Chapter Six Another Disappearance

  The next day after Wu Hui returned, which was Wednesday, he received a call from Guo Yining that another female student at Lincheng University had gone missing.

  The missing student is a 26-year-old female graduate student in her third year, named Wang Ruolan, who is a local resident. She usually goes home on Fridays and returns to school on Mondays, but this time she didn't return on schedule. At first, her dormitory mates didn't notice because she sometimes stays out overnight.

  It wasn't until Wednesday that they found something was wrong and, thinking of a recent murder of a famous student at school, reported it to the police.

  When Wu Hui arrived, Guo Yining and others were already there, so Wu Hui asked if they had found anything.

  Nothing was found in Wang Ruolan's dormitory, and her roommates who lived with her didn't know much about her either, and nothing valuable was asked out.

  Wang Ruo Lan's parents heard that their daughter was missing and came to the school. According to her parents' recollection, Wang Ruo Lan left home after lunch on Sunday, saying she was going back to school. Therefore, her parents also learned about her disappearance through the police.

  Wang Ruolan is a good girl in her parents' eyes. Every weekend when school is not in session, she goes home and studies hard. Her grades are excellent. Through some connections, her father has arranged a great job for her at a foreign company, which she can start as soon as she graduates.

  Never thought that the daughter who was still having dinner together on weekends would disappear like this, Wang Ruolan is an only child, her disappearance has dealt a heavy blow to the elderly couple.

  There is still hope that Wang Ruo Lan's parents can provide some clues, to see if there were any unusual phenomena before Wang Ruo Lan went missing, or if she said anything.

  After recalling the two, the daughter was as usual, nothing different, and also said that their daughter was very obedient, a very introverted girl, not talking much, as long as she was at home, she would study alone in her room.

  However, Wang Ruo Lan's roommate said that Wang Ruo Lan is absolutely not an introverted girl, she was very active in school and had many friends, mostly of the opposite sex.

  "It's often said that parents know their children best, but I'm not so sure about that." Yang Rong flipped through the transcript and curled her lip. Nowadays, there are no more children who can communicate with their parents from the heart, everyone thinks there is a generation gap, and there is nothing to talk about.

  "What? You're a good girl at home too?" Fang You was checking Wang Ruo Lan's closet, heard Yang Rong's words and turned around to ask.

  "How is that possible? My old man is really open-minded, I've been good buddies with him since I was a kid. If I have any worries, of course, I'll tell him." Yang Rong thought of her own father and couldn't help but feel proud. Compared to her classmates' parents, her old man was truly progressive and able to keep up with the times.

  "If Wang Ruo Lan had a father like yours, we would have known more about her from him." Fang Yu felt somewhat disheartened, this was the second person to go missing and now there wasn't even a single clue.

  "Stop complaining and hurry up with the investigation!" Guo Yining had a bad feeling, thinking that this was another serial murder case.

  He didn't understand why there were continuous deaths as the Chinese New Year was approaching.

  "Guo, you said that the girl in this school went missing, could it be related to a teacher? Didn't Wu say before that the murderer is someone over 40 years old with high education, isn't that just a university teacher? I think this possibility is quite large." Yang Rong recalled what Wu Hui had said before and thought her analysis made sense.

  Although Yang Rong's words make sense, Fang You thinks there is one thing to note: "University teachers are somewhat reliable, but Wu Ge said the murderer is a high-intelligence person, so he won't commit a crime in his own school, that way it would be easy to get caught."

  Yang Rong still thinks the murderer is in this school, "That's because the murderer thinks he's very clever, even if he commits crimes on the periphery, others won't suspect him, which shows how arrogant and self-aggrandizing he is."

  "I think this possibility is small, if I were the murderer, I wouldn't do it this way, it's like asking for trouble. If the murderer targets people around them, they will definitely be caught by the police during the investigation, and if there are any slight mistakes, they will be discovered, isn't that too risky?"

  "A conceited person would definitely think that what he has done is perfect and wouldn't worry about us finding out anything. On the contrary, he would probably be watching us from nearby, enjoying our confused state, and his heart should be taking great pleasure in it." When it comes to a serial killer, you can't use normal thinking to understand him.

  Guo Yining felt it was necessary to launch an investigation within the school now. If no valuable clues were found, they would expand the investigation around the school. "Yang Rong made some sense, you two go and investigate the teachers of this school, especially pay attention to their whereabouts when the two girls went missing."

  "Yes!" they replied in unison.

  "Wu Hui, what's your take on this case? Is it the same person?" Guo Yining looked at Wu Hui who remained standing in his original position with his right hand supporting his cheek and didn't say a word.

  Upon hearing Guo Yining's words, Wu Hui put down his hand. "For the time being, nothing can be seen, but what Fang You and Yang Rong analyzed earlier also made sense. It is indeed a case of strong generals having no weak soldiers."

