Wan Jingsheng’s body was placed in a specially built funeral hall in the yard of their home.
Song Jun followed those people all the way into the village, feeling a little scared inexplicably. Not to mention that the village was a little too quiet now. The villagers who appeared in front of them all seemed to be extremely unwelcoming, and their faces were frighteningly cold.
Unable to help but slow down, Song Jun glanced at Feng Junyuan, who was walking not far from him, and saw that Feng Junyuan’s attention was also on the villagers as if he felt their unfriendliness.
Walking outside the yard where the body was placed, Song Jun stopped, and Feng Junyuan and Xi Anling, who was travelling with him, also stopped. Only Xia Hongshen, Long Xing and two Yuntong County police officers entered the yard.
Xia Hongshen was carrying a small toolbox and handed it to Long Xing.
Long Xing helped him open the toolbox. He took out a pair of plastic gloves and put them on. Under the vigilant gaze of the villagers, he walked to the funeral hall in the middle of the yard, squatted down and uncovered the white cloth covering the body.
The corpse had begun to decay, and an unspeakable stench spread around it.
Lü Hai and his colleagues both frowned and stood far away, unwilling to get closer.
Only Xia Hongshen still had a calm expression, observing the body lying on the ground.
This young man named Wan Jingsheng had swollen and bruised facial features, and it was difficult to see what he looked like during his lifetime. However, his clothes were still in good condition. Thinking this, Xia Hongshen turned back and glanced at the other villagers surrounding him.
When he reached out to take off the boy’s clothes, the boy’s father stood up and stopped him, “What are you going to do?”
Xia Hongshen said calmly, “Check if there are any wounds on his body surface.”
At this time, Long Xing stood up from Xia Hongshen and walked towards the boy’s parents. He said to the boy’s father, “Hello, I am a police officer from the Chongfeng City Public Security Bureau.”
Perhaps after hearing that he was a policeman from a big city, the boy’s father became obviously nervous.
Long Xing continued, “We are here to help you, not to harm you. Do you know what happened to this child?”
The boy’s father said, “I don’t know. By the time we found him, it was already too late.”
Long Xing asked again, “Time? Place? Surely you must know something, right? You didn’t look for him when he didn’t come home?”
The boy’s father suddenly became emotional, “What’s wrong with not knowing? Why are you asking these questions? Are you all in cahoots with the Public Security Bureau? Are you trying to protect the murderer?”
Long Xing said, “Don’t get emotional. I’m not asking you these questions to protect anyone but to understand the truth of the matter. You are the child’s parents. Don’t you want to know what happened to him? Don’t you want to know the real truth? Don’t you want to bring the real culprit to justice?”
Hearing Long Xing ask this question, the boy’s mother began to cry softly again, her whole body trembling.
While Long Xing was communicating with the boy’s family, Xia Hongshen continued to look at the boy’s body.
At this moment, Song Jun outside also felt very uneasy. He always felt like he was being watched by these people, which made him want to go in and stay with Xia Hongshen. However, the thought of the corpse inside made him feel frightened, so he resisted and chose not to go in.
After a while, Xia Hongshen stood up and took off his gloves.
Long Xing and the local police went over, stood next to Xia Hongshen, and asked, “How is it?”
Xia Hongshen said, “If you just look at the surface of the corpse, it seems more like death caused by mechanical asphyxiation..”
“Strangled to death?” Lü Hai asked.
Xia Hongshen shook his head, “Judging from the marks on the neck, it’s more like strangulation with a rope or hanging. If he was strangled to death, from the fact that there were no visible signs of struggle on his fingers and there were no other signs of struggle on his body, I’m actually more inclined to think that he was strangled to death with a rope while unconscious..”
None of the policemen spoke.
Xia Hongshen glanced at them and said, “These are just my speculations. They may not be correct.”
One of the deputy captains of the Criminal Investigation Squadron said, “Teacher Xia, please continue.”
Xia Hongshen said, “If you have the opportunity, you can do some toxicological analysis, but it might be difficult to arrange the conditions now. There are traces of burial all over his body, but his clothes are neatly dressed as if someone had carefully put him in a pit and then buried him. Moreover, his clothes do not look like what people in this village usually wear. Instead, they look like they have been dressed up deliberately. If I were to guess, I would say the suspect likely knew him, and their relationship is not simple.”
Several people looked surprised.
Xia Hongshen finally said, “In fact, the most critical point is that the fat from the deceased’s body was extracted.”
This time, even Long Xing was surprised, “What?”
Xia Hongshen moved his shoulders and said, “I don’t know why, but there are obvious incisions and suture marks left after fat extraction on his body.”
After packing up her things, Xia Hongshen washed his hands at the water pipe next to the yard and then said to Lü Hai and others, “It is recommended to send him to a place where conditions permit for an autopsy to determine the specific cause of death.”
