CYCGS 07

Chapter – 07

Profile

At 8:30 in the morning, the alarm rang. Yan Tuo, having slept less than six hours, swiftly got up from his camp bed.

After a quick tidy-up and a hasty breakfast in the cafeteria, once everyone was assembled, he called a meeting in his office.

Captain Cao Yiman of the First Brigade brought his core team and nodded in greeting to Fang Ping, the head of the tech team, sitting on the sofa. He then looked at the middle-aged man with slicked-back hair beside him, somewhat surprised—he looked very unfamiliar.

Yan Tuo immediately introduced him: “This is Dr. Zhao Tao, a psychology expert brought in by the bureau to assist. Old Cao, give a brief rundown of the case from the day before yesterday, including the ones suspected to be related.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cao Yiman acknowledged, prepared briefly on the whiteboard, and began his briefing.

“There are a total of 7 suspected related cases, spanning 6 years, with 3 in neighboring provinces and 4 in our province. The last two are in our city, dated May 21 of this year and the day before yesterday, July 9. Please refer to the case files for details.”

Cao Yiman highlighted the images of the two local cases and continued: “The victim in the May 21 case, Lin Moumou, male, 26, worked as a real estate salesperson and lived alone. The crime scene was a wetland park near his residence. His body was discovered by morning joggers who reported it. The time of death is estimated to be between 1 and 2 a.m.”

“The victim in the July 9 case, Yu Moumou, male, 28, was a celebrity performer. His body was found in a fish pond contracted by villager Ge Mou in Gejia Village on the outskirts of the city. This is the dump site; the primary scene is still unknown.”

“Based on the degree of decomposition, the estimated time of death is between 3 and 5 p.m. on July 8. The dump time should be around 10 p.m. Two children in the village had contact with the suspect while asking for directions, but unfortunately, they couldn’t remember the suspect’s license plate.”

Fang Ping added at this point: “The results of the tire track排查 at the fish pond site came in last night. One set belonged to Ge Mou’s Jianghuai pickup, which he commonly used for hauling goods. The other set, based on tread wear, was from an old Jinhua minivan over 10 years old. We’ve now coordinated with the traffic police department to check road surveillance from that day. If all goes well, we should have results by the afternoon.”

Yan Tuo nodded and asked, “What about public sentiment?”

Fang Ping replied with some headache: “Yu Moumou is kind of a minor celebrity, around the seventh or eighth tier, so the video of his body being pulled from the water that day, once spread, caused a huge reaction. The intelligence unit reported that WeChat has banned its sharing and the trending searches have been taken down, but the热度 hasn’t died down yet. All kinds of baseless rumors are running rampant, and the impact is currently immeasurable.”

Yan Tuo turned to Zhao Tao: “Teacher Zhao, you’ve definitely already looked over the relevant files. What’s your view… do you support the cases being the work of the same perpetrator, and can they be combined into one case?”

“I am affirmative.”

Zhao Tao opened his notebook and distributed photocopies of his sketches to everyone, speaking modestly.

“This is a composite sketch of the suspect based on the materials and witness accounts. But I should remind everyone that criminal behavior analysis and profiling only provide material and assistance for the investigation direction; they can’t hit the bullseye in one shot. Sometimes they can even give misleading hints. After all, I’m not a criminal investigator, and my drawing skills are pretty mediocre, so take this as a reference.”

Yan Tuo looked at the portrait of a clean-featured young man on the A4 paper, then raised his head, waiting for Zhao Tao’s explanation.

“The general outline is based on the descriptions from the two children, but the suspect was wearing a hat, and it was late at night, so the kids’ accounts aren’t all that precise. There may be significant differences from reality. Overall, pale skin and a lean build are certain. What surprised me and led me to double-check repeatedly was the eyebrows—both children explicitly stated that the eyebrows were curved as if they’d been microbladed, because they looked just like their own mother’s and left a strong impression.”

