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墨書 Inktalez
Sitting in the car, everyone seemed unsure of what to do. Gu Chen wasn't driving; another officer was at the wheel. He sat in the back seat, his face dark and silent. I glanced at Gu Chen through the rearview mirror, my mind racing with thoughts. With Gu Chen's abilities, even if he couldn't save Yang Ting, he shouldn't have failed to grab hold of Yang Ting's clothing.
It seemed he noticed my gaze. Gu Chen spoke up, "It was pouring rain, and I slipped. I should have been able to catch Yang Ting, but I didn't even touch his clothes."
Mary sensed the unusual atmosphere in the air and said, "The person is already dead; there's no point in dwelling on it now. But what should we do next? We should have a grasp of this case by now."
I shook my head and turned my attention away from Gu Chen, looking instead at the heavy rain outside. "Don't forget why we came back."
Gu Chen sighed. "Right now, we still don't know how Gu Hui died. During that downpour, when a large number of villagers went looking for Gu Hui, they left behind a lot of footprints. The footprints at the scene are all over each other; even if the murderer left traces, they would have been destroyed long ago."
I continued from where Gu Chen left off: "And the only one suspected by everyone—the murderer—was Teacher Gao, who died by suicide in his own home. We only know he went out to meet someone, but we don't know who that was or what they discussed."
Mary didn't understand this part and stared blankly at us without saying a word.
Gu Chen didn’t respond either; the tension in the car grew cold and silent.
The deaths of Gu Hui and the subsequent four people were clearly not caused by the same individual. We had only managed to solve part of the case so far. The problem was, in such heavy rain and with no one on the village road, why did Gu Hui run outside?
For the villagers, that large yard was more than enough space for children to play and frolic. This aligned with our previous speculation: a child just a few years old running outside alone and drowning in a pit meant that someone must have called her out.
However, I had previously asked Gu Hui's family about her; she was usually a very quiet girl. So she wouldn’t typically run around with boys. Who was closest to Gu Hui? It was Hu Ningning, who had been taken away. According to forensic analysis, Gu Hui died in the evening while Hu Ningning was still at home.
And before that, Hu Ningning had been living at Sun Qingqing's teacher's house—wasn't that too coincidental?
Lost in thought, we arrived at the police station.
The two corpses had already been sent to the autopsy room, including Zhang Zuocheng's body that had been brought back earlier; there were now three corpses in total.
Question: Why do three corpses only occupy two beds?
Answer: Because the two bodies were intertwined like candied hawthorns on a stick.
Wang Fa-Yi stared silently at the two corpses. After a long moment, he finally spoke, "I've never performed an autopsy on bodies like these in my life. I don't think we can determine much without at least seven or eight hours of examination. Fortunately, this case seems to be concluded, so we won't have to trouble the City Bureau. You few, help me out here."
Mary furrowed her brow as she looked at the bodies. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers and said, "Oh right, I just remembered there are some things I haven't clarified yet. Where's my computer? I'll go find it."
As she spoke, we watched Mary grab her computer and push the door open to leave.
"This is like looking for a donkey while riding one," Wang Fa-Yi said as he put on gloves and glanced at me and Gu Chen. "You two will do."
I suddenly snapped my fingers and said, "Wait, I remember Hu Ningning is still at the police station. Gu Chen, give me the car keys; I'll take Hu Ningning home first. After all, she hasn't been home for a week and must be missing her parents. You all keep busy; I'll help you out when I get back, Wang Fa-Yi."
With that, I took the car keys from Gu Chen's belt and waved goodbye as I left.
As I stepped outside, I heard Wang Fa-Yi telling Gu Chen, "You can't leave either..."
Holding the car keys, I walked outside. After taking about ten steps, I heard a commotion in the distance. I noticed a crowd had gathered around. Since the case was over, I wondered what they were doing there. With that thought in mind, I quickened my pace toward them. At that moment, Mary was also standing on the outskirts of the crowd. I reached out and pulled her.
"What's going on?" I asked.
Mary's expression was serious as she turned to look at me and said, "Ha Li Min returned a while ago and requested to use the restroom. Even criminals can't be denied such a basic need, so we assigned a few female officers to watch her while she went. Less than two minutes after entering, several female officers heard a loud thud from inside."
Mary waved her hand dismissively. "Ha Li Min slammed into the wall. They're rushing her to the hospital now; I just saw her being loaded into a car. But honestly, it doesn't look good."
She pointed to the bloodstains on the ground and said to me, "Do you see that? There's blood everywhere. From what those officers said earlier, it seems Ha Li Min used all her strength to crash into the wall; her head was severely injured this time—no one can stop her from committing suicide now."
