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墨書 Inktalez
Ai had now revealed Wei Qian's address to Old Shao. She had heard about Wei Qian before; her parents had divorced when she was in her teens, and she currently lived with her mother. The drive to the address would take about an hour and a half. After bidding farewell to Ai, the group set off for Wei Qian's home.
This was an old open area, and the property manager seemed to have disappeared long ago. Paying for electricity and water had become the responsibility of each resident. The dilapidated hallways lacked surveillance cameras, and the buildings were worn down. In Dragon City, where every inch of land was precious, a room here rented for no more than three hundred a month, highlighting its decrepit state.
Xu Yiman parked the car, and the group arrived at Unit Five. The sixth floor was the highest level of the building. Wei Qian's home was located at 60 on the sixth floor of Unit Five. Standing at the entrance, only the door frame remained of the once sturdy entrance; the iron door had long since vanished.
The hallway was cluttered with cardboard boxes, rusty barrels, and other old debris. A broken bicycle leaned against the wall, clearly unused for decades. Dust covered the stairs, marked by countless footprints from residents, suggesting that this place had never been cleaned.
Without an elevator, they climbed up step by step toward the sixth floor.
As they ascended, they observed the doors on either side. Most apartments lacked security doors, some even hung with padlocks. The ancient locking mechanisms and the peeling walls hinted that these buildings were nearly a century old. Some doors were adorned with cobwebs, indicating they hadn't been occupied in quite some time.
Each door stood tightly shut; it was impossible to tell which apartments still had residents and which were completely empty.
The door to 60 was also firmly closed, but the doormat in front was spotless, suggesting that someone had been keeping it clean.
Jiang He stepped onto the mat and knocked on the door with a firm "knock knock": "Wang Ziyi, is Wei Qian home? We are police officers here to inquire about something."
However, after knocking for a full ten minutes, there was no response from inside. Xu Yiman continued dialing Wang Ziyi's or Wei Qian's phone numbers, but no one answered.
At that moment, a creaking sound came from behind them as an elderly voice asked, "Who are you looking for?"
Turning around, they saw a frail old woman from apartment 601. She appeared to be in her seventies or eighties, trembling as she leaned on a cane.
"We're looking for Wang Ziyi in 60; her daughter is named Wei Qian. Do you know her?" Old Shao spoke up.
“Fragrant Rice? Five Cents?” the old man frowned and asked.
Old Shao raised his voice again, “Wang Ziyi, it’s not Fragrant Rice!”
“What?” The old woman leaned forward, still unable to hear clearly.
Old Shao felt helpless. He pointed to the door of Room 60 and asked, “What about that family?”
The old woman seemed to understand something and nodded, “Last night, the couple had a fight. I could hear them arguing inside, shouting at each other, and there was the sound of glass breaking. After a while, it got quiet, and I saw a man come down the stairs.”
Everyone immediately became alert. After Wang Ziyi divorced Wei Lingyong, her records showed she hadn’t remarried, and Wei Lingyong didn’t even know where his wife lived. How could he possibly come here to argue with Wang Ziyi? So who was the person arguing with Wang Ziyi last night? And where had Wei Qian gone?
“Could it be Lu Zhengye?” Old Shao thought.
“What did you hear?” Old Shao raised his voice, practically shouting.
The old woman said, “Why are you shouting? I can hear just fine. Last night, I was eavesdropping behind the door. The man wanted to eat jujube seeds and some rice cakes. Wang Ziyi doesn’t eat rice cakes; she drinks Ginger Tea. She really loves Ginger Tea and shouted for it many times. The man said he wouldn’t drink Ginger Tea and bought some Wife Cake instead, asking Wang Ziyi to wrap it up with honey…”
At this point, the old woman chuckled, “Their family loves to eat that.”
Hearing this, everyone felt exasperated. Anyone with a functioning brain wouldn’t argue over what to eat—whether it was rice cakes or Ginger Tea. Besides, they couldn’t even tell who liked what; one moment it was Fragrant Rice, the next it was Wife Cake. It was unclear how well this old woman could hear; sometimes she couldn’t catch anything, and other times she complained about the noise.
“What did that man look like?” Old Shao asked.
The old woman tilted her head as if she hadn’t heard clearly again. “Huh? An old goat? Old goats aren’t tasty; roasted lamb is delicious.”
"What does that man look like?" Old Shao shouted again.
"What are you shouting about?" the old lady rubbed her ears. "You've nearly deafened me! That man, well, he has chubby arms, a big butt, dark skin, a round head, he's tall, and he walks quickly."
This description was similar to Ai's. If it really was Lu Zhengye, Wang Ziyi might be in danger.
"Alright, old sister, you should go home and rest," Old Shao said as he helped the old lady walk back home.
