The Beginning (1)

Lian Chi swore that before today, his bathroom door was just an extremely ordinary door...

Although it was old, the paint was newly applied by the landlord last year, the lock was newly repaired by him when he moved in last month, and even the blood and brain matter left by the previous tenant had been wiped clean by him long ago.

But what was happening now?

Lian Chi's right hand still maintained a half-clenched posture forward. Looking at the sparse crowd in front of him, his pupils contracted.

A few seconds ago, he had just returned home from work, intending to go into the bathroom to get a mop, but as soon as he opened the bathroom door and stepped in, a "Creak" suddenly sounded in his head, and then he appeared here.

Lian Chi slowly lowered his right hand.

Then, his gaze swept toward the electronic screen of the Qianshi Commercial Bank opposite.

He saw clearly written on it: "May 1, 2023, 18:14".

Lian Chi's thin lips moved slightly: "Five days ago?"

Was he dreaming?

Right then, as if remembering something, Lian Chi lowered his head to look down.

In his left hand, he was holding a thick notebook, which recorded the forty years of case-solving experience of a retired police officer.

If he remembered correctly, this was the notebook he bought for ten yuan at a second-hand book stall by the road on May 1 after work.

By the evening of May 4, he had finished reading this notebook.

This meant that Chapter 2 of this notebook should be missing a page on "Basic Characteristics of Criminals," and Chapter 6, "Analysis and Reconstruction of the Crime Scene," had a large stain.

He flipped the notebook to Chapter 2. After flipping just over five pages, he saw the missing page.

Lian Chi couldn't help but fall into a daze.

Moreover, he wasn't the only one in a daze.

Lian Chi turned his head to look at the middle-aged man beside him.

The middle-aged man had also been standing there with him for nearly half a minute.

The middle-aged man carried a fishing bucket and looked at him with a grin: "Did you pick up money?"

"Eating alone is unethical. You should at least share it with the one who saw it."

As he spoke, he looked down at Lian Chi's feet.

Lian Chi: "..."

Lian Chi also looked down at the fishing bucket by his feet.

The brand was Yushen. On his way home from work, he had passed a fishing gear shop, and there was one displayed on the shelf of that shop.

The listed price was two thousand three hundred yuan.

Equivalent to nearly four months of his rent.

Noticing his gaze, the middle-aged man explained, "I really don't lack money, but didn't I go fishing from last night until now and still haven't caught a single one?"

"So if I don't bring anything back today, my wife will laugh at me all day."

"I won't take yours for nothing. I'll treat you to a late-night snack."

Lian Chi was silent for a moment, then took a step back.

The spot where he had been standing was empty. There was no money, nor was there any of the last remaining dignity of a fisherman.

"...There isn't."

The middle-aged man didn't believe him: "If you didn't pick up money, why have you been standing here like a statue all this time?"

After speaking, he carried the fishing bucket and walked aggressively... straight toward the nearby market.

Lian Chi: "..."

He suppressed the complex emotions in his heart and walked toward the residential area opposite.

The apartment he rented was in that area.

But the next second, he stopped again.

Because the traffic light opposite turned red.

Also because he suddenly remembered something.

He raised his head again to look at the electronic screen of the Qianshi Commercial Bank not far away.

"May 1, 2023, 18:16."

If he wasn't dreaming now, then just over ten minutes ago, a murder and robbery had occurred nearby.

According to the police announcement two days later, on May 3, the victims were a middle-aged couple.

They ran a fruit shop.

After killing them, the culprit not only plundered all the gold jewelry and cash in the house but also dismembered their bodies into several pieces, throwing them into a sewer at an abandoned construction site more than ten kilometers away.

When the culprit was disposing of the bodies, he was seen by a little girl, so he also killed the nine-year-old girl...

But by May 6, the police still hadn't caught the culprit.

In other words, that little girl wasn't dead yet...

But this probably had nothing to do with him.

Lian Chi looked at his current situation.

A father in a psychiatric hospital, a mother on the verge of a mental breakdown, and his five-million-yuan debt.

Lian Chi lifted his foot to take another step.

But after walking a few steps, he slowed down again.

He looked at the electronic screen of the Qianshi Commercial Bank in front of him, his throat bobbing.

This damn moral baseline.

Lian Chi loosened his tie and let out a sigh.

The indifference in his eyes vanished, replaced by seriousness.

First, why did the culprit choose to commit the crime during the day?

Usually, the chance of being discovered when committing a crime at night is much lower.

This indicated that the culprit's original purpose was probably just theft.

Because the victim couple had to be at the shop all day and only returned home late at night.

But the culprit didn't expect that the wife suddenly ran a high fever, and the husband brought her home after she received an IV drip.

In addition, the victim couple tried to resist, so the theft turned into a murder and robbery.

If it was a planned theft, then the culprit must have scouted the area beforehand.

So the culprit must know that there are three routes to transport the bodies of the victim couple from here to that construction site.

But the riverside road nearby was under repair.

On Changjiang Road, there were special police cars patrolling.

Only Huanghe Road, the road he was standing on, had few people and vehicles passing by, so the culprit would very likely choose this road.

Second, how many culprits were there?

Two.

