A perfect crime? To me, it's full of flaws!

A live baby!

"Fuck!" No matter how much Qi Feng usually cared about his image, he couldn't help but swear at this moment.

The alarm bells in his head were ringing wildly, making his scalp tingle and his back instantly soaked with cold sweat.

"Team Leader Zhao!" Qi Feng turned around abruptly and shouted at Zhao Gang outside the door.

Startled by the loud shout, Zhao Gang turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Check the security footage! Check the security footage now!" Qi Feng strode out of the bathroom, grabbed Zhao Gang's arm with astonishing strength, his knuckles turning white from the force. "The child isn't dead! She took the child away!"

The corridor fell into a deathly silence.

All the police officers stopped what they were doing and looked at Qi Feng in shock.

"What did you say?" Zhao Gang's pupils contracted sharply, and his voice trembled.

"We were all wrong! Completely fucking wrong!" Qi Feng grabbed Zhao Gang and ran towards the stairwell, their footsteps echoing in the empty hallway. "Her first three murders to retrieve the babies weren't for stillbirths at all! She was just practicing!"

Zhao Gang felt a chill run down his spine and straight to the back of his head.

Using living people as practice?

What a ruthless and insane devil he must be!

Qi Feng spoke rapidly, rattling off words like a machine gun: "The first case, the incisions were messy! The second, the incisions were much cleaner and neater! The third, the incisions were even! Every cut was decisive! She's evolving! She's practicing cesarean sections on living people!"

"Her previous attempts to clean up the crime scene were because she failed! The babies she extracted were dead, giving her ample time to tamper with the scene and hide the evidence!" Qi Feng ran while rapidly piecing together the logic, completely revitalizing the case. "But this time is different! This time she succeeded!"

The two rushed up to the lobby on the first floor of the emergency room.

Surrounded by patients and their families, no one noticed the two men, their faces ashen, running wildly.

"She successfully extracted a live baby!" Qi Feng's voice boomed in Zhao Gang's ears. "A live baby needs to be properly cared for! So she had to take the child away immediately! She even threw away the murder weapon and didn't even clean up the blood on the ground! All she wanted from beginning to end was a live baby!"

"Where's the monitoring room?!" Zhao Gang grabbed a hospital security guard who was walking towards him, his eyes bloodshot, as if he wanted to devour him.

The security guard jumped in fright, nearly dropping his walkie-talkie. He stammered and pointed in a direction: "The door... third floor of the outpatient building, security department."

"Lead the way! Run!" Zhao Gang shoved the security guard aside and rushed out first.

Qi Feng followed closely behind.

His mind was frighteningly calm.

Since the child was alive, the killer couldn't have put the child in that airtight black plastic bag.

She must have prepared a disguise.

Baby carrier? Oversized coat? Or some kind of specially made backpack?

"Seal off all entrances and exits of the hospital! Search the hospital for any women who have left in the past two hours, especially those carrying infants or large packages!" Zhao Gang shouted into the walkie-talkie as he ran, spittle flying everywhere. "Notify the traffic police to retrieve all CCTV footage from the area around the hospital! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!"

Zhao Gang kicked open the door to the monitoring room.

A loud "bang" was heard.

The three security guards inside were so startled that they stood up abruptly, nearly dropping their thermos cups on their feet.

"Get out of the way!" Zhao Gang shoved aside the security guard sitting in front of the control panel and plopped down on it himself.

"Retrieve the surveillance footage from the CT room corridor on the basement level, as well as the emergency room lobby and all exits on the first floor, for the past two hours!" Qi Feng stood behind Zhao Gang, his hands supporting him on the back of the chair, his eyes fixed on the entire wall of monitors.

2 hours.

120 minutes.

Based on the time of the incident, the perpetrator likely left long ago.

But as long as she is carrying a live baby, it is absolutely impossible for her to be completely invisible!

"Fast forward! Sixteen times speed!" Qi Feng shouted sharply.

The operator's hands were trembling, but he quickly did as instructed.

Time seemed to fly by on the screen. Figures moved across the screen like figures in a fast-forwarded movie, leaving behind blurry afterimages.

Suddenly, Qi Feng's gaze locked onto screen number three.

That's the fire escape exit leading from the basement level to the underground parking garage.

"Stop! Screen three, rewind two minutes! Play at normal speed!" Qi Feng slammed his hand on the back of the chair.

The screen rewinds.

The time displayed is 10:14 AM.

A woman wearing a large gray trench coat appeared at the edge of the surveillance footage.

She was wearing a black baseball cap and a huge medical mask that covered her entire face.

Her walking posture was a bit strange; her body leaned slightly forward, and her hands were tightly guarded in front of her chest.

The hem of the trench coat billowed out in an unnatural curve.

"Zoom in." Qi Feng squinted.

The operator zoomed in on a specific part of the screen.

Due to the dim lighting in the underground parking lot and the low resolution of the surveillance cameras, the images were somewhat blurry and full of noise.

But Qi Feng still keenly noticed a detail.

A sliver of pink terry cloth was faintly visible through the seam of the woman's trench coat.

That's a corner of the baby's swaddle!

"It's her!" Zhao Gang stood up abruptly, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

"Check this car!" Qi Feng pointed to a white, unlicensed van in the footage, where the woman was walking quickly towards. "She got in!"

In the video, the woman opens the side door of the bread cart and quickly slips inside.

The vehicle started, its taillights flashed once, and then it disappeared into the blind spot of the underground parking lot exit.

"Notify the traffic police to search the entire city for this white van! It has no license plate and the right taillight is damaged!" Zhao Gang roared into the walkie-talkie, his voice hoarse.

Qi Feng stared at the bread truck frozen on the screen.

He knew that the real contest was only just beginning.

The fact that this woman dared to act in the hospital means she was fully prepared. That unlicensed car definitely won't stay on the surveillance cameras for long. She'll definitely change cars, and might even change clothes.

"Captain Zhao," Qi Feng turned around, his voice as cold as ice, "Has the identity of the fourth victim been confirmed?"

Zhao Gang's face was so dark it could drip water: "It's confirmed. She's pregnant, nine months along, and she was supposed to be here for a prenatal checkup today."

"Where are the family members?"

"I waited for her upstairs in the obstetrics and gynecology department, thinking she had gone to the restroom, but she never showed up until the cleaning staff discovered the bloodstains on the basement floor..." Zhao Gang gritted his teeth, making a grinding sound.

Qi Feng took a deep breath.

nine months.

Full-term baby.

The killer carefully selected her target and carried out her final "harvest".

"She got the child." Qi Feng looked out the window at the gray sky. "Her 'compensation mentality' has been satisfied. This means she will likely disappear completely. Once she hides, that child, and the three lives lost before that, will all be lost."

"Trying to run? Dream on!" Zhao Gang slammed his fist on the table, making the keyboard bounce. "I'll dig her out even if I have to dig three feet into the ground!"