*****CONTENT WARNING: brief but graphic descriptions of gore******
“Can you confirm the identity of the deceased?”
“The deceased is Jing Hezhuang, a vagrant. He was twenty-six years old, from South City. The mother has not yet been contacted, and the father passed away three years ago.”
Chen Kun threw a glance at the corpse. Without a doubt, the corpse was Jack’s work. The deceased’s jaw was broken, the tongue pierced by needles, and the crown of the head punctured seven times by a western-style cooking knife. A note was stuck to the deceased’s forehead, but this time, it was in Chinese.
“A service to the people.”
Chen Kun laughed coldly: “A service to the people? They can really talk it up! Take care of the evidence on the body and send the fingerprints in for comparison.”
Xue Yunxin adeptly wrapped up the body, and a few trainees helped her carefully carry the body away.
“This Jack really is too ruthless…” Even a man like Li Yang, over a meter eighty, still shook slightly when thinking about it. What kind of monster was Jack, able to render a big man down to this state? And, looking at the state of decomposition of the body, it couldn’t have been three or four days since the murder. If a group of scavengers hadn’t come this morning, looking to steal some things to exchange for money, then the body may never have been discovered!
“This type of man, it’s good he died!” Song Nuan put her hands on her hips, a disgusted look on her face.
“Playing with girls’ emotions, death is too good for him! Dying eight hundred times isn’t enough! This Jack actually did a good thing, a service to the people, indeed!”
Li Yang looked at Song Nuan: “What do you mean?”
“This Jing Hezhuang isn’t some sort of high-level company executive. He’s just a swindling pretty boy who uses women’s money to fund his public image! Absolutely nauseating! Pah!”
Xue Yunxin looked at her and couldn’t help but laugh. Song Nuan is the type of person to love and hate wholeheartedly, with a frank and outspoken personality. That was exactly what made the daughter of the Song Group so charming.
But Xue Yunxin wasn’t thinking about Jack right now; she was thinking of Li Ai, as well as the case concerning her roommate. There still hadn’t been any progress. Rather, none of Jack’s cases have made any progress.
Right now, they were like sheep wandering aimlessly about while an unknown doom awaits them ahead. This doom was bone-chilling and gruesome, a terrifying state of death. The truth…
Perhaps the only one who could understand Xue Yunxin’s thoughts right now would be Li Ai.
Over four days had passed since the event, and she hadn’t had a single night of good sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see the corpses of Xin Zhiying and Jing Hezhuang. They grabbed her by the neck, their voices full of resentment as they interrogated her, asking why she wanted to kill them.
These nightmares tormented her. From beginning to end, she didn’t dare to believe that she had really become a killer. How could she face Xue Yunxin like this?
“Are you satisfied? You’ve really turned into a murderer?You’ve let Officer Xue down!” Over and over again, she reprimanded herself for being useless.
“Li Ai! Stop!” She turned her head and saw Hu Wenning.
Hu Wenning pulled Li Ai into a corner: “Li Ai, you killed Xin Zhiying, didn’t you!”
Li Ai’s head buzzed, and she hastily quibbled: “You-You’re talking nonsense! You-You always bully me! You’re just messing with me again!”
Hu Wenning tightened her grip on her shoulder: “It has to be you! It was only you two in the room at the time! Who else could it be? You really expect me to believe it was Jack? Only you could believe something like that!” She pushed her away.
Li Ai looked at her for a while without speaking, but in her heart, she had already steeled herself. No! I can’t expose myself! She’d already cleaned up the crime scene. This matter cannot be exposed!
“You think that if you don’t say anything, nothing will happen to you? I saw that you’ve been close to that Officer Xue lately. What do you think would happen if I told her about this?”
“What do you..want?”
Hu Wenning grinned: “How about this, we don’t have any kind of deep-seated hatred. If you give me thirty thousand, I’ll forget about the whole thing! Thirty thousand isn’t a lot, and this kind of transaction would benefit both of us! Your outfit looks new, and expensive too! Thirty thousand is nothing to you. Right, my dear roommate?”
Li Ai looked at her. It’s easy to change mountains and rivers, but difficult to change a person’s personality…She’d guessed it earlier, that the only thing Hu Wenning thought about, other than money, was more money. She was born with an abacus in hand, and she would never let go of an opportunity to make some money for herself. She ought to have thought of it sooner, and she shouldn’t have placed any hopes on someone like this…how could she be this idiotic?!
Li Ai smiled coldly: “Okay! I’ll give it to you. At 9:30 tonight, wait for me in the old fine arts classroom.”
“A service to the people!”
“This kind of person should die!”
These two phrases endlessly reverberated in Li Ai’s head. Actually, there wasn’t a need for her to go through the trouble. After all, she had already taken care of the crime scene. She didn’t leave behind any fingerprints, and she simply hadn’t thought to leave behind Jack’s signature note. Her hands were already covered in blood; she couldn’t turn back now. She thought of how Hu Wenning had treated her…She was Xin Zhiying’s accomplice. What difference was there between them?! Both of them should die!
“Ai, I knew you weren’t stupid!” Hu Wenning said before strolling away with a smile on her face. She completely missed Jiang Qinglan, who was concealed off to the side, enjoying the entertainment.
Under normal circumstances, students returned to the dorms at 9:30 at night, but because of the ongoing criminal cases, the university shifted the time to two hours earlier. Additionally, the university asked the police to patrol near the school grounds, but other than the blue and red police lights, there was nothing nearby.
