Chapter 10: The Twisted Ones

  "You... you will get what's coming to you. I've remembered everything now. It was you who took Autumn away. I saw it. You can't escape."

  "You only remembered now? Hmph. I won't die a good death. I should have killed you too back then, dug out your eyes and let the sisters be together forever, sparing me from trouble like this now."

  It was past 7 o'clock in the evening. Liu Chunxiao, who was feeling anxious and distracted, received a strange call from Zhao Junjie. What made it strange was that when he picked up the phone and put it to his ear, there was no sound at all. He absent-mindedly said "hello" twice, but the other party still didn't respond, only transmitting a faint breathing sound. Thinking it might be a wrong number dialed by mistake, Liu Chunxiao didn't think much of it and hung up the phone.

  Liu Chunxiao couldn't sleep all night. He had lost count of how many times he had listened to this hypnotic recording tonight. It just kept playing over and over again, trying to find some clues from it. But the key parts were all vague and unclear, without leaving any useful leads behind.

  She turned off her MP3 player and wrote down several doubts in her mind on a piece of paper... Mei, Chen Baobao, Qiuqiu...

  But these words seem to have no connection at all between them. Did I choose the wrong direction from the very beginning?

  Liu Chunxiao fell into deep thought.

  It was unknown how much time had passed when the phone rang again, its sound piercing in the quiet night, as if it had torn open a bloody gash in the darkness outside the window. Liu Chunxiao's heart began to thump wildly. Before the second ring, he picked up the phone.

  The phone call was made by Wang Yanan: "Come to Moganshan Road right away."

  Liu Chunxiao had thought that being called out so late meant there were new leads on Zhang Tong's whereabouts. However, when he arrived at the designated location on Moganshan Road after more than 10 minutes of driving, what he saw made him feel uneasy and anxious.

  In the early hours of the morning, on Moganshan Road, a heavy rain had just passed, leaving the road surface wet and slippery. There were deep puddles everywhere, and whenever a vehicle drove by, it would splash up high water droplets. Liu Chunxiao parked his car outside the warning line, locked it, and walked straight towards the scene cordoned off with red and blue police tape. As he walked, he silently recalled in his mind the ten words spoken by Wang Yanan over the phone earlier, which had a commanding tone but didn't seem out of place at first glance. However, looking at the scene before him, it was clear that this was a standard procedure for handling criminal cases by the Public Security Bureau. Even the forensic team's vehicle he was most familiar with had arrived. So why did Wang Yanan call him to come to the crime scene?

  After showing her credentials, Liu Chunxiao put on a police ID card and was allowed to enter the central area of the crime scene, a simple warehouse inside.

  All the way, there were police officers in uniform who kept brushing past him, including some he knew. Liu Chunxiao nodded and greeted them vaguely, but all his attention was firmly drawn to the crime scene he was approaching.

  Finally, Wang Yan appeared in Liu Chunxiao's line of sight. She was talking to her assistant beside her. Seeing Liu Chunxiao standing aside, she and her assistant exchanged greetings before walking over.

  "Is there any news about Xiaotong?" Liu Chunxiao asked anxiously. Wang Yanan's face was expressionless.

  "How long has it been since you last saw Zhao Junjie?"

  "Zhao Junjie. What happened to him? I saw him just yesterday."

  Wang Ya Nan pointed to a slightly open freezer door behind him: "We found his body, it's inside."

  "What did you say?" Liu Chunxiao's face turned pale. He simply didn't dare believe his ears.

  Wang Yanan did not directly answer the question. She nodded to her assistant, Xiao Zheng, who handed Liu Chunxiao a plastic evidence bag that had been prepared in advance. Inside was a mobile phone with a severely damaged screen.

  "Are you sure this is Zhao Junjie's phone? We found it in the flower bed next to the cold storage room. The technician just checked it, and the last call was made at 7:15 pm. The conversation was very short."

  Liu Chunxiao's mind immediately flashed back to the phone call she received last night, which was only faintly audible with a gasping voice. She had missed Zhao Junjie's final distress call due to her momentary carelessness. Liu Chunxiao didn't dare to think about it anymore.

  "I think it was a call for me. I didn't listen carefully..."

  At this moment, the refrigerated warehouse door that had been slightly ajar was pushed open. The biting cold mixed with fog quickly spread out in front of Liu Chunxiao. Liu Chunxiao suddenly realized something and couldn't help but shiver all over. A painful moan escaped her mouth. "This fool, since he called me at the last moment, why didn't he call the police? Even if it was just a whisper on the phone..."

  "If you were the murderer, would you leave your phone behind to let people call for help when you killed someone? According to the location where the phone was abandoned and Zhao Junjie's time of death, it can be determined that the murderer took away the phone after pushing Zhao Junjie into the cold storage room." Wang Yan said coldly.

  Another forensic doctor, Old Zheng from the Tianchang Public Security Bureau, and his assistant carried a stretcher out, one in front of the other. On the stretcher was a black body bag. It was clearly human-shaped, with two arms twisted across the chest and legs slightly raised upwards.

