Part 1: The Night Mystery
One night, Xie An was walking home from school. It was already half past nine at night, and the sky was pitch black. The road he was walking on was flanked by fields, with no surveillance cameras or buildings. As Xie An walked, he thought about the issues he had discussed with his teacher earlier that evening and played with his parrot. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a car behind him. It was strange because this road rarely saw any traffic, especially at night. Before Xie An could react, the car sped past him. Suddenly, a gunshot broke the silence of the night. Xie An fell to the ground.
Bai Yiheng was sitting in his office, devouring a sandwich. He had just finished a meeting and was starving. At that moment, the phone rang. "Hello! Detective Bai Yiheng, sorry to interrupt your lunch. There's a murder case on the west side that needs your help," Detective Sam said.
As soon as Bai Yiheng heard this, he forgot about his hunger. He jumped on his motorcycle and sped to Route 29, where the murder had occurred. When Bai Yiheng arrived, three police officers were already conducting a thorough investigation. One of the officers approached, holding a piece of clothing and a plastic bag. "Mr. Bai, after a careful search, we found these two items. This is the shirt Xie An was wearing that night, with paint traces from the car. In the plastic bag is the bullet casing from the murder weapon."
Bai Yiheng took the two pieces of evidence back to his office. He scraped the paint off the shirt and applied it to a card, then handed the card to a car company. The paint on each car is unique and can identify the make, model, and even the shop or factory it came from. Bai Yiheng began to carefully study the bullet casing. By the next afternoon, Bai Yiheng learned that the bullet was fired from an AA-12 automatic shotgun. This shotgun, invented by Maxwell Atchisson in 1972, is extremely powerful and is considered "prohibited."
Bai Yiheng realized that this was a ten-year-old cold case, and the suspect had escaped back then. Remembering this, Bai Yiheng immediately ran to the police station and pulled out the old files. This was also Bai Yiheng's only failure, which had been dubbed the "perfect crime" at the time. Looking up at the sky, Bai Yiheng said, "The modus operandi is exactly the same, but technology is much better now."
Part 2: The Genius Parrot
Bai Yiheng reviewed the old files and evidence. An hour later, he called Sam and asked, "Sam, can you check the scene for any traces of gunpowder and also look into the victim's social connections? Also, send me the victim's information."
Another hour later, Sam arrived at Bai Yiheng's office and said, "The victim's name was Xie An, a high school student, killed by a bullet through the heart. Strangely, there were no traces of gunpowder just a few days after the murder. Also, he was carrying a genius parrot before he died."
Bai Yiheng said, "Do you remember the 'perfect crime' case?"
Sam replied, "Yes, I do."
Bai Yiheng asked, "Is the victim of the perfect crime related to him?"
Sam looked at the information and replied, "Yes, the victim of the perfect crime was his brother."
Bai Yiheng walked out of the room, turned, and said, "Check his brother's social connections."
Then he left. Bai Yiheng drove to the scene and found the hiding parrot. The parrot suddenly started shouting, "Genius! Genius! 180-degree turn!"
Thinking of the genius parrot, Bai Yiheng immediately turned around, only to find a gun aimed at his head. The perpetrator said aggressively, "Goodbye, loser."
But Bai Yiheng was not flustered and said, "You wrapped yourself up well."
Bai Yiheng suddenly pulled out a knife and slashed the perpetrator's right hand. The perpetrator, in pain, dropped the gun. Reacting quickly, the perpetrator threw a smoke bomb and escaped. Bai Yiheng took the parrot and the gun back to the police station. "He was wearing a mask; otherwise, I would know what he looks like," Bai Yiheng said. He went straight to the interrogation room, with Sam and several officers watching. The officers were surprised and said, "He's actually interrogating the parrot!"
In the interrogation room, the parrot said, "Genius! Gambling! Enemy! Eyes! Movie!"
