Chapter 29
The fire went out and the woman's face disappeared into darkness.
Xu Candong looked again and saw only a bunch of neglected flowers and trees swaying in the night wind.
Did I see it wrong?
"Damn it..." Xu Candong felt cold all over, stood up cursing, quickly got into the car, started the car, and drove out of the community as if escaping.
About ten minutes later, he parked his car casually by the roadside and walked down a narrow alley. The alley was long and dark.
At the other end of the alley was the underground casino that he had been dreaming about.
He walked with excitement, the excitement of gambling made his blood gradually boil, and he forgot the shock just now.
When I reached the darkest part of the alley, I suddenly felt something, stopped, and looked behind me suspiciously.
My eyes widened in horror, and I saw the fierce eyes of a cheetah and the flashing needles in the darkness.
The needle penetrated into the side of Xu Candong's neck. Xu Candong opened his mouth to scream, but his rapidly numb throat could only make a hissing sound.
…
Chang Ting received the news in the early morning and drove to the scene. A yellow and white cordon had been erected at the entrance of the alley, cordoning off the area. His colleagues from the Criminal Investigation Detachment were already conducting an on-site investigation.
Chang Ting stopped the car and squeezed through the crowd of onlookers at the alley.
"Move aside..." Chang Ting pushed the people in front of him and patted the shoulder of a man in blue-gray maintenance work clothes.
The maintenance worker stepped aside, raised his right hand to adjust his work hat, and covered his face with his elbow.
Chang Ting brushed past him and went through the cordon. A strange feeling passed through his heart, and he vaguely felt that something was wrong.
I took a few steps before I remembered. I had just caught a glimpse of the maintenance worker's hand.
The fingers were well-proportioned, long, and white, and the nails were neat and free of dirt. They were well-maintained hands, not like those of someone who had been doing rough work for a long time.
He stopped and turned around suddenly, his eyes scanning the crowd.
The repairman was no longer visible among the crowd who were craning their necks to watch.
Maybe I was overthinking it. Maybe they just cared about hygiene. Chang Ting continued walking inside and smelled a burnt odor.
Zhou Zhengzheng arrived earlier. Seeing his master coming from afar, he hurried over to greet him and handed him shoe covers.
"What's going on?" Chang Ting asked while putting on shoe covers.
"In the early hours of last night, nearby residents smelled thick smoke and reported a fire. Fire trucks arrived and found the fire in the middle of the alley. Cars couldn't get in, so firefighters entered with a fire extinguisher and discovered a person on fire, severely burned and presumably deceased. Also, a silver-grey sedan was parked 20 meters outside the alley entrance, and it has been confirmed to be Xu Candong's car."
As he spoke, he had already walked close to the corpse.
A large area of the wall was blackened by smoke, and a charred corpse was curled up at the base of the wall, with two arms like dead branches curled in front of its head. The entire corpse was severely carbonized and its face could not be seen.
This scene is so familiar. It almost overlaps with the last frame of the comic.
Chang Ting asked: "Have you confirmed his identity? Is it Xu Candong?"
As Forensic Doctor Xie examined the body, he said, "The body was so badly burned that a DNA test would be needed to confirm its identity."
Despite this, Chang Ting was already clear in his mind that this was Xu Candong.
The death was as tragic as in the comics, almost a replica.
A voice echoed in his heart: The situation in the comics has come true again.
"Master, look at this..." Zhou Zhengzheng opened a certain audio app on his mobile phone, clicked on a video, and handed it to Chang Ting.
Xu Candong's face appears in the video.
Xu Candong was soaking wet, leaning against the wall, sitting crookedly on the ground, as if he would fall down at any moment. His facial muscles were twitching, and he faced the camera, forcing out words with difficulty:
"Teacher Feng, I'm sorry... That night, I... I hit you on the head with a rock and hid you in the women's restroom stall. You weren't dead yet... I went to the warehouse to get gasoline... and hid it in the restroom too... The next day... when the police came, I pretended to look for you and took the opportunity to set the fire, burning you to death... I told the police you were crazy and set the fire... I was wrong... Let me go..."
The video ends here.
Chang Ting raised his head and looked at the place opposite where the charred corpse was curled up. It was the same place as in the video, but the wall was blackened by smoke and fire.
The contrast between the two made Chang Ting feel a chill. Xu Candong's words in the video seemed to be begging for forgiveness from Teacher Feng's ghost.
This aligns with the plot in the comics.
The comment section under the video is very lively, with people constantly mentioning the comic "Prophecy of the Other Shore". Netizens are busy shuttling back and forth between a certain audio platform and the comic platform to eat melons and gossip.
