A real killer playing a villain; the guy surnamed Zhen in Detective, run!

The forensic team rushed in and conducted a thorough search of every room.

Fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes. Forty-five minutes.

Lin Qinghui sat on the sofa watching, his expression amused.

Zero bone saw. Zero reagents. Zero biological traces. The cleanliness of each room meets the cleanliness standards required for operating rooms.

Old Li squatted in the grout between the bathroom floor tiles for ten minutes to scrape the sample, then sprayed luminol on it and shone a UV light on it—negative.

Zero response.

As the forensic team left the last room, Lin Qinghui picked up a crystal goblet from the coffee table; it was half-filled with mineral water.

He took a sip and put it down.

Then he proactively stretched his hands in front of him, wrists together, towards Jiang Yan.

"Come on, cuff him."

His smile was perfect, like he was explaining a surgical plan to a patient's family in a consultation room.

"Captain Jiang, you should be more familiar with Article 55, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Procedure Law than I am. The evidence for conviction and sentencing must be conclusive and sufficient. Without physical evidence, DNA, eyewitnesses, or trajectory matching, what can this search warrant bring you?"

He tilted his head slightly.

"As for that trash—" he said, his upper lip twitching with instinctive disgust, "it's gone to a place you'll never find again."

Old Qi clenched his fists at the door, while the police officer next to him looked ashen-faced.

Looking at their reactions, Lin Qinghui had a faint sense of satisfaction in his eyes.

Jiang Yan didn't say anything.

She walked out from behind the special police officers, step by step, until she was directly in front of Lin Qinghui.

Lin Qinghui's smile was still on his face.

Jiang Yan spoke up, "Those people you chopped up weren't your spoils of war."

Lin Qinghui's eyelashes twitched.

"You're just wiping yourself clean."

The facial muscle groups began to become disordered, and the contraction amplitude of the zygomaticus major muscle above the left cheekbone became asymmetrical with that of the right cheekbone.

"From six to ten years old." Jiang Yan's voice was audible only to the two of them. "All that stuff you were forced to wear—excrement, rotting matter, or whatever—you washed it for thirty years, didn't you?"

Lin Qinghui's smile vanished, and the orbicularis oculi muscle at the corner of his right eye began to tremble.

The perfect elite who had been dominating the room with the Criminal Procedure Law just a minute ago was now twitching at the corner of his eye.

The only sound in the quiet room was Lin Qinghui's rapid breathing.

After a few seconds, his smile returned.

"Brilliant." Lin Qinghui's voice was a bit hoarse. "I don't know which genius wrote this profile; none of the psychologists I've seen have this skill."

He stood up and tugged at his collar.

"But appreciation is one thing, what the court needs is physical evidence."

He lifted his foot and walked towards the door, passing by Jiang Yan.

"Captain Jiang, see you in the interrogation room."

The footsteps faded into the distance in the corridor.

Jiang Yan stood in the center of the empty living room.

The marble coffee table was polished until it could be used as a mirror. On the wool carpet, the pile was neatly combed in the same direction.

The shirts in the wardrobe are arranged from left to right according to their color shade, and the spacing between each hanger appears to be completely equidistant.

All the mineral water bottles in the refrigerator have their labels facing outwards, and the logos on the bottle caps are all facing the same direction.

Clean, tidy, and perfect.

Jiang Yan looked away.

The physical operation was completed tonight.

Lin Qinghui was right. Without physical evidence, the court cannot convict him. He had done a thorough cleaning beforehand, removing everything that could potentially lead to his death.

The next battleground was in an eight-square-meter interrogation room on the basement floor of the municipal police station.

To pry open the mouth of a perfect psychopath who has spent thirty years building a psychological fortress.

......

Outside the interrogation area of ​​the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The ashtray in front of the one-way glass was already overflowing; cigarette butts were piled on top of each other, and the grayish-white ash had formed a small mountain.

The digital clock on the wall ticked to 21:27. Only two and a half hours remained before the deadline for his detention.

Old Qi had a half-smoked cigarette between his fingers, but he didn't smoke it. The cigarette burned down to the filter, and he only came to his senses when his hand was burned.

On the monitor, Lin Qinghui was still sitting upright. His back was two centimeters away from the back of the chair, his knees were together, his hands were resting on the edge of the table, and even the edges of his fingernails were so clean that it was annoying.

The two veteran detectives opposite us have already changed shifts three times.

One played the good cop, the other the bad cop. Deterrence, fatigue, oppressive silence, and probing with evidence—the whole process was followed.

"Officer Wang, your question just now was leading."

He glanced up at the security camera in the corner and even considerately reminded him.

"According to Article 50 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is strictly prohibited to collect evidence by means of threats, inducements, deception, or other illegal methods. When you asked me, 'Why did you choose a cotton mill?', that question already presupposed that I had made that choice."

Outside the interrogation room, Cui Lei cursed.

Officer Wang inside was so choked up that he couldn't respond for a long time.

Lin Qinghui moved the paper cup on the table to the right.

"Furthermore, I request a break. The continuous interrogation has been too long, and the validity of the subsequent statements may be disputed. I understand that everyone has been busy for three days, but procedural justice is also very precious."

He spoke in a gentle yet infuriating way.

Old Qi stubbed out his cigarette, and a soft hissing sound came from the ashtray.

"The chain of evidence couldn't hold up."

No one responded; they all understood.

The body parts were found, the suspect was identified, the psychological profile matched, and the life trajectory also matched.

But the evidence the court requires.

Lin Qinghui erased all visible evidence. The bone saw was gone, the clothes were gone, there was no DNA at the scene, and the apartment was so clean it could be used as a promotional video for an operating table.

In the interrogation room, Lin Qinghui glanced at the wall clock again.

"Two hours and twenty-seven minutes to go."

He straightened his cuffs, pressing the fabric so that there wasn't a single crease.

"You all know better than I do the consequences of prolonged detention. Captain Jiang, you've all worked very hard tonight."

Through the glass, Jiang Yan stared at his face.

She hadn't slept well for three days, and the whites of her eyes were bloodshot.

Absurd! The entire city's criminal investigation force was forced to follow procedures by a pervert.

My phone vibrated in my pocket; it was a WeChat message from Lu Yuan.

"What's the procedure for the 50,000 yuan bonus? Lao Liu has his eye on a three-tiered cat tree, but the shop owner says they don't accept payment terms."

Jiang Yan stared at the screen, not moving for two seconds.

Cui Lei leaned over and asked, "Captain Jiang, who is it?"

Jiang Yan ignored him and typed with her thumb.

"If we can't get a confession, we won't get a single penny."

There was silence on the other end for about ten seconds.

"wait."

Half an hour later, in the duty hall on the first floor of the Municipal Bureau, Lu Yuan stood in front of the security gate carrying an old thermos cup.

The police officer on duty was stunned for a moment when he saw his face.

"Black Gold" has been incredibly popular these past few days; even the young members of the criminal investigation team have been watching it during their lunch breaks. The character Shen Yibai on screen, who kills without blinking an eye, is truly unforgettable.

"Teacher Lu...?"

Lu Yuan handed over his ID card.

"Captain Jiang sent me. I have an informant assisting."