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墨書 Inktalez
Hearing Old Shao's words, Zhang De's expression turned grim. He said, "That can't be true. Eating human entrails is just too twisted. We've interacted with Li Erdan, and he doesn't seem like that kind of person at all. This is really beyond my expectations."
Wang Da, seemingly finished with his retching, walked back in and, suppressing his nausea, said, "You can know a person’s face but not their heart, my leader. Have you forgotten what Li Erdan loves to eat?"
Zhang De suddenly slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "Li Erdan's favorite dish is Stir-Fried Pork Intestines!"
Upon hearing Zhang De's words, everyone looked at the pot of intestines and felt even more disgusted.
Yuan Jun cursed under his breath, "I used to really enjoy eating intestines, but after this incident with Li Erdan, I never want to eat them again for the rest of my life."
With that, Yuan Jun glanced back at the pot of intestines.
The intestines coiled in the pot like a large snake, appearing quite thick. At that moment, several maggots were wriggling among the intestines, occasionally poking their heads out to survey the world. There were also dark cockroaches crawling into the pot as if enjoying a feast but unable to escape, spinning around inside.
From the ruptured parts of the intestines, a deep yellow liquid oozed out, looking utterly repulsive and emitting a foul stench that was even worse than that of decaying flesh. It seemed these intestines had been stored for quite some time.
While everyone was carefully observing the intestines, Jiang He rummaged through the kitchen cabinets in search of clues. Unfortunately, he found no other entrails in Li Erdan's kitchen; apart from this one piece of intestine, there was no other meat.
Aside from a bag of flour and a bag of rice, there weren't even any vegetables or eggs.
Jiang He stood up various bottles and jars on the countertop and discovered that aside from a bottle of vinegar, the rest were various soy sauces and chili sauces. It appeared that these were what Li Erdan usually used to mix with rice or noodles in his rental apartment. Jiang He rummaged through the kitchen trash bin and confirmed there were indeed no vegetable scraps; instead, there were plenty of snack wrappers.
Looking at the remaining pots and pans, Jiang He realized that apart from the pot Yuan Jun was holding, there was nothing else left.
"How long is a person's intestine?" Zhang De asked as he stared into the pot.
"About one meter," Xu Yiman replied.
"How long is this going to take?" Zhang De said, covering his nose.
Old Shao spoke up, "How long has this intestines been here?"
Xu Yiman shook her head and replied, "That's hard to determine because intestines are prone to flies. If left unattended, flies will find their way here quickly. Without anyone cleaning or washing them, flies usually lay eggs within about ten minutes, and in roughly ten hours, those eggs hatch into maggots."
"From the size of the maggots, there are at least two," Xu Yiman observed closely at the pot. "Hmm, there are no pupae around, so these must all be first-generation maggots, two to three of them."
"Why would he leave the intestines for two to three days?" Old Shao asked. "If he likes eating intestines that much, he wouldn't let them rot. There must be something wrong here."
Yuan Jun remained silent for a moment before saying, "I think maybe he just couldn't eat anymore. That much entrails should last him quite a while."
Jiang He shook his head and addressed everyone, "Sponge."
"What?" Yuan Jun placed the pot on the countertop and asked, "What do you mean?"
Jiang He explained, "I took a look around and found that there’s no place in this house that has any sponge. After the killer took out the entrails, they stuffed pieces of sponge inside. But where would Li Erdan have gotten sponge?"
"Could he have taken it away in a box?" Xu Yiman scratched her head.
Jiang He shook his head again. "We still need to investigate."
The group took the blood and the pot of intestines back to the police station for examination.
Zhang De and his subordinates continued with their work.
During the time Xu Yiman was undergoing examination, Jiang He and Old Shao carefully reviewed Li Erdan's information.
Li Erdan, a 42-year-old man from Licun in Yuzhou City, has a wife named Wang Guihua. They have a daughter, Li Weiwei, who is currently attending school. Two years ago, for reasons unknown, Li Erdan divorced his wife Wang Guihua. Afterward, he moved out of his home in Dragon City and began renting a place on his own.
Li Erdan had come to Dragon City with his parents twenty years ago when housing prices were still affordable. His parents bought him an eighty-square-meter apartment. Before becoming a Hearse Driver, Li Erdan had worked as a long-haul truck driver for nearly ten years.
Being a truck driver over a decade ago was a desirable job; despite the hardships and long hours away from home, the pay was good. It didn't take long for Li Erdan to save up enough money to marry the most educated woman in Licun, Wang Guihua, and they got married in Dragon City.
At that time, Wang Guihua was about twenty years old and worked as a teacher in the village, teaching language to local children. She was beautiful and had graduated from high school, but her family was poor and she had a younger brother who needed support for school and marriage.
