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墨書 Inktalez
Jiang He slowly recounted the story to everyone, and after he finished, there was a long silence among them. Old Shao's earlier speculation was indeed correct; Zhu Liang was a dependent personality. Deep inside her, there were many things she wanted to say, but only those closest to her could hear her true thoughts.
Old Shao understood Zhu Liang's feelings well. Before becoming an adult, she had lived in a secluded mountain village. After reaching adulthood, she came to this city alone, taking on the most ordinary job. In this city, she had no support, no one she could trust, and not even a peer nearby.
Her loneliness and confusion were known to no one until the appearance of one person.
Zhang Haitao fulfilled all of Zhu Liang's fantasies about her partner online. She would never fall for a mechanic covered in grease. It was the doctor dressed in white, with elegant manners and refined speech, whom she admired. She fantasized about meeting her prince charming, but the world had always been cruel and realistic.
Zhu Liang did not understand that in all fairy tales, the prince marries a princess. Even Cinderella, born of humble origins, needed a fairy godmother with magic. In real life, there was no magic and no such fantasies. But it wasn't Zhu Liang's fault; wanting to live a better life was not wrong.
Old Shao leaned back in the passenger seat and closed his eyes, saying, "You see, everyone lives in their own woven dreams and refuses to wake up. Some have woven dreams of a prince charming; others have woven dreams of the dead coming back to life; some have woven dreams of being loved by someone."
Everyone understood that Old Shao was referring to those involved in the case.
Old Shao continued, "It's just that some people's dreams never wake up even at death, while others can be awakened with just a couple of slaps. But the question is, which is happier: dreaming or waking up?"
No one could provide Old Shao with an answer.
After a moment, Old Shao answered himself: "Perhaps neither is happy."
Back at the City Bureau, Xu Yiman began the autopsy on the bodies of Zhang Haitao and Zhang Beibei. The time of death and cause for Old Wei had already been determined, so an autopsy was unnecessary.
Looking at the two highly decomposed bodies, everyone could only identify them as Zhang Haitao and Zhang Beibei by their clothing.
Jiang He pulled up a photo from Zhang Haitao's phone; it was a picture of Zhang Haitao and Zhang Beibei together. In the photo, Zhang Haitao was holding Zhang Beibei up on his back while she peeked out from behind him. Both were smiling joyfully, showing their bright white teeth. It could be imagined that the person taking the photo was Liao Fanmeng, Zhang Haitao's wife and Zhang Beibei's mother.
The group found it hard to connect these highly decomposed bodies with the two people in the photo.
Xu Yiman gently cut open their clothing with scissors, revealing the bodies before everyone’s eyes.
Xu Yiman said lightly, "The quality of clothes nowadays is quite good. People have turned to bones, yet the clothes do not decay."
Analyzing all the evidence, it was clear that the two individuals had died within just a few hours of each other. Both corpses had gaping cracks in their abdomens, with some of the entrails protruding from these fissures. Inside the entrails, numerous worms wriggled—some black, some white—creating a truly disgusting sight.
The entire bodies were covered in greenish-purple veins, twisted and bulging like worms. The corpses had almost turned a blackish-green color. They were swollen due to decomposition, and the features of their faces were squished together, nearly turning purple.
This indicated that the two had been dead for quite some time.
A foul odor emanated from the bodies, but fortunately, it was autumn, and the smell was bearable.
Xu Yiman looked at one of the corpses and said, "The body has already shown signs of advanced decomposition. At least ten hours have passed since death. These two corpses have likely hosted generations of maggots. For them, it's been several lifetimes; for humans, however, it's only been five."
Xu Yiman meticulously examined the bodies and ultimately determined the cause and time of death.
Both individuals had died on that fateful night five hours ago, with only a brief interval separating them. Zhang Haitao's cranium was clearly fractured; the broken bone had pierced his brain, causing severe brain damage. His arm and ribs also bore multiple fractures, with bones penetrating his lungs.
Xu Yiman concluded that Zhang Haitao had fallen into unconsciousness almost instantaneously. However, the bone fragments were not deeply embedded; as Li Dabiao mentioned, Zhang Haitao still had a breath left in him. Yet his entrails were bleeding profusely; even if he were rushed to a hospital, survival would be unlikely. Still, there remained a glimmer of hope—one could not definitively say that Zhang Haitao would die.
Thus, Li Dabiao had indeed buried Zhang Haitao alive. Ultimately, Zhang Haitao succumbed to asphyxiation and internal bleeding, all closely tied to Li Dabiao's actions.
