Chapter 30: Qin Ming’s Decryption—The Mysterious Master of Deduction!
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Chapter Thirty:
[Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! I have no idea what to say anymore! This case is absolutely incredible!]
[It is one twist after another. Just how many cards has Su Chen been holding up his sleeve?!]
[Why is he doing this? Could it have something to do with the murder case from twenty years ago?]
[My brain is already smoking. I am just waiting for Master Qin Ming to figure it out.]
Meanwhile, inside the experts’ studio—
Forensic pathologist Qin Ming hurriedly spread open the playing card and discovered that it was the five of spades.
He could not help frowning.
“It is an ordinary playing card, the kind found everywhere in convenience stores. There is nothing unusual about it. The secret may lie in the suit.”
“But a single suit cannot tell us much. There must be more than one clue.”
In less than a second, the connections in his mind gradually became clear.
Then, as though he had guessed something, Qin Ming picked up a scalpel and swiftly dissected the remaining pieces of flesh on the table.
Sure enough…
His expression changed.
There were ten more playing cards hidden among the pieces.
Their suits and values were the ace of clubs, the three of hearts, the king of hearts, the two of spades…
The cards were not scattered among every bag containing the remains. Instead, they were concentrated in four particular bags.
Each of those bags contained four pieces of flesh concealing playing cards.
The eleven cards were laid flat across the table. Qin Ming and the criminal investigators beside him stared at them, their faces filled with confusion.
What did this mean?
The viewers in the livestream chat were also engaged in heated discussion.
[Could this be Su Chen’s next target? Maybe he is using playing cards to hint at someone…]
[If you think that way, you may already have fallen into Su Chen’s trap. In my opinion, it is simple: this is nothing more than a smokescreen. Do not forget what kind of show this is. Su Chen could easily be using this tactic to divert the police’s attention before taking the opportunity to escape.]
[If that is the case, then it is awfully boring!]
[Whether it is interesting or not is irrelevant. If it buys him time to escape, then it is a good strategy!]
Just then, a VIP comment unlike any other suddenly appeared in the livestream chat.
It contained only a string of numbers and a place name.
[(0, 0, 0); one meter beside Jinling Bridge.]
The viewers stared at the cryptic message, wanting to mock it, yet hesitating.
The sender, whose username was Luo Ji, had a prominent certification attached to his account.
Certified member of the Shenghan Association!
That meant he belonged to the most renowned detective organization in the Dragon Kingdom—the Shenghan Association, whose members had an average intelligence quotient of 141.
No ordinary person would deliberately make a fool of themselves in front of geniuses.
For a moment, the chat contained nothing but hushed speculation.
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[What is this supposed to mean? Can someone with a bigger brain explain it?]
[@Luo Ji, Master, could you put it a little more clearly? Stop speaking in riddles!]
Yet countless messages were sent without receiving the slightest reply. It was as though the man had gone offline.
The viewers had no choice but to suppress their curiosity and quietly watch Qin Ming’s investigation.
On the livestream, Qin Ming had already removed his gloves and handed the rest of the examination over to his assistant.
He himself was carefully writing and drawing on paper as he studied the pieces of flesh and the playing cards lying upon them.
Qin Ming was not merely a forensic pathologist.
He also had another identity: a best-selling writer of detective fiction and a master of deduction.
More than ten minutes passed in silence.
Suddenly, Qin Ming raised his head sharply. A keen light flashed in his eyes, as though he had discovered something.
“Quick, bring me a map of Jinling. I need a detailed one. A map of the university district will do!”
Qin Ming spoke to Bai Su.
Bai Su did not waste a moment. The police station kept numerous backup maps for work purposes, all of them extraordinarily detailed.
Before long, she retrieved a map of the university district from a cabinet and spread it across another table in the experts’ office.
Forensic pathologist Qin Ming strode over to the map, pulled a marker from his pocket, and instantly circled more than a dozen locations.
“These are the places where we found the pieces of flesh,” he said.
The fact that he could locate all those places accurately after only a glance left many viewers speechless.
[Is this the professional ability developed through years of forensic work? He remembers the exact location of every single body part!]
[With memory like that, Master Qin Ming must have been the sort of student who could rank first without studying!]
“But what is the use of marking these locations? What do they have to do with the playing cards?!”
Qin Ming’s hand did not stop. He continued writing on the map, adding twelve numbers in succession.
The numbers were arranged in groups of three and marked at the four locations where the bags containing the playing cards had been found.
“These combinations are definitely not coincidental.”
Qin Ming put away the marker.
Bai Su pressed him. “Officer Qin, what kind of information do you think this is?”
Qin Ming pushed up his glasses, a streak of white light flashing across the lenses.
“Coordinates.”
He uttered the words slowly.
“A three-dimensional coordinate system. The numbers on the clubs represent the Z-axis, the numbers on the hearts represent the Y-axis, and the numbers on the spades represent the X-axis.”
“The reason we found cards from only three suits is that a three-dimensional coordinate system has only three axes.”
Boom!
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His words struck everyone’s minds like a thunderclap.
Every criminal investigator present was shaken to the point of numbness.
[Good heavens, how did he even think of that? Expert Qin Ming’s ability is terrifying!]
[Ah, my head is itching. I think I am growing a brain!]
[I do not understand it, but I am deeply impressed.]
[It does not matter if we do not understand. We can just quietly watch the master show off~]
[The coordinates have been marked, but what use are they?!]
As though he had heard the discussion in the chat, Qin Ming continued speaking from inside the experts’ office.
“Everyone, have you noticed a problem?”
Behind him, the criminal investigators exchanged bewildered looks, opening their mouths without saying a word.
Bai Su folded her arms and stared at the coordinates Qin Ming had marked on the map. After pondering for two seconds, she suddenly spoke.
“The problem is that there is no origin point.”
“Exactly!”
Qin Ming excitedly snapped his fingers.
He turned to explain to the investigators behind him.
“Every coordinate system describes relative positions. Therefore, one landmark must be chosen as the origin. But there is no origin among these coordinates!”
“That does not matter. We can use mathematical methods to deduce the location of the origin from the coordinates the killer has provided…”
As he spoke, Qin Ming took a ruler from his toolbox and began measuring several points on the map.
Then he used the marker to plot the coordinates.
Before long, as Qin Ming completed his drawing, line segments extending from those coordinate points began to converge at a single location on the map.
“Done!”
Qin Ming moved the ruler aside and pointed to the intersection of the lines.
“According to the coordinate information provided by the killer, one meter beneath this location is the coordinate origin he used as his reference.”
The moment he said this, everyone crowded forward, eager to see the result for themselves.
Qin Ming’s fingertip pointed to a particular spot on the map.
It lay in Jinling, just south of the point where the central bridge met the southern bank—in other words, beside the bridge’s first pier.
The pupils of those present contracted slightly.
What, exactly, was hidden there?