Chapter 19 Chapter 15 Freezing

On June 29, 1999, it was sunny.Dr. He, a Chinese medicine doctor on duty, ushered in a quiet morning after swallowing the tasteless green tea in his mouth.He stood up from the hardwood chair with cushions, looked back at the on-duty western doctors and staff who were still asleep, stretched his waist and arms in the empty space in the middle of the pharmacy, and stretched his muscles and bones. Dr. He is 65 years old. He has retired from a small hospital for 5 years. Both of his children and grandchildren are successful in their careers and have a happy family.After the two sessions in the spring of this year, the government made a decision—requiring each urban area in Beijing to have a certain number of 24-hour pharmacies, and at least one on-duty doctor of Chinese and Western medicine.When the young people were hesitant, Mr. He resigned to the post again. Although family members objected to this, but because of the profound medical ethics accumulated over the years and the sincere heart that was willing to contribute to others, the old man I ignored it.

However, although the government's decision originated from improving the difficult situation of ordinary people seeing a doctor, seeking medical treatment, and taking medicine, there are really very few people who will rush to buy medicine to see a doctor in the middle of the night.In the middle of the night, although the pharmacy is still open, there are very few customers who come to visit.Most of the time, Mr. He just sat quietly on the hard wooden chair, flipping through the yellowed medical books to pass the time. Staying until six in the morning, Mr. He simply practiced boxing for a while. He felt that the exhaustion of the night was gone at this time. He packed up his old and worn-out package, quietly opened the door and went out.Before he left, he wanted to wake up the other colleagues on duty, but he was worried that they would not be able to sleep soundly because of the noise.

Coming out of the pharmacy, Mr. He walked steadily forward.Since it was summer, and the weather was rarely sunny, the sun was warm and genial, which illuminated the old man's mood pretty well. Although he is over 60 years old, the old man insists on bathing in cold water every day, so his muscles and bones seem to be stronger than those of young people.One or two students who were rushing along the road sneezed from time to time, and Mr. He shook his head for a while. Turning the third street corner, Mr. He slowed down a little.On the side of the road a puppy, who looked like it had been abandoned, was whining softly by the rubbish dump.Mr. He has been a vegetarian for many years, and he has just finished his shift, so he naturally has no meat to feed this poor little guy.Thinking that his home was not far away, the old man walked towards the puppy, intending to call it to his house for a feast.Unexpectedly, the little guy didn't appreciate it, and kept barking at the pile of garbage.The old man knelt down and stroked the puppy's sticky fur with a pair of thick hands, but it only made it tremble all over.

Mr. He was puzzled.Although for many years, in order to increase the strength of his hands for massage, he began to practice "tanzigong" since he was young-grabbing a jar full of clear water the size of a bamboo hat every day, and waving it until his arms are sore-the exercise is still not enough. Stopping, but after all, I am getting old, and I won't let my subordinates miss the head and cause excessive force, so why does it cause the puppy to react unusually? Mr. He withdrew his big hands full of veins and began to look at the pile of garbage.One of the large black garbage bags aroused the suspicion of the old man—the puppy was barking at things—he felt that the bag was too big, big enough to hold a person.

After thinking for a long time, the old man untied the sealed garbage bag, and the corpse of a young woman appeared in front of him—this woman was wearing a long skirt, and she seemed to be only twenty-four or five years old, with straight eyebrows and eyes, and a beautiful face. Beautiful—if the skin color changed due to strangulation is excluded, the old man knew that this woman must have been very beautiful when she was alive. When the old man found the body, he hurriedly knocked on the door of a shop by the side of the road and called the police.During this process, the puppy stayed close to the corpse.Mr. He sighed helplessly—even though he didn’t like to be close to small animals due to his occupation, his son liked it and kept pets anyway.Therefore, he knows that no matter whether the pet is close to you or not, it has the concept of "person" in its mind.Especially pets raised by people will naturally feel a little close to people.But at the moment, it is obviously not the sense of closeness that makes the puppy interested in the corpse—it seems to want to have a full meal. Under the trend of hunger, it seems to have forgotten the concept of "person", and according to its past habits, it wants to have a full meal. paused.

