Chapter 140: All Killers Among Us

2022-05-20

Old Xia tied up Li Danan with the same rope he’d used on me earlier. I wasted no time settling by the stove, soaking up its warmth.

Once the heat seeped back into my bones, I asked, “Where are Captain Zhou and Gu Chen? Did they go somewhere?”

Old Xia and Erxiao both shook their heads. Erxiao piped up, “Hey now, not to pick on you, but you really are a bit on the scrawny side. Honestly, we have all kinds of tonics here, but you definitely look like you could use something for your kidneys. Anyway, that’s beside the point. Zhou and Gu Chen are way faster than us.”

He paused before continuing, “Li Danan here ran so quick we couldn’t keep up at all. Only Gu Chen and Captain Zhou could catch him. They chased him all the way to the highway, but after that, we couldn’t find them. The road was pitch dark—you couldn’t see a thing. So we circled back.”

“That’s when we saw the lights still on at Erxiao Supermarket,” Erxiao shot a glare at the bound Li Danan, then spat, “I always lock up and turn the lights off when I leave. Who would’ve thought he’d show up anyway.”

With that, Erxiao strode up to Li Danan and landed a flurry of slaps across his face, drawing blood from his lips. Li Danan glared back, fire in his eyes, but not a single sound of pain escaped him.

Erxiao demanded, “Tell us now—where are Gu Chen and Captain Zhou? Why did you come back but not them? I’m telling you, confess and things will go easier for you. Resist and it’ll only get worse.”

Li Danan spat a mouthful of blood right onto Erxiao’s face and sneered, “If you want to find them, do it yourself.”

Erxiao looked ready to keep going.

I just gave a small laugh and addressed the group, “Let’s hold off for now. I’ll tell you all a story instead. Relax—Li Danan isn’t going anywhere.”

Erxiao glanced at Li Danan but didn’t argue, settling down by the stove. Old Xia joined us too.

While toasting my hands, I spoke up, “So, there was this woman who ended up in the hands of a group. From what I can tell, there are at least five people involved. She trusted the wrong person and got driven out here to Tougouzi Village.”

As I talked, I watched their faces for any reaction, but nothing showed. Erxiao actually looked kind of interested, urging me to go on.

Casually, I grabbed a bag of potato chips from the shelf and munched as I went on, “Some people noticed the woman, and for one reason or another, they decided she had to die. But these folks were just ordinary villagers—they didn’t even know how to kill someone.”

“At that point,” I shot a look at Li Danan and smiled, “one of the men remembered seeing a newspaper in his bathroom back home. Right then, he hatched an idea, ran home, and grabbed it.”

Erxiao shot Li Danan a look. “So it was him, huh? Makes sense. Who else would come up with dismembering a body and disposing of the limbs separately? Usually he acts all timid, but turns out he’s got guts after all.”

Li Danan just snorted coldly.

Still chewing my chips, I went on, “Yeah, this villager ran home and found that newspaper in his bathroom. But subconsciously, he didn’t tear off the whole thing—if he’d ripped it all down, there’d be a hole in the wall, and the newspaper wouldn’t be hiding the patchwork anymore.”

“You saw that newspaper?” Erxiao asked.

I nodded, set the chips aside, and said, “Yeah, once when I used his bathroom I stumbled across it. I took it down and checked it out online. It’s pretty interesting—if you saw it too, you’d realize something pretty crazy.”

“What was on the paper?” Erxiao was clearly curious.

Seeing his interest, I smiled. “The second half of that newspaper listed twelve different ways to kill and dismember someone. And, absurd as it sounds, they match the techniques used in the Tougouzi Village murder case—exactly.”

Erxiao’s brows knitted. “So even newspapers these days are dangerous. Printing stuff like that…”

“Exactly,” I said with a sigh. “Of course, the original intent was to warn people. But who would’ve thought someone would imitate those methods for real? That’s why at first my profiling described a butcher, and later, a hunter.”

“Profiling?” Erxiao clearly didn’t get it.

I smiled, shaking my head. “It’s a kind of investigative method—no need to dig into it. What matters is why I saw the killer as both a butcher and a hunter. Are they really both? Not exactly. Butchering and hunting are pretty close—hunters need to know how to process their game.”

“True,” Erxiao chimed in. “I’ve seen that on wildlife shows.”

I shrugged and carried on, “But when the dumplings showed up, I started thinking something was off. Based on my profiling, whoever made those was incredibly meticulous—thin wrappers, plump filling, beautiful appearance. That means the cook was seriously skilled, really good with a knife—better than most people.”

“And then?” Erxiao pressed, a bit confused.

“That’s where it gets weird,” I said, grabbing a bag of salted plum candies from the shelf. “If I could still force a connection with the first two body disposal methods, this last one doesn’t fit at all—I just couldn’t convince myself it was the same person’s work.”

I popped a candied plum into my mouth. “See, it’s tough for people to change their nature. Even if you gave them a menu of murder methods, deep down they’d pick what fits their personality. Habits are hard to break—like, if you’re always rough, you’re not suddenly going to master all the fine details.”

Erxiao just nodded, silent.

“These plum candies are pretty good,” I joked, then grabbed a big bottle of soda but didn’t open it. “So here’s the thing: these people must’ve decided each would pick a different method for killing and disposing of the woman. And so far, we’ve seen three different methods.”

Hugging the soda bottle, I said quietly, “No, more precisely, there are probably four. We just didn’t get to see the last one before we chased them here. Sometimes I think I should trust myself more, but somewhere along the line, I started doubting.”

“How so?” Erxiao scratched his head, looking at me.

I chuckled, “Honestly, I’d suspected there was more than one killer from the start. But I never dared say it out loud—the theory was too wild, almost too much to believe. I mean, cases like this, with multiple conspirators, are extremely rare.”

“Really?” Erxiao shook his head.

I nodded, “Yeah, usually groups like that fall apart quickly—they start distrusting each other. But what if this group never split up?”

“Then how did they pull it off?” Erxiao poked at the coals in the stove with the poker.

I scratched my head, speaking slowly, “Well, let me get back to that in a bit. For now, let me keep telling the story.”

“Go on,” Erxiao urged.

I nodded and continued, “So these people started using bizarre, mismatched body disposal methods, making us lose our way as we investigated. The more pieces scattered, the safer they all felt. The more complex and strange the case, the fewer leads we had.”

“In fact,” I gently tapped the soda bottle against the stove, “they didn’t even know what method would be used next. Each one picked a specific dismemberment technique, treating Luo Sumei’s body like a puppet—whoever got a piece passed it on to the next.”

“That’s the thing,” I told the two of them, “even the killers themselves couldn’t predict what would happen next, which made investigating nearly impossible.”

I let out a sigh. “Such a flawless plan—if only I hadn’t found that newspaper.”

“So they panicked,” I said with a smirk. “Because their motive wasn’t actually to torture Luo Sumei. Sometimes, killing someone isn’t really about killing—maybe it was to save someone else.”

Erxiao shook his head, unable to agree. “How could killing someone be meant to save somebody else?”

I didn’t answer and went on, “The more I figured out, the closer I got to the truth. So the killers decided to throw one of their own to the wolves—to point all suspicion at a single person. They pretended not to know him, acted like they weren’t close at all.”

Erxiao watched the red-hot poker and asked, “So you’re saying…?”

I smiled, “Because once the case is closed, no one digs deeper. These people went to such lengths to fool me—sacrificing one person so the rest could survive. Li Danan is loyal, but honestly, weren’t your hearts a little too ruthless?”

I swept my gaze over the three of them and said softly, “This little act of yours was pretty convincing, but it couldn’t fool my eyes.”