Chapter 103: It is indeed a provocation to the police

They continued discussing until almost three in the morning, when everyone started yawning. Zhong Xiaoyu had shared almost all the information she had found out in the past few years, and then everyone went back to their rooms to sleep.

After a quick few hours of sleep, everyone gathered in the hotel restaurant at eight in the morning, filling their stomachs and chatting.

Perhaps her brain had rebooted. As Guan Xia was sitting in a chair peeling an egg, she suddenly thought of something and looked up at Zhong Xiaoyu, who was sitting diagonally across from her. "I just realized now. Your last name is Zhong, and your uncle's last name is Zhong too. You took your mother's surname?"

Zhong Xiaoyu ate very quickly. Guan Xia had only taken two mouthfuls of the porridge when the bowl and plate in front of her were already empty.

As she ate the last bit of broccoli, Zhong Xiaoyu said, "My mom was such a strong-willed person. Probably because she was raised with sons being favored over daughters, her lifelong obsession was to live a respectable life. And she actually did it. A country girl, she eventually became a school principal. She truly dedicated her life to her career in education. She couldn't stand seeing people around her favoring sons over daughters, so maybe she wanted to set an example. Anyway, I've had her last name since I was little, and I'm her only child."

Pang Le listened with admiration, "Your mother is really amazing. She was a victim of son preference herself, but she firmly opposed it. Unlike some of my relatives back home, who were clearly victims themselves, but ended up becoming perpetrators after giving birth to a daughter. I really can't understand it."

"I've been brainwashed," Zhong Xiaoyu said casually. "Also, I haven't read much. My mom told me that the more you read, the more you'll form your own ideas and be determined to implement them. That way, you won't be easily influenced by outsiders. Anyway, that's how I am now. I don't care what my dad's relatives say. I just treat them as bullshit."

In the following time, Pang Le and Zhong Xiaoyu seemed to have found a confidant, and they got along better and better as they talked. Guan Xia was usually a man of few words, but she listened very attentively. After everyone finished eating and put down their chopsticks, she realized belatedly that she was a little full.

Leaving the hotel and heading towards the parking lot, Guan Xia saw Xu Nian finally put down his phone after a busy morning, so she asked, "Where are we going now? Directly to the police station in charge of this case?"

Xu Nian glanced at the time and said, "Director Ren just replied to me. The process has just been completed. It will take some time to communicate with the colleagues at the Tong'an Branch. Let's go to the crime scene where the new victim was found. I heard it's an unfinished villa area at the foot of a mountain. Generally speaking, serial killers have a habit of returning to the scene. Let's go over there and take a look. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to run into them."

As Xu Nian finished speaking, the eyes of several people, including Ji An, subconsciously turned to Guan Xia and Pang Le.

Wang Yu even muttered quietly, "Guan Xia plus Pang Le, the buffs are fully stacked, maybe it's really possible."

With inexplicable hope, everyone got into two cars and drove to the crime scene in the suburbs at high speed.

Avoiding the morning rush hour, they reached their destination in just an hour. Driving through the bumpy road due to years of disrepair, Guan Xia couldn't wait to jump out as soon as Zhong Xiaoyu stopped the car. While relieving the discomfort in her stomach, she observed her surroundings.

This is one of the small hills in a mountain range. It is not very high and has a very gentle slope. It should be covered with green trees in midsummer, but Guan Xia noticed that a large hillside behind the villa area was actually withered and yellow in color. There were faint traces of charred dead trees and dug-up soil, which looked like a large forest fire had occurred there.

Guan Xia was watching intently when he heard Ji An say, "This mountain is called Xiao Cui Feng. Because it's relatively flat, many people from Jianyang City like to come here for camping and fishing. Six years ago, a developer saw this place as remote, but because it had a beautiful environment and a certain amount of traffic, they developed a villa area. But halfway through the development, a wildfire broke out. After the fire was put out, they discovered a cemetery."

Ji An pointed at the huge, withered yellow patch, which looked like a green leaf with an ugly burnt hole. "See those holes dug one after another? That's the cemetery that was later discovered. The fire started because someone visited the graves during Qingming Festival and didn't put out the fire properly. The wind blew and a large area burned. After the fire was put out, the graves were moved."

Guan Xia looked at the ugly yellowish color and thought that this developer was really unlucky. Although Ji An had not finished speaking, Guan Xia had already thought of it.

