Chapter 18 Mistakes by the River.9

It was a young man in his mid-twenties who discovered Xu Liang's suicide. "I'm Xu Liang's friend." He said.He seemed very reluctant to be here. "I went to his house yesterday morning, because we had an appointment to go fishing together the day before, so I went. I kicked open his door. I never knock on the door every time I go, because he told My door lock is broken, just kick it. He himself has not used the key for two years. He is doing well. Now I don't need the key, which is very convenient. And it is also very simple, just kick it often, The door lock is broken." Speaking of this, he asked Ma Zhe, "Where did I go?"

"You kicked the door open," Marger said. "Then I walked in and he was still lying on the bed sleeping. Sleeping like a dead man. I went to pat his ass but he ignored me. Then I pulled his ear and called his name loudly , but he is like a dead person. I have never seen a person who sleeps so deadly." He rested for a while as if he was tired, and then said: "Then I saw two bottles of Quafe on the bedside table , one bottle was unopened, and there was not much left in one bottle. So I wondered if he committed suicide. But I was not sure. So I called his neighbors in, let them see, and they all panicked It's over." He breathed a sigh of relief, and then muttered under his breath, "There's no such thing as suicide."

Then he stood up and was about to leave, but seeing Ma Zhe still sitting, he couldn't help asking annoyedly, "What else do you need to know?" Ma Zhe asked him to sit down on the chair again, and then asked: "How long have you known Xu Liang?" "I don't know." He said angrily. "Is it possible?" "It's impossible," he said, "but the problem is that it's troublesome, because it's a lot of trouble to remember." "How did you become friends with him?" Marger asked. "We often fish together." Speaking of fishing, he began to feel a little happy.

"What impression does he give you?" Ma Zhe continued to ask. "No impression," he said. "He's not a hero." "Let's talk about it." "I didn't remember it after I said it." He said very unhappy. "Let's talk casually." "Is suicide now under the control of the Public Security Bureau?" He asked angrily. Ma Zhe did not answer, but put on an appearance of listening carefully. "Okay." He said resignedly. "He..." He frowned and began to think. "He always thinks of other people's business as his own. Usually I caught the fish, but he always said he caught it. I don't care who caught it anyway. He told you how he used to be." Did you catch a grass carp weighing more than thirty catties?"

"No." "But he often said that to me. And he was very vivid. In fact, I caught the fish, and what he said was my business. But what does this have to do with his suicide? His suicide has nothing to do with you. What's the matter?" He finally lost his temper. "Why did he commit suicide?" Ma Zhe asked suddenly. He froze for a moment, then said, "How do I know?" "What do you think?" Ma Zhe asked further. "I have no opinion." He stood up and was about to leave. "Don't go." Ma Zhe said, "Is his suicide related to the madman's murder?"

"Don't keep pestering me." He said to Ma Zhe, "I hate this kind of thing, you know?" Down. "Since you already know, why are you still asking me?" "Tell me," Ma Zhe said. "Okay." He said resentfully. "When the fourth mother-in-law died, he came to me and asked me to come out and prove that I had chatted with him for an hour that evening, but I didn't want to. I didn't see him that day, and I wouldn't talk to him at all. Chat. I don’t want this kind of thing to be too much trouble.” He looked at Ma Zhe, and said: “I suspected that the fourth mother-in-law was killed by him, or how could he do that.” He looked at Ma Zhe again . "It doesn't matter if you say it now, anyway, he doesn't want to live anymore. He wants to commit suicide, although he didn't succeed, but he doesn't want to live anymore. You can arrest him, in this place." He pointed to his temple. "Give him a shot, and one shot will complete him."

When Ma Zhe and Xiao Li walked into the ward, Xu Liang was half lying on the bed. He said, "I knew you would come to me." It was still the same sentence. "We are here to visit you." Ma Zhe said and sat down on a chair beside the hospital bed, and Xiao Li sat on the edge of the bed.Xu Liang was already skinny, with sunken eye sockets.He was lying on the hospital bed, like a skeleton lying there.Although his tone of voice is still the same as before, his demeanor is completely different from the past. "What should we do?" he said to himself, looking at Ma Zhe blankly.

