Chapter 120 The Hunchbacked Shadow (7)
As we drove out of the tunnel, the sky was just beginning to brighten, and gradually, solemn red clouds peeked through the murky sky, casting long shadows.
For two kilometers at the end of the passage, there was a restricted area. Two kilometers away, a large number of people were sleeping not far from the cordon line. Men, women, and children lay down head to head and foot to foot. The scene was not very clean and the stench was overwhelming.
Perhaps out of panic, after the martial law was declared in Pinneapolis, these people stared day and night at the brightly lit police line, hoping to find a loophole to leave.
Zhao took off his sunglasses and quietly looked at the shadowy figure sleeping by the roadside, occasionally letting out a venomous curse as if awakened by the engine noise.
Xiao Jiang turned off all the car lights and stared straight ahead at the road.
Zhao clicked his tongue, his lips moved, and his tone gradually softened, becoming somewhat low and inexplicable: "What a lousy place, isn't it?"
Shu Ningmiao glanced at the bustling crowd, her gaze fixed on the crimson sky that seemed to press down on her.
She had seen the sky of the new land so many times that even looking up now felt familiar. Regardless of wealth or poverty, health or illness, from birth to death, the same sky and the same sun always loomed over people's heads.
"Let's go to where I stayed before. I left a corpse there. You'll understand once you see it."
"Tsk... I smell fresh blood again." Xiao Jiang wrinkled his nose, his expression turned cold, and he turned the steering wheel.
"Deaths are not uncommon in this place." Shu Ningmiao had been puzzled for a long time: "How can you distinguish the different sources of bleeding?"
“Those who were killed were different.” Xiao Jiang frowned deeply. “The corpses had a pungent smell, a fragrance… or a stench? I don’t know how to describe it.”
"It smells like Pandora." Shu Ningmiao summarized her still hesitant murmur, placed her hand on the edge of the front seat, leaned forward, and tapped the navigation on the screen.
The navigation displayed a no-signal warning. Shu Ningmiao swiped the screen, deleted the repetitive detours around the vehicle by following its previous trajectory, and manually marked the correct exit.
To be precise, it was the smell of Pandora after it burned. Shu Ningmiao was all too familiar with this smell. Even just a little bit of it reminded her of the fire that consumed Achini.
Xiao Jiang's apparent ignorance aroused her suspicions. As fellow users, it seemed that only Xiao Jiang knew very little about Pandora.
Previously, Yelü Qi was seriously ill, but Xiao Jiang, a close student, was unable to return due to her mission. Was this a coincidence or intentional?
Could it be because Xiao Jiang is not a Pine?
Hopefully, she's not overthinking it.
Shu Ningmiao stared at the still-dim horizon, her voice cold: "You're heading towards the church district."
Xiao Jiang caught a glimpse of her face out of the corner of his eye, which showed no emotional fluctuations. He felt that from this moment on, a trace of gloom would vanish from beneath her restrained and calm expression.
“It’s on the outskirts of the church district. I’ve been wandering around here for days. Only the people over there are easy to communicate with, so I asked them to help me put the body down so that it wouldn’t be dragged away and burned by the Self-Defense Forces.”
Xiao Jiang looked at her inquisitively: "You've been to Xindi before?"
“I’ve participated in charity events before,” Shu Ningmiao said casually.
Xiao Jiang bluntly said, "It's those activities where people stand in orphanages holding flowers and taking pictures with children, right? It's really boring."
"More or less." Shu Ningmiao didn't seem to care and continued, "Where did you put the body?"
"Have someone keep an eye on the cellar; it won't rot in two days at this temperature."
Zhao Ying faced the wind blowing through the window, squirming from the stench carried by the wind. Hearing this, she turned around and pretended to gag: "What normal person would agree to help keep a corpse safe? It's really strange."
Soon, Shu Ningmiao saw the reckless guy in person.
The girl who greeted them had her familiar pinkish-brown curly hair cascading over her simple school uniform. Her thin face was dotted with light freckles, and her features had become slightly rounder than they had been a few days ago when she looked almost unrecognizable.
She was carrying a bucket of water in her left hand, half of her sleeve was wet, and there was a hint of shyness in her eyes. When she looked towards the door, she saw Shu Ningmiao in the car from seven or eight steps away. Her eyes widened silently, and she immediately became alert.
Shu Ningmiao crossed her arms and said coolly, "Did she help you hide the body?"
“Yeah, he’s a nice guy.” Xiao Jiang parked the car in a secluded spot.
"……Um."
They are indeed very easy to talk to.
Shu Ningmiao slowly got out of the car. Ai Ruiji was still nervously watching her from a few steps away. The children around them swarmed over to look. Xiao Jiang casually grabbed a handful of candy from her pocket and threw it to them.
"Good day." Xiao Jiang greeted them skillfully. "Could we use the cellar again? It won't take too long."
Eric hesitated for a moment, then glanced at them before giving a soft "hmm".
