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墨書 Inktalez
Li Jun's body lay before us, and at first glance, there were no visible wounds on him. His eyes were closed, and his face was pale. His school uniform was speckled with mud, which had been there before we placed him on the ground.
Upon closer inspection, one side of his uniform was clean, while the other side was covered in dirt. I looked at Li Jun's shoes; the soles showed little sign of mud, but one side was caked with it.
From this, we could conclude that Li Jun did not come here on his own. The forest floor was muddy; although it wasn't raining now, there were plenty of puddles around. If he had walked here, his shoes would have been soaked with mud, yet they were not.
This indicated that Li Jun had not walked here but had likely been carried by someone and then dropped here. With this thought in mind, I crouched down to examine Li Jun's face and head. There were no major injuries, but there were some minor bruises. These bruises suggested they had been inflicted while he was still alive.
There were no footprints around, as if someone had deliberately erased them.
At that moment, Gu Chen was searching Li Jun's body for anything useful.
The School Leader looked at Li Jun's corpse, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead. He spoke slowly, "What am I supposed to tell Li Jun's parents? If he had died somewhere else, it would be easier to explain. But how can I explain that he died in the woods behind the school? If this becomes a scandal, what will happen to our school? What kind of situation is this?"
I frowned and remained silent. Li Jun's backpack was found alongside Hu Ningning's, indicating that the murderer must have kidnapped both children. However, only one body had been discovered; where was Hu Ningning? Moreover, the murderer had directly contacted the School Leader to inform him about Li Jun's body being here. Coupled with the discovery of another child's body in the well, it was clear that this murderer knew a lot about the school.
This suggested that the murderer had planned this for a long time and might not have just taken two children; there could be more victims. Our immediate priority was to find the murderer and identify any other children who might be in danger.
At that moment, Gu Chen spoke up: "I found a note."
Both of our gazes were immediately drawn to Gu Chen as he held up a piece of paper. From my peripheral vision, I noticed that the handwriting on this note matched that of the previous one—it was clearly from the same person. The note read: "First task: Find the reason."
Gu Chen looked at the note and asked, "First task: Find the reason? Find what reason?"
I furrowed my brow; it was still just a short white note, identical to the last one. It seemed this was part of the game the murderer wanted us to play.
The note contained no additional information.
"Perhaps the reason is why Li Jun died here?" The school leader said, rubbing his balding head, looking somewhat uncertain as he gazed at Li Jun's lifeless body.
I sighed and replied, "That's quite possible, but we should still call the forensic team from the police station to find out how Li Jun actually died."
Gu Chen nodded and said, "I'm familiar with the people at this police station. I'll get in touch with them. For now, let's take the child's body back."
With that, Gu Chen picked up the child's body and headed toward the school.
As I followed Gu Chen outside, I spoke to the two of them, "If the murderer acted with premeditation, then abducting these two children likely wasn't random; it was done according to a specific method. With two children taken, we can basically confirm that the murderer’s criteria seem to revolve around children, but we still don't know what their upper limit is."
The school leader listened to my words and nodded, understanding my point. He spoke up, "You mean we don't know how old of a child the murderer is targeting? What do you think? These two children are only eight or nine years old; maybe the upper limit is in their teens?"
"You're right," I said, looking at Li Jun's body. "But this is just my speculation—a rough guess. It's very likely that the murderer has additional criteria beyond this. However, regarding Li Jun's case, please don't inform the parents just yet. Wait until after the autopsy; otherwise, if they come in a frenzy, it will complicate many things."
Upon hearing my words, the school leader struck his forehead heavily, startling both me and Gu Chen. Seeing us turn to look at him, he exclaimed, "What on earth is going on? Li Jun died here for no reason! How are we supposed to find the murderer?"
I replied, "The murderer has been leaving us various signals throughout this process, which gives us many opportunities to track them down. Now we need to investigate Hu Ningning and Li Jun. We must understand why the murderer targeted these two children."