Cao Yiman was five years older than Yan Tuo, a no-nonsense straight-as-an-arrow kind of guy. He couldn’t help but interject with some disdain: “Why would a grown man get his eyebrows microbladed? So sissy—is he in the entertainment business too?”

Zhao Tao: “I wouldn’t rule out that possibility, but even if so, he’d basically be someone so far off the radar—like a dozen tiers below obscurity. Looking at the selection of multiple victims, they’re all young males who are pale, lean, and relatively delicate-featured. This shows he has clear preferences—it’s not a crime of passion. The reference point is very likely himself.

This is an extremely meticulous and careful person. The fact that no biological specimens were recovered from previous cases speaks volumes. In the first five years, it was roughly one case per year, with relatively precise intervals—this indicates he operates with a comfortable degree of control. From another angle, it suggests he has a relatively stress-free living environment and probably a stable job.

But this year, the last two cases occurred only two months apart. It’s conceivable that Yu Moumou must have possessed some major trigger that made him completely unable to stick to his usual habits, compelling him to break his routine and finish off the victim immediately.”

Yan Tuo nodded in agreement and instructed Cao Yiman: “Assign someone to go through Yu Moumou’s entire life story in exhaustive detail—from childhood experiences to personality, hobbies, career history, everything. Don’t let a single detail slip.”

Zhao Tao continued: “Aside from the common features—sedative drugs, zip ties, plastic bags over the face, and signs of assault—the knife wounds on the victims, while appearing chaotic and patternless, actually share a commonality upon closer examination: none of them damage vital organs like the heart or lungs. They’re all on parts of the body that produce intense pain but aren’t fatal. The suspect has an exceptional understanding of human anatomy, and there’s a strong punitive undertone.

From the very first discovered case, the suspect’s technique has been unusually clean and efficient. The victims show no signs of struggle. The later cases are almost like copy-pastes. This doesn’t align with the normal pattern of progression—the gap between planning and execution should be noticeable. I can only infer that there may be a true ‘first case’ out there that hasn’t been discovered, or even a second and third.”

Yan Tuo: “Our people sent to the neighboring province have been there for over half a month now. Given the time elapsed, investigation and evidence-gathering have been extremely difficult. So far, we haven’t found any leads beyond what’s in the case files.”

Zhao Tao: “To summarize, we’re looking for a man around 170 cm tall, pale, thin, with a delicate face, homosexual tendencies, who moved to this city within the last two years, has a stable job, and has some knowledge of human anatomy—such as a doctor, nurse, massage therapist, etc.”

Pausing and tapping his pen on his notebook twice, Zhao Tao added: “It’s also possible that he himself was a victim of bullying or assault in the past. This line of inquiry could be included in the investigation in the neighboring province.”

Cao Yiman looked a bit confused: “Where’d you get that from?”

Zhao Tao patiently explained: “His choice of targets has a clear reference—himself. No one who loves themselves would love themselves to the point of killing themselves, including the knife torture that amplifies pain. So I think this is self-loathing. Why loathe oneself? It’s anger at one’s own weakness. Of course, this is just my personal inference.”

Though not entirely convinced, Cao Yiman at least now had an additional direction to investigate. He immediately turned to Yan Tuo for approval: “Should I call Li and his team and have them screen victims from suspected cases over the past twenty years?”

“Yes. Also, send some people out with the composite sketches to hit the well-known gay bars in the city and report back on progress at any time.” Yan Tuo nodded, then turned to Fang Ping: “Let’s head over to the traffic police detachment later and try to get the leads on that Jinhua minivan as soon as possible.”

The short meeting broke up. Yan Tuo thanked Zhao Tao repeatedly for his help, walked him to the elevator, and upon returning, sat staring at the several sketch portraits on his desk.

The office was unusually quiet. Yan Tuo suddenly thought of something and turned his head toward the birdcage by the window table. He hadn’t heard a single peep from Tangyuan all morning.

