Tragedy (9)

After unzipping the body bag, Meng Siqi's nervous mood suddenly collapsed. In order to let her find out clearly, Chen Jierong pulled the zipper to the bottom, and Zhu Xinting's remains were completely exposed.

Because she had been in the cold storage, her skin was covered with a layer of cold frost, and her skin had lost all its blood color and appeared a dull gray.

What made Meng Siqi feel unbalanced was that the fat tissue on Zhu Xinting's body was cut by the sharp blade in several places, leaving wounds of varying sizes.

The wound is dark brown in color, and the edges are particularly hard and clear because the skin tissue was frozen after being cut by a sharp blade. The two colors are very different, giving the eyeball a strong sense of tearing.

The wound on the outside of the right leg was very large, almost ten centimeters long and wide, which means that the murderer cut the largest piece of fat tissue in this area and finally threw it into the pot.

Meng Siqi then remembered the cut on the outside of her right leg caused by thorns, which had left a scar. She had been worried about this for a long time. Such an injury must have been very painful for a teenage girl. She must have cared a lot about her appearance when she was alive.

I saw the photo of the little girl and she was a sweet and lovely girl, but at this moment, she was lying on a cold metal plate.

She had always been afraid of corpses, but she didn't know why, but when she saw Zhu Xinting, she wasn't afraid at all. Maybe it was because Chen Jierong was here.

Chen Jierong put her hands in the pockets of her white uniform, looking at the body quietly. The expression on her face was the same as usual. She must have been used to it.

However, there was something different. She could see the sparkling sparkle in Chen Jierong's eyes.

Meng Siqi stood there for a long time, not thinking about what to see or what to wait for.

When she slowly moved her eyes and stopped at the largest wound on her leg again, she suddenly felt dizzy.

A new picture suddenly appeared. In the picture, a bright sharp knife was carving something on the skin. Blood was flowing down the white flesh like countless tiny leeches...

The scene flashed by, and Meng Siqi suddenly took a deep breath, feeling a little weak.

"What's wrong?" Chen Jierong held her arm.

She came over slowly and said quickly, "It's nothing, I'm just a little tired lately."

"Go back and have a good rest. I know you have all been very hard-working during this period."

"Okay, Sister Rong." The two had met several times and their relationship was not unfamiliar, so Meng Siqi naturally called her more intimately.

On the way back, Meng Siqi kept thinking, what on earth was it? What did the murderer draw on Zhu Xinting's body? What kind of pattern was that?

She just remembered that the shape looked like outspread wings, or intertwined leaves, but she was not sure.

In other words, the murderer carved this pattern on Zhu Xinting's thigh, but perhaps for some reason, he was worried about being recognized by others, so he cut it off and threw it into the frying pan to destroy it?

This doesn't seem reasonable. Why would the murderer do this? What was his purpose?

With all kinds of questions, her head was a little exploded. In order not to affect the investigation, she could only not think about these things during the day, and at night she would take up a notebook and repeatedly draw what she saw in bed. However, over and over again, she felt that it was not what she saw...

What is it?

*

It was a slightly chilly night at the end of November. Wen Huizhi, a reporter for Jinyang Shixin Evening News, finished a busy day at work and took a taxi back to her apartment. Her house was also rented, but because her salary was decent, the house she lived in was better.

Her daily habit was to check the mailbox downstairs to see if there was any mail before entering the house. When she found that they were all advertising mails, she did not stop looking. However, her professional habit made her realize that one of the mails was not simple. There was nothing written on this mail, only a few words "Wen Huizhi received". However, the raised shape in the middle of the mail proved that there was a roll of plastic inside.

Because of work reasons, someone would report something to the Shixin Evening News via email, and these things might very well be tomorrow's headlines, so she quickly put the envelope into her bag.

After returning home, she took off her high heels and even skipped her usual habit of pouring a glass of red wine. She directly tore open the envelope and went to the bathroom with the film roll.

This is a small developing room. Due to work needs, she sometimes develops some photos herself.

In the dimly lit room, she held the roll of film in front of her eyes and looked at it. She found that it looked like a human shadow, but she was not sure what it was, so she became more curious.

After she had completed the developing process skillfully and carefully took out the film from the container with tweezers, the portrait on it frightened her so much that she fell to the ground.

The figure in the photo is actually a person. No, strictly speaking, it is a corpse, the corpse of a teenage girl. What is even more shocking is that there are wounds on the corpse caused by knife cuts.

This scene made her realize instantly that the person in the photo was Zhu Xinting who had just died tragically, and that this photo was taken after her death.

She then realized that her hand holding the pliers was shaking. She thought, who would send these photos to her? It couldn't be the police, so who was it? The murderer?

She suddenly shuddered all over, as if someone had cut her deeply with a knife, and dropped the pliers to the ground.

After returning to the living room, a cool breeze blew in through the half-open window, and she shivered violently, feeling a chill on her back.

She lives on the fourth floor. Usually, she would lean on the window with a glass of red wine to watch the night view. Although this is not the main city, the night view is still beautiful. Under the neon lights, there is a long and thin light strip. It is a river running through Jinyang City, named Sujiang. The section in the city is particularly beautiful.

