Although the high school’s group has sorted out the context of the high Yize falling case, the special task force has once again fallen into a deadlock, only because the clues and evidence they have are too few, insufficient to know what ties these people together and what they died for, and who killed them.
Gao Yize and Wang Wei were schoolmates in the same year, and apart from frequently meeting to play basketball during their school days, they did not have much interaction. One was a well-off top student, and the other was a poor student. After graduating from high school, they went their separate ways, with vastly different backgrounds and social statuses, making it impossible for them to have any connection. After Gao Yize became famous, Wang Wei often brushed his Weibo, but it was just a brief gesture, with no further action.
Zhao Kai and Mao Xiaoming were even less likely to be associated with Gao Yize. After graduating from junior high school, they entered society, engaged in usury, worked as pimps, and were detained, always lingering at the lowest stratum of society. Their social circles hardly overlapped with Gao Yize, and their interpersonal relationships were similar.
The task force believed that if the four of them had indeed crossed paths, it must have been during their student days, and at that time, something unpleasant happened, drawing them together and eventually causing this string of serial murders. But what exactly was that thing? And who was the murderer?
In order to find the answer to these questions, the special task force conducted extensive interviews and investigations. They questioned all of the four people's teachers, classmates, friends, and relatives, but they could not find any useful clues. In everyone's memory, Gao Yize and Wang Wei only exchanged a few greetings while playing basketball together; Gao Yize didn’t know Zhao Kai and Mao Xiaoming at all, and had never met them in public. During his time at the high school, no student suddenly dropped out or suffered an accident. Everyone graduated peacefully and went their separate ways.
There was no clue that could link these four people together, and what they did at that time had become an unsolvable puzzle.
"Now only Fang Luo can help us find the murderer. Even if he did not participate in the murder, he knows something," Zhuang Zhen said with great certainty.
On that afternoon, Zhuang Zhen personally visited Fang Luo's apartment.
"Officer Zhuang, we meet again," Fang Luo had just woken up, wearing a clean white robe with water droplets still clinging to his hair. A chill emanated from his half-open bedroom door, causing the members of the task force to shiver.
Zhuang Zhen said directly, "Mr. Fang, please come with us. We need your cooperation in investigating Gao Yize's case."
"Alright, please wait a moment," Fang Luo nodded politely and then changed into a black shirt and black trousers. The strong black fabric wrapped around his slender and flexible body, accentuating his extraordinarily delicate and pale complexion. He paused at the door for a moment and laughed lightly, shaking his head, "Almost forgot the gift."
Fang Luo went back to the bedroom to get a box, then calmly got into the police car.
Meanwhile, Liao Fang and several colleagues were chatting. "Summer is coming, and I want to buy a sun umbrella, but I can't find the style I want."
"I know two stores that have very beautiful umbrellas; I'll send you the links."
"Oh, I've already seen the umbrellas from those two stores. They are beautiful, but not the style I imagined."
"They're not beautiful enough? What kind do you want to buy?"
"I want a starry sky pattern, preferably the Leo constellation, my zodiac sign, with a black background and silver stars, sparkling in the sunlight." Liao Fang gestured excitedly, her eyes full of longing.
"Let me search for you. Sunshade, starry sky, Leo." Another policewoman took out her phone and entered these keywords onto the search page.
"No use, I've searched several times and found nothing," Liao Fang said regretfully, but as soon as she finished speaking, she saw the captain leading Fang Luo into the room. Today, he was wearing a black suit, making his skin even more snowy white, and his lips as bright as vermillion. Walking from outside to inside, he seemed to be absorbing sunlight, continuously emitting a radiant glow.
Liao Fang and the other female officers were left speechless, their mouths agape. Although they knew that this person might be a suspect who was aiding and abetting the crime, they still could not associate him with words like brutal, ruthless, or bloody.
Zhuang Zhen directly took Fang Luo to the interrogation room and designated Luo Hong as the recorder. Those female officers were more emotional one by one, and Fang Luo's face seemed even more powerful than it was half a month ago. If it weren’t for Zhuang Zhen's decision to have someone monitor him 24/7, he would have suspected that the other party had undergone plastic surgery.
Fang Luo's eyelashes drooped, and his lips curved slightly, with a relaxed attitude.
Zhuang Zhen moved the spotlight in front of him. Under the intense light, he didn't even blink, but instead smiled briefly. His clear laughter echoed in the narrow interrogation room, making Luo Hong shiver involuntarily. This person's laughter had a bewitching quality!
Zhuang Zhen, without looking at Fang Luo, calmly rolled down his neatly tucked sleeve to his elbow. No one noticed that his arm had secretly developed a layer of goosebumps.
Liu Tao and the two other team members stayed in the adjacent observation room, observing Fang Luo's every move through a one-way mirror. This person was too composed, and they had no confidence in extracting information from him.
