Chapter Six: Boiling the Cauldron

  "Do you know the motive for murder?" This is one of the key factors in solving a case. Once the motive is grasped, it can be inferred who the suspect is, and the case is half solved.

  Jia Liu said mysteriously: "Of course, my information is particularly well-informed. I heard that the informant Fei..."

  "Come on, just tell me what you know!" Grey said impatiently. "You'll get your chance to shine once the case is cracked, now spill the beans!"

  Jia Liu deliberately lowered his voice and said in a low tone: "Old Xie's murder is likely to be related to an antique!"

  "Antiques?" This is consistent with my speculation at Xie Ping'an's house. As the most famous collector in this city, he must have many valuable antiques.

  "What kind of antique? Can you describe it in detail?"

  "I've never seen it either, but I've heard there's such a thing!" Jia Liu said: "You know, now there are too many counterfeit goods on the market. To get good stuff, you need to have some special channels. There's a group of people who can 'get' 100% genuine goods at a price that won't be too expensive. Old Xie's things were obtained from this group."

  "You're talking about grave robbers, right?" My interest grew, a murder case that involves grave robbers, this is a case within a case. In recent years, the authorities have been cracking down on grave robbing cases.

  Jia Liu was not very willing to answer the question directly, and he glossed over the matter of the tomb raiders, saying: "Anyway, there's a group of people, and Old Xie got a ding from them. It's said to be worth a city, and it's also an artifact with great historical value. If it were just some ordinary goods, Old Xie wouldn't have looked at it twice. A few friends who are quite close to him wanted to take a look. At first, Old Xie agreed, but soon he changed his mind. Nobody saw it with their own eyes, but everyone believed that such a thing really existed. Not long after, something happened to Old Xie. This must be related?"

  I've recorded all these clues, the only person who can confirm whether the news is true or not is in a mental hospital, but Mrs. Hu has mentioned something about Ding and brain, also mentioning Ding, so it's possible that there really is a Ding.

  Grey pulled out the list of exhibits from the documents on the table, carefully read it through, and indeed there were several antiques that had been brought back from Xie Ping'an's home. Several of them were placed in the bedroom, with some bloodstains on them, but there was no mention of any bronze ware or even a single tripod on the list.

  This is not a good sign. The tripod is an important piece of evidence, which means we have to go back to that terrifying haunted house and look for a tripod with unknown appearance.

  Greyle stared at Jia Liu, this guy looked like a particularly astute person, I felt that he didn't just come to provide clues. He seemed more like he was probing us.

  "I asked: 'What else do you know?'"

  Jia Liu hesitated for a moment, paused for a few seconds and said: "What's left is just rumors, I don't guarantee the reliability of the news, do you want to hear it?"

  "Let's hear it." My goal is to get Jia Liu to talk as much as possible, after all, the more he talks, the more likely we are to find a weakness. At least try to probe into Jia Liu's intentions.

  "Do you know about the inch between the eyebrows?" asked Jia Liu.

  "What's going on?" I exchanged a glance with Glay, having no idea what it meant.

  "Are you talking about the distance between two eyebrows?" Gray asked.

  Jia Liu's expression was very painful, he wanted to laugh, but didn't dare to laugh out loud in front of us.

  "The inch between the eyebrows is the son of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye." The old monk pushed open the door and walked in, took a glance at Jia Liu, and turned to us saying: "Your elementary school language teacher must be very sad, how did he end up teaching students like you two?"

  As soon as Lao Sheng appeared, Jia Liu became very flustered, the smile on his face disappeared, he lowered his head and didn't dare to look at anyone, with a guilty conscience.

  "Gan Jiang and Mo Ye are ancient Chinese mythological figures from the story recorded in the 'Soushen Ji'. Gan Jiang forged a sword for the King of Wu, but was killed after completing it. His son, Moye, grew up to avenge his father's death. Jia Laoliu, you'd better tell me clearly what this has to do with Xie Ping'an's case!"

  The old man's aura changed, and an invisible pressure emanated from his body.

  Jia Liu said: "In the story of revenge between the eyebrows, there is another key prop, a cauldron used to cook heads. The eyebrow ruler wanted to avenge his father and had the warrior behead him. King Wu put the eyebrow ruler's head in the cauldron and cooked it for three days and nights, but it didn't get cooked through. The warrior took advantage of King Wu approaching the cauldron and drew out his treasured sword to behead King Wu. Two heads bit and clashed, and for a time, it was hard to distinguish victory or defeat. The warrior beheaded himself and entered the cauldron to help, and three skulls were cooked until mushy, making it impossible to tell them apart. People had no choice but to divide the contents of the pot into three portions, burying them in three places, building tombs, commonly known as 'Three Kings' Tombs'!"

  The old man said with some annoyance: "I asked you about the case, and you told me a legendary story. Are you itching for a fight? What does this have to do with Xie Ping'an's case?"

