Simulated Crime, This Criminal Doesn't Seem to Be Acting

Chapter 23

Nan Street is a long street filled with snack vendors, fruit and vegetable sellers, and various makeshift stalls. It stretches about five hundred meters from end to end, densely packed with nearly two to three hundred shops.

It was early morning, and people who had either eaten breakfast or were about to eat were leisurely making their way to the market to buy fresh produce for their families to enjoy later in the day.

A young woman led her child, who was about thigh-high, as they picked out apples. An elderly man, leaning on his cane, slowly strolled along the bluestone pavement under the archway. Vendors enthusiastically placed their vegetables on scales, calling out to customers, claiming their produce was especially fresh today—though, of course, they said the same thing every day.

A family buying chicken noodle soup and dumplings carried bowls of noodles to a wooden table set up outside, smiling as they said, "Take your time eating. If it's not enough, you can have more noodles." They added, "The first refill is free."

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman pointed at a man beside her and shouted, "You old creep, did you just grope me?"

"I only brushed your shoulder!" the man immediately retorted.

The woman pointed at his nose, "You pervert, apologize!"

"Don't you dare act all high and mighty with me!" the man snapped, swatting her hand away and shoving her, his face red with anger.

As they continued to argue and scuffle, they moved closer to the noodle shop, their voices rising, neither willing to back down.

Bystanders quickly gathered, their eyes gleaming with curiosity and excitement for the drama unfolding.

The noodle shop owner stepped forward, trying to mediate and stop the fight from disrupting his business.

Unfortunately, neither of the two paid him any attention. Instead, as they pushed and pulled at each other, they accidentally struck the shop owner in the chaos.

The shop owner, a burly man wearing a white undershirt and a black apron—typical of a chef—stepped in and forcefully separated the two. "If you want to fight, take it outside. Don't cause a scene at my doorstep this early in the morning. Do you want a beating?"

At the sight of the large man, the two immediately fell silent.

However, the older man, clearly still resentful, took advantage of the middle-aged woman's momentary pause and gave her a shove on the shoulder, trying to regain some dignity after having his face scratched earlier.

The middle-aged woman, whose slightly plump body was pushed, stumbled and knocked over a folding wooden table behind her. The bowl of noodle soup on the table spilled onto the ground.

The hot, sticky soup splashed onto her foot, and the scalding sensation immediately flushed her face with anger.

"You old bastard!" she screamed, lunging forward to claw at the man's face.

But before she could act, a series of screams erupted from the crowd.

Following the gazes of the onlookers, the woman looked down at her feet and instantly turned pale.

...

"This incident is highly disturbing. It happened in a busy market, and the impact is significant. The chief has ordered us to solve the case as quickly as possible," Qin Jiang said, leading a man and a woman behind him, his expression grave.

The young man pursed his lips. "According to the informant, only a part of the body was left at the scene. The rest is missing."

"It's a case of body disposal, but the motive is unclear. Let's head to the scene," Qin Jiang said, opening the car door.

The three of them got into the car and headed to Nan Street.

Under the five-meter-tall archway, the area was now completely crowded.

The people of Zhongzhou have an innate curiosity for drama, no matter how horrifying the situation. They always want to catch a snippet of gossip to satisfy their nosy nature.

Ye Sangsang followed Qin Jiang and another male detective into the scene.

Several local police officers had set up a cordon and were instructing the crowd not to get too close.

"Homicide division," Ye Sangsang said, flashing her badge as she lifted the yellow tape and stepped inside.

The breakfast shop was packed with people, both inside and out. Along with the three of them, forensic experts, trace evidence technicians, and four officers from the nearby police station had also arrived.

Qin Jiang, accustomed to the noisy crowd, led the two directly into the kitchen.

After putting on gloves, he examined the remaining human bones in the chicken soup pot and the neatly arranged fingers with bits of skin still attached.

Ye Sangsang also put on gloves and a cap, joining in to sort through the bones.

Qin Jiang looked up and asked, "Where are the informant and the shop owner?"

In many homicide cases, the informant is often the primary suspect, so the police always seek them out first upon arriving at the scene.

This case was unusual, as both the informant and the shop owner needed to be questioned.

Upon hearing this, one of the officers waved over two people standing at the edge of the cordon.

