Chapter Eleven: Corpse Odor

  This hit is not light, it hurts so much that I have tears in my eyes. Holding my head and lying on the bed, the wound throbs with pain, this hit has mixed up my brain.

  I rubbed my head and sat up, outside the sky was already dimly lit. I carefully checked the room again, no tripod, no Xie Ping'an's head. It seems that after sunrise, the yang energy is gradually rising, and ordinary evil things do not dare to appear.

  I walked in front of the mirror and took a look, the bloodstains on my face were gone. The feeling of it dripping on my face just now was incredibly real, not like an illusion. What's going on?

  After thinking for a while, I couldn't think of an answer, but at least I could rest for a while. My mind relaxed and I lay down on the bed. In less than half a minute, I fell asleep in a daze.

  I was sleeping soundly when I was pushed awake, opened my eyes to see Garei drooling and saying: "It's almost 12 o'clock, time to eat in the cafeteria!"

  I reluctantly got out of bed, it's an instinct for a foodie, he doesn't need an alarm clock and can wake up on time at meal times.

  Gail pulled me to the cafeteria. There were still many people eating lunch. After we finished ordering and sat down, he realized that I was a bit off.

  "Hey, what's wrong? Your face looks terrible!"

  "I didn't rest well last night." I took a bite of the dish, and it was bland and tasteless in my mouth. Suddenly, I realized a problem. This guy Ge Lei's heart is thicker than his waist, if he can notice that my complexion doesn't look good, then it must be extremely bad-looking.

  "Thinking of this, I asked: 'How bad is my complexion?'"

  Greg didn't even lift his head or look at me, and asked while shoveling food into his mouth, "Must you say it?"

  "Of course!"

  "This guy let out a sigh and said: 'As pale as paper, just like the face of the dead man last night.'"

  When he said that, I realized the problem was serious. I took out my phone and opened the front camera to take a look. My complexion was indeed very unsightly, pale as if covered with a layer of wax. I was even startled by my own appearance. Could it have something to do with seeing the two Ding's at dawn?

  It's also possible that I didn't get enough rest, after all, I only slept for a few hours. And it was an extremely long day.

  I hope I'm just overthinking it, and I stuffed two more mouthfuls of rice into my mouth, the taste was dull and flavorless, after a few bites I didn't want to eat anymore.

  I lifted my head and found that the colleagues in the restaurant were staring at us with strange eyes, whispering something. This feeling is weird, even if we are new here, it's not worth attracting so much attention.

  Gale was eating all along and didn't lift his head until he finished. He looked at me and asked, "You're only having that little?"

  "Ugh!" I whispered: "Don't you think these people are looking at us with a strange gaze?"

  "Is that so? I didn't notice." Grey looked around and found a policewoman looking over, he gave her a big smile.

  Gale wouldn't care about these issues anyway, and it's pointless to mention them. Just as we were about to leave, Old God appeared, carrying a plate and sitting down beside us.

  I found another problem, Lao Shen Gun's time in the police station should have been long enough, but it seems that he doesn't have any friends. Not a single detective greeted him.

  The old man sat down and took a glance, saying: "Finished eating so quickly?"

  "Take your time eating!" Gail said, pulling me along as she was about to leave.

  "Wait!" said the old man: "I have something to ask you, what are you investigating today?"

  "We're going to go find Jia Liu and test him out. I think he's connected to the thief from last night!" I said.

  "Is there evidence?" The old god stick asked.

  "I replied bluntly: 'No, it's all intuition!'"

  Lao Sheng said with a mouthful of food, "Sometimes being direct is very important. Jia Liu is not a simple person, he's very slick and it's hard to get the truth out of his mouth."

  "I have a way to make him talk." Grey clenched his fists tightly, making cracking sounds, exuding an air of violence.

  "Alright, you can go now." The old man waved his hand and let us leave.

  He walked a few steps and then called me to stop, pulled out a triangularly folded paper from his pocket. "Take this away and keep it close to your body."

  "What is this?" I picked it up and took a look, it seemed like a talisman.

  "Just take it if you want it, stop talking nonsense!"

  "Me too," said Greg, sidling over.

  "When your face turns as dark as his, I'll give you one too." The old man lowered his head and continued eating, not saying another word.

  I put the yellow talisman away safely and walked out of the cafeteria. Old Master must have seen that I was a bit off, so he gave me this yellow talisman, it should come in handy.

  Gale caught up and asked: "Are you okay?" Fortunately, this guy finally reacted and realized something was wrong.

  "I saw Xie Ping'an's head last night." I whispered about what happened last night. Ge Lei listened very seriously.

  "Wait until I finish," said Gray, "this already threatens you, if it's not solved, you're also in danger?"

