Frightening Joke: Above the Mist
Chapter 147: Pursuing the Murderer

Chapter 147: Chapter 147: Pursuing the Murderer

"What? You were in a car accident?"

Gao Fei’s voice attracted a lot of attention.

Bai Yanliang felt a bit helpless. He had rushed to the police station early this morning for a case analysis meeting, and he had an appointment with Chen Huaiyu and Feng Xiuxue at two in the afternoon.

Although Feng Yiru didn’t want Bai Yanliang to contact Feng Xiuxue too much, Bai Yanliang still called Feng Xiuxue, asking her to help arrange a meeting with Chen Huaiyu, and Feng Xiuxue readily agreed.

As for the car accident, it was entirely because Gao Fei saw the scrape on Bai Yanliang’s arm and inquired out of curiosity.

One had to admit, as a forensic doctor, he was highly sensitive to injuries.

"Yanliang, what happened?" Even Yang Wanlong looked over, his expression somewhat serious.

Bai Yanliang smiled: "It’s nothing serious, a truck’s handbrake wasn’t set properly and it slid down the slope. I scraped a bit of skin trying to dodge."

"Was it an accident?"

Lin Wan rarely frowned, instinctively feeling that this couldn’t be a mere coincidence.

"Could it be... someone doesn’t want Teacher Bai to continue investigating?" Tang Guo said.

Her voice wasn’t loud, but it clearly reached everyone’s ears.

Yang Wanlong wasn’t surprised by such occurrences. In his own career, he had encountered situations where powerful forces used extreme measures to interfere with police investigations.

He just hadn’t expected that if it wasn’t an accident, then this time the target chosen by the other party wasn’t a police officer but a specially appointed consultant assisting in the investigation.

"Yanliang, otherwise... you should temporarily withdraw from this case for your own sa..."

Before Yang Wanlong could finish the word "safety," he was met with Bai Yanliang’s serious gaze.

"Uncle Yang, I’m fine."

Bai Yanliang’s eyes were very clear. Perhaps because he couldn’t feel emotions, his eyes were always crystal clear.

Such a person... how could he have committed the crime of dismembering his own brother back then?

This thought suddenly flashed through Yang Wanlong’s mind.

Then, the serious look on his face finally gave way to a smile. He nodded at Bai Yanliang: "Alright, let’s start the case analysis meeting..."

Bai Yanliang lowered his head, quietly listening to everyone’s analysis reports.

He knew well that this wasn’t an accident, but it wasn’t retribution or a threat from the murderer either. It came from a mysterious organization, likely related to Fog Gathering, an entity akin to a shadowy realm.

"The matter with Ma Junsheng has been clarified. A bottle of orange juice with an overdose of sleeping pills was indeed found in the deceased Ai Qing’s refrigerator. He was telling the truth, and surveillance from Ai Qing’s apartment showed him."

"Jiang Qiao is highly suspicious. He meets all the conditions for committing the crime, but... we haven’t found any crucial evidence."

"How far is the hotel where Jiang Qiao stayed from Ai Qing’s company?" Bai Yanliang suddenly asked.

"By foot, it takes about half an hour. By car, four to five minutes," Lin Wan replied.

Bai Yanliang lowered his head, lost in thought, saying nothing.

Gao Fei glanced at him and said, "There’s another important piece of information. After the autopsy, we found that the deceased first suffocated to death and then had cement poured into her mouth."

"What?!"

Yang Wanlong stood up suddenly. If that was the case, then the direction of this case would be entirely different.

Bai Yanliang finally understood where that unsettling sense of abnormality he’d been feeling was coming from.

"There are at least two culprits."

Bai Yanliang’s voice echoed in the suddenly silent conference room.

Everyone had a considerable degree of understanding of Bai Yanliang. Although he appeared young, he was a very reliable person who never made groundless predictions. If he voiced a hypothesis, there were bound to be reasons supporting it.

Everyone looked at Bai Yanliang, waiting for him to explain his reasoning this time.

Bai Yanliang didn’t keep them in suspense. He walked to the projector and displayed photos of the crime scene.

"Has anyone noticed anything strange?"

Gao Fei tilted his head from side to side, staring for quite a while. As someone who often dealt with corpses, this body seemed to be in good condition; what was strange about it?

But it was Tang Guo, a young officer who hadn’t been in the force long, who murmured after looking, "The perpetrator styled the ponytail better than I do..."

After hearing this mutter, everyone was initially stunned, then looked at the photos again, instantly understanding Bai Yanliang’s point.

"Exactly! When the deceased Ai Qing’s body was found, her posture, attire, expression, and even her hairstyle were all impeccably done, as if following a strict standard that an average person couldn’t achieve..." Gao Fei exclaimed.

"A photographer," Lin Wan said, subconsciously glancing at Bai Yanliang while saying it.

She suddenly recalled that Bai Yanliang said at the crime scene: The deceased’s posture is beautiful.

Perhaps... he had noticed it back then?

"Ma Junsheng! He’s a photographer! He knows how to position the best angles and the most beautiful poses!" Gao Fei was excited as if solving the case but then remembered Bai Yanliang said the culprits were two people or more than two.

Are there other perpetrators? Gao Fei fell into confusion again.

Bai Yanliang moved to the next photo detailing the victim’s facial features.

"The person who killed the deceased and the one who poured cement into the deceased’s mouth are not the same person. The one who removed the deceased’s makeup, changed her clothes, and styled her hair is someone who pursues perfection, does things meticulously, and has an obsessive pursuit of beauty. The one who poured cement down the throat is coarse, rough, and careless, leaving cement on her teeth though closing her mouth didn’t destroy the overall beauty but soiled the details, which the former couldn’t tolerate. These two drastically different personalities couldn’t be in one person unless the person has a split personality."

Bai Yanliang’s voice echoed in the meeting room.

He then added, "We can even dare to speculate that the person who killed Ai Qing was one person, the one who removed her makeup and changed her clothes was another, and the one who poured cement was yet another. On the night of the incident, there could have been three people appearing at the media building’s entrance at different times."

Listening to Bai Yanliang, an eerie scene involuntarily formed in everyone’s mind: a beautiful radio host being smothered to death at her company’s entrance after work, her body abandoned as the perpetrator fled. Later, someone with a motive found her dead and dressed her to look like his former favorite version of her. Finally, someone who despised her enough to wish her dead appeared, carrying cement from who knows where, poured it into her mouth as if that would silence her forever...

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