Chapter 1: Strange Phenomena in the Underworld

  The bloody palm was coldly pressed against the side of a black trash bag, and the onlookers were whispering to each other, pointing fingers and making gestures, chattering away, except for the police, no one dared to approach.

  Chen Zhenhua stared at the severed hand from a distance, his eyes fixed on it, his throat itching, his heart racing, and his breathing quickening. He felt an inexplicable sense of fear and nausea wash over him.

  The police looked around, surrounded the severed hand and studied it for half a day. Huang Aiguo walked up to an onlooker and asked him about the situation, hoping to get some clues related to the case from the people present. The old man, who looked like he was over 70 years old, coughed violently for a moment, then took a deep breath, and after his face, which had turned bright red from coughing, returned to its normal color, began to tell Huang Aiguo everything he knew.

  It turned out that in a house on the third floor of Building B, Unit A of this happy building, there lived a young couple who had just gotten married. The relationship between them was very close, and they were the envy of everyone in the neighborhood. Last night, people living nearby heard a commotion coming from the young couple's room, which lasted for quite some time before it finally subsided. People thought it was just the couple having a minor disagreement, although they were somewhat surprised, but didn't pay much attention to it, and besides, no one wanted to interfere with other people's business. The next morning, when the elderly women and men in the neighborhood were doing their usual exercises in the community garden, someone suddenly let out a loud scream. It turned out that someone had discovered a severed bloody hand on the third-floor corridor. After that, someone called the police at "110", and the nearby police station immediately dispatched officers to investigate the situation. Only then did they realize that a murder had taken place - the young woman was killed in her own home with one of her hands cut off, but her husband was nowhere to be found.

  The old man spoke passionately, his words were full of excitement, his voice was as loud as a broken gong, just like he had just eaten a golden throat lozenge, at such an old age, he could still shout so loudly, it's really hard to believe.

  Huang Aiguo's eyes, which had turned yellow from staring at the computer playing games for a long time, stared fixedly at the old man who was speaking, occasionally making "uh-huh" noises to indicate that he was listening very seriously and politely.

  Chen Zhenhua, although he was feeling a bit unwell at the moment, had secretly vomited several times in the safety passage. However, upon hearing the old man's vivid and thrilling account, he couldn't help but lean in, listening intently like a woman who loved gossiping and prying into others' secrets. After finishing, he nodded repeatedly and then said thoughtfully: "I think - and I'm quite certain - that a murder case has already occurred." He spoke with such seriousness and gravity, as if only he had thought of this terrifying possibility.

  Huang Aiguo furrowed his brow, turned around to look at Chen Zhenhua, stared blankly for a moment, then took a deep breath and said: "A woman died at home, not from illness, nor from taking medicine, but with her flesh and blood scattered all over the floor. You tell me, isn't this a homicide case?"

  Chen Zhenhua also looked back at him, and when he heard Huang Aiguo ask him this, he thought Huang Aiguo was asking for his advice, so he felt very uneasy in his heart. He let out a sigh, which seemed to have more profound meaning than Huang Aiguo's words. At the same time, he shook his head and smiled helplessly, with the words "Need I say more?" almost escaping from his lips.

  He thought it was necessary to tell Huang Aiguo about Holmes, and wanted to impart some knowledge of homicide cases to him. However, Huang Aiguo was not receptive at all. He just smiled coldly and said: "A person's body is lying on the floor in a bloody mess, even an idiot knows it's a murder case, do you need to explain?"

  Chen Zhenhua was speechless, Huang Aiguo's words had deeply hurt his heart. He never thought that even Huang Aiguo knew it was a murder case, and he also said that even fools know, "even fools know" is simply incomprehensible. If it were really as he said, what would be the use of famous detectives like Sherlock Holmes? He indeed found it hard to accept Huang Aiguo's words.

  He shook his head regretfully!

  "Let's go to the scene and take a look!" Huang Aiguo said, he also felt a bit helpless in his heart now, to be exact, he was very sad, thinking that someone like Chen Zhenhua who is afraid of death and has a simple mind can actually become a police officer, it's simply unthinkable.

  Chen Zhenhua listened to him say he wanted to go to the scene to take a look, and nodded his head saying: "This is also what I want to say."

  But in fact, when the two of them thought of going to the newlyweds' room, the police had already "arrived first". The door of the room was surrounded by a cordon, and there were also many people surrounding it. These people stretched their necks as far as possible to look inside, like giraffes stretching their necks, and even stood on tiptoes, with the shorter ones at the back jumping up.

  If it were in the past, Chen Zhenhua would also struggle on the periphery with these "onlookers" to get a clearer view. Now it's different, he can walk directly into the crime scene, as long as he says "make way", those surrounding people will flash open to both sides, tearing out a gap in the circle of people, and he can swagger into the so-called crime scene under the envious eyes of the crowd to understand the case, take a look at the corpse and see how it is mangled.

