“Are you sure it’s the person you saw?” Mu Yu repeatedly confirmed with the man and the woman while holding Zhao Pengcheng’s photo.

“Yes. Exactly. He looks so fierce, I didn’t dare to talk to him much. When the kid knocked over the vinegar, I hurried over to stop any confrontation between my wife and them. We shouldn’t argue with such people,” the man recalled how this morning, his wife had only said a few words to the child, and the man stood up as if he was about to fight them, so he quickly intervened to calm things down.

“Qiu Feng, what did the household registration department say?” Mu Yu turned her face to ask.

“I just confirmed it. This is indeed Zhao Pengcheng’s wife, but there’s no record of them having a child in the registration,” Qiu Feng took out his phone, showing the photo of Zhao’s wife taken by the household registration department.

“Take a look, is this the woman who came this morning?” Mu Yu held out her phone for the two.

“No, it’s not. The woman was obviously younger than this one in the photo, she looked to be in her early thirties at most, definitely not this woman,” the woman immediately denied it. The woman in the photo, who was listed in Zhao Pengcheng’s household registration, was not the woman who came to the shop for breakfast today.

“Did anything else happen later? Like did anyone come to the shop looking for him, or waiting for him at the door?” Mu Yu suddenly understood that Zhao Pengcheng, dissatisfied with his wife’s inability to bear children, had found a mistress outside and was now openly flaunting his mistress and their child.

“Nothing else happened. After they finished breakfast, they just left. We have no idea where they went,” the shop owner’s wife was about to say something else, but was immediately stopped by the man.

“You can’t withhold any information from the police,” Mu Yu and Qiu Feng noticed the man was being evasive. His eyes were also shifting, indicating that there was definitely something he was hiding.

“Nothing else, trust me,” the man hurriedly added.

“Officers, we’re just running a small business here. People come in for breakfast, it’s just a matter of 5 or 10 yuan. As for anything else, we really don’t know,” the woman waved her hand, indicating that they really didn’t know anything else.

“Here’s my phone number. If you remember anything else, just call me directly. It’s our duty as the police to protect your safety too,” Mu Yu wrote her phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to the woman.

“Why don’t we just bring them back directly? I can see they’re definitely hiding something here. They must have seen who Zhao Pengcheng met later or saw something else.” Qiu Feng couldn’t understand why Yu didn’t expose them when even he could tell the couple was hiding something.

“They’re just witnesses, not suspects. We don’t have the authority to take them back,” Mu Yu smiled, feeling that Qiu really resembled herself back in the day.

At that moment, Mu Yu’s phone rang, and she turned on the speaker.

“Xu shushu (“uncle” in Chinese), what’s going on?” Mu Yu called Dr. Zhang and Dr. Xu ‘shushu’ in private.

“Yu, the direct cause of death for that body is indeed poisoning, but we also found ligature marks on the body. However, the victim definitely didn’t die from mechanical asphyxiation. Who could be so cruel, using so many methods to kill this person?” Xu sighed over the phone.

“How much hatred must the suspect have for this person? Poisoning, strangling with a rope, and finally burning the body.” Qiu Feng was shocked; he hadn’t expected to encounter such a shocking case during his internship.

“Could it be not just one suspect, but multiple individuals, all wanting to kill this person?” Mu Yu pondered for a moment. She felt that such methods definitely couldn’t have been carried out by the same person.

“You see, for example, poisoning. This seems more like a method a woman would use to kill a man. There’s a significant power disparity between men and women, so if they were to confront each other head-on, the woman were not likely to have the upper hand. That’s why this method of murder is generally carried out by women,” Mu Yu was analyzing.

“But strangulation, both women and men could do it,” Qiu Feng pondered.

“Why is that?” Mu Yu found Qiu Feng’s line of thought interesting.

“Think about it, if poisoning occurred first, then both women and men could strangle the victim. By the time of strangulation, the victim would already be weakened by the poison and have no strength to resist, so a woman could do it too.”

“Right, that makes sense. As for the final act of burning the body, it’s probably to cover up everything,” Mu Yu couldn’t determine the exact motive behind the final act.

“Master, what should we do now?” Qiu Feng capped his pen and looked at Mu Yu.

“Let’s go back and review the surveillance footage with Bai to see who this woman really is.”

“Yu, you’re back just in time. I bought you some chilled lemon juice,” Yan Yang said excitedly, holding a bottle of drink as he ran over to Mu Yu.

“I’m sorry, it’s my time of the month, I can’t drink,” Mu Yu waved her hand, declining Yan Yang’s offer.

“It wasn’t supposed to be today...never mind. Fortunately, I prepared in advance,” Yan Yang said as he brought over a cup of warm brown sugar ginger tea. “I just brewed this. Drink it while it’s hot. The air conditioning in our office is pretty chilly.”

