Chapter 301: The Common Thread of Two Incidents

After a short while, the school leader returned with a USB drive.

"Comrade police, this USB drive contains all the surveillance of the entire building; the first‑floor access control and hallway cameras are all here."

Han Fei took the USB drive.

While the school leader was away copying the footage, they searched again, but found nothing and uncovered no useful clues.

Since no clues could be found at all, there was no need to preserve the scene.

Moreover, having a corpse downstairs from the school dormitory was indeed a bad influence.

Han Fei simply had the officers, after taking a few photos, take the body back to the police station.

Police station.

They reviewed the surveillance that had been brought back.

Han Fei noticed a commonality between this suicide case and the one discovered last night.

"Similar to the footage from the building, the deceased went up to the rooftop alone, and before and after that, no one else went onto the rooftop until the body was found."

"So this is a suicide, right?" Wang Dachuan scratched his head.

Both suicide cases' footage only recorded the deceased going onto the rooftop alone, with no second person at all.

Isn't that plainly that they jumped themselves?

Calling it a homicide feels rather forced.

"Two deaths in one night—when did the suicide rate get so high?" Han Fei said, "And both jumped from the rooftop, with the time between deaths short… abnormal events must have a cause."

The newly discovered suicide case, when looked at alone, actually has no doubts at all.

An eighteen‑year‑old, hot‑blooded and impulsive, troubled by love and unable to think straight, jumping to his death is still plausible.

Han Fei doubts this suicide case mainly because its timing overlaps with last night's case, and both victims chose exactly the same method—jumping from the rooftop.

Moreover, since last night's suicide case had many doubts, he couldn't help but suspect the newly found case also has issues, prompting a combined investigation.

As a seasoned officer, his intuition tells him there must be a connection between the two incidents.

This definitely isn't a suicide!

Han Fei placed the two victims' identity information side by side for comparison.

"This is the first victim we found, Zhu Xingde, thirty‑five, a senior executive at a financial company, unmarried, a native of Yangcheng, suspected of suicide after a stock‑trading loss."

"The second victim, Lu Yu, eighteen, a freshman at a technology university, majoring in hospitality, an outsider from Su City, suspected of suicide due to a failed romance."

Looking at the two identity sheets, Li Chen couldn't help but be puzzled.

"Han Team, there's no relationship between these two victims, no commonalities; if the same killer is responsible, what would be the murderer's motive or logic?"

Han Fei truly couldn't answer that question.

Honestly, it wasn't only Li Chen who was confused; Han Fei himself couldn't make sense of it.

The two victims can be said to have no connection whatsoever, not even a single overlap.

One middle‑aged, one teenager.

One office worker, one student.

One local, one working person.

At first glance, there's absolutely no similarity.

Han Fei even began to doubt whether his own intuition was flawed, perhaps there's no relationship between the two matters at all…

Maybe only the first suicide is problematic, and the newly discovered case might just be a coincidence?

At that moment, Xu Mo beside them suddenly pointed at the two personal information sheets on the whiteboard and spoke up.

"These two people aren't completely unrelated; actually they share similarities."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone turned to Xu Mo: "What?"

"Both are male and have decent economic conditions," Xu Mo said. "The first victim is a senior executive at a financial company, so his finances need no explanation. As for the second, I don't know if you noticed his clothing… he's decked out in brand‑name outfits that a typical family's student couldn't afford, and the hospitality major is one that families with poor means usually don't enroll in."

Hearing that, Han Fei immediately sent an officer to look into Lu Yu's background.

A short while later, the result came back.

"I checked, and it's true: the second victim… Lu Yu's family runs a hotel, they're well off; he just turned eighteen and already owns two apartments and a car."

Now everyone had a slight lead.

Han Fei immediately grabbed a pen and drew a line connecting the two victims' information on the whiteboard.

At the intersection of the lines he wrote the word 'Murderer' and, above it, added a note: 'Qiu Fu?'

Because a 'Qiu Fu' mindset—killing out of resentment toward those better off—has been seen by the police before.

Thus, Xu Mo's point could also be a useful clue.

"Let's now assume the two incidents are linked, assuming the murderer is the same person."

Han Fei pointed with his pen at the two victims' information and continued.

"Someone whose social circles overlap and whose economic condition isn't great could be the murderer; let's follow that lead first."

Han Fei's steadfast principle in cracking cases is—whether he has the resources or not, first make a few attempts!

Once there's a hypothesis, we investigate; it's better than staring blankly.

Keep digging, and we might just uncover the truth…

After Han Fei assigned the tasks, the officers immediately followed the lead.

Xu Mo didn't take part in probing the overlap of the two people's social circles.

Because Han Fei gave him another task—to analyze the surveillance.

In both surveillance recordings, the victims went to the rooftop alone, and for a long stretch before and after, the cameras never captured a second person on the rooftop.

This made Han Fei find it highly unreasonable—could the murderer appear on the rooftop out of thin air?

That's clearly impossible!

The only possibility is that the murderer tampered with the surveillance.

Xu Mo is a hacker, and checking whether the surveillance has been tampered with is best left to him.

…

Half an hour later.

The police officer finds Han Fei.

"Han Team, the earlier hypothesis must be wrong; we checked and the two victims' social circles have no overlap."

At the same time, Xu Mo also finished checking the surveillance, and he also found Han Fei.

"The surveillance is fine; there are no signs of tampering."

…