Sponsored Content
The crime scene was at the snack street right outside the academy. When the three arrived, they saw the young instructor from Tao Yueyue’s class holding on to a telephone pole while trembling ceaselessly. Chen Shi patted him with his hand, and he shivered in shock, his eyes blank.
"What's the matter? Did you witness the incident happen?" Chen Shi asked.
The instructor nodded desperately.
"Don't leave. We need to understand more about the situation from you later."
The instructor nodded again.
A group of students gathered outside the alley. Chen Shi held up his credentials and asked everyone to move aside for him. The students became more excited instead when they saw that the police had arrived. It was disorderly at the scene, so Chen Shi asked Tao Yueyue to guard the entrance. Tao Yueyue said, "That would be so humiliating."
"You will have to do this kind of work someday. Get used to it!"
Tao Yueyue bit her lip and nodded. Lin Dongxue said, "I’ve already contacted the academy and asked them to send some people over to maintain order. You can just keep guard for a while."
When the two walked into the alley, a strong smell of blood assaulted their nostrils. A male corpse in a military uniform was lying in the dark. The blood on the ground hadn’t solidified yet. Judging from the amount of bleeding, this was the primary crime scene.
Although they called it an alley, it was actually quite spacious. It could probably accommodate two motorcycles passing through side-by-side. The place where the corpse lay had slightly sunken in. There were some leftover building materials piled up against the wall, and the corpse was facing a tall window.
Chen Shi pointed to the other end of the alley. "Dongxue, go and take a look over there."
"Okay!"
Chen Shi squatted down. The corpse was quite terrifying to look at. His entire stomach had been split open, and his stomach bag and intestines were protruding out. The sticky intestines had some sand stuck on them and emitted a foul smell. He could feel warm bursts of air when he placed his hand above it. The deceased’s hand clutched some mud after the rain, but he was lying on his side, with his back against the wall. It seemed as though he had been killed from behind. Then the murderer turned the deceased over and split open his stomach.
Chen Shi took out a wallet from the jacket pocket of the deceased, which contained identification documents, cash, some coupons, campus cards, keys, and a paper with a phone number written on it. The deceased’s name was Sun Lei, aged thirty-two, and his army rank was Second Lieutenant.
He didn't intend to turn over the corpse for the time being. There were a few strings of footprints left on the ground after the rain, and Chen Shi photographed them all with his mobile phone.
At this time, Lin Dongxue came back. "The alley leads to a village within the city, the one directly opposite the academy. There are Internet cafes, small bars, hotels, and the like everywhere inside the village. The layout is rather messy. I found a very big footprint at the entrance and I’ve already photographed it. I also found this."
Lin Dongxue raised an evidence bag with a bloody coarse handkerchief inside. Chen Shi said, "It should have been used by the murderer to wipe the knife. It seems that they had escaped from that direction. Are there any security cameras?"
"Not a single one."
Chen Shi turned to the corpse again. "It's really shocking. Look at the stomach, it had been opened up as if it was unzipped. The murderer seemed to have been quite impatient. When they slashed the knife downwards, they had cut the belt. This could be used to determine the shape of the murder weapon."
"Why did they have to split open his belly?"
"Either they had a deep-seated hatred for him, or it was for some other purpose. Leave the corpse to Old Peng for examination."
Chen Shi took another photo of the drops of blood on the ground. A trail of blood in a particular area caught his attention. It was in the opposite direction of the murderer's escape route. The trail of blood only extended a little over ten centimeters before disappearing. He looked at the deceased's gaping internal organs and thought to himself. Could it be that something had been taken away from the deceased’s body?
Murderers addicted to collecting do exist, but it was rare for people to collect internal organs. These doubts could only be resolved slowly.
"You’re not allowed to go in! Go away!" Tao Yueyue stood at the mouth of the alley, stretching out her arms to block the students from coming in to watch. The students who had gathered outside watching had formed a crowd pushing and shoving their way inside. Tao Yueyue's thin, frail body seemed to be unable to hold them back any longer.
