Chapter 18 Chapter Seventeen Hunting the Magician

When I got out of the police car, a gust of cold wind blew in my face, and my clothes swayed quickly with the wind.From the first snowfall to the present, the weather has turned from cold to warm, and then from warm to cold, intermittently.Although it didn't snow today, it was raining lightly and it was freezing cold. Led by Xing Qian Chen Min, he walked all the way inside along the winding alleys.Xia Zicheng and Zhong Mingyue had never been here before.It was past three o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived at the hotel, ten minutes later than expected.The sudden discovery of clues allowed them to investigate the Donghu murder case and obtained unexpected gains.

The location of the hotel is much more secluded than they imagined.Dabao, who was standing at the door of the hotel, waved to them, and Chen Min also raised his hand. They stopped in front of the hotel."Jiangdu Hotel" was posted on the door, and the signboard was dilapidated. Those who didn't know the situation would think that the hotel had closed. Dabao stepped forward and said, "It was in this store that I found Wang Zijian's whereabouts." "It can't go wrong." Zhong Mingyue stared at Dabao, feeling that although this guy stayed up all night, he still didn't look thin, and he was really admirable.

"Boss, our captain is here." He called inside. "Here we come!" A middle-aged man stood up at the counter and walked towards them. Zhong Mingyue came forward to shake hands with him, introduced them respectively, and then took out a photo and handed it over. "Are you sure he is not wrong?" The boss looked carefully, still looking directly at the photo, and said firmly: "It can't be wrong. I remember that on the night of the seventh of last month, it was about three o'clock in the middle of the night. I was going to Close the door and go to sleep. I used to be used to checking at three o'clock in the middle of the night. At this moment, a man in his thirties suddenly broke into the room and said out of breath that he wanted a pre-booked room. I blamed him for coming so late, I thought to myself that he might have been introduced by someone else, so I knew my phone number. I collected the money and took the key out. I saw him tired, so I took a second look at him. Later, I took him up to the third floor , lived in Room 305."

"When did he leave the next day?" "About eight o'clock in the morning. I feel very strange. Why did I leave the room early in the morning after opening the room late at night." The boss seemed to have gradually recovered his memory and said it clearly. Zhong Mingyue glanced at Xia Zicheng, saw him nodding tacitly, and said goodbye to the boss. As soon as she got into the police car, Zhong Mingyue couldn't help but said excitedly: "It's really good news. It seems that the Donghu murder case will be over soon." Although Xia Zicheng who was sitting next to him was very excited, anxiety still flashed across his face.Wang Zijian has been missing for six days, and there has been no news of him, so it's no wonder he can't be happy.

"This time Dabao has made a great contribution. After returning home, we will hold a meeting to praise him." Zhong Mingyue said with a smile, and at the same time patted Dabao on the shoulder. "Oh, that's really great! But Captain Xia arranged for me to investigate all of this. Captain Xia speculated that Wang Zijian must not have returned to the apartment the night he killed Mi Lip, but spent the night outside. So I thought of the hotel, according to the phone number I looked up the phone numbers in the book one by one, but I didn’t expect that there was no phone number registered in this hotel, because the phone book had been replaced with a new one. Later, after searching all over the area, I finally found this hotel.” Dabao said with a silly smile , showing tartar-covered teeth.

At this moment, Chen Min, who was driving, stared ahead and heaved a sigh of relief.The wipers swung constantly, but there was no sound of rain. "As expected of our captain!" Zhong Mingyue crossed her hands on the seat and leaned her head on it. "I just reasoned according to common sense, but I didn't expect him to be so shrewd. A murder case was almost leak-proof. He first killed the deceased at the place where the magic show was performed, and then deliberately borrowed the magic props to return to the apartment, but he stole the car from the opposite side, and then put The corpse was abandoned in East Lake. After the abandonment, he drove back in a small car and went directly to the pre-booked hotel. Because the hotel does not require identity registration, and there is no surveillance video, so as long as his subordinates say that they went back to the apartment together that night, it can prove that he Not there anymore."

"No matter how cunning he is now, let our team see through." "Stop flattering!" Xia Zicheng cursed with a smile. The other colleagues laughed immediately, and Xia Zicheng also laughed. Leaving Jiangdu Hotel, they went straight back to the criminal police brigade.When all the police officers of the Criminal Police Brigade heard that a major discovery had been made in the Donghu murder case, surprises appeared on their exhausted faces, and their spirits were lifted. Xia Zicheng and Zhong Mingyue walked into the director's office and told the director about the specific situation of the case.After the director heard this, his haggard face suddenly regained energy, and he arranged for an immediate meeting.

