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墨書 Inktalez
"Quick!" Captain Shao commanded. "Search along the tracks on both sides; we cannot let him get away."
"This is the first murder scene!" Mary waved her hand. "Now the question arises: how did the murderer manage to kill the victim in such a short time, remove their viscera and eyes, all while it was raining, and leave no footprints?"
Although I had never attended a police academy or systematically studied theoretical knowledge, I grew up in a prison where I learned various criminal techniques. The most important lesson was this: if you want to catch a criminal, you must first think like one. The detectives referred to this as criminal simulation.
At my suggestion, some officers were already eager to try it out. The simulation had two key points: first, how to avoid leaving footprints in the muddy ground; second, how to remove the viscera without leaving any traces behind.
Blood could be washed away by rainwater, but remnants of viscera would not.
Some officers began their own simulations while we watched. A young officer was trying to grasp the gaps in the barbed wire with his fingers while repeatedly stepping on it, hoping to shift himself from the wire to the scene. However, this was clearly impossible; the gaps between the wires were too narrow to allow more than a few fingers through, making it impossible to exert any force.
Moreover, shoes could not fit through unless the person was barefoot. How could someone extract viscera from a body on top of barbed wire without leaving any traces? This required supporting one's body with their feet, which was not something an average person could do.
Others attempted to use stones for footing, but that still left marks from the stones. Some began to suspect that the body was not emptied on the barbed wire but rather had been emptied beforehand and then placed there...
"Stop trying," I said to everyone. "If we can find that homeless man, we will know how he did it."
"What do you have in mind?" Captain Shao asked me.
"Wait until tomorrow," I replied.
The next morning, after breakfast, there were still no leads on the homeless man. The area where the body was discovered had car lights illuminating it, but both sides for a hundred meters were pitch black. Finding that homeless man in the dark rainy night would be difficult because some homeless individuals naturally belonged to the night.
"I'll take you all somewhere!" I said.
"Where?" Captain Shao asked.
"Train station," I said. "But it won't do for just us; we need someone skilled."
In less than half an hour, Captain Shao found me a partner. He was about my age, probably in his early twenties, and his muscular build looked quite strong and imposing. He saluted everyone and then turned to me, saying, "Prepared Armed Police Gu Chen reporting for duty. What are your orders, sir?"
I quickly waved my hand. "I'm not a sir, just a mental patient. Alright, we can set off now."
Birds of a feather flock together. Outstanding people tend to associate with other outstanding individuals, and conversely, vagrants often stick together. If there’s one place in every city that is the most chaotic, it would be the train station. This place gathers all walks of life—doctors, professors, business elites, beggars, thieves, and abducted children...
Standing in the middle of the train station, people passed by me in a constant flow. The others didn’t understand my intentions and watched me from a distance, seemingly anxious. A child tugged at my sleeve; I turned around and smiled at him, and he smiled back at me foolishly. I noticed one of his arms was twisted, clearly indicating a disability.
"Please give me some money..." he started to say.
"You're exactly who I'm looking for!" I exclaimed as I grabbed the child.
The boy didn’t understand what was happening and began to shout and scream. Before long, seven or eight adults approached us, dressed in ragged clothes and cursing.
"This is an abducted child!" I shouted. "I know him."
The shouting resulted in no one paying attention to me; this was expected. Naturally, to stop my commotion, those seven or eight ragged individuals pushed me forward.
In the city, out of every ten children begging on the streets, eight are controlled by others. Among those eight, six are disabled; none of them are locals but rather victims brought in by traffickers.
Even after being abducted by traffickers, fate has dealt them varying degrees of misfortune. The child in front of me clearly had a grim fate; despite looking around seven or eight years old, he had become numb to such circumstances. Perhaps his arm was broken when he was five and he was cast out to beg—or maybe even earlier.
The world of begging sometimes resembles the financial world; they both know how to maximize their profits. Clearly, a disabled child will elicit more sympathy than an adult; for them, sympathy translates into money.
After being shoved through several twists and turns, I was pushed into an alleyway. The seven or eight-year-old boy spat at me and said, "Damn you old man! You’re ruining my business—get him!"