Seeing that the puppy was still lingering, Mr. He had no choice but to "kill" his sympathy, and squatted beside the corpse to watch over it quietly, corresponding to the puppy's hysterical and dissatisfied barks. After a while, a number of police cars and many policemen arrived.Mr. He noticed that among the police officers who arrived, there were obviously two young people who did not belong to this group—both of them looked less than thirty years old, and neither of them wore uniforms. This makes the old man a little confused—in view of the "look, smell, ask, and feel" of Chinese medicine, the old man has been practicing medicine for many years, and it can be said that he has "watched people" countless times. At first, it was only from the perspective of curing diseases and saving lives, and then it began to have a wide range of meanings. observation.Therefore, this morning, the old man also began to observe the two young men, and it was not difficult to read the sorrow from the heart on their faces. They must have been familiar with the deceased; Judging from their attitudes, there seems to be a close relationship between the two.

Leaving aside the observation of the old man, the little dog, seeing more and more people gathered, knew that he could not succeed, so he walked away resentfully, looking back from time to time, as if to say, I am the one the true discoverer of If any good ranking organization, such as some kind of world record, suddenly had a whim and planned to make a list of people with the most deaths of relatives and friends in the world, then Ellen or his other name, Seth Waller, must be on the list famous.He would presumably receive a certificate of honor from them, plus some explanation: the staff would kindly explain that, for added excitement, what they called "friends and relatives" included those who had met the client.Eileen, having received such a certificate, should call back to thank her, and give a "congratulatory" speech for having survived more tragedy than the average soldier.It's a pity that these are only hypotheticals, and he should be very glad that he was spared this "honor".But right now, he didn't say anything, and he didn't think too much, but there were bursts of pain in his heart.

The deceased was none other than Chen Fang, who could be recognized by all the policemen except Mr. He and the crowd of onlookers.No matter what others did, Ai Lian kept staring at Chen Fang's neck—the once slender and beautiful neck was now surrounded by a terrible purple mark.Ai Lian didn't know what sorrow was, so she could only stare at that neck more pitifully and helplessly. If he could cry, he would have burst into tears by now—but he didn't even have the qualifications, so he had to cry because of the pain. Constantly rubbing his eyes. Last night, after a brief confrontation with the monitors sent by General Jonathan, he rushed to the coffee shop he had made an appointment with Chen Fang, but no one came after waiting for a long time.Ai Lian immediately called Mai Tao - because he couldn't find anyone else to tell about the accident.Mai Tao was surprised by this. He was on the way to the hospital by car at that time, and he couldn't think of a reason for Chen Fang's absence, so he could only comfort him casually.Ai Lian was worried, but there was nothing she could do. She could only stay in the cafe and wait until three o'clock in the middle of the night. During this period, she called Chen Fang's cell phone many times but there was no answer, so he reluctantly returned to the hotel.Talked on the phone with Mai Tao again, both of them were very worried.For this reason, they specifically called Chen Fang's family, but there was no one at home.In the end, the two at a loss had to wake Dui Liu up in the middle of the night and tell him the news of Chen Fang's disappearance.All three of them felt sleepless and sat in pain for half the night.In the early hours of this morning, the torment finally had a response - Chen Fang's body was discovered by Mr. He.

The location of the corpse was far away from the appointed coffee shop, which made Ai Lian feel unbelievable.According to Team Liu's point of view, Chen Fang left the bureau after the meeting, and then she called Ai Lian and told her to make an appointment to meet Ai Lian in half an hour.Given the distance between the police station and Ailian Hotel, she should have taken a taxi here, even though she would arrive a little earlier, it didn't matter.But even if she regretted it immediately after dating, why didn't she tell Eileen?Of course, the location of the corpse does not represent the location of the crime, that is, Chen Fang was not necessarily killed in the third block outside the pharmacy.But what was the reason for her murder?What was the murderer's motive for killing her?It stands to reason that she missed the appointment with Ai Lian, so she should go home. Even if the reason she went to Ai Lian was not because of the relationship with Mai Tao as she said, maybe she found signs of the murderer, then even if she didn't want to tell Ailian, there's no need to wander around on the street alone, waiting for the murderer to attack her.What happened to the unknown secret last night, no one can figure out why.

Chen Fang's murder gave Ai Lian a fatal blow.If the unhappiness at yesterday's meeting could be regarded as the trigger, then what happened to Chen Fang obviously became the key to the decision—Ai Lian resignedly chose to withdraw from the investigation of the case. He thought of Xue Tingting, who did not notify Team Liu in time because of her so-called "confidentiality" principle, which caused the poor girl to be silenced; now Chen Fang is not like this, she made an appointment with Ai Lian, but was still killed by others Killed, if the responsibility of this poor protection is not taken up by oneself, can it be pushed to others?