Fifteen minutes later, the director of the Public Security Bureau and the director presided over the meeting, and Xia Zicheng gave a detailed account of the process of solving the case.In the end, the chief of the Public Security Bureau ordered the pursuit of the magician Wang Zijian, and at the same time revoked the surveillance of Wu Lingling, and instead monitored Nana. After the meeting, the director and director of the Public Security Bureau left Xia Zicheng behind. "Xiao Xia, you have really worked hard on this case!" The director of the Public Security Bureau sat opposite him, with a rare smile on his face.

The director sitting next to the chief took out a cigarette, handed one to the chief and Xia Zicheng respectively, lit them for them, and put one in his mouth. "The credit is not solely my own, but everyone's. The director also saw the hard work of his subordinates." Xia Zicheng took a puff of cigarette, sighed, and felt the pressure gradually eased. "It seems that it is a good choice for Xiaoxia to come back to our criminal police brigade, and it will also bring credit to our brigade." The director grinned. "Let's stop talking nonsense," the director skillfully flicked the ash into the glass ashtray, frowned, and said with some concern, "Although the case has been clarified, the next difficulty still needs to be overcome by Team Xia. Is it difficult?" Xia Zicheng understood that it was Wang Zijian's disappearance. "No problem, I guess he will always be in the ancient city, but where exactly he is hiding, there is no clue yet, but the next step is to intensify the search."

"That's right. Also, wait a minute, we need to inform the higher-ups that we will hold a media conference tomorrow." The director put out the unfinished cigarette in the ashtray, with a smile on his face, "It's time to give the media an explanation. " "It's better to leave this kind of matter to you." Xia Zicheng's mouth twitched, revealing a wry smile.He really didn't want to contact the media, mainly because he couldn't stand the constant questioning from the media, and he knew it was a headache. The chief and director smiled at each other.

