DipNovel Chapter 13: Nine People?
Chapter 13: Nine People?
Click...!
Lightning ripped through the sky, illuminating the entire abandoned factory in a stark white light.
Jiang Chen's words still lingered in the air.
"A group of people."
Su Wan stared at him, raindrops dripping from her hair and leaving a trail on her cheek: "Are you sure?"
"I'm not sure." Jiang Chen shook his head honestly, "but the way this suitcase and woven bag were used to dispose of the body is significantly different from the three cases in the western suburbs."
"What's the difference?"
"The three bodies in the western suburbs still haven't been found. This..." Jiang Chen glanced down at the pink suitcase, "I'm afraid you won't be able to find them."
Su Wan's heart skipped a beat.
That's right. The bodies in the western suburbs serial murder case seem to have vanished into thin air; the police searched the entire surrounding area but found nothing.
This time, the suitcases and woven bags were just carelessly thrown into the abandoned factory, where even a scavenger could find them.
This is not an oversight.
is intentional.
"He's upgrading," Jiang Chen said. "Or rather—they're upgrading. From hiding the body to displaying it to the public, from the shadows to the light, from 'nobody knows' to 'everyone can see it'."
"This is a provocation," Su Wan said through gritted teeth.
"It's more than just provocation." Jiang Chen squatted down, and despite being handcuffed, he still approached the woven bag. "This is an invitation."
"Who should we invite?"
Jiang Chen looked up as rainwater leaked through a hole in the factory roof and fell on his face.
"I."
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of a technician's camera shutter clicking echoed in the factory.
Su Wan pulled Jiang Chen aside and lowered her voice: "Tell me honestly, how much else do you really know?"
Jiang Chen swept his wet hair back, revealing his smooth forehead: "Officer Su, to tell you the truth... everything I know, I confessed in the interrogation room. I told you everything I checked, everything I went through, everything I read about old cases."
"And these details from the scene..."
"Deduction." Jiang Chen pointed to his head. "Using existing information to deduce unknown results. That's what you criminal investigators do too, except I might be a little bit faster than you."
Su Wan wanted to refute, but couldn't open her mouth.
Because she knew he was telling the truth.
Over the past three days, she has witnessed firsthand how this man proceeded step by step, from the interrogation room to live broadcasts, from map analysis to scene reconstruction, each step meticulously planned and interconnected.
His reasoning speed was so fast it didn't seem like the human brain, it was more like...
No, she can't think like that.
"Captain Su!" Xiao Zhang came running over, panting. "We've found something during our investigation of the surrounding area!"
Su Wan immediately turned around: "Speak."
"There's a car repair shop about 300 meters east of the factory. The owner said he saw a white van parked nearby around 9 p.m. last night."
"Where's the license plate number?"
"I didn't see clearly. But the boss said that two people got out of the car, both wearing raincoats and masks, and were unloading things from the car."
Su Wan and Jiang Chen exchanged a glance.
Two people.
"Where is the bread truck now?" Su Wan asked.
"The boss said he stopped for about twenty minutes and then drove off, heading east. We are already reviewing the surveillance footage along the route."
Su Wan nodded, then turned to Jiang Chen: "What do you think?"
Jiang Chen did not answer immediately, but closed his eyes and pieced together all the information in his mind.
Raincoats. Face masks. Two people. A white van. Around 9 PM last night. Suitcases. Woven bags.
Ding—a crisp notification sound rang in my mind.
He opened his eyes.
"Officer Su, could you take me to that repair shop?"
"What are you planning to do now?"
"A few questions."
Su Wan hesitated for two seconds before finally nodding.
She wanted to see what this novelist was really capable of.
slam-la-
The rain has lessened a bit, but it's still falling.
Su Wan walked ahead holding an umbrella, while Xiao Zhang followed behind, escorting Jiang Chen. The three of them trudged through the mud and water toward the repair shop.
The repair shop is located on the east side of the factory, separated by a bumpy dirt road.
It's called a car repair shop, but it's really just a shed made of a few pieces of sheet metal, with piles of old tires and rusty parts at the entrance.
A man in his fifties stood under the shed, wearing work clothes stained with oil, a cigarette between his fingers, squinting as he watched them approach.
"Boss, we're from the Municipal Public Security Bureau." Su Wan showed her identification. "We just spoke to you on the phone."
The boss nodded, his gaze falling on Jiang Chen... or more precisely, on the handcuffs on his hands.
"Is this person a criminal?"
