Chapter 903: Suspect Investigation

Lu Chuan continued to explain while conducting tests: "The place where the firewood is stored is relatively far from the stove pit, so the killer likely placed the firewood here by the stove pit when lighting the fire. Given that cooking the body took a long time, he must have sat on this small stool."

"This way, he can easily reach the firewood, making it less labor-intensive."

This is indeed the case, as the firewood is positioned in the center of the room, making it inconvenient when passing through but more convenient to pick up during firewood collection.

"These firewoods are mixed together; it’s impossible for the person to just pull out one piece at a time easily, so he must have touched these firewoods. The question now is whether we can gather any information from them."

After Lu Chuan finished speaking, Zhao Zhigao was somewhat bewildered.

Because after hearing it, he felt that what Lu Chuan said made a lot of sense.

The firewood consists of some withered branches mixed together; when taking them, he needs to organize them to pull out one or two pieces in order to shove them into the stove pit to burn.

"Moreover, the likelihood of him wearing gloves during this activity is probably not very high, so we should see if we can find any fingerprints on this firewood."

Lu Chuan explained to Zhao Zhigao while numbering and collecting samples.

Of course, collecting fingerprints from withered branches is inherently laborious, and Lu Chuan isn’t entirely confident whether fingerprints can be found.

While Lu Chuan was collecting samples and investigating the scene, other groups were also busy, and some had already made progress.

The key point in Wang Song’s investigation focused on why the killer chose this house and why he chose Wang Family Valley Village.

Did the suspect pass by unwittingly and notice the situation at Wang Family Valley Village, thinking it might be a good place for destroying evidence, or was there another reason?

Wang Song believed it was definitely the latter.

Because if the suspect merely intended to dispose of the body here or bury it, it might have been an impromptu decision.

However, the reality was that the suspect spent a lot of time stewing the body inside this house, so the selection of this location and site was definitely not a simple impulsive decision.

In parallel, the investigation into Wang Jingya’s social relationships was being continued by Song Mingguang, who was sharing information.

Meanwhile, the police station in Beiwang Town had already provided Wang Song with all the population information from their area.

Unfortunately, the current comparison results show there is no direct correlation between the list provided by Beiwang Town’s police station and Wang Jingya’s network of relations.

"Is this lead possibly incorrect?"

The progress on Wang Song’s side was actually not slow or rather was quite fast.

"Captain Wang, is it possible that the relationship isn’t direct but some sort of kinship?"

A colleague from the Criminal Investigation Team suggested.

"That’s right!"

"Captain Wang, that’s possible! The killer doesn’t necessarily have a direct connection with Beiwang Town; if there’s some kinship relation among these people, he might be familiar with the situation there."

Without their reminder, Wang Song could think of this himself, but the key issue is placing it on the level of kinship, which greatly expands the scope of the investigation.

Direct relatives are easy to address since they are all linked within the household registration system, but what if they’re collateral relatives?

What about cousins?

In that case, it might be impossible to track them down.

At the same time, Song Mingguang discovered some clues and was following up.

Since Wang Jingya’s phone wasn’t lost, the technicians quickly cracked the password and found some files inside.

Though there were no particularly important leads, the Tianzhou City Criminal Investigation Team obtained Wang Jingya’s phone contact list.

Along with message records.

Many texts from various men were sent to Wang Jingya.

Wang Jingya herself is tall and attractive, and her profession as a model meant she interacted with a diverse range of people.

So there were many interested in her.

In the information, Song Mingguang even discovered many text messages directly proposing transaction offers.

However, Wang Jingya rarely replied to these messages.

Song Mingguang focused on five individuals.

These were key contacts outside of Wang Jingya’s modeling work.

Two of them were not in Quanzhou but in Haizhou, while the other three were in Tianzhou City.

Among these three, one was Wang Jingya’s childhood friend, and two were her university classmates.

In Tianzhou City, Song Mingguang quickly made contact with these three people.

"What... Jingya... dead... dead? How is it possible!"

All three were very surprised by Wang Jingya’s death, clearly unaware of the news.

"I tried calling her the day before yesterday and realized her phone was off..."

These three people were not previously included in the investigation by the Tianzhou City Criminal Investigation Team.

Song Mingguang personally met with these individuals.

"The main thing is to understand if anyone pursued Wang Jingya during university."

Wang Jingya’s two university classmates knew a lot about her college life and provided quite a bit of information to Song Mingguang’s team.

"During college, there was a guy named Zhang Bin in the neighboring class who chased Jingya particularly fiercely. After graduation, Jingya mentioned that although they had no phone contact, Zhang Bin would still visit her workplace, bringing flowers and such."

"Another one named Yang Jijie also pursued her eagerly, but later on, the situation was unclear."

"And there was one named Zhang Tao, who pursued Jingya but she did not agree, and he actually harassed her, though where this person is now isn’t known."

Zhang Bin, Yang Jijie, Zhang Tao.

These were the leads obtained from Wang Jingya’s university classmates by Song Mingguang.

Moreover, there were findings from Wang Jingya’s childhood friend.

In high school, Wang Jingya was already very attractive, and many boys started to pursue her.

Among them, one named Li Baowei was the most persistent.

"Li Baowei didn’t go to the same university as Jingya, but he visited her often in Tianzhou City."

"Though they had a brief period without contact, after graduation, Jingya mentioned this person several times to me."

"She said he frequently visited her work to deliver flowers, and there was an instance where he met with a university pursuit, a guy named Bin, and they even got into a fight."

Immediately, Song Mingguang focused on the investigation of Li Baowei, Zhang Bin, Zhang Tao, and Yang Jijie.

But suspicion regarding Zhang Tao and Yang Jijie was quickly eliminated.

Zhang Tao is currently on a business trip abroad and has been away for a month, making it impossible for him to have committed the crime, while Yang Jijie is no longer in Tianzhou; he left six months ago.

The remaining high school classmate of Wang Jingya, Li Baowei, and the one who had conflicts with him, Zhang Bin.

The situations of these two individuals require further verification and investigation.