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Chapter 34: 34

At 2.45 am, the television screen lit up on its own. The eerie light illuminated the dark living room. Several faces could be seen reflected on the flickering snowy static screen.

The hellish mission was almost over. To be honest, Han Fei had no idea how he managed to survive for so long, but he finally saw a bit of hope at the end of the tunnel.

Five figures sat facing away from the bedroom door on the living room couch. They stared transfixed at the old television screen, as if there was something immeasurably interesting among the static.

Tik tok, tik tok… The ticking of the clock aligned with Han Fei’s heartbeat. He tried his best to calm himself. He must not let himself commit any mistake now that he was at the last leg of the mission. His eyes scanned the ‘people’ in the living room. Eventually his gaze settled on the television screen. Underneath the fuzzy static, there was a male voice. It was barely discernible, it sounded like a madman mumbling to himself. Han Fei focused his attention. He picked out terms like dissection, metamorphosis, break free, beauty and so on.

‘Room 1044 is haunted by the victims of the human jigsaw case. I’ve personally encountered Wei Youfu and Ah Mei’s ghosts here. However, based on the tone of the man from the tv, it doesn’t sound like he’s a fellow victim. If anything, he sounds more like the killer.’ The victims of the human jigsaw case were all ordinary people. Han Fei had seen their photos at their time of death. Every single one of them was filled with despair and pain. They did not sound like people who would repeat these meaningless mumbo-jumbos after death. To get to the bottom of this, Han Fei tried to grasp every single detail from what the man was saying.

‘Based on the crime scenes, the murders were highly ritualistic.’ Han Fei thought back to the information he had read on the case. The law enforcement paid special import to this case. Even a decade later, the case was still open. Xin Lu Police was still investigating and collecting evidence. They even offered rewards for any possible clues. Through the official released statements, Han Fei understood some of the insider details.

According to the common classifications, there are four types of serial killers, visionary, mission, hedonistic and control. Xin Lu Police classified the human jigsaw killer as an extremely violent person with a mission who was looking for control. Most of the victims of the case were children and females. The police profilers thus believed the murderer was someone who had no control in real life and thus went after targets who were weaker than him. He wished to gain something from these victims to satisfy his twisted heart.

Of course, Han Fei only had limited information from the police’s official statement. The other information he instead gathered from the internet. They might not be accurate but at least they had provided him with a direction of investigation. Until now, he agreed with the profiler’s assessment but as he continued to piece together what the man on the tv was saying, he realized the killer had a much deeper purpose than that. There might be a deeper meaning to this string of murders.

‘Metamorphosis? Butterfly?’ Han Fei had gained a clue from Perfect Life which was not to the police’s knowledge, the suspect from the frozen body case, Meng Changan had predicted the human jigsaw case. Meng Changan himself was not a normal person. After his first murder, he revealed to his family that there was someone guiding him. He did what he did to catch a clearer glimpse of the butterfly in his brain. ‘The frozen body case and human jigsaw case appear to be related to the butterfly, what does this butterfly symbolize?’

Meng Changan claimed the butterfly ignited the murderous urge within him. Now listening to the man on the tv, the murderer from the human jigsaw case was somehow induced by the butterfly as well.

‘From the murder scenes alone, one would think the murderer is a mission type serial killer but now as I listen to this voice on the tv, there are plenty of flagrant symbolism and visions. His motive is extremely complex.’

Han Fei was not a professional detective, a few days ago, his homework was coming up with punchlines to make people laugh. In terms of deduction and analysis, he was just a beginner. Turning to the figures on the couch, Han Fei studied the five blurry shadows and images of the victims floated up in his mind.

‘The order by which the victims were murdered didn’t seem to say much, but their age…’ The child who appeared inside the house at 0.14 am was very similar to the youngest victim of the human jigsaw case. ‘Chui Tianchi, 12, he was once a children’s outfit model. He died between 11 pm to 1 am.’

Then Han Fei turned to the second ghost. This was the woman with the long hair who shuffled past the bedroom door at 0.44 am. ‘Chui Caiyi, Chui Tianchi’s elder sister, 18, she had a pair of pure and gorgeous eyes. She was an eye model, many eye products had her as their ambassador.’

His eyes then moved to the short-haired woman with the fruit knife. An image instantly pulled up in his mind. ‘Xiao Qing, 20, a university student and a family tutor. She excelled in both sports and studies. The money she earned she used to support her schooling and a part she used for charity donation. She also took on legs modelling jobs.’

Next to the short-haired woman was a lady with a wiry frame. She wore a pair of high heels and her skin was eerily white. ‘Zhang Linfan, 23, a livestreamer with a small following. She had a pair of snow-white hands. She often took on nail art advertisements, she was a hand model. She died around 1 am, about the same time, she appeared earlier.’

‘The next victim should be the 25 years old Ah Mei. Other than a housewife, she had a social media presence that was quite popular. She shared her daily life on it and was famed for her plump lips. Many lipstick companies reached out to her.

‘The victim closest in age to Ah Mei was Wei Youfu, 26. He died around 3 am. He was the only victim who did not have a particular attractive physical asset. That led the police to believe Wei Youfu was murdered because he arrived at the wrong place at the wrong time. Furthermore, this was the killer’s first stint so Wei Youfu was believed to be an unfortunate collateral damage.

‘Other than Wei Youfu, there is only one other male victim. He was the oldest of all the victims. Gu Hua, 29, a catalog model. He died between 3 to 4 am.’

There were 8 victims in the human jigsaw case, 7 of them had almost similar time of death and were close in age. Han Fei also noticed that the older they were, the later their time of death. From midnight to 4 am; from the darkest hour to almost dawn.

According to biology, the human body physiology and ability started to peak after 12 and began to deteriorate after 30.

Every victim of the human jigsaw case appeared to be specially selected. This was no random killings, it was a premeditated crime.