"The technical advisor," Su Wan lied without batting an eye, "was handcuffed because... he has violent tendencies."
Jiang Chen: "..."
The boss gave a skeptical "Oh" and didn't ask any further questions.
Jiang Chen stepped forward and asked, "Boss, where was that bread truck when you saw it last night?"
The shopkeeper pointed to the dirt road outside the shed: "It's over there. That car came from the west and stopped here for a while."
"How long has it been stopped?"
"About... the time it takes to smoke a cigarette." The boss took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled a smoke ring.
"Two people got out of the car to move things. Did you see what they were carrying?"
"It was dark and raining, how could we see anything?" The boss shook his head. "I only saw two people carrying something out of the back of the truck and walking towards the factory. They made two trips."
Two trips.
Jiang Chen silently repeated those two words to himself, then asked, "Are you sure it was two people? Not one person who made two trips?"
The boss thought for a moment, then nodded firmly: "Agreed. Two people, one at a time. The first person carries a box, and the second person carries a bag."
"What color is the box?"
"I can't see it very clearly, but it looks like...pink?"
Jiang Chen's pupils contracted slightly.
"Where's the bag?"
"Gray. Like a snakeskin bag."
Su Wan's breathing became rapid.
The boss's description matched exactly what was found at the crime scene.
Jiang Chen continued, "What are the characteristics of those two people? Height, build, accent, anything will do."
The shop owner frowned and thought for a long time: "They were all wearing raincoats, so I couldn't see their figures. They didn't say a word, just got in the car and left after they finished moving everything."
"Wait a minute..." The boss suddenly remembered something, "When someone got on the bus, their rain hat was blown off by the wind, revealing half of their face."
Jiang Chen and Su Wan both held their breath.
"What kind of person?"
"It was a man, he looked quite young, maybe in his early twenties. He had fair skin and long hair that covered half of his eyes."
"Anything else?"
The boss thought for a while, then shook his head: "That's all. It was too dark, so I only glanced at it."
"That's enough." Jiang Chen clenched his fist tightly. "It's raining today."
...
But Su Wan noticed that his hands were clenched slightly.
As they left the repair shop, Su Wan couldn't help but ask, "What's the point of asking all this?"
As Jiang Chen walked, he said, "Did you notice? The boss said they moved twice."
"and then?"
"The first load was suitcases, the second load was woven bags." Jiang Chen held up two fingers. "The order is fixed. What does that mean?"
Su Wan thought for a moment: "This means they had a plan, and didn't just dump the body randomly."
"You're half right." Jiang Chen spoke quickly, "It also shows that... the contents of the suitcases and woven bags were repackaged elsewhere, not on-site."
"I know that; forensic doctors can also find that."
"But what the forensic doctor couldn't find was..." Jiang Chen stopped and turned to look at Su Wan.
"Why two trips? With two people, each could easily carry one and finish in one trip. Why make two trips?"
Su Wan was stunned.
She hadn't thought about that.
"Unless..." Jiang Chen's voice was very low, "something went wrong when they moved the first load. Or, they wanted someone to see it."
"Whose turn?"
"Us," Jiang Chen pointed to himself, then to Su Wan, "or... the owner of that auto repair shop."
Su Wan's mind raced: "You mean, they deliberately let the boss see it?"
"It's not that we intentionally wanted the boss to see us, it's that we weren't afraid of being seen," Jiang Chen corrected. "Think about it, the location of that repair shop is perfectly positioned to see where they parked. If they were experienced drivers, they would know that."
"But they still stopped, they still moved, and people still saw it. What does that tell us?"
Su Wan took a deep breath: "It shows they have nothing to fear."
"Or..." Jiang Chen's eyes sharpened, "that everything the repair shop owner saw was what they wanted us to see."
Wow…
A gust of wind blew by, and the raindrops slanted down on them.
Su Wan suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
If Jiang Chen's deduction is correct, then this murderer... or rather, this group of murderers... meticulously planned every step.
From the location and time of dumping the body, to the method of transporting it and who saw it, everything was within their calculations.
They are not committing a crime.
They were directing a film.
The audience consisted of the police.
No, there is only one audience member—
Jiang Chen.
……
trial room.
This interrogation room can no longer be called an interrogation room.
After Jiang Chen was brought back from the scene, Director Zhang personally ordered that he be moved to a larger room with a bed, a table, a computer, and even a coffee machine.
The handcuffs were still there, but they had become "symbolic"—a long chain attached to the table leg. He could move freely, but he couldn't leave the room.