An hour later, Bai Yiheng had a rough idea of the perpetrator's characteristics: a man with glasses who had a history of gambling and a deep grudge against the victim. He also had a tattoo on his left hand, and Bai Yiheng had cut his hand earlier. Bai Yiheng walked out of the interrogation room and told Sam, "Have Officer Takagi guard my house and send some people to guard my office."
Sam suddenly thought, "Aren't you going to guard the parrot?"
Bai Yiheng waved his hand dismissively. In the middle of the night, both Bai Yiheng's house and office were set on fire. Although a group of officers was guarding them, they still couldn't catch the criminal. In the end, the quick-witted Sam shot the tire of the perpetrator's car, barely managing to catch him.
Part 3: The Butterfly Knife
The next day, Officer Takagi burst in angrily, "You guys! Your shooting skills are so bad! What does the government pay you for? What's the point of walkie-talkies!"
Bai Yiheng, seemingly expecting the police to fail to catch them, sat there leisurely and said, "After all, this is someone who committed the 'perfect crime'; it's not going to be that easy to catch them."
Sam entered the interrogation room and said, "There are now three suspects: the lame Qing Feng, the hand-injured Zhong Jin, and the heavily indebted Ye Lan. Although there's no substantial evidence, we believe Zhong Jin is the one who set the fire last night. Qing Feng, Zhong Jin, and Ye Lan are all connected."
Bai Yiheng waved his hand, and the three suspects were brought in. All three had tattoos on their arms and injuries on their left hands. Takagi and Sam immediately frowned. Bai Yiheng smiled confidently, his eyes seemingly able to see through everything. He took out a butterfly knife from somewhere, a small silver knife with a green-winged butterfly engraved on the handle. He started playing with it. After a while, Bai Yiheng looked at the three and said, "Show me your hands."
All three extended their hands, all injured. Zhong Jin's injury was the most severe, with a plaster cast binding his hand tightly. Qing Feng's arm had scratches, and Ye Lan's hand was full of marks, burns, and scars. Bai Yiheng smiled and said, "I don't know if you've heard this saying, 'After watching 1,000 movies, you'll find that there are no strange things in this world.'"
Bai Yiheng walked up to them and stabbed the butterfly knife into Zhong Jin's hand. The plaster cast immediately cracked open, revealing a fresh scratch and a tattoo from the "perfect crime" ten years ago. Bai Yiheng said, "Zhong Jin, you are the 'perfect crime' perpetrator; you're under arrest."
Zhong Jin calmly said, "Do you have any evidence?"
Bai Yiheng immediately took out handcuffs, cuffed him, and began his deduction: "First, although all three of you wear glasses, have tattoos on your left hands, and have grudges against the victim's family, the others were not greatly affected. But you, Zhong Jin, originally had a bright future as a pianist. You lost all your money and ruined your hand."
Zhong Jin picked up a nearby plaster cast and smashed it on the table in anger. "Evidence? Where's the evidence? This only shows that I had a grudge against him!"
Bai Yiheng took out the AA-12 shotgun shell and said, "When this bullet was fired from the gun, only the bullet inside the casing hit Xie An, and the shell fell by the roadside. The gun you used is almost trace-free. It can even be fired single-handedly. With such a gun, gunpowder residue is certainly undetectable.
"Also, when you drove past Xie An, the paint on your car was scraped off by a button on Xie An's clothes. The day before yesterday, the car company informed me that the paint came from a gray BMW sedan. Last night, after Detective Sam shot your car's tire, he found that the car you were driving was indeed a gray BMW, with a paint scrape on the door.
"Finally, we found an AA-12 shotgun in the trunk of your car. It seems you've modified this gun. The fingerprints match yours perfectly."
After Bai Yiheng finished, he stared sharply at Zhong Jin, whose face turned pale as he slowly lowered his head. Sam and Takagi shook their heads. Takagi pointed at Zhong Jin and said, "If he had more experience, this might have been another 'perfect crime.'"
The whole team agreed.
Mentor: Lin Cheng