  "As for the two of them, at most they are just a bit diligent, don't praise them too much, or their tails will rise to the sky." Speaking of the two of them, Guo Yining still felt quite pleased.

  "By the way, what about the autopsy results of Liu Xile? Were there any discoveries?" Wu Hui had been investigating Jing Ran's case for the past few days and had somewhat neglected the previous case of Liu Xile.

  "Through autopsy, it can be determined that her time of death was between 1:00 and 1:30 pm on the 27th. The cause of death is asphyxia, there is no sexual assault, and the injuries on her body are indeed binding wounds, consistent with what was seen at the scene." Guo Yining beckoned, and the forensic doctor who was collecting evidence saw him and walked over.

  Wu Hui remembered this person, it was the forensic doctor who discovered Liu Xilei's case, "This is Wang Siting, she dissected Liu Xilei's body. Wang Siting, tell Wu Hui again what you found."

  Wang Si-ting took off her gloves and put them in her pocket, then removed her mask. "There's something worth noting," she said. "I found some burnt paper ash inside the deceased's nostrils."

  Wu Hui looked at the female forensic doctor, who was only in her early twenties, and didn't expect that under the mask was such a delicate face. Although she had double eyelids and not very big eyes, her nose was straight and her mouth was small but full. "Ash? Have you figured out what kind of ash it is?"

  "It's yellow paper burned during a funeral procession, very ordinary, can be bought at any convenience store."

  "Did the murderer hold a funeral for the deceased?" Wu Hui thought of Liu Xilei's appearance when she died.

  "I'm only responsible for the body, investigating the case is your police business." Wang Siting said and put her mask back on, turned around and left.

  Wu Hui felt that Wang Si Ting was very repelled by him, and looked at Guo Yi Ning with some doubt, whispering: "Did I offend her somewhere?"

  "Don't think too much, Wang Siting is just like that, probably got used to facing corpses. " Guo Yining patted Wu Hui's shoulder, Wang Siting was notoriously temperamental in their department and usually wouldn't provoke her.

  Wu Hui shrugged indifferently, he didn't plan to get too close to her either, as long as she could provide him with useful clues. "Looks like we need to investigate the convenience store and see if we can find any leads."

  "It's okay, but the possibility is not great because there are too many places selling yellow paper. Now with limited police force, it's hard to investigate one by one, don't know when we can finish." There are hundreds of small and big convenience stores in Lincheng, it's too difficult to investigate each one.

  "Was anything useful found on Liu Xilei's computer?" Wu Hui saw the law and politics department studying Wang Ruolan's computer, he remembered that Liu Xilei also had a laptop in her room.

  "After checking, the computer was found to be full of downloaded movies. Her internet browsing history mostly consisted of online shopping. According to Zheng Jiahui, Liu Xilei is quite fond of online shopping and has a tendency to get addicted to it. Since the rise of online shopping, many young people have stopped going to physical malls. With just a few clicks on the mouse and keyboard, they can buy whatever they like, putting immense pressure on the economy of brick-and-mortar stores."

  Recalling Liu Xilei's room full of clothes, Wu Hui could imagine, "What websites has she been browsing recently? Also about online shopping?"

  "Most of them are online shopping, but what she bought were all adult products, and it seems like she was watching some ** videos. I asked her male friends who have a relationship with her, they said Liu Xilei doesn't have these hobbies."

  "Adult goods? During the investigation, these things were not found in her dormitory. Did she take them with her when she went missing?" Wu Hui had a certain guess in his mind.

  "But those things she bought were not found on her either, so where did they go?" Guo Yining didn't find these things in Liu Xilei's home or dormitory, so it's very likely that these things are in the hands of the murderer.

  Wu Hui seemed to have found another commonality between the two, and walked over to Wang Ruolan's computer, saying to the technician: "Check if she bought adult products online."

  Wang Si Ting was crouching there collecting evidence, heard Wu Hui's words, turned her head to look at him, and her eyes were a bit strange.

  "That's right, she did buy a set of lingerie last Monday, which was signed for on Thursday, and it was signed for by herself." The technician quickly found what Wu Hui wanted on the computer.

  Wang Ruo Lan doesn't have a boyfriend but bought lingerie online, why did she buy these things, where are they now, she definitely won't put them at home, the dormitory also doesn't have any, so it's very likely that she carries those things on her body, does she like these things or is she going to meet someone?

  "Captain Guo, it seems we need to shift the direction of our investigation. Starting from this point, we should be able to find something." Wu Hui turned around and looked at Guo Yining, he felt that someone in this school was involved.

  "Are you saying these two people are involved?" Guo Yining hadn't really thought of it that way before.

  "Not bad, it's not ordinary**, but high-end**." Wu Hui could confirm one thing, this was absolutely not as simple as an ordinary**.