Lin Dongxue went over with her badge and said to them, "Classmates, a homicide case has occurred here. We’re currently investigating it. Please don't watch here anymore. It will only add to the police’s workload. Everyone here is a future police officer. Surely you should have a little self-discipline?"
"Elder Sister Police Flower, who died? How did they die?" Some boys took the opportunity to talk to her with grins on their faces that totally showed that they didn’t particularly care about what they were asking, as they had ulterior motives.
"No comment. Please retreat. A police car will need to drive in later!"
"Tch, how fierce."
"What are you all doing? Move aside!" A shout came from behind the crowd, and they saw that the instructors from the academy had rushed over. Sure enough, real power lay in the hands of those who actually ran things. Their appearance at the scene quickly improved the order there a great deal.
After waiting for more than half an hour, the police car finally arrived, and the scene was cordoned off. Peng Sijue went in carrying his box to inspect the corpse.
Chen Shi finally had time to question the instructor. The instructor from Tao Yueyue’s class was surnamed Li. He shivered as he said that he and Instructor Sun Lei had come out to eat together after the military training in the afternoon had finished. They were from the same battalion and had been sent here to carry out the mission of military training, so they were always together.
They had taken a shortcut through this alley, and suddenly two people appeared behind them, wearing very strange brown carved wooden masks. One of them, who was big and tall, kicked Instructor Li to the side, and the other jumped onto Sun Lei like a monkey. He repeatedly stabbed Sun Lei’s shoulder and neck with a dagger. Instructor Li fell to the ground without even screaming.
Instructor Li was extremely frightened. He got up, ran to the mouth of the alley and shouted, "Murder!"
"How many times did you shout?" Chen Shi asked.
"Just once because that masked man chased out after me. I was frightened and fled... After I ran some distance away, he stopped chasing, so I kept yelling 'Murder, help!' There were many people around, but everyone was stunned. About five minutes later, I ran back and saw... this scene!"
"Five minutes?" Chen Shi felt that this time period was too long. "Were there any other witnesses at the time?"
"Many students saw it. I remember him." Instructor Li pointed to a boy.
The boy also confirmed that there was indeed a weird man wearing a mask who rushed out of the alley with a knife in his hand, chased Instructor Li for a few steps and then went back as if guarding the alley.
At the time, there were twenty or thirty people outside the alley, but they were all students. Who would dare to step forward? Only after waiting for the murderer to escape from the other end, did they dare to go over and find out what had happened.
Chen Shi thought for a moment and asked Instructor Li, "Did you bring your phone?"
"I did."
"Did Sun Lei bring his?"
"Of course he did."
"Call him."
Instructor Li took out his cell phone and dialed Sun Lei's number. There was no cell phone ringing from within the alley. The phone rang a few times, and the other party suddenly pressed “decline”. Chen Shi told him to dial again, but the phone had already been turned off.
Chen Shi came to the conclusion that the mobile phone had been taken away by the murderer. He quickly contacted the bureau and asked his colleagues in the Information Department to track down the shutdown location.
The normally strict instructor was panicking like a child at that moment, which was rather laughable to others. This youngster was just a child, and perhaps not even twenty years old. Chen Shi suddenly wondered why the murderer had gone for the older instructor, Sun Lei. Was it a personal grievance?
At this time, he discovered that Tao Yueyue was making faces at the terrified Instructor Li to express her ridicule, and Chen Shi said, "You should go back to the dormitory first."
"No, I want to be with you. You forgot to ask a question."
"What?"
Tao Yueyue asked Instructor Li, "Instructor, will there still be training tomorrow?"
Instructor Li showed a helpless expression, and Chen Shi said, "Okay, okay, stop causing trouble..." His eyes suddenly fell on the instructor's feet, so he called Lin Dongxue over and asked, "Is the alley very muddy?"
"Yes, it just rained, and the road over there is not concrete."
Chen Shi instructed Instructor Li. "Take off your shoes and show them to me."
"Surely there’s no need..."
"Hurry up!!!"
Instructor Li took off one of his shoes awkwardly, and stood on one leg like a rooster. Chen Shi held it in his hand and looked at it. He said, "The sole is so clean, but you said you took a shortcut from there. Why did you lie to me?!"