"Just say what you have to say," Ma Zhe said. Xu Liangliang nodded, and he said: "I know you guys are coming to find me, and I know I can't escape no matter what. Last time you let me go, you will definitely not let me go this time. So I prepared to ..." He paused, gasping for breath. "Sooner or later, this day will come. I thought about it for a long time, and thought that instead of letting a bullet knock out half of the skull, it would be better to take methaket and fall asleep forever." He smiled triumphantly at this point, and then He became dejected again. "But I didn't expect to wake up again. These damn doctors have tortured me so hard." He cursed viciously in a low voice. "But I blame myself too." He immediately blamed himself again. "I don't want to die in too much pain. So I took four pills first, and then I went to eat them as soon as the medicine took effect, but it was too late. After I swallowed most of the bottle, I didn't know myself, so I fell asleep. It's gone." When he said this, he made a funny face at Ma Zhe.Then he said with a mournful face, "But who thought you would find it." "So, you were by the river at noon the day before yesterday?" Xiao Li asked suddenly.

"Yes." He nodded feebly. Xiao Li hinted at Ma Zhe with his eyes, but Ma Zhe ignored it. "I haven't been to the river since that time, but the more I think about it, the more I feel something is wrong. I'm afraid that if I don't go to the river again, you will suspect me." He smiled slyly at Ma Zhe . "I know you have never given up your doubts about me. I think what you really suspect is not the lunatic, but me. What you did was just to let me relax my vigilance." There was a smug look on his face again, as if he had seen through Ma Zhe's mind. "So I had to go to the river for a walk, so I saw another human head." He looked at Ma Zhe sadly.

"Then you saw that lunatic washing clothes by the river?" Xiao Li asked. "Yes," he said, and smiled wryly. "You have been to the river twice?" He nodded blankly. "And saw the head twice?" Xiao Li continued to ask. This time he didn't say anything, just looked at Xiao Li in bewilderment. "Does this possibility exist? Will anyone believe it?" Xiao Li asked. He smiled kindly at Xiao Li and said, "Even I won't believe it myself." "I think," Li said standing up in the room, while Ma Zhe sat in a chair.The station launch would be an hour away, and they wouldn't be able to leave here until an hour later. "I don't think we can leave right away. Xu Liang's problem has not been investigated clearly. There is still a doubtful point in the fourth mother-in-law's case that has not been clarified. And Xu Liang was at the scene during the two incidents. It is explained by chance These are obviously not convincing, and I think Xu Liang is very suspicious."

