Case Files Chapter 36: Angel of Death (16)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

Guan Jin arrived at the office and sat in his seat. He looked around at everyone, who was listless, and said slowly, “I think I know who the killer is.”

“Damn! Can you not say that as calmly as if you’re saying you ate youtiao ¹ for breakfast today!” Chen QiaoYu rushed over to him excitedly and started shaking him. “Out with it, quick!”

Lu YunYang silently rescued Guan Jin, who had been shaken so hard he was seeing stars. “Careful, what if he loses his memory again?”

“…Guan Jin, drink some water~ Say it slowly, here~” Ding Ding handed him a cup of water.

Guan Jin, who was practically being treated like a critically endangered species, took a sip of water. “Actually, I drew this inference based on the various clues, everyone’s deductions, the results of our investigations, and my memories. However, there’s still some parts that can’t be explained, so I’m not entirely sure.”

Wen JingHan, who had been standing there the entire time, didn’t look very surprised, “We accept any bold speculation, as long as it’s logical. Let’s hear it.” 

“A cowardly, antisocial, hygienic, thin, and young man. I’ve been filtering this image in my mind repeatedly. There are more than one person who meets these conditions, but during our investigations, they’ve been cleared. The infusion tube has also appeared in my mind’s scenes countless times. He cleaned the infusion tubes, but then why didn’t he just directly use new ones? I think that it might be because he can’t get new ones. And then, the scene where Wang Bin and Zhao MengQi acquired the infusion tubes also kept appearing. It took me a while to understand that it’s not suspicious because of the two of them, it’s suspicious because of the source of the infusion tubes. Where did they get them from? The cleaning carts.”

Chen QiaoYu slapped the table. “So you’re saying that it’s a janitor!”

“Yu Meng ran away when he was in middle school, so he probably didn’t get the opportunity to receive higher education. He was also very resentful, so the possibility of him becoming a janitor is very likely.” Wen JingHan nodded.

“On the day Lei Jing and that patient had a dispute, the janitor there had kept his head lowered the entire time, and he was very skinny, so he matches Lu YunYang’s inferences. And, although I couldn’t see his face clearly, I saw his back as he was pushing the cart away, and he looked very similar to this.” Guan Jin pointed at the recording Lin Bai had gotten of the parking lot the night Zhao MengQi had committed the murder, at the back of a janitor wearing a green uniform and pushing the cart into the underground passageway.

“Isn’t that the janitor Zhao MengQi distracted so he could steal an infusion tube? His name…” Zheng Fei struggled to think of it.

“His name is Li GuangSheng,” affirmed Guan Jin.

Lin Bai turned around and clacked at his keyboard for a while before scratching his head. “But, Li GuangSheng lives in City Y, single, and at the time of the cases, he has been in City Y the entire time, attending school. He’s in high school, raised by his father, since his mother passed away three years ago. He doesn’t have anything to do with Yu Meng at all.”

“There’s something else. What I don’t understand is how he set his sights on Du XiaoYue. That clinic was opened by a husband and wife, and everyone’s investigations show that since their opening five years ago, it’s always been them two as well as two nurses they hired. A small clinic like that wouldn’t specially hire janitors.” Guan Jin was very confused.

“Du XiaoYue, the clinic, Hospital Three, the clinic…” mumbled Zheng Fei. Suddenly he slapped his forehead. “Could it be like this? Wait just a moment!” Then, he sprinted off.

“Could the file be fake?” suggested Gu Xiang.

“Unless Yu Meng has other plans, he wouldn’t have gone so far as to purposely get a fake identity for such a detailed file. If he really is this careful and shrewd, then he wouldn’t just be a janitor,” disagreed Lu YunYang.

“If our previous conclusion was correct, that the killer must be Yu Meng, then that means there’s only one possibility. Little Bai, do a facial comparison of Li GuangSheng’s photo and his ID photo,” said Wen JingHan.

“You suspect that this Yu Meng is impersonating Li GuangSheng?” Guan Jin was surprised.

“How could he be, the photos look quite similar.” Ding Ding looked at them closely.

“A lot of people can’t even recognize themselves from their own ID photo, so are you really sure about that?”

“…” 

Lin Bai busied himself with the comparison, and the others silently thought about the various possibilities.

Soon, there was a beep, and Lin Bai shouted, “Damn! Sure enough, they’re not the same person!”

“He fraudulently used the ID card of Li GuangSheng, who looked extremely similar to him.”

“I got it!” Zheng Fei ran in. “Two years ago, Li GuangSheng worked for the shopkeeper of the convenience store next to the clinic. At that time, the shopkeeper had twisted his ankle, so Li GuangSheng helped him carry and shelve items. And, when he was working there, he had gone to the clinic before to borrow things or pick up medicine for the shopkeeper. The time coincides with when Du XiaoYue was killed.”

“Nice! How did you think of this?” asked Chen QiaoYu.

“The shopkeeper had said that an employee from Hospital Three had even helped him before. I remembered about it just then, and realized that the so-called help was someone working for him.”

“Arrest him! Boss!” Ding Ding was very excited. “We finally caught this bad guy.”

Wen JingHan shook his head. “Everything is based on our deductions, but we don’t have any evidence. He doesn’t collect his victims’ belongings as trophies, and with his cautiousness, I don’t think that we’ll be able to find any incriminating evidence in his house.”

