Chapter 103 Li Yuanzhi

Tu Lanxun returned to the guesthouse, and Xiao Zhang and An Feng came to greet her. After changing the medicine, Li Ao leaned aside and pressed her cell phone. Several people had received her message five minutes ago.

"If we find Adan, can we follow the clues to find Qianniu and then find their second nest in Western Province?" Tu Lanxun asked.

Li Ao's brows were furrowed. On the other end of the phone, he was talking to Wen Chong. He nodded briefly, "Yes, we can retrieve the surveillance footage along the street."

Tu Lanxun wasn't sure if he was talking to Wen Chong or to himself. Li Ao put down his phone and said to Tu Lanxun, "Adan has shown up in Lucheng."

"Huh?" Tu Lanxun was stunned. "When?"

Li Ao said, "Today, no, I landed at Lucheng International Airport last night."

So her investigation was in vain? Ah, at least she busted a den of adultery.

Adan and the others felt that the situation in the Western Province was too tense, so they returned to the East to hide?

"Director Wen just arrived in Lucheng. She's leading a team to search the street surveillance cameras and traffic cameras." Li Ao adjusted the bandage and said, "It's only a matter of time before we find Ah Dan. There's another thing going on. There's new information in Lucheng, and Director Wen is urging you to return quickly."

Tu Lanxun asked, "What? And wait, don't you think that's too much of a coincidence?"

"What coincidence?" Li Ao asked.

Tu Lanxun said directly: "We just found out about Adan's whereabouts and discovered the existence of Qianniu and the West Province base. Adan took the initiative to show up in Lucheng. It seems like he is trying to lure us back."

Xiao Zhang clapped his hands: "Lure the tiger away from the mountain!"

"Yes, it was Adan who returned to Lucheng, not Qianniu himself. Adan may have just diverted the police's attention to facilitate Qianniu to continue his illegal activities in Western Province." An Feng nodded.

Tu Lanxun was still struggling, "What should I do with Song Siyu and Nan Shaochen?"

"Their situation has been reported to the Tourism Administration. Wen Chong's subordinate, Xiao Zhao, is on her way here. She will take over your mission." Li Ao curled his lips, unconcerned. "Let's outmaneuver the Tianguo Group! Return!"

The matter in Western Province has been handed over to the local police. It is said that the Capital Gaming Administration will continue to send people, most likely leaders of the same level as Wenchong, but all operations will be secretive.

At 2:30 in the morning, Tu Lanxun, Li Ao and the other two boarded the plane back to Lucheng.

"That's a lot better than before." Xiao Zhang leaned against the window. "But why don't we go business class? If it's an emergency call, the travel expenses will be reimbursed. I've never been business class before."

Li Ao glared at her and said speechlessly, "It's good enough that you can sit in economy class. Does business class fly faster than economy class? If you're still picky, then sit in the cargo hold!"

Xiao Zhang stopped talking, tore the sweet bread handed out by the flight attendant, and ordered another cup of Coke.

There were actually two empty seats on the red-eye flight. Tu Lanxun looked at the silhouette of N who was invisible occupying the seats across the seats. The plane kept climbing in altitude, and the turbulence and the late nights made it difficult to fall asleep. Her elbows kept bumping into passengers going to and from the bathroom.

It was not appropriate to talk about work on the plane, so they did not wait until they landed in Lucheng a few hours later. The dawn was already dim outside the airport. The four of them were yawning and waiting for their suitcases by the turntable. When they got out of the terminal, they saw Lao Wei who came to pick them up. He drove a blue and white seven-seater car.

"How's the situation with Bu Linlin?" Li Ao asked as soon as they met.

Lao Wei helped them put the suitcases away and got in the car before answering, "Not so good. This is the fourth one. There must be more we haven't found yet."

Tu Lanxun asked, "Who is Bu Linlin?"

Li Ao took a sip of mineral water before finally explaining the case. "Bu Linlin is a neurological research expert at Capital Medical University. Her research project for the past two years has been a cross-disciplinary forensic medicine study, studying the neural changes before and after death—and the impact of soul separation on these changes."

He pondered for a moment, "In other words, Bu Linlin has another identity: the deputy director of the research institute under the Game Administration Bureau."

The expert came to Lucheng for the "living dead" cases in Lucheng and surrounding areas.

