In the hallway.

Shen Xin and He Wen Yu were sitting on a bench.

He Wen Yu was still fiddling with his broken glasses. After messing with them for a long time, he finally gave up, stuffed them into his pocket, and squinted at the people around him.

In the nearby courtyard, Li Xiaowen and the others were gathered in a discussion. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but from the way they were all talking at once, it looked intense.

He Wen Yu watched for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "Shen Xin, is this case in trouble?"

He wasn’t from an investigative division.

But while he hadn’t worked a case himself, he’d seen plenty of them.

The "murderer" was dead, and now a statement had surfaced saying he wasn’t the one who killed the victim.

’To He Wen Yu, if this were one of the crime shows he binged, it would be the part where a key figure gets silenced and the case hits a dead end.’

Shen Xin nodded instinctively.

Li Xingping’s death had indeed complicated things.

But...

"It’s actually not that bad."

Shen Xin pulled a hamburger out of a bag. He’d been busy all morning and was just now realizing how hungry he was.

Then he continued, "Being able to lock onto Li Xingping so quickly was a fluke. But at the end of the day, this is still a murder case."

"And murder cases have a standard investigative procedure. Think about it—Baijia Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides and isolated from the outside. There’s a ninety-nine percent chance the killer is still in the village."

"The whole village has just over one hundred and forty people. Subtract the old, the weak, and the sick, and how many are left?"

"You remember the Fan Lei special investigation, right? We cordoned off a several-kilometer radius and went door-to-door, person by person. The scale of that was massive. A few dozen people is nothing in comparison."

"And with a murder, there are only a few key points. Motive, for example. Finding out who had a conflict with the victim is usually easy."

"Once you find the motive, you’re not far from the killer. Then you just need to secure the evidence, and the case is solved."

In Shen Xin’s view, a case in a closed-off village like this was a lot like the "snowed-in mountain villa" trope from detective novels.

It was relatively easy to narrow down the suspect pool.

The real trouble would be if an outsider had been passing through the village, took a disliking to Zhang Kaiyong, beat him up, and then just left.

He Wen Yu nodded thoughtfully.

Shen Xin continued, "Besides, this case is only a few hours old. These days, there’s pressure to solve every murder and to do it quickly, but not *this* quickly."

In fact, identifying Li Xingping as the killer so early on had delayed the start of the normal investigation.

The autopsy report wasn’t back, the physical evidence hadn’t been fully analyzed, and the interviews weren’t even finished.

Normally, the investigation would have only just begun.

There had been some twists and turns, but Shen Xin was very confident they would solve it.

Just as he was speaking, Li Xiaowen walked over.

Seeing Shen Xin gnawing on a hamburger, he had a sudden realization and quickly apologized for taking up his time.

Besides, Shen Xin had helped chase Li Xingping and had been busy all morning. By all rights, he should be treating Shen Xin to a proper meal.

Seeing Li Xiaowen about to drag him off to eat, Shen Xin quickly refused. "Captain Li, I’m a detective too. Honestly, my stomach wouldn’t know what to do if I ever got to eat on time."

Li Xiaowen was amused and nodded with a smile, agreeing.

What detective didn’t have stomach problems?

"Alright then, I won’t stand on ceremony. Why don’t you stay a couple more days? Once this case is closed, I’ll host, and I promise I’ll treat you to a good meal," Li Xiaowen said politely before getting down to business.

He wanted Shen Xin—or rather, Tian Kui—to go out one more time.

The reason was simple.

If there was a second killer, he would inevitably have gotten blood on himself after beating Zhang Kaiyong to death, just like Li Xingping.

He could have washed it off, but the scent wouldn’t dissipate that quickly. A police dog could track it.

Shen Xin understood. After Li Xingping’s unexpected death, Li Xiaowen was going back to square one and investigating according to standard murder case procedure.

Shen Xin immediately stood up. "Alright, let’s head out now."

Tracking with a K-9 was time-sensitive; they couldn’t afford to delay.

