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

The building of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Municipal Public Security Bureau in City A was brightly lit.

When Qi Feng followed Fan Liang into the task force office, the sounds of keyboards clicking, telephones ringing, and hushed discussions filled the air, and everyone's face was etched with fatigue and tension.

Fan Liang's sharp gaze swept around the room, finally settling on a figure buried in files.

"Xia! Come here for a second."

As soon as she finished speaking, a young policewoman in uniform with a neat ponytail jumped up from her seat and ran over quickly, her posture upright.

"team leader!"

"This is Qi Feng, a comrade from the provincial department who came to provide support." Fan Liang turned to the side and introduced the two, then pointed to the policewoman, "This is Xia Lan, a key member of our task force."

"Hello, Officer Xia." Qi Feng forced what he thought was a friendly smile, but with his panda eyes, he looked somewhat comical.

Xia Lan's gaze lingered on Qi Feng's face for half a second, especially on his dark circles under his eyes.

Then he simply nodded in a formulaic manner and said, "Hello."

"Xia, go and compile all the materials from the '8.15' case to the present, including the fourth case we just had, and make a copy for Qi Feng. Also, find him an empty seat," Fan Liang ordered rapidly.

"Yes, I'll go right away." Xia Lan replied, not glancing at Qi Feng again, and turned to walk towards the mountain of filing cabinets.

"Xiao Qi, you stay here and familiarize yourself with the situation. I need to go keep an eye on things with Old Liu. I'll let you know as soon as there are results from the analysis of the computer and the new evidence." Fan Liang patted Qi Feng on the shoulder, gave his instructions, and then hurriedly left. His mind was completely focused on the computer mainframe that might contain the killer's image.

Qi Feng watched Fan Liang's disappearing figure, shrugged, and strolled to an empty table piled with clutter in the corner.

Without any hesitation, he reached out and shoveled everything on the table into the empty cardboard box next to him.

After tidying up the table, he pulled out a chair with an air of nonchalance, leaned back, crossed his legs and put them on the edge of the table, put his hands behind his head, closed his eyes, and began to stare blankly at the ceiling.

People came and went in the office, everyone was in a hurry, but he was like a tourist who had accidentally wandered onto a film set, completely out of place with the tense atmosphere around him.

Time passed by, and just as Qi Feng was about to drift off to sleep, Xia Lan returned carrying a stack of documents as tall as a person.

She spotted Qi Feng at a glance, half-asleep and in an unseemly posture. The disdain that was already in her eyes instantly solidified.

From the provincial government? Support?

With that nonchalant attitude, he's probably some leader's son who's come down here to get some experience and credit, right?

The thought that she and her colleagues had been working through the night for this case, while this person was leisurely dozing off here, made Xia Lan feel a surge of anger.

"Bang!"

With a loud bang, she slammed the heavy file onto the table in front of Qi Feng, making the pen holder on the table jump.

Qi Feng jolted awake, startled, and opened his eyes to see the mountain of documents that had suddenly appeared before him.

"It's all here." Xia Lan said this coldly, not even bothering to say another word, and turned to leave.

She simply couldn't work with this kind of person.

She's so young and already in the provincial department, yet she's so irresponsible in handling cases. What else could she be but someone who got there through connections? She despises people like that the most.

Qi Feng didn't seem to care much about Xia Lan's attitude. Well, it wasn't that he didn't care, but he had just been startled awake and his mind was still a bit foggy, so he didn't notice the emotions in her eyes at all.

He rubbed his sleepy eyes, yawned widely, and then slowly sat up straight to examine the pile of documents in front of him that could be used as a pillow.

"This is really bad."

He muttered something and casually picked up the top file and opened it.

The police in City A did a very thorough job, investigating the social relationships, financial situation, and communication records of the four victims very clearly.

After watching for a while, Qi Feng frowned.

Indeed, as Fan Liang said, there is no overlap between these four people in any of their records over the past five years.

Their life trajectories are four parallel lines that never intersect.

That's strange.

They were unrelated, yet were brutally murdered using similar methods.

Qi Feng picked up a pen and wrote the first line in the notebook in front of him: [No connection within the past five years, extend the investigation period!]

After finishing writing, he pushed the written file aside and began to unpack the evidence bags containing crime scene photos. He spread out all the photos one by one, and soon the large desk was covered with all sorts of bloody and bizarre images.

The first victim, Zhou Yun, had her eyes gouged out.

The second victim, Zhang Kai, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The third victim, Gou Qing, had her tongue cut out.

The fourth victim, Wang Linlin, had both hands severed.

All four men had their chests cut open and their hearts removed.

"If this weren't a revenge killing, I'd eat this table!" Qi Feng cursed inwardly.

Where exactly are the points of connection?

The killer couldn't have chosen his target randomly; there must be some hidden thread connecting these four seemingly unrelated people.

Qi Feng's gaze became focused as he scanned every detail of each photograph.

He first selected close-up photos of the faces of the four victims' bodies and arranged them in a row.

Then comes a panoramic photo of the scene.

Next are detailed photos of the wounds on the corpse.

.....

One, two, three...

Finally, twelve photos taken from different angles were neatly arranged in front of him.

He then selected four more photos from the twelve and set them aside for the time being. His gaze remained fixed on the remaining eight photos.

Qi Feng's pupils contracted slightly, his brain was working at high speed. He felt like there was a thread right next to his fingertips, but he just couldn't grasp it!

Suddenly, as if he had discovered something, he leaned forward abruptly, almost lying face down on the photo.

Holy crap!

Qi Feng cursed under his breath.

He quickly grabbed a red marker from the table, removed the cap, and drew a clear red circle on three of the photos.

After doing all this, he let out a long sigh of relief, leaned back in his chair, and revealed an uncontrollable, slightly smug smile on his face.

"I see...."

He was about to stand up and find someone to share his earth-shattering discovery when he looked up and realized that this wasn't the provincial government building, and his colleagues with whom he could brag and joke around weren't there.

"Ugh."

Qi Feng could only sigh dejectedly and sit down again.

He picked up his notebook and wrote the second line below the first: [The first and fourth victims are confirmed to be related; the second is suspected; the third is pending confirmation.]

After finishing writing, he threw down his pen, seemingly having exhausted all his energy.

He tilted his head to the side and lay down on the pile of files that smelled of ink, ready to catch up on some sleep.

A short while later, even snoring could be heard.

The soft snoring was precisely caught by Xia Lan, who was organizing documents not far away.

She raised her head, gave the sleeping man a cold glance, and then looked around at her colleagues who were still frowning and had bloodshot eyes from worrying about the case.

Xia Lan's lips curled into an undisguised sneer.

Sit down!