After Tu Lanxun and others went to Western Province, some people around Lucheng reported that their family members had fallen asleep and never woke up, and were in a half-asleep and half-wakeful state in their dreams, such as delirium, sleepwalking, or even disappeared due to sleepwalking.

"These people could not be awakened, and no results were found even after being sent to the hospital for examination. The preliminary conclusion now is that it may be related to the strange incidents," said Li Ao.

It turned out that Tu Lanxun was urgently called back for this matter. Her eyes subconsciously turned to N, and she was deep in thought before finally saying, "Then let's go now."

Li Ao sighed and said, "You should take a break first. You've been working non-stop for a few days. I'll give you half a day off. Report to the bureau on time at 1 pm."

Tu Lanxun rubbed her red eyes. She felt nauseous in her throat due to insomnia and fatigue. She knew that her face looked horrible, but she didn't refuse and went back to the convenience store first.

She hadn't forgotten what happened at the bath center, so she went straight back to the third floor to take a shower. The little cat, Ghost Potato Pancake, kept meowing and scratching at the door outside. When Tu Lanxun came out wrapped in a bath towel, the ghost cat, Ghost Potato Pancake, who was bypassed, bared his fangs and gave her wet calf a friendly bite.

"Meow!" It puffed up its kitten face and gave way fiercely.

Tu Lanxun set the alarm and collapsed onto the bed without even blowing her hair. Darkness surged in.

In a daze, she felt someone beside her, slowly wiping her hair with a soft towel, again and again.

After being awakened by the alarm clock, Tu Lanxun finally felt fully revived. She turned over and sat up, prepared for her hair to be messy, but it was surprisingly dry. She raised her eyebrows, changed into clean clothes and ran downstairs.

The computer ghost was fulfilling her earlier claim for "mental damages," unpacking bags of snacks at the cash register. A ghost in the checkout line next to her smiled and said, "Boss, you're finally back. Was your trip fun?"

"It's so fun." Tu Lanxun's face twitched. He said hello to them and went out with the bread.

The silver-gray Jetta was on the road, and the familiar scenery on both sides receded at a constant speed. Tu Lanxun felt the familiar space, and only then did he feel a sense of security as if he were home.

N sat in the passenger seat, puffing furiously on incense sticks. Tu Lanxun took the time to ask, "Do you understand that situation where you fall asleep and can't wake up?"

N replied: "I haven't seen it myself, but it sounds like someone's soul has been sucked out."

Tu Lanxun slapped the steering wheel. "Oh, yeah, Zhang Xiaohuai had the same symptoms before." She remembered, "But there's a difference. These unconscious people can sleepwalk or even disappear. It's so scary."

She chattered all the way to the South Branch. There were several police cars parked at the door. Li Ao was getting into one of them. Tu Lanxun glanced at the time and found that she was not late.

"What's going on?"

Li Ao saw that it was her and waved his hand, "Forget about you, just follow me, something happened in the north of the city."

The incident occurred in an old residential area in the north of the city. The person who called the police was the victim's mother, who was standing at the entrance of the community, accompanied by two police officers from the police station and community property staff. People around her were watching and talking. The mother, who was in her forties, was crying so hard that she couldn't straighten her back.

The police officer came forward and said, "Captain Li, it's on the fourth floor." He pointed to the old building behind him.

They briefly introduced the situation. The person who reported the case was surnamed Li, Li Xiaohong, and rented a house in this old school district, mainly to accompany his son, Li Yuanzhi, who was in his senior year of high school.

Li Yuanzhi is a student at a key high school nearby and has excellent grades. After returning home from evening study yesterday, he briefly read a book and went back to his room to sleep. Li Xiaohong also went to sleep after finishing her housework. But when she got up early the next morning, she wanted to check whether her son had secretly played with his mobile phone in the middle of the night. Who knew that when she opened the door, she found Li Yuanzhi dead in bed.

The forensic doctor walked out of the scene and said, "The cause of the death was hemorrhagic shock caused by a sharp stab wound to the chest. The murder weapon was likely a small knife with a blade about six centimeters long. No murder weapon was found at the scene."

Li Ao frowned, "Six centimeters? Too short."

The medical examiner shook his head, motioned for him to put on his overshoes and come in. He knelt on one knee beside the bed and gestured, "Look at this wound. It's a mess. The edges are very unclear, and the corners are blunt, but the wound path is just wide enough to injure the internal organs."