I turned to the school leader and asked, "Isn't Sun Qingqing their homeroom teacher? Where did she go?"
The school leader responded, "She went with the police for questioning. I'll call her back right away."
After a while, Sun Qingqing returned with several police officers. Seeing them made me a bit uneasy; I feared they might recognize me at first glance. However, I couldn't appear anxious—after all, Dongxing City is so large that not everyone in law enforcement would remember me.
An older police officer approached and shook Gu Chen's hand excitedly. "Gu Chen is back?"
"Chen Bo," Gu Chen called out, "this is my colleague, just call him Wu."
Chen Bo nodded and shook my hand. After a moment, he spoke up, "Gu Chen, I know why you came back. I attended the full moon celebration for that girl, Gu Hui. This case seems unusual, but it's good that you’re back to help us figure out what’s going on."
Gu Chen nodded and got straight to the point. "We just found Li Jun's body. There doesn't seem to be any obvious issues with it. We should have the town's forensic team examine how Li Jun died."
Chen Bo agreed and turned to a middle-aged man nearby. "Go check the body and have it transported to the morgue for an autopsy. I'll stay here with my two nephews and monitor the situation."
The middle-aged forensic expert nodded, and the school leader led him toward the room where Li Jun's body was located. Before leaving, he repeatedly instructed Sun Qingqing to follow our arrangements.
I glanced at Sun Qingqing. She appeared to be around our age, probably in her early twenties. Her eyes were red and slightly swollen, indicating she had been crying for a long time. Despite this, she still exuded a sense of innocence and was quite pleasant to look at.
Seeing her, I said gently, "Sun Qingqing, I'm Officer Wu, the one you spoke with on the phone."
Sun Qingqing nodded.
As we settled down, Chen Bo began, "Currently, we don't have many leads. Based on what I know, we received the report around eight o'clock last night and immediately began our investigation, focusing on surveillance footage around the school."
"At the same time," Chen Bo continued, "our colleagues went to the train station and bus station to prevent any possibility of human traffickers taking the children away. However, we found nothing at those locations. Our investigation of the surveillance footage only led us to a road outside of town, after which there were no more cameras."
I nodded in understanding. Although this area belonged to Dongxing City, it was still a town with many roads; it was normal for some routes not to have surveillance.
I asked, "Were the two children together?"
Chen Bo nodded. "According to our review of the footage, they did leave together. However, based on our investigation, Li Jun lives in town while Hu Ningning's home is farther away in Zhi Li Village—where Gu Chen is from. They may not have been heading in the same direction but they were indeed walking together."
Gu Chen looked at me and said, "Could it really be a date?"
Chen Boda replied, "We still haven't figured out what the two kids were actually doing. But if it was a date, they are just two kids, probably just playing around. At the location where the surveillance went dark, the police in our town searched the area and found two backpacks in the woods by the roadside."
Hearing this, I asked, "What direction? Is there any way to guess where they were headed?"
Chen Bo shook his head and said, "It's hard to tell. I feel like these two kids just got caught up in playing after school and ended up in an empty forest, where they encountered the Murderer."
I rubbed my eyes and asked Chen Boda, "Is that all?"
Chen Bo nodded and said, "That's all we have for now. We haven't found anything else. However, we did find a note that says..."
I interrupted Chen Bo, saying, "I know about that."
Chen Bo nodded again and said, "From my nearly twenty years of experience in law enforcement, this case is not just a simple kidnapping or murder. I suspect that this Murderer might have some sort of pedophilic tendencies or something similar..."
Chen Bo's insights seemed reliable; it appeared that the Murderer had some unusual intentions towards children.
Right now, we couldn't determine how Li Jun had died. Externally, he showed no signs of injury, but we couldn't rule out the possibility of injuries beneath his school uniform.
"Let's take a look at the body," I suggested. It seemed like Chen Bo didn't have much more information. "We need to see if the Murderer has any pedophilic or child-abusive tendencies..."
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