Not to mention other officers who did not have confidence in this interrogation; even Zhuang Zhen, with his rich experience and outstanding ability, did not dare to guarantee that he could break Fang Luo's psychological defenses. For this reason, he made a series of preparations.
The chairs in the interrogation room were specially designed for suspects, with a thin layer of leather wrapping around the back and seat, while the rest was made of steel, completely defying the principles of ergonomics, making it uncomfortable to sit on, cold and hard. This cold and hard sensation undoubtedly increased the psychological burden on the suspect, which was very useful for the interrogation.
But Zhuang Zhen felt that the chair was still too comfortable for Fang Luo, so he replaced it with a steel chair that didn't have even a bit of leather padding. The interrogation room was small and enclosed, and the temperature was naturally much lower than outside. As soon as someone entered, they would feel cold and uncomfortable, and sitting on the cold, hard chair would intensify this discomfort.
The incandescent lamp on the table had a higher power than usual. The pale light formed a straight pillar hitting the face directly, making it difficult for the suspect to open their eyes. At the same time, it made them feel that they were completely exposed. In fact, this feeling was accurate. In the bright light, every movement of the suspect would be scrutinized by the police officers across from them. Even if the suspect didn't say a word, the movement of their lips, the dilation of their pupils, the movement of their eyes, and even the frequency of their breathing could provide a lot of clues to the police.
However, all these arrangements were equivalent to nothing in front of Fang Luo. He sat upright on the cold steel chair, his slender legs crossed to form a graceful arc, and his excessively fair hands were also folded on the chair's seat, the light from the incandescent lamp reflecting off them and attracting everyone's attention.
He sat in the interrogation room as a suspect, but exuded elegance, calmness, and tranquility, as if he was just attending a social gathering.
In just a minute, Luo Hong had glanced at him more than a dozen times, feeling amazed at this person's extraordinary mental composure.
Zhuang Zhen furrowed his dark eyebrows tightly, forming a stern furrow at his brow. He had a premonition that this interrogation was going to be extremely difficult. Even if the first two measures didn't work, he continued to follow his own steps. So, he stared silently at Fang Luo, not speaking, while Luo Hong kept checking the files as if he already had a lot of evidence.
Silence was also a kind of pressure. What people fear most is often not the arrival of something terrible, but the waiting before it. In this blank period, the suspect has enough time to think about many things. The more they think, the less sure they become of what clues the police actually have, whether there is concrete evidence, how to explain themselves, whether to admit or deny...
Such random thoughts can form a flood, breaking through the suspect's psychological defenses first, making the subsequent interrogation much smoother.
Zhuang Zhen was very good at grasping the psychology of criminal suspects, but he once again frustratingly found that Fang Luo was not afraid of silence and waiting. His patience was even more than Zhuang Zhen's, and sitting in the pressure-packed interrogation room for a whole day was nothing to him. He faced the glaring white light, returned Zhuang Zhen's sharp gaze without blinking, showing no joy or sorrow.
Apart from a dazzling beauty and a gentle tenderness, Zhuang Zhen couldn't read anything from his face. Even in the cutting gaze of Zhuang Zhen, Fang Luo curved his vermilion lips, as if accepting everything Zhuang Zhen planned.
Zhuang Zhen averted his gaze from his smile, and ripples spread across the once calm lake of his heart. He was extremely frustrated to find that the interrogation had not yet begun, and Fang Luo had already gained the upper hand—such a difficult opponent was truly rare in his life.
Zhuang Zhen and Luo Hong's cautiousness and vigilance contrasted sharply with Fang Luo's indifference and ease, leaving those observing Fang Luo in front of the one-way mirror, such as Liu Tao, feeling somewhat disheartened.
"I think this interrogation is a bit precarious!"
"How can his mental composure be so good?"
"The captain must have a way to deal with him. We never know a suspect who’s more cunning than Zhuang Zhen interrogated a major drug lord from Southeast Asia, and Fang Luo surely can't be more crafty than him."
"I think his mindset is more stable than the drug lord. When he entered the room, he sat motionless for more than ten minutes, without changing the curve of his lips. The drug lord doesn’t have his composure."
"Vice captain, Dr. Song is here!" An officer knocked on the door of the observation room, ushering in a man with refined manners.
Liu Tao was overwhelmed with joy and immediately brought the man to the one-way mirror, briefly explaining the situation. Learning that Fang Luo was very stable, the man was not surprised, but simply connected his Bluetooth earpiece, telling Zhuang Zhen on the other end of the phone, "Lao Zhuang, you can start questioning, and I will watch over."
This man was the globally renowned psychologist Dr. Song Rui, also a crime psychology consultant for the Ministry of Public Security. When he participated in the interrogation, not a single suspect had resisted to the end without confessing.