Ate?

Hearing this, the old Daoist subconsciously swallowed.

Sixteen years ago, living conditions were definitely much worse than they are now. If someone, on their way to or from work, or an old grandma or grandpa passing by, found this meat so nicely packaged,

And thought they had gotten a great deal and happily took it home to cook, that would have been a perfectly normal reaction.

Moreover, while human meat tastes a little different from pork, it's not that drastically different. Back then, there was a serial killer who killed people and sold the human meat as ostrich meat for a long time, almost making it a local delicacy.

"It wasn't until the piece of flesh with the nipple was found that the person who picked it up chose to call the police."

Zhang Yanfeng lit a cigarette and continued:

"The police launched a door-to-door investigation. From that day on, the murderer never discarded any more pieces of meat. Also, we found about seven or eight households who had picked up the meat. Two of those families hadn't had time to eat it yet, so we retrieved it as evidence. The other five families had already eaten it all.

I estimate that there were probably even more people who picked it up. Some might have been too embarrassed to admit it or report it, and others might have been nearby transients we couldn't reach in our investigation."

Zhang Yanfeng exhaled a smoke ring. "At that time, I had only been working for a few years, and it was the first time I had encountered a case of such depravity.

If it were just a simple case of murder and body disposal, most of them would be crimes of passion. But this murderer's act of dismembering and disposing of the body for at least half a month showed a deliberate, playful mentality.

It's just a pity that,

Back then, the bureau had done everything it could,

But we still couldn't even find the victim's identity."

Zhou Ze also lit a cigarette and rubbed his temples, feeling somewhat helpless.

"I can't help you with this case. Sixteen years have passed. Even if the girl who was killed back then turned into a vengeful ghost, she couldn't have existed for sixteen years without dissipating.

There's no ghost to ask, and according to your description, it's more likely to be the work of a deranged killer, not a paranormal event."

Boss Zhou excels at dealing with things done by ghosts,

But asking Boss Zhou to really cosplay a criminal investigator for a case committed by a human is really a bit embarrassing.

Zhou Ze had that much self-awareness.

"Man proposes, God disposes," Zhang Yanfeng said.

"Some things are hard for humans to accomplish."

"That's great, because we're not human anymore anyway, we're ghosts."

"..........." Zhou Ze.

Zhang Yanfeng licked his lips. "The murderer dumped the body parts near a small road near the Small Stone Bridge. Now that road has long been renovated. It used to be asphalt, now it's cement. And the surrounding landmarks, including shopping malls and some old units, have either been relocated or changed.

After all, the urbanization of Tongcheng has really progressed too quickly in recent years."

"That's it then. This case can't be investigated."

Zhou Ze felt it was necessary to end this topic. If it was a normal case, he would help if he could for the sake of Old Zhang. But this case was simply the most difficult of cold cases.

Old Zhang wanted to become a ghost and satisfy the "sentimentality" he had when he first became a policeman,

But Boss Zhou didn't want to run around and waste his time for a sentimentality that wasn't worth a cent.

"I'll take you to the place where the body parts were dumped, how about it?" Zhang Yanfeng looked at Zhou Ze with anticipation. "Maybe you'll find something."

Zhou Ze pointed to his nose and asked:

"Who am I?"

"Zhou Ze?"

Zhou Ze shook his head.

"Boss?"

"I'm just a ghost messenger. I'm not an inspector, not a judge, and certainly not Yama. I really don't know what else I can find out about this case."

At this time,

Xu Qinglang, who had just finished drawing talismans, came downstairs.

Zhou Ze immediately changed the subject and shouted, "Old Xu, what's for lunch?"

"I braised pig trotters and made pig trotter soup."

"So greasy?"

Zhou Ze frowned.

"No, it's just that you guys are always talking about 'big pig trotters,' so

I thought you wanted to eat pig trotters, so I made a lot."

………………

In the evening, a car drove to a small alley behind an old residential area near the Small Stone Bridge.

Zhou Ze was sitting in the passenger seat, holding a driver's license with Zhou Ze's photo on it.

"We're here, this is it. Let's get out and take a look, Boss."

Zhou Ze didn't nod immediately, but instead held up the driver's license and asked, "That's not right, Old Zhang. You just started working today. How could you pull strings and get me a driver's license so quickly?"

Even if everyone gave face to this newly promoted captain of the criminal investigation team, you couldn't possibly have gotten it done so quickly, right?

That's right, Old Zhang used this driver's license to finally get Zhou Ze to nod and agree to accompany him to the scene where the body was dumped sixteen years ago.

"Hehe, actually, I had it made before I died. I forgot to give it to you. It was always lying around in my house. I secretly went back home this afternoon to find it."

Old Zhang scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Hiss... so if you hadn't needed my help, you wouldn't have given it to me, right?"

"Hehe, after all, this kind of thing isn't in accordance with the rules, but since you can drive anyway, how should I put it, it's not in accordance with the law but it's in accordance with sentiment, and it also involves a sixteen-year-old unsolved case, so it's still worth it."