Soon, the middle-aged woman and the shop owner walked in.

The middle-aged woman deliberately kept her distance from the shop owner, her face pale, clearly still shaken.

In fact, anyone who had a dead person's finger touch them would feel uneasy.

"Shen Yu, you handle the questioning," Qin Jiang assigned the task to Ye Sangsang.

Ye Sangsang, who had been focused on the bones, was caught off guard by Qin Jiang's order. She simply nodded and stood up to question the two.

She took out her notebook and led the two to the side to avoid disturbing the ongoing

Gathering clues and conducting door-to-door investigations were tasks they had to carry out diligently.

However, sometimes, no matter how much effort they put in, they might not gain any useful leads.

Gu Ling was ten years older than Ye Sangsang. Due to her exceptional skills and a shortage of personnel in the team, she had been transferred to the Major Crimes Unit.

When it came to door-to-door investigations, Gu Ling was far more experienced than Ye Sangsang.

The two canvassed four or five nearby streets, but the information they gathered was minimal. They even had to mediate a minor conflict along the way.

After discussing it, they decided to finish questioning the remaining few shops before heading back.

When they arrived at a small convenience store, the owner was dozing behind the counter.

Gu Ling called out, “Shopkeeper, we need to ask you a few questions,” as she flashed her badge.

Ye Sangsang followed suit.

The shopkeeper visibly tensed up, stood up, and asked, “What can I help you with?”

Gu Ling routinely asked if he had seen any suspicious individuals or noticed anything unusual in the past couple of days.

“Don’t worry, anything you say will be kept confidential. We’ve already questioned several other shops in the area,” Gu Ling added.

The shopkeeper glanced outside, then spoke in a somewhat mysterious tone, “My store was robbed a couple of days ago. The thief didn’t take anything valuable. Guess what he stole.”

“He didn’t take anything valuable, and you’re asking us to guess what he stole?” Gu Ling couldn’t help but chuckle.

Ye Sangsang looked at the shopkeeper and ventured, “He didn’t take anything expensive?”

The shopkeeper quickly nodded, “I misspoke earlier. He didn’t take anything valuable. Instead, he stole things like salt, MSG, soy sauce, vinegar, and cooking wine. If I didn’t have the habit of keeping inventory records, I wouldn’t even have noticed these things were missing.”

Ye Sangsang’s eyes flickered as she glanced at the shelves and asked, “Was it two days ago? Or yesterday?”

“I discovered it this morning. I do inventory every three days, so I’m not sure exactly when it happened,” the shopkeeper replied.

He brought it up mainly to chat, hoping to get some insider information.

But obviously, the police weren’t going to share anything with him. After recording the details, the two left, leaving the shopkeeper with a hint of disappointment on his face.

With no further leads, they could only hope that Zheng He might have a breakthrough.

【The detective influencer who entered this instance next door has already completed the first trial case. Tsk, and they only managed it after reading hints from the live chat comments. The super-AI should really delete those comments from Ye Sangsang’s live stream that spoil things for other streamers.】

【As mentioned earlier, the super-AI is already issuing warnings and deleting such comments. It’s pretty fast.】

【The difficulty is really high. Even if I went in knowing the outcome, I’d probably mess up because of all the complications.】

The live stream audience was mainly expressing their fear and the overwhelming complexity of the clues.

What Ye Sangsang and the others were doing might seem trivial, but in reality, it required a lot of meticulous work. Even if you knew who the killer was, you’d still need courage and attention to detail to catch them and get them to confess everything.

Not to mention, entering the instance would blur your memory of the killer’s identity.

Even without that memory blurring, it would still be incredibly challenging to handle all of this.

While the live stream was buzzing with discussions, Ye Sangsang and her team were dealing with a different kind of “heat.”

Unlike the springtime in the real world, this instance was set in the height of summer. Just moving around caused sweat to pour out.

Gu Ling finally couldn’t take it anymore and went to buy two bottles of chilled drinks. The two sat under a tree to analyze the situation.

“Shen Yu, do you really think the killer will continue to taunt us by dumping more bodies?” Gu Ling asked, though she found the idea somewhat far-fetched.

Ye Sangsang couldn’t say for sure. After all, if it hadn’t happened yet, it might just be speculation.