"How come you've made friends?" Zhao covered her lips with the back of her hand and said to Xiao Jiang in a low voice, "Don't be too flashy."
Xiao Jiang waved her hand, squatted down, and casually wiped the child's dirty face. She lowered her voice and replied, "I'm not stupid. As long as I can solve the problem, they won't investigate too thoroughly. I call this infiltration."
Despite her clear-headed words, she got along very well with a group of children and blended in without any sense of incongruity.
While they were talking, Erice quietly crept over and whispered, "What are you doing here?"
Shu Ningmiao slowed her pace and then turned to look at her: "Participating in a charity event."
Erica choked up, wanting to ask something else, but there was another person standing next to Shu Ningmiao. This person was wearing a mask, and their glass-like blue eyes stared at them calmly as they spoke. Although there was no malice in their eyes, it was hard for Erica to remain composed.
How strange, this subtle sense of oppression seems familiar, as if I've seen it somewhere before.
Eric felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, and took a deep breath: "Um, are you with Miss Jiang? She came a few days ago to inquire about the news. I heard that she was looking for the killer in the New Town serial murder case, so Sister Mama let her stay."
Shu Ningmiao didn't answer, but instead asked, "Have people died in your orphanage too?"
“Hmm.” Erici was used to her keen perception. He slowly lowered his head, glanced at the masked man who had already turned his head away, and whispered almost inaudibly in her ear, “He’s the man I brought back from Prometheus. He has Manra disease and doesn’t have long to live. The nun agreed to let him teach the children to read here. Four days ago, he went out to buy supplies and didn’t come back. A day later, Miss A-Jiang brought back his body. Because the bodies of those suffering from Manra disease are taken away by the Self-Defense Forces for unified incineration, we plan to give Miss A-Jiang a few days to see if she can find any clues and then secretly bury him.”
“But actually, I’ve learned a lot about Manla disease these past few days.” She unconsciously fidgeted with her fingers. “It’s not contagious, so why are we so afraid to avoid it?”
She thought of her own family and felt a deep sense of shared sorrow.
“What we fear is not the disease, but death.” Shu Ningmiao walked down the steep stairs with her, her eyes lowered: “...and the unknown.”
Beneath the orphanage was a small cellar, usually used to store cheap food for the winter, but now it was all piled up to the side, and the corpses were temporarily placed in huge discarded cardboard boxes.
The stiff corpse, its head and body neatly separated into two parts, the wounds smooth and clean like a model, as if its head and body had been like this since birth, even its expression was serene and gentle.
It's easy to say that a single wound can cleanly and neatly end someone's life, but it's actually very difficult to do. Human bones and muscles are not delicate vegetables, and even a skilled executioner would find it difficult to behead someone so swiftly.
It was as if they had been harvested by the scythe of death.
Such horrific wounds make it hard to imagine that the perpetrator is a real person.
Shu Ningmiao looked up, and Zhao was also looking at her.
Xiao Jiang looked at the two of them expectantly.
Shu Ningmiao turned around and said to Eric, who was holding a flashlight, "You can go out first."
These people were all tall and strong, exuding an unapproachable aura. The person she was most familiar with among them was actually Shu Ningmiao. Ai Ruiji felt breathless just staying there. Hearing this, she nodded and jogged away.
Until only a few of them remained at the bottom.
"Don't you think this technique looks familiar?"
Zhao shifted her gaze to Shu Changyan and spoke first: "Just like your style."
Shu Changyan pressed down on Shu Ningmiao's shoulder, glancing at him with a half-smile, without denying it.
Xiao Jiang didn't notice the exchange of glances between the two, and continued, "To be precise, it's like the hand habits of someone skilled in using heavy weapons. You can tell the overall width and thickness of the weapon from the wound."
Those familiar with this have their own techniques for distinguishing it; at first glance, it looks like a long, extended hand.
Although this only confirms that the murderer used a weapon similar to Shu Changyan's, the heavy sword in Shu Changyan's hand, known as the "Executioner's Sword," is extremely difficult to use and not just anyone can wield it.
Is this coincidence the reason why Xiao Jiang insisted on involving other agents? Shu Ningmiao stood up and lightly brushed the dust off the corner of her clothes.
"I didn't expect this to be so easy." Zhao clapped his hands and suggested, not wanting to miss any opportunity for trouble, "Let's just arrest Shu Changyan and take him back."
"The body was separated from its head and executed by beheading."
Shu Changyan crossed his arms, unaffected by the disturbance, and calmly stated: "Hasn't there been a similar incident involving this method and this weapon three hundred years ago?"
Xiao Jiang squatted in front of the cardboard box, not understanding what riddle they were playing, and looked at Shu Ningmiao with a puzzled expression.
Shu Ningmiao showed no surprise, but lowered her voice: "The Parliamentary Purge."
Three hundred years ago, there was only one bloody incident that almost overturned the entire Pinhes.
Parliamentary Purge
This bloodbath lasted for three consecutive years, resulting in the deaths of all members of three consecutive terms of parliament, effectively replacing the entire Pinheis political establishment in a physical sense.