Although the police didn't mention this in the announcement, the resident group of the neighborhood he rented had gossiped about this a lot recently.

A resident in the group said that her mother-in-law lived opposite the victim couple's house.

At around 6:08 PM on May 1, her mother-in-law had just picked up her child and returned home when she heard a loud noise coming from the building opposite. At that time, she only thought someone was chopping ribs, because the noise lasted for nearly ten minutes. She couldn't help but tell her husband that the family must be very rich, otherwise who would dare eat a whole rack of ribs in one meal.

In other words, the culprit took ten minutes to dismember the two victims.

This indicated that only one person was performing this task.

But there must have been another person acting as a lookout and backup.

In other words, whether rushing straight into the victim's house or running to that abandoned construction site to fight the culprit, both were bad ideas.

Reporting to the police directly was a mediocre plan.

Because afterward, he would have to make up countless lies to explain to the police how he knew about this.

So he had to think of another way.

Lian Chi raised his head again to look at the electronic screen of the Qianshi Commercial Bank not far away.

"May 1, 2023, 18:20."

At this time, the culprit had probably loaded all the bodies of the victim couple into the car.

So a dozen seconds later, Lian Chi stood in front of a fruit stall.

"Buying lychees?"

The saleswoman warmly invited him: "This is all that's left today. Although they are a bit small, they are still very fresh. If you buy them all, I'll give you a discount..."

She glanced at Lian Chi's sharp facial features: "...A 30% discount."

Lian Chi smiled: "I'll take them all."

Then, he carried a large bag of lychees back to the intersection just now.

Third, the vehicle used by the culprit must be a car.

Only a closed car could contain two corpses and two living people.

Fourth, that car must be very old.

Because those who were so poor that they had to steal and rob to survive couldn't afford a good car.

Fifth, the license plate was highly likely a local plate.

Because if they weren't familiar with that construction site and didn't know that burying the bodies there would make them hard to detect, the culprit wouldn't have risked transporting the bodies more than ten kilometers away.

So the culprit was very likely a local.

Finally, because the culprit had accidentally killed someone, their psychological state at this moment must still be panic and tension.

For example, the van slowly approaching him and the driver sitting in the driver's seat.

Looking closely at the front of the van, sure enough, it was a local license plate.

Lian Chi paused for a second.

That little girl's luck wasn't bad either.

Immediately after, he stood up.

And just as he stood up, the bag in his hand suddenly fell, and lychees scattered all over the ground.

Lian Chi immediately rushed out.

Seeing this, the driver reflexively slammed on the brakes.

The driver quickly reacted and honked his horn loudly: "Do you want to die!"

Lian Chi hurriedly picked up the lychees on the ground while raising his left hand in apology.

Perhaps because it was a red light and they were also planning to stop, the driver only cursed and let it go.

But the driver didn't expect that the red light had turned green, and Lian Chi was still picking up lychees.

The driver was a bit impatient and honked his horn continuously.

The harsh horn echoed throughout the intersection.

Many pedestrians frowned, let alone Lian Chi.

He glanced at the driver, and the movement of his hands not only didn't speed up but slowed down.

Wasn't this a blatant provocation?

The driver was clearly also a hot-tempered person. He rolled down the window and cursed, "Damn it, are you going to get out of the way? If you don't, I'll run you over, do you believe me?"

Hearing this, Lian Chi stood up, threw the remaining lychees on the ground, and walked toward the van, as if he wanted to teach the driver a lesson.

The tall, thin man sitting in the back seat seemed more rational than the driver.

But before he could stop the driver, they heard Lian Chi say, "What's the rush? Are you in a rush to rob a bank or in a rush to dispose of a body!"

Hearing the words "dispose of a body," the pupils of the driver and the tall, thin man contracted almost at the same time.

But the most important thing was, the next second, they heard Lian Chi say, "What is this smell?"

Lian Chi frowned, walked around the front of the car, intending to poke his head into the car.

The driver panicked and instinctively stepped on the gas, and the car rushed out.

Although Lian Chi quickly dodged to the side, he was still grazed by the front of the car.

But Lian Chi no longer cared about the bloody wound on his left leg.

He only knew one thing.

That was, he could now rightfully report to the police.

But just two seconds later, he lowered his phone again.

Because at this moment, the van rushed out and collided with a small pickup truck that ran a red light.

After a crash, the pickup truck stopped, and the van swayed, rushing forward.

Then another crash, and the van crashed into a bus shelter not far from Lian Chi.

The front windshield shattered, the rusted back door also burst open, and the things wrapped in blankets and bedsheets inside also flew out and fell all over the ground. A human head rolled onto the sidewalk.

Hearing the noise, many pedestrians stopped.

They looked down.

"Ah!!!"

In an instant, seven or eight screams rang out, drowning out the sound of brakes and horns around.

Immediately after, many people vomited on the spot.

Lian Chi's gaze also couldn't help but become blank.

He reached out to take a cigarette and pressed the wheel of the lighter.

"Click."

But there was no fire.

Only then did he realize.

He didn't smoke, nor did he know how to smoke.

So he threw the cigarette into the trash can beside him.

The middle-aged man beside him who had just had his cigarette and lighter snatched: "..."

"Hey buddy, can you be a bit polite?"