Chapter 32 Qing Shui Town 04

  The same small town, two vastly different faces; the bizarre murder cases that Zhang Zhi-xin mentioned happening in H City; and what the old man just said about the strange occurrences and deaths in Qing-shui Town, the people of H City's deep-seated fear of Qing-shui Town... At first glance, these things don't seem to have any obvious connection, but when you lay out all the events together, there's a faint feeling that everything is pointing towards Xi Town.

  It was just a coincidence, or someone deliberately arranged it, Qin Fei wasn't clear. Those events that sounded unusual, if they were really arranged by someone behind the scenes, then that person must not be an ordinary person, should be someone like Zhang Zhixin who had the ability to communicate with ghosts, and it's possible that he was the one who cast a curse on him.

  If it's true what Zhang Zhi Xin said, then the person who cast the curse is indeed in H City. In that case, Qing Shui Town Xi Town is undoubtedly a place that must be investigated. The person who cast the curse may not necessarily be in Qing Shui Town Xi Town, but it is a place where clues about the cursed person can be found.

  Qin Fei chose to stay in H City, wanting to investigate who had cast a curse on him. But he wasn't Gu Yin, and he wasn't someone who wouldn't listen to advice. Since the old man had said as much, Qin naturally wouldn't go alone to Qing Shui Town's Xi Town again.

  Moreover, he wants to find the person who cast the curse, but running there alone is useless. He can see ghosts, but he doesn't know how to deal with them, let alone mysterious things like talismans and spells. If you really want to find the person who cast the curse, you need to find someone who is proficient in this area to help. Gu Yin might be in Xizhen, but the idea of asking Gu Yin for help only flashed through Qin Fei's mind, and he finally decided to stay in Dongzhen and wait for Zhang Zhixin to come.

  Asking Gu Yin for help would inevitably lead to accumulating more favors owed to him. Although he didn't mind owing Gu Yin, owing too many was indeed a bit psychologically stressful.

  Qin Fei stayed in Qing Shui Town, Dong Zhen, waiting for Zhang Zhi Xin. During this time, in a small town adjacent to S City, on the other side of the city from Qin Fei, with Gu Wen Kai and his subordinates, as well as Chen Ming, the leader of the reconnaissance team aided by Zhou Jun, who belonged to H City's detective squad, they were stuck in an impasse.

  A week ago, on the border of S City and H City, a male corpse was found. The body was discovered behind the teaching building of an elementary school in a small town, and it was identified as the math teacher of that elementary school. The person who found the body was a school janitor, and the time of discovery was last Saturday afternoon. At that time, the school had already finished its supplementary classes, and the janitor was helping to patrol the campus to see if there were any students who had not left yet, but accidentally discovered the body while passing by a teaching building.

  The corpse was in a extremely miserable state, as if it had been ravaged by some frenzied beast. The flesh was torn and mangled, with chunks of meat missing from various places. The internal organs were exposed, the thigh bones gleaming white amidst the blood and gore. One side of the face was gone, revealing half of the bloody teeth. On the remaining half of his face and in his staring eyes, there was a twisted expression of extreme pain and terror. Around the corpse were scattered pieces of flesh that seemed to have been torn from it. Later, after examination, it was confirmed that these pieces of flesh were indeed from the missing parts of the corpse.

  "I'm saying, we've been stuck here for a week already. If we don't come up with something soon, the media is going to blow up. Give me some results! Comrade." Chen Ming sat in the temporary meeting room of the small town police station, tapping on the conference table, speaking to Shen Bin, the head of the detective team from H city.

  Shen Bin pushed his gold-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose, and a hint of disdain flashed in his narrow eyes from behind the lenses. "Didn't you say that was done by a wild beast? How's your investigation into this Mr. Wild Beast going?"

  Chen Ming burst out laughing and said: "You still say it's the butcher's doing! Have you investigated all the butchers in town?"

  The two of them teased each other and then looked at each other, sighed in unison, and began to sort out the clues in their hands.

  Beasts or butchers are naturally not true, they were just a random guess at the beginning when there was no clue, and have long been ruled out.

  The wounds on the corpse looked like they were inflicted by a wild animal, but it was impossible for such an animal to appear in that school. Moreover, no traces of any wild animal could be found at the scene. Could a wild animal be so intelligent as to erase its own criminal evidence?

  As for the butcher, the wounds on the corpse could not have been caused by his knife. Even if the butcher's skills were exceptional and he could carve out marks that resembled animal bites, when facing a murderer's brutal killing, the victim would definitely struggle or try to escape, but there was no sign of such behavior on the corpse. The bloodstains and scattered flesh were within a very small range, and if the victim had resisted or tried to run away, it would have been impossible for the bloodstains to be contained within such a small area. There were also no drugs in the victim's body that could have restricted their movements, so it was not possible that the victim just stood still and let someone chop them up.