"Oh, the goat Scorpion?" the old lady continued as she walked. "Goat Scorpion soup is good."
She then opened her mouth wide and said, "Goat Scorpion has a lot of bones; I've lost all my teeth and can't chew it. Hehe."
The old lady lived alone, but despite her hearing issues, her mind was still clear enough not to be too muddled. Her home was also tidy and clean.
After Old Shao came out, Xu Yiman couldn't help but laugh. "That grandmother is so cute."
"Cute?" Old Shao shrugged. "I don't want to end up like her, only thinking about eating..."
"Not that," Old Shao said to Jiang He. "Can you see if this lock can be opened?"
Jiang He walked over and observed the keyhole for a few minutes. "It shouldn't be a problem."
He found a thin wire among some clutter nearby. He bent the wire into two pieces and then folded one piece before inserting both into the keyhole. After fiddling with it for about a minute, there was a 'click,' and a gap appeared in the door.
As Old Shao stepped inside, he caught a familiar scent.
“Xu Yiman…” Old Shao began.
Before Old Shao could finish, Xu Yiman interjected, “I smell it—the scent of blood, and the distinct odor of a corpse.”
Indeed, there lay a body on the floor. The corpse was sprawled beside the tea table, lying on its side, a wide pool of congealed dark red blood already formed around it. On the tea table and the wall beside it, blood sprayed in a pattern reminiscent of ink splatters, covering half the wall.
The blood on the wall had also coagulated by now, but before it dried, it had trickled down the surface like serpents winding their way downward. Some of these serpents were long, while others were short, twisting and intertwining.
Jiang He carefully observed the room. He recalled that the elderly neighbor had mentioned hearing the sound of breaking glass. However, Jiang He did not see any shards of glass on the floor. Taking a step closer, he spotted a piece of broken glass in the trash can.
So after the argument, someone had cleaned up the broken glass.
At this moment, Xu Yiman had already begun examining the body. She took out a pair of white gloves from her bag and gently touched the skin of the female corpse.
“It’s definitely Wang Ziyi,” Xu Yiman confirmed as she recognized Wang Ziyi’s face—it matched perfectly with the photo.
“There are slight pressure marks on the corpse indicating livor mortis; although slightly faded, the original marks have not disappeared. The livor mortis is currently in its spreading phase. There is a light red fluid oozing from the wound on her neck that is difficult to wipe away. Rigor mortis is severe; the jaw joint is stiff. The cornea has begun to cloud over with slight wrinkling. The muscles have lost their postmortem reaction.”
At this point, Xu Yiman’s white gloves were already stained with sticky light red and slightly yellowish tissue fluid. She turned to Jiang He and said, “Get me some tweezers from my bag; my gloves are too dirty.”
Jiang He nodded and rummaged through Xu Yiman’s bag. He noticed that there were hardly any feminine items inside—aside from some essentials for women, there were no cosmetics or any clutter like lipstick or eyeshadow. This reminded Jiang He of his first encounter with Xu Yiman; indeed, she never wore makeup whether at work or in her daily life.
In her own words, Xu Yiman believed that cosmetics could interfere with forensic analysis—such as chemical elements and scents—so she never applied any.
Her bag contained gloves, evidence bags, masks, and various dissection tools.
Jiang He also put on a pair of gloves and then found a tightly wrapped pair of tweezers from his bag, handing them to Xu Yiman.
Xu Yiman took the tweezers and pinched out a small white object from around her neck. Jiang He focused his gaze and saw that it was a white maggot.
Xu Yiman said, "In autumn, the surviving flies will likely find a corpse within about half an hour and start laying eggs in it. The conditions here are simple, making it easy for flies to come in. After about ten hours, the eggs can hatch into maggots. You see this maggot is still very young; it must have just been born not long ago. There are no pupae around, indicating this is a first-generation maggot."
"Based on the old lady's testimony and combining the information," Xu Yiman gently removed her gloves and set them aside. "Wang Ziyi died approximately seventeen hours ago, which means she likely passed away between ten and eleven o'clock last night."
"As for the cause of death, it should be this wound on her neck," Xu Yiman continued. "The wound is deep, about five centimeters long, with clean edges. It was likely caused by a Western Chef's Knife. The murderer directly severed her carotid artery, causing blood to spray all over this wall. I estimate that Wang Ziyi died within one or two minutes."
"But there’s no sign of that knife around," Jiang He interjected. "I just carefully examined the room; where could that knife have gone?"
Shao the Elder said, "Immediately arrange for a Technical Crime Investigator to come and examine the scene. Xu Yiman, you need to go back and prepare a detailed autopsy report. Jiang He and I still need to conduct some interviews, especially with the old lady who heard the argument last night; she might be the only witness who saw the murderer!"
"Understood."
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