「The abandoned amusement park.」
Criminal investigators from the sub-bureau had already arrived at the scene.
They cordoned off the area.
The Qingyang Road sub-bureau didn’t have a forensic examiner, so for the time being, they left the black trash bags untouched. After a cursory look to confirm the contents, they began searching the surrounding area.
A police officer was questioning Su Miaoyi. "This place is so deserted. What are you doing here?"
Hearing his question, Su Miaoyi also wanted to know why she was here.
She said, "I’m a web novel author. I’m writing a horror novel recently, so I came to the abandoned amusement park to look for inspiration."
She couldn’t just go around telling everyone she could see crime scenes.
The fewer people who knew about this sort of thing, the better.
Otherwise, it would be troublesome if it caused an unnecessary commotion.
The officer looked at her, clearly not believing her words. "You went shopping before looking for inspiration?"
Su Miaoyi glanced down at the clothes she was carrying and said nothing more than, "Mhm."
The officer was still suspicious of her, so he paused before saying, "There are still some inconsistencies. We’ll have to ask you to come with us to the station."
Su Miaoyi nodded in understanding.
There wasn’t a single soul in this place.
Her presence here was indeed suspicious.
Just then, Zhuang Yanzheng’s call came in.
Su Miaoyi looked at the caller ID, then at the officer in front of her.
The officer gestured for her to take the call.
Su Miaoyi answered the phone.
Before she could speak, Zhuang Yanzheng asked, "Did you see something? I was just in a meeting."
Su Miaoyi glanced at the officer in front of her. "Captain Zhuang, I found some human remains at the abandoned amusement park on Qingyang Road."
"You’re the one who called it in?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.
Su Miaoyi said, "You already know?"
"Mhm," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "Wait there. We’re on our way now."
As soon as Su Miaoyi hung up, the captain of the sub-bureau’s criminal investigation team received a call.
Zhuang Yanzheng must have smoothed things over, because Su Miaoyi was no longer being watched like a suspect and was told to wait to the side.
Almost twenty minutes later, Zhuang Yanzheng and his team arrived.
Yan Cheng took some people to examine the body parts.
Zhuang Yanzheng conferred with the sub-bureau officers, then took a look around the area.
Only then did he walk over to Su Miaoyi.
"How did you end up here?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.
Su Miaoyi shook her head. "My memory’s a blank."
Zhuang Yanzheng watched her.
"Around ten-something, I was at a fruit shop near Shifang Square, and then... by twelve, I was here," Su Miaoyi said. "I think I heard a voice constantly calling for help, and I seem to have followed that voice. Anyway, I don’t really remember how I got here. Judging by the time, I must have walked."
Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at the clothes she was carrying. The bag was from Shifang Square. He was silent for a moment before asking, "A new feature?"
Su Miaoyi didn’t say anything.
Zhuang Yanzheng looked around again.
If he remembered correctly, an old residential complex in this area had just been demolished not long ago.
In a few days, the amusement park here would also be torn down.
The developer was the Shen family.
Shen Yanzhou was in charge.
"I also saw someone," Su Miaoyi said.
Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her.
"In an alley. There must have been bars or KTVs nearby, because I heard music," Su Miaoyi said. "They were making some kind of deal. I also saw a license plate number."
She told Zhuang Yanzheng everything she had seen and heard in her vision.
This time, she had seen everything through a man’s eyes.
Although she couldn’t see his face, she heard that the voice coming from him was a man’s.
"I’ll have someone take you back to the city bureau first and have Lu Zhishen do a sketch," Zhuang Yanzheng said.
Su Miaoyi nodded.
Zhuang Yanzheng called the bureau to have them run the license plate number. He also grabbed a bottle of water from his car for her and arranged for someone to drive her back.
Just as Su Miaoyi left, Yan Cheng called out, "Captain Zhuang, we found something."
Zhuang Yanzheng strode over.
He looked at the dismembered body parts laid out before him.
"This blood..." Zhuang Yanzheng looked at the blood that had seeped out, mixed with water.
"It was frozen. This is bloody water from the thaw," Yan Cheng said. "Except for the head, the rest of the body is here. Judging by the cuts on the neck, it should be He Kai. Based on the degree of thawing, it was probably dumped here last night."
Zhuang Yanzheng narrowed his eyes. Su Miaoyi had said she smelled a rotting corpse, but the body had been frozen and was only just now thawing. He couldn’t smell anything.
Yan Cheng held up his hand. "Look at this."
Zhuang Yanzheng looked at his hand.
He put thoughts of Su Miaoyi aside for the moment. After all, anything strange was possible when it came to her.
Yan Cheng was wearing white gloves, and between his fingertips, he held a single wooden bead.
The bead was about 13mm in diameter.
It was still stained with bloody water.
Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t quite understand. He looked at Yan Cheng.
Yan Cheng turned the bead over.
When Zhuang Yanzheng saw the three characters carved on it, his pupils contracted sharply.
Yan Cheng had also been shocked when he first discovered it.
"It’s him?!"
Yan Cheng placed the bead in an evidence bag, a cold glint in his narrow phoenix eyes. "It was in the plastic bag with the body parts. Left for us to find on purpose."
Zhuang Yanzheng’s jaw tightened, and his expression turned ice-cold.
’An open provocation to the police.’
...
「Back at the city bureau.」
They had already run the license plate number. It was a fake plate, and they couldn’t find any owner information.
They were currently tracking the vehicle’s movements.
Lu Zhishen’s sketch was ready.
And they had already found a match in the database.
Tang Qiang, thirty-seven years old. Five years ago, he had spent time in a drug rehabilitation center for addiction.
A team had already been dispatched to apprehend him.
Everyone gathered in the conference room to sort through the clues.
Qi Feng said, "Captain Zhuang, Shen Yanzhou is still in the interrogation room. It’s almost been twenty-four hours."
Zhuang Yanzheng stood up and started to walk out, but he turned back at the door and picked up the wooden bead.
「The interrogation room.」
Shen Yanzhou sat in the interrogation chair, dressed in a suit vest.
A whole night had passed.
His hair was slightly disheveled and his clothes were a bit wrinkled.
But it did nothing to diminish his cool, yet refined and scholarly, air.
He lifted his eyes to Zhuang Yanzheng. "Can I go now?"
"The rest of the body has been found," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "At the Qingyang Road amusement park—the one you’re in charge of demolishing and developing."
Shen Yanzhou frowned slightly, then said, "I’ll say it again. If I had killed him, I have countless ways to dispose of the body. Why would I leave it in my house, and then dump it on a property I’m developing? It’s bad luck. Bad for business."
"That doesn’t clear you. Some murderers like to keep the body in their home to admire it," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "And besides, this could be your way of misdirecting the police, couldn’t it?"
Shen Yanzhou looked at him. "But you have no evidence that I’m the killer, do you? It’s almost been twenty-four hours. You have to let me go."
Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t respond.
Neither did Shen Yanzhou.
After a few seconds, Zhuang Yanzheng asked, "Did you know He Kai was a drug user?"
Shen Yanzhou looked surprised. "No, I didn’t. When he was my driver, I never noticed anything unusual. Was it after he quit?"
Zhuang Yanzheng said nothing, his gaze falling to the bead in the evidence bag he was holding.
He stood up and walked over to Shen Yanzhou. "Do you recognize this?"
Shen Yanzhou took it and looked. The first thing he saw were the characters carved on it.
The color drained from his face. He examined the bead more closely. "This is from my sister’s bracelet."
...