Chapter 12: A Couple’s Quarrel and Murder Case (12) Everything is back to square one…
After the interrogation, Sang Luo asked Ma Shi Tu to step aside and checked Du Meizhen's back himself. That night, Du Lingfeng had a fight with the murderous woman. During the fight, he had repeatedly kicked the other person's back. If Du Meizhen was the woman that night, then she should have bruises on her back.
Du Meizhen took off her clothes and turned around. Her back was as smooth as jade, with no signs of a struggle at all.
Sang Luo was wrong.
Sang Luo closed her eyes and a feeling of frustration came over her. She tried to breathe and calm herself down, and finally accepted the reality.
In order to verify Du Meizhen's words, Sang Luo summoned her two good friends, whose testimonies were consistent with Du Meizhen's. On the night of the incident, they accompanied Du Meizhen to find Grandma Gao and performed a ritual. The three of them were together the whole night, so Du Meizhen had no time to commit the crime.
Sang Luo checked the soles of the two men's shoes. There were ashes and golden particles from burning paper on the soles of both men, just like the pair of black sneakers found in Du Meizhen's bedroom.
Now, as long as we interrogate this Grandma Gao, we can basically rule out Du Meizhen's suspicion. Before summoning Grandma Gao, Sang Luo expressed his new idea:
"Could it be that this witch secretly killed people for her clients in order to protect her own reputation?"
Sang Luo had seen such a news story in modern times before. A fortune teller predicted that his client would suffer a bloody disaster. In order to prove that his prediction was accurate, the fortune teller secretly hid on the client's way home and hit the client with a brick.
Ma Shi Tu hesitated. "The witch was performing a ritual to pierce a doll for them on the night of the incident. She has an alibi. Besides, Du Meizhen only wrote Shen Xueyao's name on a piece of paper. How could the witch know Shen Xueyao's address based on a name? And how did she know the time of their meeting?"
Although the possibility of this assumption being true is not great, in order not to dampen the enthusiasm of the newcomers, Ma Shi Tu still chose to accompany Sang Luo in the investigation. In order not to alert the enemy, they did not summon Grandma Gao directly, but changed into casual clothes and decided to go to Nanfeng Street to meet this witch in person.
"Are you looking for me?" A trembling old lady opened the door. She had gray hair and looked to be in her seventies or eighties.
When Sang Luo saw the old man's appearance, he felt disheartened. The possibility of him committing a crime at this age was too small.
"Yes," Ma Shi Tu patted Sang Luo sincerely, "My daughter and I were introduced by an acquaintance, and we would like to ask you to help us."
The old lady was still very alert: "Who is this acquaintance?"
Ma Shi Tu immediately mentioned Fangfang's name. When the old lady heard that it was introduced by a neighbor, she felt relieved and let the two of them go into the house.
This was a bungalow along the street. The old lady led them through the kitchen, living room, bedroom, and finally to a locked small house at the end.
"Shh!" The old lady gestured to them, took out a key from her waistband, and tremblingly opened the door. As soon as the door was opened, a smell of burning paper ash immediately hit them in the face.
After entering the house, Sang Luo took a breath of cold air. He saw that the curtains of the house were drawn and the light was dim. The four walls were covered with small figures of different sizes. These little figures had no eyes, but it seemed that there were countless pairs of eyes watching them in the house. Sang Luo stood in the middle of the house. A sense of horror arose spontaneously.
"Look, these are all tied by me with hemp rope. Don't touch them easily, they are very effective!" Grandma Gao introduced proudly.
Ma Shi Tu had seen a lot of things, so he would not be scared by these things. He perfunctorily praised her a few times. After receiving his praise, Grandma Gao lit a cigarette with satisfaction, put the cigarette in the incense burner, and then turned to the two and said:
"Tell me, what's the matter?"
Ma Shi Tu responded quickly and made up a story: "My daughter was deceived by a bad guy. She found a boyfriend and brought him home to meet us. The man stayed at our house for a few days, then suddenly stole all the cash and disappeared. My daughter was heartbroken. Now we just want to ask the gods to open their eyes and punish this despicable man!"
"Oh, that's what happened," Grandma Gao nodded, indicating that she understood. Then she continued mysteriously, "This man has reaped the fruits of his own evil deeds. God will punish him. However, I wonder which kind of God's will you wish to invoke?"