Lü Hai and the others looked troubled.
After that, the communication with the villagers had nothing to do with Xia Hongshen. He came out of the yard and saw Song Jun sitting on a stone next to him. He walked over and touched his forehead with a mineral water bottle.
Song Jun looked up at him.
He handed the mineral water to Song Jun.
Song Jun asked curiously, “Where did the water come from?”
“The police officer gave it to me,” Xia Hongshen said, sitting down next to Song Jun.
“How’s it going?” Song Jun asked him.
Xia Hongshen shook his head and said, “There is something weird in the village.”
Song Jun was already feeling nervous. When Xia Hongshen said this, he became even more nervous and asked, “Why is it weird?”
Xia Hongshen still shook his head and had no intention of saying more.
Although the autopsy examination was over, they were still unable to leave, and the negotiations over there didn’t look like they would end for a while.
It was almost noon, and the villagers were obviously not so kind as to invite them to lunch. They wanted to go around the neighbourhood, but they were stared at as if they were thieves, and they immediately lost interest.
By the time the negotiations there ended, it was already past two o’clock in the afternoon. Several police officers still failed to persuade the villagers to let them take away the body. However, it was not without progress. Xia Hongshen provided them with a lead in their investigation. Next, they needed to go back and seek the opinion of the person in charge. If it didn’t work, they would report it to the city bureau and send someone to communicate with the villagers.
At least now, Xia Hongshen’s mission was completed.
The criminal investigation captain from the Yuntong County Bureau thanked Xia Hongshen and apologised for taking up his time. They would go down the mountain immediately and go to have lunch as soon as they returned to the county seat.
It didn’t matter to Xia Hongshen; he wouldn’t feel hungry.
But Song Jun was so hungry that he almost had no energy to speak.
The three cars headed back down the mountain. Long Xing drove in the middle, followed by two local police cars.
The road down the mountain was supposed to be familiar, and so their travelling speed should be faster. However, not far from the village entrance, fog started to fall in the mountains. Almost instantly, a thin layer of mist turned into a thick fog covering the mountains, making it impossible to see the road clearly.
The police car in front stopped on the side of the road with its lights flashing. Seeing this, Long Xing also slowed down and slowly pulled over and stopped the car.
The group of people looked at the environment in front of them and felt a little worried. It was getting late now. If it were any later, they would be afraid that it would get dark and they would not be able to go down the mountain. No one could tell when the fog on this mountain would clear. It was certainly unrealistic to stop and wait. They wanted to continue to drive forward, but since they couldn’t see the road conditions in front of them clearly, they were afraid that something would happen.
In fact, the best thing was to return to the village. However, judging from the attitude of the whole village towards them, they might not be welcomed if they go back.
After discussion, everyone decided to drive slowly down the mountain. Fortunately, there were almost no people or cars on this road. They hoped that by going around the top of the mountain, the fog would dissipate.
Even though he was sitting in the back seat, Song Jun couldn’t help but become nervous. He looked out the car window, and everywhere he looked was covered with white fog, and he couldn’t see anything clearly.
Several cars had their headlights turned on, so they could probably only see a very short area in front of them.
After driving for a few minutes, probably not even a few meters away, Song Jun suddenly heard a scream from Xi Anling, who was sitting in the front seat, and then Long Xing stepped on the emergency brake.
“What?” Song Jun asked.
Xi Anling seemed to be still in shock. She said, “I thought I saw a car hit someone just now.”
After she finished speaking, she turned to look at Long Xing.
Long Xing stared ahead, opened the door and got out of the car.
Song Jun immediately opened the door and got out of the car. They walked around to the front of the car and saw that the front was empty and clean. Not to mention people, not even a bug was seen.
Xi Anling also came over at this time. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she said, “I obviously saw someone there.”
Long Xing’s expression did not look very good, and he asked Xi Anling, “Who did you see?”
Xi Anling recalled it and said, “It seemed to be a young man. I couldn’t see his face, and his back was to the front of the car.”
They were driving on a mountain road, and a car had just passed by in front of them. How could someone be standing in the middle of the road, completely unaware and with their back turned to the approaching vehicle?
Song Jun felt a little creeped out as he thought this.
Long Xing obviously saw that person just now as well. He walked forward for a while, looked left and right, and even stopped when he reached the edge of the cliff.
It was impossible to knock someone away. His speed was very slow. At that speed, he might not be able to knock someone down if he was standing in the middle of the road, let alone knock him away.
Xia Hongshen got out of the car, stood by the door, and asked them, “What?”
Song Jun said, “A person is missing.”
No one knew what Xia Hongshen was thinking. After being quiet for a while, he said, “It’s okay, just keep driving.”
At this time, a car behind them had also caught up, stopped next to them, and asked them what happened.
Long Xing said it was nothing and set off immediately.
They got in the car, and Long Xing drove forward.
