Du Cheng raised his head, pressed his temple, took out a cigarette from the cigarette case next to him and lit it.He leaned back on the swivel chair, stared at the ceiling, and slowly exhaled a puff of smoke. In the middle of the night, there is no other light in the narrow room except for a lamp on the table.Du Cheng's eyes were focused on the dark ceiling, but he found that there was no point of focus for distraction.On the contrary, more and more rapid blood flowed on his body, and he could even hear the roar from his eardrums. Damn, it's been more than 20 fucking years, why is it still like this? Du Cheng smiled wryly, sat up straight again, and forced himself to continue reading. 〔Analysis opinion〕 ... This case can be investigated in parallel with the "11.9", "3.14", and "6.23" homicide, mutilation and dumping of corpses. From the perspective of criminal methods, there are few skin flaps on the broken ends of the corpses, and no cut marks on the surface of the bones, and the criminal ability has been upgraded. , Proficient posture.The body parts were scattered regularly, and the upper and lower limbs, torso, and head were scattered separately. It can be inferred that he was calm when he committed the crime...
Du Cheng sighed. He pushed the case file in front of him aside, and the yellowed paper made a crackling sound, as if it might shatter into powder at any moment. useless.He couldn't concentrate, couldn't take his eyes off the words "August 8." Du Cheng turned his head and looked quietly at the photo frame on the chest of drawers. A woman with shoulder-length hair squatted halfway among the tulips, hugging a plump little boy, and looked back at him with a smile. The corners of Du Cheng's mouth rose, and at the same time, his eyes were blurred. He stood up, walked slowly to the chest of drawers, picked up the photo frame, and stroked it gently. His face was reflected in the glass of the frame.Pale, slightly puffy, and wrinkled.The old face covered the two still young and vivid faces, as if pulling time and space closer and confusing life and death. Du Cheng's gaze gradually softened, everything around him had fallen into the endless void, in the semi-dark light, he had no intention of bringing his thoughts back to reality, the most precious thing in dying is only memories. August 8, 1991, 7:10 am. A young uniformed policeman, carrying two large plastic bags, hurried up the steps in front of the Tiedong Sub-bureau of C City Public Security Bureau.Through the glass door, he nodded to his colleagues on duty, turned right, and hurried along the corridor on the east side of the first floor.It was bright now, but the corridor was dimly lit. The doors on both sides were all closed, and only a window at the north end could still see through. There was silence in the corridor, only the footsteps of young policemen and the rustling of plastic bags rubbing against each other could be heard.Near the east end of the room, the young policeman felt an inexplicable chill, as if gusts of cold wind were being released from the front door. When he came to the door, he moved all the plastic bags to his left hand, hesitated for a moment, raised his hand and knocked on the door. "Who?" came an impatient voice. The young policeman opened the door and cautiously poked half of his head in.The too low room temperature immediately caused goose bumps on his body, and at the same time, the frightening smell shot straight into his nostrils. "Horse team." He tried not to look at the bluish-white corpse on the dissecting table, his throat became dry, "The meal is here." "Let's put it in the meeting room first." Ma Jian waved his hand, "We'll go there later." The young policeman hurriedly agreed, quickly closed the door and left. Ma Jian turned around, put his hands on his hips, and stared at the corpse on the dissecting table. The cabinet-type air conditioner in the corner was whirring, and a large cloud of white steam came out from the air outlet.The temperature in the room was very low, but Ma Jian's forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, and most of the blue and black striped short-sleeved shirt on his body was also wet with sweat. Du Cheng stood opposite him, with his arms folded in front of his chest, his face was ashen, and his brows were furrowed. The forensic doctor squatted on the ground, took out a human calf from the body bag, looked at it back and forth, and placed it on the dissecting table. "For the time being, it can only be spelled like this." He took a step back and took off his