Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Chapter Eight : 5

Standing outside Liu Simiao’s office, Huyan Yun stretched his light blue denim jacket repeatedly, smoothing out every wrinkle with his fingers, leaving Li Ziyong bewildered: “I say, you aren’t here for a blind date; why are you all primping?” A little embarrassed, Huyan Yun took a few deep breaths, gently knocked on the door, and only after hearing a “Come in” from inside did he turn the doorknob and go in.

Liu Simiao, still wearing her white lab coat, had just come from the scientific lab in the technical department. She was sitting behind her desk, flipping through a stack of files. Without even glancing at Huyan Yun, she pointed to the row of sofas against the wall with her pen. Li Ziyong sat down. Huyan Yun stood for a while, then awkwardly sat down when Liu Simiao still ignored him.

“Let’s get straight to the point,” Liu Simiao said, looking up at Li Ziyong. “You must be surprised why I called you here today. It’s because I’ve been reinvestigating the Western Suburbs Serial Murders from ten years ago and have made some breakthroughs.”

Harmonica’s hum rang out once!

The hum of a harmonica suddenly sounded in Li Ziyong’s ear. In the darkness.

It rang out suddenly and ended just as abruptly; it was so sudden it was jarring and chilling.

Ten years had passed, a full ten years! So much of the world had become dusty, so many dreams had blurred, and so many emotions had faded, but only that one sound—harmonica—remained clear in his mind. For ten years, he had tried to forget that sound, but it always lingered; especially on those rainy nights when he walked the deserted streets, he always thought of it, of the dark green bench outside Wangyue Garden Square, of the young man holding a harmonica, letting the rain cast a silvery glow on him.

Li Ziyong’s hands trembled slightly.

“I don’t need to go into more detail about the case. As a key officer in the Special Task Force back then, I’m sure you’ll never forget it,” said Liu Simiao. “Among the members of the Special Task Force, Director Du and Chai Yongjin are currently busy with the Sweeping Mouse Ridge case. I don’t want my work to interfere with theirs, so I plan to consult you first before reporting to my superiors. As for Huyan (she still didn’t look at him directly), I think my findings are somewhat related to you, so I called you here to hear about them.”

Huyan Yun, having not seen her for a long time, simply stared at her, his eyes unblinking.

Liu Simiao put on latex gloves, pulled open a drawer, took out a white, transparent, round micro evidence preservation box, opened the lid, and used tweezers to pick out a piece of glass: “Do you remember this?”

Li Ziyong squinted at it for a long time. The slightly curved glass, its sharp crack having carved a scar in his memory, a dull ache, but he couldn’t recall what it was.

“I remember,” Huyan Yun said, “this is one of the two pieces of eyeglass lens you found that didn’t belong to the fish tank after you restored the broken glass fish tank at the scene of Gao Xiaoyan’s murder!”

“Yes, it was based on these two pieces of glasses that you deduced the crucial clue that the murderer was imitating a technique from a Japanese mystery manga, concealing himself as an anime fan who wears glasses. After reviewing orders from Dangdang and Amazon China, the police identified Zhou Liping as a prime suspect. Just then, Fang Zhifeng’s murder occurred. While investigating the social relationships of his daughter, Fang Mei, the police again discovered that Zhou Liping’s physical characteristics were highly similar to those of the criminal, leading to his arrest.

“During the subsequent evidence collection process, they discovered that he was wearing prescription glasses that matched perfectly with the lens I extracted, so the police ultimately identified him as the perpetrator of the ‘Western Suburbs Serial Murders’ and charged him. Although, due to insistence from some colleagues, the court ultimately found insufficient evidence against Zhou Liping in the first three of the four murders, sentencing him to only ten years in prison; in the eyes of most detectives, he remains the sole and most likely perpetrator of the ‘Western Suburbs Serial Murders.'”

Li Ziyong felt his throat was burning with dryness, swallowing several times to no avail. He asked in a hoarse voice, “Is there… a problem with this conclusion?”

“There’s a problem!” Liu Simiao said. “My latest analysis of this evidence completely overturns this conclusion.”

Huyan Yun blinked his small eyes. “Could it be that my reasoning is flawed?”

“Your reasoning isn’t flawed,” Liu Simiao said coldly. “But your reasoning directly led the police to commit a serious logical error.”

If anyone else had said this, this usually arrogant, baby-faced man would have jumped up and started arguing, but since it was Liu Simiao, he could only mutter something, which was barely audible.

“A piece of eyeglasses deliberately mixed in with the broken fish tank does indeed lead us to deduce that the suspect enjoys reading Japanese mystery manga, and it does lead us to deduce that he’s nearsighted, but this deduction should stop there. Yes, Zhou Liping possesses both of these characteristics, but that doesn’t mean he’s the suspect—because Zhou Liping isn’t the only one with these characteristics,” said Liu Simiao.

“Originally, this was a problem that could be understood with a little thought; it’s a logical error caused by violating the rules of sufficient condition hypothetical reasoning. The logical fallacy lies in the fact that the attacks on Fang Mei and the murder of Fang Zhifeng once again implicated Zhou Liping, leading the police to hastily conclude that since two leads pointed to the same target, Zhou Liping was undoubtedly the perpetrator of the ‘Western Suburbs Serial Murders’—a mistake compounded by the fact that even if Zhou Liping was indeed responsible for Fang Zhifeng’s murder, it didn’t necessarily mean he was the killer in the previous three cases, despite exhibiting similar characteristics to the real perpetrator.”

