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墨書 Inktalez
Three hours later, I received a call from Gu Chen. During the call, Gu Chen recounted the events that followed. Although Gu Chen was no longer a police officer, he had made many connections with law enforcement during this time and was able to gather information about certain matters.
Not long after we left, the local police station received a report and proceeded to Lu Zhiqiu's grave. By that time, Jiang Xiaochun had already hanged himself from a tree beside the grave. According to the police investigation, it was confirmed that Jiang Xiaochun had committed suicide. They found a personal notebook in his possession.
In the notebook, Jiang Xiaochun recorded his love for Lu Zhiqiu, detailing their acquaintance and the moments that led him to fall in love with her. The police compared the diary entries with previous investigation results and concluded that Jiang Xiaochun was indeed the murderer.
The investigation revealed that over the course of two months, Jiang Xiaochun had brutally killed twenty-two citizens of varying ages, genders, and backgrounds using different methods. Currently, all bodies except for Deng Xuemei's had been recovered. However, the investigation showed that there was no evidence linking any of these twenty victims to the murder of Lu Zhiqiu.
With the case concluded, as per protocol, the three corpses in Dongxing City would be transferred to various crematoriums for cremation. When the police notified the families to claim the bodies, Gu Chen told me he witnessed a scene he would never forget—one that would shock him for a lifetime.
Gu Chen had never seen dozens or even hundreds of people kneeling at the entrance of a police station in tears. He had never heard such a cacophony of wailing; it was deafening. In that moment, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared blankly at those gathered outside. It felt as if everything else in the world had vanished, leaving only those mourners behind. All other sounds faded away, leaving only their cries.
At that moment, Gu Chen finally understood that life was never just an individual affair; it was a connection between countless lives.
For more than two hours, these people gradually dispersed as the bodies were transported away. Yet those swollen red eyes were something Gu Chen would likely never forget. From different perspectives, people saw things differently. Perhaps in Jiang Xiaochun's eyes, these individuals seemed selfish and hypocritical; but in the eyes of their families, they were pillars of support—good husbands or wives, good fathers or mothers.
Perhaps in the remaining lives of these families, whenever they woke from nightmares, they would continue to curse Jiang Xiaochun's selfishness for seeking revenge at the cost of so many innocent lives. Maybe Jiang Xiaochun understood this very point, which is why he chose self-destruction.
I glanced at Zhao Mingkun beside me—did she think similarly?
Gu Chen also informed me that the police were still investigating the truth behind Lu Zhiqiu's death seven years ago. However, according to his friends at the police station, there were too few leads on this case; it might not yield results anytime soon. The station had other matters to attend to, so this case would have to be investigated slowly.
I shook my head; it seemed that the families weren't pressuring the police much, and law enforcement wasn't particularly invested in this case either—very few officers were assigned to it. However, as of now, there should be no more deaths occurring.
Dongxing City was a large metropolis where missing persons or deaths were not uncommon. Most people might only face death related to their own lives a few times throughout their lives; for many, death was merely a line on a television screen—a line that required extensive police investigations.
At this moment, Zhao Mingkun and I had begun to piece things together. Based on our earlier investigations, it appeared that the murderer killed Lu Zhiqiu in less than a minute; it was likely that one swift blow ended it all. Our research indicated that there was a brief window between Yang Licheng and Wang Yikai leaving and Liang Mei arriving—a window during which the murderer appeared and killed Lu Zhiqiu.
With everyone gone, it was impossible for Lu Zhiqiu to have been lingering there without reason; there could have been at most a five to ten-minute gap during which this occurred. Considering Xu Man's arrival time should have been after Yang Licheng and Wang Yikai left the construction site—it meant that the murderer likely committed the act and fled within about five minutes.
As Liang Mei was dismembered, Hu Pei was actually hiding behind a pillar. Had Hu Pei witnessed the Murderer? If Hu Pei had seen the Murderer, why didn’t he call the police and instead chose to scare himself? This was indeed puzzling.
I sent a text to Gu Chen, asking him to investigate two individuals: one was the worker who had killed the dog, and the other was Lu Xiangyang.
Gu Chen seemed confused by this, as we had just ruled out Lu Xiangyang as a suspect. Why would I ask him to investigate Lu Xiangyang again? I had a nagging feeling that there was something hidden behind this incident waiting for us to uncover. Although Gu Chen was puzzled, he proceeded with my instructions.