Shen Xin went back to the police station, got Tian Kui, and set off.

On the way, Shen Xin and Li Xiaowen exchanged their thoughts on the case.

It was just as he’d thought. They were going to ignore whether Li Xingping was the real killer for now and investigate the murder from the very beginning, starting with the most basic elements: the body, the physical evidence, and the motive.

But first, Shen Xin had to pour some cold water on the idea. "Captain Li, the scene is heavily compromised. The bloodstains have been trampled, and a lot of people helped move the body. If we have Tian Kui track, all of that will be interference."

When something this major happened in an isolated village, all the villagers ran over to gawk.

Some people moved the body, others stepped in the blood at the scene.

Tian Kui could track every one of those people, but they would still need to filter through them to determine who the real killer was.

Li Xiaowen had clearly considered this. He sighed softly. "It can’t be helped. With cases in villages like this, the crime scene is rarely left intact. And Li Xingping... now that I think about it, he’s the biggest source of interference."

Shen Xin nodded in deep agreement.

The compromised crime scene was one thing, but quickly identifying Li Xingping as a suspect had seriously delayed the investigation.

If not for him, Fu Lianghui might have been able to secure the scene properly.

After Shen Xin and his team arrived, they could have followed the original investigative procedure and used Tian Kui to track the killer normally.

That would have eliminated a lot of interference.

But by the time they got there, Zhang Kaisheng was causing a scene at Li Xingping’s house, which interfered with securing the area.

And then they immediately confirmed Li Xingping as a person of major interest.

In that situation, you had no reason *not* to pursue him.

On the road to Baijia Post, Shen Xin also saw Li Shi pedaling his bicycle.

He had left and was now returning.

Guo Jin was following him on a motorcycle.

Li Xiaowen saw them too but didn’t have time to deal with it, delegating it to a subordinate from the health center to ask them questions.

They arrived at the village.

The police cordon had been expanded.

The forensics techs who had stayed behind couldn’t leave now either. They had to widen the search area and keep looking for evidence.

Outside the cordon, the crowd of onlookers remained.

Shen Xin led Tian Kui and got started right away.

For Tian Kui, tracking bloodstains wasn’t a difficult task.

The only problem was that with so many people coming and going, the blood scents were all mixed up.

Tian Kui locked onto the scent source, looked left and right, and immediately went up to a middle-aged woman outside the cordon and barked once.

The woman backed away repeatedly, a nervous look on her face.

Tian Kui moved closer.

’Foot.’

It was obvious. She had entered the crime scene and stepped in blood.

But they couldn’t rule her out yet.

Li Xiaowen gave a look, and a subordinate immediately took the woman aside to register and question her.

Then Tian Kui immediately went to an old man standing nearby, lifted a paw, and pointed at his foot.

No need to even look. It was definitely the same situation.

In the beginning, a large crowd of villagers had surrounded the crime scene. Zhang Kaiyong had also tried to run, so blood had dripped everywhere, and the probability of someone stepping in it was high.

And once the first person stepped in it and walked around, the blood on their shoe would be transferred elsewhere, where a second person could step in it.

A police dog can smell a single drop of blood even when it’s diluted hundreds of thousands of times.

So forget the second person; Tian Kui could still smell it on the third and fourth.

Sure enough.

Of the thirteen onlookers at the scene, every single one of them had the scent.

One middle-aged man had it not just on his feet, but on his hands as well.

"What’s this about?" Seeing Tian Kui move closer and sniff his right hand, the man nervously backed away.

Li Xiaowen immediately asked him if he had touched the body.

The man nodded nervously, saying he had helped carry the body at Zhang Kaiyong’s house.

Li Xiaowen frowned slightly and motioned for it to be recorded.

Tian Kui continued tracking.

’There’s some here.’

’This way.’

Shen Xin kept hearing his thoughts.

He was pointing to the concrete pavement.

In other words, people had walked everywhere, spreading the blood scent all over the place.

Li Xiaowen had anticipated this, but he hadn’t expected it to be this bad.