Ever since she became a killer, Ai Lian understood a truth: killing someone is far easier than protecting someone.What has he always wanted to protect, who has he been trying to protect—Mai Tao, Chen Fang, or Xue Tingting, or even Team Liu?What is he trying to protect?There may be extremely selfish thoughts in it—this is equivalent to him not being able to tell anyone about his career as a killer—in order to protect himself and have a normal circle of friends, leaving good memories of the past around him.But he suddenly couldn't even achieve this little extravagant wish, and fate made a joke with him—Ai Lian, who lacked feelings, would eventually hold a grudge for not being able to keep other people's feelings for the rest of his life!In this appropriate irony, perhaps only General Jonathan's words are correct, "Now he can no longer survive in China, and his appearance can only pose a threat to his relatives and friends." Looking back on Ai Lian's joy at the beginning of her return to China, the events that happened within less than a month seem even more unreasonable: his disagreement and rigidity with Team Liu, his emotional entanglements with Chen Fang and Mai Tao.If he can be asked to choose again, maybe he will always be a friend in a foreign country, calling and chatting nonsense from time to time, which is much better than saying goodbye to life and death! But fate has no assumptions, just like the legend of Oedipus, Ailian understands that her destiny is nothing more than the arrangement of the gods, and the gods have always misled him, making him naively think that after the painful life of the killer, he can He returned to China and his hometown to find some family comfort, but he only arranged one tragedy after another for him from beginning to end.Besides retreating, which reason can he find that is more suitable for him? Ai Lian chose to quit, and Mai Tao couldn't comfort this companion because of his own sadness.A small episode occurred during this period. The police found fragments of some kind of plastic products from Chen Fang's jacket pocket.After Mai Tao identified it, he told everyone frankly that it was part of the recording pen he gave to Chen Fang.However, the recording pen was not found in the subsequent search, and it seemed that it was taken away by the murderer.Hearing this clue, Ai Lian once hesitated a little—maybe he should track down the murderer who killed Chen Fang, maybe the key to everything lies in the lost recorder, but he still couldn't recover his cold heartedness in the end. Inwardly, under the watchful eyes of everyone, he recorded his statement last night and left sadly.In the confession, he lied again, just like the countless lies before, he lied that he walked out of the hotel after receiving a call from Chen Fang, and did not mention the details of his fight with the monitor.Of course, no one doubted that there would be problems here. Ai Lian left sadly, went back to the hotel, made a phone call, booked a flight ticket to the airport, and planned to leave without saying goodbye.Half an hour later, he received a call from Mai Tao. "Are you okay?" The other party asked, and Ai Lian could hear the sadness in the words. "I'm fine." He returned. "Don't deceive yourself, Ailian, maybe you can pretend to be in front of others, but you can't fool me. You have a sense of guilt, thinking that everything is your fault, but... what happened to Chen Fang is not your responsibility." Ai Lian suddenly felt that this was really humorous. Due to his lack of emotion, he would never have any sense of guilt.Unfortunately, he chose the wrong psychology major, which made him understand all kinds of emotions from books.This was the atmosphere that he, who couldn't cry, kept creating in his heart—joy, sadness, regret... Now, he had to accept others' comfort because of it. Ai Lian didn't know what to say, and he also knew that at this moment, because of his relationship with Chen Fang, it was Mai Tao who needed comfort the most.But he just couldn't say it, maybe he could pretend to be very tactful, and organize the language very beautifully, but he knew that to Mai Tao, it sounded like his own persuasion just now, meaningless... If Mai Tao didn't speak at this time, he would have to hang up the phone, but he didn't intend to do that.While continuing to add cigarette butts to the already full ashtray, he leaned weakly in the swivel chair and continued, "You shouldn't just leave like this!" The other party was silent. "I know you're planning to back out and even buy a plane ticket, but the case shouldn't be dismissed like that." "Then what should I do?" "Continue to investigate until...the murderer who killed Chen Fang was caught and punished..." Some liquid was shaking in Mai Tao's eyes, but it still couldn't fall down in the end. "Then, you may be more suitable than me." "Don't say such things, Ailian, you know that you brought me into the criminal investigation, we shouldn't quit halfway!" "Maybe it shouldn't be, but it's not impossible!" Ai Lian made up her mind. "But..." Mai Tao sat on the swivel chair. In order not to expose his true feelings too much, he kept scanning the computer screen, and suddenly froze when he saw a certain line. No one spoke for a long time, Ai Lian was about to hang up, at this