Chapter 34: The Resemblance Between Two Mountains

With no urgent cases pending, the barrier to heading out for fieldwork was significantly lowered.

Yuan Chenxi submitted the report to reopen the cold case directly to Captain Cheng Mingtong. Although their current evidence was sparse and relied somewhat on Cen Lian’s "intuition," Cheng still approved the reopening of the "5-27" headless corpse case from eight years ago.

Wu Qiushan was appointed by the municipal bureau as the temporary team leader. Including him, there were six members in total: Cen Lian, Tang Hua, Wang Yuanteng, and Qi Yan, along with the standard addition of Yuan Chenxi as the administrative officer.

"What is our next move?" Tang Hua felt a bit lost now that the temporary task force had been established.

The case was a tangled web of leads, and charging off to Yunzhong City immediately was clearly not a wise decision.

Cen Lian continued to study the surveillance footage. This was already the footage from near the workplace of the fifth victim. If there was another killer, they would only appear in the final recordings. Unfortunately, by the time he finished watching the remaining videos, there were no new breakthroughs. It appeared the killer responsible for the other three victims was more experienced than Tu Lou.

"Let’s start by analyzing the locations where the bodies were dumped," Wu Qiushan said, clearly having his own ideas. "These are the disposal sites identified by the original task force."

He marked the locations on a map. Cen Lian looked up at the sites and quickly noticed a discrepancy.

"Both male corpses were dumped along the river, while the three female corpses were abandoned in the mountains," Cen Lian confirmed after carefully reviewing the map. "The second victim, for whom we were provided coordinates, was disposed of in the exact same manner as the fifth victim, a male. However, there is a significant difference compared to the three female victims. I suspect there may be more than one killer."

Wu Qiushan replaced the male victims with blue dots and the females with red ones.

"Let’s assume there are two killers," he said, contemplating the map for a moment. "I can’t make much of the killer who dumped the men, but the one who dumped the three women chose their locations with a very specific pattern."

Yuan Chenxi frowned at the map for a while before speaking up: "Brother Yue, are you saying the places he chose are connected to the mountain range surrounding Yunzhong City?"

Wu Qiushan nodded. "I now strongly suspect that the primary crime scene lies within this area." He drew a circle around the mountain range connecting Yunzhong City and Kang'an City.

"The area is too vast," Wang Yuanteng said, shaking his head immediately. "With the clues we have now, it’s not enough to get the bureau to mobilize that many officers to search the mountains."

"If they won't go, we can go ourselves," Cen Lian pointed to where the first female body had been discovered. "It’s been proven that the first body was washed down from the mountains. The original task force followed the waterway back to the initial disposal site. As the first victim—and the only one who ended up in the river due to a mistake caused by a flash flood during disposal—it should logically possess features that the other disposal sites don't have."

Wu Qiushan didn't hesitate; he tossed the car keys to Tang Hua. "Let’s go. We’re going to the mountains to take a look."

Tang Hua, looking bewildered, took the keys, started Wu Qiushan’s seven-seater SUV, and drove out of the city with a heavy foot on the gas. It wasn't until they reached the mountain road that he asked, belatedly, "That case is eight years old. What could we possibly find at the disposal site now?"

Wang Yuanteng answered honestly, "I don't know, but these two might."

Tang Hua looked at Cen Lian, who was frowning in deep thought, and decided it would be best not to disturb him.

Qi Yan, however, seemed to have his own thoughts. Ever since they headed up the mountain, he had been observing the surrounding terrain, holding a contour map in his hand. Once Tang Hua parked the car on a patch of wasteland, Qi Yan finally set the map down and said with absolute certainty, "The terrain and vegetation here are quite similar to Lingguan Mountain in the suburban district of Yunzhong City."

"Lingguan Mountain?" Cen Lian opened his map and glanced at it. "The private company where Tu Lou worked isn't far from Lingguan Mountain."

"How did you figure that out?" Wu Qiushan asked, looking confused. He really had no background in such things.

"Just a hobby," Qi Yan waved a hand dismissively. "I liked hiking back in college, and sometimes I’d study the terrain before climbing wild mountains."

It was the first time Cen Lian had heard of a hiker who spent their free time looking at such things. However, based on the markings Qi Yan made on the contour map, the similarity between the two mountains was indeed apparent.

"I checked," Yuan Chenxi said, having been busy searching on her phone. "Although the terrain is similar, the soil and tree species are different. Brother Qi, are you suggesting that the killer who murdered the first victim subconsciously chose terrain they were familiar with when dumping the body, but because they weren't familiar enough with our local mountain, they made a mistake?"

Cen Lian scanned the surroundings, seeing nothing unusual.

"The fact that he could sense this mountain’s terrain was similar to the Lingguan Mountain he knew implies he spent a significant amount of time there, and was particularly familiar with its geography," Wu Qiushan mused. "If that’s the case, we need to go to Lingguan Mountain."

"We have to, and we need to bring our guns," Cen Lian said, sensing that Lingguan Mountain was going to be a major lead.

"Bring guns?" Tang Hua perked up. He had worked at a local police station for several years, and the number of times he’d touched a service weapon could be counted on one hand.

Wang Yuanteng patted him on the shoulder and said earnestly, "Firing a gun is fun for a moment, but writing the report is a funeral. You’d better hope we don’t have to fire at all."

Tang Hua looked at Yuan Chenxi, and after receiving a look that clearly meant "if you dare make me help write your report, you're a dead man," his enthusiasm for gunplay dimmed slightly.

After descending the mountain, Cen Lian made a call home. With the weekend approaching, it was likely he would be working overtime again.

"Don't your parents nag you about working overtime every day?" Tang Hua asked with a hint of envy.

"I think my dad wishes I worked even more overtime to serve the people," Cen Lian said, tossing his phone aside and closing his eyes to rest.

Wu Qiushan glanced over and remarked, "My old man and his are exactly the same. They’d both love it if I slept at the station every night."

Wang Yuanteng, knowing that both of their fathers were career military officers, asked curiously, "So, did you both become police officers voluntarily?"

Cen Lian gave a hollow laugh and didn't want to answer.

"No," Wu Qiushan sighed, "but what does it matter?"

Two elites of the police force who had never intended to become officers fell silent at the same time.

Qi Yan whispered, "Neither did I."

Now, there were three people in silence.

"That's fine, three to three. At least this way, it doesn't make me look like such an idiot for scoring ten points above the Tier 1 university cutoff only to end up at a Tier 2 police academy," Tang Hua said, finding a sliver of comfort.

Wu Qiushan suddenly laughed. "Some people scored over 670 in science, and they still ended up obediently going to the People’s Public Security University."

Cen Lian felt even more hopeless.