I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 79: Chapter 77: Blood Sample Collected, Mo Xiaoxiao is Missing

Su Miaoyi went to get the surveillance footage. She told the property management office that she had just returned from a trip to her family home. She explained that she’d left a bag by her door before she left, and since she trusted the complex’s security, she hadn’t rushed back for it. But now that she was back, she found the bag had been taken.

She didn’t tell them that her apartment had been ransacked.

First, everything inside had been put back in its original place, so it would be hard for an ordinary person to notice anything was amiss.

Second, she had already told Zhuang Yanzheng that people would be coming over to investigate.

Since the person who had searched her apartment had so carefully restored everything, they clearly didn’t want to be discovered. For the time being, she didn’t want to make a scene either.

She had them pull up all the surveillance footage from the days she was away.

But one day’s worth of footage was missing.

The property management didn’t know what had happened and quickly contacted a technician to look into it.

Su Miaoyi waited in the security room for a while.

After checking, the technician said the footage had been deleted. It couldn’t be recovered; it had been wiped too cleanly.

But the property management had never deleted any footage.

So they pulled up the footage from inside the security room for that day.

It turned out that the security room’s footage from that day had also been deleted.

A week had already passed. The security room was cleaned every two days, so any traces were long gone.

Having found nothing, Su Miaoyi went out to eat.

After eating, she rested in the restaurant for a bit. Before long, Zhuang Yanzheng called.

”Where are you?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”At the restaurant across from the complex,” Su Miaoyi said.

”Wait there. We’ll be there in a bit,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Next time, just call me directly. If I don’t answer, call Qi Feng or Chu Xingrou.”

”It wasn’t urgent. It’s been several days. The signs of the break-in weren’t going anywhere,” Su Miaoyi replied.

”Alright, just wait.”

After she hung up, it wasn’t long before Zhuang Yanzheng arrived with Chu Xingrou and Qi Feng.

The four of them went to her apartment together.

Su Miaoyi first had them check the door lock for fingerprints.

”These marks...” Zhuang Yanzheng said, looking at the scratches on both sides of the lock.

”They look like they’re from a lock-picking tool, don’t they?” Su Miaoyi said.

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

Once inside, Su Miaoyi showed them the areas that had been searched, and they checked other places as well.

They didn’t collect any useful fingerprints, footprints, hair, or the like.

However, from the nooks and crannies of her clothes and carpet, they did find a few of Su Miaoyi’s own hairs.

”If this keeps up, are you going to go bald?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked, looking at the strands of hair.

Su Miaoyi looked at him. ”You stay up late, and you’re older. You’re the one who should be worried about that.”

Zhuang Yanzheng tsked.

Su Miaoyi sighed. ”I come home, and I still have to work a case. What a mess.”

She was standing by her vanity. As she spoke, she took everything out of a drawer, wanting to see if there were any traces left behind.

”Don’t you think the way everything was put back seems a little familiar?” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi looked at him. ”You mean... Cao Hong?”

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

”I never went to Shao Dong’s murder scene, I only saw the photos.” Su Miaoyi knew he had been there.

On her day off with Lu Zhishen, Zhuang Yanzheng and Kang Ting had gone to the scene.

”It’s very similar,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

The mention of Cao Hong made Su Miaoyi think of Jiang Junrui.

’Why would they search my apartment? What do I have that they want?’

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her, then continued to survey the surroundings.

Su Miaoyi didn’t say anything more and turned her attention back to the drawer.

After emptying the drawer, she shone a flashlight inside.

”Xingrou,” Su Miaoyi called out. ”Come take a look. See if this is blood.”

Chu Xingrou came over immediately.

At the very back of the drawer, a nail was sticking out.

It was just a tiny point, and on it, there seemed to be a trace of blood.

Chu Xingrou shone her forensic light on it. ”Looks like it.”

But it was too far back, and it was just a tiny, dried speck of blood, making it difficult to collect.

”Take...” Zhuang Yanzheng only said one word.

With a sharp tug, Su Miaoyi had already pulled the entire drawer out.

The drawer had a catch inside that would stop it from being pulled out all the way.

Su Miaoyi’s tug had ripped the catch right off the wood panel.

She startled the unprepared Qi Feng and Chu Xingrou.

Zhuang Yanzheng was also taken aback. ”Must be nice to own the place. You can do whatever you want with it.”

Chu Xingrou collected the blood sample.

”I just bought this vanity a month ago,” Su Miaoyi said with a delayed twinge of regret.

”Perfect timing. You can get a new vanity when you move to a new place,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”Move again? I just got used to living here.” Su Miaoyi frowned. ”Besides, the security here is already excellent. It’ll be the same if I move somewhere else. If they want to find me, they’ll find me.”

”You still can’t stay here,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”You know this place is dangerous. If you stay, aren’t you just waiting for them to come knocking?”

Su Miaoyi thought he had a point, so she didn’t argue further.

...

Leaving her apartment, Su Miaoyi grabbed some essentials and a few changes of clothes, then went with them to the municipal bureau.

It would take time to run a DNA comparison on the collected blood sample.

Su Miaoyi filed a report and then left with Zhuang Yanzheng after his shift ended.

”Where are we going?”

”Let’s find a place to eat first,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”I’m sick of the cafeteria food.”

Su Miaoyi didn’t say anything.

After a moment of silence, Zhuang Yanzheng asked, ”Did you know Jiang Junrui before?”

Su Miaoyi looked at him.

”If the person who searched your apartment was Cao Hong...” Zhuang Yanzheng paused. ”What was he looking for?”

Su Miaoyi was also silent for a moment, then said, ”I... I’ve lost a period of my memory.”

”Hm?” Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her. ”What?”

Su Miaoyi told him about her missing few days of memory.

She also told him about the fragmented memories that had come back to her in Jiangcheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her a few more times. ”What about Mo Xiaoxiao?”

”I tried to contact her when I was in Jiangcheng. But her phone number was disconnected, and she’s not using her WeChat anymore,” Su Miaoyi said. ”I also got in touch with her parents. They said she went abroad a few months ago and hasn’t contacted them in a while.”

”She hasn’t been in touch for that long, and her family isn’t worried?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”Her situation is similar to mine. Her family wanted a boy, but the policy only allowed one child per family, so she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents in the countryside as soon as she was born,” Su Miaoyi explained. ”After her grandparents passed away, she came back to Jinghai for school. She doesn’t have a good relationship with her family.”

Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t say anything.

Su Miaoyi continued, ”Her parents said that before she went abroad, she sent them a message, something about going to work overseas and that it might be inconvenient to stay in touch.”

”That’s the strange part. Knowing Mo Xiaoxiao, she would never have told her family she was going abroad.”

”You’re worried something happened to her?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”Actually, before I came back from Jiangcheng, I asked Captain Kang to help me look into it. He couldn’t find any record of her leaving the country. She’s never even applied for a passport,” Su Miaoyi said. ”Captain Kang’s team is treating it as a missing person case for now.”

Zhuang Yanzheng asked, ”When you came back from Jiangcheng in June, did you bring anything with you?”

Su Miaoyi shook her head. ”I don’t remember.”

Zhuang Yanzheng frowned.

’The thing they’re looking for must be very important.’

’But... if Mo Xiaoxiao’s disappearance is related to this...’

’Why did they wait several months before coming after Su Miaoyi?’

’What were they doing during those months?’