Chapter 98
The next day, Li Chu's face was still slightly swollen. After Ning Manqing applied a cold compress to the swollen areas and ointment to the spot where Li Chu had been kicked, she left, her face as cold as the October wind.
Li Chu made a cheering gesture at Ning Manqing, then packed up to return to the set in the afternoon.
Ning Manqing was going to start her grand plan, and she was going to continue her career.
While she had to temporarily leave this field, she would let Ning Manqing shine through her.
If she could become a top star in the future, she would definitely not let everyone forget Ning Manqing's identity as an actress.
Li Chu had taken half a day off, but the filming continued as usual. Ning Manqing had suggested to Li Chu whether to delete all of Zheng Ming's scenes and replace him with another actor, since Zheng Ming was also part of the scheme against Li Chu, and Ning Manqing wouldn't let him off.
However, Li Chu felt it was unnecessary. Because of one Zheng Ming, the previous efforts of the other crew members would be wasted, which wouldn't be good for them. Moreover, her conflict with Zheng Ming was outside the drama, and Zheng Ming's scene itself wasn't problematic, so there was no need for that.
When Qian Duoduo saw Li Chu return, she immediately trotted over, her expression aggrieved.
"Sister Li, where did you go? Why did you leave the set without telling me? I was scared to death. Thankfully, Brother Nan didn't check on me yesterday."
"Something very sudden came up. I'm back now, aren't I?"
Li Chu smoothed her assistant's hair. Seeing that she was fine, Qian Duoduo felt relieved. She was amused by Li Chu and, carrying her small folding stool, sat next to Li Chu, placing a small blanket on her as she watched her memorize her lines.
The current scene being filmed had progressed to the point where the murderer in the Anhe Building serial dismemberment case had revealed his flaws. Analyzing from the murderer's psychological perspective, he was enraged by Rong Yun's theory of scattered personality trampling. A genius like Rong Yun was very attractive to the hatred of criminals with low social recognition. Coupled with the gradual progress of the investigation…
Some people in this building actually knew some information about the murderer. For example, the stripper who lived next door to Zhou San, and the internet novelist who lived upstairs from Chen Yi, whose schedule was reversed. However, they didn't dare to speak or felt it was unnecessary. But under the repeated questioning by the police or their own guilty conscience, they secretly told the police the clues they knew.
Based on the fragmented clues, the police gradually locked onto several people living in the Anhe Building who might be the murderer. Rong Yun allocated police resources, monitoring several suspects and deploying officers at several exits of the building, and all surveillance footage was retrieved for close observation. This murderer didn't give any warning before killing, so they had to be fully prepared.
Rong Yun actually had a prime suspect in mind. She had even contacted and provoked him, and she had deployed the most intensive surveillance on this person.
At the same time, the murderer made his move. In the same space, Rong Yun's earpiece transmitted a report from an officer, stating that the sound of the person's movements had disappeared from the listening device two minutes ago.
Alarm bells went off in Rong Yun's mind. Her intuition told her that something might happen, so she immediately had people raid the person's room. When the officers reported that the person in the room was gone, she immediately ordered a search of the building.
Li Chu ran while reciting her lines, and the entire set fell into a deliberate chaos. Qian Duoduo, outside the camera, watched with a pounding heart, clutching Yuanzi's clothes.
A Yao silently pulled Yuanzi's clothes out, smoothed out the wrinkles on the corners of her clothes, and then nonchalantly watched the scene.
Qian Duoduo didn't pay attention to these details, biting her fingers as she continued to watch.
When the director called cut, Li Chu maintained her position for makeup retouches, and then continued filming the following scene.
This scene actually involved a fight. Director Wang had asked Li Chu beforehand if she needed a stunt double, but Li Chu refused. The martial arts moves weren't particularly difficult, and she had learned them with the martial arts instructor for a few days and was qualified.
Before the fight scene, Li Chu had another scene with another actor.
The assistant director, who was the former head of the task force, questioned Rong Yun's judgment: "Are we really not sending anyone to search the surrounding streets? Maybe he sensed that he was about to be exposed and ran away, or maybe he wanted to commit a crime outside. Is it too risky to deploy everyone here?"
"He's definitely here," Rong Yun said with certainty. "He's someone very familiar with this building. That familiarity isn't superficial, just knowing which building and which unit. He knows the changes here, the people who live here, and based on the murderer's personality, he will definitely choose the place where he's most confident to commit the crime. It's here."
"As for escaping, he could have run away long ago. It's been a month and a half since his last crime, and no one knows who he is. But he won't leave. He belongs here."
A judge who felt no emotional fluctuations towards good or evil could easily step into the criminal's mind and enter his world.
There were too many residents in the building. Every minute they waited, the risk of someone being harmed increased.
Dismemberment was a complex and time-consuming process, but killing wasn't.
If you were the murderer, who would be your ideal target at this moment?
It must be someone defenseless, easy to target, and easy to conceal. The murderer wasn't aiming for mutual destruction; he wanted to kill and dismember to prove himself, but he didn't want to expose himself.
Then it must be someone he felt was worth a try, someone he could succeed with and escape smoothly. So the other party must be weaker than him.
