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墨書 Inktalez
We need to understand that when a murderer leaves no trace but only some unique items behind, we should realize that these are what the murderer wants us to see. The police who had previously investigated the scene told us that Captain Li's team had thoroughly searched the two women's residence, but aside from the semen on the bedsheet, nothing else was found.
I stood in front of Lulu's bed, the lights off, and in the dim environment, everything around me felt still. If everything left by the murderer had a purpose, then aside from asserting ownership, it must have a deeper meaning. I activated the Ultraviolet Light again, and as I gazed at the traces left by the murderer, something suddenly became clear to me.
If we disregard the substance on the bedsheet and focus solely on the bright spots, various bright points covered the sheet in an irregular shape. To create such an effect would not be a one-time occurrence and certainly not a random result.
A scene suddenly flashed in my mind: when we aligned 4 and 5 together, the sheets of both beds naturally overlapped. Both women's beds were doubles, and it seemed that the specifications of their sheets were identical.
I yanked down the bedsheet and walked upstairs without saying a word. As I pulled the sheet out, everyone cast me strange looks. Although the traces of semen were nearly invisible from the outside, everyone understood that this bedsheet contained something unique left by the victim's male partner.
It seemed that several officers kept their distance, afraid of getting contaminated.
Gu Chen and Guan Zengbin didn’t seem bothered; they followed closely behind me as we ascended.
“Help me spread this sheet out,” I waved my arm and tossed it onto the bed, then instructed Gu Chen and Guan Zengbin, “Align all four corners and spread it out.”
Once the three of us laid out the sheet, I finally turned on the Ultraviolet Light. The special substances on both sheets overlapped but remained chaotic and disordered. After adjusting the sheets twice, something miraculous happened. The originally chaotic bright white spots on both sheets formed crooked lines of English letters!
Although I had used my high school English classes to read detective stories, at least I recognized these twenty-four English letters. Gu Chen was in a similar situation; he probably wasn’t any better than me. Thus, we both turned to Guan Zengbin simultaneously.
At that moment, Guan Zengbin's expression was serious as he stared intently at this line of English.
With my light cough, Guan Zengbin finally remembered that we were both struggling students.
“This is an English word you should be able to recognize,” he said as he pulled out his phone to take pictures.
I nodded and asked, “Yeah, I recognize these letters; it's just when they’re put together that I don’t understand.”
“Struggling student,” Guan Zengbin said while taking pictures and translating: “The evil that descends upon this world is named human ugliness; it is the prologue of a story where two women's blood runs rampant; ultimately, it is about to begin—the main text.”
“I understand each word you say, but when combined, I can’t make sense of it,” Gu Chen scratched his head and asked, “What does it mean? Is your translation correct?”
Guan Zengbin placed the camera in front of his chest and looked at Gu Chen, saying, "Don't judge a forensic expert's English level, especially when it comes to specialized vocabulary. I bet you'll never hear anyone use those obscure terms in your lifetime... The translation of the sentence is just that, but what he really wants to express is unclear."
The nonsensical sentence written here, and in such a manner, definitely wasn't left by the Murderer out of boredom. This might mean that these words were either not meant for us or were left by the Murderer for himself. Given the current situation, it seems more likely that they were intended for his own reference.
"But why did the Murderer write it in English?" Gu Chen raised another question.
I pondered for a moment before replying, "There's a certain formality to Chinese characters. If written in Chinese, they would appear as individual squares, making them too easy to recognize. If he wanted to make it hard for someone to decipher at a glance, he would have to break down each character into unrelated parts across two sheets. Compared to English, that would be far more work."
I tugged at my hair anxiously and said, "From what I know, the more twisted a Murderer is, the more their thought process deviates from that of a normal person. Their perception of the world differs from ours, and what they want to convey is also different."
"Isn't it some kind of cult?" Gu Chen scratched his head and said, "The tone seems similar."
I shook my head and replied, "Not sure. Let's check the backyard."
As we stepped outside, we saw several police officers gathered at the entrance, seemingly puzzled by our earlier actions.