Sponsored Content
The crime scene was at the snack street right outside the academy. When the three arrived, they saw the young instructor from Tao Yueyue’s class holding on to a telephone pole while trembling ceaselessly. Chen Shi patted him with his hand, and he shivered in shock, his eyes blank.
"What's the matter? Did you witness the incident happen?" Chen Shi asked.
The instructor nodded desperately.
"Don't leave. We need to understand more about the situation from you later."
The instructor nodded again.
A group of students gathered outside the alley. Chen Shi held up his credentials and asked everyone to move aside for him. The students became more excited instead when they saw that the police had arrived. It was disorderly at the scene, so Chen Shi asked Tao Yueyue to guard the entrance. Tao Yueyue said, "That would be so humiliating."
"You will have to do this kind of work someday. Get used to it!"
Tao Yueyue bit her lip and nodded. Lin Dongxue said, "I’ve already contacted the academy and asked them to send some people over to maintain order. You can just keep guard for a while."
When the two walked into the alley, a strong smell of blood assaulted their nostrils. A male corpse in a military uniform was lying in the dark. The blood on the ground hadn’t solidified yet. Judging from the amount of bleeding, this was the primary crime scene.
Although they called it an alley, it was actually quite spacious. It could probably accommodate two motorcycles passing through side-by-side. The place where the corpse lay had slightly sunken in. There were some leftover building materials piled up against the wall, and the corpse was facing a tall window.
Chen Shi pointed to the other end of the alley. "Dongxue, go and take a look over there."
"Okay!"
Chen Shi squatted down. The corpse was quite terrifying to look at. His entire stomach had been split open, and his stomach bag and intestines were protruding out. The sticky intestines had some sand stuck on them and emitted a foul smell. He could feel warm bursts of air when he placed his hand above it. The deceased’s hand clutched some mud after the rain, but he was lying on his side, with his back against the wall. It seemed as though he had been killed from behind. Then the murderer turned the deceased over and split open his stomach.
Chen Shi took out a wallet from the jacket pocket of the deceased, which contained identification documents, cash, some coupons, campus cards, keys, and a paper with a phone number written on it. The deceased’s name was Sun Lei, aged thirty-two, and his army rank was Second Lieutenant.
He didn't intend to turn over the corpse for the time being. There were a few strings of footprints left on the ground after the rain, and Chen Shi photographed them all with his mobile phone.
At this time, Lin Dongxue came back. "The alley leads to a village within the city, the one directly opposite the academy. There are Internet cafes, small bars, hotels, and the like everywhere inside the village. The layout is rather messy. I found a very big footprint at the entrance and I’ve already photographed it. I also found this."
Lin Dongxue raised an evidence bag with a bloody coarse handkerchief inside. Chen Shi said, "It should have been used by the murderer to wipe the knife. It seems that they had escaped from that direction. Are there any security cameras?"
"Not a single one."
Chen Shi turned to the corpse again. "It's really shocking. Look at the stomach, it had been opened up as if it was unzipped. The murderer seemed to have been quite impatient. When they slashed the knife downwards, they had cut the belt. This could be used to determine the shape of the murder weapon."
"Why did they have to split open his belly?"
"Either they had a deep-seated hatred for him, or it was for some other purpose. Leave the corpse to Old Peng for examination."
Chen Shi took another photo of the drops of blood on the ground. A trail of blood in a particular area caught his attention. It was in the opposite direction of the murderer's escape route. The trail of blood only extended a little over ten centimeters before disappearing. He looked at the deceased's gaping internal organs and thought to himself. Could it be that something had been taken away from the deceased’s body?
Murderers addicted to collecting do exist, but it was rare for people to collect internal organs. These doubts could only be resolved slowly.
"You’re not allowed to go in! Go away!" Tao Yueyue stood at the mouth of the alley, stretching out her arms to block the students from coming in to watch. The students who had gathered outside watching had formed a crowd pushing and shoving their way inside. Tao Yueyue's thin, frail body seemed to be unable to hold them back any longer.
