I'm not a genius detective

Chapter 112 The Novel's Origin is Reality
The taxi driver left, agreeing to come back to the police station in the next two days to assist the police in drawing a composite sketch of the suspect.

The task force held a meeting.

The description of the suspect was given to all the detective teams. After discussion, the officers all said that there was no middle-aged man who matched the description in their respective areas of investigation.

The interpersonal relationships of the victims Dai Bin, Xiao Yuxuan, and Wang Mengqi have all been investigated or witnessed. After removing those with very strong alibis, the rest do not match up.

If there are no interpersonal relationships involved, then it's necessary to consider whether the crime was committed by a stranger.

The strangers mentioned here are not purely strangers; rather, the suspect knows Dai Bin, but Dai Bin does not know the suspect.

Could it be a reader?

"I think this type of novel won't have any readers over forty, right?"

A criminal police officer from the squadron spoke up.

The others largely agreed. Yesterday, Ji Bowei asked them to take some time to read Dai Bin's novel, and many of them had already read it today. Although they hadn't read it in depth, they at least understood what the novel was about.

Ji Bowen sat there smoking and said, "Young people have more to say. Han Ling, Tong Feng, what do you two think?"

Both of them were new police officers who joined the force last year, making them the youngest officers in the Criminal Investigation Division.

Han Ling, who rarely reads novels, passed the question to Tong Feng, who replied, "That's true. The core need of men over forty is the storytelling aspect of novels. They are more concerned with realistic love, while the emotional patterns in pure love novels are too idealistic."

Of course, it's not that absolute; maybe a fifty-year-old would enjoy watching it?

After saying that, he turned to look at Han Ling: "Han Baobao, am I right?"

Han Ling stared at him: "You're not allowed to call me Han Baobao anymore, especially during meetings, or I'll throw you out the window."

Everyone: "..."

Ji Bowei criticized: "Don't joke around. We've basically identified the suspect now. Be mindful of the context."

Regardless of whether the suspect is a reader or not, we don't have a definitive answer to this matter yet. From now on, all investigation teams are to withdraw and focus all our efforts on investigating the person who took a taxi and followed Dai Bin.

Silence fell over the meeting room.

It's quite difficult, like finding a needle in a haystack, unless you can get a portrait with a high degree of matching.

However, based on the statements of the four taxi drivers, they could not remember what the passenger looked like at all. Even if the city bureau's portrait artist completed the portrait, they could not guarantee the similarity.

"Cheer up!" Hu Lihui banged on the table. "The surveillance footage from a month ago is gone, but surely there's footage from the day the incident happened? We'll do a thorough search of the surveillance footage, radiating outwards from the urban village. I refuse to believe we won't find it."

A large-scale investigation of surveillance footage requires a breakthrough from zero to one. As long as one surveillance camera captures a suspect, the chances of tracing the suspect's face are greatly increased.

Once we get a clear shot of their faces, the rest will be easy.

Ji Bowei said, "Everyone has worked hard these past two days. Rest tonight, and I will contact the Municipal Bureau tomorrow to invite the portrait artist over. We'll talk about it after we get the forensic portrait."

In this day and age, full-time forensic artists are very rare. It's considered good if a province has one or two, and they are almost all in the provincial government departments.

The public security force in Qingchang City is very large, and the municipal bureau has one.

The meeting ended, and everyone was quite tired, so they left in a hurry.

Han Ling and Tong Feng walked out of the police station. The latter said, "This is almost equivalent to a stranger committing a crime. There are no easily identifiable features, so it's hard to find the suspect. There aren't many surveillance cameras in the urban village."

I'm baffled. Why would he kill Dai Bin? Stalking, poisoning—it's clearly premeditated. The motive must have been very strong, a well-thought-out decision, not an impulsive act.

Han Ling: "I still lean towards the readers."

Tong Feng: "Because there were no results in other areas?"

Currently, aside from the readership, all of Dai Bin's interpersonal relationships have been thoroughly investigated. After eliminating all impossibilities, what remains is the truth.

Han Ling: "That's part of the reason. I'll look into it again when I get back."

Tong Feng: "Go back and stop researching, get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a tough battle, so conserving your energy is the key."

Han Ling nodded: "Yes, I know."

Tong Feng drove away, while Han Ling, who lived nearby, chose to walk.

Back in his rented room, Han Ling washed up and lay half-reclined on the bed, taking out his phone to continue reading a novel. The novel had over two million words, and he had only read a portion of it so far, even if he was skipping around.

This time, he chose to start from the beginning, reading ten lines at a glance.

Time slowly passed, and the clock on the wall struck two in the morning. Han Ling's gaze lingered on a page of the novel, and he sat up straight in bed.

The plot describes the protagonist's first critical period in his career, when he moves to a new house. Dai Bin describes in detail the layout of the neighborhood and its surrounding amenities, including the cityscape.

Han Ling felt a sense of familiarity. After a brief recollection, she realized that the scenes in the novel and Dai Bin's actual living environment were similar, with a similarity of about 70 to 80 percent, aside from artistic embellishment.

The vast majority of novelists' works have a certain autobiographical element, a point Han Ling is well aware of. Novels are based on reality but transcend it; without real-life experience, an author cannot create an excellent urban-themed work.

