Chapter 74 The murderer's awareness
Chapter 74
In the 1990s, the public's entertainment and leisure methods were still reading books and newspapers, and the print media industry was highly developed.
Qin Ye and Li Quan drove to the newspaper office and found that the steps in front of the newspaper office were piled with all kinds of letters and gifts, with no place for people to stand.
"This is crazy, this is really crazy, I am dying of exhaustion from cleaning!"
The cleaning lady at the newspaper office dragged a giant trash can in one hand and held a broom in the other, cursing as she threw the letters and gifts into the trash can. "It's not cleaned up even after several times a day. It's just a crappy story. How can it drive so many people crazy?"
Qin Ye glanced at the discarded letters. On every envelope, there was "Cat Fairy" written on it. Her eyelids twitched. It seemed that the influence of this story was greater than she had imagined.
The two men showed their credentials and walked into the newspaper office, where they soon met the editor-in-chief of the city evening paper.
"You asked who the author of "Revenge of the Cat Fairy" is?"
The editor-in-chief looked at Qin Ye several times and confirmed that she was not an avid reader. He then felt relieved and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Comrade police, to be honest, we don't know either."
The manuscript of "Revenge of the Cat Fairy" suddenly appeared in his office out of nowhere.
Out of curiosity, he opened it and read two pages. He was immediately attracted by the story and decided to publish it in the evening paper in serial form.
The editor-in-chief continued, "But I didn't expect this story to be so popular. Many fans of "Cat Fairy" have been waiting outside our newspaper office these past two days, asking to meet the author."
Qin Ye said: "Can you let me see the original manuscript?"
The editor hesitated for a moment, but because of her police identity, she still took out the manuscript: "This is the original manuscript of the first two issues."
The manuscript was written in very standard regular script, neatly written on paper. There was no trace of erasure in the entire text, and every punctuation mark was aligned neatly.
After Qin Ye finished reading the manuscript, he roughly formed an image of the author in his mind - he loves cleanliness very much, and even has a certain degree of mysophobia; he is very meticulous and delicate, and may have a certain degree of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
She asked, “Are there any other manuscripts?”
The editor-in-chief shook his head, looking quite distressed: "Not yet..."
The popularity of "Revenge of the Cat Fairy" exceeded his expectations, but the story only has two short chapters. He has been trying to find the author of the story these past two days, hoping that the author would update the article faster, but he turned the newspaper upside down and found no one knew who the author of the story was.
This author... is too mysterious...
…
"Editor-in-chief! Editor-in-chief!"
Suddenly, an ecstatic shout rang out in the corridor of the newspaper office, "It's here! Editor-in-chief! The author has sent in the latest two chapters of the story!"
Qin Ye's heart skipped a beat. She and Li Quan looked at each other and saw deep worry on each other's faces. The first two stories were about two victims, and now there was a new story. Did this mean that there was a new victim?
Ignoring the editor-in-chief's objection, the two took the manuscript and quickly read through it, one chapter at a time.
In the new story, the target of the "Cat Fairy"'s revenge is the waiter in the restaurant in the urban village. The description of the waitress's appearance in the story completely matches the girl in the photo who was keeping watch for Tang Xiaohua and Zheng Chaochao.
In another chapter of the story, the deceased was a male doctor at the county hospital.
After reading it, Qin Ye's heart sank.
If the author of "Revenge of the Cat Fairy" is really the murderer, then by now, the waiter and the male doctor mentioned in the new chapter would probably have met with an accident.
…
Qin Ye and Li Quan found the male doctor's home based on the clues in the story. Sure enough, the male doctor died in the same way as the previous two victims.
The forensic department came to examine the body as usual. Yu Cheng said to Qin Ye, "Brother Guang and the others are still a step too late. Tian Mingzhu was also killed."
Tian Mingzhu was the waitress's name.
Four people were killed in succession, and rumors about the "revenge of the cat fairy" became more and more intense.
The newspaper had no choice but to suspend publication of "Revenge of the Cat Fairy".
Unexpectedly, that night, the glass of the newspaper office was smashed to pieces. Fanatical fans of "Cat Fairy" crawled into the newspaper office and wrote "Please resume publishing Cat Fairy's Revenge immediately" all over the wall with red paint.
I don't know who shouted that the newspaper stopped publishing "Revenge of the Cat Fairy" because of pressure from the Public Security Bureau.
A few brave high school students were filled with anger, and one of them dragged a steel pipe and walked towards the Public Security Bureau.
In the darkness of the night, the cold moonlight made the steel pipes look pale, and the steel pipes rubbed against the asphalt ground, making a rough and disturbing noise.
Wen Qun hid in the dark, looking at the long backs of the high school students, grinning and revealing his sharp white teeth.