The villa area was built in such a place for the sake of a good environment, but now the environment has been destroyed, and the front and back areas used to be a cemetery. For some discerning people, unless they have no other choice, it is impossible to buy a place like this where accidents happen one after another during the development period.

Sure enough, Ji An's next words were exactly the same as what Guan Xia had thought.

After a quick look around, everyone headed in groups towards the desolate villa area covered with weeds.

It was obvious that this developer had invested heavily with full confidence. Generally, projects would be divided into one, two or three phases, but this villa area was built on a large scale from the beginning. Although many facilities were still just basic, they were really connected. Guan Xia tried his best to look far away, but it seemed as if there was no end in sight.

At first, everyone's attention was focused on the case, but after walking for a while, Pang Le couldn't help but ask, "With such a large-scale project right from the start, this developer must have lost everything and gone bankrupt. In my stereotypical impression, businesspeople like developers should be shrewd and cunning. How could they make such a stupid mistake? They didn't even notice there was a cemetery on the mountain. Didn't they conduct an on-site inspection?"

"It's an old graveyard," Ji An explained. "It seems everyone fled during the Republic of China era, and only discovered it later when life settled down. But over the years, the mounds have flattened, and the tombstones have long since fallen over. Covered by shrubs, it's really hard to tell. Later generations thought it was too troublesome to repair the graves in such a remote area, so they simply removed the grass and came to burn paper during Tomb-Sweeping Day. They rarely come at other times."

Pang Le sighed after hearing this, "That's really bad luck. I don't know how much it will cost to buy such a large piece of land."

Guan Xia's legs were almost sore from walking while chatting, and he finally arrived at the crime scene where the deceased was found.

Guan Xia took a look at the location and felt that it was almost the end of the villa area. The body of an adult could not be transported in by manpower alone. The murderer must have a means of transportation.

Guan Xia was analyzing seriously when he heard footsteps coming from the villa in front of him. From the sound, it seemed that there was only one person.

Guan Xia was shocked and subconsciously thought that the murderer had returned to the scene. The others obviously had the same idea.

I saw several people rushing towards the villa in a very synchronized manner, almost like a slingshot. Guan Xia reacted a little slowly, and when she arrived a few steps behind, she did not see a group of people pinning down a person, but Xu Nian was shaking hands with a middle-aged man of medium height and thin build, and was saying something with a friendly expression.

Guan Xia was confused for a few seconds, and after listening to the two people talking for a few more words, she realized that the man in front of her was a criminal police officer from the Tong'an District Branch in charge of this case. He came to the crime scene to look for any missed clues, and by the way, to try his luck to see if he could run into the murderer who had returned to the scene.

After a few pleasantries, Jiang Yingyao asked curiously, "Captain Yang, why are you alone? Did you come with no one else this time?"

The middle-aged detective known as Captain Yang said, "I brought someone here. She's on the second floor. She's easily lost in her own thoughts, and I can't sit still. I was afraid of disturbing her by walking around, so I decided to go downstairs and wait."

Guan Xia listened to his words and subconsciously looked up at the stairs leading to the second floor. If Captain Yang hadn't said that, she would have really thought that Captain Yang was the only one in the villa. After all, they had been in there for a few minutes, and there was such a loud noise, but there was no movement from the second floor from beginning to end.

After briefly diverting his attention, Guan Xia continued to listen attentively to the conversation between Xu Nian and Captain Yang.

Xu Nian asked, "Captain Yang, I wonder if you received a call from Director Ren. This time we..."

Captain Yang looked a little thin, but he was a decisive man. Before Xu Nian could finish his words, he was interrupted by him.

"We knew about this last night," Captain Yang said with a smile, "We welcome you very much. Captain Xu, you don't know how complicated this case is. We were worried about manpower. You've arrived just in time."

Everyone was perked up by what they heard. Xu Nian hurriedly asked, "What do you mean? There are many directions to investigate this case."

Captain Yang hummed, "This case is very complicated. There are seven bodies in total, and this time it's eight, but there are also two murderers."

Everyone was shocked, "Two murderers?"

"Yes," Captain Yang said, "and we have sufficient evidence to show that the two murderers did not act together. They may not even know each other. There is a high possibility that the second murderer is copying the first murderer."

This was beyond everyone's expectations. Jiang Yingyao asked, "Was the previous case a big deal? It should have been kept secret until it was solved. Many clues and details were impossible for outsiders to know except for insiders. Or was the case reported in the newspaper?"