  Indeed, in the living room lay a female corpse, which should be the new bride mentioned by the old man. The female corpse was lying on the ground, just beside the coffee table, with her neck brutally cut off, revealing a blood-red trachea, and several stab wounds on her chest. One of her palms was missing. The white nightgown she wore was completely stained red with blood, which had almost coagulated by now, a truly gruesome sight.

  Chen Zhenhua was finally able to approach the corpse, which was something he had always dreamed of doing when he used to sweep the streets. His previous fantasies had now become a reality, although he was using someone else's body. However, being at the actual crime scene, the cruel and gruesome sight was not as brave as he had imagined. He was tense and afraid, and his current state of mind could not be described. If he had seen the bloody handprint earlier and felt nauseous with terror, seeing the corpse in the house almost scared him to death, and he nearly left the other person's body. At first glance, he saw the corpse lying on the ground and was stunned, standing still for a moment. A moment later, he suddenly felt his blood rushing to his brain, his head buzzing, and even felt dizzy, with difficulty breathing. Finally, everything went black, and he fell to the ground with a "thud". He lost consciousness.

  When he came to, he found himself lying in the corner of a corridor, Huang Aiguo squatting beside him smoking a cigarette, while the other police were still busy inside the house.

  "What's going on?" He sat up, looking at Huang Aiguo in confusion and asked.

  Huang Aiguo looked down at him, sneered coldly and said: "You think that having died once would make you bolder, but it turns out you're still the same. I really can't understand why someone with your courage wants to be a cop."

  "I faint at the sight of blood, and can't bear to look at gruesome scenes. When I was sweeping the streets that year, I saw a woman having an epileptic seizure, and it scared me so much that I fainted on the spot." Chen Zhenhua looked somewhat guilty, and gave an awkward smile.

  "Sweep the streets? I've already heard you say that twice, I don't know if you're a sanitation worker infiltrating our police station like an undercover agent on TV." Huang Aiguo's face was expressionless, he took a deep drag of his cigarette and then slowly exhaled, a thick plume of smoke shooting out of his mouth, swirling in the air like a dancing dragon.

  "Sanitation worker?…… I'm not a spy!" Chen Zhenhua was shocked, and beads of sweat suddenly appeared on his forehead like pearls on the door curtain in a young woman's room. If his silly smile earlier was to hide his inner tension, then now Chen Zhenhua almost changed color when he heard the words "sanitation worker" and "spy", his voice trembling as he spoke, and he became even more flustered.

  He lowered his head, thinking about how to ease the awkward atmosphere, but then heard Huang Aiguo laugh and say: "You really think you're a spy? I'm saying that being a police officer isn't suitable for you, just like being a beggar isn't suitable for me."

  "When I was a policeman, it was my lifelong dream. I liked Holmes and often fantasized that I was a great detective wearing a black hat, windbreaker, and long boots. That outfit was simply cool. If I had melancholy eyes, a cold face, and a calm demeanor, it would be perfect!" He raised his head, looking at the ceiling with a serious and intoxicated expression.

  However, Huang Aiguo didn't hear a word of it. Originally, after Chen Zhenhua fainted, Huang Aiguo, constrained by their colleague relationship - seemingly only he had this kind thought - supported Chen Zhenhua out of the house and squatted beside him waiting for Chen Zhenhua to wake up.

  The two of them just crouched in the corner and chatted, until a police officer came to ask for their help, otherwise they might have forgotten why they were there.

  It is said that Chen Zhenhua had to go back to the house, and in his mind, he again saw the body of the woman who was brutally murdered. He clearly remembered that the body was lying next to the coffee table, with a large gash on her throat, and you could see the trachea. Her abdomen was stabbed several times, and her intestines were exposed, with a greenish-blue intestine piled up on her thigh. The murderer was simply ruthless!

  Thinking it was a corpse, he hesitated and sat back down, unwilling to get up.

  "Come on, the body has been taken away long ago." Huang Aiguo saw that he didn't want to get up and understood what Chen Zhenhua was thinking in his heart.

  "It's not... I'm not afraid." Chen Zhenhua hastily got up and walked into the house while speaking.

  The two entered the house and, since there was no corpse, Chen Zhenhua could boldly examine the room carefully.

  This is a four-bedroom, two-hall commodity house. The interior decoration is luxurious and the furniture is also of high quality. It looks like the renovation shouldn't be cheap, so it can be said that this family is quite wealthy.

  If it's about money, Chen Zhenhua thought of several possible reasons why the woman might have been killed: First, there may be a thief who broke into the house to steal things and was discovered by the woman. The woman tried to protect her valuables or jewelry such as gold necklaces and bracelets, and struggled with the killer, who eventually killed her.

  She quarreled with her husband over the division of property and in a fit of rage, he killed her. Alternatively, the woman may have had an affair and when her husband found out about their illicit relationship, he killed her in a fit of anger. Of course, if the woman did indeed have an affair, it is also possible that her lover was the murderer.

  "She was killed, then is her husband injured?" Chen Zhenhua walked to the front of Huang Aiguo, asking while looking at Huang Aiguo who was searching for clues on the door.

  In general, a perpetrator may unintentionally leave behind fingerprints.