He murmured to himself, "Qin Ye, it's time for us to put an end to this once and for all."
…
On the other side, at the Public Security Bureau, the office of the Criminal Investigation Team was brightly lit.
The impact of the "Cat Fairy Serial Murder Case" was too bad, and everyone was trying their best to bring the real culprit to justice as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, the murderer was too cunning. He didn't leave any flaws at all four crime scenes.
Qian Yaguang stared at the four cat tails in the evidence bag, slammed the table hard, and cursed: "Damn it! Don't let me find out who is playing tricks! Otherwise, I will make him pay!"
Liang Dong recalled several crime scenes and hesitated: "I heard from the older generation that some animals will really turn into monsters when they get old..."
Li Quan disagreed: "How could there really be human immortals and cat immortals? I think they are just like the chief immortal, they are all cult members pretending to be gods."
Wen Tingting's face turned pale. Although she didn't believe in the existence of cat fairies, she was still somewhat worried: "I heard from my mother that the neighbors have been avoiding cats recently, for fear of accidentally offending the 'cat fairy'."
Murong usually doesn't express his opinion on such controversial issues, but this time he couldn't help but say: "I'm afraid this case will be difficult to solve..."
In the few years he has been a police officer, he has seen at least fifty unsolved cases that have been shelved. It can only be said that Qin Ye's ability is too outstanding, so he was able to solve all the cases in the past, but this time...
Murong sighed - it might be difficult this time!
Seeing that several people were in a bad mood, Qin Ye clapped his hands and forced a smile, saying, "Okay, okay, it's too late today and everyone is tired. Let's go home first. I'll treat you at noon tomorrow. I heard that a new authentic Capital Roast Duck restaurant has opened in the city center. I've been craving for this for a long time~"
After everyone heard her words, the negative emotions that had been shrouding their hearts finally dissipated a little.
Before leaving, Qian Yaguang glanced at Qin Ye again and said worriedly, "Captain Qin, you should go back as well. You won't be able to hold out if you stay up all night."
Qin Ye said "I understand". After several people left, she stood in front of the small blackboard analyzing the case, but did not move.
"Revenge of the Cat Fairy" mentioned that the four victims all had a history of abusing cats, so the "Cat Fairy" decided to punish them.
What was the murderer's purpose? Punish cat abusers? Or... using this as an excuse to disrupt social order?
…
As the night grew darker, Qin Ye turned off the lights in the office and walked out of the Public Security Bureau with his bag.
The Qin family was only a five-minute walk from the Public Security Bureau, but because she was still reviewing the case in her mind, she was a little slower than usual.
Suddenly, the rustling sound of metal rubbing against the ground was heard on the empty street. The sound was getting closer and closer, and it seemed particularly terrifying in this silent night.
Qin Ye turned around and saw several teenagers dragging steel pipes towards her aggressively. When she turned around, they raised the steel pipes and rushed towards her, waving them.
"That's her! She's the head of the criminal investigation team! Our cat fairy was banned by her!"
"Damn it! She wants to catch cat fairies for those cat-torturing scumbags. Brothers, teach her a lesson!"
Qin Ye's eyes fixed, and she kicked away the young man who rushed up first. Seeing this, the others looked at each other, swung their steel pipes and tried to attack her from different directions at the same time.
Qin Ye was agile and dodged the attacks one by one. After a while, several aggressive teenagers were lying on the ground, holding their stomachs and rolling around wailing in pain.
She took out the handcuffs she carried with her, grabbed the leading boy and handcuffed him, then glanced coldly at the rest of the group: "Come on, all of you follow me back to the Public Security Bureau."
Wen Qun was hiding in the dark. Seeing this, he took out a homemade pistol from his pocket. Without Qin Ye's knowledge, he aimed the black muzzle at her temple in the corner.
The moment the bullet was fired, a white figure suddenly flashed out and pushed Qin Ye away.
The dull sound of gunfire cut through the silence of the night. Qin Ye was pushed and staggered. She subconsciously looked at the man who rushed out to block the fatal blow for her: "Li Bai?"
Xu Libai covered his bullet-hit shoulder, his body stained with a strong smell of blood: "What a coincidence, we meet again."
He smiled at Qin Ye with his pale lips and looked in the direction where the bullet was shot. Wen Qun had already escaped.
…
In the emergency room of the hospital, the nurse bandaged Xu Libai's wound. He watched quietly with his eyes lowered, without saying a word.
Qin Ye was terrified, knowing that if Xu Libai hadn't appeared this time, she might have already reported to the King of Hell: "Why are you..."
She had a lot of questions to ask. For example, why did he appear here, why did he jump out quickly to block the bullet for her; for another example, why did he suddenly leave without saying goodbye, and even didn't tell Yu Cheng about his departure...
