The small, old office was packed with people. Several desks were temporarily joined together to form a long table, serving as a conference table.
The orange-yellow incandescent light emitted a dim glow, stretching the shadows of everyone present.
“Presumably, everyone is aware of the importance of this matter, right?” The bald old man sitting at the head of the table spoke, breaking the silence.
“Chen Feng, the most famous professor in the country and the first to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, died in Kang County, in his dormitory room at Kang County No. 1 High School.” The bald man’s voice was heavy. “If the news gets out, the whole country will be shocked.”
“Kang County’s hard-earned ‘Longevity Town’ reputation will be completely turned into a joke.”
“Which investor would dare to come here to invest and build? How will Kang County develop?”
The bald man looked around at the Investigators present and said heavily, “I need you to catch the murderer within a week, or you can all take off your hats. Wei Zheng Rong, you arrange the specific work.”
“Okay, then I’ll arrange it.” The man called Wei Zheng Rong was a middle-aged man in his fifties. His handsome face was weathered, his demeanor calm and noble, and he had a small mole above his eyebrow, making his smile particularly gentle.
“Some of you here are still new, so we’ll start from the beginning. Zhao Digang, you summarize the clues.”
Zhao Digang, whose full name was Zhao Digang, was a burly man, about 45 years old, with slightly receding hair at his temples, light and neat eyebrows, and a pair of dull chestnut-colored eyes. He smiled, revealing a set of neat, slightly dark teeth.
He didn’t beat around the bush. He nodded and explained, “Zhou Ling already mentioned the basic information and importance of the deceased, so I won’t go into detail here.”
“Chen Feng’s social network in Kang County is still being investigated and collected, so we won’t discuss that for now.”
“What I want to emphasize is the deceased’s head.” Zhao Digang’s face turned slightly pale, and he pretended to be calm as he said, “The head found at the scene, after testing, is not the head of the deceased Chen Feng.”
“In other words, the murderer first killed someone, then took her head to Chen Feng’s dormitory, killed Chen Feng, cut off his head, and then threw the first victim’s head at the scene.”
“Based on the incision and force of the wounds, we determined that the murderer should be the same person. Of course, this is just a guess and needs evidence to support it.”
As soon as these words came out, Song Yang and Zhou Ling’s stomachs churned again, but because they had already vomited everything out, they didn’t throw up on the spot.
“The murder weapon left at the scene is a broadsword, with many people’s fingerprints on it. It is unknown whether the murderer’s fingerprints are among them, and the forensics department needs to collect evidence.”
“Besides this, the forensics department also mentioned a strange thing. It seems that one of the first victim’s teeth was pulled out.”
‘A tooth…’ Song Yang frowned.
“The tooth that was pulled out was an artificial tooth used for dental implants. Generally speaking, dental implants are buried very deep, so it shouldn’t be that easy to pull out such an artificial tooth. According to the people from the forensics department, if you want to pull it out, you definitely need to use tools like pliers. And if you pull it out forcefully, that person might even faint from the pain.”
“That’s all the clues we have for now.”
Wei Zheng Rong clapped his hands and continued, “I’ll arrange the tasks.”
All the Investigators turned their attention to him.
“Since Zhou Ling wants you to solve the case within a week, then your progress must be fast. Because the incident happened within the jurisdiction of Qiaotingzi Community, the office location from now on will be there.”
“You don’t need to worry about equipment or anything. I’ll have the Kang County Investigation Bureau bring the stuff over.” Wei Zheng Rong arranged things in an orderly manner.
“In addition to this, Zhao Digang, you are responsible for the identities of victim Chen Feng and the first victim, as well as their affiliations and social networks.”
Zhao Digang nodded. Wei Zheng Rong continued, “Zhou Ling, you follow up on the fingerprints on the murder weapon and the items brought back from the scene, and keep track of the results from the forensics department in a timely manner.”
“Understood.” Zhou Ling nodded.
“Officer Yu, Song Yang, you stay here for now. I’ll arrange something else if anything comes up.”
Wei Zheng Rong clapped his hands again and said, “That’s the arrangement for now. During the investigation, everyone’s cell phones must be kept off 24 hours a day.”
The meeting broke up, and everyone prepared to go home to rest. Song Yang said goodbye to Team Leader Yu and got on his Electric Scooter to go home.
He had been soaked in the rain just now and urgently wanted to go home and take a shower.
But, when he reached the fork in the road, he frowned slightly and headed towards another road. This road was none other than the murder scene—Kang County No. 1 High School.
The Investigators on duty were still there. Song Yang showed his Investigator ID/Badge, and he was once again able to enter room 602 without any trouble.
At this moment, the room was filled with yellow evidence number plates. The body had already been taken back to the Investigation Bureau, and without that bloody scene, Song Yang was finally not so afraid.
He turned on the flashlight he was carrying and searched inch by inch.
The first thing that caught his eye was the large number of books piled on the desk. He randomly picked up a book. It was a manga.
The name was—《Orange Under God》.
‘What a strange name. Could there be some mystery hidden inside?’ Curious that Professor Chen, a physicist, would have a book with such a bizarre name, Song Yang couldn’t help but flip through a page or two. As a result, he discovered that this wasn’t a book of words, but a manga, and it was a manga about God.
There wasn’t anything mysterious about the manga. It was just a very simple girl girl manga.
‘Professor, your tastes are really peculiar!’
Unable to bear seeing God kissing a certain mythical figure, Song Yang got goosebumps all over his body and put the manga back.
Aimlessly looking around the room, Song Yang hadn’t really thought about what he was coming back to find.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind, and he muttered to himself, “Strange, isn’t this the professor’s bedroom? Why isn’t there a bed?”
There wasn’t a single bed in the entire bedroom, which was too strange.
‘Could it be that the professor doesn’t live here at night?’ This reasonable suspicion made Song Yang think.
But without the support of evidence, he couldn’t get any further results.
He continued to explore.
Searching inch by inch, half an hour later, he once again discovered something unusual.
The yellow evidence number plate showed that this was the location where the victim Professor Chen Feng’s body was at the time.
‘No way… It’s impossible, right… It’s impossible…’
Song Yang was taken aback.
Because on the floor next to the yellow plate representing the hand, there was an unusual amount of bloodstains.
But at this time, the bloodstains had gradually dried up, and on the dried bloodstains, several tadpole-like characters appeared.
—Death message!
Song Yang frowned again, carefully identifying the information, the handwriting trembling. It was too crooked to even call them characters.
If he had to interpret them forcibly.
The characters written here were.
—KEY.
‘Key? What key?’ 〖KEY〗 translated into Chinese means key.
But, what key?
Song Yang was at a loss.