Su Wan leaned against the door frame, watching Jiang Chen sit in front of the computer and type away.
Tap tap tap tap tap…
The keyboard clicks were so dense they sounded like someone was having a conversation.
"What are you writing?" Su Wan asked.
"Update." Jiang Chen said without looking up.
"Still updating at this time?"
"The more I'm being watched, the more I need to keep updating." Jiang Chen's fingers didn't stop. "The killer is waiting for my novel. If I stop updating, he'll think I'm scared."
"Aren't you afraid?"
Jiang Chen's fingers paused for a second, then continued.
"I'm afraid. But I can't let him know."
Looking at his focused profile, Su Wan suddenly felt that there was something inexplicable about this man…
Call it bravery!
No, it isn't.
Brave people don't admit they're afraid. It's... resilience.
Like a steel wire, it can't bend no matter how you bend it.
"Oh, right," Su Wan suddenly remembered something, "the fingerprint comparison results for that suitcase are in."
Jiang Chen stopped pointing and turned his head: "How was it?"
"The mismatched fingerprints didn't belong to anyone with a criminal record. But the technical department discovered something interesting..."
The fingerprints were very clear, with no signs of wear.
Jiang Chen frowned: "No wear and tear? That means..."
"In other words, the person who left these fingerprints doesn't work often," Su Wan continued, "Their hands are very soft, like someone who works in an office, or—"
"Or students," Jiang Chen added.
The two exchanged a glance and saw the same suspicion in each other's eyes.
The killer was not a "habitual offender" in the traditional sense.
His hands had no calluses, no scars, and no signs of physical labor.
He might be an ordinary person.
An inconspicuous, ordinary person who works a regular 9-to-5 job and no one would suspect him.
These kinds of people are the hardest to catch.
Because he's hidden in the crowd, you just can't find him.
Ring ring—!
Su Wan's phone rang; it was Zhou Guoping calling.
"Captain Su, we've made a major discovery!" Zhou Guoping's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement.
"What was discovered?"
"The phone from the crematorium has had its data recovered!"
Su Wan's heart suddenly raced: "What's inside?"
"Photos. Lots of photos." Zhou Guoping's voice suddenly turned somber. "But the most crucial one is a video."
"What video?"
There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone.
Zhou Guoping took a deep breath.
"The murderer's self-made confession video."
"What did he say?"
"He said..." Zhou Guoping's voice was grave, "He's not alone. He's just one of many."
Click.
Su Wan almost dropped her phone.
She looked at Jiang Chen, who had also heard the contents of the phone call.
His expression remained unchanged, as if he had known the answer all along.
"Send the video over," Jiang Chen said.
Three minutes later, a video file was transferred to Jiang Chen's computer.
He clicked on it.
The video begins to play.
The lighting was dim, like in a basement or abandoned factory. A person sat in the center of the frame, wearing a black hoodie with the hood pulled low, obscuring their face.
The voice was altered, making it sound mechanical, like a robot's.
"I know you're watching. I know you're investigating. I know you've found the suitcases and woven bags."
"Congratulations, you guessed half right."
"I am indeed not alone. But you've guessed the wrong number."
The person in the picture stood up and took a few steps back.
Then, one by one, lights appeared in the darkness behind him.
It's not a lamp.
It's a phone screen.
Behind every screen stands a person.
One, two, three... Jiang Chen counted silently in his mind.
There are eight in total.
Add the one in the center of the screen, making nine.
"This is our first time, but not our last," the voice said. "Unless—"
The camera cuts back to the person in the center.
"Unless you find us."
The video ends.
The interrogation room was so quiet you could hear the hum of the coffee machine heating up.
Su Wan's face turned deathly pale.
nine.
Nine people.
This isn't a serial killer; it's an organization.
A nine-person, organized, planned, and specialized group of killers.
"Impossible..." Su Wan murmured, "Nine people, how could they not have let a single word slip?"
Jiang Chen didn't say anything, but simply rewound the video, freezing it on the screen of a row of lit-up phone screens.
"Look here," he said, pointing to one of the phones on the screen.
Su Wan leaned closer and looked for a long time, but couldn't figure it out.
"What's wrong with that?"
Jiang Chen zoomed in on the image, zoomed in, and zoomed in again, until the pixels became a blurry mosaic.
"The wallpaper on this phone," Jiang Chen said, "has a logo in the top left corner."
Su Wan squinted for a long time before finally recognizing the blurry pattern.
Her pupils suddenly contracted.