  I nodded slightly, having long been mentally prepared. We must crack the case as soon as possible, before I lose my head.

  "Let's go find Jia Liu right away!" Ge Lei took me out of the police station, and we rushed to the antique market in front of the big gate, where Jia Liu's store was located.

  Arrived at the front gate, everyone knew Jia Liu. At the entrance of the store, the large gate was closed and the anti-theft door was locked. I touched it with my hand, and the dust on top was very thick. It seems that the door has not been opened for a long time.

  "Have you been cheated by him too?" The owner of the next shop poked his head out and said, "I have good stuff here, want to come over and take a look quietly."

  "We are police!" As soon as I showed my police badge, this boss retreated back inside.

  "Wait, I have a question for you!" Grey called out to the boss.

  "I don't know anything, I'm not familiar with Jia Liu at all!"

  "He's right next to you and you don't even know?" I asked further.

  The boss smiled slightly and said: "Fellow practitioners are enemies, it's just a greeting when we meet."

  "Don't worry, I won't make it difficult for you, just ask what you know. You must tell the truth." I said: "Has anyone come to find Jia Liu recently?"

  The boss looked at me, I glanced at the fat guy who sold antiques. There must be fake goods in his store. The boss was nervous and said: "Recently, many people have come to find Jia Liu, but why didn't I know? I didn't ask them either."

  "How long has it been since Jia Liu came?" I continued to ask.

  The boss thought for a moment and said: "At least a week ago, I don't remember which day exactly."

  I recorded the time, which coincides with the time when Xie Ping'an got the tripod. There may be some connection between the two, but there is no evidence to prove it yet.

  "What kind of people are looking for Jia Liu?" Ge Lei asked.

  "This...," The boss hesitated, seemingly with some concerns.

  I took a glance and found that many onlookers had already gathered around, but they didn't dare to get too close, just staring from a distance.

  "Boss, we don't want to affect your business either. Dragging it out might not be good." The antique shop's reputation is important. If the police come and it spreads in the circle, future business will be hard to do.

  The boss said helplessly: "There have been several groups of people looking for him, all kinds of people, but one group gave me a particularly deep impression, they looked very fierce and didn't seem like good people."

  "Can you describe what those people look like?" I saw a glimmer of hope.

  The boss pointed to the camera at the door and said: "I've recorded everything, I can give you a copy."

  "That's too much thanks," I said: "Ask you one last question, where is Jia Liu's house do you know?"

  "I knew it, I wrote to you!" The boss pulled us into the store and showed us a video taken by the surveillance camera. According to the boss, there were three groups of people who came to find Jia Liu, two of which were recorded. The other group was not recorded because the time was too long ago, and the boss didn't have any impression of it either.

  I directly edited the video clips and sent them to my phone, but due to the shooting angle, it's not very clear, I need to go back and let the technician handle it. This might also be a clue.

  The boss saw us off and loudly told everyone at the door that the police were looking for Jia Liu and had nothing to do with him.

  These antique dealers give me a particularly slippery feeling, very difficult to deal with. One of the few kinds of people I least want to have dealings with.

  We found Jia Liu's residence according to the address provided by the boss, a rare quadrangle yard in the city nowadays. Most of the people living here are some elderly people who are cooling off under a big tree, and they all know Jia Liu when we ask them.

  An old lady said: "Haven't seen Old Jia's little six for days? What are you looking for him?"

  "We are police, looking for him to understand the situation. Is he at home?" After showing my police badge, I asked: "Has anyone come to find him in these days?"

  "These days, no one has seen Little Liu, but many people have been looking for him. What did he do?" The aunties were very curious.

  "He didn't commit a crime." Grey and I walked to the entrance of Jia Liu's house, the gate was tightly locked. From the marks on the door, it seemed that no one had swept for days.

  Jia Liu's home gate was still that old-fashioned large iron gate, with rust spots all over it. Ge Lei said: "Both are antique dealers, Xie Ping'an lives in a villa, while Jia Liu lives in this broken house, the difference is really big."

  I let out a sound and looked inside through the door gap. There was a shadow wall directly opposite the door, blocking my view. I could only look sideways and saw that the window in the room was still open.

  "Jia Liu might be at home!" I said in a low voice.

  "Looks like this kid is hiding from us, clearly guilty. Watch me catch him."

  The wall of the small courtyard was not high, Ge Lei found a low place, jumped up and used his hand to support himself and flipped over. Then he opened the gate, and I followed him in.

  The courtyard was quiet, the door of the main house was closed, I walked over and hadn't seen what was going on inside yet, a foul smell drilled into my nostrils!

  It smells like a corpse!