The medical examiner gestured, "Two stabs, not consecutive. The first knife was fully withdrawn before the second was stabbed. The killer exerted tremendous force. The handle of the knife was completely embedded in the victim."

Li Ao took a look and frowned. "What a huge vengeance this must be. And the murderer must be proficient in knife handling or familiar with the human body structure. A knife inserted into the chest could easily get stuck in the sternum or ribs."

The medical examiner agreed, "Yes, based on the on-scene observations, the murderer's stabbing was relatively smooth, but we need to return to the forensic office for further examination to determine if there were any scratches on the bones."

Li Ao walked around the boy's bedroom. The bloodstains were completely absorbed by the bed and bedding. Only a few drops splashed on the floor and headboard. There were no blood drops anywhere else. There were traces of repeated wiping with a knife on the quilt, but no fingerprints.

"The murderer should have been wearing gloves," said the officer from the physical evidence department. "No fingerprints were found on the door, bedside, or bedding. But he was wearing a pair of slippers."

The pattern of the slippers was extracted, and the size was one size fits all, the kind that most women and men can wear. After measuring the physical evidence, it was determined: "Judging from the depth of the pattern and the way the force was applied, the murderer had a size 39.5 foot and weighed..."

Li Ao's face was solemn. "Just give it an estimate. We'll do a more detailed test when we get back. I need to conduct an on-site investigation."

The physical evidence detective then said, "It's estimated to be between 140 and 160 kilograms."

A size 39.5 foot and an estimated weight of 150 kilograms put the investigation at a standstill. This data could be a woman with slightly larger feet or a man with smaller feet.

"To be able to hold down a high school boy like Li Yuanzhi, who's nearly 6'8", and even penetrate him with the knife handle, I suspect the killer is a man, otherwise he wouldn't have the strength," said Old Wei, gesturing to the basketball under Li Yuanzhi's desk. "The victim was a sports enthusiast, and he's incredibly strong. An average man wouldn't be able to restrain him."

Xiao Zhang shook his head. "Not necessarily. High school is the time when you're most sleep-deprived. He studies until very late every day. My sleep quality was exceptional during my senior year. I'd sleep through the day as soon as I closed my eyes and opened them again. Even if someone pushed me during the day, I wouldn't wake up. I was practically in a coma."

Li Ao leaned over to observe the victim's position and pondered, "When he was stabbed for the first time, Li Yuanzhi must have been asleep, or drowsy and paralyzed, and offered no resistance."

After confirming the location and taking photos, he put on a glove and held up one of Li Yuanzhi's hands. "Look, there's blood under his fingernails. He might have woken up around the time of the second stabbing, and he might have covered his wound or tried to resist."

"Let's go back and test whether there is the murderer's skin tissue inside," said the forensic doctor.

Li Ao came over to Tu Lanxun again. Tu Lanxun was observing the door. "The physical evidence just now said that there were no signs of damage to the door or windows."

Li Ao took off his gloves and asked, "Did you detect any... smell at the scene?"

Tu Lanxun shook his head.

They walked downstairs. Li Xiaohong had stopped crying. She was being supported by someone, her shoulders still shaking. She said, "It's all my fault. I slept too soundly last night. Wuuwuwu..."

"Madam, does anyone else have the key to your house?" Li Ao asked.

Li Xiaohong nodded with red eyes, "Yes, this is a rented house, and the landlord has a key."

Li Xiaohong and Li Yuanzhi's keys were both in their respective bags; they weren't lost. Li Ao sent someone to contact the landlord. Suddenly, Li Xiaohong became excited, grabbed Li Ao's wrist, and said, "I remember! Yuanzhi lost a key before, and his is a new one!"

There were indeed fresh cut marks on Li Yuanzhi's key. Li Ao asked, "Where did you lose it?"

Li Xiaohong immediately said, "He doesn't know either, but it should be at school. Our house is very close to the school, only a five-minute walk away. The probability of losing it at school is higher than losing it on the street! He came home from school that day and said he lost his keys, about a month ago..."

Li Ao nodded and took note. The detective on the other side came over and said a few words to Li Ao: "There is no metal powder from a new key in the keyhole of Li Xiaohong's house. Li Yuanzhi's current key was made a month ago, so there will be no trace of it."