  Saw Wang Yan and Liu Chunxiao standing by the door. Old Zheng said: "Because the body was found in the cold storage, I temporarily can't determine the specific time of death. This has to wait until the autopsy is completed after the body is thawed out. Only then can I give you a rough estimate."

  "What's the cause of death."

  Lao Zheng thought for a moment: "It's still unclear at present. As soon as there is a report, I will notify you."

  Wang Yanan nodded: "Then I'll trouble you."

  Seeing off Old Zheng and his assistant's receding back, Wang Yan sighed: "The reason I called you here is that I wanted to ask what Zhao Junjie said to you on the phone last time. As a crime columnist, his sudden death must have a reason. You know him best, so I hope you can be strong and help me with this case, catch the murderer as soon as possible."

  Liu Chunxiao nodded solemnly and said: "He didn't have a chance to say anything... but I'll do my best, Captain Wang. Don't worry."

  The next morning, Liu Chunxiao went straight to the autopsy room and stood in front of Zhao Junjie's body, looking at his pale, bloodless face and wide-open eyes. For the first time in his life, Liu felt like crying, his nose was sour, mixed with a piercing pain. Unconsciously, tears slid down from the corners of his eyes.

  Zhang Tong had been out of contact for several days in a row, and Liu Chunxiao remembered it very clearly. Zhao Junjie was extremely nervous when he learned the news. After disappearing for an entire day and night, he suddenly rushed to find Liu Chunxiao, gesturing excitedly that he would soon have news about Zhang Fa's whereabouts. Moreover, he mysteriously announced that he was about to thoroughly uncover the mystery of this old case. When asked about specific information, Zhao Junjie said it would be the headline on the front page of "Tianchang Daily" in the near future. He wanted to keep it a secret, but he promised that as soon as there was news about Zhang Tong's whereabouts, he would notify Liu Chunxiao immediately.

  Looking at Zhao Junjie's proud expression, Liu Chunxiao didn't have much hope for his words. He knew Zhao Junjie too well. Besides, as a journalist, one would inevitably have some neurotic tendencies. So, when they parted ways that day, facing Zhao Junjie's confidence, Liu Chunxiao just smiled it off.

  He never dreamed of it. This was his last meeting with Zhao Junjie.

  "Don't be sad, young man." Forensic expert Old Zheng had been standing behind Liu Chunxiao for a long time, watching as he trembled slightly in his shoulders as he struggled to suppress his pain. Old Zheng really couldn't think of what words to use to comfort the young man who was silently crying beside the corpse in front of him.

  Liu Chunxiao wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes, steadied her emotions slightly, then turned around and said: "Dr. Zheng, thank you for everything you've done for him. The rest... leave it to us."

  Lao Zheng sighed and handed a thick autopsy report to Liu Chunxiao, nodded, and left the cold dissection room.

  Tianchang City Public Security Bureau conference room. People's faces were filled with sadness. On the chair in the corner where Zhao Junjie often sat, a small white paper flower was placed. Although the house was almost full of people, no one would take away the paper flower and sit down. Instead, when passing by the chair, everyone spontaneously bowed their heads in silence.

  Zhao Junjie is not a public security bureau person, but because he usually gets along with everyone and has no airs when meeting people, his sudden death made many people present feel very downhearted.

  Wang Yanan took out several enlarged on-site photos and posted them on the whiteboard, beginning to recount the case in a heavy tone.

  "We received the emergency call from the 110 command center at 11:05 pm. The caller was a night shift administrator of a cold storage warehouse located on Moganshan Road. Due to the poor performance of this cold storage factory, in order to save costs, there were basically no guards during the day, only a large wolf dog and a security guard at the gate. It wasn't until 11 pm that the duty administrator would come to inspect the warehouse and check all the inventory for the day. That's when he discovered the victim, Zhao Junjie, locked inside. The temperature in the cold storage had also been set to its lowest value, below -40°C. The victim was wearing very thin clothing...". At this point, Wang Yan pointed to a photo of the scene behind her. "The victim's body was found by the door. When he was discovered, his fingers were all scratched and torn. It can be seen that the victim had tried to escape from the cold storage but failed. However, according to the forensic autopsy report, the victim managed to hold on for three hours in such a cold environment. He was very strong."

  Wang Yan's gaze swept across everyone in the conference room: "I suppose everyone already knows that our legal department's Zhang Fa has been missing for several days. Everyone has also made an effort to find out what happened to Zhang Fa. In my opinion, Zhao journalist's murder is very likely connected to Zhang Fa's disappearance case."

  As soon as these words came out, a buzzing sound suddenly echoed in Liu Chunxiao's mind. He anxiously watched Wang Yan's every move.

  Wang Yanan took out the damaged mobile phone of Zhao Junjie that was found at the scene: "The technical department has helped us recover the data inside. We found many text messages related to Zhang Faye's case in the last few days' SMS on this mobile phone. Unfortunately, the other party's mobile number is an unregistered China Mobile number. After contacting China Mobile, apart from knowing that the other party was active in the Tianchang City area when sending the text message, we have no clue about the other party's identity. Now this mobile number has been suspended due to overdue payment, and the time was on the night of the day Zhao Junjie's body was found."

  "It's moving too fast." someone muttered.