Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Back at the police station, Old Shao and Yuan Jun were busy interrogating Anxi, while Xu Yiman and Jiang He sat in the office watching the footage of Anxi and Deng Xiangyu's passionate night.
Anxi, whose real name was An Xiaofang, was twenty-three years old. After graduating from middle school, she entered society and, after a few years of struggling, turned to a life of crime. An Xiaofang's testimony matched perfectly with what was shown in the video, indicating that she was not lying.
However, the cameras did not have audio capabilities, so it was impossible to confirm what An Xiaofang and Deng Xiangyu had discussed. But when Deng Xiangyu left, he indeed pulled out a stack of Renminbi from his backpack. Judging by the amount, it was estimated to be between one thousand five hundred to two thousand yuan.
At around four in the morning, the two lay in bed for forty minutes. During this time, An Xiaofang played mobile games while Deng Xiangyu seemed to be doing something else. From the video, it appeared that An Xiaofang was only half-heartedly nodding along. Her testimony indicated that she did not pay much attention to what Deng Xiangyu was saying.
An Xiaofang only intermittently caught snippets of Deng Xiangyu talking about how his parents hit him and how no one understood him. Beyond that, she could not recall anything else.
Around five o'clock, Deng Xiangyu picked up his backpack as if he was about to leave. They exchanged a few words, but An Xiaofang was too engrossed in her game to pay attention.
Nearby surveillance showed that Deng Xiangyu left Huanghua Street at five twenty. After that point, there were no more sightings of him until he was discovered in the dry well.
It turned out that An Xiaofang had not lied.
Xu Yiman was a forensic doctor; she had seen many gruesome scenes before, but this time sitting next to Jiang He made her feel quite uncomfortable.
"Ahem, are you done watching?" Xu Yiman asked.
"Rewind a bit," Jiang He replied.
Xu Yiman dragged the progress bar slowly to the left.
"Right here!" Jiang He pointed out.
On the screen were two figures: Deng Xiangyu lying on the ground while An Xiaofang prepared to sit on his face.
"You still have this hobby?" Xu Yiman looked at Jiang He.
"Did you see what's on the bed?" Jiang He seemed oblivious to Xu Yiman's teasing.
Xu Yiman carefully observed the video and noticed a backpack flash by in the upper left corner.
"Freeze it here!" Jiang He said.
Xu Yiman rewound the video and paused it, scrutinizing the backpack.
"What’s wrong with the backpack?" Xu Yiman asked.
Jiang He pointed to a frame that was almost out of view and said seriously, "Right here, look closely. The outside of the backpack is bulging in a cylindrical shape."
Xu Yiman focused her gaze and, after careful examination, finally saw it.
The backpack seemed to be stuffed with quite a few items, bulging noticeably, and at the lower part of the bag, there was indeed a protrusion that appeared cylindrical. It looked like it contained something like a bottle.
"A water bottle?" Xu Yiman suggested.
Jiang He shook his head and said to Xu Yiman, "Drag it to when Deng Xiangyu walks in."
Xu Yiman nodded and proceeded to operate the video.
At that moment, Xu Yiman understood Jiang He's intention. She saw that when Deng Xiangyu entered, there was a water bottle sticking out of the side pocket of his backpack. This meant that the bag didn’t contain a water bottle after all.
"So what exactly is inside? Is it important?" Xu Yiman asked.
Jiang He nodded, stood up, and said, "You keep watching; I’m going to find Guan Deng."
With that, Jiang He quickly left.
Xu Yiman stared at the door still swaying back and forth and muttered to herself, "What’s so interesting about this big-headed ghost?"
Old Shao and Yuan Jun left the interrogation room and arrived at the office, where they found Xu Yiman alone.
Shao the Elder said, "An Xiaofang's testimony is similar to her previous statements. She doesn't seem to be lying. By the way, where's Jiang He? Wasn't he with you?"
Xu Yiman shrugged and replied, "He was just here, but then he suddenly rushed out to find Guan Deng. Jiang He discovered something in the video; it seems Deng Xiangyu had a cup or something similar in his backpack. I don't know what kind of clue that is, but he seems to care about it."
"Let's go take a look," Shao the Elder said.
When Old Shao brought a few people to the Technical Room to find Jiang He, they saw him leaning on Guan Deng's shoulder.
On the computer screen was a map of Dragon City.
"Mark Huanghua Street and South Bay Street," Jiang He instructed.
Guan Deng nodded and typed some code on the keyboard. Two red lines appeared on the map, representing Huanghua Street and South Bay Street.
"Fourth High School," Jiang He added.
A dot appeared on the map, indicating the location of Dragon City's Fourth High School.
Both the dot and the two lines were located in the southern district.
Jiang He continued, "Draw blue lines for all the streets without surveillance between Huanghua Street and South Bay Street."