"Is this... the emblem of Chengxi Vocational College?"
"Yes." Jiang Chen's voice was somewhat excited. "Chengxi Vocational College went bankrupt five years ago due to a broken capital chain. One of the reasons for the bankruptcy was... the bankruptcy of the school-run factory. That school-run factory was Chengxi Garment Factory."
Su Wan's mind went blank as all the information came crashing down like dominoes.
Clothing factory, victims, workwear labels on suitcases, school badges on phone wallpapers…
All connected.
"Is the killer connected to Chengxi Vocational College?" Su Wan's voice tightened.
"It's not 'related'." Jiang Chen stood up and walked to the window. The rain outside had stopped, and a corner of gray-white clouds peeked out from the sky. "They are very likely... students from that school."
"Teacher," Su Wan corrected.
"No." Jiang Chen shook his head. "A student. The last class graduated when the business went bankrupt five years ago. If you calculate their age, they're twenty-two or twenty-three now, which fits the 'early twenties' age the repair shop owner was referring to."
"Nine students formed a murder organization?" Su Wan thought this deduction was too crazy.
"Not nine," Jiang Chen calmly corrected.
There are only nine in the video.
"actual--"
He turned around and looked at Su Wan.
"Maybe more."
Gollum-
The coffee machine brewed the last cup of coffee, and steam rose from the spout with a soft hissing sound.
Su Wan stared at the cup of coffee and suddenly felt that the world was not quite real.
She was a frontline criminal investigator who had seen all sorts of vicious criminals, but she had never seen anything like this…
A group of young people in their early twenties systematically committed murder, disposed of the bodies, and provoked the police, treating the entire process as a performance.
"That's not right." Su Wan suddenly realized something. "If they really had that many people, it's impossible that they wouldn't have left any trace."
In an organization of nine people, there must be someone in charge of communication, someone in charge of action, and someone in charge of cleanup.
With so many people coming and going, it's impossible for no one around to notice.
Jiang Chen picked up his coffee, took a sip, and frowned slightly... It was too bitter.
"You're right. So they don't need to go in and out at all."
"What do you mean?"
"What if they... lived together?"
Su Wan was stunned.
Living together? Nine people living together?
"You mean... a dormitory?" Su Wan asked hesitantly.
"After Chengxi Vocational College closed down, the school buildings have remained empty." Jiang Chen put down his coffee cup, walked to the whiteboard, and began to draw.
"An abandoned school with teaching buildings, dormitories, a canteen, and a playground, which is more than enough for nine people to live in."
"And most importantly—"
Jiang Chen wrote several large characters on the whiteboard.
"There's an incinerator for the school-run factory there."
Click...
Su Wan suddenly stood up, the chair creaking loudly.
The factory run by Chengxi Vocational College, like the West Suburbs Crematorium, also has an incinerator.
She got it.
The killer was able to move freely in the abandoned crematorium not because they were familiar with it…
It's not because they have "home advantage".
That abandoned school was their real base.
The crematorium is merely a stage for their performance.
"I'll get people here right now to search Chengxi Vocational College!" Su Wan took out her phone.
"Wait a minute," Jiang Chen called out to her.
"What are you waiting for?"
"If I were them, I would be waiting for you there." Jiang Chen's words suddenly struck Su Wan's mind.
"When you go there, you will find a lot of 'evidence,' but all of this evidence will only point in one direction... the direction you want to investigate."
"You mean, they set up this scheme before we even got there?"
"It wasn't a pre-arranged plan." Jiang Chen picked up a marker, drew a circle on the whiteboard, and then put an X in the middle.
"They set up a stage. We're not going in to search; we're going to perform."
Su Wan's hand holding the phone trembled slightly.
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
Jiang Chen put down the marker and dusted off his hands.
"If they want to perform, then we'll build them a bigger stage."
"What do you mean?"
Jiang Chen's lips slowly curled up, revealing the smile of a hunter seeing his prey fall into a trap.
"They wanted me to write a script for their 'performance.' So I wrote one."
"But the protagonist in the script—"
He pointed to himself.
"It wasn't them, it was me."
Su Wan stared blankly at him.
Outside the window, the first rays of sunlight after the rain pierced through the clouds and slanted into the room, bathing Jiang Chen in a golden glow.
She suddenly remembered a reader comment she had seen that morning…
"Jiang Chen is a toxic man. The more you look at him, the more addictive he becomes."
She thought that reader was crazy.
Now she feels...
I might be sick myself.