Chapter 369: Baffled Tree, Baffled Fruit; Beneath the Tree, You and Me

Lütengshi.

After leaving the woman's house, the officers went straight to the local police bureau in Lütengshi, hoping to use its system to check for eligible persons.

On the road.

Li Yunfei looked at Xu Mo with a curious expression.

"How did you just now discover that the woman was suspicious?"

From the woman's words, Li Yunfei learned that only she knew that Xu Jing had gone to the neighboring city to look for a boyfriend.

Fortunately, it was Xu Mo who noticed the woman's problem; otherwise, no matter whom the officers asked, they probably wouldn't have obtained clues that could narrow the suspect pool.

"Intuition," Xu Mo replied, unable to specify why, but he just felt the woman was off.

Especially the evasiveness she showed when the officers gave her time to think; that was clearly problematic—her dodging indicated she definitely knew something, yet she said nothing.

They said nothing all the way.

Lvteng City Police Bureau.

After explaining their purpose, the officers began their inquiry with the bureau's assistance.

Since they didn't know which year the killer was in, they had to check everyone from freshman to senior.

Ten years ago, the killer could have been a fresh freshman or already a senior.

If the killer was a senior, he would have entered Public Security University in 2009; if a freshman, he entered in 2012, the year the case occurred.

Between 2009 and 2012, only fifty‑three people from Lütengshi were admitted to the neighboring city's Public Security University.

Among those fifty‑three, fifteen were female and could be excluded outright.

Of the remaining thirty‑eight, anyone whose name was two characters long or whose name did not contain the character "Bing" could also be excluded.

In the end, only three candidates met the criteria.

Zhou Bingquan, Dong Bing, Chen Xiaobing.

"Only three left after this filter? That makes our investigation much simpler!" a police officer exclaimed after seeing the results.

This trip to Lütengshi truly wasn't in vain.

Relying on the clue provided by Xu Jing's close friend, they narrowed the suspect pool to three people, greatly reducing the officers' workload; they only needed to investigate those three.

Chen Ke immediately eliminated one of the three.

"It shouldn't be Zhou Bingquan, remember? Xu Jing called the killer 'our little Bing brother' in front of her close friend. Zhou Bingquan's 'Bing' is in the middle of his name, while the other two have 'Bing' at the end. When giving nicknames or aliases, people usually pick the first or last character, rarely the middle one."

A police officer, after hearing Chen Ke, immediately drew an analogous conclusion.

"If that's the case, Chen Xiaobing becomes even more suspicious—he's called Xiao Bing, Xiao Bing, Xiao Bing brother. Think about it, examine it closely!"

"Makes sense, then let's start with Chen Xiaobing!" Li Yunfei decided the order of investigation for the three.

Without delay, they had the local officers pull up Chen Xiaobing's records.

The information they uncovered left them somewhat stunned.

The Chen Xiaobing they were investigating had joined the neighboring city's police bureau right after graduation and died in the line of duty during his third year.

"Then... should we stop investigating him?" a police officer hesitated.

Li Yunfei thought for a moment and shook his head.

"Let's set him aside for now and look at Dong Bing instead."

Deceased individuals are hard to investigate; you can't question them at all. To probe Chen Xiaobing, you'd have to interview his relatives or friends, which is cumbersome, so it's better to set him aside and check the other two slightly less problematic suspects first.

Moreover, Chen Xiaobing died in the line of duty; the records show he sacrificed himself to rescue a victim from an armed assailant, making him a hero with strong a sense of justice. Li Yunfei was reluctant to suspect such a righteous officer of being a murderer.

Next, the officers looked up Dong Bing.

The data indicated that after graduating from university, he also joined the police bureau and was part of Lütengshi's public security system.

Based on the information, the officers could not determine whether he was the killer; to uncover the truth, they could only resort to interrogation.

After locating the police station where Dong Bing served, they set out again.

Qiao Bei Road Police Station.

Interrogation Room.

Under the gaze of all the officers at this station, Xu Mo and Li Yunfei were about to begin intensifying the interrogation of Dong Bing.

Outside the interrogation room, the officers who had come with the two were all fellow Qiao Bei Road Police Station officers, making the atmosphere rather awkward.

Being on someone else's turf, borrowing someone else's interrogation room, interrogating someone else... it was indeed quite thrilling!

It was truly their first time doing this, and the officers' heart rates inevitably spiked.

Inside the Interrogation Room.

"Do you know this person?" Xu Mo produced a photo of the victim, Xu Jing.

"Don't know."

"Are you sure you don't know?"

"Yes, I'm sure, I don't know."

"Alright," Xu Mo nodded. "That's all, thank you for cooperating."

He then turned to Li Yunfei beside him and said, "It's not him; we've got the wrong person."

Dong Bing: "???"

Li Yunfei: "???"

The officers: "???"

Baffled Tree, Baffled Fruit; Beneath the Tree, You and Me.

Is that it?

Just over?

They traveled all this way, using the suspicion that Dong Bing was the murderer as a pretext to borrow this interrogation room, only for the questioning to end as soon as it began.

You should know, Xu Mo only asked two questions in total, and they were damn repetitive! Just two questions and you think you can tell the murderer isn't Dong Bing?

Don't even mention that the others looked puzzled; even Dong Bing himself was utterly baffled.

Big Brother must be a rookie cop on his first day!

Who ever conducts an interrogation like this?

You believe me just because I say I don't know you? No murderer would immediately admit he's a murderer!

You damn well should ask more! I didn't kill anyone; I can take your questions!

In Dong Bing's view, when faced with something like this, being asked a few more questions can completely clear suspicion, but asking only two questions can never clear it and may even have the opposite effect.

Li Yunfei, standing nearby, wore a puzzled expression at that moment.

He whispered, "No, you're done already… What can you tell from just two questions?"

Unexpectedly, Xu Mo shook his head.

As time passed, his use of psychology became increasingly adept; whether others lied or not, he could tell at a glance from their expressions.

"Two questions are enough; the reason I ask twice is because he's a police officer, whose mental composure is stronger than that of ordinary people, so he doesn't panic during interrogation. An ordinary person would only need one question… From his expression you can see he isn't lying; he truly doesn't know Xu Jing. He doesn't even know Xu Jing, so how could he be the murderer?"

"So, the next one."

…