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墨書 Inktalez
After Jiang He questioned several villagers in succession, they all testified for Li Sanhan. The curse that the villagers believed in originated from He Caiwei, which made many of them vividly remember what had happened. Li Sanhan had indeed slept soundly at home all night and had never left.
That night was truly bizarre; when the villagers arrived at the clearing, they found that He Caiwei's head had been severed from her body. No one knew what had happened, and it was Nobleman who took the head along with the corpse back.
The strange manner of death led the villagers to recall the woman's frequent words: "I will haunt you; none of you in this village will escape death..."
Jiang He stepped out of the interrogation room, a series of questions laid out before him. The villagers clearly had conflicts with Song Xiangmei, so either Song Xiangmei was lying, or these villagers were panicking. After a moment of simple deduction, Jiang He understood who was lying.
But a person wouldn’t lie without reason; there must be a purpose behind her deceit.
"Jiang He."
Old Shao did not answer Xu Yiman's question. At that moment, Xu Yiman was still pondering how those eerie sounds had come about when she saw Jiang He approaching and quickly called out to him.
"What is it?" Jiang He looked up at Xu Yiman.
Xu Yiman asked, "Old Shao, you already knew what that strange knocking sound was on the first night. What exactly was it? And who did it? What was their purpose?"
Jiang He replied, "It's quite simple. Summer is the season for bats to be active, especially on summer nights when they come out to hunt for food. If you apply female bat hormones or urine on the doorframe, male bats will flock to it. We’ve lived in big cities for so long that we’ve hardly ever seen bats, but in rural areas, bats are quite common."
Seeing Xu Yiman's confused expression, Jiang He continued, "Do you remember the dog that attacked me? I noticed two scarred wounds on its back; those were caused by vampire bats. In fact, that night it was those bats continuously hitting the door. These animals are much quicker than humans; before we could see them, they had already vanished into the night sky."
"As for who did these things," Jiang He paused for a moment before continuing, "I can't be a hundred percent sure. In fact, I only have a sixty percent probability. Whoever is closest to us is likely the one who did it because there are no other footprints on the ground. You should understand this now."
Xu Yiman furrowed her brows: "You mean Er Dan?"
Jiang He nodded.
"But he's a fool," Xu Yiman said.
Jiang He shook his head and replied, "I don't think so. Who defines whether someone is foolish or wise? I've encountered many people who I considered fools, and many who I deemed talented. This shows that everyone has their own definitions in their hearts, and in my view, he is not foolish."
Xu Yiman sighed, "But Er Dan is dead, killed by infighting."
The matter had reached a conclusion. Old Shao granted a break to several members of the project team. At this moment, Wang Chao was still unconscious in the hospital, not yet out of danger. Wang Chao had a total of one hundred and twenty wounds on his body, seventy-eight of which were stab wounds. Among these seventy-eight wounds, five were life-threatening to Wang Chao. However, that was not the most serious issue; Wang Chao had suffered severe trauma to his skull from being struck hard on the back of his head with a blunt object.
Even if Wang Chao survived, it was highly likely he would not wake up.
During the time Wang Chao was undergoing emergency treatment, everyone could only wait anxiously outside the operating room. Even Wang Chao's wife and daughter were unable to see him for a moment.
Jiang He looked at Wang Chao's wife standing outside the operating room, holding their daughter. He suddenly recalled the conversations he had with Wang Chao before. Wang Chao's wife had long wanted him to stop being a police officer because it was too dangerous, but Wang Chao never listened. Old Shao was Wang Chao's idol, and working alongside his idol was the proudest achievement of Wang Chao's life.
Wang Chao's wife was elegant and gracious. Her eyes were red but she held back her tears. She smiled and greeted a few people; her name was Zhao Wenjing, and their daughter was named Wang Qingmei. Wang Qingmei was four years old and very cute; she tightly held her mother's hand, looking at everyone with innocent curiosity.
For Wang Qingmei, she had no idea what was happening. Perhaps in her memory, her father was just a vague image. As a police officer, Wang Chao had countless times crawled out of bed to work and spent countless nights working overtime at the precinct. The time he could spend with his family was pitifully little.
Xu Yiman also tightly grasped Zhao Wenjing's hand without saying a word; her life and Yuan Jun's life were given by Wang Chao.
