Chapter 27 Lies!

East District.

Inside a love hotel.

The door to Room 404 was wide open, and a thick smell of blood wafted from inside into the hallway.

The hotel's female lobby manager trembled as she led the way, her voice shaking as she spoke.

Obviously, whatever was inside the room had terrified her.

"You can leave first if you're scared."

Hearing this, the lobby manager gave Chen Mo a grateful look before scurrying away as fast as her small steps could take her.

The general situation was that the room fee for Room 404 had expired this morning. The front desk notified the cleaning lady to ask if they wanted to renew, but there was no response after several calls.

Out of concern, she used her key card to open the door, only to find a corpse inside.

"Let's go in."

Chen Mo was the first to enter.

Although he had mentally prepared himself, the killer's methods were truly brutal.

A young man lay on the large pink circular bed; two pairs of scissors were plunged into his eyeballs, and a smiley face had been carved into his cheeks.

Looking further down, not a single piece of flesh on his body was intact. He had been chopped to pieces by a weapon like a kitchen knife, as if making dumpling filling, and blood had soaked the entire bedsheet red.

The state of death was identical to the previous victim, Li Jiaxin; it was certain that it was the work of the same killer.

Why did the killer murder these two?

What kind of entanglement did they have with the killer?

The image of Li Jiaxin's parents lying involuntarily surfaced in his mind again.

It seemed the breakthrough in the case still lay in figuring out why those two were lying.

They must know something.

While he was thinking this, Xiao Zhang arrived in a hurry with his team. Li Jiaxin's body had already been taken away by the forensic doctor for further Autopsy.

"Brother Mo, Captain Long."

Xiao Zhang nodded in greeting. After glancing at the corpse in the room, he ran out to investigate the victim's information without needing to be told.

It was actually quite simple; by using the registration information from the front desk and combining it with the public security's population database, the victim's identity was quickly uncovered.

But to be more thorough, he still spent quite a bit of time conducting an in-depth investigation.

By the time he returned, an hour had passed.

"Song Fei, 25 years old, graduated from Muhe University of Science and Technology, currently unemployed. His parents are executives at Dingsheng Medical, with a combined annual salary starting at over a million."

"According to information gathered from his friends and family, the victim's only hobby was hooking up through various means. Because his family was wealthy, he cherished his life very much and was very gentle with everyone. We haven't found anyone he had a grudge with."

"..."

Chen Mo looked thoughtful. Looking at it this way, it could basically be confirmed that the conflict between the victim and the killer occurred during their school years.

Both victims graduated from Muhe Institute of Technology and were the same age; it was even highly likely they were in the same class.

What about the killer?

Were they also in the same class as the victims?

Just then, Long Hao's phone rang again.

He was a bit afraid to answer it this time.

He was terrified that another case had occurred.

Fortunately, it was the forensic doctor calling this time.

After answering, the forensic doctor relayed the results of the further Autopsy.

Residual semen, suspected to belong to the killer, was found inside the victim Li Jiaxin.

In other words, the victim had been sexually assaulted by the killer.

In his previous life, leaving this kind of evidence behind would have directly pinpointed the killer.

But unfortunately, criminal investigation technology in 2002 wasn't that advanced yet.

"Alright, I understand."

Long Hao hung up the phone and looked at Chen Mo.

Only to find that Chen Mo, who had been standing beside him, had walked over to the corpse at some point.

"Desecrating a corpse plus rape... Is the hatred so extreme that they're using this method to vent the resentment in their heart?"

"Then what about this Song Fei? Is it possible that he was also..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but both Long Hao and Xiao Zhang understood what he meant.

Instantly, they felt a wave of chills, and a certain body part tightened.

It was one thing with the opposite sex, but a man too?

As outrageous as it was, thinking about it carefully, if the hatred for both was extreme...

There was no reason for the killer to spare Song Fei. After all, the killer wasn't looking for sexual pleasure, but rather the victim's pain, which would bring the pleasure of revenge.

Thinking about it this way, what Chen Mo said actually made perfect sense.

"—Ah!"

"My son! Let me through, I want to see my son!"

Exclamations and wails suddenly rang out from the hallway outside the room.

Xiao Zhang immediately spoke up to indicate that he was the one who had notified the parents.

This was all part of the standard procedure.

"Let them in. I happen to have some questions to ask."

Chen Mo waved his hand.

Soon, Song Fei's parents rushed in.

After the sequence of fear, gagging, weeping, and comforting was over, Chen Mo signaled for Xiao Zhang to question them.

The questions were the same as those asked to Li Jiaxin's parents earlier.

The results were also strikingly similar.

It was understandable that they couldn't think of any enemies.

But Chen Mo's eyebrows twitched.

Good grief, lying again, are we!

While Xiao Zhang was questioning them, he deliberately focused on the expressions of Song Fei's parents.

Micro-expressions told him that these parents were also lying.

They had clearly thought of someone but, for some reason, didn't say it.

Looking at it this way, these two couples must have thought of the same person.

And the person who killed the victims was also the same person.

He was missing a link to connect them.

It didn't matter if they were unwilling to talk; he had already guessed that the killer was very likely a college classmate of the two victims.

Now, he needed to verify his guess.

"Think again. When your son was in college, did he have a grudge with anyone?"

Chen Mo suddenly spoke.

Song Fei's parents were stunned and turned to look at him, their expressions instantly freezing.

They quickly denied it: "Our son has a gentle temperament; it's impossible for him to have such a deep grudge with anyone."

"Yes, it's impossible. Let us think more, don't rush!"

Looking at their anxious denials, even a fool could see that something was fishy.

Wouldn't a normal person have to think about it first?

Shaking their heads and denying it immediately was too ridiculous.

"Alright, Xiao Zhang, take them away for now."

Long Hao spoke.

After watching the unwilling couple being escorted out.

He then turned his gaze toward Chen Mo and pursed his lips.

"Have you discovered a lot of clues that you haven't told me about?"

Since arriving here from the Municipal Bureau, Chen Mo had clearly become much quieter.

It was only when he suddenly mentioned the victims' college years just now that it finally dawned on him.

"There weren't many clues before, but now there are."

"Song Fei's parents are lying, and Li Jiaxin's parents are lying too."

"When they were thinking about enemies, they both thought of the same person. Combined with the fact that the only link between the two victims is the same university, I suspect the killer is also a college classmate of theirs, maybe even in the same class."

"I tested them just now, and their reactions confirmed my deduction was correct."

"The killer and the victims are college classmates."

Long Hao pursed his lips. He had a lot to say, but in the end, only three words came out: "Simply amazing!"