However, at this moment, she just took a glance and pulled the window shutters tightly, blocking all the neon lights outside the window. Even when she was pulling the window shutters, she was worried that the murderer was lying outside the window and suddenly stuck his head out.

She locked all the doors and windows and pushed the table against the door. She thought over and over again about what happened today. Could it be that the murderer really targeted her?

She suddenly remembered the envelope and immediately picked it up from the table. After tearing it open, she saw a sentence written on the back of the envelope: Why don’t you continue reporting?

Wen Huizhi finally understood that this was the murderer. The murderer must have read her report on the tragic case, because there was indeed a sentence written in the report at that time. More details will be revealed tomorrow.

That report published the tragic photos of Zhu Gongyou and You Meihua, but there was no photo of Zhu Xinting. In fact, she did not take a photo of Zhu Xinting that day, but the murderer did find her way into her hands.

She immediately picked up the landline phone, ready to report the incident to the police, but then she stopped.

Returning to the developing room again, she cautiously developed the remaining photos, except for the three photos of Zhu Xinting taken from different angles. The last photo made her suddenly break out in a cold sweat.

It was a photo of her parents, but it looked like it was taken secretly at a certain angle facing the yard.

The murderer's meaning was very clear. If Zhu Xinting's photo was not reported, then her family would be the next victims of the murder.

She suddenly remembered what a female police officer had once said to her: Maybe your report stimulated the murderer's emotions, and the next victim will be your relative, your friend, or even you!

Although she had always been very strong, she was trembling with fear that night, and could hardly hold back her tears of fear, regret, and defeat.

She curled up on the sofa, wrapped herself in a blanket, like a curled-up hedgehog, her body heaving constantly. She didn't sleep all night. She didn't dare to call anyone for help, let alone leave the house...

*

The next evening, Meng Siqi got on a bus after get off work. Since there were few buses running between the bureau and home, she had to stand for most of the bus almost every time she got on the bus.

The front of the carriage was crowded, and just as she was trying to find a wider space inside, a newspaper in a man's hand in the aisle caught her attention.

The three big black characters "Zhu Xinting" were like three sharp arrows piercing her pupils. There were three photos under the title. She squeezed closer to him again, trying to see more clearly.

The man noticed her abnormality, but did not put the newspaper away. Instead, he looked at her for a while and even opened the newspaper a little more intentionally.

In the shaking carriage, three photos clearly recorded the tragic scene of Zhu Xinting's death. Although certain parts were blurred, the cuts on her body were clearly visible.

The car pulled over and the door clanged open. After lingering on the name of the writer "Wen Huizhi" for a second, she desperately squeezed towards the door in the middle of the car.

"Hey, slow down..."

"Slow down..." The passengers who were squeezed out began to complain.

Seeing the car door about to close, Meng Siqi shouted, "Master, I want to get off the car."

"Get ready as soon as you get off the bus!"

As the passengers complained, the car door opened again and Meng Siqi rushed out. She quickly ran to the roadside to find a landline phone, and there happened to be a phone at a newsstand on the roadside. Perhaps for the sake of sales, the newspaper page with Zhu Xinting's photo was placed in a conspicuous place. Suddenly, she found something very wrong.

With her heart beating wildly, she called the bureau. It was Feng Shaomin who answered the phone. Meng Siqi immediately explained the situation of the newspaper. Feng Shaomin said, "Don't worry, I'll talk to the Korean team."

"It's not Master," Meng Siqi said with some regret, "This photo was taken by the murderer."

"What?"

"There is a photo in which there are no large wounds on Zhu Xinting's body. It should be a photo taken by the murderer before disposing of the body."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute..." Feng Shaomin's voice became much more hurried.

Feng Shaomin should have put down the phone, but he didn't hang up. After a while, she vaguely heard Han Changlin's excited and angry cursing.

And there was that thunderous sentence, "The murderer, this is a naked provocation!"

The murderer showed up on his own initiative! What kind of omen is this?

"Xiao Meng..." Feng Shaomin picked up the phone again, "You go home first. Team Han and I will go to the newspaper office right away."

"Master, I'm close to the newspaper office. I'll go over there first. See you later..."

"Hey Xiao Meng..."

After Meng Siqi hung up the phone, he took out five yuan and threw it at the newspaper stand, "Boss, I want a newspaper!"

"Girl, here's your change..."

She ran to the roadside to hail a taxi, worried that Wen Huizhi had left the newspaper office, which would make the situation more uncertain.

After getting in the taxi, she urged it to speed up. It was the rush hour after get off work and the traffic was a bit congested. Fortunately, the distance was not far and they arrived there in less than half an hour. As soon as she got off the car, she saw Wen Huizhi. She was wearing a red windbreaker, standing on the side of the road, and hailed a taxi.

"Wen Huizhi!" Meng Siqi shouted.

Wen Huizhi turned her head and looked at her, with a hint of evasion in her eyes, but she still opened the car door and got in.

"Stop!" Meng Siqi ran towards the front of the car at a speed never seen before in a 100-meter race.

The moment the car started, she leaned over the front fender.

The driver stuck half of his head out and said, "You're going to die!"

"I am..." Meng Siqi gasped and took out his ID from his pocket, "I am a policeman!"

The driver was stunned for a moment, and then the sound of sirens came from behind.

The police car stopped in front of the taxi, and the Korean troops finally arrived.