INVESTIGATION NOTES

Anning City. Eight o'clock in the evening. A dilapidated cottage, flickering with red and blue lights. Yellow caution tape tightly encircles the small cottage. "What's the situation at the scene?" Liang Xin took the gloves handed to him by his colleague, asking as he put them on. "It's a total wipeout," Jiang He said. Liang Xin shot him a cold glance, "If you want to be a good cop, you need to learn to be a better person." Realizing his mistake, Jiang He scratched his head guiltily and quickly corrected himself, "The whole family is dead." "How did the discover the bodies?" Liang Xin put on his gloves, reluctant to touch the corpses easily. "The son of the informant came to play with the victim's child, but no one answered when he called out. So, he went inside and found the door open, and the child was scared to death." "Go on." "According to the informant, the male victim is named Li Tieshan, also known as Li Sier. He usually idles around playing mahjong for a living, while the female victim, Yang Yuzhu, works as a waitress in a restaurant in the county town. They have an eight-year-old son. Oh, five years ago, Yang Yuzhu's cousin went out to work and left her daughter in their care. The daughter is now in college in the city." Liang Xin couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. He asked, "The cousin's child is already in college, but their son is only eight?" Jiang He nodded, "The couple is in their second marriage. This young son is from Yang Yuzhu and Li Sier's marriage, and they also have a daughter from Yang Yuzhu's previous marriage. Yang Yuzhu is from out of town and settled here after meeting Li Sier on her way to work." Looking at the child lying on the ground, Liang Xin couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. What kind of ruthless killer would spare even an eight-year-old child? "Why hasn't Lao Zhao arrived yet? Doesn't he have a sense of time?" Liang Xin was about to get angry when he saw a man in sportswear getting out of the police car at the door. Jiang He breathed a sigh of relief, "Speak of the devil, and he shall appear." Upon seeing Zhao Ying, Liang Xin immediately changed his expression, "Lao Zhao, if you didn't show up soon, I would have sent Xiao Jiang to pick you up." Zhao Ying pushed his glasses up and gave Liang Xin a glance. Jiang He couldn't help but marvel at how quickly his master could change faces, as if he were trained in Sichuan opera. The usually aloof Zhao Ying was visibly taken aback when he saw the child's body on the ground, but he still maintained a professional attitude and began a preliminary autopsy of the victims, "It appears that the victims did not struggle before their deaths, there are no signs of defensive wounds." After lifting the clothing covering Li Sier's body and seeing the blurred flesh and blood underneath, Liang Xin couldn't help but say, "It's likely a crime of passion, the killer was ruthless." After carefully examining the body with a magnifying glass, Zhao Ying remarked, "The cut edges at the bottom are neat, but the technique is too rough. I wonder, where is the other half?" After looking around the room, Liang Xin added, "It's probably a crime committed by someone known to the victims." Jiang He shuddered, "This killer is really twisted, chopping them up like that." "No more nonsense, let's get to work," Liang Xin's face darkened, and Jiang He could only leave the scene dejectedly. "You've taught him well, they're not ordinary people," Zhao Ying quipped at Liang Xin, not giving him a chance to respond, immediately shifting the conversation back to the bodies, "Based on the temperature and humidity at the scene, the time of death for the victims should be within 48 hours, the cause of death is likely excessive bleeding. Whether they took any sedatives before death will need toxicology testing back at the lab to confirm." There were many onlookers gathered at the gate of the Li family's courtyard, and the police were trying to disperse the crowd. Liang Xin scanned the crowd and found an opportunity to strike up a conversation with a man nearby. After chatting for a few moments, he discovered that the man was the owner of the inn across the street and happened to know the victim Li Sier. "Could the man who died have had enemies? It's such a pity that the whole family is gone," Liang Xin pretended to be shocked as he engaged in conversation. The innkeeper was a chatterbox, "He didn't have any enemies. Li Sier was known for being righteous and never offending anyone. But he had a bad habit of gambling." Liang Xin raised an eyebrow, passing a cigarette to try and get closer, "Brother, it sounds like you knew him well?" "How could I not? He often played mahjong downstairs at my place. The neighbors around here all know him. Occasionally, he'd go to the station in the village in front," the innkeeper said with a click of his tongue. Seeing an opportunity to gather more information, Liang Xin continued, "If it wasn't a revenge killing, could it have been a crime of passion? But sparing the child seems unlikely." The innkeeper, also one to enjoy gossip, opened up, "Who knows if the killer acted out of pure rage. Their child is a handful, and the couple couldn't control him. But they were a mixed couple, and the woman isn't very pretty but quite attractive. I heard she was always flirting around, maybe she offended someone. Poor Li Sier would ride his old electric bike to pick her up every day, sigh." Listening to this, Liang Xin was surprised. The image of Li Sier painted by the innkeeper didn't match the scene's circumstances. "Just heard someone say they have a daughter who's in college, what a shame," Liang Xin shook his head in feigned regret. The innkeeper corrected him, "That's their niece, who stays with them for schooling. Her mother's family is poor, so they provide some living expenses each month and help take care of the niece. I remember the girl coming home every Friday and returning to school on Saturdays. She's really lucky." Liang Xin realized that based on the forensic report on the time of death, the killer should have killed the girl as well. Yet it appeared as if the killer had intentionally spared her. After excusing himself, Liang Xin avoided the innkeeper and returned to the crime scene, pacing back and forth, observing the surroundings for any clues about where the killer might have hidden. But the low foundations and close proximity of the cottages in this area made it impossible to hide any movement. The killer had managed to kill three people without a sound. Although the killer seemed methodical and ruthless, it was evident from the rough technique that this might have been their first murder. However, one thing puzzled Liang Xin. The innkeeper had described Li Sier as having good relationships, but judging from the crime scene, it seemed the killer had emotional instability before the murders. The killer's method of killing didn't fit the profile of a crime of passion. If it were a crime of passion, it should have been Yang Yuzhu who suffered the most brutal death, not Li Sier. Suddenly, as if he had discovered something, Liang Xin crouched down, tilting his head. Seeing his action, Zhao Ying furrowed his brow, "Are your hemorrhoids acting up?" Liang Xin, for once, didn't retort and calmly said, "It's too clean." His words carried a subtle sense of precision that was hard to detect. Confused, Zhao Ying asked, "What do you mean?" Liang Xin continued to look inside the house and muttered to himself, "Why are there no footprints of the killer?" As requested, the translation of the text into English is provided above. If you need any further assistance or have any other requests, feel free to let me know!