One officer remarked, "Impressive! Captain Liu has been investigating this for a long time without figuring it out. If it were up to me, the leadership shouldn't have reassigned you; staying with you all would help us learn something."
I responded, "You were present during that last case; you know how it turned out."
I patted the officer on the shoulder and said, "When I was standing upstairs looking into the backyard earlier, the footprints there were already chaotic. Although it hasn't snowed recently, it's been warm enough to distinguish the Victim's footprints. Can you make them out?"
The officer smiled awkwardly and said, "The property security team was the first on scene. When they saw someone lying on the ground, a normal person's first thought wouldn't be that they found a corpse; they'd think someone had fainted. So a few security guards rushed over to check things out, which messed up the footprints. Then we arrived last."
"When we got there, those traces were no longer visible," the officer added.
I scratched my head and said, "Alright then."
Without firsthand information, we couldn't directly observe what had happened at that time. At this moment, I happened to be at Zhao Kaifang's house—the first victim in that story. I walked over to the shoe cabinet and turned back to ask, "At the time when the body was discovered, he shouldn't have been wearing shoes, right?"
The police officer nodded and asked curiously, "So, how did you know that?"
I shrugged and replied, "From the article written by the Murderer, we can tell that he followed Zhao Kaifang all the way by stepping in his Footprints. After killing Zhao Kaifang, the Murderer put on Zhao Kaifang's shoes and left. So, if the Murderer took Zhao Kaifang's shoes, how could she still have any on her feet?"
"Right," the police officer said, slapping his forehead. "I forgot."
I turned to Guan Zengbin and asked, "You, as a White-collar worker, what do you wear home after work?"
Guan Zengbin pouted for a moment before answering, "As a White-collar worker, of course I wear high heels!"
"In winter too?" I inquired.
Guan Zengbin nodded. "There are high heels for winter."
I nodded and opened the shoe cabinet. It seems that every woman's wardrobe is always missing one item; perhaps the same applies to shoe cabinets. When I opened the cabinet, I saw it crammed with pairs of shoes. I casually pulled out a pair of high heels and held them in my hand.
"Let's go!" I said to everyone.
"What are we doing?" the police officer asked.
"I'm going to show you something interesting," I replied.
As we headed down, we ran into Liu and Captain Shao finishing their conversation. At that moment, Liu Zheng was coming up. Seeing us, Liu approached and asked, "Wu Meng, have you found anything useful in your investigation?"
Gu Chen couldn't stand Liu's smug expression and retorted sharply, "What we find has nothing to do with you! You need to understand that our two teams are in competition; in the end, either you leave or we do. You should be clear about that, so I have nothing to say."
With that, Gu Chen led the way down.
Gu Chen usually wasn't very talkative, but he had said so much to Liu this time, which showed that he actually cared about Liu's opinion. People often behave this way; what they think in their hearts can be completely different from what comes out of their mouths.
Liu glanced at Gu Chen's back, a sense of unspoken melancholy on his face.
I gently patted his shoulder and said slowly, "You know what kind of person Gu Chen is—sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. Whatever we find out, this police officer will know. Just ask him when we get back to the station. Let's go."
Liu sighed and thanked me.
We arrived at the backyard, where the weather had recently warmed up. In this big city, the heat island effect was severe, and even in these less frequented areas, remnants of snow could still be seen. I looked at Guan Zengbin and said, "Binzi, come on."
With that, I shook the high heels in my hand.
At this moment, everyone realized what I was about to do.
"Crime simulation!" one of the officers exclaimed excitedly.
Guan Zengbin didn't hesitate; she sat down and took off her shoes. Then she gestured for me to help her put them back on. Naturally, I was happy to assist and helped her into the shoes. They fit her quite well. I recalled that Zhao Kaifang was also around 1.7 meters tall, similar to Guan Zengbin.
If the murderer were to follow someone by stepping in their footprints, they would have entered through the side passage from the backyard. Zhao Kaifang must have taken a shortcut, which is why he didn't walk along the winding path of the backyard but headed straight toward the apartment building. This would leave behind footprints.
"Then who will play the role of this murderer?"
Guan Zengbin looked at me and Gu Chen.
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