“We can interrogate him! I don’t believe that he won’t open his mouth!” Chen QiaoYu rubbed her hands.

“He won’t talk. This type of person is very sealed and withdrawn, so even if you arrested him for impersonating someone, it would still be very hard to get him to admit things, and it might even backfire,” disagreed Lu YunYang.

“You already have an idea, right?” Wen JingHan suddenly looked at him.

“I’m not too sure about it…” Lu YunYang looked at Guan Jin.

“…Why are you looking at me?” Guan Jin felt very apprehensive.

*****

 “I heard that the case still hasn’t been solved,” an older nurse said worriedly.

“Yeah, it’s really frightening.” Wu Meng sighed and walked towards the emergency room. She asked a janitor who was sweeping the floor with his head lowered, “Huh? You weren’t cleaning here before, right?” 

The person didn’t look up nor reply, and he only retreated a few steps. Wu Meng shook her head helplessly and walked into the hospital room. Soon afterwards, an argument erupted.

“You have to be reasonable, if you’re dissatisfied, I can find another nurse to give you the shot. If you want to make a complaint, go ahead, I’d sure like to see who can stand you making a fuss out of nothing.” Wu Meng walked out, fuming, and kicked a cart at the doorway.

“What is it?” The old nurse hurried over.

“That person is so unreasonable. He was moving around, so there was a bulge after the shot, but he kept saying that it was my fault. Don’t you think he’s sick?!”

“Enough, if he wasn’t sick, then he wouldn’t be here. I’ll go, it’s okay.”

Wu Meng seemed to be furious about this matter, and she was still angry as she got off her night shift. She picked up her purse and quickly walked out the front door. After walking for a while, she realized that she had walked onto the pitch-black JinShan Street.

Wu Meng was frightened as she quickly walked forward, but she suddenly stumbled. “Ah, my shoelace.” She slowly shuffled to a tree next to the road, and seemed to be holding the tree for balance as she tied her shoelaces. Soon afterwards, she continued walking.

Suddenly, a black shadow next to the road leapt out, covered her mouth with a hand and dragged her to a flower bed. Wu Meng seemed to be too scared to even struggle, and she let herself be dragged off into the flower bed.

The person was still covering Wu Meng’s mouth, and he used his other hand to wrap something that resembled a rope around her neck. Then, he tightened his grip, pulling hard on the murder weapon in his hand. As he exerted his strength, he muttered, “She should’ve died a long time ago, she should’ve died…” After around two minutes, he finally realized that something was off; the thing he was strangling seemed to be very rigid, and the tube in his hands hadn’t gotten tighter at all.

“Say, it’s been so long. Aren’t you tired yet? I’m already getting tired.” A cold voice suddenly sounded. Immediately afterwards, a bright light suddenly shone on them, making it so that the panicked person in the flower bed had nowhere to hide.

‘Wu Meng’ stuck their foot out and easily tripped the person behind them, causing him to fall down. Immediately, people rushed out from nearby and quickly handcuffed the person.

“Yu Meng, it’s time for you to stop.” Wen JingHan stood in front of the blinding light, his expression inscrutable. “Take him away.”

“That was so exciting and frightening. When we exchanged spots under the tree, I was pretty fast, right?” Wu Meng poked her head out from behind Lu YunYang.

The ‘Wu Meng’ in the flower bed turned around impassively.

“Pft——” Although the sound was very soft, Guan Jin could discern that it was Lu YunYang, without a doubt.

“What the fuck are you laughing about! Wasn’t this your idea?!” Guan Jin said angrily as he ripped off the wig on his head.

“Yes, yes, please ignore me.” A certain person was very shameless. “But, although you look very pretty——”

Guan Jin’s eyes widened at once.

“——you’re definitely still a man, and you’re just so-so at pretending to be a woman.”

Nonsense, of course I’m a real man!

“Why did I have to pretend to be a woman?!” Guan Jin was still furious, and he decided to use this to blot out what he owed to Lu YunYang for saving his life.

“Ding Ding isn’t very good at fighting, so it would’ve been very dangerous. QiaoYu is a little plump, so it might’ve been too obvious,” Lu YunYang explained earnestly.

…So you’re saying that my figure is as delicate as that of a little girl! Guan Jin retorted, “Isn’t Wen JingHan more similar to a woman?!” He completely forgot about their relationship as boss and employee.

Wen JingHan, who had been targeted even when he had done nothing, said calmly and truthfully, “I’m 180 centimeters tall, and my build is also much larger than Wu Meng’s.”

…For the first time since Guan Jin had been reborn, he felt that it would’ve been better if he was dead.

Lu YunYang walked over and helped Guan Jin take off the steel neck guard on his neck; Jiang Tong had helped get it for them from the hospital. In order for the plan to be completely foolproof, he had done his best to consider all the possibilities. Lu YunYang used the light to carefully inspect Guan Jin’s neck. Mn, good, there weren’t any injuries, and it was still so——smooth and slender…

“What are you touching me for?” Guan Jin shivered and knocked away Lu YunYang’s hand.

“Um, I was just checking whether or not there were any injuries,” Lu YunYang said as casually as he could.

 

How come he had touched him right away? But, Little Jin’s neck seemed to be quite sensitive…