Hu Wenning arrived at the old fine arts classroom early to wait for Li Ai, cursing her out in her head. That freak, it’s like we’re drug traffickers!
“You’re here early.” Li Ai called out from behind her. Hu Wenning turned her head: “You’re so slow, where’s the money ⸺ huh?” When she had turned her head, she saw Li Ai, but what she was holding wasn’t a packet of her precious money. She was holding a sharp dagger.
“You! What’re you doing?!”
Li Ai said as she stepped closer: “Hu Wenning, your head must be full of water instead of brains. Why would you do business with me, a murderer? And threatening me? You aren’t afraid of me killing the witness?”
Before Hu Wenning could react, Li Ai raised her hand and plunged the knife into Hu Wenning’s abdomen.
“Ahhhhhh!” Hu Wenning screamed, pushing away Li Ai, who was smaller than her, before rushing toward the door. Just as she felt hope kindle within herself, it was suddenly dosed mercilessly ⸺ Jiang Qinglan lifted a foot and kicked her back inside.
Jiang Qinglan entered the fine arts building classroom, closing the door behind her. Hu Wenning lost all hope.
“Guten Abend, Wenning.” Jiang Qinglan walked up to her and stepped on her head: “It’s time for the exam~”
Hu Wenning looked at Jiang Qinglan for a moment, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
“Teacher…Teacher…” Hu Wenning’s tears continued to fall as she repeated this word over and over. Jiang Qinglan squatted down, tenderly stroking Hu Wenning’s head: “Did Teacher scare you?”
Li Ai looked on coldly. She stabbed the dagger into Hu Wenning’s leg fiercely: “You run too fast.”
Jiang Qinglan laughed as she stood back up, praising her disciple: “Good, just as I instructed.”
Li Ai looked at Hu Wenning for a while before muttering: “How did I offend you guys? Why did you treat me like that?!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Li Ai, I’m apologizing to you! I’m sorry! Please, have mercy!”
Ridiculous! Laughable! If they had known what would happen to them, of course they would regret it! Of course they would realize their error!
She sealed Hu Wenning’s mouth shut with the tape she had prepared, then began working on her masterpiece…
……
By the time the police found the body, Hu Wenning’s four limbs had already been cut off, her abdomen torn into an open cavity. Inside her womb was a fetus…
“Fuck! What the fuck?!” Li Yang covered his mouth: “What the fuck is that?!”
“What about it, come give me a hand!” Song Nuan handled the corpse, unconcerned with taboos: “I never thought that this girl, who could put up such a fight…would meet an end like this.”
“What’s in her stomach?!”
Xue Yunxin came over to help out: “An undeveloped fetus.”
“Huh?!” Li Yang got goosebumps: “Yunxin, don’t scare me like that!”
“I’m not scaring you! It’s true!” Xue Yunxin finished sealing up the body bag, then handed it over to be carried away. “Who was on duty last night?”
“Liu Yue and Yang Feng.”
“Hey, tonight it’s me and Xiao Nuan. Xiao Nuan won’t hold you up, will she?” Xue Yunxin looked over at Song Nuan. “Ah? I won’t!”
“Okay, that’s good!” On the way to the school, Xue Yunxin thought to herself, she should go see Li Ai and Jiang Qinglan. She’ll make some food and bring some over to them. More importantly, she can find Li Ai and go over some things with her…
“Hey, Li Ai. Are you at school? How about this…”
Xue Yunxin arranged to meet Li Ai at the entrance of the library, but Jiang Qinglan arrived before Li Ai did.
“Yunxin! What are you doing here?” Jiang Qinglan went over to embrace Xue Yunxin: “You didn’t tell me you’d be here…”
“Qing-Qinglan…” She’d originally planned to come see her when she was finished with official business, but she didn’t expect to suddenly run into her here.
“Did you come here to see me?” Jiang Qinglan’s hands encircled Xue Yunxin’s neck. She’d dressed up today because she knew that her officer would definitely come today.
Xue Yunxin looked at Jiang Qinglan: “Qinglan…there was another one…from your class” She didn’t know how to answer Jiang Qinglan. She should be scared…
“Ah…who was it?”
“Hu Wenning…”
“Hu Wenning?” Jiang Qinglan spent a moment in thought: “Ah, I remember her. The one who always cuts my class!”
“I received the report this morning.” Xue Yunxin lowered her hat. It was a habit of hers. Everytime she felt depressed or shy, she would conceal her expression like this. After all, her emotions were written all over her face.
Jiang Qinglan lifted her face, giving her a peck on the tip of her nose: “It’s alright, Yunxin, you’re doing your best. At the end of this month, I will be going elsewhere to teach.”
Xue Yunxin understood. This school reeked with the smell of blood, and anyone would think of their own blood pooling inside it. “Okay, I will support all of your decisions!”
Jiang Qinglan had just opened her mouth to speak when she saw Li Ai walking over.
“Off-Officer Xue…” When Li Ai saw Jiang Qinglan standing beside Xue Yunxin, she felt like she had woken up from a long dream. The smile on her face froze little by little. Before coming over, she had especially worn the dress that Xue Yunxin had purchased for her, but now she felt that not wearing it was the correct choice.
She still remembered Jiang Qinglan’s warning to her that night.
T/N: R.I.P cannon fodder #3. Also, I wish the cops weren’t so dumb in this novel…