Song Jun felt extremely uneasy. He looked at the thick fog outside and asked Xia Hongshen, “Did we hit a ghost just now?”
Xia Hongshen said, “Maybe.”
No one else in the car spoke. Xi Anling grabbed her clothes nervously.
Suddenly, Long Xing’s cell phone rang. He did not dare to answer the phone while driving in this situation, so he could only stop the car and take out his cell phone.
“Hello?” Long Xing saw that the call was from Lü Hai.
Lü Hai was in the car behind them now.
“Long Xing!” Lü Hai’s voice was a little urgent, “I saw a person lying on your trunk!”
His voice was so loud that everyone in the car heard what he said.
Song Jun turned around subconsciously and saw a pale face on the rear window, looking at them. His eyes widened, and before he could scream, he heard a noise from behind, and Long Xing’s phone was immediately disconnected.
The car behind them had overturned.
Not knowing what they hit, the front of the car tilted up, collided with the cliff, and overturned. Fortunately, the speed wasn’t high, and the car slid to the side of the road, stopping without falling off the cliff.
Long Xing stopped the car, got out of the car and ran towards the back.
While Song Jun was still in shock, Xia Hongshen stretched out a hand to hold his head. He couldn’t resist and buried his head on Xia Hongshen’s chest.
The car in front also stopped, and several people ran over to check on the last car.
Although the car overturned, fortunately, the three people in the car seemed to be unharmed. Everyone worked together to open the deformed door and rescue the people inside.
The group of people stood on the mountain road, looking at the overturned police car, not knowing what to do.
Feng Junyuan came over to help a police officer whose arm was scratched by the car window glass, and Song Jun got out of the car and found that there was no one or anything else in the trunk.
Lü Hai was breathing heavily and was a little confused. It took him a long time to come back to his senses, and said, “It’s a bit eerie.”
The deputy captain of the Criminal Investigation Squadron was also an old policeman. He had more experience, and at this time, he said, “Let’s go first, leave the car alone, and then find someone to tow it. The three of you get in our car, squeeze together and go down the mountain.”
Lü Hai nodded.
They had just stood up from the ground and were about to move forward when suddenly Xia Hongshen said, “We can’t go anymore.”
These words sounded so ominous that Lü Hai got a little agitated and said, “What did you say?”
Xia Hongshen said, “Our tire is broken.”
Hearing what he said, the group’s eyes fell on the car Long Xing drove, and sure enough, they found that the two front tires had blown out.
There was only one car left, and there was no way to get everyone down the mountain.
Song Jun was confused. He didn’t understand how they ended up in this situation, and he didn’t know what they should do next.
But Xia Hongshen was very calm. He said to the criminal investigation captain, “The six of you go down the mountain in a car first, and we will go back to the village.”
“How can that be?” Lü Hai said quickly, “What do you think of the attitude of the people in the village? You are not afraid of anything happening when you go back at this time?”
The squadron leader also said, “That’s not good. If someone needs to stay, it’s better for our people to stay. Let’s send you down the mountain first.”
Xia Hongshen said nothing and looked at Long Xing.
Long Xing thought for a while and said: “Captain Liu, it might be more convenient for us to stay behind. The villagers are just wary of us, but for your team, there’s too much hostility. On the other hand, if we go, we might still be somewhat welcomed. It could be tough if you guys were the ones to go back tonight. Besides, once you’re down the mountain, it’s easier to contact the rescue and take us down sooner.”
Lü Hai suggested, “What about calling for a car immediately now?”
The squadron leader hesitated, “The fog is too heavy. Even if the car sets off now, we will definitely not be able to go down the mountain tonight.”
Xia Hongshen said, “It’s better for us to go back before we go too far.”
The squadron leader was silent for a moment, knowing that he had to make a decision quickly. He said, “I’ll contact the village chief first to settle you. You go back to the village now. When you see the village chief, let us know. We’ll go back down the mountain.”
Long Xing nodded, “Alright, sorry for the trouble, Captain Liu.”
So, Song Jun and Feng Junyuan took out their luggage from the trunk and headed back towards the village.
Song Jun asked Xia Hongshen, “Why do you want to go back? I feel like there’s something very frightening.”
Xia Hongshen said, “Didn’t you notice that someone seems to want to keep us here? Since we can’t leave, there’s no point in wasting time.”
Notes:
Gib me back the fluffy chapter about being heartbroken… (T⌓T)
Support the author by buying the author’s other works and/or giving some jades here~
P.S: the price is cheaper if you buy from the app ><
We now finally have a discord server for those who want to receive an update ping and various announcements~
Join here
Check out bean’s new ABO novel here!
and her original novel about a sly cute dragon here~
Check out the other hoeni’s work here~
Check out the angst novel I co-tl with my friend here~
And please buy me some kofi if you like the translation~
Also leave some ratings if you like this series ~
