Chapter 720: PUA
Chen Shi said, “Old Peng, you’re really capable. Leave the investigation of the deceased’s identity to me.”
“Whatever!” Peng Sijue didn’t care who investigated and then told Lin Dongxue, “Dongxue, inform Team Leader Lin.”
“No problem.”
Chen Shi added, “By the way, can you print these photos separately?”
“Do it yourself!” Peng Sijue walked away after speaking.
Lin Dongxue glanced at the file and asked, “Should we start the investigation now?”
“No, I have a quicker way.”
Chen Shi separated the photos. After the interrogation ended and Zhang Xiao didn’t spill anything, Chen Shi borrowed the interrogation room and showed Zhang Xiao a stack of ID photos. “Do you recognize this person?”
Zhang Xiao squinted at the photo for a while and shook his head.
Chen Shi showed him another photo, “Do you recognize this person?”
“Officer, what’s this about? Are these women missing or murdered? I don’t know any of them!”
“Keep pretending…” Chen Shi switched to another photo, “Recognize this one?”
Zhang Xiao’s expression subtly changed, but he still shook his head, “Never seen her.”
After showing all the photos, Chen Shi confirmed it was the third one and stepped out to tell Lin Dongxue something. Lin Dongxue replied, “This isn’t quite right!”
“This guy is too slippery. We need to give him a heavy dose.”
“Then I’ll go ask Captain Peng for the photo.”
Later, Lin Dongxue returned, and they re-entered the interrogation room. Chen Shi leaned against the table, “Zhang Xiao, let me show you something good.” He handed over a photo of a corpse.
“Oh my god!” Zhang Xiao was visibly frightened.
“You should recognize this body, or at least parts of it. She’s the person you just identified.” Chen Shi held up the photo.
Zhang Xiao hesitated, knowing he had no way out, finally confessed, “Officer, we didn’t kill her!”
“We?” Lin Dongxue raised an eyebrow.
Zhang Xiao sighed and explained. The girl, named Linlin, was a new girlfriend of one of his friends. Recently, she was killed by someone in a “gruesome” manner, chopped into nine pieces, and the parts were mailed to him and several other friends.
Chen Shi pointed out the inconsistencies, “If the girl was dismembered and sent to you, why didn’t you report it but instead dumped her body parts in trash bags late at night? You’re helping the killer dispose of evidence. I can even suspect one of you is the murderer!”
“No, no, no! Linlin actually committed suicide,” Zhang Xiao hastily revealed the truth.
“Suicide? Why?”
“How would I know why a girl would commit suicide? Women can be unpredictable.” His eyes darted around.
“Watch your words!” Lin Dongxue scolded.
“Dongxue, I’m not talking about you. Linlin was just a foolish woman, nothing like you!” Zhang Xiao smiled obsequiously, which only disgusted Lin Dongxue more.
“Who are these eight friends of yours?” Chen Shi asked.
Zhang Xiao reluctantly provided their names and contact details. After the interrogation, he was released, and Chen Shi saw him immediately start making phone calls as he left the police station, likely warning his friends.
Instead of calling them directly, Chen Shi searched their phone numbers on WeChat. Their social media profiles showed them posing with luxury cars, wearing suits, flaunting expensive watches, and traveling in Southeast Asia, all exuding an aura of success and uniqueness.
After going through their profiles, Chen Shi said, “I think I know what kind of people they are.”
“PUA?” Lin Dongxue asked.
“Ha, you guessed it!”
“Come on, you don’t have to be so secretive. As a girl out in the world, I need to know about the bad guys out there.”
PUA stands for “Pick-Up Artist,” originally aimed at helping shy men find true love but has since devolved into a collection of deceitful techniques for manipulating women.
“When I first learned about this, I was shocked that half the world’s population could be easily tricked by strategies learned in a few days in a dark room,” Chen Shi said.
“That’s not true. These guys are just thick-skinned and cast a wide net. Eventually, someone will fall for it,” Lin Dongxue scoffed. “It’s like telecom fraud. No matter how absurd the scam message is, if it’s sent to enough people, someone will get duped. In Beijing, a scammer claimed to be Sun Yat-sen and still managed to cheat people out of 200,000 yuan… Speaking of which, PUA is a recent phenomenon. Men fall for femme fatales faster than women fall for PUAs.”
“Because most people are like elementary school kids when it comes to love, following their feelings. When they encounter ‘experts,’ they immediately get duped.”
“These ‘experts’ are disgusting!”
“It seems this girl’s death is closely linked to these nine men. The murderer sent her body parts to them as if accusing them.”
“‘Murderer’? Are you sure the person who dismembered the body is the killer?”
“Sorry, I misspoke. Let’s re-examine the body!”
“Captain Peng’s autopsy isn’t finished yet. Let’s first confirm the deceased’s identity.”
“I’ll inform Old Peng. It might save him some effort. Meet me at the entrance in a bit.”
The girl’s ID indicated her name was Duan Lin, with an address in Jingzhou. Lin Dongxue called local police stations and found that Duan Lin had recently obtained a temporary residence permit in the area. She was a worker at a local textile factory.
The police also mentioned that the girl had recently gone missing, and her father from her hometown had come to report it. He had been holding up a sign in the downtown area every day, asking for clues, which was quite pitiful.
“Do you have her father’s contact information?”
“Yes, I’ll ask him to come to the police station.”
Lin Dongxue said, “No, I’ll go find him!”
As Lin Dongxue was about to leave, she realized Chen Shi hadn’t arrived yet, so she went to the autopsy room to find him. Sure enough, he was there.
Peng Sijue was examining the body parts, and Chen Shi stood nearby, holding a perfumed napkin over his nose, which made Lin Dongxue want to laugh.
“Come here!” Chen Shi waved. “I spoke with Old Peng, and he re-examined it. Sure enough, there’s a discovery. Old Peng, you explain!”
Peng Sijue picked up the body’s right hand, showing blood vessels starting to turn dark green. “The cuts here are slightly different, more chaotic. I didn’t notice before, but after a closer look, it seems like they were made by a razor blade. The person who dismembered the body cut along these razor cuts, making it hard for us to notice the original wounds.”
“Wrist slitting suicide?”
“I can only say it was done by a razor blade. With the body dismembered and severely decomposed, we can’t determine if it was suicide or murder.”
“This indicates one thing!” Chen Shi said. “The person who dismembered the body isn’t the murderer. If he were, doing this would expose his crime. He sent the dismembered parts to nine men, conveying a message that one of them is responsible for her death. Whether it was suicide or murder, in the eyes of the person who dismembered her, she was driven to death!”
“Go show off somewhere else and stop interrupting my work,” Peng Sijue said dismissively.