Sang Luo and Ma Shi Tu looked at each other and guessed that the old lady wanted money. Sure enough, Grandma Gao started to introduce the prices of different items. The cheapest was making voodoo figurines, and the most expensive was piercing voodoo figurines.
Sang Luo made the same choice as Du Meizhen that night. She wanted to see what would happen next: "I want to stab the villain, stab him hard, no matter how much it costs, I want him to die!"
Grandma Gao smiled happily: "That's right, a woman must be ruthless. If you are not ruthless, how can God know your feelings? Don't worry, grandma will help you stab hard and smash the internal organs of this dead man!"
Grandma Gao also said that since Sang Luo was so pitiful, she would give Sang Luo another set of services. Sang Luo murmured in his heart that this liar paid great attention to emotional value and even gave away gifts.
Sang Luo paid the money and the ceremony officially began. Grandma Gao seemed like a different person. The corners of her mouth drooped instantly and she looked hideous, like the evil mother-in-law in the rural TV dramas.
She first handed Sang Luo a piece of white paper and asked him to write the man's name on the paper. Sang Luo made up a name at random. Grandma Gao took the paper and cut out a little man in a few strokes.
After cutting the hair, she held the figurine in her hand, with a droopy face, and muttered a bunch of curse words in dialect. Although Sang Luo didn't quite understand what she said, she could guess that the words were extremely vicious.
After scolding, Grandma Gao threw the paper figurine to the ground, took out a slipper from the cupboard, and slapped the paper figurine hard. She changed her words and cursed again. This time, Sang Luo understood roughly what she said:
"I'm going to beat you, you bitch! I'm going to break your legs and leave you paralyzed in bed! I'm going to break your ass and make it hard for you to poop! I'm going to break your X and make you childless! I'm going to break your stomach and make your intestines burst..."
After a long string of words, this session finally ended. The little paper man on the ground turned from white to gray. Grandma Gao was so tired that she was panting, and the slipper in her hand was broken.
"Just now it was called beating a villain, now it's called stepping on a villain——"
Grandma Gao stood up and introduced solemnly.
She shook her clothes, changed into a pair of thick shoes, and started jumping on the ground. As she jumped, she used all her strength to stomp on the little paper man on the ground, singing: "I'll stomp, stomp, stomp you, you little bitch! I'll stomp you until you're struck by lightning, and you'll die a miserable death..."
Grandma Gao was jumping up and down, which made the master and apprentice next to her break out in cold sweats. They were all worried that something might happen to her at her age, but they didn't expect that she took every step very steadily, and was like a completely different person from when she first entered the door.
Sang Luo silently complained in his heart that Grandma Gao could still sing and dance at this age. She was indeed physically strong and stronger than many young people. If she lived in modern times, she might be able to try her hand at being a senior idol.
Although she was poor, Sang Luo did not forget her serious matters. She stared at the ground, where there were a lot of paper ashes that had not been cleaned up. It seemed that that was where the paper ashes on the soles of the three girls' shoes came from.
Grandma Gao stepped on the tree and waved to them: "Come on, the more people step on it, the better the effect! Don't you hate him very much?"
In order to avoid being exposed, the master and disciple had to follow and step on it a few times.
After stepping on the paper figure, Grandma Gao used a match to light the paper figure on the ground: "This is called sending away the paper figure. Send the paper figure away to the underworld. From now on, there will be no paper figures around you, and you can live your life without worry."
The paper man was burned to ashes in an instant and mixed with the ashes on the ground. It seems that this is how the ashes on the ground came about.
After the performance of the gifted items, Grandma Gao began to formally perform the little figurine piercing for Sang Luo. It was still the same process. Grandma Gao took down a little figurine from the wall, Sang Luo wrote the fictitious name on it, and Grandma Gao picked up the silver needle and slowly pierced the little figurine:
"First, stab your mouth so that you can't speak and suffocate to death! Then stab your eyes so that you can be blind and get hit by a car when walking! Then stab your nose so that blood oozes from all your orifices..."