  "It's related! It must be related!" Jia Liu hastily said: "The Ding in Xie Ping'an's family is the legendary Ding for boiling heads, also called the Brain-boiling Ding!"

  I stared at Ge Lei, and we both couldn't believe that the first case we investigated after joining Team Zero was actually so legendary.

  The old man was obviously not satisfied with Jia Liu's answer, staring at him and saying: "Stop telling stories to fool me, if you can't come up with something substantial, you'll be sleeping in the police station tonight."

  "Ah, I'm telling you!" Jia Liu said: "It's said that recently a group of people found the tomb of the Three Kings, and the tripod was taken out from the tomb by them. They want to sell several things at a high price, and the tripod is one of them. That's all I know."

  The old man nodded in satisfaction, patted Jia Liu on the shoulder and said: "This is more like it. Once the case is cracked, I'll take you out for a drink. For now, keep an eye on that gang of grave robbers for me, and let me know as soon as there's any news."

  "Alright, no problem! If nothing else, I'll be off first." Jia Liu agreed and then got up and ran away.

  The old stick said to us: "Can't you give these old slippery guys a good face?"

  I nodded and said: "Team leader, there's something about today's case that I need to report to you. We found..."

  The old man waved his hand and said: "The case is handed over to you, I believe in your strength, and you will definitely solve the case. If you encounter any unsolvable problems, come find me again."

  After all, we are just starting out and don't have much confidence in ourselves, I don't know where Lao Sheng gets such great confidence.

  The old man glanced at his watch and said: "It's already time to get off work, I'm leaving. Consider this case as a test for you, goodbye!"

  "Uh..." I had just opened my mouth, and before I could say anything, Lao Shen walked out of the office with his backpack, whistling as he went, looking particularly carefree.

  All this tells us that we can only rely on ourselves.

  Greyle read through Jia Liu's confession and said angrily, "This confession is useless, are our suspects a bunch of broken pots?! If the classmates find out, they'll laugh their teeth off!"

  I carefully reviewed the confession again and circled the tomb raider with a red pen, saying: "Do you think it might be this group of people?"

  "Unlikely," said Ge Lei. "Xie Ping'an is the gold master of the tomb raiders, with an extraordinary influence in the circle. Why would they want to kill him?"

  I nodded, this is a more reasonable explanation. This case must be related to the tomb raider, whether intentionally or unintentionally, Jia Liu also tried to make us believe so.

  Gulu...

  Greg's stomach growled loudly in the quiet office, and I suddenly realized that it was already past working hours. After a busy day, our stomachs were long hungry.

  "Let's go out for dinner and have a big meal to celebrate our first day of work!" I suggested.

  "What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Ge Lei put down the file and headed out, for a foodie like him, filling his stomach was the most important thing.

  We walked out of the office, outside it was already dark, the neon lights had just come on, and darkness shrouded the earth. The police station was very quiet, with only a few overtime offices still lit up.

  The corridor was unexpectedly empty, with a faint light shining in from the window. The light was very dim. I walked forward a few steps, and a cold wind blew over from behind, especially on the back of my neck, which felt extremely cool.

  I stopped in my tracks and turned around to take a look, and in the darkness, there seemed to be a human-like shadow that was swaying back and forth as it rushed towards me.

  "Come on! What's wrong with you again!" Grey slapped me when he saw I wasn't moving.

  Interrupted by Ge Lei, I turned back to look again, the strange human-shaped shadow was gone, and the corridor became even darker.

  "Whatever, maybe I'm just too tired!" We walked out of the police station and found a small store by the road. Mei Mei ate a bunch of food and each of us drank two bottles of beer. As soon as we got back to our dormitory, we fell asleep on our beds.

  It would be a wonderful thing to sleep until dawn, but at midnight, I was woken up by my mobile phone. In a daze, I picked it up and saw that it was an unfamiliar number calling me.

  I picked up the phone and a urgent voice said: "Officer, something's happened. Someone has broken into Mr. Xie's house."

  "Wait a minute, speak slower, who are you?" I climbed out of bed, still feeling a bit dizzy.

  "I'm the security guard you met this morning. Just now during patrol, I found someone breaking into Mr. Xie Ping'an's house and they haven't come out yet."

  I sprang up from bed and said loudly: "What's going on now? How many people are there?"

  "We also don't know, just now there were two miserable cries from the room, and we don't know what happened."

  "Keep the scene secure, we'll be right there." I hung up the phone and woke up Galle, who was snoring loudly.

  "What's going on?" Gale shouted in discontent.

  "Something's happened at Xie Ping'an's home, we need to hurry over." I pulled him out of the dorm and hailed a taxi on the side of the road, rushing straight to Xie Ping'an's house.

  By the time we arrived, it was already half an hour later. The little security guard and his colleagues were trembling with fear, their faces pale.

  "You've finally arrived! Just now there were some terrifying screams coming from inside, but it's quiet now!"