Although Boss Zhou was very dissatisfied with Old Zhang's attitude towards his superior, he still opened the car door and got out.

Having had a few experiences of being caught driving without a license, Boss Zhou still really needed this license.

The road wasn't very wide, just a two-way street, with streetlights on the side.

Zhou Ze stretched, while Old Zhang pointed to a spot on the corner of the wall in front of him according to his memory and the files:

"This is one of the places where the body was dumped, and also near the streetlight in front, and the manhole cover further ahead. Those were also places where the body was dumped.

In addition to the clues from later investigations, basically all the people who picked up the meat were on this road.

In other words, sixteen years ago, after killing someone, the murderer came here every day for at least half a month to dump a piece of the body."

Listening to Old Zhang's detailed narration and location markings,

Even though Boss Zhou still seemed a little nonchalant on the surface,

Images seemed to appear in his mind.

A young woman was killed,

And her body was divided into pieces and scattered along this road.

If ordinary people heard about this case and stood here at this time, they would probably already feel a cold wind blowing.

Since he was here, there was no need to be too perfunctory. Zhou Ze walked and looked around on this road. Although the road wasn't wide, there were still quite a few pedestrians and vehicles passing by.

At this time, Zhou Ze pointed to the other side of the streetlight, where there was a small newspaper stand with an old woman sitting there, her head hanging down.

Her head full of silver hair fluttered in the evening breeze, while she herself remained motionless.

"That?" Zhang Yanfeng frowned and asked worriedly, "Is it a ghost?"

Zhou Ze smiled. "You're a ghost yourself, and you're still afraid of ghosts?"

"I haven't fully adapted to my new identity yet."

Saying that,

Zhang Yanfeng took the initiative to walk over and start chatting with the old woman.

After a while, Zhang Yanfeng came back and said, "She's just an old woman who sets up a stall here to sell newspapers. She's been setting up her stall here for many years."

"Then help me block it." After Zhou Ze finished speaking, he squatted down.

Zhang Yanfeng stood beside Zhou Ze, blocking the gaze of passing pedestrians and vehicles.

Zhou Ze's fingernails grew a little longer, and then pierced into the road.

Black mist began to emanate,

But it only surrounded Zhou Ze and didn't point in a direction.

Zhou Ze pulled his hand out,

Clapped his hands,

And said, "There's no ghost aura."

The old woman selling newspapers over there had raised her head at some point, and was looking at Zhou Ze and Zhang Yanfeng's location while holding her cup and drinking water.

As if curious about what these two people were doing here in the middle of the night.

Zhang Yanfeng gritted his teeth, put his hands on his hips, and looked around. He knew that this case was difficult to solve, and basically impossible to solve, but he always hoped to try relying on non-human methods.

But reality was still so cruel.

Sixteen years ago, the young woman who was murdered here, not only couldn't they find the murderer who killed her, but they couldn't even find out who she was.

She was like an invisible person,

Quietly coming into this world,

And quietly leaving.

As a policeman, Old Zhang had a sense of guilt buried in his heart towards this victim,

In Old Zhang's heart,

"Human life is of paramount importance."

"Did you drop something?"

The old woman shouted.

"Yes, we dropped something, we're looking for it," Zhou Ze replied.

"What did you drop? A phone, or a wallet?"

"We dropped a few pieces of meat," Zhou Ze smiled.

This old woman was a living person, not a ghost.

The old woman chuckled and scolded with a smile, "I kindly asked if you dropped something, and you're making fun of this old woman, you naughty kids."

"Let's go, Old Zhang," Zhou Ze said.

Zhang Yanfeng nodded reluctantly,

He could only,

Leave.

When they returned to the bookstore, it was only twelve o'clock at night. Boss Zhou was on duty again until three in the morning. After encountering a ghost who came to the door, sending him to hell to complete a transaction, he went back to his room with Yingying to sleep.

Generally speaking, Zhou Ze wouldn't wake up until around nine in the morning, after all, he went to bed late, but this morning, Zhou Ze was woken up by Bai Yingying at seven o'clock.

"What's wrong?"

Zhou Ze asked,

He knew that Bai Yingying wouldn't interrupt his sleep unless it was an emergency.

"Boss, Old Zhang called and said there was something very urgent, he told me I had to wake you up."

Bai Yingying said with a pout, she was very dissatisfied with Old Zhang. In her opinion, nothing was more important than Boss's sleep.

Zhou Ze wanted to curse,

Could it be that this Old Zhang had pulled out some old case again and was asking him for help?

"Hello."

"Boss, someone died, someone died!"

"What?" Zhou Ze was a little confused. "Who died?"

"The old woman we saw selling newspapers last night, do you remember?

She was found dead in her own home this morning!"

………………

The previous chapter and this chapter, which were updated after midnight today, are bonus chapters for six thousand monthly tickets and seven thousand monthly tickets, but I forgot to write the notation in the previous chapter.

In other words, there are two more updates today.

Don't panic, hold on tight to Chun Jie Di Xiao Long!