I rubbed my temple as I watched the noisy crowd swirl around us.
Ha Li Min had been holding onto a desire to die for some time now; no matter what methods you employed, you couldn't stop someone who had already decided to end their life. From the moment Zhang Zijun died, she no longer belonged to this world.
At that moment, Chen Bo also stepped out and saw us; he let out a heavy sigh.
"I think she was destined to go to the hospital but wouldn't make it out alive." Chen Bo handed me a cigarette and said, "I just went to the restroom and saw that blood splattered all over the wall. She was convulsing at the time, and those female officers didn't have time to react. She couldn't be saved; Ha Li Min is dead."
Chen Bo lit his cigarette and continued, "That's it, it's over. It's better this way; the couple left one after the other. And their son, they couldn't be together while alive, but in death, they shouldn't be apart."
I took the cigarette from him but didn't light it. Instead, I asked, "What about Hu Ningning?"
Chen Bo replied, "She's in the dormitory, busy with Zhang Zijun and Ha Li Min's matters. They even forgot to notify Hu Ningning's family. I'll go inform her father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother to come pick her up. By the way, where's Gu Chen?"
I said, "Gu Chen is helping with Wang Fa-Yi's autopsy. How about this—I’ll take Hu Ningning home. I still have many things to figure out and can investigate a bit while I'm at it."
"Alright, you go ahead," Chen Bo nodded and muttered, "But when did Gu Chen become interested in autopsies? Since the village road is still passable now, you should leave early and return early. I see this rain isn't stopping anytime soon; it will be difficult for you to drive out later."
"Got it," I nodded.
After picking up Hu Ningning, she looked quite worn out. Although it was too cruel for a nine-year-old girl to be asked about such matters, I still had many questions that needed answers.
As I drove, I glanced at Hu Ningning through the rearview mirror. She sat quietly in the back seat without saying a word, looking very tired.
"During the days you were captured, did you hear your aunt talking with anyone else?" I asked.
Hu Ningning nodded and said, "Yes, uncle and aunt were often together."
"Zhang Zijun?" I inquired. "Zhang Zuocheng's father."
"Yes," Hu Ningning confirmed with a nod.
But that wasn't the answer I was looking for. I pressed on, "I mean besides Zhang Zijun and Ha Li Min—anyone else?"
Hu Ningning thought for a moment and replied, "No, maybe there were others but they weren't in front of me. They didn't talk on the phone in front of me except when they spoke with you."
It seemed that Hu Ningning was unaware of Wu Zui and the others' situation. Zhang Zijun and Ha Li Min had never intended to kill Hu Ningning; in fact, Ha Li Min had even deceived her into thinking it was just a game of catching thieves. Of course, the clever Hu Ningning had never believed Ha Li Min's nonsense from the beginning and had instead cleverly turned the tables on them.
"Did they ask you about the people they wanted to kill?" I continued to inquire.
"No," Hu Ningning replied. "I only know they are killing people, but I don't know who they are."
Hu Ningning kept her head down, avoiding my gaze. However, this contradicted what Zhang Zijun and Ha Li Min had said; both claimed they had received information from Hu Ningning, yet she insisted she had never mentioned anything about it.
This left only two possibilities: either Hu Ningning was lying, or Zhang Zijun and Ha Li Min were lying.
Could Hu Ningning be lying? But why would she lie? Was she afraid that telling the police the names of those involved would lead to the deaths of four people and result in her being imprisoned? For a nine-year-old girl, having secrets was not unusual. Yet, I found it hard to believe that a nine-year-old's words could so easily convince Zhang Zijun and Ha Li Min.
After all, these were lives at stake. If they were willing to kill based solely on a nine-year-old girl's word, then they were far too reckless.
So it must be that Zhang Zijun and Ha Li Min were lying. But why would they lie? When facing death, people often speak truthfully; they had little left to lose, and lies wouldn't help anyone. If there was a motive, perhaps Wu Zui had helped Zhang Zijun and Ha Li Min obtain this information, and they were concealing it.
They had taken Hu Ningning merely for show; in reality, they had no intention of extracting any useful information from her.
This theory made sense.
However, Ha Li Min was now in grave danger. I had originally planned to interrogate her thoroughly after the case concluded to extract information about Wu Zui and his associates, but now it seemed that would be impossible.
The roads in the village had become muddy, but they were still passable. If the rain intensified, it would wash out the road again, making it impossible for vehicles to enter or exit.
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