“What are you thinking about, Song Yang?” wondered Xiaotao.

“Before I tell you, I’ve got a little test for you,” I said. “How many types of serial killers are there?”

“Well,” Xiaotao thought about it for a while and answered, “There are sociopathic serial killers who are obsessed with power and control; psychotic killers who are compelled to kill by the voices in their head; missionary serial killers who believe it is their religious or social duty to kill a certain demographic; and the hedonistic serial killers who are driven by lust and thrill.”

These were the standard classification of serial killers, but they only dealt with their motivations.

“Serial killers generally have their own clear style and targets,” I stated. “The victims all wore a red dress, they were all disfigured, and they were all hit on the back of their head. These three points make us think that we’re dealing with a serial killer, when in fact, we’re not.”

“What are you saying, Song Yang?”

“This is an atypical serial killer,” I said. “The murderers accidentally killed someone close to them. They were afraid of exposing themselves, so they killed several people in a row in the same style to make the police think that a serial killer did it to divert the suspicion away from themselves!”

“I get it now!” exclaimed Xiaotao. “The three cases after the first one were intended to mislead the police!”

I nodded. “The first case must’ve been their first murder. It was done sloppily, and they made a lot of mistakes. They should’ve taken off the victim’s red dress, but they didn’t. When the body was found, some people connected it to the folklore, so they simply continued to kill other women to make it seem even more like the ghost did it. Gradually they developed a methodical murder technique and got better and better at it.”

“This means that the couple at the tailor’s shop are even more suspicious now!” Xiaotao remarked. “Why do you think they killed the first victim?”

“I’m not sure why exactly,” I replied, “but I don’t think they hit the victim on the head with a heavy object at all. It’s more likely that she bumped into it or was shoved against it. In fact, it was probable that the first murder was an accident!”

“Then why did they kill Cao Dazhuang?”

It seemed that Xiaotao had linked the two cases together now. I agreed with this view, and the murderers responsible for all these deaths were most likely the couple at the tailor’s shop.

“I think they were trying to silence him,” I muttered. “Cao Dazhuang probably discovered the truth somehow, but he was a man, so the couple couldn’t make it seem like he was killed by the ghost. That’s why they had to make sure that his body was dismembered to make it impossible for the police to identify him.”

It could be said that the dismembered corpse case was the critical point where all these murders could be connected to each other. Once the relationship between Cao Dazhuang and the tailor was discovered, the whole truth of the case would immediately be clear!

For now, though, everything was still theoretical. We didn’t have any material evidence to support our suspicions. We couldn’t just work backwards from our own conclusion either. To wit, Dr. Qin probably thought Wu Mou was very suspicious, so he set his mind on him as the murderer and threaded every piece of evidence he found into the narrative that the murderer was indeed Wu Mou. The intuition of the investigator was, in this sense, a double-edged sword.

“Should I order some officers to monitor the couple’s movements?” asked Xiaotao.

“Not for the moment,” I shook my head. “Let’s first check Li Qin’s medical record secretly and see if she has any history of mental illness.”

“Why?” Xiaotao laughed. “What are you getting at, Song Yang?”

“Perhaps this would be a major breakthrough in the case,” I replied. “Or it might prove that everything we thought was wrong. In any case, just investigate the matter for now!”

I had nothing to do for the time being, so I planned to return to the hotel. When I came out with Xiaotao, Director Feng somehow found us and he brought a fat middle-aged man along with him. The man was introduced to us as the mayor. When he heard that the experts from the city were here to help with the murder cases, he immediately thought of inviting us to dinner tonight.

Xiaotao frowned and dragged Director Feng to the side and whispered, “Didn’t you promise us you’d cooperate fully with the investigation? Why are you trying to waste our time now?”

“The mayor kept insisting, so I really had no choice, Officer Huang!” Director Feng replied. “Could you please just honor his wish just this one time? He seemed desperate…”

Xiaotao let out a heavy sigh and told me, “You should go back and take care of Bingxin, Song Yang. I’ll handle the dinner.”

“I can go with you too! Are you sure you can handle it alone?”

Xiaotao gave me a grateful smile, but insisted, “If her dad finds out that we left Little Miss Sun all alone during her period, he’d kill me for sure! Go back and accompany her, Song Yang.”

I noticed that Xiaotao’s attitude towards Bingxin had changed. She used to resent her presence, but now she didn’t even mind me spending time alone with Bingxin anymore. Her trust genuinely moved me.

I then returned to the hotel alone, where I found Bingxin writhing in bed due to her menstrual cramps. I made her a cup of ginger and brown sugar tea and asked for a hot water bottle from the bar downstairs. Her pain alleviated slightly after drinking the ginger tea.

“You’ve become so considerate now, Song Yang-gege!” Bingxin remarked. “Xiaotao-jiejie always complained of you being too blunt and straightforward, but I think you’ve changed a lot!”

“Have I, though?” I asked. “Haven’t I always been this way?”

“No, absolutely not!” Bingxin pouted. “You never held the door open for me before. In fact, I got slapped in the face by the door once when I was behind you. Then when I couldn’t reach something on the shelf, all you did was get me a stool. And when I was terrified by the thunder, you explained the scientific cause of lightning and thunder instead of just comforting me!”

I laughed meekly. Had I been such an idiot in the past?

“You must’ve hated me, huh?”

“Not at all, Song Yang-gege!” Bingxin smiled. “I always find you adorable. You’re always so serious and earnest, not like those guys who've got a lot of charms but no substance at all!”

Bingxin started to blush, so I quickly changed the topic. “Are you really planning to come to my house for the New Year?”

“Yeah!” she laughed. “I’ve long wanted to visit the Song family’s legendary old estate!”

“But my house is haunted, you know?” I teased her. “At night, you can see people wearing ancient official uniforms walking around the house. I heard Grandpa say they’re the ancestors of the Song family.”

“Stop it!” she playfully shoved me. “You know I’m afraid of ghosts!”

I wasn’t just trying to scare her, though. When I was young, I really did see some figures wearing ancient official uniforms around the house. When I told Grandpa about it, he immediately took me to the ancestor’s shrine and burned some incense and joss paper in their honor.

Although my house was built in the modern style, the history of the estate could be traced back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In fact, the hill behind our house was full of old tombs for past family members of the Song family. The famed Song Ci was not the only noteworthy member of our family either—he was only the most famous one.

Bingxin and I went on to chat about the things she learned at medical school. Xiaotao finally came back later that night.

“Ugh, that was the worst dinner I’ve ever been to!” she complained when she came into the room. “The mayor spent the whole time boasting about how great a man his son is. It sounds like he’s trying to introduce him to me as a prospective husband!”

“At least you got to have a nice meal for free,” said Bingxin. “All we had for dinner was takeaway.”

“Wanna change places, then?” asked Xiaotao. “If the mayor knew that you’re Sun Tiger’s daughter, he’d bring his son over to meet you right away! Why do people in small towns like sucking up to people so much?”

“You do realize that I’m from a small town too, don’t you?” I smiled bitterly. “Right, I’m going back to my room.”

“Wait!” Xiaotao stopped me. “The mayor had another reason to invite me to dinner. It’s probably related to the case!”