The Track

Su Mo did not bring much luggage, just a suitcase. Apart from a few changes of clothes inside, there was only a stun gun wrapped in special materials.

In order to pass security checks, wrapping it in special materials was a basic skill not worth mentioning.

So he did not go to the hotel first, but took a taxi directly and started wandering around the city.

When the driver heard Su Mo's request, he was overjoyed. This was a big order. He did not need to take any other orders today. This one was enough. So he was very enthusiastic and started acting as a tour guide.

The driver was a local and knew Lin'an City like the back of his hand. He introduced it in great detail.

"This is the largest commercial district in Lin'an. You can buy anything here, but the prices are a bit expensive..."

"This is the highest-end community in Lin'an. It costs almost 100,000 per square meter. The residents here are either rich or high-ranking officials..."

"This is the western suburb of Lin'an City. It used to be a rural area. It was rebuilt into an urban area a few years ago during the city reconstruction..."

"This is the largest garbage processing plant in Lin'an. The amount of garbage piled up here every day..."

It was not until 7 pm that Su Mo got out of the taxi and found a hotel to stay in. He also made an appointment with the driver to continue tomorrow. The driver was of course happy.

The next day, early in the morning, the driver came to the hotel in his car. Then they continued to visit places they had not been to.

This went on for four days until around 4 pm that day when they arrived at the last place, the northern suburb.

"Although this is called a suburb, it is actually just farmland. It is called a suburb because it is not far from the city center. Some people here work in the city, some still farm the land..."

Back at the hotel, Su Mo sat on a chair and pondered: "It seems that the murderer can be ruled out from within the Second Ring Road. There is simply no opportunity to commit the crime.

The possible places are the suburbs and urban villages in the four directions, as well as the shanty towns in the east.

But the population in the eastern, western and southern suburbs is too dense. Although it is possible, if I were the murderer, I would not live there. It would be too risky.

As for the urban villages, it's the same reason. There are too many people around and the night markets are too lively. It is not conducive for the murderer to dispose of corpses at night. It is not a very good choice either.

So the most likely places for the murderer to live should be the shanty towns and the northern suburbs.

Well, that should be it. Unless the murderer has mental problems, he would most likely choose to live in one of these two places. Or rather, when he first came to Lin'an City, he happened to live in one of these two places."

After roughly confirming the residence of the murderer, he went to bed. He still had a lot to do. To find this murderer, in addition to logical analysis and reasoning, he also needed luck.

Otherwise, if the murderer had left Lin'an City or was already dead, then of course he would not be able to find him.

This possibility existed because after all, the murderer had not committed a crime for 8 years. It was hard to say. But it didn't matter. Su Mo was not a policeman anyway. He would try his best. If he succeeded, great. If not, no big deal.

The next day, Su Mo also got up early. Then he went out towards the shanty town.

The shanty towns in Lin'an City were not all tile houses or small bungalows. After all, much had changed over the years.

Nowadays, there were many three-story buildings here. Of course, bungalows and tile houses were still the mainstream.

The people living here could be roughly divided into two categories. One was middle-aged and elderly people who had lived here since they were young. They were reluctant to leave despite their later generations' success. They did not want to leave the home they had lived in for decades.

The second category was migrant workers, mainly construction workers. The rent here was cheap and prices were not high either.

After Su Mo arrived here, he waited. After about half an hour, he saw a honey wagon slowly driving out, with a man in his forties wearing a small vest, the special uniform for cleaning sewage.

Su Mo's mission today was to follow this sewage cleaner.

Now it was less than 6 am in the morning. The man drove the car to the first family. Then he worked hard in their septic tank for a long time. Su Mo did not go in, of course. This part did not need watching.

Then, after the sewage cleaner loaded the sewage into the car, he continued to the second house. Like this, house by house, family by family, from 6 am in the morning until 4 pm in the afternoon.

In between, Su Mo saw the man eat a bowl of minced meat noodles very quickly. It seemed he was in a hurry.

After 4 pm, the man drove the honey wagon to the processing plant and worked hard there for another two to three hours. It was after 7 pm that the man finally drove the honey wagon home.

After following him for a day, Su Mo basically ruled out the possibility that the murderer was a sewage cleaner.

This job consumed a lot of physical strength. No matter how good one's health was, one would have no strength left to kill after such busy work, let alone dismember and cook human flesh to eat.

Moreover, there was almost no free time during this job. There was no opportunity to look for suitable targets, let alone randomly kill someone. One could not just kill anyone.

The next day, he observed sanitation workers and ruled out this occupation as well. Because the sanitation workers here did not even have vehicles. So they had no way to carry people away.

On the third day, he observed freight drivers for a day and ruled them out too.

People in this industry had extensive connections and were quite busy with many people to interact with. This did not match the conditions for the murderer to commit crimes.

On the fourth day, he observed garbage collectors for a day and found that this industry was very suitable.

The daily workload could vary greatly with no hard requirements. One could make decisions freely. Also, they had vehicles, some tricycles and some quad bikes, which made it easy to carry people away.

Moreover, garbage collectors had another advantage - no one would check what was in their vehicle. Unlike freight vehicles which might occasionally be asked for inspections, it was the most suitable occupation.

To be safe, he observed two other occupations that he considered possible in the next two days, and eventually ruled them out too.

At this point, he had preliminarily determined the occupation of the murderer to be garbage seller. This was also consistent with the police's psychological profile of the murderer.

Male, between 35 and 45 years old, living in suburbs or rural areas, worked in an inconspicuous occupation, living alone, average economic conditions, owning some kind of vehicle (tricycles and quad bikes being the most likely).

The week of hard work was fruitful. Whether the inferences were eventually right or wrong, Su Mo was acting based on his own reasoning. He would definitely try.

On his way back to the hotel, when he walked past a small grocery store, he overheard two women chatting at the door.

"I heard that someone else has gone missing this month again. It's already the third this month. Do you know, the cannibal demon might have come back again."

"What, really? How come I haven't heard about this? When did it happen?"

"Just over a month ago. You don't know, that's normal. The police blocked the news. My nephew, you know, the one working at City North Police Station..."