monologue

"What time did you close last night?" Chu Xingmu stopped asking about the dog, and asked other questions instead.

Yang Dafu replied: "After nine o'clock, it rained heavily last night, and the tourists in the snack street have already left. I took a rest after closing the stall."

Xia Ci scanned the backyard and asked again: "Did you stay in the store last night?"

Yang Dafu pointed to the anti-theft door behind him, "Our store is connected inside and out. If you come in from the front, you will find the backyard, and if you go out from the alley at the back, you will find the road. It rained too much last night, so I didn't go home."

"Have you seen anything suspicious?"

"Oh, where can I see that? The rain fell as soon as it said, and people ran away in a hurry. I was also busy collecting stalls, and it was hard to put the meat in the rain." Yang Dafu slapped his thigh and said: "I I forgot, the one next door to the trash can, the old lady who sells milk tea, her store has surveillance cameras, you can go and check."

Chu Xingmu and Xia Ci looked at each other. It's not that they haven't adjusted the surveillance, but the murderer cleverly avoided the surveillance range, leaving no clues for the police.

Afterwards, Chu Xingmu and Xia Ci came out of the raw meat shop, and Xia Ci asked: "The surveillance around here is not easy to check, not to mention receiving thousands of tourists a day, the garbage thrown is enough for three garbage trucks to carry, one by one Go out to investigate?"

"Is there any better way? It's better to call out the monitoring that can be adjusted, than to investigate one by one." Chu Xingmu walked in front of Xia Ci, and the two walked to the milk tea shop that Yang Dafu mentioned shop door.

Chu Xingmu looked around for a long time, but he didn't see anyone in the store, but the door was open. Like the raw butcher's shop, the milk tea shop was closer to the corpse throwing site, so people basically didn't come over.

Xia Ci walked up the steps and shouted inside: "Is the boss there?"

About half a minute later, there was a sound from the store, and an old lady walked out with a cane.

"What do you two guys want to drink? Here's a ready-made one, let's see if it's okay. The kid who makes milk tea is on leave today." The old lady walked to the cashier and squinted at Chu Xingmu and Xia Ci.

The old lady was groping on the counter, Chu Xingmu stepped up the steps and pushed the reading glasses on the other side to the old lady's hand, Chu Xingmu asked straight to the point: "Did you stay in the store last night?"

After the old lady put on her reading glasses, she saw the two people in front of her clearly and asked, "Who are you?"

"Police, I'm asking you to borrow something." Xia Ci said.

The old lady may be deaf, Xia Ci repeated it again, the old lady walked around the cashier and came out, saying: "I don't know which child smashed the surveillance, it has been broken for five or six days, after opening the door that morning There's debris all over the ground."

"Then did you see any suspicious people passing by your store last night?"

The old lady shook her head: "It was raining heavily, and everyone rushed home. A few girls came to the store to escape the rain, and there were no more."

Chu Xingmu went down the steps with his hands behind his back. Xia Ci said "thank you" to the old lady and followed Chu Xingmu out. The surveillance was broken, and the old lady was blind and deaf, so she couldn't ask anything.

"Continue to go to the next place?" Xia Ci asked, they have experienced this kind of investigation without any results countless times.

"Go, continue to seek common ground while reserving differences." Chu Xingmu strode towards the exit of Guxiang Street.

The old lady leaned on crutches and stood at the door looking at the direction the two left. A boy walked to the door of the milk tea shop with a bag of apples. The old lady smiled and asked after seeing him, "Have you finished class?"

"Well, there are so many people at night, I'm afraid you won't be able to do it alone." The boy walked up the steps and supported the old lady.

The old lady pulled down the reading glasses on the bridge of her nose, looked at the stains on the boy's white shirt, and said, "Oh, change your clothes, your dad never let you go out in dirty clothes before."

The boy lowered his eyes, nodded and said: "Just now, I passed by the door of Brother Yang's shop. He was chopping meat and chatted for a while. Blood splashed on his clothes. I'll wash them later."

"Is Xiaowen not here today?"

"Since something happened, she doesn't like to go out."

"Grandma told you, bring Xiaowen a cup of milk tea after work, and spend more time with her."

"Well, I will." The boy and the old lady turned and entered the store.

There is a pile of glass shards under the steps of the milk tea shop, and there is only a broken surveillance camera in the corner in front of the cashier.

On the way to the third dumping site, Xia Ci asked his doubts, "That old lady really didn't see anything?"

"Reading glasses, hard ears, and mobility problems are obvious." Chu Xingmu put his arms on the car window, looked at the gradually darkening sky, then took out something from his pocket, and handed it to Xia Ci.

"What is this?" Xia Ci asked while holding the triangle glass: "Glass?"

"Didn't the old lady say that the monitor was smashed? The debris was found on the cashier counter, and there was a pile of debris under the steps we came down from."

"What do you want to say?" Xia Ci looked at the triangle and asked.

"It's nothing." Chu Xingmu pinched his eyebrows, closed his eyes slightly and said, "I'm so tired."

