Chapter 7: A Trail of Shadows

Back when I was at the police academy, I learned about the Law of Local Material Exchange. Every crime scene inevitably leaves behind some trace, direct or indirect.

Stepping out of the storage room, Xiao Yu eyed a bewildered Guo Qiang and said, “Master, there’s not a single trace of violence in the storage room. At most, it’s just a secondary scene where the body was dumped.”

“As expected from the top-ranked genius of the academy,”

Guo Qiang admitted, “With someone like you, I feel like I’m on this earth merely to fill in the numbers.”

“No, I’m not that amazing. I’m just a mere transporter of wisdom from a previous life…” Xiao Yu grinned, “Master, you’re flattering me. My experience is still lacking; I need to learn from you.”

Inside, he thought: Don’t treat me like a fool. Spare me the rookie tests – they’re a waste of time!

Just as he had hoped.

Guo Qiang took Xiao Yu to the storage room without mentioning that it was actually a dumped body scene – he truly wanted to test his new apprentice.

But the apprentice was so skilled that he completely turned the tables on his master.

Guo Qiang nearly lost all his face.

Angry?

Not at all. Guo Qiang was rather pleased.

Talent like Xiao Yu’s meant every investigative unit was eager to snatch him up.

The more gifted you are, the easier it is to achieve results.

The Criminal Investigation Team is a collective; when one person succeeds, everyone shares in the glory.

Conversely, if no case is cracked, the whole team suffers.

Guo Qiang decided to stop playing around.

He was convinced that even if Xiao Yu might lack experience, his aptitude for solving cases was overwhelmingly superior.

To continue testing him would only be a slap in his own face…

……

The primary scene of the crime – a factory dormitory.

A modest three-story building.

The first floor held a restaurant, the second a men’s dorm, and the third a women’s dorm.

The so-called primary scene was actually on the rooftop terrace.

Crouching on the ground and surveying the dried, dark purple bloodstains everywhere, Xiao Yu narrowed his eyes.

This was the kind of scene that made sense!

First, you could see signs of struggle after the victim fell; then, there were clear footprints.

By examining the scene along with the traces left as the victim collapsed,

was it an attack from behind?

Since the body was face down at death,

judging by the abrasion marks from the head against the ground and the direction of the blood spatter,

it was clear that after falling, the victim was struck repeatedly.

The fact that the victim couldn’t even turn over spoke volumes about the killer’s ruthlessness.

First, the victim was knocked down, then pounded continuously without any chance to react.

From a psychological standpoint, hardly an ordinary person could pull off such a feat.

To instill such a brutal, merciless state in another person – to kill so coldly…

It all boiled down to five reasons: passion, vendetta, gain, envy, and greed!

Killing for no reason?

That simply doesn’t exist; that’s pure insanity!

With repeated investigations, reviews, and careful reconsiderations,

before he knew it, Xiao Yu had slipped into a certain state of mind.

Until… he looked up and helplessly shook his head.

There was nothing significant to be found at the scene.

Xiao Yu mused: This path has temporarily gone cold. I need to change my approach and find another breakthrough.

Morning spent at a matchmaking session, noon checking in at work, and in the afternoon, visiting the crime scene – by the time he returned to the team it was already five o’clock.

He called his family to say he was checking in at work and would be home late.

It turned out that his mother started scolding him right away.

She said, “You barely exchanged a few words with Aunt Zhou’s daughter at that matchmaking session, and you walk off with a woman? How am I supposed to explain this to Aunt Zhou? You little brat, just wait till I get my hands on you – I won’t let you off easy!”

Beating a sweat, Xiao Yu ended the call with his mom.

He used to think that nothing was scarier than a tigress – the epitome of terror.

After reincarnating, he realized he was terribly mistaken and had underestimated the stakes.

When a tigress evolves into your own mother, only then do you understand true ferocity!

At home, there were four breathing souls ranked by importance:

Mother, Kara, Father, and then himself.

Kara was nothing more than a dog!

That pretty much said it all.

Kara was the only one who was his biological kin; Father was just picked up, and he was just a freebie with a paid recharge…

Perfection!

……

At the Criminal Investigation Team,

Xiao Yu sat with a file in his hands – the dossier for the storage room murder case.

Compared to examining the crime scene, he preferred unraveling clues from the case files.

He dissected every subtle detail, piecing them together before drawing his conclusions.

Tracing clues was all about deduction.

And deduction was best served by elimination.

He listed every clue one by one to sort them out.

Otherwise, it would just be a tangled mess…

At that moment, Xiao Yu was studying the autopsy report.

“The victim’s occipital bone suffered seven suspected heavy strikes from a metallic object, shattering into fragments…”

While absorbing the details in the file, Xiao Yu’s arm unconsciously rose, slicing through the air with wild swings.

One, two, three… up to seven.

After blinking a few times, a clear realization hit him.

There was only one killer, though it was still unclear whether there was an accomplice.

At the time of the crime, the factory was on its annual break – only a dozen or so employees stayed over for the holidays.

Among them were two female workers, who now stood out as prime suspects.

Why were these two women considered the most suspicious?

Based on the estimated time of death from the autopsy, the victim had died about four days earlier, likely in the latter half of the night.

Only the two female employees were in the dormitory then; the other staff were busy working overtime at the factory with little opportunity to commit the crime.

The contradiction lay in the fact that, judging by the force required to shatter the victim’s skull with a blunt weapon, an average woman would hardly manage it.

Not to mention, most women lack the psychological fortitude required for such a crime.

Rarely do you find a woman who is indirectly involved, or actively participates, in such a brutal murder.

According to authoritative experts, the ratio stands at 9 to 1 – these are confirmed statistics.

Female perpetrators using blunt objects in murders are even rarer.

In terms of blunt-force murder alone,

that’s simply not a woman’s forte!

Of course, Xiao Yu made an exception for his own mother.

He remembered watching his mom effortlessly take down his dad with skills from her class – masterful in every weapon,

able to pin him to the ground in seconds.

Truly fierce as a wild beast!