Chapter 523: Hold on a moment, let me use a cheat first

"I'm wondering whether this case might be somewhat similar to that 'Suicide Case' we handled before," Xu Mo said.

Previously, the Police Station had dealt with a "Suicide Case"; of course, the Police later clarified that the victims in that case had been incited by a psychologist, which led them to lose hope.

"No, even though both are 'Suicide Cases,' the two incidents are completely different," Han Fei waved his hand, pointing at the case file before Xu Mo, and said, "In that case, the victims were foolishly incited by a psychologist; they all had relatively serious mental issues and had all seen a psychologist, whereas the victims in this case do not have that situation."

Back then, Han Fei had examined this "Suicide Case" very carefully, and he was well aware of many of its details.

"At that time I investigated the nine victims in this case in depth; I can confirm that none of them had any mental illness while alive, they were just a bit depressed, and there were no psychologists in their social circles, so the possibility of being incited by a psychologist does not exist."

Xu Mo clicked his tongue, "No possibility of incitement... then they truly lost hope?"

"That also doesn't add up; the suicide rate wouldn't be that high, and these nine people didn't know each other, so there's no situation where they agreed to leave this world together on the same day."

"But to say it's not suicide... that also doesn't make sense. I looked at the photos in the case file; the scene shows no trace of homicide, and from the scene it should indeed be suicide."

Xu Mo was at a loss for a moment.

From the photos in the case file, the death scenes of the nine victims indeed show no trace of homicide, and based on that it's not hard to conclude that they all committed suicide.

That's where the case's oddity lies.

Judging from the scene, the nine people all died by suicide.

Yet logically, these nine people could not have committed suicide; they didn't know each other at all, so they couldn't have arranged a date together, and as for coincidence, how could it be that coincidental?

Compared to what the eyes see, Xu Mo trusts his intuition more.

His thinking, like Han Fei's, holds that the nine people were not suicides but were killed by others.

After all, eyes can be deceiving.

Xu Mo flipped through the case file again, trying to find some usable details.

Seeing this, Han Fei didn't urge him, but waited silently as Xu Mo perused the file.

He still knows how tricky this case is.

After a short while, Xu Mo set the file down and stared at Han Fei.

"Have you thought of a way to solve the case?" Xu Mo's gaze made Han Fei mistakenly think he already had an idea.

However, Xu Mo shook his head.

"No, I just wanted to ask, do you want a cigarette?"

Han Fei: "???"

Again?

Han Fei couldn't help but recall yesterday, when Xu Mo asked the same question.

This time, Han Fei shook his head resolutely: "No."

"Are you sure you don't want one?"

"Sure, I don't."

"Fine." Xu Mo stood up: "If you don't smoke, that's that; I'll go, and I'll think about the case when I come back."

After speaking, Xu Mo set the file down and left the office directly.

Han Fei: "?"

What Han Fei didn't know is that Xu Mo wasn't going out to smoke at all; he was preparing to find a deserted spot to open the pouch the System Reward gave him.

He had already read the case file twice, but had no ideas at all, completely without a clue.

Mainly because the case is just too odd.

From a "subjective judgment" standpoint, the nine victims could not possibly have committed suicide; it's illogical—the suicide times are too close together, the locations are all in the same district, clearly homicide.

But from an "objective fact" perspective, they indeed are suicides; the scene itself is the evidence.

Solving the case by normal means is impossible; hold on a moment, I'll activate a cheat first...

Conveniently, there are two unused pouches from the System Reward that can be put to use.

Xu Mo went to a deserted spot, took out one of the System Reward pouches, and opened it.

Like last time, there was still a piece of paper inside the pouch.

"So that's how it is..." Xu Mo unfolded the paper, read it for a while, then decisively slipped the slip back into the pouch and tossed it into the System Space.

The specific details of the case, Xu Mo learned through the pouch, but the problem is, how to fool Han Fei later? After all, solving a case always requires a reasoning process; he can't just take Han Fei straight to the murderer, because even if the case is solved, it would be hard to explain later.

Xu Mo lit a cigarette, frowned, and began to think about how, after returning, he should step by step analyze the case with Han Fei.

In any case, even if I have to make it up, I must devise a reasoning process!

Even if I can't fully convince Han Fei, getting him to half believe is about as good as it gets.

After a short while, the smoke-scented Xu Mo returned to Han Fei's office.

Back in the office, Xu Mo pretended to examine the case file again with a glance.

Unlike the previous two times, this time, after reading, Xu Mo spoke up directly.

"My view matches yours: these nine victims must have been killed by homicide, but there's a question—why would the killer choose them?"

"Why?"

"Because the nine victims share some common traits."

"What common traits?" Han Fei perked up instantly upon hearing.

From Xu Mo's words, it seemed he had reached a conclusion.

"The autopsy reports listed their commonalities: they were young and all in good health."

Han Fei, upon hearing, immediately frowned, thinking to himself, can that really be considered a common trait?

Healthy people are everywhere on the streets, and there are more young people than one can count.

Seeing Han Fei's puzzled expression, Xu Mo pointed again at some contents in the case file, which were information about the victims that the police had gathered from interviewing their families back then.

"Not only that, there's another commonality: these victims all have very ample reasons for suicide."

"This heartbreak, this intense study pressure, this string of job rejections..."

"So...?" Han Fei still didn't quite understand Xu Mo's meaning.

"Let's make a hypothesis." Xu Mo explained: "Based on our initial idea, the victim was murdered, not a suicide."

"I can see that they share several common traits: they are young, physically healthy, and have sufficient reasons for suicide, even suicidal tendencies."

"This is the profile of these victims: young, physically healthy, yet they don't cherish their lives, and even over a trivial annoyance they develop suicidal thoughts."

"The killer surely kills to vent his anger, so conversely we can also draw a profile of the killer: he is older, suffering from a serious illness, yet he tenaciously fights against the disease."

"So when the killer sees those young people who could clearly live on but constantly shout that they don't want to live, he becomes angry; his thought is: 'I'm suffering from a serious illness and still persisting, yet you, who are physically healthy, don't cherish your lives at all and want to die—well then, I'll grant your wish!'"

"Let's screen according to this profile: three years ago, any middle-aged person living in this area who suffered from a serious illness could be the killer."

After listening, Han Fei scratched his head.

Xu Mo's argument isn't without reason; there is some truth to it, but he always feels it's a bit far-fetched.

"Are you sure this will let us find the killer?"

Of course I'm sure—I even know where the killer lives… Although that's what I think inside, Xu Mo said aloud: "I can't be certain of that, but let's give it a try—desperate times call for desperate measures."