Chapter 1 City Bureau

People from the City Bureau arrived, and police tape was set up, with many police cars parked outside.

It was now confirmed that a body had been discovered.

An old woman.

Her identity had been verified: she was Zhu Chenhao's mother, and also the grandmother of the girl Zhu Shengnan.

Her name was Xu Meijuan.

Only the part from her neck up to her head was in the toilet; the rest of her body wasn't there.

Zhou Ze stood alone at the door, smoking a cigarette.

This was interesting.

He had specifically come to talk to the girl's parents because of the child abuse incident, but he had unexpectedly discovered a big bonus.

At that moment, the police officers upstairs began shouting, as if they had found something else.

Boss Zhou followed them up the stairs. He was an old acquaintance of the Tongcheng police force, and this time he was with Lao Zhang and Officer Chen again, so no one stopped him.

The wall where the oil painting had hung had been chiseled open, and a headless female corpse was nailed inside the wall cavity.

The female corpse was positioned upside down,

with her legs up and her hands down.

Her palms and soles of her feet were nailed in place, and other parts seemed to be reinforced with strong glue.

Like a,

dried-up gecko.

Yes,

the female corpse's skin was extremely shriveled, like a deflated doll.

Zhou Ze moved closer and examined it carefully.

Just then, a criminal investigator next to him said, "Isn't this the rest of the body found in the bathroom?"

"No."

"No."

Zhou Ze and Officer Chen spoke at the same time.

Officer Chen looked at Zhou Ze, signaling him to speak first.

"It's a female corpse, that much is obvious. And the blood was drained from her after death, which is why she looks like this now. Although the person looks like they've 'shrunk' a lot, you can tell from some details that this female corpse can't be too old, at most around thirty.

Definitely not someone as old as Xu Meijuan."

Officer Chen nodded, agreeing with Zhou Ze's assessment.

The criminal investigator taking notes swallowed hard,

because this judgment meant that the homicide case had suddenly turned into two victims.

Tongcheng had just been thrown into turmoil by the sixteen-year serial murder case, and now it was truly one wave after another.

"Cough, cough..."

Zhou Ze coughed a few times.

"What's wrong?"

"Something's choking me."

As he spoke, Zhou Ze took a few steps forward. The corpse hadn't been taken down yet, because the murderer had clearly put some effort into handling the body. Even if they were going to take it down, they had to record all the details nearby first, as these could play a crucial role in the subsequent investigation.

Zhou Ze reached out and pinched the female corpse's arm.

Although the female corpse's body was shriveled, her skin still had an unusual elasticity.

"There's something in the body,"

Zhou Ze said.

As expected, Zhou Ze was right. There was indeed something in the body. After the body was taken down and given to the forensic doctor for a preliminary examination, a discovery was made: the body had been injected with mercury, but the amount of mercury was actually not large.

"What does the upside-down corpse mean?" Officer Chen asked Zhou Ze.

"Officer, you're really asking the wrong person. I really don't know. I thought you might know something."

Regarding the previous *Ghost Messenger Delivering a Child Picture*,

Boss Zhou, as a genuine and licensed ghost messenger, had never even heard of it,

but Officer Chen was clear about it.

This woman was truly knowledgeable and had a broad range of interests.

"Most murder cases are crimes of passion, so most of the time, after killing someone, they either flee or hastily dispose of the body.

In murder cases, those who manipulate the corpse they killed in strange ways are often trying to express an attitude through this method. Some murderers do pursue this sense of ritual, and their motive for killing may very well be for this."

"Oh?" Zhou Ze became interested.

"Drawing the blood out of the body and then injecting some mercury, mercury has a preservative effect on the body, possibly with the intention of making it suffer for 'eternity.'

The upside-down position of the corpse should indicate the murderer's mockery, or even hatred, towards the deceased. This should be a revenge killing, and a premeditated one at that."

"Then we should start by investigating the social network of this family, right?"

"Yes, I'll give the order now."

Officer Chen walked over to the other criminal investigators to issue instructions.

After looking at the corpse for a while, Zhou Ze simply walked out, stood on the balcony, looked down, and looked around. From here, he could see Wolf Mountain.

For people born in the plains, having a mountain is considered pretty good. In reality, compared to real mountains, Wolf Mountain feels more like a small mound.

However, the houses below Wolf Mountain are ridiculously expensive.

Zhou Ze remembered Yingying complaining to him, saying she had bought two sets, right below the mountain.

At this crime scene,

Boss Zhou looked at the corpse in the toilet, then at the corpse in the wall, and then ran out,

still able to care about the national housing price policy.

He really was remarkably nonchalant.

