Neverland

Xu Muzhou's face became ugly.

Because the painting in front of me was not drawn by Xu Kang - this poker card is Ding Mao or Mao, and the position of the diamond-shaped squares seems to be drawn out with a ruler pen, which is very neat.The font of the numbers is also completely modeled on the printing mode of playing cards, which is no different from the printed ones at a glance.Except for the blood that snakes down the graphic, it looks like a scaled-up playing card.

But Xu Kang's painting style is not so realistic. In Xu Muzhou's eyes, his paintings are more like smears, just blindly piled up messy and gloomy tones, wishing to blatantly combine "maverick" and "maverick". I have a problem" written in large characters on the drawing paper.

A person like Xu Kang, going back two hundred years, might really be able to become a "master". It's a pity that in the age of eight times the development of modern society, the general public has no appreciation.

If you want to describe it, Xu Kang is a pure emotional catharsis patient. He regards color as the carrier of his thoughts and spreads it freely on the painting paper.

But the "playing card painter" in front of him is just the opposite. He is precise, calm, and may have a little obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In Xu Muzhou's mind, the proportion of doubts about "crimes of passion" dropped a bit, from "very likely" to "possible".

I don't know if it was his illusion, but he always felt that although the scene looked like the ruins of a hurricane passing through, it was different from the "evenly matched" he thought at first, the murderer seemed to have been enjoying the process.

After all, no normal person would remember to collect the blood after killing someone and draw it into a playing card.

Moreover, the appearance of such coded factors at the scene of an abnormal murder is really not a good sign—no matter what form of code is, it is impossible to have only a single factor.

Xu Muzhou's heart sank slightly, and he had a bad premonition.

"Let's collect evidence." Xu Muzhou said, "Take a test to see if it's the victim's blood or other substances."

That's what Xu Muzhou said, but both he and Yan Cen knew that they should be inseparable.

The texture of oil paint is completely different from that of blood. When painted on paper, it will not trickle down like water. The bloodstains are one by one, making a poker card look like the opening logo of a bad horror movie of.

Xu Muzhou stepped aside to make way for the space, called the trace inspection police officers who stayed outside to come in to take pictures and collect evidence, and then called back to the team.

The sky is already bright, but due to the rainy weather, the sky still looks very dark, like dark clouds overwhelming the top, which makes people unhappy.

After Xu Muzhou called to close the team, he didn't leave in a hurry. He went around in every room in the house, even checked the bathroom and kitchen, and then walked out at the end of the team.

Because Yan Cen had to pack his tools, he was also one step behind the rest of the group, and happened to be waiting for the same elevator as Xu Muzhou when he went out.

The elevator that was out of service for evidence collection had resumed normal operation, and the floor numbers on the screen were jumping, moving up floor by floor diligently.

Yan Cen stood half a step behind Xu Muzhou. Xu Muzhou kept his head down. He was typing on the phone with his thumbs, as if he was chatting with someone.Yan Cen was well-bred and did not look at his screen, but lowered his eyes slightly, staring at the cracked marble floor in front of him.

Xu Muzhou was posting tasks in their small group, and at the same time he was still receiving messages from Shen Shuang, switching back and forth in several dialog boxes, he was so busy.

In his busy schedule, he only glanced at Yan Cen behind him from the corner of his eye, confirmed the identity of the other party, and looked away indifferently.

The elevator reached the 24th floor with a ding, and the elevator door slid open in front of him. Xu Muzhou stepped in without raising his head, and conveniently freed his left hand to hold the elevator door, so that Yan Cen could follow him in.

The mobile phone signal was blocked by the closed elevator door, and the dotted circle on the left side of the WeChat note was constantly rotating, and the message stayed in the "sending" stage.Xu Muzhou's scheduling came to an end, he pressed the lock screen, put his phone back in his pocket, and waited for the elevator to reach the first floor with peace of mind.

The young forensic doctor behind him is very quiet, and he doesn't say a word at the scene of the crime except for his work. Being a "colleague" of air by myself is quite uncomfortable.

Xu Muzhou didn't look back, but just took a few glances at him through the reflection of the metal door panel. The other person's figure was distorted by the irregular metal surface, looking like a beautiful quiet sculpture.

Sunday morning is not a good time to go out, not to mention it is still raining so much outside.

The elevator went down all the way, and arrived at the first floor from the 24th floor without any hindrance.

Xu Muzhou's car and the public's car were parked in two directions. Yan Cen greeted him politely at the entrance of the building and under the awning, and signaled to follow the car first.

Of course Xu Muzhou was happy to see the success, so he quickly agreed.He always felt that a student like the other party, who had been in the office all year round, had the words "advanced intellectual" written all over his body, and the air around him was filled with an academic atmosphere. He had a good look at work, but it was awkward to be alone.

Yan Cen obviously saw that he was uncomfortable, so he smiled, bowed his body for a gesture, turned around and walked to the parking place behind the building.

He didn't bring an umbrella either, and he walked in a hurry, his shoulders bowed slightly, and he used his hands to block the drops of water falling from his head.

