Chapter 139: Heart Knot
When Secretary Wang heard Chen Chuan's instructions, he was shocked and immediately asked the driver to stop the car. Then he leaned out of the car window and shouted orders, pointing his finger at the bald man who passed by.
The members of the Public Security Bureau immediately became excited. They had been wandering around for such a long time and were getting impatient. Now that they had finally found their target, they jumped out of the car one after another and rushed forward to pin the man to the ground.
The bald man was a little shocked and angry. He struggled and shouted, "What are you doing? What are you doing? Who are you? Let me go!"
A member of the Public Security Bureau said viciously: "Don't you know what you have done?"
The bald man looked bewildered.
Chen Chuan saw this and said to Secretary Wang, "Don't be so rough. He should just be someone with a butterfly tattoo, not the real target we're looking for."
At this moment, the degree of my second self's emptiness is very slight, so this person should not be the root cause.
But Secretary Wang was still a little uneasy. "This, Expert Chen..." He looked outside and asked tentatively, "Will these people..."
Chen Chuanshuo said, "Don't be afraid. Strange stories aren't spread through conventional means of infection. Otherwise, such a large county would have spread throughout it long ago, and wouldn't have waited until now."
In fact, he had looked around for a few times but didn't find such people. That was actually a good thing, because it showed that the strange stories had not spread widely. Some people got tattoos for some special reasons.
Director Wang was finally relieved, but he still didn't get out of the car. He said to the Public Security Bureau team, "Drag him into the car and check if he has any tattoos."
The Public Security Bureau team immediately dragged the bald man to the car for inspection. They saw a colorful butterfly on his back. Everyone was shocked. One team member ran over and said, "Secretary Wang, there it is! It really is there!"
Secretary Wang quickly looked at Chen Chuan.
Chen Chuan said: "Ask him where he went just now and where he has been in the past two days."
Director Wang immediately repeated it to the team member, and then said to Chen Chuan, "Don't worry, Expert Chen. These guys from the Public Security Bureau are best at questioning."
Chen Chuan hummed and said, "Make sure it's the truth."
Secretary Wang coughed and said, "Yes, it must be true." After thinking about it, he felt a little worried and said awkwardly, "I'll go down and take a look."
After a while, Secretary Wang came back and said, "Expert Chen, I've asked..." Because he knew Chen Chuan didn't know the way around here, he took out a map and marked the locations on it. "Expert Chen, please look, this person just went to these places..."
Chen Chuan took a look and took out the previous map, comparing it with the routes of those who had butterfly tattoos before. Of course, this only guarantees that it is within the past few days, and it is impossible to trace it if it is too early.
He circled the area where these people overlapped and tapped on it with a pen. "Go to this area again."
Secretary Wang looked over and his expression suddenly changed slightly, because he found a station in the center of the area. He said worriedly, "Could those people come from somewhere else?"
If this is the case, then the scope of the investigation will be much wider.
Chen Chuanshuo said, "Not necessarily. Let's go take a closer look first."
"What about the people we just caught?"
Chen Chuanshuo said, "Take it with you first."
Generally speaking, once the source of the strange story is resolved, the remaining people will most likely be fine, but they will be affected to some extent, and he cannot control this. All he can do is find the root cause as quickly as possible and eliminate it to prevent more people from being affected.
"good."
Director Wang returned to the car and told the driver to drive there. The Public Security Bureau vehicle followed behind, along with the bald man.
Since the place is not far from here, it takes less than a few minutes to get there.
This time, Chen Chuan made another discovery as soon as he arrived here. The shadow above him had clearly changed again. He looked at a middle-aged man standing on the side of the road, carrying a briefcase and about to unfold a newspaper, and said, "That person."
This time, Director Wang didn't need his special attention. He got out of the car immediately and ordered the security officers to catch the man. The man seemed to be struggling violently, but was finally grabbed by the collar and dragged into the car.
Just a moment later, Secretary Wang came back and said with some confusion, "We checked, Mr. Chen, but this person doesn't seem to have that kind of butterfly tattoo."
Chen Chuan said: "Just because there's nothing on the body doesn't mean there's nothing in the internal organs."
Secretary Wang shuddered when he heard this and said, "Then I'll go ask again."
Chen Chuan thought for a moment and said, "I'll go with you." He also got out of the car and was about to walk to the back, but after taking only two steps, his pace suddenly slowed down.
He glanced at the second me and found that there was some faint blurring phenomenon on it.
No, there’s more!
He looked around. Because the Public Security Bureau was arresting people nearby, many passers-by were scared away. Now, there was no one else except them.
He looked up. There were no tall buildings around, and at most only a few flying birds. He lowered his gaze, looked at the street, and finally fixed his eyes on a manhole cover. This was, underneath...
He walked over and spoke to Director Wang, who was startled and asked, "Expert Chen, are you sure?"
Chen Chuan nodded.
Secretary Wang hesitated for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll arrange it." He looked around and found a store with a phone on the street and called it.
In just over half an hour, maintenance personnel from the municipal engineering project arrived, opened the manhole cover, and went in to investigate. After more than an hour, they used tools to hook up a swollen, rotten, black-green corpse, with worms crawling on it.
