it is indeed rare to have hatred with seven people at the same time, and it is also difficult for someone to be so efficient and decisive. So I think the murderer must not be a first-time offender. His mental quality is extremely high. Is it possible for us to think from another angle? The murderer doesn’t necessarily have a direct hatred with these seven people, it may also be indirect.”
This aroused Zhang Shun’s interest, and everyone’s eyes were cast on Chi Zijian.
Chi Zijian continued, “For example, these seven people are jointly involved in a certain secret, and the leakage of this secret may cause great losses or dangers to the murderer. Therefore, in order to keep this secret, the murderer chose to massacre.”
“Secret?” Zhang Shun repeated the word, and then fell into deep thought.
Chen Can still poured cold water, “Impossible, you ask me, the seven unrelated victims, except for Yan Dongcheng and Shang Chao, and those four students, they are not familiar with each other. It can be said that the social relations between these seven people hardly intersect. What common secret would they have?”
Chi Zijian didn’t know how to answer, “I’m just providing an idea, for everyone’s reference only.”
Zhang Shun said at this time, “If we follow Zijian’s idea, is there still another possibility?”
Everyone looked at Zhang Shun again. He said firmly, “What if these seven people don’t actually know the real secret? They don’t know each other, but, maybe we can find it. Because we can start from another angle, how would the murderer get the information about this secret? Who leaked it, or how was it leaked?”
“Leaking a secret?” Shen Qing asked puzzled.
Zhang Shun immediately explained, “If the murderer committed the massacre to keep a secret, then the person who leaked the secret is the person the murderer hates the most. Because it was this person’s leak that put the murderer in a dangerous situation, so who is this person?”
Chi Zijian cleared his throat again, “Boss, I… still have an idea.”
Chen Can glared at him, but didn’t speak this time. Zhang Shun signaled him to continue.
“You’ve watched the first season of this drama. In fact, there are also some complete criminal cases in it, but the murderers all point to the same person. It’s just that from the audience’s point of view, we know who the murderer is from the beginning, and then we can clearly see the murderer using various ways and methods to deceive the world. Today, we are standing from the police’s point of view to find the murderer, but the murderer’s inertia is the same. The murderer we are looking for must also be deceiving the world in various ways. But from the crime scene and its special features, let’s think about it, where is the most unusual thing about this case?”
Everyone fell into thinking. Shen Qing’s eyes lit up at this time, “Yan Haoyu’s death is the most unusual. Generally speaking, if everyone died on the night of June 19th, there must be some reason to kill Yan Haoyu, so there was the murder on the 20th.”
Chi Zijian nodded and continued to ask, “Then what reason must there be to kill Yan Haoyu? Even at the risk of being discovered?”
Everyone was silent again. After a long while, Zhang Shun understood Chi Zijian’s idea, “Because he is the screenwriter.”
“That is to say, the person the murderer hates the most is the screenwriter? Because he exposed his secret, then the secret is in—” Shen Qing analyzed.
The others said in unison, “The TV series.”
Inside the Shengshi City Public Security Bureau, the lights were still on as before. Everyone looked at the screen with vigor, watching the constantly playing episodes of the drama. Each person watched five episodes, looking for possible hidden secrets and clues related to the 619 case.
Zhang Shun was watching the scene where Rui Yichen abandoned Gu Shiqing. The feeling lingering in his heart grew stronger that he was right. The Rui Gongzi in the TV series, who could do whatever he wanted, was more and more like the person he didn’t want to involve in it – Zhang Yu.
While everyone was busy searching for clues, he walked out of the office and headed towards the Information Section. After hesitating again and again, he still knocked on the door of the Information Section. The police officer on duty poked his head out, “Team Zhang? It’s so late, what’s the matter?”
Zhang Shun copied a string of numbers onto the paper, “Help me check the current GPS location of this number, now, the faster the better.”
The police officer on duty nodded woodenly, obviously not fully awake from his sleepiness, but he quickly woke up the computer screen and quickly searched for the signal source and specific location of the number in the system.
Soon after, when he gave the location to Zhang Shun, Zhang Shun looked at the location on his phone, “Thank you.” After saying that, he turned around and drove towards the mansion under Zhang Yu’s name.
The streets at night were not congested, and he drove all the way smoothly with the police lights off. After arriving, he called Chi Zijian, “Control Chen Yi immediately, I’ll explain the details later.”
Walking to the front of Zhang Yu’s mansion, it was pitch black inside, only the lights in the outer courtyard were dim yellow, barely illuminating the appearance of the buildings. He pressed the doorbell of the outer courtyard, but no one answered, and pressed it twice in a row.
Only then did a sound come from the outer room, which sounded like a young woman’s voice, “Who are you looking for?”
“I’m looking for Zhang Yu, I’m Zhang Shun.”
As soon as he finished speaking, there was silence again. After about two minutes, a woman in her nightclothes hurried over. She looked only in her early twenties, similar to Li Jie from the Zhang House.
“Shun-ge?” She used the night to distinguish the person in front of her.
“Xiao Yu?” Zhang Shun was also stunned. Ah Yu was Li Jie’s only daughter. The last time he saw her, she was still a middle school student. He never thought that after ten years, she would have grown into a completely different woman.
“Shun-ge, why are you here so late…” She said as she quickly opened the outer courtyard door lock.
The words Zhang Shun originally wanted to ask were stuck in his throat, “I’m looking for Zhang Yu, is he here?”
Li Yu immediately said, “Yu-ge is not here, I haven’t seen him for many days. Shun-ge, I graduated, and originally wanted to find a job in Yu-ge’s company, as a receptionist. In the end, Yu-ge took care of me and let me stay here and work as a housekeeper. I haven’t really learned how to be a housekeeper, I just thought it was my own brother’s house, so I watched the servants busy.”
Hearing this, Zhang Shun nodded to himself, “Do you have an impression of when he left the house? Was there anything unusual when he left?”
Seeing the posture of this interrogation, Li Yu immediately felt a little timid, “Shun-ge, you this is…”
“Oh, don’t mind me, this is my professional habit. I’m just thinking, where could he go? I’ve been looking for him for several days,” Zhang Shun didn’t want to create a tense atmosphere. The most important thing was, although Li Yu was his little sister when he was a child, he didn’t know what her position was now, and his strategy was not to startle the snake.
“Could he be at the company? Yu-ge sometimes goes to the company. There is his personal lounge on the top floor of the company. He doesn’t go back to the house when he’s busy late. Sometimes, he might be at Miss Chen’s house,” she said eloquently, seeming to know Zhang Yu very well.
“Okay, since he’s not here, I won’t go in. Hurry up and close the door and rest, I’ll leave first.”
Li Yu nodded, a pair of watery eyes blinking, “Shun-ge, come and find me when you have time, I have a salary now, I can treat you to dinner.”
Zhang Shun smiled slightly, “I know, go back quickly.”
After Li Yu closed the door, Zhang Shun looked at the dark courtyard in front of him, the smile on his lips disappeared, leaving only a cold and lonely figure, stretched tall and slender by the street lamp.

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