Xu Muzhou shook his head helplessly, as he did when he came here, he crossed the flower bed in a few steps and walked to the opposite parking lot.He didn't lock the car door when he parked the car before, and when he jumped off the flower bed, he quickly ran to the side of the car, pulled the door and got in the car and closed it in one go, only a thin layer of rain fell behind him.

The bright down jacket has obvious rain protection effect, Xu Muzhou took out a tissue from the buckle, and wiped the water droplets on his back with his backhand.

Xu Muzhou started the car, but didn't start in a hurry. He took out the crumpled cigarette case from his pocket, and put one in his mouth.

Pressed the window a small crack, and lit the cigarette.

The smell of tobacco can easily calm Xu Muzhou down, which is his constant decompression method.

Xu Muzhou bit his cigarette holder, and took out the small leather notebook for notes from his pocket.He skipped the usual personal information and turned directly to the latter part.

The content in the transcript is not too different from what Qi Yuan said. According to him, he came to Xu Kang’s house at seven o’clock in the morning. He knocked on the door for a while, but there was no movement inside. The smell of blood wafting from the hospital was too obvious, so the police were called.

The alarm time was at [-]:[-] in the morning, which was also consistent with what he said.

According to Qi Yuan, he only knocked on the door and called Xu Kang, but did not enter the scene of the crime.

It sounded quite satisfactory and impeccable, but he still didn't explain why he came to see Xu Kang so early in the morning.

Qi Yuan's reason is logical, but he cannot win the trust of Xu Muzhou.

Xu Muzhou thought about it for a while, and decided to go to Qi Yuan's gallery by himself.

He flicked the ash in the car ashtray and opened the window wider.The warm air in the car whistled, and the wisp of smoke was pulled into a long white line by the hot and cold air, and was pulled out along the window crack.

Xu Muzhou narrowed his eyes slightly to avoid being choked by the smoke.He took out his phone from his pocket and unlocked it, and sent Shen Shuang a WeChat message asking him to check Qi Yuan's gallery situation and Xu Kang's cooperation cycle with him.

He had just finished typing a line, and before he could send it, there was a knock on the window on the co-pilot's side.

Xu Muzhou raised his head suspiciously, only to realize that the young forensic doctor who was supposed to follow the car back to the bureau had disappeared for some reason and was standing outside looking in.

Xu Muzhou was startled, and hastily pressed the window on the co-pilot's side.

"What's wrong?" Xu Muzhou asked.

"Bringing the corpse, there is not enough space for the car." Yan Cen paused, and said with some embarrassment: "I came here by taxi before, but—"

"Okay, okay." Xu Muzhou interrupted him.

The temperature in Shencheng in winter is still quite frightening. Seeing his pale face from the cold, Xu Muzhou hurriedly reopened the auto-locked car door, finished smoking in two or three puffs, and greeted while grinding the cigarette butts: "Come up quickly."

Yan Cen pursed his lips, thanked him in a low voice, then opened the door and got into the car.

He was still wearing the white coat, which was not waterproof, and his shoulders and hem were obviously wet from the rain.

Xu Muzhou took out a crumpled towel from the hand button on the co-pilot's side and threw it into his arms, then turned up the heating gear a bit.

"Take off your coat and throw it in the back seat." After Xu Muzhou ordered, he opened his car door and jumped out.

It was still raining outside, Yan Cen didn't know what he was going to do when he ran out suddenly, his brows frowned, more than half of the deliberately restrained gentle aura on his body disappeared in an instant, and he wanted to chase him subconsciously.

But Xu Muzhou, who was outside the car, had already run into a convenience supermarket next door in the community. Yan Cen hesitated for a moment, gradually loosened his finger on the car door, and retracted it again.

Soon, Xu Muzhou's figure reappeared within Yan Cen's line of sight. He bent slightly to protect the things in his hands, jumped briskly over the puddles on the ground, and returned to the warm car.

In the next second, Xu Muzhou involuntarily stuffed the cup of something into Yan Cen's hands, and complained: "You civil servants who don't often go out to work, just don't pay attention, and don't know how to add more clothes before going out. "

Yan Cen subconsciously wanted to refute that this position is not considered a clerical position, but the words were interrupted as soon as he reached his mouth.

He lowered his eyes and looked at the slightly hot cup in his hand.

The packaging on the paper cups is colorful, and the round and cursive characters occupy most of the cup body. There is also a handwritten price tag of the supermarket attached under the brand logo.

——Instant milk tea, three yuan a cup, one piece of hot water.

Xu Muzhou was still holding an unopened pack of cigarettes in his hand, he threw the newly bought pack of cigarettes into the storage box at hand, and then said to him: "Fortunately, I haven't left, otherwise, what would you do? The next time you encounter this kind of weather, if you have a free car, you can drive one yourself, and you don’t need to save this little gas fee—did you get the receipt when you got off the car?”

So Yan Cen swallowed back the rebuttal again, and replied honestly: "Yes."

The first time Yan Cen met Xu Muzhou was in the game planned by Neverland. He had never been to the real society where Xu Muzhou lived, nor had he seen what a "normal" Xu Muzhou was like.

But now he seems to have seen this kind of Xu Muzhou who is like a fish in water in his own field, confident, calm - and a bit atypical machismo.

——This is a very novel experience.