"Xiang Qin called me last night."

Chu Xingmu was not surprised, and asked him: "Wen Xiangqin is going to attack you?"

"What the hell, why are you both making fun of me?"

"Who made you look like a good husband and father."

"Wen asked Qin if you are single now." Xia Ci looked at Chu Xingmu inexplicably and said.

"Single, why? He wants to introduce someone to me?"

"I think he likes you."

It's not easy to say the word "like" from a straight man like Xia Ci, especially since both of them are his brothers.

Chu Xingmu asked without changing his expression, "What is the basis?"

"A man's intuition." Xia Ci looked ahead and concentrated on driving. It's not like Chu Xingmu and Wen Xiangqin had never thought about it. If the two of them were together... Xia Ci racked his brains and couldn't think of that picture , too scary.

Chu Xingmu nestled in the co-pilot seat, not knowing what was going on in his mind.

At 07:30 in the evening, the Public Security Bureau.

Zhao Chen lay on the chair and shouted, "When will Boss and Team Xia come back?"

"It's past eight o'clock, Xiao Bai, have you sorted out the missing persons?" Lang Lang walked to Bai Yao with a water glass in his hand.

Bai Yao typed quickly on the keyboard with both hands, and took the time to say: "There are a few who are not sure. The recent missing persons are a bit strange. Many of the reports have been dismissed. It's like a joke."

"What's wrong?" Lang Lang leaned over to look at the computer screen.

Bai Yao stopped typing, and pointed to Lang Lang, "From April to now, there are a total of 25 missing persons in Qingshi, [-] of them are **-year-old girls, and [-] are children. Run away from home, ten missing, ten mentally ill, five suicides."

"The missing little girl went home not long ago, the lost mental illness has not been found yet, and the five suicides were dead when they were found. Sister Lang, what do you think these minors are thinking? Leaving home Which is more important, running away or dying?"

"Not to mention, now these minors have a strong sense of self-protection, and they always use the minor protection law as a shield. Their consciousness is like this: I am a minor, I am protected by the law, I want to be independent, I want to be free Whoever cares about me knows the law and breaks the law." Zhao Chen got up from his chair and took his 14-year-old nephew as an example, "A few days ago, my sister said that her son would go to the relevant agency to file a complaint against her because my sister would not let him Yu You hasn't been home for three days, and when I asked, he lives at a classmate's house."

"Okay, don't worry about how minors waste police resources. Try to find the family members tomorrow and confirm the identity of the deceased. The chief approved the captain, and the captain wants to approve us. Life is too difficult."

"There are five men who are still missing, all aged between 45 and 50. When they disappeared, two were in April, two were in May, and one was in June."

"When is June?"

"On the 18th, that is, eight days ago."

"No. 18? Isn't that the day Huang Qing died? At the same time, another person disappeared. Didn't we report to the police?"

"No, at the branch office."

"I said, if you call the police at the Municipal Bureau, there should be a record. Find out the contact information of the family members of these five people, and call them to ask, especially the one who disappeared on June 6." Lang Lang turned and returned to his work station.

At nine o'clock in the evening, Chu Xingmu and Xia Ci returned to the bureau, and everyone else left after work. Lang Lang called Chu Xingmu in advance to report the progress of the day's work. Not long after returning to the office, Han Yang took After the report came up, Han Yang, like Chu Xingmu, was an overtime madman, and it was common for him to live in the autopsy department.

"Give it to me before dinner as agreed, it's already nine o'clock now." Chu Xingmu put down the snack in his hand and took the autopsy report and said.

Han Yang sat in Xia Ci's seat and faced Chu Xingmu, "I'm talking about your dinner time."

"This is supper, how about some?" Chu Xingmu pushed the pancakes in front of Han Yang, and Han Yang looked at the pancakes and said, "Soy sauce is the color of the heart."

Chu Xingmu put down his chopsticks and suddenly didn't want to eat, "Get up and go back to your autopsy department."

Han Yang leaned back, and after a while he said, "I think there is something strange about this corpse."

Chu Xingmu put down the autopsy report. At this time, listening to Han Yang's details is much more important than reading the report in his hand.

"I checked it again, and I found a surprising discovery. No, it should be said that it is the first time I have seen it so far."

"what?"

"Words were engraved on the corpse."

Chu Xingmu sat up straight and moved closer to Han Yang, asking with uncertainty, "What word?"

"That's why I came to you personally. There are traces of carving on the exposed bones of each corpse. It's hard to find if you don't peel off the meat on the bones or compare them carefully. I took a look at the corpses and found that the broken corpses had been ripped apart."

Chu Xingmu frowned, and asked, "What do you mean? Have you pulled it apart?"

"For example, I have a piece of raw pork ribs in my hand. I want to engrave the bones of the ribs on a whim, but there is a layer of meat on the ribs. At this time, I need to chop the raw meat."

"Okay, I understand, you continue." Chu Xingmu sat back.