Chang Ting returned the phone to Zhou Zhengzheng and said with a frown, "Is this Xu Candong's video account? Contact Douyin immediately and ask them to remove this video!"
Zhou Zhengzheng said awkwardly, "This isn't his account. It was blocked long ago. Someone else forwarded it. And it wasn't just one person, but many. The source of the video... is from the Xiangyang Residents Group. It's Xu Candong's WeChat account, uploaded at midnight. It's not just on Douyin, it's already spread across other platforms, so it's going to be difficult to block it."
"It has to be closed! It's affecting social stability!" Chang Ting said irritably.
"Yes, I'll do it." Zhou Zhengzheng agreed, then lowered his voice, "Master, isn't this too weird? Do you think it's Teacher Feng from the comics who traveled through time and space to kill Xu Candong?"
Chang Ting bent his fingers and pretended to hit her head. "You've read too many time-travel novels, haven't you? There are no ghosts in this world! This video must have been recorded under the murderer's coercion, deliberately creating the illusion that the comic has become reality!"
Without even looking up, Medical Examiner Xie said, "Don't be so naive. I've performed over a hundred autopsies over the years, and not a single one has come back to greet me. So there are no ghosts in this world."
"Who dares to come back and greet you? Do you want me to use the scalpel again?" Chang Ting squatted down and examined the corpse's face. The lips were shrunken from the burn, revealing black and yellow teeth.
He asked Forensic Doctor Xie, "Did you find anything?"
Forensic Doctor Xie carefully picked up a piece of clothing with tweezers: "Preliminary examination shows that they poured gasoline first and then set it on fire. The container is over there." He pointed to a half-burned plastic bucket lying overturned not far away.
It was a 19-liter bucket of purified water, the kind that purified water vendors give door-to-door. The label had been burned off, so the brand name was unrecognizable.
Medical Examiner Xie continued, "The deceased's limbs were curled up in a protective posture, indicating he was burned alive. An autopsy is needed to examine the respiratory tract for further confirmation."
"Burned alive..." he asked Zhou Zhengzheng, "Did any of the nearby residents hear any noise?"
“There is no feedback at the moment.”
"If they were burned alive, there would be screams, right?"
Zhou Zhengzheng looked at his notebook and said, "So far, no residents have reported hearing any screams."
Medical Examiner Xie interjected, "The deceased struggled, but not violently. This suggests he was essentially incapacitated before the burning, and possibly unconscious. This may explain his lack of screaming. There are no external injuries other than burns on the body. As to why he lost his ability to move, further autopsy is needed. However, with such severe burns, identification is extremely difficult, and I'm not sure I can confirm this."
Chang Ting nodded: "It can be seen from the video that he is not in a good state." Then he asked, "Have you collected any suspicious footprints?"
Zhou Zhengzheng waved from a distance: "Here."
Chang Ting walked closer and saw a small half footprint marked with a sign.
Cheng Peng, a colleague in charge of trace inspection, was taking photos and said:
"The ground in this alley is concrete, so it's not easy to leave footprints. We were able to collect some, but this alley is quite crowded during the day, so it's difficult to determine which of them are the murderer's. This half footprint is stained with gasoline, so it can be basically determined to be the murderer's footprint."
Chang Ting looked at the half greasy footprint that only covered the forefoot and asked, "What are the characteristics?"
"It's initially determined to be a sneaker print. The pattern on the sole is blurry, so I can't guarantee the brand. However, even though it's only half a print, based on the proportions, I can confirm it's a size 44 men's shoe."
"Men's shoes, size 44..."
Chang Ting repeated in a low voice, then turned around and saw a few keys and other miscellaneous items placed next to the body. He remembered something and asked, "Old Xie, did you find the silver tiger-head lighter?"
Medical Examiner Xie carefully flipped through the pieces of clothing that were stuck together with the skin and flesh and said, "No."
Chang Ting pondered and said, "Xu Candong has been using this lighter for five years, so he should always carry it with him."
Zhou Zhengzheng said, "Maybe he just forgot to bring it?"
"Go to his house right away and look for him. If he doesn't have it, then..."
Zhou Zhengzheng suddenly opened his eyes wide: "He was taken away by the murderer!"
"Spoils of war." Chang Ting spoke slowly.
Zhou Zhengzheng's expression changed. "The textbook says that taking away the trophies after killing someone is one of the characteristics of a serial killer! Could it be that the murderer will commit another crime?"
"Serial killers also have a characteristic called crime scene revisiting. Offenders often return to the scene of their crimes to relive the psychological thrill and satisfaction of the crime."
As Chang Ting spoke, he looked at the crowd of onlookers at the alley entrance, and the vague shadow of the man in maintenance work clothes kept flashing in his mind.
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