Some victims, after suffering harm themselves, strongly desire to join their abusers because they want others to experience the same suffering. Once they’ve been dragged down into darkness themselves, they feel compelled to pull others down with them. This explains why some traitors were more ruthless towards their own people than the invaders were.
Just as everyone was about to beat me up, I raised a finger and said, “Fish on Land, my apologies.”
This was coded language, quite fitting in this context. As I mentioned before, I grew up in prison. While learning to speak Mandarin, I also learned the street slang. What I meant was that I had accidentally intruded into their territory, and it was my fault.
A beggar who seemed to be the leader said to me, “Birds Fly in the Forest, Fish Entering Water, go back where you came from.”
He meant that since this wasn't my territory, I should leave and stop talking nonsense.
Understanding the coded language indicated that this was no ordinary beggar; he belonged to an organized and disciplined group of beggars. They could be considered institutionalized beggars, with benefits and a fixed salary. Almost every city has such professional beggars, and sometimes these beggars earn more than White-collar workers.
“Hit him.” This time it was my turn to speak, and as soon as I did, a figure darted out from the alley.
After smoking two cigarettes, Gu Chen, holding the beggar like a chick, said to me, “They were scared off by me; the rest ran away. What do you want me to do with this one?”
After drinking three cups of water in the interrogation room, the beggar's expression was quite rich.
“You brought me in here just to find a homeless man?” The beggar seemed to think we were making a big deal out of nothing.
I nodded.
People not on the same level see a different world. A meat pie that fell on the ground got stomped into mush. The elites passing by found it disgusting, while a homeless person saw it as potential lunch. To find a drop of water, the best way is to let the other drops seek it out. It’s like how a woman feels like there are pregnant women everywhere after she becomes pregnant.
In just one afternoon, we learned about the whereabouts of that homeless man. His description matched almost perfectly; some people indeed had seen him. He had a notable characteristic: his nails were long, sharp, and very white, with no dirt underneath because he had swallowed all that dirt.
So if you want to commit a crime, first you need to have an average face—not too ugly or too handsome—preferably one that people can look at for half an hour and then forget immediately. Secondly, you shouldn’t be too unique; avoid having catchphrases or habitual actions; otherwise, you will still be recognized.
When we finally found this homeless man, he was lying naked inside a dilapidated shipping container. He emitted an awful smell; his hair was long and crawling with various unknown insects. He looked like a moving human garbage dump, with his tattered clothes tossed aside.
Looking below him, that part had shriveled and deformed as if burned by fire; clearly, he had lost his manhood. One of his legs was made of wood.
"He is not the Murderer." Captain Shao and I spoke the same words in unison.
We exchanged glances, while Mary looked puzzled.
I explained, "He resembles the Murderer I imagined, but there are differences."
Captain Shao said, "Although I don't have Wu Meng's talent, we can discern a lot from the details. He was indeed at the Murder Case scene last night; there was dirt on his prosthetic limb, and his hair was clearly drenched from the rain. The clothes left aside were obviously too wet to wear anymore."
"But he is not the Murderer. The most important point is..." Captain Shao pointed at the homeless man's lower body and continued, "The Autopsy Report indicates that the woman had been violated before her death. Just look at him—how could he have done that?"
Mary stared at the homeless man's lower body without any hesitation, which struck me as rather interesting. It seemed Mary sensed my thoughts and smirked, saying, "I was a member of the Special Cases Unit at your age. I've seen more perverse murder cases than you've had meals, and your Delusional Disorder doesn't seem to help us find the Murderer."
I shrugged and replied, "What if I found a murderer who didn't have time to kill? The only reason he isn't the Murderer is that someone else acted first before he could strike. While he isn't the Murderer, the Viscera should be what he extracted. Also, you aren't a Grave Robber, are you? Interested in a disabled lower body?"
Mary pointed at my lower half and teased, "Some people might be worse off than this."
Captain Shao shook his head helplessly and said, "You two stop bickering and focus on the task at hand. Let's take him back for questioning. If the Murderer killed first and then he extracted the Viscera, that timing is too coincidental. Besides, how did the Murderer and this homeless man leave the scene without leaving any Footprints?"
As he spoke, several police officers woke up the still-sleeping homeless man.
The first thing the homeless man said upon waking was, "That woman is in my belly."
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