With Mary, the hacker, on our side, in this age of online identities, finding information about ordinary people was as easy as eating a meal, except for those at the top. By evening, Gu Chen relayed to us Lu Xiangyang's current whereabouts and the location of the person who wanted to kill the dog seven years ago.
Once Lu Xiangyang was found, the Lu family finally breathed a sigh of relief. They hired someone to make a banner and beat drums to celebrate at the police station. Lu Xiangyang returned to a normal life; these past two months had been quite a lesson for him. However, the downside was that he became quite popular at school.
During breaks, it was Lu Xiangyang sharing his tales of adventure.
However, while investigating Lu Xiangyang, Mary discovered that two months ago, he withdrew fifty thousand yuan from his account. Yet she couldn’t trace what that money had been spent on. Cash transactions left no record online, so we needed to investigate further.
At this point, I realized something: Lu Xiangyang had lied to us.
Previously, when Lu Xiangyang told us he was heading south to compete with an online friend and saw that there was still time, he planned to earn some pocket money. But after going with those people, he gradually realized he must have been controlled by a Pyramid Scheme accomplice.
This created a contradiction: why would someone who could withdraw fifty thousand yuan need to work for pocket money? The Lu family had received nearly one and a half million yuan seven years ago; how high were property prices back then? The Lu family invested in real estate; although his parents knew nothing about it, that was enough. It was an era where money made money.
They favored Lu Xiangyang due to their preference for sons over daughters. Whenever he asked for money, they would surely give it to him. This was why I had my doubts when I first heard Lu Xiangyang's words. Looking back now, it certainly raised a huge red flag.
Setting aside Lu Xiangyang’s matters, I turned my attention to the information about the dog killer from seven years ago.
From the records, this person was named Rob. Seven years ago, Rob was twenty-six years old—hardly older than those students back then. At that time, Rob attempted to kill a dog on a construction site but was stopped by Lu Zhiqiu and others. Someone suggested that Lu Zhiqiu and his friends buy the dog for ten thousand yuan, and they actually did so.
Wang Xin felt humiliated and spread rumors online that Rob maliciously abused dogs for his amusement, which led to Rob being doxxed. Shortly after that incident, Rob left the construction site and never returned. According to Mary’s investigation, Rob soon went back to his hometown and should still be there now.
According to the information, Rob is not married and is currently single at the age of thirty-three. His hometown is quite far from Dongxing City, and it would take a considerable amount of time to reach there by train. As for me, I am a fugitive wanted throughout the city, making it very troublesome to leave. One wrong move could lead to my capture, so Zhao Mingkun and I cannot leave.
Thus, this task naturally fell to Gu Chen, who did not refuse and booked a train ticket for the next day to investigate Rob's hometown.
Zhao Mingkun looked at me and asked, "So what do we do? Since your old partner is going to investigate Rob, who are we going to look into?"
I turned to Zhao Mingkun and replied, "We should investigate Lu Xiangyang. You know that if we want to leave Dongxing City, it will take us too long to prepare, which would be a waste of time. Besides, we still need to track down Guan Zengbin's whereabouts, so we cannot leave Dongxing City."
"Lu Xiangyang?" Zhao Mingkun shook his head in confusion. "You can't possibly suspect that Lu Xiangyang killed his own sister seven years ago? Back then, Lu Xiangyang was just a kid who didn't know anything."
I waved my hand dismissively. "I certainly don't suspect that Lu Xiangyang killed Lu Zhiqiu. However, that kid who knew nothing back then has now grown up. I believe he must have his own opinions now; perhaps like Jiang Xiaochun, this child has also created many cover-ups. The truth is mixed with lies, and within the truth lies more deception, leaving us bewildered in this web of reality and falsehood."
Zhao Mingkun looked at me thoughtfully and said slowly, "So you suspect there’s some connection between Lu Xiangyang and Jiang Xiaochun?"
I nodded. "Exactly. The key point is that Jiang Xiaochun's phone appeared out of nowhere at his doorstep. A phone doesn’t just grow legs and walk over by itself; someone must have placed it there. Who could that someone be?"
"And," I continued, "when we were investigating the case, who caused us the most trouble? Who led us in circles?"
After a moment of contemplation, Zhao Mingkun named the person: "Of course, it's Lu Xiangyang."
I snapped my fingers. "That's the problem right there. Ming, let's go investigate a certain place thoroughly; perhaps we can uncover something useful..."
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