The sycamore trees downstairs. The red mailbox on the street corner.

Even the name of the residential complex has one character that is the same.

Red mailboxes are now rarely seen; they are remnants from the past. Most mailboxes are now a standard dark green, which is probably not a coincidence.

Dai Bin may have applied reality to his novel for the sake of convenience or for other reasons, since they were all pretty much the same anyway, saving him the trouble of brainstorming new ideas.

Assuming the suspect is indeed a reader of the novel, then once they know the city where the author lives, and try to find his residence based on the novel's description, they should be able to make a discovery over time.

"Could this be how the suspect initially located Daibin's residence? That's something."

Han Ling muttered to himself, tossed his phone onto the bedside table, turned off the light, and went to sleep. It would take him quite a bit of effort to do that.

At the very least, this person's patience and obsession are ridiculously strong.

Is being a novelist a high-risk profession now? With just a few words of description, readers were able to find the author's home directly. If this gets out, I wonder if other authors will still dare to bring reality into their novels.

The next morning, the city police's portrait artist arrived. He was a man who looked to be in his thirties, very young.

Ji Bowei introduced this person as Lin Yusheng, a graduate of the police academy majoring in criminal investigation. His father was a painter, so he had a solid foundation in art from a young age, especially in sketching, where he had great talent and skill.

A few years ago, the provincial department was preparing to train qualified portrait artists. Lin Yusheng volunteered to start a year-long training program, which included, but was not limited to, criminal investigation techniques, criminal psychology, and human anatomy. After completing the training, he was transferred to the Qingchang Municipal Bureau and became the only portrait expert in the Qingchang public security team.

Being called an expert in one's thirties is a very high title and honor, mainly because they are rare, like giant pandas.

A graduate of a police academy with a long-standing passion for painting, such a background is rare even nationwide. Moreover, it requires a certain talent in both painting and criminal investigation, so it's reasonable that such individuals are few and far between.

Just because you can draw doesn't mean you can become a criminal investigation sketch artist. A sketch artist with poor skills can cause a lot of trouble for investigators and waste police resources.

Lin Yusheng also brought the poison test results and handed them to Captain Ji.

Four taxi drivers arrived, and the portrait sketching work began quickly.

"Thank you for your hard work," Ji Bowen said before closing the door.

Lin Yusheng was rather refined and didn't have the demeanor of a policeman. He smiled at Ji Bowen and said, "Captain Ji, you're too kind. This is my job, and I will do my best."

However, the accuracy of the portrait is positively correlated with the accuracy of the witness's memory. Captain Ji just said that the witness's impression wasn't strong, so don't have too high hopes.

Ji Bowei: "It's okay, it's better than nothing. You go ahead and get busy."

He closed the door and took the toxicology test results to the conference room.

All members of the task force are present.

“Arsenic has no clear expiration date. According to the test results, the arsenic under Dai Bin’s clothing underwent slight deterioration and a decrease in purity due to improper storage over a long period of time. However, its highly toxic nature has not disappeared,” Ji Bowei said. “This means that the arsenic may have been possessed by the suspect for many years or illegally purchased from rural vendors. This is a new direction for the investigation.”

Everyone nodded.

Rural vendors are unlikely to sell high-purity arsenic; it can only be purchased in fields such as scientific research, medical treatment, and industry that comply with national regulations, and the approval process is strict.

Only individual sellers in rural areas might keep and sell arsenic with more impurities.

Fang Zhou said, "Using arsenic to kill someone, their level of education might not be very high? This fits the description, maybe they're from a rural area?"

Hu Lihui denied this, saying, "You can't say that. There is no direct and necessary connection between the suspect's level of education and the method of murder. People with low education may use arsenic, and people with high education may also use arsenic. Everyone knows that this stuff can poison people."

Moreover, arsenic is easier to obtain compared to substances like cyanide.

Fang Zhou nodded, accepting Hu Lihui's opinion. There will always be different and unreasonable answers when brainstorming, which is the significance of holding meetings and discussions.

“However, the investigation can be somewhat biased.” Hu Lihui then changed the subject, “If the suspect purchased the arsenic himself, did he search for it extensively, or did he already know where it was sold?”

Fang Zhou: "If he already knew... he knows a lot about rural markets."

The group looked at Ji Bowei, knowing that they should listen to their captain's instructions on how to investigate.

After much deliberation, Ji Bowei finally decided to pool his resources to crack the surveillance system and temporarily refrain from assigning police officers to visit surrounding towns and villages.

If the surveillance investigation yields no results after several days, it's not too late to conduct further visits.

"Is there anything else to say?" Ji Bowei asked.

Han Ling raised her hand and shared what she had learned from reading the novel last night, for everyone to discuss and analyze.

The content has been screenshotted and projected onto the big screen.

Everyone quickly glanced at it, and after a moment's recollection, they agreed with Han Ling's judgment; it did indeed look very similar.

"How did they even find Dai Bin's house?" Tong Feng felt that reality was too absurd. "What grudge could they possibly have that led them to go through all this trouble? I could already feel the suspect's barely concealed murderous intent. All because he was reading a novel?"

Han Ling was silent for a moment, then said, "If it really was the readers who did it, the reason is definitely not just because of the novel, but more like... a trigger."

(End of this chapter)