"Heh, Zhou Wu, you're focusing on the wrong thing. Your priority right now isn't finding out where Li Shumu is, or whether he's alive or dead."
"Instead, it's helping the police catch that serial rapist in Nancheng City."
"If you can successfully assist the police in making the arrest, you'll make a name for yourself, not just within our circle, but far beyond it."
At this moment, the professor spoke while tapping his fingers on the gray desktop in front of him.
Zhou Wu lowered his head. "Understood, Teacher. I know."
The professor said, "Don't delay. Head over to Nancheng City as soon as possible. I have people there, so you can get first-hand information from the police."
Zhou Wu smiled bitterly. "Alright, Teacher."
Patting Zhou Wu on the shoulder, the professor said earnestly, "Don't worry, I'll help you catch that person too."
"Let your reputation truly take off."
For professionals in fields dealing with crime, like criminal psychology, nothing builds fame and proves one's worth faster than helping the police catch these murderous psychopaths.
That was exactly why the criminal psychologist, Li Shumu, had gone to Alice Apartment.
Too bad he'd never live to see that dream through.
A week passed in the blink of an eye.
That day, Jiang Ran, who was working from home and had nothing much to do, was scrolling through TikTok again.
Soon, he came across the latest news about the serial rapist in Nancheng City.
Since the last five young female victims.
Another victim had been added this week.
And this new victim was someone that many people following the serial rape-murder case had never expected!
The five young female victims from before all shared a common trait: they were either staff or customers at nightclub bars.
But this sixth victim was completely different.
Not only was she different, she had absolutely nothing in common with the previous five.
This was a young man, who was killed late at night while coming off his shift.
Of course, he hadn't been raped.
But the cash and valuables on him had all been taken.
So how did the Nancheng City police determine that this victim was killed by the same perpetrator as the previous five?
Simple.
All six victims shared a common characteristic.
And this common characteristic was something the police had not disclosed to the public, to avoid copycat murders.
That common characteristic was: on each victim's stomach, the killer had used a small knife to carve the names of different famous people from around the world.
For instance, the first victim had the name of the soccer superstar, Beckham.
The second had the name of the French emperor who lost at Waterloo, Napoleon.
The third had the name of Wang Zhaojun, one of the Four Great Beauties of Hua Country.
So, this confirmed that the sixth victim was killed by the same perpetrator.
And this sixth case was the explosive turning point that overturned all the previous deductions people had made about the case!
Earlier, because all the victims were young women who frequented nightclub bars.
Both the police and many outsiders had deduced.
That this person must harbor an extreme hatred for this type of woman.
So if he committed another crime, it would definitely target this same type.
After all, that's the common trait of serial killers.
They have their own set of behavioral rules for hunting targets.
They don't casually deviate from their hunting targets.
But this case came out.
And it completely blew the previous deductions to pieces.
Alice Apartment.
Love is an extremely sour and stinky thing.
When love first starts, you can't stand to be apart for a second.
When it turns to hatred, you want to kill each other.
Zhang Yao and Lei Xiaoman were currently in that state.
These past few days, the two of them had spent most of their time in bed.
Just as they had finished a passionate session.
And were each playing on their phones, Lei Xiaoman came across the news about the sixth victim.
She got very excited and said to Zhang Yao, "Honey, look! He struck again! And this time, the victim isn't a young woman who hangs out at nightclubs!"
"It's kind of similar to what you said last time, but also very different!"
Zhang Yao was originally playing a game, but at these words, he glanced at Lei Xiaoman's phone.
That one glance was enough to make him put down his own gaming phone and have Lei Xiaoman take over.
He then picked up Lei Xiaoman's phone.
Last time, he had told Lei Xiaoman.
That for the first five female victims, the killer would continue committing crimes, and would probably start targeting different types of women.
The first five were just him lacking experience, so those earlier crimes were him building it up. He was finding easy targets that were hard to solve.
And sure enough, this killer had struck again.
But this time, the victim was a man?!
"What????"
After reading the latest news.
Zhang Yao's mouth fell wide open.
Damn, he thought he had seen through this killer.
But he hadn't expected to be completely wrong about his own guesses.
He actually went after a man?
Why?
That doesn't make sense!
Zhang Yao frowned. "Could he be bisexual?"
"But... the news says this male victim wasn't raped either..."
"Could it be that this guy's hunting targets don't discriminate between men, women, old, or young?"
"But, with five consecutive young female victims, he should only be targeting young women, right? To satisfy his twisted desires..."
"Sigh, too bad I don't have first-hand information. I can't deduce anything from just this."
Zhang Yao muttered to himself.
Lei Xiaoman wrapped her arms around him.
She rubbed her little head against his chin, acting cute. "Alright, stop thinking. Should we continue?"
...
Over the next three days.
That killer committed a seventh crime.
And the victim of this case was a middle-aged woman who was coming off her night shift.
Like the first five young female victims, this woman was also raped.
And after being raped, she was cruelly murdered.
But unlike the first six cases.
This seventh case caused a huge social uproar.
The reason was that this seventh victim, a middle-aged woman.
Was a single mother.
She had two children.
Her son was physically disabled, and her daughter was mentally disabled.
She relied entirely on working odd jobs to support her family of three.
But with her dead, her physically disabled son and mentally disabled daughter had no one to take care of them.
It was pitiful, but what truly caused the social backlash was that, after this case, an audio recording appeared online.
It was presumably recorded by the killer.
The content of the audio was the middle-aged female victim's desperate pleas before she died:
"Please, let me go. Do whatever you want to me. Take my money, take my body, I don't care. Just let me go. I have kids to raise. My son and daughter can't take care of themselves. They're sick. Without me to look after them, they'll only be waiting to die..."
"Please, let me go. Let me go..."
