Chapter Thirteen: The Mysterious English Alphabet

  Having heard Liu Li's analysis, Cheng Bin looked at him with profound meaning: "Continue."

  I just inquired with the informant, and at 7:30 this morning when he left home for school, everything was normal at home. At that time, the victim not only made breakfast for him but also had clothes ready to be washed.

  The informant returned home with his classmates at 11:53 and found the victim had been murdered.

  Because the village is mostly inhabited by elderly people and left-behind children, several villagers usually gather together to chat after dinner. However, those villagers did not find anything unusual at the deceased's home this morning, nor did they see any strangers entering or leaving the deceased's yard.

  This way, the time of the deceased's encounter with the perpetrator is between 7:30 and 11:53. The exact time of death still requires further forensic examination. However, at the place where the deceased's right hand was covering, a strange clue was left behind.

  At this point, Liu Li walked forward and lifted the corpse's right hand from the ground to one side. At this time, Cheng Bin and others found that in the place where the corpse's right hand had covered before, the deceased had written an English letter "R" with fresh blood.

  He looked at the letter carefully and couldn't help but ponder for a moment, then whispered to himself: "What does R represent? Is it the killer's surname abbreviation?"

  Cheng Bin called Guo Yang in: "Guo Yang, think carefully, among the people you know, is there anyone with the surname Ren or Ruan? Did your grandmother have any conflicts with them?"

  Guo Yang thought for a moment, then hesitantly replied: "Report to the police officer, our village's branch secretary is surnamed Ren, named Ren Dazhu. My uncle's surname is Ruan, named Ruan Chaixin. My uncle's family does business and rarely comes to my home, so I don't have a deep impression of him."

  As for the village branch secretary? It seems that a few days ago, the village wanted to take away the farmland from my family, but my grandmother disagreed. At that time, the village branch secretary scolded my grandmother through the village's loudspeaker. Because of this, my grandmother went to the township to find the head of the township and said she would sue the branch secretary, but later the matter was dropped. The village no longer mentioned taking away the land, and grandma didn't continue to go to the township to complain.

  "Get Ren Dazhu and Ruan Chaixin here immediately, and investigate whether they are suspicious? Focus on Ren Dazhu." Cheng Bin instructed, then began to examine the furnishings in the room. At this time, the room was extremely messy, probably because the murderer was searching for valuables in the victim's home.

  At this moment, Liu Li was also investigating in the house. The murderer had made a big mess of the room, not only throwing the bedding and clothes from the wardrobe all over the floor, but even moving the pots, pans and gas stove in the kitchen out of place.

  Liu Li walked around the house, then went to the kitchen to take a look. When he returned to the entrance, he saw that there was still a school uniform soaking in the basin next to the water tank. The quality of the uniform wasn't very good, and the sleeves had already come undone. Liu Li gently tugged on it, and the sleeve actually fell off.

  Seeing this, Liu Li was stunned for a moment. Since no one noticed him, he quickly put the school uniform back into the basin and continued to investigate other places as if nothing had happened.

  Upon arriving at the deceased's bedroom, Liu Li discovered that it was even more chaotic. Not only were all the clothes turned out, but the murderer also didn't spare the mirror frames and photo albums in the house.

  The plywood behind the mirror frame was pried open by the murderer with a tool, and the photos inside the album were also taken out. It seems that the murderer wanted to see if the deceased had hidden money in the photo interlayer.

  Suddenly, Liu Li found a receipt for the elderly low-security subsidy in a drawer. The receipt had Guo Qin's signature on it. Seeing the crooked and twisted handwriting, and even writing "Qin" as "Tai", Liu Shu furrowed his brow and casually put the receipt into an evidence bag.

  At this time, the criminal police officer sent by Cheng Bin came back: "Report to the captain, we have contacted the deceased's son-in-law Ruan Chaixin. He is on his way here now. However, Village Branch Secretary Ren Dazhu has not been contacted yet.

  According to Ren Dazhu's wife, after Ren Dazhu went out for dinner this morning, he never came back. She guessed that Ren Dazhu had gone out to drink with friends, as he often did, but this has not been confirmed yet.

  "After the policeman finished reporting, the technician in charge of inspecting the scene spoke up: 'Captain, it's strange. There are only the victim's fingerprints at the scene, and the killer didn't leave any fingerprints behind. Many places in the room have signs of being wiped clean, so it seems that after killing the person, the killer must have erased all their own fingerprints.'"

  Upon hearing the technician's discovery, Liu Li's heart skipped a beat as he felt like he had thought of something. After closing his eyes to think for a moment, he suddenly opened them and nodded thoughtfully.

  After listening to the report, Cheng Bin nodded with a difficult expression: "I know, since it's impossible to extract fingerprints from the crime scene, you go outside and help Xiao Zhang write an inquiry record. At the same time, order all police stations in the county to conduct a blanket search for Ren Dazhu, he must be found tonight."

  After giving the order, Cheng Bin continued to crouch down and study the "R" written by the deceased. After a moment, Cheng Bin muttered to himself: "Guo Qinshi, Guo Qinshi, what do you want to express?"

  "As team leader, I think I've figured out what this R stands for?" Just then, Liu Li said something that shocked everyone.

  When Liu Li said this, Cheng Bin, Du Zhiqing, and others in the house looked at Liu Li with a surprised face. Cheng Bin looked at Liu Li half-believingly: "Did you really decipher the meaning of this letter? Liu Li, it's not that I don't believe you, but how did you decipher this letter in such a short time?"

  "It's just that it's solved, there's no basis for it. If you insist on me giving a reason, then the only one I can give is that I'm more ruthless than the killer." Liu Li confidently replied to Cheng Bin.

  "Well, in that case, I'll listen carefully." Seeing Liu Li so confident, Cheng Bin stood aside and waited for Liu Li's answer.

  Everyone in the house was staring at him, Liu Li thought for a moment and then walked to the side of the letter "R" and said something that shocked heaven and earth: "This letter is not written by the deceased at all, but by the murderer after killing the victim, holding the dead person's finger to write it down."