moment, Mai Tao suddenly said: "Maybe what you said is right!" "what are you saying?" "Maybe you are right. You said a long time ago that there seems to be some kind of sexual disclosure in this case. You are right. Do you still remember the third victim, Ms. Xie Xiaohong?" "Hmm..." Ai Lian who was opposite seemed to spend a long time thinking about who was the third victim, "Yes, that editor-in-chief, what happened to her?" "She has appeared on my computer." Mai Tao's tone was obviously excited, "This name is now on my computer!" "I don't understand!" Ailian's reaction was cold, but she didn't reject the topic. "She's on my computer, and it appears in the student's homework, um. Wait for me to see..." Mai Tao moved the scroll bar up to the top with the mouse, "A survey report on lesbianism!" Ellen was speechless. "You once mentioned that in this case, the murderer may have abnormal sexual orientation. In my student's investigation report, the victim Xie Xiaohong had homosexual tendencies." "Could it be that the name was changed?" Ai Lian thought it was a bit unbelievable. College students rarely take papers so seriously, and this name may have been made up. "That's right, I have a record here, which is a backup of the student's data. Xie Xiaohong, editor, female, 38 years old... there can't be so many coincidences." "So, the murderer killed out of revenge for homosexuality?" "I don't know, I think it's best to ask my student, but it's most likely that he can't remember these things." Ai Lian followed this line of thought. Since Xie Xiaohong and Xiao Ying had a group photo together, and other victims also had a group photo, it might as well assume boldly that these murdered women all had homosexual traits. Of course, it may just be some kind of coincidence. Mai Tao continued: "Team Liu sent me the photos after Xie Xiaohong's death last night. From the photos, she was very revealingly dressed in the last moments of her life, and she may be waiting for a lover. The lover's assumption , It also fits a detail—the first victim, Ms. Wang, and the third victim, Xie Xiaohong, both died in their own homes, but the door locks showed no signs of being damaged—that means the murderer had the key, or they opened the door themselves. And opening the door to a stranger is naturally unreasonable, so the argument of a lover is even more valid." Hearing the word "lover" appear repeatedly, Ai Lian felt a little uncomfortable, but he also knew that Mai Tao didn't intend to offend, so he didn't interrupt the other party's narration. "This lover should be the murderer. Because lesbians are not recognized by the society and most people, their sex life is often very promiscuous. It is understandable for one person to have multiple people, or even multiple people to have a same-sex partner Therefore, that sexual partner may be the murderer." "Wait a minute." Ai Lian interrupted suddenly. In the building where the first victim, Ms. Wang, lived, the residents agreed that Ms. Wang never seemed to have the habit of bringing men home. He suddenly realized that he almost didn't. Understand what Mai Tao means: he is saying that the murderer is a lesbian couple, that is to say, the killer is a woman at all.Thinking of this section, an image quietly formed in his heart.But because he considered the unreasonable details, he didn't say it. It was Mai Tao who made the suspicion clear, "Maybe the murderer is Xiao Ying. For some reason, she began to take revenge on her gay partner back then, and then left photos at the scene." At this time, Ai Lian had no choice but to express the doubts in her heart: "If it was indeed Xiao Ying who did it, then why should she keep a picture of herself? Besides, all the inferences mentioned now are based on one piece of evidence. How credible is that gay survey that appears on your computer?" Mai Tao was at a loss for words, and it took him a long time before he said: "As for whether Xiao Ying is the murderer, it is indeed just a guess. The problem is, even if she left a picture, no one suspected that she would be the murderer before. In addition, regarding this investigation The thesis, although not fully trusted, is the most suitable object of investigation at the moment." Ai Lian quite agrees with this statement: "It's possible... But there is another problem, Mr. An and I have seen a killer before, although we can't tell the gender at a glance, we don't think it is Xiao Ying. " "This may be caused by the smearing of camouflage oil on her face and her short hair. Of course, I don't know whether Xiao Ying is the real murderer. But at least the homosexual factor may be reasonable as a reason for hiding. According to the chronological order and the forensic inference, the earliest victim should be the wife of the bar owner, and nothing happened in the second half of the year. Until the beginning of June, it was Xie Xiaohong's turn, followed by Ms. Wang, and then an unknown woman in the hotel. In the middle It also includes Xue Tingting being silenced, Chen Fang..." Mai Tao couldn't continue, and the choked voice in his throat could be heard clearly on the other end of the phone. Ai Lian also didn't speak for a while, until both of them calmed down a bit, "This may be right, the bar owner once said that he had a relationship with