"Even if you don't want to, there's nothing you can do about it. After all, this case was solved by you with all your strength. No matter what you say, you should stand up and say something." The director stared at Xia Zicheng and said with a smile. "It's better for you to go. I have work to arrange when I go down later." Xia Zicheng raised his hand as a sign of please, and forced a smile. "Since that's the case, we're going to show off." The director laughed heartily as he spoke. After coming out of the meeting room, Xia Zi immediately called Zhong Mingyue, Chen Min, Dabao and other team members, and Chen Min drove to Wang Zijian's apartment immediately.At this time, it was already half past six in the evening. Explain the situation to the leadership of the apartment management office, because the apartment management office did not have a spare key, so they blasted the fifth floor where Wang Zijian lived. After the blast, they conducted a full search of the inside. The result of the search surprised them a lot: the missing dragon pattern was actually stored in Wang Zijian's room. Holding the dragon pattern, Xia Zicheng thought carefully about the first time he entered the ancient tomb with his wife, and occasionally saw the "Wolf City" magazine, as well as the deceased. Suddenly, he figured it out. "I see." Xia Zicheng murmured. "What's wrong?" Zhong Mingyue stared at Xia Zicheng with puzzled eyes.The other team members are still searching carefully. "Do you still remember the condition of the deceased?" "Ah, um. But what does it have to do with the dragon pattern?" "If my reasoning is correct, things should be like this. First of all, before Nana and Wang Zijian planned to murder Mi Lip, the dragon pattern in the ancient tomb was discovered. The magazine editor who reads the news every day at work soon knew about it. Na had an idea. She told Wang Zijian the news and asked him to go to the ancient tomb to steal, so that people would misunderstand that it was the tomb robbers." "But what does it have to do with the murder?" Zhong Mingyue scratched her head, puzzled. "Yes. The dragon pattern was actually stolen from the forehead of Taotie, one of the nine sons of the dragon. Taotie is a ferocious and cruel monster in ancient times. It likes to eat people, eats a lot, and looks like a wolf. What do wolves like to eat? " "What do wolves like to eat?" Zhong Mingyue murmured, and as if suddenly realizing it, she smiled, "Heart." "That's right. We read a lot of stories like this in elementary and high school, but we've forgotten it, and it never occurred to us that the murder had anything to do with it." "You mean to say that Wang Zijian stole the Longteng pattern according to Nana's wishes, and then Nana started to make "Wolf City" magazine, and after Wang Zijian killed Mi Lip, he dug out her heart, as if eaten by a wolf , superstitious people will think that Taotie has reappeared in the world." "Smart." Xia Zicheng smiled and clapped his hands. "At the beginning, I thought it was the murderer who inserted a dagger into Mi Lip's body, causing her death. The murderer dug out her heart in order to destroy the evidence." "Your words are good, or the murderer was waiting behind the stage for Nana to lead Mi Lip over. After the introductions, the murderer took advantage of Mi Lip not paying attention, and directly inserted the dagger prepared in advance into the dead body, resulting in death. , but in order to prevent us from finding out that he was killed with a dagger, the heart was dug out so that we could not investigate." While they were talking, other colleagues had already searched the entire apartment. "Any other discoveries?" Xia Zicheng said. "No." Chen Min and the others shook their heads. Xia Zicheng nodded, just as he expected. "Close the team!" Zhong Mingyue waved his hand in mid-air, drawing a perfect arc. The working hours of the Department of Historical and Archaeological Research in the ancient city are from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. In fact, for historical and archaeological researchers, the working hours are purely fictitious.Li Tiaotiao's work time has always been earlier, and he has already entered the research room at about 8:50.This is because she has to prepare the materials and tools of Professor Yang. Since the mysterious disappearance of the dragon pattern in the ancient tomb, she and Professor Yang have worked hard to study the cultural relics unearthed from the ancient tomb, trying to find a way to find out the history that is now inaccessible from these cultural relics, or the research will change the historical gap that did not appear before.However, the research during this period is still in a blank stage, and the biggest reason may be related to the dragon pattern. The fact that she was almost raped in her apartment last time made her feel ashamed, but because the news was tightly blocked, the school didn't know about it at all.Although Professor Yang found out that Li Tiaotiao had something to hide, she didn't say it, and it was inconvenient for her to ask. On this day, without exception, she packed up the tools and materials in the laboratory so that Professor Yang could come in and work.At this time, her mobile phone vibrated in her trouser pocket suddenly.At this time of the morning, except that Professor Yang was looking for her, the phone hadn't rang.She took out her husband's phone number and froze for a moment.Her husband hasn't been around her since the apartment incident, and of course the phone calls are pitifully rare.She knew that marrying a criminal policeman meant this kind of irregular and lonely life.She never blamed him. "What's the matter, you will call me at this time!" She said softly with a teasing tone, "Or did you not sleep last night?" "Yeah, the wife still understands her husband, and couldn't sleep well last night." There was a yawning voice from the other end, and the voice was a little hoarse. "I thought you had forgotten about me. Not only did no one show up, but the number of calls was pitiful, really." She blamed deliberately, but her tone was full of tenderness. "It's all due to the Donghu murder case, but the case has been solved." "Is it true?" She was startled, unable to react for a moment. "Well, but I still have some doubts. I can't confirm that the murderer entered our apartment. I'm afraid it's someone else." "How come, isn't the murderer of the East Lake murder and the murderer the same person?" "It's not completely sure yet, but the murderer has been found out, there is already evidence to prove it, and the search has already begun." "Oh, that's really great!" "Also, I need to tell you a happy event." "What? A happy event? No way." "Yes. In the laboratory?" "Ok." "I'll go there now, you should be busy first." "Okay!" After she hung up the phone, she wondered what her husband wanted to say to her, why didn't he say it on the phone.As for the happy event, I can't even say it. I didn't see my husband for several days, and found that my husband's face was very haggard, his fair face turned black and completely lost its luster, his eyes were dark and bloodshot.Seeing him like this, she couldn't utter the words of scolding at all, but began to feel distressed. "It's been a while, why are you so tired?" She sat down beside her husband and looked at him seriously. "Are you not handsome anymore?" Xia Zicheng looked at his beautiful wife and smiled wryly at himself. "The boss is still not serious." Li Tiaotiao was amused and smiled. "Is there something that you have to come here to talk about?" "I miss you, so I have to come here!" Xia Zicheng frowned slightly, and sighed softly. "Really?" She looked into her husband's eyes, but couldn't see the light of love, "Just tell me what you have to say." Xia Zicheng silently took out a bag from behind, handed it over to her and put it in her hand. "What, it's so mysterious!" She thought it was her husband who gave her a gift, she was overjoyed, and hurriedly opened it to have a look. "You are amazing!" She couldn't help but kissed her husband excitedly.Xia Zi deliberately took the heat. "It's broad daylight, what are you doing?" A slightly aged laugh came from outside the door. Li Tiaotiao turned around and saw that it was Professor Yang, his face showed shyness for a moment, but he quickly covered it up, stood up excitedly and said: "Professor Yang, we found the dragon pattern on the ancient tomb." He said, holding up the bag. "Really?" The face under the white hair immediately showed a flowery smile, and walked towards her with brisk steps. "It's really great!" He muttered to himself holding the dragon pattern, his cloudy eyes shone strangely. What Xia Zicheng saw was the light of art.