My Dearest General: It Has Always Been You

The new guy from the forensic department sent from the main headquarters was a thirty five years old man. Quite good looking in a gentle way—but still overshadowed by Xu Binchen's cold features and Jin Renguang's razor sharp handsomeness. He was surnamed Lin, named Zhouyi.

Anyway, maybe because he was dealing with corpses all day long, the man's disposition was gloomy. He wore white lab coat and white gloves covering his hands, a heavy scent of disinfectant followed him all the way as if it had been dissolving into his flesh and bones. He had an unusual air that made people hesitant to approach him, thus since he arrived at the Police Bureau in City A's jurisdiction, he had been a loner.

Now that Ru Meiqi pointed him out, he stood up and nodded slightly in acknowledgement. Lin Zhouyi handed the booklets that he had been holding on toward the detective closest to him and asked him to pass him around.

He gave them a few minutes to register the data in it and started to talk. "I have rechecked the body parts in the morgue. So far, from the twelve deceased, we've found 22 legs, 11 torsos, 21 hands, 11 heads, and the rest of the parts are still missing. From the legs, all of it was cut precisely one inch below the femur[1] except the first victim which belonged to Miss Gong, the cut was 1.1 inch lower."

"It's the first time the suspect did the murder and because his cut wasn't neat, he scrapped it off until it reduced 0.1 inch." Ru Meiqi added while rubbing her chin.

"That's right." Lin Zhouyi agreed but his light tone made everyone get goosebumps along their arms.

Who the heck would measure the length of the legs and discover this fact?!

Lin Zhouyi added, "I have measured not only the legs, but the hands and heads too and it showed that the cuts were made in an exact precision except the first one. But the error was only 10% at most."

"Alright, thank you, comrade Lin." Ru Meiqi said while turning to the wide-eyed detectives. "Based on these datas, we can conclude that the suspect has a very high requirement in both his calculation and precision. It showed that he is someone with an OCD."

If eyes could be inverted into light, then Tang Wei's eyes would be enough to light up the whole city by now. His body was boiling in excitement and it took him quite a lot of effort not to faint on the spot. "T—Then, Miss Ru, may I know how your thought process is until you reach this conclusion?"

"It's simple." The woman calmly answered. "It's mainly intuition. Because I have known someone with similar symptoms for years."

All of the people in the conference room—except Lin Zhouyi, of course—turned to look at Jin Renguang simultaneously and found the man leaning back on his chair with a meaningful smile hanging on his lips, eyes looking intently at the woman at the head of the table.

They hastily averted their eyes away lest they suffered serious internal injuries from the sudden dog food, even looking at the severed legs became much more interesting.

"Okay, Senior Ru had explained the suspect's OCD." Xu Binchen tapped on the armchair rhythmically. "Then may I ask the thing about his hometown?"

"Not all violent offenders are psychopaths and conversely, not all psychopaths are violent offenders." Ru Meiqi explained. "For psychopaths to start committing homicide, generally, they will first receive some kind of violent stimuli. Even though they are psychopaths, it doesn't mean that they are expert assassins. They will inevitably feel nervous, anxious and flustered, that's why studies concluded that psychopaths will do the first deed in a place close to their homes so that they would feel secure."

"So, because the first crime scene happened in City S, the suspect is speculated to come from the same place? Furthermore, in a range not far from it?" Another detective asked.

Ru Meiqi: "That's right."

"How far?"

"I can't say how much exactly but it will not be more than ten kilometers."

The detectives' eyes lit up instantly. The fog covering their mind was lessened a bit and they felt like they had finally found a beam of light shining amidst the darkness.

Jin Renguang rapped on the table to pull their attention back. "Calm down. There's some questions I want to confirm. Butterfly had testified that before she disappeared, she found a ringing phone in an alley which compelled her to find out about it. Is there some connection with the case?"

Ru Meiqi narrowed her eyes. "I've never heard of this before."

Jin Renguang grinned without the slightest bit of guilt. "There are so many things happening that this one slipped from my mind."

Ru Meiqi would have whacked his head if not for the people around. To preserve Captain Jin's heroic image, she refrained herself from doing so. "Ringing phone in the alley? As I've said, there are so many things he could do to lure the victims away. Maybe, this was one of them. People will be drawn to find out the source of the sound."

Wang Chengbing nodded. "Based on Butterly's personality, she would think that some customer dropped their phone and checked it out. But Captain, the thing is, we have searched the alley around the convenience store based on Butterfly's testimony and even used fluorescence[2], but we couldn't find any trace of the blood like she said."

Ru Meiqi frowned. "Blood? On the phone?"

Wang Chengbing: "Yes! That's right! Shi Nian said that she heard a phone ringing and picked it up, but then she found that the back of the phone was sticky with some liquid but she wasn't sure that it was blood."

Jin Renguang snorted. "Shi Nian? You've surely gotten quite close."

Wang Chengbing scratched his head sheepishly. "But Boss, she's really a good girl."

"Her memory isn't even intact and the method of recovery used is hypnotherapy." Jin Renguang harrumphed. "Digging a human's memory using hypnosis will result in it being affected by their subconsciousness. Who knows, maybe it's just something that flashed through her mind before but it's not real."

Human's brain was the most complex organ ever. It could even form pseudo memories, causing the thing they remembered to be different from the event happening in real life. Who could guarantee that what she said was true?

Xu Binchen frowned, seemingly disagreeing with his captain's words. Yet he didn't know where did such a strong emotion came from either. He knew that the girl wouldn't lie, but there indeed wasn't any blood found on the alley.

"But of course," Ru Meiqi pondered, deep in thought. "Even if there's no evidence, we can't exclude the possibility of it being true. Blood on the ringing phone? It's quite interesting…"

"Alright, let's finish here first." Jin Renguang's loud voice boomed. "Xu Binchen and Wang Chengbing, as usual, monitor Butterfly, inform me as soon as possible if there's something else she remembers. Tang Wei, help Lin Zhouyi to achieve the data to our database. The rest of you, go to City S, we will start screening based on the characteristics that Miss Ru have said. While Miss Ru, you—"

"I need all of the files from this case, starting from the first victim."

"Yes, yes." Jin Renguang waved his hand. "You can get it yourself from my office."

The detectives: "…" Where is our Captain who guarded his room like a dragon's treasure, beating everyone who dared to trespass?!

"Move, move!" He barked out. "Stay connected with our phones. Report everything to me if something arises. Meeting adjourned!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Wait," Ru Meiqi's soft voice resounded. "There's something I forgot to tell you."

The detectives whose butts had left the seat once again returned to their position, listening intently. Ru Meiqi looked at Jin Renguang. "Do you remember what I said that the suspect may have known that Butterfly will not remember him?"

He nodded. "Yes, what do you have to say about that?"

"I want you to check out the place where the landslide happened."

"You mean—" Tang Wei's eyes widened behind his glasses.

"Yes, comrade Tang. I want to check if it's a real landslide or there's some external force causing it to happen."

Jin Renguang cursed. That's right, he had let that factor slip from his calculation! If it was truly a manmade disaster, then the suspect might have no intention to let Butterfly go at all! "Okay, request help from the local police officers. Check on the area around the landslide! Even if you have to dig three feet underground, you have to find something out!"

"Yes, sir!"

[1] Femur = thigh bone. The legs were severed right below it.

[2] Fluorescence can make blood glow in the dark, usually used in crime scene. Another chemical; luminol.. Usage of blue light or UV become unnecessary. Then, UV light will be used to reveal another stain such as seminal fluid, saliva and urine stains