Shen Xin consoled him, "It’s alright, Captain Li. Let’s find everyone first, then we can slowly filter through them. It’s only about a hundred people, it’ll be quick."

Li Xiaowen thought about it and agreed. He mentioned that over a decade ago, when there were no surveillance cameras, they practically had to walk their legs off to solve a case.

His personal record was five hours of sleep in three days. By the end, he was in the middle of a meal when his head suddenly plunged into his noodle bowl, scaring everyone at the table into thinking he had died from overwork.

As he spoke with growing animation, Shen Xin felt a pang of empathetic heartache, but then suddenly said, "Captain Li, I’m realizing you’re quite talkative."

Before, he had seemed taciturn and a bit lacking in social skills, but after actually getting to know him, Shen Xin found he wasn’t like his surface impression.

"Am I?"

Li Xiaowen paused, then gave a wry smile. "Well, a lot of people say I’m not good with words."

He changed the subject, asking if Shen Xin had any other thoughts on the case.

Just exchanging ideas about the investigation.

Shen Xin thought for a moment and said, "It still comes down to physical evidence. Only physical evidence can confirm if there was a second person at the scene."

You can’t trust what people say. Physical evidence is the only hard fact.

Li Xiaowen thought so too.

He took out his phone and called his squad, urging them to speed up. If they couldn’t, he would request support from the city.

Meanwhile, the tracking continued.

The situation wasn’t optimistic. Tian Kui led the group into one house after another.

Upon asking, they all admitted to having gone to the scene to watch.

Then there was Zhang Kaiyong’s house.

In Baijia Village, Zhang was the most common surname; almost two-thirds of the villagers were named Zhang.

And Zhang Kaiyong had been the village chief. After he died, crowds of people came to mourn and offer condolences.

His wife, Tan Gui Zhi, had initially clutched the body, wailing, and had gotten who knows how much blood on her.

After the body was brought home, people came to see it. Wouldn’t they shake her hand to offer condolences?

Even if Tan Gui Zhi had washed her hands, it was useless. The scent was still spread everywhere.

Tian Kui’s tracking ability was too powerful; he could detect even the faintest scent.

This led to a situation where, after a full round of tracking, at least half the village tested positive for the scent.

And their homes, too.

After they returned home from watching the spectacle, their houses became contaminated with the scent.

Then there were those who left the village after watching.

Some people had to go out to work; they couldn’t just stop everything because of a murder.

If someone with the scent on them left the village, how could they confirm if it was the killer escaping or just someone leaving for normal reasons?

If they couldn’t even determine that, how could they possibly track them?

If they tried to track everyone, they would work Tian Kui to death.

In the end, Li Xiaowen himself called a stop to it, saying it wasn’t working. The situation was too chaotic.

Shen Xin had initially thought they could screen people based on the scents of those present at the scene, like in the Fan Lei case. But after this round of tracking, he decisively gave up on that idea.

"It has to be the physical evidence."

Li Xiaowen’s brow was deeply furrowed. He walked to the side and got back on the phone, pushing for the forensic evidence.

Tian Kui looked up at Shen Xin.

’We’re not tracking anymore?’

His eyes were full of confusion. He had been right in the middle of a good chase.

Shen Xin patted his head, and just then, he received a call from Sun Zhao.

He asked if Shen Xin had arrived in Nanjiang.

The original plan was for Shen Xin to fly back to Nanjiang. By this time, he should have already landed.

"Not yet. Something came up."

Shen Xin briefly explained the situation with the case.

On the other end of the line, Sun Zhao exclaimed, "You kid, you find a case wherever you go, don’t you?"

Shen Xin said, "Captain Sun, don’t tease me."

Glancing at Li Xiaowen, who was on the phone in the distance, Shen Xin said, "Captain Sun, can I come back a few days late? They might still need a K-9 here, so it’s probably better if I stay."

That was one reason.

’The other was, how could he possibly leave before a case was solved? The thought was unbearable.’