The No. 01 Crimson Palace Stone that was smashed by Erigi disappeared during the cleaning process and did not reappear in Achini's hands until three hundred years later.
“That’s right.” Zhao extended a finger and gently bent it between Xiao Jiang’s eyes: “Do you know why Shu Changyan’s later greatsword, called the Sword of the Executioner, had such a name? — The name of a weapon naturally comes from its original owner.”
"First there is the executioner, then there is the executioner's sword."
Zhao brought two fingers together, bending them as if they had been suddenly cut off, and recounted in a sinister tone, "Back then, this 'executioner' used the same sword that Shu Changyan is holding now to cut off the heads of everyone in the United Council at that time."
“This is the most serious assassination attempt in Pigne’s history.” Zhao smiled with interest. “It is the only disaster in recent years that has prompted Pigne to impose the highest level of martial law. It is also a turning point that completely overturned the composition of the parliament. After all, everyone in the United Building died at that time.”
Although this was a major event that most of the Pinne people knew about, this was the first time Shu Ningmiao had heard the details: "Has this person been caught?"
"Of course not, otherwise why would these people name him 'The Executioner'? Because he was so terrifying that no one could resist, they saw him as an executioner sent by God to execute useless trash."
"After the Great Purge, Parliament was rebuilt, and all the previous bills were rejected."
Zhao spread his hands and said, "These people hung the sword that the executioner left on the body on the top of the United Building as a warning. A few years ago, when the former minister defected, he stole it, but it was brought back by Shu Changyan. The people in the council decided to give him the sword, probably because they felt that he made them feel safer."
“Can this be called an assassination? This is a massacre.” Xiao Jiang sighed: “How was I supposed to know that Pinhes had such a rotten history? So, no matter how long that person lived, he couldn’t have lived until now. The murderer couldn’t have been a dead man from hundreds of years ago.”
"Hmm...it's probably some kind of copycat crime, who knows?" Zhao said casually, "Maybe it's just a coincidence?"
"...Sigh." Xiao Jiang irritably ran her fingers through her hair. "So, we still got nothing out of it?"
Shu Ningmiao didn't respond, but vaguely guessed what had happened.
Pinheis was not wary of the deaths occurring in the New Territories, but rather of the killers behind them. The number of deaths in the New Territories was irrelevant; what these cowardly cowards wanted to ensure was that the killers would always remain in the New Territories, and not appear behind them.
So after it was confirmed that the deceased was indeed a patient with Manla disease, Xiao Jiang was forcibly called back.
Shu Changyan could roughly guess the whole picture.
Zhao should have known about it from the beginning.
Although Xiao Jiang knew nothing about Pines' past, her keen sense of smell and sixth sense still compelled her to subconsciously move closer to the truth, which is why she insisted on dragging them into the mess.
"No." Shu Ningmiao knew they might not really be there to help, but she didn't say anything. "There are still clues. A normal heavy sword wouldn't be this sharp. Only Xi Jin could achieve this level of hardness, making it easy to trace back to its source."
“Xi Jin weapons have always been strictly controlled, and such a heavy sword is unique. You probably can’t find another one like it in the entire Phineas.” Xiao Jiang frowned. “But Shu Changyan’s sword is always kept in the training room except when he goes on missions. It’s impossible for such a heavy and conspicuous sword to suddenly appear here from a training room thousands of kilometers away, right?”
“What if this person is wielding the ‘Executioner’s Sword’ from three hundred years ago?” Shu Ningmiao suddenly said, “…What if Shu Changyan is holding the one from three hundred years in the future?”
"What do you mean?" Xiao Jiang looked bewildered. "I don't quite understand what you mean."
"Sorry, I was just kidding." Shu Ningmiao composed herself and changed the subject, saying, "Since the deceased suffered from Manla disease... let's start the investigation with Manla disease first?"
“Okay.” Xiao Jiang agreed immediately, then hesitated for a moment, a hint of doubt appearing in her eyes: “By the way, actually I’ve wanted to ask something for a long time. These past few days in the new land, I’ve kept hearing them talk about Manla disease, so what exactly is Manla disease?”
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Author's Note: 'Shu Ningmiao's Year-End Summary'
This year, perhaps the most important thing for you was science popularization. You searched for science-related terms 19 times: #superpowersillustration, #superpowerstraining, #functionaltraining, #muscleanatomy diagrams...
You once searched for "What is the use of praising the Holy Son of the Church?" and browsed 17 related articles in one go. Did you find the answer that day as you wandered around in curiosity?
This year, what message did you send most often? Your friend Shi Yu received a whopping 12 times with the message "?". Do you still remember the memories you shared back then?
Do you remember? At 1:09 AM on March 2nd, you were still awake, watching "Super Sweet Romance Game is Here, Three Playthroughs to All Endings~", and left a comment: "Why does the ending have a bad ending even with the same attribute points?" You got the reply: "Did you forget to raise your affection level?" Is this the answer you wanted?
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