  Chen Ming flipped through the stack of documents in his hand with some annoyance. Inside, apart from the investigation report and lead organization on the male corpse found in this small town, there were also five other similar cases that occurred in H City. Each case location had a fixed detective team responsible for it, and they maintained information sharing with each other's teams at different case locations. However, those detective points were just like Chen Ming's side - the case had made no progress.

  "Lao Zhou, what's your idea?" Chen Mingfang put down the materials in his hand and looked at Zhou Jun, who was smoking and fiddling with the computer beside him.

  Zhou Jun tilted his head, passing by Chen Ming, and glanced at Gu Wenkai sitting on the other side of Chen Ming. He said, "Judging from the state of the bodies at the scene, it's likely that they were killed by the same person or the same gang."

  "I've already said that from the beginning, senior." Shen Bin pushed his glasses and looked at Zhou Jun with a expressionless face.

  About Zhou Jun's legendary stories, Shen Bin had heard a lot. He admired Zhou Jun, so when he first met Chen Ming and brought Zhou Jun, even though the other party had a decadent look with a messy beard, which was completely different from what he saw in the photos, he didn't have much reaction. However, as the investigation progressed, Zhou Jun turned out to be not as sharp as in the legend, Shen Bin felt a bit disillusioned with his idol.

  Zhou Jun scratched his computer for a while and continued: "The case started from the beginning of this month, and in less than a month, there have been six cases, with a pretty high frequency."

  Shen Bin: "I've said this before."

  "The motive for the crime is currently unclear, there are no commonalities among the victims, and the location of the crime is uncertain." Zhou Jun pinched the cigarette butt and extinguished it in the ashtray.

  "Senior, if you just want to repeat the results of our investigation over this period of time, I can summarize it and read it out loud for everyone." Shen Bin looked at Zhou Jun unhappily, letting him express his thoughts, but he kept repeating the conclusions they had already reached earlier.

  Zhou Jun didn't mind Shen Bin's attitude and calmly lit another cigarette for himself.

  "Although the crime scene is not fixed, there are still some clues. I marked several places where the case occurred on the map of H city and then zoomed out to find that except for one case in our area, the other five cases - " Zhou Jun turned his laptop around so that Chen Ming and Shen Bin could see the content on the screen, "The crime scenes of these five cases seem to be surrounding this place."

  Chen Ming and Shen Bin stood up, leaned in close to the screen, and looked at the point that Zhou Jun had circled.

  "Qingshui Town?!" The two of them exclaimed in unison.

  Chen Ming was shocked, looked at Zhou Jun, sat back down and said: "Although these points seem to be surrounding Qing Shui Town, the other end is not closed, and how do we explain the case on our side? Maybe it should also be included? And after including it, it's more reasonable to connect the crime scenes in chronological order. The surrounded town won't just be one, and the central area won't be Qing Shui Town either."

  "Are you a kindergarten kid? Do you still need to follow the order of time? Just connect whatever looks convenient!" Zhou Jun said.

  "So, it seems that there is no sealed point on the back of Qing Shui Town, and it doesn't look like it's surrounded."

  "But the scene of the crime was all in the villages and towns around Qing Shui Town. Zhou Jun tapped his cigarette ash, saying seriously, 'And it's not that there was no hush money, but rather the person who received the hush money ran away.'"

  "What does it mean?"

  "There's a case on our side, the original crime scene should be in this location - that is, behind Qing Shui Town." Zhou Jun said, "This elementary school teacher asked for leave to return home two days before his death, and his home is located behind Qing Shui Town."

  "When the search party comes back, we'll go to Qing Shui Town." Shen Bin made a decision.

  "Hey! Is this really reliable?" Chen Ming looked at Shen Bin in surprise, this guy was just dissatisfied with Zhou Jun in all sorts of ways, but as soon as Zhou Jun said something casually, he decided to head in that direction.

  Shen Bin: "You don't know, the west town of Qing Shui Town has been having problems due to construction for a long time. As a result, it hasn't been able to develop in recent years. So the top level recently decided to abandon it and move all the residents to the east town. But there are always some who are unwilling, because of property such as houses and land, the top level can't possibly compensate them fully in the east town. Therefore, it's possible that someone might do something extreme. As the person mainly responsible for this case, I think I need to go confirm it personally."

  Discussion about the case came to a temporary halt after Shen Bin made his decision, and people in the conference room left one after another.

  Zhou Jun didn't move. Gu Wenkai, who had finished organizing the materials, stood up and walked towards the conference room door, but instead of leaving the conference room, he closed the door.

  "Go ahead, what do you want to say?" From the moment Chen Ming let Zhou Jun speak his mind, Zhou Jun had intentionally looked at him several times, obviously having something to say, but it wasn't convenient with everyone around.

  Zhou Jun lit a cigarette and looked up at Gu Wenkai standing across the conference table, saying in a low voice: "The murderer of these cases... isn't human, is he?"