mask, "Fuck!" This is an adult female corpse, which was divided into eight pieces: head, torso, left and right upper limbs, left thigh and lower leg.The broken ends were put together improvised, and the posture of the deceased was weird. In addition, the right thigh and lower leg were missing, so it did not look like a person. Du Cheng walked around in front of the dead man's head, lowered his head and observed carefully.The deceased had long, disheveled hair, his head was slightly to the right, his face was swollen, his mouth was half-open, his eyes were slightly closed, and his pupils were dim. "What was the cause of death?" "The preliminary judgment is mechanical asphyxiation." The forensic doctor pointed to the severed end of the skull, and the strangle marks were clearly discernible. "It should be strangled to death." Du Cheng looked at Ma Jian. The latter was silent, his teeth were clenched, and the muscles on his cheeks were raised. "I'll do a toxicology analysis later, but I don't think it's very meaningful." The forensic doctor lit a cigarette, "He did it." "What about the time of death?" "More than eight hours." The forensic doctor put on gloves. "The specific time will be notified after the stomach contents are checked. In addition..." He pointed to the mutilated female corpse on the dissecting table. "Look for the right leg. If it looks like this, the family members will go crazy." Ma Jian heaved a sigh of relief, and his whole body suddenly became exhausted: "Fight for it. You are busy first, and let us know immediately if you find anything." After that, he waved to Du Cheng: "Let's go, let's eat first." The doors and windows in the meeting room were wide open, allowing fresh air to pass through.Although it was slightly chilly, for Ma Jian and Du Cheng who had just walked out of the forensic anatomy room, it seemed that they had traveled from severe winter to midsummer.What makes people feel a little more pleasant is the smell of food that fills the room - the smell of corpses in the nasal cavity is swept away. Several colleagues were sitting around the conference table having breakfast, and when they saw them coming in, they all got up and gave up their seats.As soon as Ma Jian and Du Cheng sat down, soy milk, buns and tea eggs were pushed in front of them. Although already hungry, Ma Jian's appetite is not very good.After eating half a bun and drinking a few sips of soy milk, he lit a cigarette, looked around at his colleagues who were munching, and asked, "How's the situation?" A policeman wearing a sweat-stained short-sleeved shirt and with disheveled hair like a chicken coop swallowed the steamed stuffed bun in his mouth: "The search for the source of the corpse is in progress. Several groups of people came yesterday afternoon, and they all reported missing persons in the past month. , but neither." He bit the bun in his mouth, flipped through the documents in his hand, and said vaguely: "The last time I was called to the police was on August 6. A man surnamed Ji claimed that his wife hadn't returned overnight. We think the physical features are more similar. He has been notified, and it is estimated that he will be here in a while." Ma Jian nodded and asked again: "What about the others?" Another policeman replied: "The on-site visit is still going on, but there are no valuable clues yet." Ma Jian frowned, flicked the soot, and thought for a while: "How about the on-site investigation?" "Still under inspection." "Let them hurry up!" The policeman responded, got up and went out.At the same time, a policewoman came in a hurry and walked straight to Ma Jian: "Ma Team, a person named Ji came to identify the body." Ma Jian hummed, then turned to Du Cheng and said, "Cheng Zi, go and have a look." Du Cheng nodded, ate the buns in his hand in two bites, wiped his mouth, got up and walked towards the door. Ma Jian turned his head and saw that the policewoman was still standing in front of him. "Is there anything else?" "Well, the director informed that in 20 minutes, there will be a case analysis meeting in the third meeting room on the fourth floor." She paused, seeming nervous, "The deputy mayor and the secretary of the political and legal committee are here." Ma Jian stared at her steadily for a few seconds, then stood up suddenly, clapped his palms, and shouted loudly: "Hurry up, the meeting will start in twenty minutes!" The policemen responded and speeded up their eating.The ones who finished eating first have already started to sort out the materials and prepare to report at the