Chapter 242: This Fatty Starts Pondering People Again

They arrived at the office arranged for them by the provincial department leaders.

As soon as they entered the room, Yu Dazhang pulled Ye Zhiyu and asked:

"What did he say to you?"

"He said that criminal records can be sealed for sentences of five years or less." Ye Zhiyu answered truthfully:

"If I nod, I can be hired on an exceptional basis without going through the civil service exam procedures; he will handle all the paperwork."

Is there such a regulation... Yu Dazhang had never heard of any similar law or regulation.

However, since a high-ranking leader said it, it cannot be false.

Such a matter could not possibly be used as a joke.

It seems Ye Zhiyu cannot stay.

"Did you agree?"

In Yu Dazhang's view, Ye Zhiyu had no reason not to agree.

Joining the police force and staying to work at the provincial department is, for an ordinary person, equivalent to leaping straight to the sky.

How many police officers work at the grassroots level their whole lives without such treatment?

Yet he was appointed at the provincial department right upon joining; with his abilities, his future career path would surely be completely smooth.

"Do you really think I'm stupid?"

Ye Zhiyu revealed an expression of disdain, curling his lips slightly:

"I worked so hard to get into Yisheng Group; how could I possibly become a police officer, and work so far away from home?"

"My family is in Songhai, and my mother is in Songhai too."

"You know my mother's health isn't very good; how can I not be by her side?"

When mentioning his mother, his eyes became incredibly firm.

But soon a contemptuous expression appeared on his face again; he stared at Yu Dazhang and said:

"Besides, I just asked; the treatment for police officers isn't that great either, and it's not even as much as what I earn at Yisheng Group."

This guy must be an idiot... Yu Dazhang felt for the first time that Ye Zhiyu's intelligence was a bit low.

Can the treatment of civil servants be measured by money?

He truly didn't understand.

Xia Bin and Ma Jian in the room also looked at Ye Zhiyu with the eyes one uses for an idiot.

Police treatment isn't that great?

How could he say that?

"As long as you've thought it through," Yu Dazhang smiled at him:

"Actually, working locally in Songhai is quite good too."

Only he knew Ye Zhiyu's background here.

Since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety have been difficult to fulfill both.

Ye Zhiyu just mentioned his mother, which shows he has already made his choice.

This is a supremely filial son who, to treat his mother's illness, was willing to ruin Seeing Qian Cheng.

Although his method was not advisable, his filial devotion was truly admirable.

For such a person, asking him to leave his mother to pursue Seeing Qian Cheng is obviously unlikely.

What Ye Zhiyu said last about police treatment not being good was not said for others to hear, but to comfort himself.

Foolish as he is, such a person is foolishly endearing.

Afterwards, the group rearranged the layout of the office.

They added two more sets of desks and chairs, turning it into a four-person office.

Although it was a bit crowded, having the entire task force working together would improve efficiency.

As soon as the changes were finished, Ding Feng walked in holding the case files.

"These are the freshly copied case files."

He placed a document on the desk and said with a serious expression:

"The discs inside contain surveillance footage from the crime scenes; each disc corresponds to one crime scene, and I have copied a set for you."

"The on-site investigation report is at the very back of the case files, along with the victims' medical records..."

This introduction lasted ten minutes.

Ding Feng explained one by one the places he had marked inside the case files.

Yu Dazhang listened very attentively, nodding from time to time to indicate he understood.

Finally, Ding Feng looked at him and said:

"I seem to have entered a misconception; I always thought the suspect would eventually slip up, so I kept chasing the other party's tracks."

"The longer I investigated, the deeper my obsession became."

"Just now, while copying the case files, I suddenly realized the truth; this misconception was deliberately left by the suspect, just to lure me into it."

"I hope you don't make the same mistake I did."

His tone was very sincere, and his mental state was somewhat better than before.

It gave the impression that the string he had been straining before was no longer so tight.

Yu Dazhang replied in a deep voice:

"I have remembered."

"I will continue the investigation." Before leaving, Ding Feng looked at him solemnly, his tone resolute:

"As long as the other party has not been caught in one day, I will continue investigating to the end." After speaking, he did not wait for Yu Dazhang to reply, turned around directly, and left.

Stubborn, extreme, but absolutely obedient to his superior's orders... Yu Dazhang watched Ding Feng's retreating back and shook his head with a sigh.

A bit rigid in personality, but still a good cop.

Now he couldn't spare any thought for others either — this case had a deadline.

He opened the case file and skimmed through it roughly first.

He mainly looked at the time each case occurred, then recorded it in his little notebook.

When investigating a serial case, the worst thing you could do was tackle them one by one — that was the trap Ding Feng had fallen into.

Thinking that breaking them down individually would let him catch the suspect.

He didn't realize that a serial case had to be approached holistically, with all the cases consolidated into a single thread of clues.

Yu Dazhang had already found it strange before.

!

How were the times of these nine cases arranged?

He only knew that two severed-finger cases had occurred in the past month, the latest one in Songhai.

Calculated that way, the previous seven cases had all happened within two months.

If his guess was right, the further back you went, the longer the interval between cases.

Now that he had the case file in hand, he didn't need to guess anymore.

"The interval between the first two cases was seven days."

Yu Dazhang muttered it to himself while writing the number "seven" in his notebook.

The moment he finished writing, he immediately scribbled over the number.

"The first victim had two fingers cut off — one chopped the same day, another the next day, then spent a day cursing himself, then one more day locked in a dark room."

"Exactly four days missing."

"Calculated this way, the suspect only had three days to prepare for the second case."

This time he wrote the number "three" in the notebook and didn't scribble it out.

"After that the interval was nine days, but the second victim had three fingers cut off and was missing for five days."

"That time he had four days to prepare."

Yu Dazhang wrote "four" in the notebook again, then continued looking further back.

A little over ten minutes later.

A row of numbers had been written by Yu Dazhang in the notebook.

From left to right: three, four, four, five, five, six, eight, nine.

The victim before Li Yong had four fingers cut off and was missing for six days.

Adding the nine days of preparation, the last two cases were exactly half a month apart.

Yu Dazhang stared at this row of numbers, his head full of question marks.

Why was the preparation time before each crime getting longer and longer?

Was the suspect getting more cautious?

Probably not... Yu Dazhang shook his head and dismissed that hypothesis.

This kind of thing should get smoother the more you do it, and the suspect was already cautious enough to begin with.

Otherwise Ding Feng wouldn't have failed to lay a finger on the guy.

Was the suspect tired?

The moment this possibility crossed his mind, Yu Dazhang couldn't help laughing out loud.

Although it was possible, the probability was just too low.

This wasn't hauling bricks at a construction site, nor was it an Ironman triathlon.

And based on past case-handling experience.

Most criminals, when committing a crime, would be in a state of extreme excitement.

That feeling could even be addictive.

Fatigue and the like simply didn't exist.

At this moment, Ye Zhiyu and Xia Bin across from him were staring at Yu Dazhang.

They had just watched this fat guy muttering to himself, pen in hand, occasionally jotting something down in his notebook.

What really made their scalps tingle was that this fat guy was actually grinning like an idiot.

Too much pressure, the man had gone crazy?

Ye Zhiyu waved at Ma Jian across from him, signaling him to come over.

When Ma Jian came closer, he asked in a low voice:

"What's going on? Why do I get the feeling he's having some kind of mental breakdown?"

Ma Jian, for his part, wasn't surprised. He glanced at Yu Dazhang, then answered quietly:

"From what I know of him, whenever he gets into this mumbling state, it means someone is about to have bad luck."

(End of chapter)