But there were so many words on my lips that I didn't know what to say for a moment.
Xu Libai seemed to see what she was thinking and said, "I was a little hungry late at night and wanted to go out for a midnight snack. I didn't expect to run into you catching someone and I didn't have time to say hello."
He smiled and pointed to the gunshot wound on his shoulder, gasping in pain: "In the end, this is what happened."
The wound was quickly bandaged. The nurse was an old acquaintance of Xu Libai. Before leaving, she hesitated again and again, but still reminded him worriedly: "Doctor Xu, remember to come to me on time to change the dressing. No matter what time it is, your health comes first."
Xu Libai looks much more haggard now than when the two worked together a few years ago.
Xu Libai thanked him, watched the nurse leave, and said to Qin Ye, "I'm a little hungry. Do you want to go have a midnight snack with me?"
Qin Ye naturally agreed: "Okay, I'll treat you."
…
Sitting in a small noodle shop on the street, under the dim light, Xu Libai's body finally seemed to have some warmth.
"Li Bai, what are you doing now?"
Qin Ye handed the chopsticks to Xu Libai and smiled. "The last time we met, we were so rushed that we didn't have time to talk properly. My parents were still talking about you a few days ago, saying they didn't know where you were now."
Qin's father's clothing business is now growing bigger and bigger. He often says that if it weren't for Xu Libai's help, he would probably still be a disabled person confined to a wheelchair.
Xu Libai paused with his hands between his cheeks, and then he smiled: "I have opened a small clinic in the suburbs now, and I don't want to be disturbed, so I haven't come to see you and Yu Cheng."
Qin Ye's noodles were also served. The steaming mist hovered between the two of them. Xu Libai's smile became a little unreal in the mist.
She always felt that Xu Libai seemed a little different than before.
He had a smile on his face, but he didn't seem happy in his heart, a bit like modern depression.
Qin Ye couldn't help but asked with concern: "I heard about Auntie's situation. Please accept my condolences. The bureau has been busy recently. Wait until Yu Cheng and I finish this case, and then we will go to play with you..."
After she finished speaking, she felt that her comfort was not enough. She was silent for a while and said sullenly, "I'm sorry."
Xu Libai was amused by her reaction. This time, his smile was obviously more sincere: "What is there to apologize for? You and Yu Cheng are the two best friends I have in my life. By the way..."
He picked up a piece of noodles with chopsticks and asked casually, "The revenge of the cat fairy has been making a lot of noise recently. Do you have any clues?"
Hearing Xu Libai asking about the case, Qin Ye sighed in distress, and even didn't want to eat the fragrant noodles at hand: "Not yet, the impact of this case is too bad."
I heard that the high school students who were just arrested were organized to smash the newspaper office in order to threaten the newspaper to continue publishing "Revenge of the Cat Fairy".
Xu Libai's eyelashes trembled, and without saying anything else, he picked up the bowl and drank the noodle soup clean.
…
Xu Libai accompanied Qin Ye all the way to the door of Qin's house. Under the street light, Xu Libai's figure was stretched out.
Before Qin Ye entered the door, he turned his head and waved at him: "I'm home, be careful on your way back. By the way!"
She invited, "Tomorrow I'm inviting everyone to a dinner at the roast duck restaurant. Yu Cheng will also be there. Would you like to come along?"
Xu Libai looked at Qin Ye's smiling face and did not agree immediately: "If I'm not busy tomorrow, I'll come."
Qin Ye didn't want to force it, so he nodded and waved at him: "Then...see you next time."
The door closed quickly. Xu Libai stared at the dark door and stood there in a daze for a long time. His legs were numb from standing so much that he decided to leave.
The clinic was some distance from the city, and as he walked back to the clinic, a thin layer of frost formed on his body.
When Wen Qun heard the footsteps coming from the door of the clinic, he stood up and walked quickly forward, his concerned eyes fell on Xu Libai's shoulder: "Mr. Xu, you are back, your injury..."
Xu Libai's face was gloomy, and his fierce fist hit Wen Qun's face hard, and Wen Qun's nose was crooked on the spot.
The gunshot wound on his shoulder was torn, and a lot of blood was oozing out through the gauze, staining his coat red: "I remember I said, you are not allowed to lay a hand on Qin Ye."
Wen Qun covered his nose and groaned in pain: "Mr. Xu, if you don't deal with Qin Ye, she will find out about you sooner or later. She has the ability to do so..."
Xu Libai's eyes darkened as he looked at the two metal "beast teeth" hanging around Wen Qun's neck: "When I decided to kill these people, I was already prepared for the truth to be revealed at any time. I never thought of escaping."
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