Liu Simiao paused, then continued, “Actually, when investigating this case ten years ago, I noticed a problem: the police relied too much on ‘characteristics’ rather than ‘physical evidence’ when identifying Zhou Liping as the perpetrator of the ‘Western Suburbs Serial Murders.’ For example, similar shoe sizes and builds weren’t sufficient for definitive identification. The only thing that could connect Zhou Liping to the previous three cases was the fragment of glasses found at the scene of Gao Xiaoyan’s murder. Everything else was ‘suspected connection.’ It was thanks to Xiangming that Zhou Liping didn’t face execution.”

When speaking of Lin Xiangming, Liu Simiao’s tone was calm and composed.

“So, what’s the truth behind this case?” Li Ziyong asked anxiously.

“After Zhou Liping was sentenced, I wanted to continue investigating the case, but Xiangming stopped me. I said the real culprit in the first three cases was still at large, and he said it was all over and there was no need to pursue it further. I was surprised by his attitude because he’s never been one to let things slide. He sensed my skepticism and said that some truths are better left unrevealed for the victims. I said, ‘What if the truth is buried too long and can’t be found in the future?’ He said there was no need to worry; every case is like a food packaging bag: no matter how sturdy the material, there’s always an easy tear opening…”

Liu Simiao smiled wryly. “After the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case, I felt it necessary to reexamine the truth behind the Western Suburbs Serial Murders. I reviewed and retrieved relevant files and evidence from the city archives and evidence preservation department, spending a lot of time and energy, but I couldn’t find a breakthrough. Finally, it was Xiangming’s words from ten years ago that reminded me: isn’t a so-called ‘tearable opening’ simply a gap? And the biggest logical gap in the Western Suburbs Serial Murders is undoubtedly this piece of glasses!”

Huyan Yun nodded: “As long as we can prove that this piece of eyeglasses doesn’t belong to Zhou Liping, then we can clear him of any connection to the previous three murders.”

“How do we do that?” Li Ziyong frowned. “Unless—”

“Unless we find the brand of the eyeglasses that these lenses belong to and find the sales records from ten years ago,” Liu Simiao said. “That’s what I did.”

Li Ziyong’s mouth dropped open: “That’ll probably take a lot of running around, won’t it?”

“Investigating cases is inherently a lot of running around.” Liu Simiao picked up a manila envelope, untied the clasp, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and carefully unfolded it: a thin invoice, aged and semi-transparent, with the raised signature visible through the back.

Li Ziyong’s heart leaped into his throat. He knew the truth he hadn’t been able to let go of for the past ten years was right before him. He looked at Huyan Yun and then at Liu Simiao. They were both calm, because their connection to the case was far less intimate than his… It was this case that had cost him the girl he loved most in his life and even his beloved job. And on that thin piece of paper lay the source of it all, the origin of it all. When he finally faced it, he realized how terrified he was of facing it… No, no, no, it wasn’t the blood, the corpses, the darkness, and the evil that he feared. What he truly dreaded was discovering that what he had spent ten years hating, cursing, and reviling had been a mistake, a void… He gripped his knees tightly, his ten fingers digging so hard that it hurt his kneecap.

“That shard of glass belonged to a newly launched product from Mingzhu Glasses Company. Due to the new technology used in the lens material, customers experienced problems such as chromatic aberration after wearing them, leading to a recall shortly after its release and very limited sales. Mingzhu Glasses Company is a relatively large brand store, and they keep their purchase invoices very well. With their active cooperation, I found all the invoices for this type of glasses sold in the city. On one of them, I found a signature of someone related to this case,” Liu Simiao said, handing over the invoice.

Huyan Yun quickly stood up and took it. He looked at the signature, somewhat surprised, and looked up at Liu Simiao.

Liu Simiao said in a low voice, “It’s indeed this person. He not only possesses all the conditions to commit the crime but also matches the characteristics of Lin Xiangming’s Criminal Personality Analysis: over twenty years old, mentally mature, slender, with some counter surveillance experience, a local resident of the Chengyuli and Chunliu Street area. This perfectly explains why he was able to repeatedly evade the joint defense team’s patrol routes and completely lower the victim’s guard…”

Huyan Yun handed the invoice to Li Ziyong beside him.

Li Ziyong raised a hand and took the invoice, his hand previously gripping the knee of his trousers, which was now damp with sweat.

After a long struggle, like threading a needle, he finally focused his blurry vision on the signature at the bottom of the invoice. The signature on the blue shirt was indistinct; three characters were vaguely discernible, but it wasn’t “Zhou Liping.”

The hum of the harmonica rang out again, this time a rapid, repetitive string of syllables, over and over, hoarse and sluggish, like someone yearning to confide but unable to speak further amidst violent sobs. For some reason,” Li Ziyong’s heart trembled painfully with the hum of the harmonica, spasming again and again, growing colder with each passing moment, shrinking back step by step, becoming increasingly unpredictable…