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墨書 Inktalez
An Jinzhong turned to Jiang He, his gaze clearly questioning, "How do you know a murder has occurred? Are you the murderer?"
In truth, it wasn't hard to guess. The expression on the police officer's face when he entered had given everything away. The sweat on his forehead, his hand gripping the doorknob tightly, his slightly trembling shoulders, and the tone of his voice all led Jiang He to immediately think—there had been a murder.
Jiang He remained unfazed by An Jinzhong's suspicious look and quickly asked, "Where did the murder happen? Is the victim male or female? Was it suicide or homicide? Has the murderer been identified? If there is a murderer, how was the victim killed? What was the murder weapon?"
A rapid-fire series of questions left the officer stunned; he almost thought that the man before him was his superior.
In Jiang He's eyes, An Jinzhong saw an intense fervor that made him uneasy. Throughout their journey, An Jinzhong had seen Jiang He maintain a cold, expressionless demeanor, his eyes as frigid as a robot's. However, upon hearing about a murder, the excitement in Jiang He's eyes was impossible to conceal.
"Wait, why are you meddling?" An Jinzhong finally spoke up. "What’s the current situation?"
The officer glanced at Jiang He and scratched his head in response. "The situation is still unclear. The caller is a middle school student returning home from school, living in Unit 3, Apartment 60 of Dongchang District A. On his way home, he discovered red liquid flowing from under the security door of Apartment 601, accompanied by a strong smell of blood."
As they walked outside, the officer continued, "He then alerted the property management. After knocking with no response, the security staff forced open the door and found a body near the entrance hall. They immediately called the police. No one else has entered the scene yet; the Criminal Investigation Team from Yuzhou District Public Security Bureau is preparing to depart. Let's head over to secure the scene first."
Although Jiang He was not a police officer, he was well-acquainted with this procedure.
The police station serves as a branch of the Public Security Bureau; unless it’s a larger station, most do not have criminal investigation teams. Therefore, when a murder occurs, officers from the nearest station will first go to secure the scene and calm any crowds.
Each district's Public Security Bureau will send its Criminal Investigation Team for investigation. If they encounter difficulties, then the City Public Security Bureau will dispatch its City Bureau Criminal Investigation Team. For cases that shock an entire province, the Provincial Public Security Department will send in a special criminal investigation team. If a case escalates to national significance, it may be directly handled by the Ministry of Public Security’s criminal investigation division or even lead to a special task force being formed with top detectives from across the country.
Jiang He understood this well because before turning twenty-eight, he had participated in police recruitment exams for five consecutive years. What puzzled him was that despite taking these local exams annually, he could never even pass the written test.
Jiang He had no idea where he went wrong.
By the time he turned twenty-eight and faced age restrictions, he could no longer take police exams.
"Come on! Someone's dead; everyone follow me!" An Jinzhong shouted as he climbed into a police car.
He started the engine just as someone else got into the vehicle—it was none other than Jiang He.
A nearby officer frowned and said irritably, "What are you doing? Get out!"
Jiang He showed no intention of getting out of the car.
The police officer said, "If it weren't for the situation, do you think I wouldn't detain you? Get out, you lunatic."
Jiang He was escorted out of the police station by two officers, yet he displayed no sign of embarrassment. He watched as police cars whizzed by with their sirens blaring, running his fingers through his messy hair, deep in thought.
During the time Jiang He was thrown out, An Jinzhong remained silent. He felt conflicted; it was impossible to bring along someone who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, especially someone so disheveled and who had just fought with a pig—a mental patient.
On the other hand, Jiang He's ability to glean so much information just from observing people's appearances was something none of the detectives at the Yuzhou District Substation could achieve. This left An Jinzhong feeling a mix of admiration and confusion towards Jiang He, making him even more curious about this individual.
However, his curiosity about Jiang He was quickly overshadowed by the tension and vague excitement surrounding the murder case. Although he didn't show it as overtly as Jiang He did, as a police officer, there was always a thrill when facing a homicide. What police officer hadn't fantasized about unraveling a case, discovering the truth, and apprehending the criminal?
The car was silent except for the sharp sound of the siren.
Dongchang District lay in the southern part of Dragon City’s Yuzhou District and belonged to an older area. At that moment, it was two in the afternoon, and outside felt like an oven. If someone were to crack an egg on the ground at that moment, by the time they picked it up, it would likely be a fried egg. Yet the heat did not deter the curiosity of the residents; even people from other districts had come to gather outside Unit Three, all looking up as if they were partaking in some kind of ritual.