Ma Zhe didn't look at Xiao Li, but cast his eyes out of the window. There were a few leaves swaying outside the window, and Ma Zhe judged which direction the wind was blowing from. "I suspect that Xu Liang was involved in the murder. I think this is a very strange case. A normal person and a lunatic jointly created this murder case. There are two possibilities here. One is that the entire murder process was dominated by a lunatic , Xu Liang was on the sidelines and helping. The second is that Xu Liang did not do anything, but instigated the madman. He stayed far away, and once he was found, he could pretend to shout. But both of these possibilities are Secondary, as Xu Liang, his purpose of committing the crime was to steal the money from Grandma Mo." At this moment, Ma Zhe turned his head, as if he had begun to listen to the lecture. "And after committing the crime, he probably participated in the arrangement of the scene. He thought that this strange scene would divert our attention. Because normal people obviously would not arrange the scene like this. After the crime, he asked others to give false testimony." The expression on Ma Zhe's face became serious at this moment. "The two were together again when the second case happened. Obviously, Xu Liang couldn't use the first method to deceive us, so he pretended to commit suicide. Before committing suicide, he specially asked someone to call him the next morning, saying that he was going fishing. .And the suicide time was in the middle of the night. He told the doctor, and he only took half of the bottle of Quafe, which is not usually the case for people who are determined to commit suicide. The most cunning thing about him is to voluntarily tell the truth about the second incident. He was also by the river at that time, which is why he was smarter than other criminals, and then he pretended to be afraid and committed suicide." At this time Ma Zhe spoke, he said: "But Xu Liang was not there when the second case happened. By the river, in his own house. His neighbors saw him at home." Xiao Li looked at Ma Zhe in astonishment, and after a long time he murmured, "Have you investigated?" Ma Zhe nodded. "But why did he say he had been to the river?" Xiao Li was puzzled. Ma Zhe didn't answer, he stood up very tiredly, and said to Xiao Li: "It's time to go to the pier." Two years later, the fourth mother-in-law's room was occupied.When the man walked into the house, he found a pile of hemp ropes chewed up by mice in the corner, and there was still a piece of hemp rope hanging on the beam, and then he found the same crushed banknotes in the broken hemp ropes.So the last remaining doubts in the case of the fourth mother-in-law have been clarified.So the fourth mother-in-law folded the money into thin strips and weaved it into the hemp rope, which was beyond the imagination of others. It was also at this time that the lunatic returned.The lunatic spent two years in a psychiatric hospital. He experienced the pain of electrotherapy and was already emaciated when he was discharged.Because the lunatic beat the doctor as soon as he entered the hospital, the number of times he received electrotherapy in the past two years has exceeded his physical burden.For the last six months he has been bedridden.So the hospital conveniently notified the town and asked them to take the lunatic back.They feel that the lunatic will not live for too long, and they don't want to let the lunatic die in the hospital. At the moment, the town is worrying about the cost of the lunatic's hospitalization. The town's civil affairs funds are not much, and the lunatic is hospitalized for two years. , It really made them worry, so they couldn't help but let them breathe a sigh of relief when they received this notice at this time. The madman was carried into the Old Post Lane on a stretcher.Prior to this, the town had sent someone to clean up his residence.When the madman was carried into the Old Post Lane, many people gathered around to watch.Seeing so many people crowding up, the lunatic lying on the stretcher shrank into a ball and let out a low cry of horror.It sounded like a duck. Since then, the lunatic has been lying in the house, and people from the neighborhood committee will bring him food every day.In those days, the children in the alley often sat at the window to watch the madman.So the people at the old post office knew when the madman started to sit up and when he was able to stand up and walk again.More than a month later, the lunatic actually came outside the house and sat on the ground at the door basking in the sun. Even though it was early autumn, the lunatic was always shivering while sitting at the door.When the lunatic was carried into the Old Post Lane, he seemed to be on the verge of death, but he recovered so soon.And after a while he stopped being afraid of the cold and began to walk up and down, and sometimes even went to stand on the street again. Later, someone saw the lunatic walking over with a pair of dripping clothes.At first he didn't pay attention, but then he was taken aback, and then he saw that the madman was holding a blood-stained hatchet in the other hand, and he couldn't help being horrified.Xu Liang knocked on the neighbor's door, making his neighbor startled.This man who never spoke to them actually stood at their door. Xu Liang stood at the door, unwilling to go in no matter how they invited him.He smiled and said to them, "I went to the river this afternoon. I swore I would