Xiao Ying, and Xue Tingting also said that when the two girls lived together, Xiao Ying was uncharacteristically, and she might be pregnant. This aroused the suspicion of the hospital, and the victim, Ms. Wang, couldn't get away from it. Maybe there was an abortion or something wrong in the similar link, which caused Xiao Ying to feel revenge. The proprietress might be interested in this This incident played a role in fueling the flames. Maybe she introduced Ms. Wang to Xiao Ying, or as a gay partner, no matter what, they were involved. As for the hotel woman and the editor-in-chief Xie Xiaohong, there may also be some relationship with Xiao Ying. In order not to bring the two of them into a stalemate again, he simply did not mention Chen Fang, but he couldn't help the melancholy in his heart, and then said, "Only when Xie Xiaohong died, although I did not do things properly, Still think there is something wrong with this death. Why did the murderer do anything?" "But this matter is not very important, at least the time has nothing to do with the identification of the murderer." Mai Tao explained it this way, and Ai Lian felt that it made sense, so don't stop distinguishing, but she still has doubts in her heart. "Whether Xiao Ying did it or not, at least it was done by someone who was closely related to these times. To link all the clues together, I think we should start with the details of what happened in the hospital. The reason I gave you the recording pen is also because So, the two of us can analyze it carefully." Because of the recorder, the topic inevitably led to Chen Fang's murder.Ai Lian suddenly felt that there was a lot of content in the missing recorder. Could it be that Chen Fang heard something on the road and recorded it before being murdered?But this seems to be somewhat inexplicable. Even so, when did the murderer do it?In addition, if Chen Fang really discovered the key evidence by accident, why didn't she find herself or Mai Tao to inform the details?Even if it's just a phone call. Ai Lian had no idea, only felt that there was a big secret hidden in it. Mai Tao didn't seem to have thought of this section, and continued to invite Ai Lian, "There are loopholes in everything, and it is impossible to be leak-proof. Judging from the nurse's reaction that day, there may really be problems in this hospital. You still need to do something. Get close to that nurse and get out the secret!" Ailian seemed to have returned to her previous icy attitude, and flatly refused the invitation. "Maybe this is the only way to lure out the murderer. Have you forgotten Xue Tingting?" Mai Tao's words were like steel needles piercing Ai Lian's heart, but the other party's intention was not there. "I mean, the reason for Xue Tingting's killing is suspicious." , She was silenced after contacting you, but although the clues she revealed were crucial, she did not expose the murderer's suspicion. It can be seen that the murderer did not want someone to reveal something that happened in the past. The only thing that can be thought of now is the Nurse, maybe she also has the function of revealing the past, which can trigger the murderer's motive. I suddenly feel that the murderer may also be hiding somewhere to observe you." These words did not make Ai Lian feel the slightest fear.It's just that he doesn't want to see someone related to him being murdered again. That nurse—whether she has some kind of secret that she didn't realize as Mai Tao analyzed it or not, will follow Mai Tao's arrangement. , will meet Ailian.It was inevitable that he would have another connection with the girl, a connection that resembled an affection but could only cause pain. On the other hand, although Ai Lian was disheartened, she couldn't deny Mai Tao's point of view: contacting that nurse might lead to a killer, which would finally bring this series of cases to an end, even though it was not satisfactory. Seeing that Ai Lian remained silent, Mai Tao misinterpreted the meaning of the other party, thinking that he was unwilling to come forward after the conflict with the police force, so he said: "Don't worry, Team Liu and all relations are up to me. To deal with it, and you, take on the real in-depth operation to bring the murderer to justice." Ai Lian, as a killer, went after another killer, which stirred up layers of waves in his heart; at the same time, as an incomplete person, he kept hurting others unintentionally, which made him Both panicked and bewildered.But in the end, he really couldn't find a reason to reject Mai Tao again, and he also couldn't escape his desire to avenge Chen Fang.He was vaguely aware that he had fallen into a stupid trap, a deception he had created for himself.He couldn't protect anything at all, but had to try to. At noon on this day, Eileen postponed the scheduled flight.Rinse at the hotel and shave off the messy stubble.Underneath a young and handsome face, there is a cold heart in his mouth, constantly encouraging himself. After everything was tidied up, he walked out of the hotel, walked in the street in a gentle manner, and walked towards another tragedy without hesitation.It's like a walk-on, constantly rushing around for the sake of survival. The only misfortune is that the role he plays will always be a tragic role...