Li Xiaohong burst into tears again and was helped to the car to rest. Li Ao asked, "Have you tried to pry open his door?"

"We've tried it," the evidence detective said. "His house has an old-fashioned security door. It takes time to pry it open, and it makes quite a bit of noise. But we've checked, and there's no sign of the keyhole being pried open."

In other words, if Li Xiaohong or Li Yuanzhi had not forgotten to lock the door last night and just closed it lightly, with the windows closed, the door would have been opened with an old key that had been used for a long time.

The landlord had one, and Li Yuanzhi lost one a month ago.

Li Ao asked Li Xiaohong to recall their family's social relationships and whether they had ever had any grudges with others. Li Xiaohong trembled all over, thought carefully, and said, "No, officer, I haven't offended anyone at work, and I have never blocked anyone's way. Yuanzhi is also very popular in school. He has good grades and is well-liked by teachers and classmates..."

Talking about her son, Li Xiaohong burst into tears again. Li Ao sighed and asked, "What about the neighbors?"

"Neighbors are out of the question," Li Xiaohong sobbed. "Most of the people living in this building are students preparing for exams and parents accompanying their children. They're all busy studying. Who has the time to cause trouble for others?"

Li Xiaohong was almost out of breath and was finally taken aside by a female police officer to rest. Li Ao glanced at Xiao Zhang and Lao Wei, who had just returned from their visit, and asked, "Is there anything wrong?"

Xiao Zhang, holding his notebook, glanced back and said sympathetically, "We just visited the neighbors in Li Xiaohong's apartment. Most of them are tenants and aren't familiar with Li Xiaohong and her son. The neighbors next door and across the street still have some impression of them. They all say that Li Xiaohong and Li Yuanzhi are gentle and quiet, come from ordinary families, and aren't talkative, but are quite polite. We haven't heard of them ever having any conflicts with anyone."

There are two units next to it, but it is unlikely that Li Ao knows Li Xiaohong and her son. Li Ao decided to visit them all, after all, some of the residents there might be Li Yuanzhi's classmates.

"Notify Li Yuanzhi's teacher to come over." He said as he walked.

Tu Lanxun followed the small group of people who were visiting. They knocked on the doors of the old ladies and old men who lived there, the doors of people who attended the key high school but did not know the victim, and the doors of gossipy people who came and started talking about all sorts of things to find out what happened.

To be honest, the effective information density is very low.

"Just now, his neighbors across the street and next door said they didn't hear any unusual noises last night?" Li Ao pondered. Tu Lanxun nodded. "That makes sense. Li Xiaohong herself wasn't woken up, so the murderer must have made very little noise. But... why was it Li Yuanzhi?"

Old Wei also said: "Yes, comparing Li Xiaohong and Li Yuanzhi, the thin, middle-aged woman is definitely easier to kill. I don't think it's an indiscriminate killing, it's premeditated and has a reason."

Li Ao reacted quickly, pondering, "Only Li Yuanzhi was killed, but Li Xiaohong was spared. This suggests the conflict arose within Li Yuanzhi's social relationships. Furthermore, if Li Xiaohong was killed last night to silence her, it would have been a mere incidental act. The murderer either had a clear target and didn't want to implicate others, or it was their first crime and they fled the scene in a hurry. The latter scenario contradicts the absence of fingerprints and the precision of the knife, so it must be a clear target."

"The key point is that Li Yuanzhi is a male high school student. Who could he have such a deep hatred with? The people he interacts with on a daily basis are all classmates. I don't think a high school student is capable of committing such a crime," said Tu Lanxun.

Xiao Zhang suddenly stopped, nearly tripping Old Wei. "Hey, is it possible that the murderer was actually targeting Li Xiaohong? His idea was to kill Li Xiaohong's only son and cause her to suffer for the rest of her life. Would that be more effective revenge than killing Li Xiaohong herself?"

Xiao Zhang's guess was not unreasonable. Several people were now on the fourth floor of the second unit, and only the two most marginal households were left to be visited. In fact, there was only a wall between this place and the fourth floor of the first unit.

The door on the left was knocked open first. A haggard-looking middle-aged man opened the door. Old Wei asked in surprise, "Dad Chen Yusheng, so this is where you live?"

