Director of a Suspense Film

Ch4.1 – Filming limit activated

　　“Crime suspect Zong qi, male, 22 years old, student of Jiang Zhou University, due to the lack of credits, his graduation has been postponed a year. He now works as a supernatural streamer with XX Platform, temporarily living in Southern Old City, Shanxi Road, Fuqiang District building 3, apartment 202. Two immediate family members, one went missing 15 years ago, the other passed away at the start of this year.” 

　　“On the afternoon of the 21st, the crime suspect entered Jiang Zhou city’s Jujube Mental Hospital to hunt ghosts, this is the footage we intercepted from the platform.” 

　　It was already dark outside. The policemen in the meeting room sat upright as the projector played the stream.

　　This case was extremely consequential, it wasn’t known which department had made a mistake and leaked the information, but it only took half a day’s time before it attracted countless attention from the media. Under heavy pressure, a special investigation team was set up and an agent from the National Security Bureau was sent to help investigate the murder.

　　The agent from the National Security Bureau was specially dispatched, which meant that his rank was the highest, allowing them to automatically take over the entire investigation team and become the first person in charge.

　　The black-haired youth in the projection spoke with fervour and assurance, “20 years ago, a mysterious fire started here…” 

　　The group leader presiding over this meeting pressed the pause button, expression grave.

　　“This was when the crime suspect first appeared at the crime scene.” 

　　“However, from the evidence we collected from the crime scene, this was just the suspect making a feint to the East but attacking in the West. If there’s no problem, let’s continue.” (t/n: underlined just means misdirection :D)

　　Everyone in the project team looked grave, their pens gliding across the paper.

　　Gao Mu was sitting in the front with a document open in front of her, a pen in her hand, eyebrows high and twisted. Her eyes stayed glued to the photographs taken at the scene of the crime, staying glued to the cocktail snake mark on the back of the door for an exceptionally long time.

　　There were too many people eyeing this case, thus they had no choice but to work overtime. Even as the moon hung high above their heads, they were still working.

　　Based on the evidence obtained from the scene this afternoon and the autopsy results provided by the forensic doctors, the special investigation team finally completed their crime reconstruction by 10 o’clock.

　　Unexpectedly, after DNA testing identified the two victims, the police found that they weren’t completely innocent either. One left behind a case of assaulting young girls and was released not long ago after serving his sentence, while the other had been traced back to his unsolved wife-killing case after comparing their DNA. (t/n: the raws censored whatever they said for the first guy so i can only assume they’re talking about assault)

　　“Fallen Angel, or Jack the Ripper?”

　　Serial killers were also generally divided into different categories, such as ‘Cannibal’, ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Angel of Death’. Jack the Ripper and Fallen Angel were also included.

　　Killers who fall under the Fallen Angel category usually thought that they had a certain mission they needed to accomplish. The targets they chose were usually from special groups, and they would perform the duty of ‘cleaning up’. On the other hand, Jack the Ripper killers liked destroying corpses on a large scale and were keen on performance art[1].

　　Since no information could be obtained from the suspect, this method was temporarily put aside and they continued reconstructing the crime.

　　Soon, the team working overtime reconstructed a simplified version of the crime. 

　　The murderer killed two victims in an extremely cruel way, and then put their bodies into the black bag, dragging them to the abandoned and uninhabited Jujube Mental Hospital. He proceeded to dismember them in the last cubicle of the bathroom on the first floor and poured white wax into their head, therefore completing his ‘artwork’.

　　After that, he left the bathroom and went back to the main entrance. He started the stream and entered the mental hospital again, creating an alibi for himself, misleading his chat and even cutting off the signal at the critical moment, making up a suspect who didn’t exist. After that, he called the police and swaggered to the station to have his records taken, as if it were a taunt.

　　It’s hard to tell from appearance alone that such a clean, young man is actually a murderer.

　　He clearly looks like a white piece of paper, but he was in fact the perpetrator of this heinous crime. (t/n: white piece of paper = pure) 

　　The officers in the meeting all had their hearts go cold. 

　　If it wasn’t for the forensic doctor accidentally chancing upon key evidence, the case might have remained forever unsolved. Just thinking of the murderer’s modus operandi and his degree of thoughtfulness was enough to make people frightened. 

　　Even the unexpected incidents that Zong qi had encountered while ghost hunting before was classified as the murderer being cunning and intentionally created these situations in order to get closer to the police and reduce his suspicions.

　　The detective organised it a little and made the final decision, “If there are no problems, the materials and evidence can be transferred to the court.”

　　At this moment, Gao Mu finally raised her head. 

　　“There are many parts of the reconstruction that do not make sense, including clearly conflicting logical relationships and timeline issues that cannot be explained. I cannot accept such a hasty conclusion.”

　　The detective standing in front of the screen gave her a cold look, “Evidence does not lie.” 

　　Evidence is irrefutable. (t/n: idiom in chinese)

　　In front of evidence, many impossible things become possible. 