“I’m sorry, Yan Yang. I have to go review the surveillance footage with Qiu Feng right now. If you find any new discoveries in the case files, let me know, okay?”

Qiu Feng stood nearby, looking stunned.

“What are you wondering? Hurry up and come with me,” Mu Yu turned around and saw Qiu Feng standing still in a daze.

“Oh, okay.” Qiu Feng quickly caught up with Mu Yu’s pace. Seeing her attitude towards Yan Yang, he couldn’t help but worry for himself. She clearly knew how Yan felt about her, but she rejected him so decisively. Although Qiu Feng’s feelings towards Mu were just admiration and he simply wanted to stay with her, now that he could work on the case with her, he realized that she might see him in the same way as seeing Yan—just someone useful until the case was over, then readily rejected.

“What are you thinking about? Are you thinking about the case?” Mu Yu had interrogated hundreds of suspects before. Seeing the look in Qiu Feng’s eyes, she immediately knew he must be thinking about her attitude towards Yan Yang just now.

“I’m not thinking about anything, really,” Qiu Feng didn’t know how to respond for a moment.

“Just felt like my attitude towards Yan Yang was too decisive, right? Whatever he’s thinking, the whole Yun Yao City Police Department knows, but I don’t have those thoughts. Rejecting him is better than leading him on,” Mu Yu thought, realizing that Qiu Feng was indeed still inexperienced as an intern.

“So, what kind of guys do you like?” Qiu Feng blurted out the question without knowing why. Although Yan Yang was already in his thirties, he was just right—no longer the awkwardness of a young man, but with a bit more maturity. Probably, outside, he’d be quite a catch.

“Is that question related to the case? Stop overthinking. Let’s focus on reviewing the surveillance footage later,” Mu Yu was puzzled by the gossip-like curiosity of this new young apprentice.

“Okay, fine.” Qiu Feng wanted to slap himself. How could he ask such a stupid question?

“Yu, you’re back. Did you find anything useful?” Bai Xiang, with his two apprentices, was watching the surveillance footage.

“Yeah, Bai. Did you see Zhao Pengcheng with a woman? Oh, and there was a child with them too,” Mu Yu recalled that there should be surveillance cameras nearby after they left the breakfast shop.

“How old was the child?” Bai Xiang pulled up the footage he had sorted.

“According to the description from the breakfast shop owner, I think the child was about three or four years old,” Qiu Feng continued the discussion.

“How did you come to that conclusion?” Mu Yu realized they hadn’t asked the man or woman about the child’s age.

“If the child is under three, the mother would probably be holding it during the meal. But the shop owner said the child was sitting in a chair and accidentally spilled vinegar. If the child were a bit older, maybe already in kindergarten, then they would have been taught rules and discipline. But this child clearly seems to be spoiled and not disciplined,” Qiu Feng explained.

“Okay, Bai, please search for cases where there’s only a woman with a child, or cases where there’s no man present,” Mu Yu thought for a moment. After they left, Zhao Pengcheng might have been called away by someone, leaving the woman alone with the child.

“Yu, take a look, they’re all here,” Bai Xiang quickly gathered all the videos and called Mu Yu and Qiu Feng over to watch.

“Can you zoom in on the video?” Mu Yu noticed one camera angle that could capture the woman’s face directly.

“Sure thing,” Bai Xiang operated the keyboard and enlarged the woman’s facial features on the screen.

“Qiu Feng, print out this photo, then give it to the household registration department to compare,” Mu Yu instructed.

“Great, you’re here, Yu.” Yan Yang rushed in, panting.

“What’s going on?” Looking at Yan Yang who was breathless, Mu Yu realized that even though he was usually unreliable, he wouldn’t joke around during work.

“Zhang just called me. He said the deceased’s DNA didn’t match anything, but they found an intact thumbprint, which matched a fingerprint from the Fendong Gold Shop robbery on April 25 earlier this year.”

“Do we know who the deceased is? Any detailed information?” Mu Yu immediately felt the case was starting to come together.

“We do. The deceased’s name is Lian Liwu, also a fugitive on the run.” Yan Yang handed the file to Mu Yu.

“I remember this guy. Five years ago, he robbed a taxi, but he’s been on the loose ever since. I didn’t expect him to join a gang and continue committing crimes,” Mu Yu recalled the time when Tang had taken her to apprehend this suspect, but they had missed him due to a tip-off. They had only managed to retrieve his fingerprints from his residence. It was surprising to find him killed in this rental room.

Just then, a female officer hurried in.

“Mu, Chief Wen asked you to immediately bring people to the riverbank. They found Zhao Pengcheng’s body there.”