"Come walk with me."
Old Shao gently leaned forward and walked past Zhao Wenjing, with Jiang He and Yuan Jun following closely behind him.
Yuan Jun said nothing; he simply pulled a cigarette from his pocket and placed it in his mouth.
"You can't smoke here," a nurse reminded him.
Yuan Jun nodded. "I'll go to the restroom."
With that, he headed toward the restroom, but Old Shao stopped him. "Give me one."
In all this time, Jiang He had never seen Old Shao smoke. To Jiang He, Old Shao didn't seem like a smoker at all. Yuan Jun didn’t hesitate; he pulled out two cigarettes and handed one to Old Shao before continuing on his way to the restroom without looking back.
It seemed Yuan Jun wanted some time alone.
"You can't smoke here, old man!" another nurse called out.
"I'm not smoking!" Old Shao replied, holding the cigarette in his mouth while offering the other one to Jiang He.
Jiang He shook his head. "I don't smoke, and I don't really understand why you all do. Smoking has no direct connection to Wang Chao getting better."
Old Shao tucked the other cigarette behind his ear. With the cigarette in his mouth, he resembled the rogues of the last century, but he didn’t care about that. He said to Jiang He, "Of course, even if we smoked every cigarette in the world, it wouldn't help Wang Chao at all. But this smoke isn’t for Wang Chao; it’s for ourselves. It gives us a false sense of belief that maybe by doing this, he will get better."
"I don't understand," Wang Chao said.
Old Shao continued to smoke, a bitter smile crossing his face. "Sometimes people are willing to do things that are completely unrelated, like believing that if we bow a hundred times in front of a Bodhisattva, our wishes will come true. Or thinking that if we close our eyes and make a wish when a shooting star passes by, it will be granted. There are countless forms of this; they all represent our most helpless hopes."
"Like smoking?" Jiang He asked.
Old Shao took the cigarette from his mouth and sniffed it before replying, "Of course, smoking is one of them."
"Mm." Jiang He nodded.
Old Shao turned to look back; the red light outside the operating room was still on, indicating that the surgery was ongoing. This was already Wang Chao's eighth surgery in this short span of time, highlighting the severity of his injuries.
As dusk fell, only the few of them remained in the corridor, which made Old Shao feel inexplicably lonely.
"Sometimes, not having family might be a good thing," Old Shao said.
"Is it?" Jiang He inquired.
But Old Shao fell silent.
He gazed far down the corridor at the glass doors; through them, he could see the dark red light of the sun casting its glow on the distant buildings. The light appeared fuzzy, making the entire world seem like an adorable dog, evoking an irresistible urge to embrace it. A special glimmer shone in Old Shao's somewhat cloudy eyes, as if something or someone was hidden within that light.
Jiang He only knew that Old Shao had never married or had children but was unaware of the reasons behind it. Perhaps Old Shao was reminiscing about a girl from his youth or reflecting on his younger self.
But that was another long story.
As the night grew dim and nothing could be seen in the distance, Old Shao turned to Jiang He and said, "Life is always filled with the unknown. Sometimes you think you've seen it all, but life will always surprise you with more. Jiang He, you are still young, while I am already old. This world will belong to you in the future."
"That's the law of nature," Jiang He replied.
"The law of nature," Old Shao chuckled.
"How did those dogs escape? Were they let out by someone?" Jiang He asked.
Old Shao shook his head and tossed his cigarette into the trash can. "No animal is foolish, especially when it comes to survival. For years, those dogs have been digging tunnels, and finally, they connected them. The police found a slanted hole leading down the mountain in that deep pit; that's how those dogs escaped."
"The villagers curse this place. Sometimes I think it could be called a curse; otherwise, how could those dogs emerge at this time? It's too coincidental that we encountered everything like this. Perhaps there are forces at work that we cannot explain, reminding everyone in this world not to do bad things."
"Doing bad things comes with a price!"
Old Shao spoke again, "I'll keep an eye on things here with Yuan Jun. You should take Song Xiangmei back; she refuses to leave the police station. If Wang Chao is out of danger, he will most likely be transferred to Long City People's Hospital. I'll notify you then."
"Sounds good," Jiang He nodded. "I still have some things to clarify with Song Xiangmei."
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