After Lao Wei's introduction, they learned that Chen Yusheng was one of the four coma patients and was also studying at the provincial key high school nearby.

Chen Yusheng's father didn't let them in, but he could see that the house was empty and filled with instant noodle buckets. It was probably because Chen Yusheng's father was not in the mood to eat during the days he was in the hospital.

Li Ao asked, "Excuse me, do you know Li Xiaohong and Li Yuanzhi, mother and son, who live on the fourth floor of the next unit?"

Chen Yusheng's father took a long time to react, and finally an expression appeared on his numb face. He nodded, "Not really knowing him. I just know that boy is from the class next to our Chen Yusheng. Sometimes I see him at the restaurant downstairs."

He tried his best to hide the mess inside the room, his hands clasped on the front of his thighs. Li Ao saw that he was covering his trouser pockets and asked seriously, "What's in your pocket?"

Chen's father slowly untied his trouser pocket and, under the police's gaze, pulled out a fruit-green folding knife. The blade was exactly six centimeters long, single-edged, and sharp at the tip. Li Ao recognized it immediately, as it matched the shape and length of the stab wound on Li Yuanzhi's body.

How come this kind of small fruit knife just happened to appear in his shop?

"Where did this knife come from? Why did you put it in your pocket? Who are you going to use it on?" Li Ao asked in a deep voice. Lao Wei and Xiao Zhang squeezed into the door and semi-surrounded Chen's father.

Father Chen was still extremely tired. He let Xiao Zhang take the knife away with his gloves on. He said, "I've been eating instant noodles for several days and I'm not in the mood to cook. Today I found two apples at home and I'm going to the hospital. Is it okay for me to peel an apple for my son?"

Sure enough, there was a fresh-keeping box on the shoe cabinet, which contained two washed apples. Chen's father's car keys were also on the side. It seemed that he was just about to go out.

"If you want it, take it. I can borrow one from someone at the hospital." Father Chen waved his hand.

Li Ao remained silent while someone took Chen's father's fingerprints. The physical evidence officer took a look around and said, "We didn't find any other knife marks. There were no blood stains or clothing."

The fruit green fruit knife was of the correct style, but it was obviously not the one used in the crime because it was clean. A bloodstain test was conducted at the scene of the physical evidence and it turned out that the knife was not stained with blood at all.

"Where did this knife come from? Where did you buy it?" Li Ao asked.

Father Chen put on his leather shoes, picked up the apple and keys, and said casually, "Oh, I think I bought it three summers ago at the Xingxing Life Supermarket at the entrance of the community. I forgot the price."

"You remember it very clearly." Li Ao was a little skeptical.

Father Chen nodded. "Three years ago during the summer vacation, my son and I just moved here. That summer, this building was full of parents packing up their houses and moving in or leaving. Xingxing Life Supermarket had a sale on many daily necessities, and many of the things you see in this house were bought at that time."

Li Ao had nothing to say, so he let Chen's father go. Chen's father was not even sure whether the police had left his house. He left without even saying goodbye. His mental state was very depressed.

The property management staff who had just been called in to witness the on-site search had just arrived, and their trip was in vain. Li Ao said to Lao Wei, "Remember to complete the paperwork when you get back."

There was only one household left on the fourth floor that I hadn't visited. Before I could knock, the door opened by itself, and a head with long braids popped out. It was a girl in a school uniform. "Uncle police officer, are you here to visit us?"

This was strange, as the girl's uniform also belonged to that high school. An old lady rushed out of the house and gently hit the girl on the arm. "Why are you so talkative? Go away, little kid, go behind me. Officer, if you have any questions, ask me."

The girl just now was called Pan Min, and she called the old lady just now "Grandma". Both the grandmother and the granddaughter were very outgoing. Grandma Pan knew every resident in the building like the back of her hand, as if she was working part-time as the director of the neighborhood committee.

"We didn't hear any noise last night." Grandma Pan said in a low voice, "Did someone die in this building?"

Li Ao asked about Li Yuanzhi's situation and learned that Pan Min was only in the first year of high school and was not in the same grade or campus as Li Yuanzhi. He couldn't help feeling disappointed.

But Pan Min suddenly popped up and said, "Li Yuanzhi? I know him. We both work at the school radio station. A few days ago, after school, I saw someone on Bookstore Street trying to hit him with a brick!"