Lin Dongxue went over with her badge and said to them, "Classmates, a homicide case has occurred here. We’re currently investigating it. Please don't watch here anymore. It will only add to the police’s workload. Everyone here is a future police officer. Surely you should have a little self-discipline?"
"Elder Sister Police Flower, who died? How did they die?" Some boys took the opportunity to talk to her with grins on their faces that totally showed that they didn’t particularly care about what they were asking, as they had ulterior motives.
"No comment. Please retreat. A police car will need to drive in later!"
"Tch, how fierce."
"What are you all doing? Move aside!" A shout came from behind the crowd, and they saw that the instructors from the academy had rushed over. Sure enough, real power lay in the hands of those who actually ran things. Their appearance at the scene quickly improved the order there a great deal.
After waiting for more than half an hour, the police car finally arrived, and the scene was cordoned off. Peng Sijue went in carrying his box to inspect the corpse.
Chen Shi finally had time to question the instructor. The instructor from Tao Yueyue’s class was surnamed Li. He shivered as he said that he and Instructor Sun Lei had come out to eat together after the military training in the afternoon had finished. They were from the same battalion and had been sent here to carry out the mission of military training, so they were always together.
They had taken a shortcut through this alley, and suddenly two people appeared behind them, wearing very strange brown carved wooden masks. One of them, who was big and tall, kicked Instructor Li to the side, and the other jumped onto Sun Lei like a monkey. He repeatedly stabbed Sun Lei’s shoulder and neck with a dagger. Instructor Li fell to the ground without even screaming.
Instructor Li was extremely frightened. He got up, ran to the mouth of the alley and shouted, "Murder!"
"How many times did you shout?" Chen Shi asked.
"Just once because that masked man chased out after me. I was frightened and fled... After I ran some distance away, he stopped chasing, so I kept yelling 'Murder, help!' There were many people around, but everyone was stunned. About five minutes later, I ran back and saw... this scene!"
"Five minutes?" Chen Shi felt that this time period was too long. "Were there any other witnesses at the time?"
"Many students saw it. I remember him." Instructor Li pointed to a boy.
The boy also confirmed that there was indeed a weird man wearing a mask who rushed out of the alley with a knife in his hand, chased Instructor Li for a few steps and then went back as if guarding the alley.
At the time, there were twenty or thirty people outside the alley, but they were all students. Who would dare to step forward? Only after waiting for the murderer to escape from the other end, did they dare to go over and find out what had happened.
Chen Shi thought for a moment and asked Instructor Li, "Did you bring your phone?"
"I did."
"Did Sun Lei bring his?"
"Of course he did."
"Call him."
Instructor Li took out his cell phone and dialed Sun Lei's number. There was no cell phone ringing from within the alley. The phone rang a few times, and the other party suddenly pressed “decline”. Chen Shi told him to dial again, but the phone had already been turned off.
Chen Shi came to the conclusion that the mobile phone had been taken away by the murderer. He quickly contacted the bureau and asked his colleagues in the Information Department to track down the shutdown location.
The normally strict instructor was panicking like a child at that moment, which was rather laughable to others. This youngster was just a child, and perhaps not even twenty years old. Chen Shi suddenly wondered why the murderer had gone for the older instructor, Sun Lei. Was it a personal grievance?
At this time, he discovered that Tao Yueyue was making faces at the terrified Instructor Li to express her ridicule, and Chen Shi said, "You should go back to the dormitory first."
"No, I want to be with you. You forgot to ask a question."
"What?"
Tao Yueyue asked Instructor Li, "Instructor, will there still be training tomorrow?"
Instructor Li showed a helpless expression, and Chen Shi said, "Okay, okay, stop causing trouble..." His eyes suddenly fell on the instructor's feet, so he called Lin Dongxue over and asked, "Is the alley very muddy?"
"Yes, it just rained, and the road over there is not concrete."
Chen Shi instructed Instructor Li. "Take off your shoes and show them to me."
"Surely there’s no need..."
"Hurry up!!!"
Instructor Li took off one of his shoes awkwardly, and stood on one leg like a rooster. Chen Shi held it in his hand and looked at it. He said, "The sole is so clean, but you said you took a shortcut from there. Why did you lie to me?!"