When the members of the Public Security Bureau saw this scene and smelled the odor, they all went to the side to vomit, even though they had worn masks beforehand.
Chen Chuan asked for a pair of gloves, walked over, observed calmly, reached out and rummaged through the corpse's clothes, and finally found a knot that was soaked and discolored.
When I caught this thing in my hand, the signs of emptiness on my body became obviously deeper. I could see that it was two symmetrical double circle knots, one large and one small, which looked like a butterfly.
He walked over with it and asked, "Secretary Wang, do you recognize this thing?"
Secretary Wang suppressed his nausea and looked at it. "A heart knot?"
Chen Chuan asked, "Is it common?"
Secretary Wang thought for a moment and said, "During our Qiaoshen Festival, women used to weave knots to create special gifts. But now, apart from the elderly, young people don't do this anymore." He tentatively asked, "Expert Chen, is this related to butterfly tattoos?"
Chen Chuan said, "It's not clear at the moment. We need to ask more. Call those two people over and ask them."
Seeing that he was not going to check the body again, Director Wang breathed a sigh of relief and immediately called the two people who were captured over. He showed them the heart knot and asked them if they had seen anything similar recently.
The bald man who was arrested earlier took a look and nodded, saying, "I've seen it before. The night before last, I went out to the night market, and when I came back, I had this thing in my pocket. I don't know who gave it to me."
Secretary Wang immediately asked, "Where are the things?"
The bald man touched his head and said, "Just throw it away. I'm a grown man, and my son is as tall as me. What do I need this thing for?"
The middle-aged man looked at the bald man and hesitated to speak.
Secretary Wang stared at him, "What do you want to say?"
The middle-aged man said, "I've seen it too. I found it when I came back from the night market that day. But I clearly don't remember buying it. It just ended up in my pocket for no apparent reason."
"Where are the things?"
The middle-aged man seemed to hesitate for a moment, and finally said, "I gave it away."
Secretary Wang asked, "Who did you send it to?"
The middle-aged man stammered and said that he was a friend, but looking at his expression, Secretary Wang could guess what was going on and sneered.
Chen Chuan saw this and had a rough idea in his mind. He said, "Secretary Wang, please ask those who were arrested for having tattoos if they have seen or come into contact with anything similar. And ask them how they handled it."
"Okay! Expert Chen, please wait a moment, it may take some time." Secretary Wang also felt that things seemed to be working out, and he was very motivated, so he hurried to make a phone call.
Chen Chuan said something to the company driver who followed him. The man nodded, went to buy drinks and cigarettes, and handed them to the members of the Public Security Bureau.
Then he took out a tube of nutritional paste, ate one, and then walked over to chat with the members of the Public Security Bureau.
When they heard that he had an elder who was a captain of the police bureau, the members of the Public Security Bureau immediately showed respect and immediately became much more enthusiastic.
For these members of the Public Security Bureau, the title of "expert" wasn't very effective, but the title of "Patrol Bureau" was quite effective, as they were nominally part of the same government department. To become a regular employee, they needed to obtain not only the stamp of the County Government Office but also the final approval of the Patrol Bureau. So, one by one, they approached Chen Chuan, trying to get close to him and make him remember them.
More than an hour later, Director Wang returned, sweating profusely. He handed a list to Chen Chuan and said excitedly, "Expert Chen, I've asked everyone, and everyone has seen this thing. Here's the confession..."
Chen Chuan took it and flipped through it. Although these people got the heart knot at different times, they all had one thing in common, that is, they saw it after returning from the night market, and in the end, the thing was either lost or given away.
He pondered for a moment and said, "After this thing was lost, butterfly tattoos appeared on their bodies... Well, this shouldn't be lost, but rather a sign of a bond of unity."
Secretary Wang was stunned for a moment, then he said in fear, "So, that heart knot is a butterfly tattoo?"
Chen Chuan said, "That's very likely the case, Director Wang. The number of people known to have died from this is eight, and the earliest can be traced back to ten days ago, right?"
“Yes, yes.”
Chen Chuan nodded and said, "If that's the case, one person should die every day. This also fits some of the patterns in strange stories. If we start counting from ten days ago, then ten people should have died in succession. In other words, there are about two more..." He thought of the body just now, "and one more person who died and has not been found, or has not been reported."
"No, that's not right." Secretary Wang seemed to have thought of something. "Yes, that corpse, Expert Chen, the flesh of that corpse..." At this point, he retched. "The flesh is still there, it hasn't turned into a butterfly and flown away. The heart knot is still there."
Chen Chuanshuo said: "It is precisely because he died beforehand that the love knot is still on his body and has not become a butterfly tattoo."
Secretary Wang reacted, "Expert Chen said he died of other causes?" He murmured, "Yes, that should be the case..."
As for how he died in the sewer, perhaps the manhole cover wasn't there that day, and he fell in, and then it was covered again? Thinking of this, he suddenly felt uncomfortable and quickly pushed it out of his mind. He asked again, "Expert Chen, what should we do next?"
Chen Chuan looked up at the sky before saying, "I've just thought about it. If my deduction is correct, then there might be a way to deal with it."
…
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(End of this chapter)
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