meeting.Ma Jian smoked two cigarettes in a row, calmly sorted out his thoughts, and recorded the main points in his notebook from time to time. After getting ready, Ma Jian led his men out of the conference room and walked along the corridor to the elevator.Just after taking a few steps, I suddenly heard a heart-piercing cry from behind. That's the direction of the forensic dissection room. Ma Jian stopped, his head drooped, his eyes were slightly closed, and his hands were clenched into fists.The colleagues behind him also stopped, looking at the slightly trembling back of the captain. The creaking sound of clenched teeth is clearly audible. After a while, Ma Jian raised his head, took another step, and walked forward quickly. The analysis meeting lasted for more than two hours, and the faces of the director, deputy mayor, and secretary of the political and legal committee were not good.No wonder, since November last year, the murderer has raped and killed four women in a row, and the whole city has fallen into an unprecedented panic.However, judging from the clues obtained by the police and the progress of the investigation, there is still no clue.The atmosphere at the meeting site was as dignified as a memorial service.Under strong pressure, the director issued a military order at the end of the analysis meeting: solve the case within 20 days, otherwise he will automatically resign and go to guard the equipment depot. The higher-ups expressed their position, but the pressure was still on Ma Jian and the others.After the meeting, Ma Jian led a group of people back to the office.Everyone sat at the table, speechless for a while.After a long time, Ma Jian said slowly, "Where is Shaohua?" Someone replied: "It's over there for physical evidence inspection." Ma Jian gave a "hmm" and stood up: "At the meeting just now, everyone heard it, twenty days, I don't need to say more, the time is very tight..." Suddenly, the door of the office was knocked open, and a shirtless man rushed in staggeringly, knelt down on the ground with a plop, and kowtowed like garlic. "You... comrades in the police," the man's face was covered with sweat and tears, "you must catch him! My love...she is a good woman...she shouldn't..." Du Cheng rushed through the door right after him.He picked up the man and kept comforting him: "Old Ji, get up quickly, don't be like this..." Ma Jian was also taken aback, and hurriedly beckoned to his colleagues to help the man up.There was blood on the man's forehead, mixed with dust and sweat, and his face looked like a ghost.The sudden great grief, coupled with his head hitting the ground, made the man's mind blurred, and his whole body was as limp as mud.The four male policemen managed to carry him into the corridor, and after walking a long distance, the roar in his mouth was still clearly audible. Ma Jian panted heavily, pointed outside the door: "Where's his clothes?" "It's covered on the corpse." Du Cheng looked sad, "The deceased is his wife." Ma Jian was silent for a while, and waved to a colleague: "Go, wait for him to calm down, and ask about the situation of the deceased." After all, he sat in front of Du Cheng and stretched out two fingers. "Chengzi, twenty days." "I heard about it." Du Cheng nodded and sighed, "How about this case?" "I have no idea." Ma Jian lit a cigarette, "What do you think?" "Let's start with his range of activities." Du Cheng opened his desk drawer, took out a stack of slides, and handed them to Ma Jian. Ma Jian glanced through it hastily and found that it was a hand-drawn simple urban map. Each slide was marked with a date, and several places were marked with a red marker. "this is?" "The dumping ground for these four cases." Du Cheng picked up a slide marked "11.9", "This is the first case, look..." He pointed to the places with red marks: "The intersection of Songjiang Street and Minzhu Road, Hewan Park, the waste incineration plant, and the Municipal Orthopedic Hospital." Du Cheng picked up a black marker pen: "The suspect should have a car. If he went to these places one after another, then the driving route would roughly follow these routes." After all, he drew a few zigzag black lines on the map. Ma Jian understood: "Find the intersection?" "Yes." Du Cheng picked up the slide marked "3.14", also connected a few black wires to the place where the red mark was marked, and then covered it on the first slide.The two transparent films are superimposed, and it can be seen that the places where the corpses are dumped are scattered, but the black lines that