Most abusers and murderers were like this, only pointing their blades at the weaker.
Adding the conditions of living alone and being inconspicuous, Rong Yun quickly filtered through the possibilities in her mind and locked onto a few people.
The four elevators in the building all malfunctioned at this time. Whose doing it was, was self-evident.
Li Chu completed this running and rescuing scene in one take. In the drama, Rong Yun ran to the eighth floor, but she only needed to run to the third.
In the story, when the door was kicked open, the blood-soaked young man who had been stabbed crawled towards the door, and the murderer quickly climbed out of the window.
Rong Yun had people immediately send the victim to the hospital and chased after the murderer herself.
After a chase and fight, the murderer was knocked unconscious by Rong Yun.
This scene, which didn't seem particularly thrilling in narration, was very troublesome to film. The lighting and intensity were all carefully considered. Li Chu filmed until breakfast time, and only after filming did she feel the pain of her thighs being bruised by the wire, her expression contorted as she refused the breakfast Qian Duoduo brought, saying she needed to sleep first.
After a hurried three-hour sleep, Li Chu went to the studio to continue filming without having time to eat.
The murderer, who had committed three murders and dismemberments and attempted a fourth, was someone who didn't look scary.
He was a thin and gloomy-looking beta with slightly longer hair than the average male beta, and his eyes were hidden under his slightly long bangs, never looking directly at anyone.
His name was Yu Jia. He moved into the Anhe Building with his parents when he was thirteen and had lived there for thirteen years. His parents divorced when he was eighteen, but according to the investigation, he grew up alone in the Anhe Building and hadn't attended school since sixth grade.
He sat in the interrogation room, remaining silent like a puppet, regardless of whether the officer questioned him calmly or angrily.
But when he saw the photos of the crime scene, his emotions fluctuated slightly, revealing an expression of appreciation. When questioned, he remained silent.
"I hate this kind of person the most. They can do anything, but once they're caught, they put on a deadpan expression. Do they really think we can't do anything to them if they don't say anything? Even if we haven't found direct evidence linking him to the first three cases, he can't escape the last attempted murder. It's just a matter of time!"
Xiao Lu angrily drank a large glass of water and sighed when she saw Rong Yun sitting there pondering.
In her memory, Rong Yun had always been like this, neither happy about solving a case nor discouraged by an unsolved one. She thought Rong Yun was sick. If a person had no emotions, could they still be called human? But she didn't dare to ask Rong Yun to see a doctor, so she could only continue holding the materials and return to the interrogation room.
Rong Yun, sitting in the chair, was thinking about how to find the evidence. As long as someone had done something, there would definitely be traces left behind.
After arranging these matters, Rong Yun had a conversation with her superiors. Her probationary period wasn't actually over yet. The director, who was her master's mentor, had said that if she handled this case well, she could make a great contribution and her probationary period could be converted to an observation period, and she wouldn't have to return to the correctional facility.
Rong Yun wasn't surprised. The master and apprentice talked about the case that had led to Rong Yun's imprisonment. In the end, it was fruitless, and they returned to the Anhe Building case.
The evidence to accuse the murderer wasn't particularly difficult to find. He had left the dismemberment tools, such as the saw and axe, at his workplace. The police dog searched around and found the deeply hidden items. Comparing the DNA and fingerprints on the murder weapon, they could successfully convict him. Faced with these accusations, the murderer confessed to his crimes.
Yu Jia's crimes were numerous, enough to warrant the death penalty. Before being taken into custody awaiting execution, he requested to see Rong Yun.
He didn't even know Rong Yun's name. He just said, "I want to see the officer who caught me."
Rong Yun went and met him face to face.
His hair had been shaved into a crew cut, and his eyes habitually avoided others.
The two remained silent for a long while. Yu Jia didn't speak, and Rong Yun didn't urge him. She wasn't even curious about what this criminal wanted to say to her.
After a long time, Yu Jia spoke: "You were wrong. I started out needing recognition, but later I didn't need it anymore. I could recognize myself."
Rong Yun didn't intend to argue with him, just waiting for him to continue.
"There are so many people in this world, so many people pretending to be human. He's a cold snake hiding in its nest, he's a fish living in a fish tank, she's a disgusting earthworm that can't die. Guess what I am?"
Rong Yun still didn't answer. There were too many animal species in nature, and the probability of picking one and guessing correctly was too small, so she didn't want to respond.
"An ant."
Yu Jia leaned closer to Rong Yun, his expression filled with a strange excitement and intoxication.
"Guess what you are?"
Rong Yun's response was to look at her wristwatch. Time was almost up.
Yu Jia didn't mind her reaction and continued talking to himself: "I don't know what you are either."
His voice suddenly rose, like a recitative aria.
"Have you heard a poem by Tagore? 'A mind all logic is like a knife all blade.' Do you know what that means? A mind with only logic and no emotion is like a knife without a handle. You'll get hurt."
Rong Yun looked at him sharply, the protruding veins on the back of her hand pressing against the table revealing her emotions.
She stared at Yu Jia and asked, "What do you know?"
These were the exact words Cen Lan had said to her, word for word.
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