Sang Luo was highly concentrated, quietly observing the movements of the old woman's hands. She had thought that the old man would be in a gang and that the old man would pass on the message to others and the gang would take action. However, she did not expect that the old woman was concentrating on staring at the little man on her hand during the whole process, and there was no other movement of her hand except for the acupuncture. Besides, there was no one else in the room and she seemed to live alone.
The guess failed again, and Sang Luo's mood fell to the bottom. Grandma Gao pierced the little man's body with fine needles, and finally picked up a pot of golden water by the window, took a sip of water in her mouth, and sprayed it on the ground, indicating that the whole process was over.
This is how the golden particles on Du Meizhen's soles came about.
Grandma Gao handed the figurine to Sang Luo with a smile on her face:
"Here, girl, take it well. When you get home, place it in the east direction of your home. This man will soon get his comeuppance. I just sprayed you with Guanyin water, which is specially used to ward off evil spirits. From now on, you will be immune to all evil and will never encounter such a thing again!"
Sang Luo did not pick up the villain, but reached out and took out the handcuffs: "You used feudal superstition to defraud money, and there is evidence. Now we want to arrest you."
Ma Shi Tu also said: "We are criminal police, come back to the police station with us."
When she saw the handcuffs, she was so frightened that she immediately knelt down in front of the two men: "Comrade police, please don't arrest me. I don't want this, but I have no choice. I am so old and can't find a job. My son is useless, lazy, and likes gambling. He is in debt. If I don't do this, how can I pay his debts?"
Although she spoke pitifully, Ma Shi Tu still took her away with a cold face. After all, the law is not merciful. She was indeed using feudal superstition to cheat people of their money, and some people even lost their fortunes for it. No matter what, it cannot be an excuse for committing a crime.
In the police car, Grandma Gao was handcuffed and had lost all her previous confidence. She cried and said, "Police comrade, you must let me go back. I need to earn money. If I don't make money to pay off my debts, what will happen to my son? He is still hiding from his creditors. If the creditors find him, they will beat him to death!"
Sang Luo couldn't help but say, "Why do you care about such a useless son?"
Grandma Gao opened her eyes wide: "I only have this one son. He is the only child of our family and the root of our Gao family. How can I ignore him? Even if he is useless, even if he kills people and burns things, I will protect him!"
Sang Luo added: "If you want to make money, can't you do it the right way? Do you have to rely on such deceptive methods?"
Grandma Gao wiped her tears again: "I am so old, what else can I do? I can't do physical work, and I have no education or diploma, so what else can I do? Besides, I have to pay off my debts, so I must find a way to make money quickly. Apart from cheating people, selling my body is the fastest way to make money. I am really too old. If I were younger, I would be willing to sell my body for my son..."
Hearing this, Sang Luo and the master were speechless. Ma Shi Tu drove the car back to the Public Security Bureau and handed Grandma Gao over to a colleague who specialized in handling fraud cases. After handling the matter, the master saw that Sang Luo was in a bad mood, so he patted her on the shoulder. Sang Luo said self-reproachfully:
"My guesses were all wrong. I'm sorry, Master, for wasting your time today."
Ma Shi Tu immediately said, "How can this be called a waste of time? There is no such thing as wasting time in solving a case. We just eliminated the wrong direction of investigation. Besides, it's not like we have gained nothing today. We solved a feudal superstition fraud case!"
"But..." Sang Luo was still in low spirits, "It doesn't help much with this murder case. After investigating it over and over again, everything is back to square one."
"No, you helped us find an important clue!"
Ma Shi Tu pulled out an evidence bag from his pocket, which contained half a photo of Shen Xueyao: "Look, we found this photo, and it provides us with two key pieces of information--"
"First, in the photo, Shen Xueyao has long nails. Her hands are very white and beautiful. It can be seen that she pays attention to maintenance and she has the habit of growing long nails."
"Second, Shen Xueyao's skin color in the photo is very white. It's not because of makeup. She is naturally white. But the skin color of the corpse is very dark yellow. What caused her skin color to change like this?"
"These are all suspicious points that we need to investigate. The road to solving the case is long, so don't be discouraged." Ma Shi Tu encouraged Sang Luo while pushing open the office door.
Sang Luo's eyes lit up. Xie Ling'er and Yuan Xiaohu were in the room. Their return meant that the DNA test report was out!
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