Jiang Yingyao paused, reminiscing, and said, "I don't have any recollection. If there really was a report of a murder case with such bloody and brutal methods, I would definitely have remembered it."

Captain Yang said, "It didn't make the news. Our Jianyang City Bureau leaders handled it quickly and suppressed the news before it was even published. However, due to the unusual location where the body was dumped, it still caused quite a stir in the city."

Wang Yu asked, "Is the location where the body was dumped special? How is it special?"

"It was in a haunted house in a newly built amusement park," Captain Yang said. "That happened in 2009. Jianyang City was attracting investment and opened a chain of amusement parks in the north of the city, near a newly opened shopping mall and a highway intersection. Because we wanted to catch the National Day holiday, the construction schedule was very tight, and a lot of the infrastructure was hastily installed. We only discovered later that three-quarters of the installed surveillance cameras were not working. We don't know how the murderer got the body in. Anyway, the body was found on the first day of opening, and the tourists had been playing for a long time. It was a medical student who noticed something was wrong. He took a closer look and saw that the rigor mortis had eased. That's when the police were called."

Because of the professional knowledge involved, Guan Xia was a little confused. Ji An moved closer and explained, "The rigor mortis resolves after more than 24 hours of death, which means the haunted house in the amusement park is not the primary crime scene."

Guan Xia nodded in sudden realization. From Captain Yang's brief words, she could tell that the murderer must be very familiar with this newly built amusement park, and must have had some special purpose in mind, which is why he chose to dump the body in the haunted house of an amusement park with a huge flow of people and which was open during the National Day Golden Week.

Guan Xia felt a little creepy when she imagined the scene. She put herself in their shoes and thought, if she and Pang Le were playing and suddenly heard a scream behind them, and then asked and found out that the scary prop they had just seen was actually a real corpse, they would probably have nightmares for several days.

Guan Xia shook off the horrifying images in his mind and continued to listen with his ears perked up while analyzing the situation in his mind.

No wonder the case caused such a sensation. With so many witnesses who saw the body, the Jianyang Municipal Bureau responded very quickly by suppressing the news. In addition, the body was kept in the haunted house for a long time, with so many tourists coming and going, even if there were any clues, they would have been destroyed. What's more, there were not many surveillance cameras that could be used. The murderer was not only cruel, but also very cunning, and was even provoking the police.

Xu Nian and Captain Yang were still discussing the case.

Xu Nian asked, "Is this the first death in this case?"

Captain Yang nodded. "The forensic doctor from the Municipal Bureau has determined from the wounds that we found a total of eight bodies, including the one from the day before yesterday. They belong to two murderers. The first murderer committed Case 1001 in 2009, Case 0501 in 2012, Case 0404 in 2015, and Case 0913 in 2019. The second murderer appeared in 2017. Compared to the first murderer, his crime schedule is completely irregular. In 2017 alone, he used extremely cruel and crude imitation methods to kill two people, one person in 2019, and two people the day before yesterday."

When Guan Xia heard Captain Yang say the word "rule", she understood something and almost immediately took out her cell phone and started checking the calendar with Pang Lezhong and Xiaoyu.

Zhong Xiaoyu was indeed worthy of being a member of the armed police force. Her finger speed was also a little faster than her and Pang Le. Guan Xia had just turned to 2019 when she heard Zhong Xiaoyu whisper, "I found out that September 13th of 2019 is the Mid-Autumn Festival."

Guan Xia recalled, wow, National Day, May Day, Qingming Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, this is really a very regular pattern, they must choose holidays to cause trouble for everyone.

Putting away her phone, Guan Xia heard Wang Yu ask, "In 2009, the murderer dumped the body into the haunted house in the amusement park. What about the other three bodies?"

Guan Xia immediately pricked up his ears and looked at Captain Yang intently.

Team Yang replied, "In 2012, it was a scenic spot, in 2015 it was near a temple, and in 2019 it was on the side of a highway."

Guan Xia exclaimed in his heart when he heard this. Wow, these three remaining corpse dumping sites are all places with extremely large traffic during holidays, or places with a certain significance. Even the most ordinary-looking highway is the road that most people will choose to go home for family reunion during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Guan Xia had only suspected it before, but now she is completely certain that the murderer is very arrogant and is indeed provoking the police.