Yuan Jun looked at Xu Yiman and said, "I wonder how the court will rule on this. In a sense, Li Dabiao did save quite a few people; however, from an objective standpoint, his hit-and-run and burying Zhang Haitao alive are undeniable offenses."
Old Shao shook his head and replied to Yuan Jun, "We are detectives, not judges. Our job is to identify who the murderer is and apprehend them; everything else is beyond our responsibility."
Zhang Beibei also died from asphyxiation; however, unlike Zhang Haitao's case, there were clear strangulation marks on her neck. Those marks were inflicted by Old Wei. He hadn’t lied; he indeed strangled this lovely girl to death.
The bodies of Zhang Haitao, Zhang Beibei, and Liao Fanmeng lay on three cold iron tables. But these three could no longer feel the cold. They had no idea whether there was an afterlife or if they would reunite below.
The body of Old Wei lay alone on the other side of the morgue, appearing somewhat out of place next to the three individuals.
Old Shao asked, "Have you notified Zhang Haitao or Liao Fanmeng's family?"
Yuan Jun nodded and replied to Shao the Elder, "I contacted them. Zhang Haitao's sister and Liao Fanmeng's mother will be coming. However, I haven't told them what exactly happened—how a husband killed his wife, and their child tragically died as well. This is an enormous blow to both families."
After a pause, Yuan Jun continued, "It's really just like what you said before, Old Shao: when someone dies, they are gone and know nothing anymore, but the living still have to carry on with their lives."
Old Shao turned to look at the solitary body in the morgue and asked Yuan Jun again, "What about Old Wei? Have you looked into his background?"
Yuan Jun nodded, gazing at the white cloth covering Old Wei. He addressed everyone, "I found out. Old Wei's real name is Wei Er. It seems he had an older brother who passed away young. But it was so long ago that details are unclear; we don't even know how his brother died."
"Yes," Shao the Elder said. "Back then, medical conditions were poor; it was common for children to die young."
Yuan Jun added, "Old Wei's father has also been dead for decades. He became an orphan in his teens and has never married or had children. Guan Deng searched for a long time but couldn't find any relatives of Old Wei. Perhaps he is like that body in the crematorium—unclaimed and forgotten—but at least we know who he was."
For some reason, hearing Yuan Jun's words made Jiang He think of Old Wei's remarks to him.
It seemed that Old Wei had become a wandering spirit. No one would honor him; no one would remember him. Like a dead leaf falling from a tree in autumn, he simply vanished from this world, unnoticed by anyone.
"Since there are no relatives, let's leave him at that funeral home," Shao the Elder said. "If we can't find anyone, he'll either be sent to the medical school for research or eventually be cremated and become a handful of loess."
Jiang He looked at the body; beneath the white cloth, Old Wei's outline faintly emerged.
This wandering spirit...
Jiang He said to Shao the Elder, "Zhang De is with us; he hasn't informed Wang Guihua about Li Erdan yet. However, Li Erdan hasn't returned to work or home either. According to Zhang De, Li Erdan contacted him once later and decided not to go back to work. He also moved out of Huang Family Shed; we don’t know where he went."
Old Shao furrowed his brow and said to Jiang He, "Since that's the case, let's go take a look. After we finish this case, we still need to meet Li Erdan. The Criminal Consultant has been living in the crematorium for such a long time without being discovered, yet only Li Erdan found him. Don't you think there's something off about that?"
Jiang He nodded and replied, "The Criminal Consultant deliberately lured me here, so he must have left some clues. This is what he loves to do, like playing hide and seek with us. I believe we'll see the Criminal Consultant again soon."
Old Shao nodded in agreement. "That's what I think too."
The group drove to Wang Guihua's house and knocked on the door. Wang Guihua opened it.
Jiang He noticed that the necklace Wang Guihua had been wearing was gone, replaced by several patches.
"You all are here?" Wang Guihua asked as she let them in. "Has there been any news from Li Erdan?"
Jiang He nodded. "That's right, Li Erdan is not the murderer; he's just avoiding some issues. Has he been in contact with you recently?"
Wang Guihua shook her head.
As they entered the house, Jiang He pointed at Wang Guihua's neck and asked, "What happened to your neck?"
Wang Guihua touched her neck and said to Jiang He, "I don't know what's going on; I've developed a few green blisters on my neck recently. I pricked them with a needle and put on some patches; that should help them heal faster."
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