When Li Erdan's parents proposed, Wang Guihua's parents discussed it with Li Erdan's family, and they agreed on the match.
The records do not detail the reactions of Li Erdan and Wang Guihua, but about six months later, they got married.
Due to work commitments, Li Erdan rarely returned home, resulting in them not having children for a long time. It wasn't until five years ago, when he was nearing forty and could no longer handle long-haul driving, that he switched careers.
Not long after that, they finally had their own child.
When Li Erdan sought new employment, his lack of education and rough demeanor made it difficult for him to find work; most factories did not hire him. Eventually, he applied to be a Hearse Driver at the crematorium. Due to the shortage of drivers, he was hired almost immediately without an interview.
Since five years ago, Li Erdan has been working as a Hearse Driver at the crematorium until now.
A few years ago, his parents passed away. Two years ago, after his divorce from Wang Guihua, he moved out of his home and settled into an inexpensive rental unit.
"It seems we need to look for Wang Guihua," said Old Shao to Jiang He. "They divorced two years ago, which coincided with the third year of Li Erdan working at the crematorium. Did something happen during that time?"
Jiang He nodded and said, "If Li Erdan is planning to run away, he might go to see his daughter. But it's been a while now; he may have already left."
Yuan Jun paced nearby, overhearing their conversation. He remarked, "I think it was Wang Guihua who discovered Li Erdan's peculiar fetish, which led to their divorce. After the divorce, Li Erdan really let himself go; his necrophilia has become increasingly severe..."
Yuan Jun sat down next to Jiang He and continued, "It started with a fetish for objects, then progressed to oral fixation and touching corpses, and eventually to digging out the entrails of corpses to consume them. His obsession has escalated to the point where he can no longer satisfy himself with old corpses; he needs to create new ones to fulfill his twisted desires."
Both Jiang He and Old Shao shook their heads simultaneously.
Shao the Elder said, "It's not that simple."
Jiang He agreed, "That's right; it's not that simple. We need to understand why Li Erdan is on the run."
While they were discussing Li Erdan, Xu Yiman entered the conference room with the results in hand. She slowly said, "The tests confirm that this is indeed human intestine. Moreover, I compared the DNA from those six corpses and discovered something astonishing."
"What is it?" everyone asked in unison.
Xu Yiman replied, "This intestine belongs to the last girl whose entrails were removed."
"Is this the body from which the killer was extracting entrails while simultaneously giving her a blood transfusion to prevent her death?" Yuan Jun inquired.
Xu Yiman nodded.
"Indeed, it must be Li Erdan," Yuan Jun stood up. "You can know a person’s face but not their heart."
Jiang He furrowed his brow and asked, "Then whose blood is it?"
"I don't know," Xu Yiman shook her head. "There's currently no match."
Yuan Jun slapped his thigh and said, "Everything is clear now. Here's how it might have happened. Li Erdan brought a girl back to his rental apartment. That place has little surveillance, and the residents are quite mixed; no one knows each other. He took the girl back, and no one knew."
"After that, he laid the girl flat in the bathroom, giving her a blood transfusion while he dug out her entrails." Yuan Jun closed his eyes, recounting his reasoning. "He made an incision in her abdomen and removed her entrails, starting with the intestines, which he put into a pot first, followed by the rest of the entrails."
"To prevent her from dying, he was giving her blood." Yuan Jun grew more excited. "But the girl, having lost her organs, soon died anyway. He placed the body in a suitcase to dispose of it. Familiar with the crematorium, he bypassed Old Wei at the gate and hid the body in cold storage."
Xu Yiman said, "That wouldn't require transportation; just a suitcase would do. However, it needs to be large enough to fit a person."
"Exactly," Yuan Jun nodded and continued. "He started consuming those entrails, saving his favorite intestines for last. But last night he suddenly received a call from Zhang De about an incident at the crematorium. He realized his actions had been exposed and hurriedly left, not even having time to take the intestines with him. After all this time, they must have rotted and become infested with maggots."
Yuan Jun gently tapped on the table. "He didn't even take his blankets or bedding; clearly, he thought those things were unimportant. What mattered were the tools he used for murder and extracting entrails—those were what filled that suitcase. However, after such a long time, he could have gone anywhere."
After listening to Yuan Jun's words, Jiang He and Old Shao fell silent.
Yuan Jun's speculation made sense, and logically it was indeed sound.
Old Shao spoke up. "Now we have two key points: one is to find Wang Guihua to gather information, and the other is to have Captain Liu investigate the identity of the female corpse as quickly as possible. We need to tackle both simultaneously to find the murderer as fast as possible; otherwise, he will definitely kill again and dispose of another body."
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