Madness of the Heart

"Qu Xing and Ling Xuzhi's suspicions are not small. One is extremely arrogant, the other is extremely inferior. Their thinking is far from that of ordinary people, and neither of them can prove that they were not at the scene when the crime happened." Mingshu threw the notebook with a "snap". On the table, he raised his hand to unbutton his tightly buttoned shirt, "However, if it was a homicide, given the relationship between Ling Xuzhi and Sha Chun, he seems unable to persuade Sha Chun to go to the Performing Arts Group late at night. For Sha Chun, he It's just an ordinary colleague who has met several times. Sha Chun's relationship with other people is better than his relationship."

At present, the serious crime team has sorted out Sha Chun's interpersonal relationship in "Jianjia Bailu"——

Since he started teaching Guzheng in April, Sha Chun has taught a total of 4 students. These students are young and old, some are students at school, and some are working parties. Sometimes they are one-to-one, sometimes one-to-many.In terms of the closeness of the relationship, Sha Chun is naturally closer to the students who teach one-on-one.

There were only 10 students who signed up for one-on-one courses, and only 2 students who had not finished the courses before Shachun was killed.

"Liu Mei, a model, claims to use her spare time to learn guzheng because she likes traditional culture. Wang Dan, a junior high school student, just took two classes at Shachun's place. Both of them have photos with Shachun on their mobile phones." Mingshu said: "Among the 8 people who have finished the course..."

Xiao Yu'an said, "Is there a man named 'Wu Zhen'?"

Mingshu said: "Brother, you already understand?"

"This man named 'Wu Zhen' disappeared in late June this year." Xiao Yu'an said, "The police station also went to 'Jianjia Bailu' to investigate."

The information Shi Hanshan provided was completely different from what Xiao Yuan learned on the intranet.

Shi Hanshan said that Wu Zhen left Dongye City for work, so the course was temporarily suspended.The field staff did not expect that Shi Hanshan would even dare to lie about this. He is currently verifying the situation of other students, but Wu Zhen has not been verified, so Mingshu does not know that Wu Zhen has actually disappeared.

Xiao Yu'an has transferred the case of Wu Zhen's disappearance from Dongcheng District, and Ming Shu hastened to investigate.

Wu Zhen, a native of Xunchuan Town, Longhe City, is 40 years old this year. He worked in a municipal TV station in Longhe City as a news editor in his early years. Before Yeshi, he had been to many big cities to seek jobs, and worked as a screenwriter for several crews.

The hotter the film and television industry is, the more chaotic it is internally. What the screenwriters do is often to temporarily rewrite the script according to the requirements of stars and employers, delete scenes that should not be deleted, and add some inexplicable scenes.

Nine years ago, Wu Zhen joined Dongye Liuguang Culture Media Company as a professional screenwriter.

Until his disappearance, Wu Zhen still worked in this company.His superiors reported him to the police when they found out that he had not turned in the script on time and could not be reached.

In the eyes of Wu Zhen's family, Wu Zhen's work in the TV station is an iron rice bowl that he can be proud of, but his acting career is the world of actors and dishonest men and women.So when Wu Zhen insisted on resigning to become a screenwriter, he broke up with his family and cut off contact.

In June, the police found Wu Zhen's family members in his hometown and learned that Wu Zhen had never returned home for more than ten years after leaving home. Wu's father passed away three years ago, and Wu's mother was supported by two daughters.

"We will treat him as an elder brother without him. He has no conscience. When his father passed away, he didn't come back to take a look. He has never given a penny to support his parents in all these years. The third child and I are in charge of all the family affairs." Wu Zhen Wu Lin, the second younger sister of the family, was very angry, "He disappeared as soon as he disappeared, and it has nothing to do with our family! It is best for him to die outside, don't expect us to collect his body!"

Due to insufficient clues, the case has not made any progress.As for ordinary disappearance cases like this, I don't know how many cases will occur in Dongye City a year, and they are all handled by the sub-bureau or the police station themselves, so they will not be reported to the Criminal Investigation Bureau.

"Wu Zhen disappeared in June, and Sha Chun was killed in August..." Ming Shu folded his arms and murmured, "What's the relationship between the two?"

Xiao Yu'an said, "Maybe it's just a coincidence. Wu Zhen happened to be Sha Chun's student."

Mingshu turned around quickly, "Brother, if you really thought so, you wouldn't have transferred Wu Zhen's case."