As if reading his mind, the little creature chose that moment to emerge from its coconut shell house, perch on the swing, and fix its small eyes on him from under its bowl-cut crest.

After getting startled into hiding in its nest last night by the parade of onlookers, this was the first time it had come out. Yan Tuo approached, opened the cage door, and before he could even reach in, the little bird flew out and landed on his shoulder.

“Chirp chirp.”

Seemed like nothing was wrong—it had truly been well-behaved, staying perfectly quiet the whole time knowing he was handling official business.

Yan Tuo scratched its little white belly and said, “Bored, were you? …Heh, I’m heading out on business. Since you’ve been so good, I won’t lock you up. But don’t go flying around crashing into things or making a mess, got it?”

Then he thought he was being a bit too naggy. This little white ball was clearly fastidious—it had long since developed the habit of using a fixed spot at the bottom of the cage for its business. In over ten days, it had never once made a mess outside. He was overthinking it.

Tangyuan gave two “chirps” in reply and flew to perch on the handle of the cage. Yan Tuo was once again amazed by how well-behaved it was, but with the case being urgent, he didn’t have time to dwell on it. He gathered his things quickly and headed out.

Bai Yiyi looked around the now-empty office. This was finally his domain.

This was the first time in his life he’d ever set foot in such a solemn and dignified place as a police station. There had been too many people last night—he’d been too scared to even take a proper look around. Now, he definitely had to do some serious exploring.

Excitement and curiosity surged through him. But after fluttering around a few laps, he found it a bit dull.

Just the usual stuff: bookshelves, office desk, computer, printer, plus a sofa set and matching coffee table. It was certainly spacious, but… it didn’t seem all that different from an ordinary office, really.

Then he spotted the case analysis diagrams on the whiteboard. A few of them he recognized—they were the same ones he’d seen the night before last on his owner’s tablet, those four-grid images. His attention was immediately hooked.

Though he’d been hiding in his nest earlier, he’d overheard every word of the conversation outside. Now, looking at what was shown on the whiteboard, he couldn’t help but grow curious about the suspect.

He flew onto the desk and nudged at a stack of sketches, spreading them out.

It was a portrait of a delicate-featured young man. Bai Yiyi simply couldn’t imagine this person committing such heinous crimes—rape followed by murder. Truly, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

The proportions of the face—the three courts and five eyes, the distance between the eyes, the hairline—Bai Yiyi didn’t understand profiling at all. He was merely observing as a professional illustrator, but the more he looked, the more something felt off. Something just didn’t sit right.

Right—it was the eyebrows.

Just as Dr. Zhao had said, this person’s eyebrows were rather unusual.

To be fair, men getting their eyebrows microbladed wasn’t actually that rare. Bai Yiyi recalled two male classmates from his art academy days who were quite particular about their appearance—they’d gone together during their sophomore summer break to get their eyebrows done and even had some minor cosmetic procedures.

What was unusual was the shape of this person’s brows. They weren’t the straight horizontal brows or sword-like brows commonly seen on men, but rather crescent-moon shaped brows. Paired with the short hair or the cap in the drawings, it always gave off an odd, mismatched feeling.

Would a serial killer who had evaded capture for years, consistently cautious and low-key, make his appearance so conspicuously distinctive?

Bai Yiyi’s mind churned aimlessly as his palms began to itch. His claws unconsciously started poking and prodding at the portrait.

After a while, when he snapped out of it, he realized what mischief he’d done. One of the short-haired sketch portraits was now pockmarked with a whole patch of indentations from his poking.

Huh—strangely enough, after he’d poked at it, it actually looked much more natural to him.

Bai Yiyi thought it over. Since these were just photocopies anyway, and there was a whole stack of them, ruining one probably wouldn’t matter. He might as well go all the way and finish his idea, just to satisfy his curiosity.

Conveniently, a box of bright red ink paste was sitting right by the desk. Bai Yiyi dipped his claw in it and began scribbling and altering the image according to his own ideas.