Chapter 94: Completely Locking in the Killer, the Madman Who Treats Murder as Art!

For the past twenty years, the failure to capture the murderer of the 5.13 dismemberment case had become Lin Tian’s obsession and mental burden.

But now, this case, which had always been on his mind, had finally received some response.

The most important task now was to quickly determine the identity of the killer and send undercover detectives to monitor the situation.

…

Without any hesitation, Su Ming immediately opened the laptop in front of him and began a big data search.

Since, in the current assumption, the killer was a famous and socially well-placed sculptor, there must be related content or encyclopedia entries about him on the internet.

First, Su Ming searched for well-known sculptors aged between 45 and 55. He input the filter conditions and pressed Enter.

In less than three seconds, the big data search page refreshed, showing eighteen sculptors who fit the criteria.

Without a doubt, this was the number of well-known sculptors between the ages of 45 and 55 according to the internet’s big data.

The small number of results was enough to deduce why the killer would go to great lengths to conceal his left-handedness.

But Su Ming didn’t hesitate. He added the important detail of left-handedness into the search options and pressed Enter again.

Immediately, the number of sculptors narrowed down to just five.

Next, Su Ming added another criterion: long-term residence in Magic City with a private studio.

This was because, as a sculptor, the killer must have his own studio to handle the victim’s body and store high-purity heroin. Otherwise, he would have been discovered by the police long ago.

After entering this final crucial factor and pressing Enter, the list of five candidates dwindled to just one.

Su Ming immediately narrowed his eyes and clicked to view the specific information of this suspect.

Name: Zhou Shirui

Age: 49

Gender: Male

Notable works: “Girl Wrapped in Bandages,” “Confused Temptation and Irresistible Attraction,” “The Traveler with a Hoe,” etc.

Career: Entered the National Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 17 with full marks. In his second year, he switched to sculpture due to personal interest. In just two years, he produced many classic plaster sculptures and held a personal graduation exhibition. In the spring of 2004, he won the highest national honor in sculpture, the Luban Award, for his work “Girl Wrapped in Bandages,” establishing himself as…

Among all the career highlights, Su Ming immediately noticed the prominent and attention-grabbing title—”Girl Wrapped in Bandages.”

His brow furrowed in speculation as he clicked on the blue hyperlink for the work’s name.

When the page loaded, a plaster sculpture of a headless woman appeared. What made it particularly unsettling was that the “bandages” were actually cuts made by a carving knife on the plaster figure, creating marks that were identical in size and shape—strangely terrifying and eerily beautiful.

Of course, this was the impression a normal person would have upon first seeing the sculpture, but Su Ming immediately thought of something and waved for Lin Tian and Xu Changsheng to come over.

“Lin Bureau, Brother Sheng, take a look.”

“Do you think the markings on this plaster sculpture resemble anything?”

As soon as Su Ming finished speaking, Lin Tian and Xu Changsheng came over to his side.

While Xu Changsheng was still pondering, Lin Tian suppressed his anger and stated with certainty:

“These markings…Are exactly the same as the places where the victim was cut in the 5.13 dismemberment case!”

“I’ll never forget, when we police officers collected the victim’s body parts after they had been cut up, we spent three days carefully piecing them together to find clues.”

“At least we gave the victim’s family a roughly complete body.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Changsheng immediately reacted, taking out the 5.13 dismemberment case file he had been reading and flipping to the part with the victim’s body images.

Not only did it show the state of the body parts when they were first found, but there were also photos of the body after the pieces were assembled.

Looking at the assembled body image and comparing it to the plaster sculpture on the computer, Lin Tian could no longer contain his anger. He clenched his fist and slammed the table, his voice cold.

“Not only did this murderer brutally dismember the victim into hundreds of pieces and record the dismemberment on video…”

“He also turned the victim’s body dissection into his so-called sculpture work.”

“In my twenty years as a police officer, I’ve never encountered such a perverted and heinous criminal who could do something this brutal to one of their own kind!”

From Lin Tian’s emotional state, it was clear how furious he was.

It was now almost certain that this sculptor named Zhou Shirui was the killer behind the 5.13 Magic City University dismemberment case and a member of the large drug trafficking organization.

But to be thorough, Su Ming still took out his phone, dialing Wang Hu and putting it on speaker.

After a few seconds, the call was picked up.

Without waiting for Wang Hu to speak, Su Ming immediately asked:

“Huzi.”

“Can you check if a 49-year-old man named Zhou Shirui bought a ticket and entered Fantawild Theme Park yesterday?”

“And check the surveillance footage…”

“See if he visited the giant Ferris wheel that overlooks most of Magic City.”

As soon as Su Ming finished speaking, the sound of someone rapidly typing on a keyboard could be heard from the other end of the phone.

While waiting, Su Ming seemed to sense that Xu Changsheng and Lin Tian might not fully understand the significance of this action and explained:

“From the 20-year-old case, I can roughly deduce that…This killer, Zhou Shirui, definitely treats murder as art.”

“I believe that when he killed Qu Pengfei yesterday, he probably considered it another exhibition of his work.”

“So when he killed Qu Pengfei, he likely waited for us to arrive before acting, even leaving behind a 20-year-old video to provoke us.”

“And since he became a well-known sculptor due to such acts, I believe he’s most likely somewhere nearby, secretly watching this particular ‘performance.'”

“Think about it.”

“The only place around Magic City Holiday Hotel where you can clearly see the whole performance is the Ferris wheel in Fantawild Theme Park.”

“And his arrogance suggests that he believes we can’t find him, so he probably isn’t using a fake identity…”

Before he could finish, Wang Hu’s surprised voice came through urgently:

“Ming Ge.”

“At 3 p.m. yesterday, Zhou Shirui did indeed buy a ticket and enter Fantawild Theme Park!!!”