never go to the river again, but I went again this afternoon." The news that the madman committed murder again spread throughout the town in the evening.They were talking about it now, and the madman had shocked the whole town with his three murders.It was at this time that Xu Liang appeared in front of them.After hearing Xu Liang's words, they were puzzled.Because they saw that Xu Liang was at home all afternoon. "I don't know why I went to the river again." Xu Liang said blankly.It is not only talking to them, but also seems to be talking to himself. "But aren't you at home this afternoon?" "I'm at home this afternoon?" Xu Liang asked in surprise. "You see me at home?" They looked at each other, not knowing how to answer. So the expression on Xu Liang's face immediately darkened.He shook his head and said, "No, I went to the river in the afternoon. I swore not to go there, but I went again in the afternoon." He looked at them painfully.They looked at each other. "I saw another human head." Having said this, Xu Liang suddenly laughed, "I saw another human head." "But aren't you at home this afternoon?" They felt more and more baffled. "And I saw it again," he said mysteriously. "I saw that madman doing laundry again." They were dumbfounded at the moment. Xu Liang laughed very happily at this moment, but then he immediately put away his smile as if he remembered something, looked at them blankly, then turned and walked away.After a while they heard Xu Liang knocking on another door. Ma Zhe came to the river again.For some reason he thought of the geese again.He imagined their ship-like majesty as they swam across the river.He doesn't want to think about anything now, he just thinks about the flock of geese. He is trying to recall the scene when he stepped into the flock of geese in the early morning, so he seems to hear the flock of geese crying out of panic again.The scene has been tidied up now, but Ma Zhe is still unwilling to look there.The place sickened him.This time the victim was a child.Ma Zhe just glanced at the little head and walked away.Xiao Li and the others walked up.For some reason, Ma Zhe suddenly lost his temper. He yelled at the policeman at Jingshang Police Station, "Why did you protect the scene?" "This..." The policeman looked at Ma Zhe in bewilderment. Ma Zhe's roar made Xiao Li a little puzzled, and he turned his face to look at Ma Zhe in bewilderment.At this time, Ma Zhe had already walked along the river.The policeman followed behind. After walking for a while, Ma Zhe calmly asked the police: "Where are the geese?" "What?" The policeman didn't respond for a while. "The geese raised by the fourth mother-in-law." "I don't know." The policeman replied. Ma Zhe nodded thoughtfully after hearing this. That night, Xiao Li told Ma Zhe that the victim was the child who found the head of the fourth mother-in-law.Ma Zhe stayed for a long time after hearing this, and then said: "Didn't his father forbid him to go to the river?" Xiao Li said: "Xu Liang is dead, he committed suicide." "But why did that child go to the river?" Ma Zhe said to himself, and then he asked Xiao Li in amazement: "Dead?" It was a summer night, and the moonlight was falling like a drizzle.The street lay in the shadow of the plane trees, and many people walked on it, making random noises, and the cool summer night wind was blowing back and forth. At that time, he was coming out of an alley, and he was standing at the entrance of the alley, hesitating.He was wondering whether he should go left or right.Because going left or right was the same for him, he hesitated but he didn't feel upset when he hesitated, because his eyes were not hesitating, his eyes were wandering up and down the street.So gradually he didn't think about where to go, he just walked to the lane to get out, now that he has come out, there is no need to be restless.He didn't intend to go to anyone's house, that is to say, he didn't have any fixed goals.He only came out because of Xia Ye's temptation. He knew that going to his friend's house now was useless, and those friends must be walking outside. So when he was standing in the lane, he felt the same as when he was walking.This feeling was brought to him by the movement of others.At this moment, he is in a happy mood as if enjoying a movie commercial, admiring the fluttering skirts of the girls, and the various fragrances on their bodies are floating in front of him like their long hair.And their voices swirled beautifully in his ears, making him mesmerized. Among the people who passed by him, there were people he knew, but they were not his friends.Some of them just walked over, while others nodded and greeted him.But they didn't invite him, so he didn't want to join.He was thinking that his friends would pass by him too, and on the one hand he was looking forward to them, but on the other hand he was not so eager for their presence.Because the more he stands now, the more comfortable he is. At this time, he saw a person walking over weakly. The person was not walking in the middle of the street, but was walking close to the wall beside the sidewalk.Probably for a change of taste, he became interested in that person. He felt that the person was a bit weird, especially the clothes on that person made him feel like he had never seen it before. The man had already walked up to him, seeing that he was looking at him carefully, a strange smile appeared on the man's face, and then the laughter also sounded, the laughter was