SFTD -Chapter 76 Who’s Next? (Part 14)

“Yeah, it’s the Women’s Volleyball World Championship quarterfinals—China vs. Dominican Republic. But honestly, that match is infuriating to watch!”

Wang Limin sounded excited and even tried to raise his hand, but as soon as his wrist moved against the handcuffs tied to the chair, he immediately restrained himself.

Chu Menghan stood up and went next door to find Liu Da. Neither of the two suspects seemed to have a clear motive, and for a moment she felt completely without direction.

Zhou Hai, however, kept staring at Wang Limin without blinking. The man’s tone didn’t sound like someone deeply scheming. The match he mentioned—Zhou Hai had just checked it on his phone via Baidu, and it was indeed real.

A man doing fairly well in business and living a smooth life—what motive would he have to kill three prostitutes?

Chu Menghan discussed it briefly with Liu Da, and they decided to wait for the comparison results.

At that moment, Xu Biao’s phone rang. Seeing that it was Xiao Liang, he quickly turned on speakerphone.

“How are the results?”

“Mm. Wang Limin’s DNA completely matches the unknown male sample found in the trash bin tissue from Zhu Manli’s bathroom.”

Chu Menghan clenched her fist. Under the current lack of solid evidence, this was the best possible news.

“Great!”

Zhou Hai took the phone from Xu Biao. “Sister Zeng only compared the semen DNA, right?”

“Yeah.”

Zhou Hai hung up and turned back to Liu Da and the others.

“Since we now strongly suspect these two, can we apply for a search warrant? This DNA match alone is too weak—it only proves Wang Limin was at victim A Zhu Manli’s home. We need to find the weapon.”

Chu Menghan’s expression calmed. She knew Zhou Hai was absolutely right. If they submitted this to the procuratorate like this, a defense lawyer would tear it apart easily.

“It’s already been applied for. I’ll go urge them. We’ll take the suspect along as well.”

With that, Chu Menghan turned to make arrangements. Liu Da looked at Zhou Hai, who was deep in thought, and asked with concern:

“What’s wrong? You look like you want to say something but are holding back.”

“Let’s go to the scene. Even though the DNA matches, my instinct tells me Wang Limin isn’t the killer. Forget it—I shouldn’t let my subjective judgment influence the investigation.”

Shortly after, Chu Menghan returned with the search warrant. Liu Da glanced at his watch.

“I still have a meeting later. You handle the investigation first. Make sure you keep a close eye on this case. The city is paying close attention—three people have already been killed, and the impact is very bad. Yesterday, a journalist was wandering around the area and almost leaked photos. We can suppress it for now, but not for long. The pedestrian street has too much traffic. So the key is to solve the case quickly—that’s the only way to resolve everything.”

Chu Menghan gave a solemn salute to Liu Da as a form of assurance.

They immediately set off for Guangping Garden with the search warrant.

Xu Biao was munching on a bag of egg yolk pastries in the car. Without water, he kept choking, but once the hunger was slightly eased, he turned to Zhou Hai.

“Who do you suspect?”

“I don’t know. But it’s definitely not Wang Limin. He’s either a complete actor or genuinely stupid. That talkative behavior doesn’t fit a murderer with a careful mind—he couldn’t have done it.”

Xu Biao wiped his sweat with one hand while fanning himself with his shirt.

“So there are only four regular customers… could it be those two?”

He shook his neck and rubbed his chin.

Zhou Hai didn’t respond. They still needed to see the suspects’ homes before drawing any conclusions. Either way, they had to eliminate those two first.

The first crime scenes of Liu Wen and Wang Hong had not yet been found, and that was directly tied to the killer. Only by locating those scenes and the murder weapon could the case be complete.

Would Guangping Garden reveal the answers?

Half an hour later, the search warrant arrived.

First, they went to Wang Shouli’s home—the man who sold meat sandwiches.

His home was in District B. It seemed he had bought the apartment from a relocated homeowner. They arrived at Building 18, Unit 3, 22nd floor.

They activated their body cameras, read out the search warrant and legal procedures to Wang Shouli, and had him wait outside before opening the door.

The two-bedroom apartment was fairly spacious and very clean, not at all like a single man’s messy home. The interior was simple, and the kitchen and dining area had clearly been turned into a small workshop.

In a smaller bedroom, there was a large freezer and a double-door refrigerated cabinet. The kitchen was stacked with bags of onions, chilies, two bundles of scallions, and cilantro.

Near the north balcony, a large iron pot was still bubbling, filling the entire room with the smell of stewed meat.

Xu Biao pulled down his mask and sniffed repeatedly.

“If every crime scene smelled like this, I’d be in heaven.”

The room was so straightforward it seemed to hide no secrets. Zhou Hai stood in the living room observing carefully while Xu Biao searched around.

Zhou Hai glanced at the large freezer and walked over.

He opened it—inside were bags of meat, each with supermarket labels. Six bags in total were neatly stacked. The openings were tied shut, and dates were written on them in black marker.

In the corner were about a dozen pig leg bones, likely for soup, placed in a large iron basket. There was no heavy frost inside the freezer, suggesting the owner kept things very clean.

He closed it and walked to the refrigerated cabinet. This was even more organized: five large basins filled with chopped onions, scallions, chilies, cilantro, and spices wrapped in cloth bundles.

At the bottom were two 10-kilogram white plastic buckets filled with solidified lard—clean, milky-white fat, also labeled with dates.

Zhou Hai wasn’t sure about the scale of his operation—why would he need to prepare so many ingredients?

Leaving the room, Xu Biao had already finished checking the kitchen and dining area. He came over holding two heavy kitchen knives.

“Zhou Hai, do we take these back for testing?”

“Did you spray reagent on them?”

Xu Biao nodded. “Yeah, nothing showed up.”

Zhou Hai waved his hand, signaling they didn’t need to take them. The two then moved to the master bedroom.

On the bedside table was a photo frame. Inside it was a very youthful girl hugging Wang Shouli from behind. Both of them were smiling brightly. Their facial resemblance made it obvious—they were father and daughter.

“Xu Biao, take a photo.”

Xu Biao hurried over and photographed the only picture in the room.

Zhou Hai turned slightly. “How old is Wang Shouli?”

At the doorway, Wang Man thought for a moment.

“According to his ID, he’s 48 this year. Looks a bit older, right?”

Zhou Hai nodded slightly, scanning the bed—only one set of bedding.

He asked, “No sign of his wife? Is she back in his hometown?”

“We didn’t ask the team leader. But Wang Limin said his second uncle only has a daughter and didn’t mention a wife. I’ll go ask?”

Zhou Hai waved his hand. “Ask later when we’re out.”

They checked the wardrobe, bedside, and storage boxes—nothing of value was found.

Xu Biao shook his head and looked at Zhou Hai.

“No useful discoveries. Move to the next house?”