As the police car drove in, the crowd instinctively parted to make way.
An Jinzhong moved forward as several district security guards approached him.
"My name is An Jinzhong. What should I call you?" An Jinzhong asked while observing the enthusiastic crowd around him.
"Call me Lao Gao," replied the security team leader, a dark-skinned man who wasted no time with pleasantries. "Our guards are up there watching; you should hurry up."
The old six-story building had no elevator. An Jinzhong led his fellow officers up the stairs in a hurry.
At that moment on the sixth floor stood only one security guard—presumably one of Lao Gao's "Two Donkeys."
An Jinzhong found it both amusing and frustrating. "If he's scared, why leave him alone up here?"
Lao Gao leaned closer to An Jinzhong and whispered, "No one wants to be here watching over a dead body; it's bad luck!"
"Bad luck."
A taxi driver threw Jiang He out of the car, disgusted by the pig's blood that had splattered on his vehicle.
At that moment, Jiang He was just a hundred meters away from the police station. He had attempted to force his way into a taxi but was promptly kicked out by the driver. With no money to his name, the only valuable thing he possessed was a one hundred and forty-pound pig.
According to current market prices, pork was about twenty-five yuan per pound. Even after removing the entrails, this pig would still weigh around one hundred pounds, worth at least two thousand five hundred yuan. A trip to Dongchang District would cost about one hundred yuan, and processing and transporting the pig to the market would likely take another hundred yuan. Selling it at five yuan below market price would still yield a profit of at least fifteen hundred yuan.
Thus, Jiang He couldn't understand why the taxi driver kept refusing him when it was clearly a profitable deal.
Then he spotted a white truck approaching, with lively music playing from its back compartment, suggesting some kind of celebration. The dead pig blocked the truck's path, prompting the driver to stop and shout, "Hey, move aside!"
Jiang He looked at the driver and said, "Take me to Dongchang District, and this pig is yours."
Before the driver could respond with a harsh word, a man in his forties sitting in the passenger seat spoke up. "Forget it; it's fate. I'm a butcher, and I can tell this pig hasn't been dead long. Come on, let's lift it up together and get it sorted out."
Jiang He climbed into the back of the truck.
A musician playing a suona muttered, "What is going on? When someone dies, we play funeral songs; now we have a dead pig on board too. How long until we get there?"
"How long until we get there?"
An Jinzhong glanced at his watch; it had been twenty minutes since he arrived at the scene, yet the Criminal Investigation Team had not yet shown up.
While waiting for the detectives to arrive, An Jinzhong gathered some basic information about the residents.
The homeowner was named Li Weiyi, a thirty-year-old man. His wife was He Hui Juan, twenty-six years old. Li Weiyi and He Hui Juan had been married for five years but had no children.
Three years ago, after Li Weiyi's father passed away, he brought his mother from their hometown to live with them. For these three years, it had been Li Weiyi, his wife, and his mother Wu Guifeng living together.
An Jinzhong had already called Li Weiyi, asking him to return without revealing what had happened. The reason for this discretion was that even the toughest man would likely struggle to bear such news.
There were two corpses in the house.
Standing outside, one could see a body leaning against the Shoe Cabinet in the Entrance Hall, its back facing the wooden door. The old building lacked a Security Door, so there was no raised threshold. Blood from this body flowed out through the crack of the door, forming a pool of dark red outside.
The other corpse was in the bedroom, specifically on the bed.
This body was Mangled at the abdomen, and blood flowed like a river across the bed, staining the white sheets with the most gruesome color imaginable. Below the corpse's abdomen, it was covered with a blanket, while another part of the blanket hung down to the floor.
It was as if Sleeping Beauty lay there, eyes closed.
Both corpses were female; the one near the Entrance Hall appeared to be in her fifties or sixties, while the one on the bed looked to be in her twenties or thirties.
After verification by property management, the identities of the deceased were confirmed as Wu Guifeng and He Hui Juan.
Two of the most important women in a man's life had died simultaneously—something that no man could bear.
This was precisely why An Jinzhong did not disclose the actual situation to Li Weiyi.
There was little An Jinzhong could do; this was one of those things.
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