When the rest of us arrived, we found a van crashed into a telephone pole, surrounded by a bunch of workers. Bingxin had taken out her ID to maintain order at the scene.
Upon noticing us, Bingxin trotted over and said, "It was already like this when I got here. The workers said they heard the crash five minutes ago. The doorman also reported that the van forcibly entered the premises. Fortunately, there were no casualties."
When I got around to the side of the vehicle, I found a man leaning out of the windshield, stuck between the van and the telephone pole. Judging from the impact, the van was speeding and the driver wasn’t wearing a seat belt. No wonder Bingxin said he committed suicide.
Examining the bloody face, I took a considerable amount of time to identify the body. "No, he’s not a murderer. He’s Ke Wenyuan!"
Right then, Xiaotao shouted, "Song Yang, look at the van."
I looked inside from the window and found a wooden stick on the throttle, which suggested the driver had lost consciousness or died before the crash. The murderer must have jumped out of the vehicle and fled before accelerating.
I instructed Bingxin to stay and monitor the scene while I headed outside with the others. There was a green belt just outside the factory. Scanning the area with Cave Vision, I discovered deep footprints on the turf which led us to a tree with a sentence engraved on the trunk—
Don't look for me. Let me redeem my sins, and I will end myself!
Xiaotao and I exchanged a look of consternation at the message left by the murderer. We continued to track the footprints until we came upon a small river in front. However, there were no footprints on the other side of the river indicating the murderer walked along the riverbank.
Judging from the time, the murderer had only escaped for ten minutes, but it was enough to throw us off.
"Damn it, we’re another step behind!" cursed Xiaotao.
"I can only say that the gods are on his side!"
We returned to the crash site, where Bingxin and I laid the body flat on the ground. After a quick examination, I confirmed the victim was undoubtedly Ke Wenyuan. From the blunt force trauma at the back of the victim’s head, it matched the murderer's previous kills.
We found a bottle of hydrochloric acid in the van as well as signs of acid corrosion within the vehicle.
At this moment, Captain Tang called to report a corpse found at the intersection. According to eyewitnesses, it was thrown from a moving van. The driver behind the van assumed it was a living person so he urgently gave way, resulting in a serial rear-end collision.
"Let’s head over!" I waved weakly.
When we got there, the man's body lay on the ground, his face destroyed by hydrochloric acid, giving off the odor of burning flesh. The victim was dressed in blue robes. I suspected this was "Monkey," the poster invited to the teahouse by the murderer. Only this time, the murder was committed in a hurry. Under the victim’s blue robes were his own clothes, and his fingerprints remained intact.
Noticing the wet handkerchief stuffed in the victim’s collar, I understood at once. "Why should you linger at the fork of the road, wiping your eyes like a heartbroken child?"
"Despite the critical situation, the murderer even thought about observing ancient poetry."
"Perhaps this ceremony means a lot to him!"
Now that traffic had yet to recover, it was naturally impossible to perform an autopsy on the road, so I ordered an officer to remove the body first. At this time, Lao Yao called, "Have you caught the bad guy?"
"No, he got away!"
"Is there another victim?"
"Yes!" I sighed helplessly.
"Are you in the car now?" he asked.
"No, what's the matter?"
"Um... The man’s IP address is constantly moving, and at a considerable speed." Lao Yao tapped away at the keyboard.
I quickly searched the victim’s body and found his wallet and keys. The only thing missing was his cell phone; it had been removed by the murderer. The hope that was originally extinguished suddenly rekindled. "Send me the coordinates!" I instructed.
We followed the IP address which was on the move until finally stopping at one position–a lonely road. Upon searching the area, I found the discarded cell phone in a rainwater tank.
"Another dead end!" lamented Xiaotao.
I looked up and saw a street sign that read: School ahead, please slow down. "Not exactly,” I smiled. “This is where the murderer works. He’s gone back to school."
About 300 meters ahead was a high school. Since today was a public holiday, the school was empty. A PE teacher dressed in sportswear with a basketball in hand walked up to us and asked, "Who are you looking for?"
I wasn’t entirely sure who the murderer was, so I said, "May I speak to someone in charge of the school?"
After making a phone call, the PE teacher directed us to the office building in the east. Upon seeing the person in charge, I flashed my ID and roughly described the characteristics of the murderer, adding that the man was probably on campus.
Upon further contemplation, the administrator ventured, "You must be talking about Mr. Jia from Year 2, Class 6. I’ll take you to see him now."
We walked to the staff dormitory and knocked on Mr. Jia’s door. Unfortunately, there was no one home. Without wasting a second, I unlocked the door with my tools and entered the apartment. We were greeted by the sight of a large freezer. There were some chemical instruments on the table and a bunk bed against the wall. Although the lower bunk was neat, the upper bunk was filled with miscellaneous items. Aside from that, a black Hanfu hung on the wall.
The administrator smiled, "Unmarried male teachers are usually a little messy. By the way, why are you looking for him?"
I pointed to the freezer and asked, "Why is there such a huge freezer here?"
"This I don't know. The items in the room fall under the teacher’s personal property. As long as they don't violate the school rules, we won't ask questions," explained the administrator.
As I placed my hand on the freezer, uneasiness engulfed my heart. I slowly opened the top and a cold air chilled the room. A curled-up human body came into sight. The administrator screamed and stumbled backwards.
The victim’s face and fingers had all been treated. Because it was frozen, it was impossible to judge the time of death. "He moves faster than we thought. He’s killed everyone on his list," I said.
"How can a teacher do this…” Xiaotao clucked her tongue in disapproval. “By the way, what does he teach?"
"Chemistry!" replied the administrator. "Officers, what’s the deal with this body?"
Naturally, we couldn’t answer his question but urged him to keep it a secret. I asked to see a photo of Mr. Jia, to which the administrator answered, "Wait a minute, I'll get his file."
While waiting, Bingxin asked, "Should we examine the corpse?"
I smiled bitterly, "He’s frozen into a big lump of ice. I won’t be able to examine the body. We’ll come back to it later!"
An idea suddenly crossed my mind. I asked Captain Tang to send me a photo of Ke Wenyuan. After a while, the administrator returned with a group photo in his hand. "I'm sorry, but the staff who has the key to the archives isn’t here today. Here’s a group photo of the faculty and staff."
He pointed to one of the faces and said, "That’s him!"
As soon as we saw the man’s face, we recognized him. I quickly swept my gaze across the bottom row, which were teachers dressed in sportswear. At first glance, the man we met earlier was a physical education teacher but he wasn’t among them.
The shock of being played hit me like a bat to the head. I felt the urge to throw my head back in sarcastic laughter.
I truly underestimated the man. He was crafty and composed enough to slip away right under our noses!
Farewell To Vice-Prefect Du Setting Out For His Official Post In Shu by Wang Bo.