But, actually, it was normal. Boss Zhou had seen too many dead people. After seeing too many dark things, they lost their appeal, and he preferred things that were simple and sunny.

It's like after watching too many Japanese movies, you start to feel that those Category III films from Hong Kong in the early years were truly artistically rich.

"Boss."

Lao Zhang also walked onto the balcony at this time and handed Zhou Ze a cigarette.

Zhou Ze stuck the cigarette behind his ear, but didn't smoke it.

"Boss, I'm suffering,"

Lao Zhang sighed.

Ever since he came back through resurrection, Tongcheng had been plagued with homicide cases one after another. If this case wasn't handled well, it would be a family annihilation tragedy.

"They're preparing to issue an arrest warrant for Zhu Chenhao."

His wife's corpse was here, and his mother's corpse was also here.

So, the missing male head of the household naturally became the most suspected person.

"I think you can take a little more time to look around. Maybe there's another surprise in this villa."

"Boss, what do you mean?"

"Mr. Xu is right. The murderer's methods and means are not something that ordinary people can do, especially this kind of ostentatious cover-up after killing someone, which shows that the murderer is a person with extremely strong psychological qualities and a lot of experience."

Experience, that is, experience in killing people.

And Zhu Chenhao obviously didn't quite fit this description.

"Report, we found a male corpse in one of the family's cars parked outside. Preliminary identification is that it's the male head of the household, Zhu Chenhao."

A criminal investigator came over to report.

Officer Chen nodded, signaling the criminal investigator to lead the way so she could go down and take a look.

Lao Zhang snuffed out his cigarette, bit his lip, and said,

"Now that's good, the whole family is together."

"No, there's still one missing."

"Oh, right. Speaking of which, that girl may have been spared, which is considered lucky."

"Lao Zhang."

Zhou Ze took the cigarette he had just stuck behind his ear,

and slowly broke it open in his hand.

His palm was full of gathered tobacco shreds.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you think there's a possibility."

"What possibility?"

"That she survived, not because she luckily escaped."

………………

The girl was still staying in the pharmacy, because she had just had surgery, so it was temporarily inconvenient to move her.

Little Lori had just gone out to buy some stationery.

Because Zhou Ze's bookstore didn't plan to make any money from students, he didn't stock stationery.

Summer vacation was ending, and she had two days left to finish her summer homework.

Surprisingly,

Little Lori didn't feel any annoyance when she did her homework.

On the way back, she passed the pharmacy,

and saw Fangfang standing at the door.

"Yo, Xiao Rui, why don't you come in and play? There's a new little sister inside, just as cute as you."

Little Lori frowned slightly.

You're praising another woman for being as pretty as me,

what does that mean?

Any woman would be offended by this kind of comment.

And Fangfang was actually just feeling sorry for the girl, so she planned to let Little Lori go in and talk to her. In her opinion, they were both little girls, so they should be able to get closer.

It's a pity,

Little Lori only looked like a little girl.

However,

at some point,

the girl had actually gotten out of bed herself. She hadn't been given anesthesia, so there was no question of her being asleep.

The girl was wearing clothes, covering up the scars all over her body. Looking at her delicate little face, she really was very cute.

Little Lori stood at the door of the pharmacy, looking at the girl inside.

The girl stood inside the pharmacy, also staring motionlessly at Little Lori.

Little Lori still walked in, because she had to admit that this girl was indeed very kawaii.

Hehe,

Sister likes cute little girls the most.

Little Lori walked up to the girl and gently pinched the girl's face.

Because she had gone out to buy stationery, she didn't know what had happened at the pharmacy, and she didn't know what kind of darkness was hidden beneath the girl's clothes.

The girl tilted her head, looking at Little Lori with some confusion.

Little Lori put down what she was holding, reached out her hands, grabbed the girl's face, and straightened her face back.

"You have to develop good habits when you're young. Don't tilt your head all the time."

The girl nodded.

However,

when Little Lori let go,

the girl's head tilted again.

Little Lori asked, pretending to be angry, "Why are you doing that? Little kids should be obedient!"

Fangfang at the door saw Little Lori educating her sister in a serious manner and covered her mouth, laughing.

Just then, a customer came to buy medicine, so she went to help them, leaving the two children to play by themselves.

Little Lori once again straightened the girl's face,

"Be good, listen!"

Let go,

the girl's head tilted again.

"Hey, you just don't want to look at me straight, huh?"

The girl nodded.

"Why?"

"Because...because..." the girl was a little at a loss, seeming not to know how to organize her words, but she still slowly said:

"Because,

Auntie,

the scars on your body,

are more than on mine."