I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 162: Chapter 160: Return to Jinrong District

「Jinrong District」

Su Miaoyi got out of the car, looking at the familiar entrance to the district.

’I really didn’t expect to be back here like this.’

After entering the district, everyone who passed by the trash cans threw in takeout containers and plastic bags.

They had been so busy from morning till afternoon that they had all skipped lunch.

They had all just managed to eat a little something in the car on the way over.

When they arrived at Wu Liang’s residence, the entrance was already cordoned off with police tape.

Some neighbors from upstairs and downstairs were peering out.

After securing the scene, the officers who had come looking for Wu Liang earlier had already questioned the surrounding neighbors.

"Captain Zhuang, the neighbors said they haven’t heard him live streaming for three days. We contacted the landlord, and when we opened the door, this is the scene we found inside."

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

After taking some photos at the doorway, Yan Cheng and the others entered the apartment.

It was a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment, and at a glance, there were no signs of it having been ransacked.

As for Wu Liang’s body, his hands were tied behind his back, and his legs were also bound.

In fact, his entire body was bound with strips of cloth.

The cloth strips were used to force him into a kneeling position.

His head was pressed against the ground.

The body was kneeling, its head touching the floor, facing the direction of the front door.

Underneath it was a pool of blood.

A posture of kowtowing toward the front door.

It was directly facing the entrance, visible the moment the door was opened.

When the landlord opened the door and saw this scene, he was scared out of his wits, constantly muttering something and saying he needed to find a master to take a look.

He said it was bad luck to be kowtowed to like that.

After photographing the body, Yan Cheng began his preliminary examination.

"Rigor mortis has almost completely subsided. Time of death was over three days ago." Yan Cheng turned the body over.

There was a long wound on the left side of the body’s neck, the flesh peeled outward.

There was also a lot of blood around the mouth and nose.

Yan Cheng took a look. "His tongue has been cut out."

Su Miaoyi looked at the clothes on his body.

On his upper body, he wore a black shirt over a black fishnet top, while on his lower body, he wore a pair of brightly patterned boxer shorts.

Usually, this kind of outfit... meant he was either about to start a live stream, or had just finished one and hadn’t had time to change yet.

"Captain Zhuang, I found it. He was wearing this exact outfit in his live stream from four nights ago," Qi Feng said.

Zhuang Yanzheng asked, "What time did he sign off?"

"4:03 a.m. He streamed for ten hours."

Su Miaoyi was a little surprised. ’He could really stream for that long.’

Her own butt would start to hurt if she sat and typed for more than two hours.

’Every job is tough, really.’

Yan Cheng untied the cloth strips from Wu Liang’s body.

The strips had been tied together piece by piece.

Su Miaoyi helped untie the strips.

She took the opportunity to feel the wounds on the body, but she didn’t find anything.

"It’s his bedsheet," Chu Xingrou said, coming out of the bedroom. "The killer tore up the bedsheet and used it to tie him up. There’s still half of it left."

"Was it a spur-of-the-moment thing?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked around.

Of the two bedrooms and one living room, one was a bedroom, and the other was a streaming room.

He used his phone to live stream.

The phone was still on its stand, and it had been charging the whole time.

Zhuang Yanzheng unplugged the data cable and took a look at the phone.

There was no password.

Other than a live streaming platform, there was nothing on the phone.

It was a phone used exclusively for streaming.

After placing it in an evidence bag, he looked at the boxes stacked in the corner of the room.

They were all filled with his merchandise.

Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t really understand it.

He looked around the room some more, then called Chu Xingrou over and asked her to check the merchandise for any clues.

Judging from the room, Wu Liang was a very neat person.

The room was very tidy.

The clothes in the wardrobe were folded very neatly, and the hanging clothes were sorted by length and thickness.

Opening a cabinet on the other side revealed a stack of four-piece bedding sets, all folded perfectly.

There were also many phones.

Besides the one for streaming.

There were two on the nightstand in the master bedroom.

Two were found in a drawer.

One was found on the sofa.

Another two were found on the beanbag chair in the living room.

There was a sticker on the back of each phone.

Name, age, hobbies, menstrual cycle dates, wake-up time, and bedtime.

All seven phones had them.

However, all seven phones were dead.

Zhuang Yanzheng picked one at random and plugged it in to charge.

After it powered on, dozens of missed calls and unread voice and video messages popped up first.

They were all from before the phone had been turned off.

But it was password-protected, so Zhuang Yanzheng couldn’t open it to see the specific messages.

"Here’s another one." Qi Feng pulled a phone out from under the sofa.

Su Miaoyi and Yan Cheng had laid the body flat.

She looked up.

’How much must it have cost to buy so many phones?’

She had bought one just last night and had agonized over the expense for quite a while.

Zhuang Yanzheng took the phone from under the sofa.

This phone had nothing stuck to its back.

Judging from the phone case, it was used quite often.

Moreover, this one wasn’t turned off.

There were a few unread messages.

It was also locked with a password.

"Let’s take them all back for now." Zhuang Yanzheng placed it in an evidence bag.

"The neck wound is the fatal injury," Yan Cheng said.

Su Miaoyi looked at the direction of the wound and made a gesture. "Does it look like it was done with a machete, hacked down like this?"

Yan Cheng nodded. "There are injuries on both the upper and lower lips. When they cut out the tongue, they sliced the lips as well."

Su Miaoyi felt a twinge at the root of her own tongue again. "Cutting out the tongue, and being tied into a kowtowing, kneeling position... it’s like a punishment, an atonement."

After saying this, she looked around again.

She stood up, took a luminol spray, and sprayed it from the doorway into the living room.

There was no reaction.

It wasn’t that the bloodstains had been cleaned up, but that there were none to begin with.

The door lock also showed no signs of being forced.

’Was this committed by an acquaintance?’ Su Miaoyi wondered. ’If not, then how did the killer get in? If Wu Liang opened the door himself and the killer was a stranger, he probably wouldn’t have let them in. And the best opportunity for the killer to strike would have been the very moment the door opened. But the only bloodstains are in the living room.’

There were only ligature marks on Wu Liang’s body, with no other visible signs of resistance.

Su Miaoyi carefully circled the area around the bloodstains.

She went to the space behind the sofa, which was large enough to fit one person. As she crouched down, she pushed the sofa out a little, and from under one of the newly exposed sofa legs, she picked up a strand of hair.

She hid behind the sofa.

Hearing footsteps approaching, she suddenly stood up and popped her head out.

Zhuang Yanzheng was startled by her and almost reacted physically.

Su Miaoyi looked at him.

Zhuang Yanzheng clicked his tongue.

Su Miaoyi crouched down again, only her head visible, and looked at him. "Where did you just come from?"

"The streaming room," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

"You didn’t see me here?" Su Miaoyi asked again.

"No." Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her, and after a few seconds, he backed up into the streaming room.

Su Miaoyi hid again.

Zhuang Yanzheng walked over, and Su Miaoyi came out as well.

"Can’t see you," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

The placement of this sofa was strange. Whether coming from the streaming room or any of the other rooms, the area behind the sofa was a complete blind spot.

"It might have been moved." Su Miaoyi showed him the hair in the evidence bag. "Under the sofa leg."

"So the killer likely hid in the apartment beforehand, waiting for him to finish streaming?" Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi nodded...

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