"I can't assert that these two cases are connected, but two cases occurred in a training institution in less than three months, both of which are unresolved. The victim is a one-on-one guzheng teacher of the missing person. I can't help but think about it." Xiao Yu'an said: "Judging from the investigation report from Dongcheng District alone, Wu Zhen's image is still very vague to me. I have to figure out what kind of person he is."

Mingshu immediately understood, "I'll go check it out!"

The Dongye Liuguang Culture Media Company that Wu Zhen worked for before his disappearance is located in a mid-range residential area in Dongcheng District. This area is half high-rise buildings, half densely packed townhouses, and the layout is quite strange.

"Do all companies nowadays like to open in residential areas?" Fang Yuanhang said, "Renting a townhouse is not cheaper than an office in a regular office building."

"The price is higher than the worst office buildings, but far lower than the high-end office buildings in the central area of ​​the city." Mingshu has already seen the two characters of "Liuguang", "Working in this kind of place is more affordable for some company owners. There are platoons. And if you work in an office building, the office can only be used as an office; if you work in a residential area, the office can also be used as a dormitory.”

Entering the villa, Fang Yuanhang secretly cursed "fuck".

The exterior of the villa is beautiful, and the main office area inside is also decorated with a sense of art, but other offices are crowded and messy.The third floor has been transformed into a staff dormitory. The narrow, windowless cubicles are comparable to group rental housing. Some employees who have stayed up all night are sleeping, while others are wearing undershirts and shorts, typing in front of the computer.They raised their eyes occasionally, and there was only fatigue and bewilderment in their eyes.

These people are all screenwriters hired by the streamer to work, and if they don't have to, they hardly leave their respective huts from morning till night.

The man in charge of the reception was Ou Xianghe, in his 30s, who claimed to be the director of the screenwriting department. When he saw Mingshu showing his ID, he was so scared that he took a few steps back and tried to make a phone call.

There is a problem with the company's operation at first glance, and this is probably what Ou Xianghe is afraid of.

Mingshu said: "I'm not interested in your company, I just want to know about the situation of your missing employee Wu Zhen."

Ou Xianghe's eyes were full of distrust, "Didn't you check it out a long time ago?"

Mingshu asked back, "Wu Zhen is back to work?"

Ou Xianghe was surprised, "No."

"Isn't that right?" Mingshu said, "Missing, no one is alive, no body is dead, we can't continue to investigate?"

Ou Xianghe frowns, "But I don't have anything else to say. I have explained everything I can say last time. Wu Zhen is only writing scripts here. I really don't know why he disappeared all of a sudden."

According to Ou Xianghe's confession, although Liuguang Cultural Media Company is under the banner of "cultural media", it is actually just a small company that mass-produces scripts.

There are no fewer than [-] small companies like this in Dongye City.They will recruit young people and newcomers who are interested in developing in the screenwriting industry but have no teachers to guide them. They will include food and housing, and pay a certain amount of remuneration, so that they can write and revise scripts day after day like machines. .

One day the script will finally be made into a TV series, and their names will never be on the signature.

In the screenwriter column, it says that it is a certain studio or a well-known screenwriter.

The screenwriting industry divides people into "classes" when they get started.

Those who are guided by the master are the first class. You will have resources when you get started, and you can write your name on the work.Master refers specifically to great screenwriters who have already gained a foothold in the industry and possess massive resources.To put it bluntly, great screenwriters use their own resources to feed students, who either have backgrounds or amazing aptitudes.

The second category is those who are affiliated with the studio and have a fixed live connection. Regardless of whether the work has their own name or not, they can get paid according to the number of episodes in the end, and the salary is not low.Although this category is not as good as the first category, they are relatively free and their income can maintain a decent life.

As for the last category, they are people like Wu Zhen.They are kept in the company by good or bad screenwriting companies, and they write mechanically every day. When they are lucky, they can get a bonus, and when they are unlucky, they can only receive a basic salary.Many times what they do is useless, and their names will never appear on the work.

"It's so miserable." Fang Yuanhang said, "I don't even have a chance to sign it. What's the point of working like this?"

Mingshu flipped through the work records provided by Ou Xianghe, and found that since September last year, Wu Zhen had stopped writing film and television scripts, and instead wrote propaganda scripts for government departments, schools, and companies.

"It's like this." Ou Xianghe said: "Although it is said that film and television scripts are an assembly line operation, which has less and less gold content, as long as you enter the industry, you know that assembly line operation also requires a certain amount of talent. Wu Zhen works here. For many years, he is older—our screenwriters are generally no more than 30 years old, and some have just grown up—more down-to-earth than others, but the things he writes do lack spirituality. He is still high-minded and wants to create scripts independently , how is this possible?"

