Chapter Fourteen: The Killer's Weak Point

  "What...". Everyone who heard Liu Li's words looked at him with a surprised expression.

  After collecting everyone's expressions in his eyes, Liu Li nodded very affirmatively: "That's right, the English letter R was intentionally written on the ground by the murderer, and its purpose is to confuse us.

  "But it was this very letter that left a flaw in the murderer's plan." Liu Li said, pulling out the low-security subsidy receipt from the file bag: "Look at this, I found it earlier in the house."

  Cheng Bin and Du Zhiqing took a look at the certificate, then handed it back to Liu Li: "This is just an ordinary low-security collection certificate, right? Do you suspect that there are fingerprints of the murderer on it?"

  "No, the purpose of showing you this certificate is not to suspect that the murderer left fingerprints on it, but to let you see the deceased's signature." Liu Li said, pointing to the signature on the certificate:

  "Hasn't everyone noticed? The deceased's signature before his death not only slanted and twisted, but also had the wrong stroke order. Moreover, the "Qin" character in Guo Qinshi was written as Guo "Tai" Shi."

  Now you understand? From this signature, it can be seen that the deceased was illiterate when he was alive. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to write the wrong stroke order, and even his own name was written incorrectly.

  However, this can also be understood. In the decades before, women living in rural areas mostly didn't know how to read or write because at that time, there was no nine-year compulsory education slogan yet.

  A person who can't even write their own name correctly, how come they wrote such standard English letters? Moreover, since the murderer was careful enough to wipe away all fingerprints, even on the murder weapon stuck in the victim's abdomen, why didn't they notice this letter?

  I don't think the murderer was careless, because a careless murderer wouldn't be meticulous enough to check all the photos taken out of the album and even wipe off the fingerprints on them.

  Since it wasn't the murderer's carelessness, there is only one point that can explain this phenomenon, which is that the letter R was intentionally left behind by the murderer. The purpose of doing so is nothing more than to shift our suspicion onto someone else.

  Moreover, you found that the murderer was very interesting. In order to find money, he rummaged through the room, even the gas tank and the cupboard where pots and pans were stored were not spared, but only the clothes on the deceased's body were not touched.

  Since entering the scene, I have felt that something was strange. If the murderer's goal was to get rich, why didn't they rummage through the victim's pockets? However, when I thought of the murderer's identity, I understood the reason.

  That's why the murderer knew that the deceased had no money on him, so he didn't bother to turn over the deceased's pockets. Why did the murderer know that there was no money in the deceased's pockets? It's simple, because the murderer was too familiar with the deceased, familiar to the point where he knew whether the deceased had any money on him or not.

  When Liu Li said this, he turned his gaze to Guo Yang who was standing beside him in a daze: "Was my analysis just now correct, classmate Guo Yang?"

  Kwok Yeung looked at himself with a surprised face, and Lau Lee said slowly: "Just now you told me that after returning home at noon, you found that the chimney did not smoke today, and saw that there were no clothes drying in the yard, so you felt something was wrong. Then he ran towards the house and found the deceased lying on the floor.

  The whole process sounds normal, but why did you feel something was off just because the chimney wasn't emitting smoke? There's a gas stove in your kitchen at home, couldn't the deceased have used it to cook?

  You emphasized these two points, that's because you intentionally let us notice the difference, you want to give us a psychological hint, express an idea to us, and when you noticed that the deceased was different from his usual habits, you found something abnormal.

  But you, a young fellow, bringing your classmates back to your home, why didn't you think of first leading them into the house and having them sit down, nor pay attention to other things at home, but instead focus on whether there is smoke coming out of the chimney or if there are clothes drying on the clothes rack?

  The reason is simple, it's because you yourself created these two anomalies, and the three classmates who were invited by you are covering for you, you need them to help you testify that when you came back, the deceased had already been killed.

  When Liu Li said this, Cheng Bin and others turned their incredulous eyes to Guo Yang.

  Feeling so many eyes on him, Guo Yang stuttered for a moment: "P...Police Officer...Uncle Police Officer, w...what do you mean by this? You can't possibly suspect me of being the murderer, right?"

  My grandmother really can't recognize characters, as for the letter R written under her hand, it's indeed possible that the murderer set up a smoke bomb to make us suspect each other and ignore the real murderer.

  Perhaps we have fallen into the murderer's trap, I suspect that the murderer is my uncle, the police officer just suspected that the murderer was our village chief, and you now suspect that the murderer is me. All of this is what the murderer wants to see.

  As for the murderer not turning over my grandmother's pockets, perhaps the murderer had threatened and coerced my grandmother before killing her, knew that my grandmother had no money on her, so he didn't bother to make an effort.

  "Wasn't it you?" Liu Li seemed to smile and size up Guo Yang: "I underestimated your eloquence, hum... the letter R is indeed a smoke bomb, but this smoke bomb was left by you. Your purpose in doing so should be to make us suspect your uncle, right?

  "Just now you said the murderer didn't check your grandmother's pockets, it's possible that before killing her, they had threatened and interrogated her, but don't you think, if that were the case, wouldn't your grandmother have shouted for help? Why from start to finish, none of your neighbors around your house discovered anything unusual?"