On a Stormy Night, the Campus Belle Knocked on My Door Seeking Shelter
Chapter 12: Re-entering the Suspect List

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Re-entering the Suspect List

’If I can’t find the killer... then how can Su Yuqing’s injustice be resolved? Even if it’s only the injustice from her past life,’ he murmured, his gaze becoming increasingly firm.

Despite the downpour lashing against his face, he still tilted his head up, as if searching for an answer in the pitch-black sky.

Just as he was about to continue searching for any possible clues in the rain, his phone suddenly vibrated a few times.

Chen Mo immediately pulled out his phone. The screen showed a message—a notification that the security feed had been updated.

He immediately opened the security feed on his phone. On the screen, though Su Yuqing’s face was hazy with sleep and she was afraid of being alone, she still mustered her courage, stood up, and walked to the door.

She was hesitating...

Clearly, she was incredibly worried because Chen Mo hadn’t returned after so long.

"Hey! Hey!" Chen Mo immediately pressed the call button for the camera feed.

The sudden voice made Su Yuqing jump. Her eyes darted around until she found the source of the sound by the door—a security camera.

"Chen Mo?" she asked, curious.

"I got held up by something. I’ll be back soon, so don’t worry. If you’re tired, just go to sleep," Chen Mo said, his tone as gentle as he could make it.

"As long as you’re okay. I’m not tired yet. I’ll wait for you," Su Yuqing said, suppressing her exhaustion and forcing a gentle smile in the direction of the camera.

"Okay, then. I’ll be right back."

Soon, the room was once again filled with only the cheeky, endearing voice of Crayon Shin-chan from the cartoon on TV.

Su Yuqing dragged her tired body back to the sofa and curled up in the blanket again. This time, however, a hint of relief was mixed in with her exhaustion.

’It’s this late already. The killer won’t show up now!’

Chen Mo tilted his head up, letting the rain pour down on him. He wondered if the killer had walked past the crime scene during the time he was accompanying Teacher Li home.

CRACK!

As the sudden clap of thunder echoed, another possibility flashed through Chen Mo’s mind.

Had he already encountered the killer without realizing it?

Had he overlooked a potential suspect tonight?

As he received the baptism of the downpour, Chen Mo’s mind gradually cleared.

This was a habit of his when he needed to think—either in a downpour, or under the showerhead in his bathroom at home!

The feeling of water pouring down on him always made Chen Mo’s brain activity spike.

He mentally reviewed everyone he had met and everything that had happened tonight one last time, trying his best to recall every person and place that could have had any connection to Su Yuqing.

Scenes began to flash rapidly before his eyes.

Starting with the convenience store, the first people he met were the female clerk and the manager, followed by Lin Yu’an and the three punks.

’Could the killer be among them?’

This time, Chen Mo didn’t dismiss anyone who could possibly be a suspect.

Even Lin Yu’an, who was constantly bullied and seemed very weak, was now forcefully included in Chen Mo’s list of suspects.

Memories flashed back as he retraced the clues, the picture gradually becoming clearer. ’Could Lin Yu’an be the killer?’ As the scenes replayed in his mind, Chen Mo eliminated that possibility.

At that time, Lin Yu’an was being mugged by the three punks. Chen Mo had seen that Lin Yu’an’s pants pockets were turned inside out, and his backpack was open, all its contents dumped on the ground.

In other words, because he was being robbed by the three punks, every single place on his body where he could hide something had been searched by them.

Everything he had on him had been dropped on the ground beside him.

Among those things, there was no sign of the murder weapon, a fruit knife.

He wasn’t even carrying a weapon. How could he, after a chance encounter with Su Yuqing, lead her to this secluded spot and then suddenly pull out a fruit knife he never had in the first place to attempt to rape and then kill her?

Lin Yu’an was ruled out!

Next were the three punks. All three had weapons, and all three had ample motive. It wouldn’t be strange for punks like them to get ideas after seeing a pretty girl.

But the crucial point was that the weapons they carried were not *the* murder weapon, merely weapons *capable* of murder!

It was difficult to pinpoint them as the suspects.

After that, there were the various passersby—the homeless man, the delivery driver. In this world’s timeline, they had all come into contact with a knife, but it wasn’t the murder weapon.

The other passersby had all walked by in a hurry, and he hadn’t seen anyone who looked like they were carrying a fruit knife.

However, before ruling these people out, Chen Mo suddenly rewound to someone he had thought impossible of committing the crime.

Zhou Hao!

Because of his mother’s situation, Zhou Hao had dropped a fruit knife that was an extremely close match to the murder weapon at the scene and run off.

But what if his mother’s condition suddenly stabilized? Half an hour was enough time for him to visit the hospital and come back. If he had returned earlier, the time would have been right around 11:00 PM.

At that time, Chen Mo had just gone to Teacher Li’s house, so it was normal for them to have missed each other.

At the same time, was it possible that Zhou Hao, having realized he’d dropped his fruit knife, had gone to buy a new one on his way back?

During the investigation, the police had investigated shops that sold similar knives.

But the rain was too heavy that night. Many people were wearing raincoats or holding umbrellas. When someone bought a knife, nobody would pay close attention to who they were or what they looked like. They would just pay and leave. How could anyone remember that much? As a result, there were almost no useful clues.

But there was one lead: a shop owner remembered someone coming in to buy a fruit knife very late that night. He couldn’t recall the specific time, but it was sometime between 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM.

If Zhou Hao had bought a new knife on his way back, then he was a viable suspect.

After analyzing the entire chain of events, Zhou Hao had, contrary to expectation, returned to Chen Mo’s list of suspects.

As for everyone else, he had ruled out most of them for various reasons.

Verifying this would be simple, though. He could go knock on Zhou Hao’s door right now. If he was already home and had really bought a new fruit knife, his suspicion would increase exponentially!

After all the impossibilities had been eliminated, the only thing that remained, no matter how incredible, could only be the truth.

However, after his misunderstanding with Li Yan, Chen Mo wasn’t going to jump to conclusions so easily anymore. Zhou Hao was simply listed as a person of interest.

And he didn’t plan on letting his guard down with the others, either. He had firmly committed to memory everyone he encountered tonight and planned to investigate them all more thoroughly later.

’I’ve done my best to investigate everything I can. I’ve been wandering around here for an hour now. It’s time to go home. I’ll check on Zhou Hao’s place first, and sort out the rest tomorrow.’

Chen Mo, who had been standing with his eyes closed, enduring the cold, slapping rain, mentally reviewed all the clues one last time before finally heading toward Zhou Hao’s home.