At that moment, Gu Ling’s phone rang. She pulled it out, checked the caller, and answered, “Zheng He? What’s up? Did you find something?”

Older button phones tended to have loud, leaky speakers, so Ye Sangsang leaned in to listen as well.

On the other end, Zheng He’s voice carried a hint of anger, “There are body parts found in the greenery near the North Street police station. You need to get here quickly.”

Gu Ling looked at Ye Sangsang, her face pale, “It… really happened…”

“Let’s go,” Ye Sangsang said, without any hint of smugness about her earlier prediction.

Moreover, according to Shen Yu’s character in the instance, she should be feeling anxious and distressed right now.

Gu Ling nodded. They grabbed their drinks, quickly found their parked car, and drove toward North Street Police Station.

【Hehehe, my girl Ye Sangsang is the best.】

【If this case were real, it would be truly horrifying. Thank goodness technology has advanced so much in recent years, with surveillance and upgraded smart networks covering countless streets and alleys. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine how such terrifying crimes could continue.】

【Exactly. It’s unimaginable how much effort the country put into cracking down on these crimes before our generation, the 2010s kids, came along.】

As the live stream chatted away, Ye Sangsang and Gu Ling arrived at the scene.

This time, it was far more gruesome than before. The greenery was filled with cleaned human bones, and the soil emitted an indescribable stench that permeated the surrounding streets.

The forensic team was already on-site, but even they looked uneasy from the smell.

The killer was truly brazen.

The police station had initially thought a nearby septic tank had burst. After searching for a while, they realized the stench was coming from the greenery.

The bones and flesh hadn’t been visible at first because they had been buried in the greenery.

Moreover, they had been recently buried, not left there for a long time, which was why the discovery was only made that afternoon.

Ye Sangsang and the others began examining the scene. There was only a single shoe print, and the greenery was a blind spot for the police station’s surveillance cameras.

The killer was too cunning. If this continued, they’d just be playing into the killer’s hands.

Just then, Zheng He’s phone rang again.

He gestured for the two to continue while he stepped aside to take the call.

“What? You found the person I mentioned?” Zheng He couldn’t help but exclaim in a low voice.

Ye Sangsang and Gu Ling stood up from the flower bed, their eyes fixed on Zheng He, who looked surprised.

After finishing the call, Zheng He turned to Ye Sangsang and Gu Ling, “Who’s coming with me? We’ve located the ex-convict Shen Yu mentioned.”

“I’ll go,” Gu Ling said immediately, then added, thinking of Ye Sangsang, “I have more experience with arrests.”

Ye Sangsang looked at Gu Ling, “You should stay here. This is my second time at the scene, and I’m not as sharp. Besides, when we go after that person, there’ll be others with us. I won’t be the main force.”

They wouldn’t go after the suspect with just two people. They’d need to coordinate with the team or nearby police stations to ensure the suspect didn’t escape.

“Shen Yu makes a good point. Gu Ling, you stay here and oversee things. Shen Yu and I will go,” Zheng He said, then motioned for Ye Sangsang to get in the car.

The two quickly reached their destination. With the help of a local community worker who pointed them to a corner, they spotted the suspect’s residence.

It was a dilapidated three-story building in a scrapyard, a factory run by the suspect's older brother. After his release, the suspect had moved into the third floor.

"He's usually silent, with a fierce look in his eyes. People around here are too scared to approach him," said the director of the neighborhood committee.

Zheng He nodded in understanding, waiting for the police station and his colleagues to arrive so they could proceed with the arrest together.

They didn’t have to wait long. A little over a minute later, everyone was in position. Both the front and back entrances of the scrapyard were blocked. Ye Sangsang, a rookie detective, gripped her gun tightly as she followed behind Zheng He and the others.

At a low command, the four of them rushed inside.

Just as they were nearing the building, a loud "bang" echoed from within.

In the next moment, a figure crashed through a window, falling from the third floor with their back facing the ground.

Ye Sangsang’s gaze snapped toward the figure, her pupils contracting sharply. She couldn’t help but shout, "Qin Jiang?!"

The name froze everyone in their tracks. All eyes turned to the middle-aged man lying unconscious on the ground, and the scene fell into a deathly silence.