Guan Deng nodded and began typing furiously on the keyboard. Jiang He watched as lines of code flashed across the screen, while white dots appeared continuously on the map.
Everyone was puzzled by what Jiang He was doing, but Old Shao smiled knowingly. As he walked toward the door, he said, "I'm going to have some tea. Once you figure out that route, come find me."
Jiang He nodded in response.
"What is this line?" Yuan Jun looked at the screen, where tiny white dots flickered like termites, twinkling as if gazing up at a distant galaxy.
Half an hour later, the white dots finally came to a stop, and two blue lines appeared on the screen. These lines slithered like snakes, eventually connecting at both ends to a red line.
Between the two red lines lay an area without surveillance.
Jiang He closed his eyes, not uttering a word.
A few people watched Jiang He, noticing his eyes rolling beneath his eyelids.
At that moment, Jiang He was in the Technical Room, but his mind had already arrived at Huanghua Street. He followed the two blue lines downward. It was five in the morning, and the streets were eerily quiet, devoid of any sound. Jiang He strolled aimlessly toward Fourth High School.
He seemed to see the dilapidated scenery on both sides of the street, noticed the dirty pavement, and spotted a food vendor just setting up their stall to cook breakfast.
As he walked, he reached South Bay Street. Jiang He glanced at his phone; it was a quarter past six.
"Six fifteen," Jiang He said aloud.
"What?" Xu Yiman asked.
But Jiang He closed his eyes again. With his eyes shut, he returned to Huanghua Street. Having taken one path earlier, he now intended to explore a second one. Jiang He continued to wander aimlessly down the street, feeling the gentle breeze and the warmth of the sun just rising.
"Six thirty," Jiang He spoke again.
The two blue lines intersected, indicating that there were various routes from Huanghua Street to South Bay Street. With his eyes closed, Jiang He occasionally murmured a time.
"Six thirty, seven o'clock, six twenty..."
A string of numbers flowed from Jiang He's lips.
Finally, Jiang He opened his eyes.
"What’s going on?" Xu Yiman asked anxiously. "What have you been doing all this time?"
Jiang He replied, "If you go half an hour further down South Bay Street, you'll reach Longcheng Fourth High School."
"That sounds about right," Xu Yiman said.
Jiang He patted Guan Deng on the shoulder and explained, "After Deng Xiangyu left Huanghua Street, there hasn't been any surveillance footage of where he went. There are a few possibilities. He could have taken a taxi in an area without cameras, passing through South Bay Street, where the driver killed him. Alternatively, Deng Xiangyu might have walked through an area without surveillance to South Bay and then died."
"That makes sense," Yuan Jun nodded.
Jiang He continued, "If he took a taxi, even if the driver took a longer route, twenty minutes would be enough. But if Deng Xiangyu walked there, it would take about an hour and a half. I calculated the walking time in my mind and concluded that regardless of which route Deng Xiangyu chose, he would likely arrive before seven."
"Based on my calculations, I am seventy percent sure that Deng Xiangyu walked there," Jiang He stated.
"Yesterday was the first day of school," Xu Yiman noted. "It’s possible that after leaving Huanghua Street, Deng Xiangyu walked to school. Perhaps someone recognized him as one of those who had stripped Xiao Xuanmiao's clothes and, seeing that it was still early with no one around, decided to kill him."
However, Jiang He shook his head. He turned to Yuan Jun and said, "Let's call Old Shao over; this matter might not be what we think."
Yuan Jun called for Old Shao, who was currently holding his tea mug.
"What have you discovered?" Old Shao asked.
Xu Yiman spoke up, "Jiang He believes that Deng Xiangyu must have walked to South Bay Street himself."
"Does the timing match?" Old Shao inquired.
Jiang He nodded. "Everything happened before seven."
Old Shao gently rubbed the tea cup in his hands and said slowly, "This matter is not simple. There is still an hour until his death, and the Autopsy Report indicates that he died from Paraquat poisoning, with one of his arms severed."
"Is that so?" Xu Yiman replied.
Old Shao placed the tea cup on the table and asked, "What about Captain Liu? Has he figured out where the crime scene is yet?"
Yuan Jun said, "I'll go ask."
Moments later, Captain Liu approached the group.
Captain Liu said, "We searched the nearby houses but found nothing. Blood is very difficult to clean up, yet we haven't discovered any yard with a significant amount of bloodstains."
"What direction are you searching in?" Old Shao inquired.
"The homes of those living in the bungalows," Captain Liu answered. "Ordinary people wouldn't buy Paraquat; it's mostly used by farmers..."
Old Shao's eyes lit up as he exclaimed, "So that's it! The direction was wrong!"
"The direction was wrong?" Captain Liu scratched his head in confusion.
"That's right," Shao the Elder confirmed. "It's getting late now; let's go investigate together tomorrow!"
Comment 0 Comment Count