intermittent, high and low, very piercing. He was taken aback at first, thinking that this person seemed a little abnormal, so he turned his face away and continued to look at the street.But then he remembered something again, and immediately turned around, the man had already walked a few steps away. He seemed to think of something, and then he rushed to the middle of the street, and then ran in the opposite direction from the man, shouting at the top of his lungs while running: "The madman is back again." He was walking on the street The people in the room were all baffled by his cry, so they stopped and looked at him.However, when they heard his cry clearly, they couldn't help but feel terrified. They asked each other and looked around, worried that the madman was standing somewhere behind them.He ran for more than 20 meters before slowly coming to a stop, panting and terrified, and said to the people around him: "The murderous lunatic is back again." At this time, he heard a voice floating in the distance, and that voice was also calling for the madman to come back.At first he thought it was an echo of his own cry, but then he recognized that it was someone else calling. Ma Zhe knew the news the next day, when he sat blankly for a long time, then went to the next room and called his wife, telling her that he might not be coming home tonight.The wife hesitated for a moment on the phone before saying yes.At that time, Xiao Li was sitting opposite him, and he couldn't help raising his head and asking, "What's the matter?" "No." Ma Zhe said and put the phone down. Two hours later, Ma Zhe was already walking on the streets of the small town.He didn't take the bureau's launch, but a small passenger steamer.When he stepped onto the pier, he was recognized immediately.Several people went up to him and told him: "The lunatic is back again." He nodded to show that he already knew. "But no one saw him." After hearing this, Ma Zhe couldn't help but stop. "Everyone screamed all night last night, and none of them slept well. But when we asked each other this morning, everyone said they didn't see each other." The man said a little tiredly. Ma Zhe couldn't help but frowned, and then he continued to walk forward. The street was very crowded. When Ma Zhe walked, several people surrounded him and told him what happened last night. No one saw the madman. Could it be a false alarm? When he was sitting in the little liner, he had imagined the crowd in front of the old postal lunatic's house.But when he walked into the old post office, what he saw was the same scene as usual.The alley is very quiet.There were only a few old ladies making coal pellets, and soot filled the alley.It's half past two in the afternoon. An old lady walked up to him and said, "I don't know who the hell was calling the lunatic back last night." Ma Zhe went all the way to the lunatic's residence. There was no glass on the window, but a layer of plastic paper, and a thick layer of dust had already accumulated on the plastic paper.Ma Zhe wandered there for a while, then walked towards the alley. When he came to the street, he saw a policeman from the police station approaching. It was too late for him to escape, because the policeman came up calling his name. "You're here." The policeman said with a smile. Mazhe nodded. "You know what? Last night everyone had a false alarm. It was said that the lunatic was back, but it was only a prank today. We found the man who was screaming on the street last night, but he also said he heard Someone else said it." "I heard about it." Ma Zhe said. Then the policeman asked, "Are you here for something?" Ma Zhe hesitated for a moment and said, "I have a little personal matter." "Do you want me to help?" the policeman said enthusiastically. "It's done, I'll go back now." Ma Zhe said. "But the next boat doesn't leave until 3:30, so let's go to the institute and have a seat." "No," Ma Zhe shook his hand hastily, and said, "I have other things." Then he walked away.A few minutes later, Ma Zhe had come to the river.The riverside was as quiet as before, and Ma Zhe walked slowly along the riverside as before.The sun was shining silently on the river at this moment, and there was no wind, so the long hanging willows were like a set.The river made a tilting sound as it flowed.Ma Zhe saw that the wooden bridge in the distance looked like a dilapidated city gate.There were two children sitting on the bridge, their feet dangling below, each holding a fishing rod. It was not long before Marger came to the bend of the creek, a dead river, a tributary of the busy one.It's very quiet here.When he came here, Ma Zhe stood still and listened carefully.He heard soft but rapid voices.So he walked over.The lunatic was sitting there in a psychiatric hospital gown.He was leaning against a tree very comfortably at the moment, talking to himself.The place where he sat was the scene of his three crimes. Seeing the lunatic, Ma Zhe couldn't help smiling, and said, "I know you're here!" The lunatic didn't answer, and continued talking to himself, and then he yelled as if angry.Ma Zhe stopped five meters away from him.Then he turned his head to look at the river and the fields beyond the river and then at the wooden bridge on which the two children were still sitting.When he turned around, the lunatic had stopped talking and was smiling stupidly at Ma Zhe.Ma Zhe responded with a friendly smile, and then took out a pistol and pointed it at the madman's head.He pulled the trigger.