Chapter 703: The Murderer’s Strike!

Who’s Xiaohai?

When this question floated to mind.

Even Chen Xiao took a few seconds before connecting it to a person.

A young policeman in the task force who had almost no presence.

To be precise, he joined the task force with Sun Zhou.

When Sun Zhou received the order to join the task force, he brought along his most elite or perhaps most seamless subordinate for convenience.

The subordinate’s name contained the character "Hai," and Sun Zhou habitually called him Xiaohai, whose full name is Dou Zhihai.

Sun Zhou made this call, clearly because he had lost contact with Dou Zhihai.

With a tentative mindset, he called Cao Xiuyuan.

The latter was puzzled: "Isn’t Xiaohai the one you brought along? How could he possibly be in touch with me?"

"I understand, I’ll go look for him again. That guy hasn’t contacted me at all since yesterday evening."

With that, Sun Zhou hung up the phone.

Even though Chen Xiao wanted to speak to stop it, only the beeping sound remained in Cao Xiuyuan’s phone.

At this moment, Chen Xiao didn’t look well.

When Qin Fei saw his expression, it was as if he suddenly realized something as well.

"It can’t be, can it?" Qin Fei repeatedly muttered the impossibility, but Chen Xiao’s face remained grim.

Cao Xiuyuan hadn’t reacted yet and frowned, asking, "What do you mean, impossible? What do you both mean?"

Chen Xiao gritted his teeth: "Our guess is likely correct, but we were still played."

Only now did Cao Xiuyuan understand what Chen Xiao and Qin Fei meant.

His face instantly turned to shock, shouting incredulously, "This is impossible. If he wanted to gain a distorted sense of achievement, he could only target me, Old Sun, or Old Chang. What’s the point of killing an ordinary little officer?"

"What kind of achievement could that bring!"

Cao Xiuyuan’s face looked grim, and he almost shouted.

Chen Xiao took a deep breath, not responding.

Even he found the opponent’s move utterly baffling.

If he wasn’t satisfied with the current thrill, logically, shouldn’t he make a bigger splash?

Wouldn’t a bigger splash require higher targets, yielding greater distorted pleasure?

Why, why target a little officer!

Or, could it be just a misunderstanding?

The officer named Dou Zhihai might simply have fallen asleep or unintentionally set his phone to silent, thus the temporary lack of contact!

Chen Xiao rarely harbors a sense of luck.

But now, he couldn’t help but have this mentality.

Though he merely joined the task force to help, he hardly had any authority within it.

Yet, he didn’t want any investigator to be harmed.

If even one were harmed, no one in the group could escape responsibility.

Even if no one would hold Chen Xiao accountable, he still felt uncomfortable inside.

But the hope was beautiful.

The reality, however, was brutally chilling!

Amidst their shock and silence, the phone rang again, interrupting everything.

Cao Xiuyuan instinctively picked up the phone, trembling uncontrollably as he saw the caller ID.

"Hello, leader... why are you...?"

Before Cao Xiuyuan could finish speaking, a roar came from the other end:

"Cao Xiuyuan, what the hell are you doing!"

"You’re the team leader of the task force, responsible for all personnel, affairs, and case progress."

"Now tell me, what the hell happened in Zhushan City center! And what’s going on with Dou Zhihai from Jingzhou City Bureau!"

"It’s chaos now, complete chaos across Zhushan, and you... you haven’t even bothered to notify me!"

"Cao Xiuyuan, just what the hell are you doing!"

As the scolding intensified, blood drained from Cao Xiuyuan’s face.

His mind went blank, filled only with a hopeless gray.

Something happened!

Something really happened!

But the damned culprit’s next target wasn’t him, Cao Xiuyuan, nor Sun Zhou, and not even Director Chang.

He... he went for an officer with hardly any presence!

Cao Xiuyuan couldn’t utter a word.

Qin Fei stood by helplessly, closing his eyes in despair.

Chen Xiao also remained silent.

There was nothing he could say at this moment, nor was it appropriate to speak.

But a few seconds later, Chen Xiao calmed down.

He understood what the culprit ultimately sought.

They were right about him being unsatisfied with the chaos he engineered so far.

But his actions now leaned more towards being completely antagonistic with the police!

He truly relished not the thrill of killing!

What he wanted was for no one in the task force to outplay him, or perhaps to shock everyone.

Only that feeling could satisfy his twisted sense of achievement and inflate it grotesquely!

Chen Xiao took a deep breath.

As a detective, misjudging the culprits is fatal.

A misjudgment leads to new crimes like the one right in front.

Chen Xiao signaled Qin Fei with a glance.

The latter understood his meaning.

Seeing Cao Xiuyuan still on the phone, the two walked aside.

Chen Xiao spoke first: "The incident has already happened, and we need to reflect on the mistakes, but we need to figure out the perpetrator’s true intention now."

Qin Fei was deeply inhaling: "I know, but I’m perplexed now."

"Being perplexed is normal, but don’t you think we need to analyze why Dou Zhihai was targeted?"

Qin Fei furrowed his brows and said, "There aren’t too many members in the task force, but they’re not few either. Dou Zhihai didn’t have much presence, or to be blunt, his rank wasn’t high, and his purpose here with the task force was merely to assist Sun Zhou with time-consuming tasks."

Chen Xiao interrupted directly: "Right, so don’t you find it off that the perpetrator knows way too much about the task force? First, Cao Xiuyuan’s phone was bugged, and now a police officer who even we couldn’t recall was killed. Doesn’t this show that the task force is utterly transparent to him?"

Qin Fei glanced at Chen Xiao: "Are you saying there’s an internal problem?"

"There is a problem internally, but not within the task force; it involves the entire Xiaozhuang South Town. If there were an internal task force issue, it would be easy to identify, especially since members’ whereabouts were clear when the victim died."

"Internal to Xiaozhuang South Town? Then it’s within the police station!"

"Yes, I’m now suspecting that Yuan Keyu’s death could be linked to someone within Xiaozhuang South Town Police Station. Though the perpetrator caught us off guard this time, he also exposed himself!"

Chen Xiao’s voice was low, and Qin Fei frowned in contemplation before asking:

"Should we delve deeper into Dayou’s assessment of Gao Zhun?"

Chen Xiao didn’t reply because Cao Xiuyuan had now approached.

His complexion remained ashen and bloodless, but his eyes resolutely fixed on Chen Xiao:

"Dou Zhihai was killed in the city; his body was hung on the exterior wall of the city’s largest shopping center!"

"Chen Xiao, I need you to come with me to Zhushan City. Right now, even Old Sun and I might not keep complete rationality, so we hope you can join us."

"And Qin Fei, I entrust the affairs of Xiaozhuang South Town to you for now!"