Simulating_Crimes_C124
by MarineTLChapter 124: The Butcher’s Knife Points at the Poison—The Second Hidden Person in Gusu City!
The victim had been poisoned to death four months ago.
But before that, he had used his medical insurance to purchase omeprazole capsules—a medication specifically used to relieve various stomach conditions!
This record and clue, which An Quan quickly uncovered, left everyone present visibly stunned. One by one, they looked at Su Ming, who remained expressionless beside them, all feeling an indescribable shock and a tingling sensation on their scalps.
Even Bai Yu, who prided himself on his talent and thought he could be a private detective after just a few episodes of Conan and Sherlock Holmes, couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath.
This was… beyond outrageous.
Just how experienced, how well-read in crime fiction, how familiar with real cases must someone be to deduce something with such precision and sharpness?
Let’s not forget—This started with Liu Yang mentioning that no syringe was found at the scene, and that the other people in the private theater likely had neither the motive nor the opportunity to commit the crime.
From there, Su Ming boldly deduced the use of capsule-based poisoning, immediately narrowing the suspect pool and ruling out random acts of violence.
Wasn’t that a bit too much?
There weren’t even that many obvious clues.
Poor family background, student loans, working as a code monkey at a software company—that’s about it. How did he manage to infer so many details from that?
It almost felt like…
If he kept going, could he just directly identify the killer?
…
While the others were still marveling, Liu Yang—the head of Xiangcheng’s criminal investigation team—was utterly speechless.
Because—As the officer in charge of the private theater poisoning case back then, he knew all too well…
Just how difficult it had been to make any progress on this case. There had been no valuable leads or actionable clues.
Even the needle wound—once considered a potential breakthrough—was actually a red herring planted by the murderer to mislead the investigation.
And yet…
A case that had been deadlocked for so long was now starting to crack open thanks to Su Ming’s deductions?
At that moment—
Liu Yang could no longer stay calm. He quickly asked, barely containing his eagerness:
“Deputy Leader Su, since we’ve already made such a major breakthrough on this case, why don’t we just…”
“Strike while the iron’s hot and wrap it up by catching the killer?”
“After all, we’ve narrowed down the suspect pool. Letting it go now would be a huge waste.”
It was clear—
After listening to the analysis, Liu Yang was increasingly convinced that this young-looking Su Ming was the real driving force behind cracking that dismemberment case twenty years ago in Huaihai District, which had shocked the entire country.
The layman sees the spectacle; the expert sees the method.
Su Ming’s deductions—connecting the victim’s background and job to his likely cause of death—weren’t something an average person could come up with.
Sure, from a “God’s eye view,” it all seemed simple, but hindsight is always 20/20.
The fact that this poisoning case had gone unsolved for nearly five years said enough about how difficult it was.
Feeling Liu Yang’s urgency, Lin Tian—appointed as the “meat shield” and fall guy of the special task force—carefully considered his words and replied earnestly:
“Chief Liu, although Xiao Ming’s initial deductions appear to give us a major breakthrough…”
“If you think carefully, we’ve only made a rough assessment of the method of murder and narrowed the scope of suspects.”
“We still have a long, long road ahead before we can catch the killer.”
“At the very least, we need to question the company further—see if there was a company dinner that day, understand the victim’s personal relationships, and figure out who had the opportunity to commit the crime four months ago.”
“All of this will require on-site investigation to uncover new leads and narrow down suspects.”
“But so many years have passed, and people in software companies tend to come and go—it won’t be easy tracking them down.”
“More importantly…”
“Chief Liu, it’s not just us who are watching Poison—there’s a good chance that the head of the drug trafficking organization is watching him too.”
“There might even be another member of the organization who’s come from another city, waiting to execute Poison and cut off any potential leads.”
“That means, even if we do confirm Poison’s identity, we may end up catching nothing but a cold corpse.”
“With how ruthless and meticulous this organization is, they’re absolutely capable of doing that.”
At this point—Lin Tian looked sincerely at Liu Yang and continued:
“So Chief Liu, even though we didn’t deliberately make a show of entering Gusu City in our two police vehicles…”
“You know that drug lord loves to spy and keep tabs on police activity.”
“He probably already knows our task force is here and that we’re closing in on Poison.”
“And as the brain of the whole operation, he’s likely spread the word by now.”
“So compared to Poison, who’s probably on high alert fearing exposure, the other members of the organization are likely to be far less guarded.”
“From a strategic standpoint—”
“Using Poison as visible bait while launching a surprise attack on Rose is truly our best move.”
Clearly—If Su Ming or Xu Changsheng had said all this, Liu Yang might have taken it the wrong way or even gotten upset.
After all—The Xiangcheng task force had gone all out to cooperate. They’d even cleared out an entire floor just to help.
But now…
Despite a major breakthrough in the case, they weren’t pursuing it to the end, choosing instead to switch targets and go after another member with zero leads, just to take down the drug organization faster.
When the higher-ups were paying close attention to this series of cases, who wouldn’t be upset? Every district wanted its cold cases solved.
But this wasn’t how things were usually done—especially within the system, where appearances mattered.
That’s where Lin Tian, as the designated meat shield, came in handy.
Seeing Lin Tian’s sincere expression, Liu Yang opened his mouth as if to speak, but in the end, he could only sigh and shake his head helplessly.
“Fine, Chief Lin. We’ll go with your plan. I’ll fully cooperate on my end, but when the higher-ups come knocking, you’d better help me explain.”
Just then—Su Ming, standing at the front with a marker in hand, frowned in thought for a few seconds before saying seriously:
“Chief Lin, Chief Liu.”
“I think we should try something bold—pursue both leads at the same time.”
“Instead of putting on an act, why not conduct a real investigation? If we manage to dig up Poison, maybe we’ll get a bonus surprise.”
“Because right now in Gusu, it’s very likely that Poison isn’t acting alone.”
“There’s also someone else—someone lurking in the shadows, who has already raised the butcher’s knife toward Poison, ready to execute him at any moment and sever the trail…”
“The second person!”
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