68. Marked recurrence

  At this time, Xu Jianglun's phone rang again. He quickly pressed the connect button and when he put it down, his eyes were fixed on Gao Cheng again: "The trace expert obtained a mark at the scene, which was engraved on the tree where the case was found."

  "What mark?" I was indeed sensitive to the two words "mark", and before Gao Cheng opened his mouth, I had already asked out loud.

  Xu Jiang's face was solemn, "Suspected LMK three English letter marks. The handwriting identification expert has been asked to go over there, the director wants us to hurry over as soon as possible."

  This time I also looked at Gao Cheng, it was related to Xiao Tong, and the English logo reappeared, he couldn't let go.

  I saw him, his dark eyes rolled back and stared at me, asking: "Do you want me to go?" I slightly lowered my eyelids, fixing my gaze on his chin: "Just informing you, if you're not willing to go up Hu Yan Mountain, then this disciple will have to take action."

  "Apprentice?" Gao Cheng's tone was cold and detached, with a hint of a smile: "It seems someone said the master-apprentice relationship has ended recently."

  I tilted my head and glanced at him with a slight smile, "Recording as evidence! It was you who taught me to speak with evidence."

  Silence.

  Xu Jianglun beside us looked puzzled and didn't understand what we were arguing about. Even Little Tong was staring at us with tears in her eyes, looking like a pear blossom.

  A burst of laughter broke the silence, and Gao Cheng suddenly reached out with his finger to gently lift my chin, forcing me to look up at him. For a moment, I felt that his behavior was frivolous, but then he said: "You've learned to obey me, very good. As for this master-disciple relationship between us, it's always been my call," He smiled lightly and withdrew his finger, "I'll let you get away with your soft and hard tactics this time. Let's go up the mountain."

  It was as if in that instant, my face turned red and my chin felt like it was being scorched. The perpetrator had already jumped over me and was heading towards the little boy, hesitated for a moment, then directly jumped into the police car. I came to my senses and immediately went forward to instruct the little boy: "You go home first, don't worry about the gallery for now." But the little boy shook his head: "Sister Xia, I want to go too."

  I went to see Xu Jianglun, he touched his head and said: "According to the procedure, family members need to go to the scene to identify the body and confirm their identity."

  Since that's the case, I put my arm around Xiaotong's shoulder and walked towards the police car. Xu Jianglun was about to say something but hesitated: "Xia Zhu, you're going with Mr. Gao..." He glanced at me, looking a bit downcast. I pursed my lips and shook my head, but even I didn't know what I wanted to express. Yet, his eyes lit up, and there was a hint of a smile in them.

  In the blink of an eye, I met Gao Cheng's gaze who was already seated in the car. It wasn't my illusion that his eyes had a hint of coldness. The air pressure inside the carriage heading to Hu Ya Mountain was low, as if everyone's heart was pressed down by a huge stone. Xiao Tong's tears never stopped, and he sobbed quietly.

  Huyashan Mountain is an undeveloped mountain, generally until December's cold days, it's almost deserted. Along the way up the mountain, looking at the tree tops and grass by the roadside all wet with water droplets, my heart couldn't help but add a layer of gloom, last night's rain really came at the wrong time.

  Upon arrival at the scene, Zhang Jihans face was stern as he walked quickly towards them. He nodded slightly and directly told Gao Cheng: "The handwriting expert's appraisal results are out, both marks were made by the same person. The footprints at the scene were severely damaged and could not be collected. The forensic doctor conducted a preliminary examination and temporarily confirmed that the deceased was a female, but we still need to wait for the deceased's family members to arrive at the scene to identify the body before confirming her identity."

  Xu Jianglun pointed at the little girl and said: "I brought her, she is Tong Ziqi's younger sister."

  Two detectives immediately came over to take the little girl away to identify the body, but after getting out of the car, she seemed dazed and stared blankly at the scene that had been cordoned off with police tape, her body trembling. I hesitated for a moment before asking: "Can I go with her?"

  Zhang Ji glanced at me and instructed his team members in a low voice: "Take them over there."

  As I held the little girl's shoulders and stepped over the warning line, her legs went soft. Not far away, a white cloth covered a corpse, which was particularly eye-catching. When the white cloth was lifted, a scream pierced the sky, and the little girl fainted backwards with a pale face. It's no wonder she reacted like that, because even I was frightened by the charred remains, yes, remains.

  This is not even a complete corpse, the left arm was cut off at the root, and the body was burned to almost skeletal. How can Xiaotong identify it? In his mind, he suddenly thought of the photos he saw on the computer in Gaocheng that night, which were also charred bodies with dismembered limbs, and they had a similar pattern.

  The little boy slowly came to after being pinched on the people's middle, even if it was cruel, the procedure that had to be followed still had to be carried out. Suddenly, the little boy let out a mournful cry, his eyes staring straight at the legs of the corpse, and sobbed: "My sister's foot broke not long ago, the nail hasn't been removed yet."

  Everyone's gaze shifted to the legs of the corpse, where two steel nails were clearly exposed. Someone confirmed: "Are there two?" The little boy nodded, crying almost out of breath. After the identification was over, a female police officer came over and asked us to go sit in the car, and there were also relevant records to be made.

  Although I worry about Xiao Tong's emotional instability, I have another thing on my mind.