"Because he can't write good things, Wu Zhen's position has always been awkward, and his income is also very low." Ou Xianghe continued: "We can also support him, anyway, no matter what he writes, he is always producing. But last year, he suddenly took the initiative to tell me that he didn’t want to write film and television scripts for the time being, and wanted to make money quickly.”

Ou Xianghe explained, "The fastest way to get money is the government's propaganda script, a short video of a few minutes, as long as you find out the requirements of Party A, it will be done quickly, and the government will send money quickly."

Ou Xianghe sighed as he spoke, "But I don't think Wu Zhen is happy with the money. Most people want to write film and television scripts if they earn a living as a screenwriter. That's what Wu Zhen wanted to get into the industry. Middle-aged, forced by reality, have to compromise."

Wu Zhen's room is in the corner of the third floor, a small room where he eats, sleeps and works.However, shortly after Wu Zhen disappeared, the company recruited a newcomer, and this room became the newcomer's room, and there was no trace of Wu Zhen's life in it.

Ou Xianghe also said that Wu Zhen's personal items are now piled up in the storage room in the basement, and they can be checked or taken away at any time.

Fang Yuanhang hurried over.

Mingshu inquired about Wu Zhen learning the guzheng, Ou Xianghe was stunned for a while, and said that maybe Wu Zhen wanted to write an ancient play, and asked professionals for advice in advance.

"Old Wu is really a hardworking person." Ou Xianghe concluded: "It's a pity, he is too stubborn. I heard that he used to be an editor of a TV station. Although there is only one word difference between an editor and a screenwriter, the difference is significant. He's too old. He doesn't have the talent and luck to be a screenwriter. If I were him, I would have found another way out."

"It's hard work and lack of talent!" Fang Yuanhang said, "Master, Wu Zhen and Sha Chun have something in common!"

"Two hard-working people who seem to be working in the wrong direction. One has been killed, and the other has been missing for more than two months." Mingshu's expression became more serious, "One person has been missing for so long for no reason, either he was killed or he hid on purpose. If Wu Zhen has also Killed, so is this a serial murder targeting hardworking people?"

Fang Yuanhang gritted his teeth, "If this is the case, then the murderer is too hateful!"

"If Wu Zhen is still alive..." Ming Shu murmured slowly, "What would he have to do with Sha Chun's death? This 'Jianjia Bailu' may be more complicated than we imagined."

Criminal Investigation Bureau, Crime Squad.

"There are three investors in 'Jianjia Bailu', Shi Hanshan, Liang Lu, and Li Ke." Xu Chun said: "We have investigated all these three people, and found no doubts about the case. Shi Hanshan's family conditions are good, and the entrepreneurial The money is all supported by her parents. Before co-founding 'Jianjia Bailu', she also opened a physical women's shoe store, a creative beauty store, a plaid store, and a homestay. Most of them lost money, but 'Jianjia Bailu' is now in a state of profit."

"As for Liang Lu and Li Ke, both of them are Shi Hanshan's friends. They were persuaded by Shi Hanshan to invest in capital and never participated in management affairs." Xu Chun continued: "Liang Lu is a friend Shi Hanshan met when he was chasing stars in the early years. Li Ke runs a home appliance agency company, has a wife and son, and has an improper relationship with Shi Hanshan."

As soon as Fang Yuanhang heard about the "improper relationship", Fang Yuanhang immediately got excited, "Could it be that the relationship between Shi Hanshan and Li Ke happened to be discovered by Wu Zhen and Sha Chun, so..."

"You think too much, the relationship between the two is not a secret in 'Jianjia Bailu'." Xu Chun took the folder and patted Fang Yuanhang's head, "Li Ke and his wife's marriage has long existed in name only, and the two are outside Each plays its own way, without interfering with each other."

"That is to say, none of the three management members of 'Jianjia Bailu' had a clear motive for committing the crime. From the perspective of life experience and personality, they are not like people who can commit murder." Mingshu leaned on the boss's chair, " In the case of Sha Chun, the clues were already scattered and numerous, but now that Wu Zhen is added, once we make a mistake in the direction of our investigation, we will make mistakes again and again."