Han Yang continued: "Pick up the raw meat..."

"Say corpse."

"Ok."

"I'm not sure whether the engraving is a symbol or a text, or some scripture that is not common in life. I will answer you tomorrow."

"anything else?"

"The other thing is that I probably understand why the murderer cut up the corpse so roughly." Han Yang has always been worried about how ugly the murderer cut up the corpse.

"Speak the key."

"Cover up the truth, maybe he wanted to play decryption games with the police, maybe he just wanted to kill someone for fun, and the deceased had a deep hatred with him, I can feel the murderer's resentment when he cut up the body, one by one, A quarter." Han Yang gestured a few times.

Chu Xingmu looked at Han Yang expressionlessly. Han Yang kept a smile for a minute, then got up and went out without looking back. Dealing with the living is harder than the dead. Han Yang hummed a little tune and went home from get off work. .

Xia Ci, who went out to the bathroom, missed the historic meeting just now. When he saw Chu Xingmu throwing the pancakes into the trash can, he asked in surprise, "It's shameful to waste, what did you say?"

"Come on, let me tell you a story." Chu Xingmu patted the table, and Xia Ci walked over suspiciously.

Then Chu Xingmu recounted the conversation between him and Han Yang to Xia Ci. After the retelling, Xia Ci walked to the trash can and looked at the fried pancakes thrown away by Chu Xingmu. There were indeed two pieces of ribs and soy sauce in it. Still heart-colored.

"He did it on purpose." Chu Xingmu said.

Xia Ci didn't want to express any opinions on this, and he didn't even want to eat ribs in the short term.

"Pack up and go home, take Chu Daha out for a walk tonight." Chu Xingmu picked up his briefcase and went out, Xia Ci went out with him.

Wen Xiangqin was leaning on the car door smoking a cigarette, looking at the gate of the Public Security Bureau with serious eyes, he had been standing here for 10 minutes, the guards at the gate had been watching his movements, as if Wen Xiangqin was a criminal .

Seeing Chu Xingmu and Xia Ci come out of the office building together, Wen Xiangqin threw away the cigarette butt and straightened his collar, standing beside the Bentley in a graceful manner.

"It's weird, why do busy people have time to come here? What happened to your group again?" Chu Xingmu asked after seeing Wen Xiangqin.

"Just passing by." Wen Xiangqin said, "Would you like to have a meal? I have something to ask you."

Xia Ci and Chu Xingmu looked at each other.

Twenty or ten minutes later, the three of them were sitting on a bench outside the supermarket. People coming and going kept looking at them, which made Qin feel uncomfortable.

"Why are we sitting here?" Wen Xiangqin asked.

"Look at the stars." Xia Ci said.

"Didn't you have a question for us?" Chu Xingmu asked back. He and Xia Ci lost their appetite at all due to Han Yang's few words. This is an excuse to ask them out, and Chu Xingmu is also wondering what Xiang Qin wants to ask them.

Wen Xiangqin sat up and asked Chu Xingmu: "What do you mean by the address you wrote to me last time?"

"Let you fulfill a wish." Xia Ci answered for Chu Xingmu.

"What wish?" Wen Xiangqin didn't understand.

"You still remember Zhou Jinlin?"

"Zhou Jinlin, the murderer of the huge serial murder case five years ago? The chief of the Public Security Bureau known as the Devil of Qingshi."

Chu Xingmu stared at Wen Xiangqin's mouth, listening to what came out of his mouth, then he turned his face away and stopped looking at him.

Xia Ci said: "He always thought it was a pity that you were not a policeman. He often used you as a teaching material when he was leading us, but later..."

"Just know." Chu Xingmu interrupted Xia Ci, "If you want to go, go, if you don't want to go, just pull down."

Wen Xiangqin knew that the two of them had something to hide from him, but now it was impossible for them to talk about everything like before.

Zhou Jinlin was the murderer of a serial murder case five years ago, the former director of the Qingshi Public Security Bureau, and the master of Chu Xingmu and Xia Ci. This sudden change of identity must have caught Chu Xingmu and Xia Ci by surprise, because they were very special at the time Respect Zhou Jinlin.

Wen Xiangqin couldn't figure it out, Zhou Jinlin was a murderer, a criminal in Qingshi, why did Chu Xingmu and Xia Ci mention him so frequently?

"Is it convenient to disclose?" Wen Xiangqin asked.

"Ah."

"You won't stop me if I find the answer myself?"

"Of course, what kind of threat do two life-threatening people pose to you?" Chu Xingmu sarcastically smiled.

Wen Xiangqin frowned and looked at Xia Ci and Chu Xingmu, the two of them didn't intend to explain any more, and Wen Xiangqin didn't expect that something unexpected would happen with a piece of paper.

After Wen Xiangqin left, Chu Xingmu went to the supermarket to buy a bag of dog food for Chu Daha, Xia Ci also went home, the three of them walked in three different directions, their backs were stretched very long by the dim streetlights, The conversation about Zhou Jinlin ended here.