　　The other people in the meeting all focused on their work at hand, staying quiet, though their ears had all perked up. 

　　Gao Mu was dispatched from the National Security Bureau, and now Agent Liu, who took over the case, was also from the National Security Bureau. Everyone was very curious about why the captain was demoted. They didn’t expect to meet a former colleague this time, causing their curiosity to increase. 

　　Agent Liu’s sneered, making no attempt to hide his sarcasm. “Captain Gao, don’t forget why you were transferred out of the National Security Bureau. Do you have to use Sherlock Holmes’spirit on such a simple and clear case?”

　　The hand Gao Mu used to hold the pen tightened imperceptibly, she lowered her voice, “The person in charge of the case is me. I have the authority to interrogate the suspect personally and confirm whether or not there was a mistake.”

　　“Then by all means, do as you please.”

　　Agent Liu flashed a fake smile, “At tomorrow afternoon, 12 o’clock. Hand over all this evidence.” 

　　“Finally, as a former colleague, let me remind. Since you recognized that symbol, then you should understand why I decided to quickly close this case. Even if you handed this over to the higher-ups, you’d get the same conclusion.”

　　In the face of a dark organisation that even the National Security Bureau could not enter or find any trace of despite wasting countless manpower, it was vital to quickly close the case. Otherwise… perhaps there would be no one expected would happen. 

　　Because no matter how many questionable points there were, it still couldn’t escape that one sentence, ‘Evidence is irrefutable’. 

　　Gao Mu pursed her lips, walking out of the room with a straight back. 

　　…… 

　　It was late in the night, the station was quiet. It was to leave work and the officers on duty didn’t guard this part of the station. The corridor was silent, only the trail room had armed officers standing outside it.

　　The interrogation of the suspect usually occurred within 24 hours of their arrest. 

　　While the investigation team on the other side had been reconstructing the crime scene, the team here hadn’t been idle either. They were constantly sending over police officers to interrogate the suspect. However, the criminal suspect’s mouth was sealed shut, repeating from the start till now that he was innocent. 

　　The officer in charge of temporary detention stood at the door, he immediately stood up and saluted when he saw Gao Mu, “Captain Gao.”

　　Gao Mu nodded, “The procedure of closing the case has been completed. If nothing goes wrong, the case can be handed over to the procuratorate tomorrow. I’ll make a routine inquiry.”

　　When they heard about the case closing, the two officers released a breath.

　　The suspect was too tight-lipped. After seeing the evidence, he was agitated but still refused to admit anything. They used emotions to move his heart and evidence to get his understanding yet it still didn’t work. Under the constant pressure of the special investigation team and the media, everyone was exhausted

　　“Everyone worked hard, go eat some dinner. I’ll be fine alone.” 

　　“Yes, captain.” 

　　She opened the door, walking into the trail room without a single glance back. 

　　The trail room was silent.

　　There was only a glass partition, a few chairs, and a crime suspect who had been handcuffed, sitting behind the glass.

　　After a day of interrogation, the black-haired youth had visibly gotten more dispirited.

　　Even so, he did not show any signs of calming down. His eyes were filled with a flame that could not be extinguished.

　　After seeing that the person who came in was Gao Mu, that cluster of flame obviously flared up a little, bright and angry.

　　“It wasn’t me.”

　　His voice was hoarse but full of determination. 

　　Gao Mu stood still, sighing, “All the evidence points to you.”

　　“There’s something wrong with the forensic test results.”

　　“…” 

　　This was also the theory Gao Mu had come up with. 

　　There were discrepancies between autopsy results collected on-site and those given by the forensic doctors. Although the discrepancies weren’t large, they were still unexplainable oddities.

　　But these insignificant doubts alone wouldn’t hold against the existing evidence.

　　Because not only were fingerprints found on the body, they were also found on the murder weapon.

　　The fingerprints were identical to those of black-haired youth’s, there was also many other evidence against him, irrefutable evidence.

　　Zong qi clenched his fists, the chains on his handcuffs rustling with his movements.

　　“The forensic doctor falsified evidence, I was framed.” 

　　Across the glass window, he stared fixedly at Gao Mu.

　　The youth had firm brows, his eyes filled with blood vessels. 

　　But those eyes were bright, surprisingly bright, like the cold stars of the night and the hot sun of the day, shining into the depths of the soul, making people dare not look straight at them.

　　The eyes were the windows to the heart.

　　Even if she didn’t know how to do criminal profiling, she would still be able to tell that these eyes weren’t that of a wicked criminal’s. 

　　Gao Mu closed her eyes, exhausted. When she opened them again, they were filled with a cold look, yet they were a little more determined.

　　“I believe you.”

　　Zong qi’s eyes widened.

[1] Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art

t/n: update in 1 day no wayyyyy

since like i said, hols are here, ill try splitting chapters into 2 parts and upload daily, or once every two days

i think everyone would be happier that way so yayyyyy

moving is so tiring lowkey under so much stress rn