"This is also my concern." Yi Fei said: "Whether the Wu Zhen case and the Sha Chun case need to be investigated together remains to be discussed. There are only two points of contact between them. One is that they have worked very hard. , but did not do a good job in their own work. Second, Wu Zhen once learned guzheng from Sha Chun, and it was a one-on-one course, which meant that they had a lot of time to communicate in private. However, the merger was a bit hasty, because Wu Zhen There is almost no overlap between Sha Chun's circle and Sha Chun's circle. If they were both killed by the same murderer, why did the murderer target them? If it was the missing Wu Zhen who killed Sha Chun, it would be even more strange. man, will kill another hardworking man?"

Mingshu suddenly said: "This is a good idea."

Yi Fei: "Huh?"

"A person who worked hard killed another person who worked hard. Because he understands that such hard work will not change anything." Mingshu said: "In Wu Zhen's eyes, Sha Chun is a mirror that reflects that person. What he doesn't want to face is the most unbearable self. How many years has Wu Zhen been struggling in the screenwriting industry? He has been exhausted physically and mentally by the reality. Last year he started to take short scripts, maybe because he knows how to work hard There will be no gains. The existence of Sha Chun reminds him of himself who is powerless to change his destiny, he is a joke, and so is Sha Chun."

Yi Fei said: "That Wu Zhen is too distorted."

Mingshu picked up the tablet on the table, and found a few photos, "Let's take a look, this is Wu Zhen's living and working environment."

The cramped and depressing space, books piled up everywhere, windows covered with a thick layer of gray, and the blank eyes of colleagues around.

Yi Fei sighed, "Living in this environment for a long time, people may indeed be driven crazy."

"More than that." Mingshu said: "The most important thing is that Wu Zhen gave up a relatively good life and his family. In this environment, he dreamed for several years, but finally found that there is no way to realize the dream. , I became a middle-aged man with nothing to achieve. Assuming he is the murderer, when he killed Sha Chun, he might think that he was helping Sha Chun to get rid of it. After all, Sha Chun is only in his early thirties, Wu Zhen Already 40 years old. Now kill Sha Chun, Sha Chun will not have to suffer until he is 40 years old."

"One thing doesn't make sense." Xiao Yu'an suddenly said, and everyone realized that he had been listening for a while.

Xiao Man quickly extinguished the cigarette, and glanced at Mingshu, which meant——look at how self-conscious I am.

Ming Shu stood up and said, "Ju Xiao."

"The lighting team's analysis just now shows that Wu Zhen killed Sha Chun in an extremely distorted state of mind. Was he trying to create the illusion of disappearance in the past two months?" Xiao Yu'an said, "Two months after Wu Zhen disappeared, How to contact Sha Chun? Make Sha Chun secretly go to the Performing Arts Center?"

Mingshu frowned.

Xiao Yu'an continued: "Think about it, everyone. If Wu Zhen planned to kill Sha Chun, wouldn't he create problems for himself if he disappeared early? A missing person, the police will definitely look for it. Under the sight of the police, how can this crime be committed? Is playing disappearance purely superfluous for Wu Zhen?"

Mingshu asked: "What is Xiao Ju's opinion?"

"The connection between the two points mentioned by Team Yi just now, if only the latter one - Wu Zhen once studied with Sha Chun, I don't think it is enough to join the case." Xiao Yu'an said: "But 'there is no talent but extraordinary hard work, and hard work is not enough. I can't let go of the fact that it can change the status quo."

Yi Fei nodded thoughtfully.

"There are a lot of questions in front of us now. Based on the existing clues, we can only make some reasonable speculations for the time being. But no matter how reasonable the speculation is, it may be contrary to the facts. Sometimes, the reality has no reason to speak of." Xiao Yuan gently He knocked on the edge of the table and said seriously: "The case of Wu Zhen's disappearance must be solved. Finding Wu Zhen will either provide key clues to the Sha Chun case, or remove some of the doubts that misled us."

The serious case team is divided into several groups to investigate the Sha Chun case and the Wu Zhen case in parallel.

Technical investigations worked overtime, screening massive amounts of network and communication data, and determined that the last time Wu Zhen was captured by surveillance was June 6.

Liu Guang reported to the police station on the 25th, four days later.

The last time Wu Zhen used his mobile phone was also on June 6.

"Huh?" Zhou Yuan rubbed his red eyes, and said to himself, "It was still photographed on the 21st, so it means that it disappeared completely on the night of the 21st or on the 22nd?"

He picked up the milk tea that Mingshu had invited, and took a sip with a mumble, "If he was killed, wouldn't he die on Sunday just like Sha Chun?"