The abandoned amusement park.
Criminal police from the branch bureau had already arrived at the scene.
The area had been cordoned off.
The Qingyang Road branch bureau had no forensic examiners, so they hadn’t touched the black garbage bag yet. They’d only taken a rough look, confirmed what it was, and then begun searching the surrounding area.
A police officer was asking Su Miaoyi, “This place is so desolate. What were you doing here?”
Listening to his question, Su Miaoyi also wanted to know why she had ended up here.
She said, “I’m a web novelist. I’ve been writing a horror novel recently, so I came to this abandoned amusement park to look for inspiration.”
She couldn’t exactly tell people she could see crime scenes.
The fewer people who knew about that, the better.
Otherwise, causing unnecessary chaos would be trouble.
The police officer looked at her, clearly not trusting her words. “Before looking for inspiration, you went shopping first?”
Su Miaoyi looked down at the clothes in her hand and didn’t say anything extra, just, “Mm.”
The officer still suspected her, so he paused and said, “There are still some doubts. We’ll need you to come to the station with us.”
Su Miaoyi nodded, indicating she understood.
This place didn’t even have a single person around.
Her appearing here was indeed suspicious.
Just then, Zhuang Yanzheng’s call came through.
Su Miaoyi looked at the caller ID, then at the officer in front of her.
The officer gestured that she could answer.
Su Miaoyi picked up the call.
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 tissue at the abandoned amusement park on Qingyang Road.”
“You’re the citizen who reported it?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.
Su Miaoyi said, “You already know?”
“Mm,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. “Wait there. We’re on our way.”
After Su Miaoyi hung up, the branch bureau’s criminal police captain received a call.
It must have been Zhuang Yanzheng communicating with them, because Su Miaoyi was no longer being watched as a suspect and was allowed to wait off to the side.
In nearly twenty minutes, Zhuang Yanzheng and his team arrived.
Yan Cheng led people to examine the body parts.
Zhuang Yanzheng handled the handover with the branch bureau and took a look around the area.
Then he walked over to Su Miaoyi.
“This citizen, what are you doing here?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.
Su Miaoyi shook her head. “My memory’s blank.”
Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her.
“I was at the fruit shop in Shifang Plaza around ten-something, and then… by twelve I was here,” Su Miaoyi said. “I think I heard a voice calling for help the whole time, and I seemed to have followed that voice here. Anyway, I don’t really remember how I got here. Judging by the time, I must have walked.”
Zhuang Yanzheng looked at the clothes in her hand—the bag was from Shifang Plaza. He was silent for a moment, then said, “A new ability?”
Su Miaoyi didn’t speak.
Zhuang Yanzheng looked around again.
If he remembered correctly, an old residential complex had been demolished here not long ago.
In a few days, this amusement park would also be demolished.
The developer was the Shen family.
Shen Yanzhou was in charge.
“I also saw a person,” Su Miaoyi said.
Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her.
“In an alley. There should have been bars or KTVs or something nearby—I heard music,” Su Miaoyi said. “They were trading something. I also saw a license plate number.”
She told Zhuang Yanzheng everything she had seen and heard.
This time, she had seen everything through a man’s perspective.
Although she couldn’t see his face, she heard his voice—it was a man’s.
“I’ll have them take you back to the municipal bureau first and have Lu Zhishen do a sketch,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.
Su Miaoyi nodded.
Zhuang Yanzheng called back to the bureau, asking them to run the license plate number. He also grabbed a bottle of water from the car for her and arranged for someone to take her back.
Just as Su Miaoyi left, Yan Cheng called out, “Captain Zhuang, we found something.”
Zhuang Yanzheng strode over.
Looking at the laid-out body parts.
“This blood…” Zhuang Yanzheng observed the blood mixed with water that had flowed out.
“It was frozen. This is the bloody water after thawing,” Yan Cheng said. “Except for the head, the rest of the body is all here. Based on the cut on the neck, it should be He Kai. Judging by the degree of thawing, it was dumped here last night.”
Zhuang Yanzheng narrowed his eyes.
Su Miaoyi had said she smelled the stench of rotting flesh.
But it had been frozen and had only just thawed—he hadn’t smelled anything.
Yan Cheng raised his hand to show him. “This.”
Zhuang Yanzheng looked at his hand.
He pushed thoughts of Su Miaoyi to the back of his mind for now—after all, any strange thing could happen with her.
Yan Cheng wore white gloves, pinching a wooden bead between his fingertips.
A bead of about 13mm.
There was bloody water still on it.
Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t quite understand. He looked at Yan Cheng.
Yan Cheng turned the bead around.
Zhuang Yanzheng saw the three characters carved on it, and his pupils contracted sharply.
Yan Cheng had been just as shocked when he’d first discovered it.
“Him?!”
Yan Cheng placed the bead into an evidence bag, a hint of cold light flashing in his phoenix eyes. “It was in the plastic bag with the body parts—deliberately left for us to see.”
Zhuang Yanzheng’s jawline was taut, his entire face frozen to the extreme.
An open provocation against the police.
…
Back at the municipal bureau.
The license plate had already been checked—it was a fake plate, and no owner information could be found.
They were currently tracing the vehicle’s movements.
Lu Zhishen’s sketch had already been completed.
And it had already been matched in the database.
Tang Qiang, thirty-seven years old, had spent time in a rehab center five years ago for drug use.
Officers had already been dispatched to arrest him.
Everyone gathered in the conference room to sort through the leads.
Qi Feng said, “Captain Zhuang, Shen Yanzhou is still in the interrogation room—it’s almost twenty-four hours now.”
Zhuang Yanzheng stood up and headed for the door, but stopped at the threshold, turned back, and grabbed the wooden bead.
Interrogation room.
Shen Yanzhou sat in the interrogation chair, wearing a suit vest.
A night had passed.
His hair was slightly disheveled, and his clothes were a bit wrinkled.
But none of it affected his cold yet refined demeanor.
He lifted his eyes to look at Zhuang Yanzheng. “Can I leave now?”
“The rest of the body has been found,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. “At Qingyang Road amusement park—the site you’re responsible for demolishing and developing.”
Shen Yanzhou furrowed his brow slightly, then said, “I’ll say it again: if I had killed someone, I’d have plenty of ways to dispose of the body. Why would I keep it at home and then put it at a site I’m developing? Very bad luck. It would delay my making money.”
“That doesn’t clear you of suspicion. Some killers actually enjoy keeping bodies at home to admire,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. “Besides, maybe this is your way of throwing the police off track?”
Shen Yanzhou looked at him. “But you have no evidence that I killed him, right? It’s almost twenty-four hours. You have to let me go.”
Zhuang Yanzheng said nothing.
Shen Yanzhou didn’t speak either.
After a few seconds, Zhuang Yanzheng asked, “Did you know He Kai used drugs?”
Shen Yanzhou looked surprised. “No. When he was my driver, I never noticed anything unusual. Was it after he resigned?”
Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t respond. He looked at the bead in the evidence bag in his hand.
He stood up and walked over to Shen Yanzhou. “Do you recognize this?”
Shen Yanzhou took it and looked at it. He saw the inscription on it first.
His entire expression changed dramatically, and he examined the bead more closely. “It’s my sister’s bracelet.”
……