  There is a kind of person who, even when submerged in the crowd, is dazzling and eye-catching. This person is Gao Cheng. Wherever he is, his aura suppresses everything, and even when surrounded by detectives, it's hard to conceal his figure and momentum.

  As I walked closer, I found that the crowd was surrounding a tree, and next to it was the burnt-out car. Apparently, the mark was carved on the tree. This is also what has been lingering in my mind. Since the Wu Yan case had already been settled, even if the person who carved the mark hadn't been found out, it should have become an unsolved mystery with the end of the case. How could it suddenly reappear on this Tiger Cliff Mountain? Is there a connection between these two cases?

  "Go and invite Xia Zhu over!" A deep voice broke my reverie. I looked up to see several pairs of eyes on me, and someone immediately said, "He's here." The person who had been blocking the way stepped aside, revealing a clear path. Gao Cheng turned his head and looked at me calmly, saying, "Not coming over yet?" I was taken aback for a moment before rushing forward, still not quite used to being the center of attention, my face slightly flushed.

  He pointed to a certain place on the tree and said: "Take a look and give me an answer."

  My attention was drawn to the marks on the tree, this mark in front of me is much neater than the one found under the table that night, with the two letters "l" and "k" clearly visible, and the middle part seems to be intentionally blurred. I stretched out my hand, and a cold rebuke came from beside me: "Don't touch!" But I ignored it, and instead used my hand to point at the outline of the mark, closing my eyes.

  It came extremely quickly, and a hand wearing a white glove holding a sharp object appeared in my mind, carving on the tree. As his hand moved, my fingers also followed to outline the shape. A vertical line, a horizontal line, a pause, an empty space, after drawing the letter "k" it returned to the middle... The image stopped, and I heard Gao Cheng ask beside my ear: "Do you have the answer?"

  I opened my eyes, and my gaze fixed on his face. "I don't understand, why did he have to carve the first and last letters before carving the middle ones? Does it represent... that the middle one is the most important? But then he damaged it after carving it, was he trying to conceal that it's actually not 'm'?"

  A moment of silence, everyone's eyes were on me. After a few seconds, a questioning voice appeared: "How did you come to this conclusion? What is the basis?" I turned my gaze, it was a middle-aged police officer, wearing a uniform different from that of the criminal police, with gold-rimmed glasses, should be the handwriting expert, the eyes behind the lenses were extremely sharp.

  Her gaze fell again on the mark on the tree, and she said in a soft voice: "Brush strokes. I am a painter, most familiar with the brushstrokes of patterns."

  I'm gradually coming to agree with Gao Cheng's point of view. The image I saw earlier didn't come out of thin air, but rather it was a visual recognition that I had first, and the image reflection I got after closing my eyes and eliminating external interference. The刻痕 marks in front of me directly gave me information about the order of brushstrokes, while the scene reflections I saw earlier were a kind of large-scale image reflection.

  "This time Gao Cheng spoke up: 'Let her decide. Now I want you to decipher the middle character, how many minutes will it take?'"

  The first sentence was for everyone, and the second one was said to me. I pursed my lips and replied: "Ten minutes."

  "Good, I'm looking forward to it."

  Under his lead, all the people beside the tree dispersed, leaving only me standing alone in front. As it was related to my professional field, I had confidence psychologically, but still felt tense. As time passed by one minute and one second, my palms were sweating. My mind kept turning over every stroke of the pen, because I was too focused, so when a cry suddenly pierced my ears, I was startled, and my feet slipped on the wet ground, losing balance.

  The car body was destroyed at the location of the mountain cliff tree cluster, and this tree with marks was on the edge of the cliff. When sliding down, the speed was so fast that I couldn't catch anything, but fortunately it wasn't a steep cliff, trees and grass were dense, and after falling for a while, my body stopped, but it was already a distance from the top.

  I was just about to cry out for help, when I suddenly discovered something in the bushes. As I reached out to part them, my breath caught in my throat. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out, and my hand trembled as I found... Tong Ziqi's missing hand.

  "Xia Zhu?" A shout came from Xu Jianglun's head, and when I looked up, I saw his anxious face. He was the first to find me. But what I didn't expect was that he suddenly jumped down, rolled over beside me, and reached out to grab something. With a hiss, I only then discovered that right next to my foot, just an inch away, a triangular-headed snake was spitting its venom.

  Xu Jianglun grabbed the snake's body with his bare hands, but what looked like a very thin flower snake was unexpectedly long. When he wanted to shake it off, his arm had already been wrapped around by its body and twisted back. His heart sank, Xu Jianglun realized that he had grabbed the wrong spot, not the snake's seven inches, and the distance... was too late, his hand had been bitten.

  When we were rescued back to the cliff, Xu Jianglun's condition was not good. His hand was black and swollen, and the toxin had invaded so quickly that it was hard to imagine, even his face had a dark air. I looked pale as he was carried away, this accident really came too suddenly, a familiar voice came from beside my ear: "Describe your fall just now."

  She looked up at Gao Cheng with a weak and worried expression, asking: "Nothing will happen to him, will it?"

  "When handling cases, detectives always bring professional medical personnel. Even if the medical equipment is insufficient, things like serum antitoxin are still fully equipped. The venom of the snake is severe, but it's not to the point of bleeding and choking."

  Just a few words, enough to comfort my heart, this is the most pleasant thing I've ever heard from Gao Cheng.