Jiang An continued, "Just now, I've analyzed that the victim didn't die immediately after receiving the chest injury. There was a process of seeking help and struggling."

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Hongbing, Mr. Zhao, Wan, and Zhang Yuan all nodded in agreement.

This reasoning had no flaws.

After all, if someone dies quickly after sustaining a serious injury, there wouldn't be clear handprints left on the wall.

After thinking for a while, Li Hongbing glanced at Jiang An and asked in a deep voice, "Mr. Jiang, what do you mean by that?"

Jiang An lowered his head to look at the handprints.

"The grasp marks on the wall aren't deep but are numerous."

"I wonder why the killer, during the crime, didn't immediately finish the victim off, instead allowing the chance to call for help?"

When these words were spoken, everyone fell into deep thought again.

Li Hongbing pondered for a moment and said, "Do you mean the killer didn't intend to kill him?"

Jiang An nodded. "However, there is still some contradiction!"

"If the killer didn't want the male victim dead, why is the chest injury so severe, with multiple rib fractures, even puncturing the lungs?"

Finally, Jiang An summarized, "On the one hand, this male body shows a very severe degree of chest fractures."

"On the other hand, other parts of the body, especially important organs like the skull and heart, have no injuries."

"So, I feel there is a significant contradiction."

Hearing Jiang An's analysis, the others were also very puzzled.

A moment later, Jiang An walked to the bedroom entrance.

A rural bedroom, unlike urban ones, doesn't have an independent door.

These bedrooms don't even have a curtain and are in an open state.

Jiang An stood at the entrance, looking inside.

With the intense light from his flashlight, he saw a chalk outline on the floor.

That was where the female victim was lying.

At this moment, the original photo flashed in Jiang An's mind.

The female victim lay face down on the floor, with noticeable head trauma.

Then, Jiang An walked inside, looking around.

The items in the bedroom were relatively tidy, especially the things on the bedside table, with no signs of being knocked over.

Moreover, the bottles and jars on the nearby wooden cabinet hadn't fallen to the floor.

This fully suggested that during the indoor confrontation, the struggle wasn't intense.

Thinking of this, Jiang An's mind connected all the case details.

Whether it's the yard, the living room, or the bedroom, there were no signs of strong resistance.

Everything looked very calm!

Why?

Why, when their lives were threatened, did the two victims choose not to resist?

Or only put up minimal resistance?

Were they too afraid to resist?

Or did they deliberately choose not to resist?

With these questions in mind, Jiang An squatted on the floor, using a powerful flashlight to search the bedroom floor carefully.

Sure enough, he saw some tiny bloodstains on the floor, which were very disordered,

Upon seeing this, Jiang An suddenly raised his head to look at the ceiling.

When the strong light beam shone on the ceiling, others also raised their heads to observe it.

Zhang Yean curiously asked, "Mr. Jiang, did the blood spatter up there?"

Jiang An nodded.

"This is what forensic science calls 'cast-off bloodstain.'"

"When an object strikes a bleeding source, often the blood gets thrown onto other places due to inertia."

Hearing Jiang An speak so professionally, Mr. Zhao quickly came over, humbly inquiring, "What can these cast-off bloodstains indicate?"

"These high-level spatter bloodstains can indicate that at the time of bleeding, the victim was in an upright position."

Then Jiang An turned to ask, "Mr. Zhao, when the female victim was found, was she wearing shoes?"

Mr. Zhao recalled and answered, "I remember she wasn't."

At this moment, Jiang An looked down and found a pair of flip-flops.

This pair of flip-flops was placed neatly at the bedside.

Could these flip-flops have been what the female victim wore before her death?

Then Jiang An muttered to himself, "The female victim was in pajamas and a vest, not wearing shoes. What does that indicate?"

"Could it suggest that when the killer entered the bedroom, the female victim was asleep?"

"But why did the male victim's death occur at the corner of the living room?"

At this point, Li Hongbing answered, "According to our investigation, the couple slept in this room."

"Is it possible that the male victim discovered something first, went out to confront the killer, and after the male victim was subdued, the killer moved to the bedroom to attack the female victim?"

Jiang An listened and nodded gently.

He didn't immediately express his thoughts.

After all, some things are still unclear.

Now that he was in Han City to assist with solving the case, he represented the image of the whole Jiangcheng criminal investigation.

Prudence and science are his personal standards.

Without absolute certainty, it's best to stay silent in this situation.

Suddenly, the female victim's head injury flashed in Jiang An's mind.

According to the forensic examination photos, the female victim's head injuries were on the right side.

Judging by her distance from the bed and her not wearing flip-flops, Jiang An believed she was probably attacked just after getting out of bed, quite likely from the front.

If the two were facing off, and the victim's injuries were on the left side of the head, it clearly indicates the killer might be left-handed.

Left-handers are quite rare in the population.

This could serve as a significant basis for suspect screening.

Immediately afterward, Jiang An stood up and walked over to the bedroom wardrobe.

Mr. Zhao followed, pulling open the wardrobe.

"Let me show you where elderly people usually stash cash."

Mr. Zhao opened the entire wardrobe. "There are many clothes, but only one spot was disturbed."

"In the bedside cabinet drawer, no signs of searching were found in the other drawers, only the bottom one was clearly ransacked."

Jiang An nodded, saying, "The killer's intention to find financial assets is very strong and highly accurate."

"Why did the killer search for assets with such precision?"

Jiang An internally hadn't figured it out.

"Is it possible it was an internal family theft?"

Li Hongbing answered, "We investigated all the family members, none of them had the opportunity nor urgent financial need."

At this moment, Zhang Yean also asked, "Do you think the killer might have coerced the elderly couple to find the money?"

Wan nodded.

"I think that's quite possible!"

"Look at this house with bottles and jars everywhere. Would a killer searching for valuables be so precise on their own?"

Mr. Zhao nodded as well. "I agree."

However, Jiang An's gaze remained fixed on the pair of flip-flops at the bed's edge.

Judging by the victim lying on the floor without shoes and the fall position, the female victim seemed not to have moved after getting out of bed.

At this moment, Jiang An's mind suddenly recalled the female victim's head injury.

Though there was only one injury site, it was deep enough to fracture the skull and contuse part of the brain tissue.

So, the force of this injury was very strong.

But why was there only one injury on her body?

Upon careful thought, the injuries on both victims bear similarities.

Suddenly, Jiang An looked around, recollecting all physical evidence at the death scene.

Gradually, he transformed the static evidence in his mind into a dynamic behavior process, beginning a case simulation.

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