indicate the driving route intersect and overlap. "That's a good idea!" Ma Jian became excited, got up and greeted a colleague, "Go, get a map of the city, the bigger the better." A few hours later, a large map of the city was hanging on the wall of the office, desks were removed, and chairs were placed in a row against the wall.The police stood in front of the map, looking at the dozen or so red dots marked on it, and analyzed the route the murderer might have driven.Gradually, several zigzag thick black lines appeared on the map.Immediately, the analytical train of thought turned into backwards where his starting point was. After another deduction, Ma Jian walked to the map with a black signature pen. "Now it seems that the murderer's most likely hiding place is..." He drew two big circles on the map, "Tiedong District and Xiujiang District." Du Cheng's expression was still serious.Although it seems that the scope of the investigation has been greatly reduced, Tiedong District and Xiujiang District are the two main urban areas of the city with a large population. Searching for the murderer here is just the difference between finding a needle in the Pacific Ocean and the Bohai Sea. Ma Jian seemed complacent. In his opinion, at least he could figure out a way of thinking from the complicated case. Although it was still not clear, it was better than nothing.When he was setting up the investigation mission, Luo Shaohua walked in from the door and saw the map on the wall at a glance. "Damn, what is this?" When Ma Jian saw it was him, he immediately asked him to sit down: "You came back just in time, what did you find over the physical evidence?" "There's a fart." Luo Shaohua handed over a few pieces of paper with a frustrated expression, "There are no fingerprints, the plastic bag has no trademark, and the place of origin can't be found out—same as the previous cases." Ma Jian was not reconciled, and asked again: "Where are the footprints?" "Still comparing." Luo Shaohua picked up a glass of water from the table and gulped it all down. "Old Deng said that there is little hope. The places where the corpses are dumped are crowded places, and the fuck has been destroyed." The policemen who had gathered just now dispersed silently.Luo Shaohua looked at the map on the wall and asked Du Cheng, "What are you doing?" Du Cheng was patient, and just after explaining a few words, he heard the office phone on the desk rang.A policewoman picked up the microphone and said "Hello", and after the other party expressed their intention, they handed the microphone to Du Cheng. "sister in law." Du Cheng frowned and answered the phone. "What's up?" "Are you working?" His wife's voice was timid, "Is it bothering you?" "What's the matter, I'm busy." "I'm sorry...it's like this, Liangliang has a fever, I just picked him up from school, you..." "I have a fever, how high is it?" Du Cheng hurriedly sat up straight, "When did it happen?" "I just took my temperature this morning, and it's 38.5°C." The wife was obviously trying to restrain her nervousness. "Can you come back? The doctor said that if the fever continues, you have to go to the hospital." "My side..." Du Cheng hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at Ma Jian.Ma Jian looked helpless, but still waved his hand: "Go back, come back tomorrow." Du Cheng raised his hand to express his apology, and said into the receiver: "Okay, I'll go home now." "Okay." His wife's voice became visibly happier, "What do you want to eat? Shall I stew a soft-shelled turtle for you?" "Whatever, don't bother." "Well, I'll wait for you." After hanging up the phone, Du Cheng stood up and said to Ma Jian embarrassingly: "Ma team, I..." "It's okay, let's go back." Ma Jian smiled, "Have you not been home for a week? Just go back to rest, take a bath, and take care of the children." "I'm sorry." "Hurry up and get out." Ma Jian waved his hand, "Come back when Liangliang's situation is stable, there are brothers here to support him." "Okay!" Du Cheng hurriedly picked up his clothes, packed his handbag, and walked towards the door.As soon as he opened the door, he bumped into a policeman who rushed in rashly. "Ouch! I'm sorry, Brother Du." The policeman greeted Du Cheng briefly, and then turned to Ma Jian, short of breath, "Ma Team, I found that right leg." Forty minutes later, the police car pulled off the main road and onto a bumpy dirt road.Ma Jian's face was ashen, without saying a word, he kept staring straight ahead.Du Cheng took the map and marked "Xiajiang Village, Yanglian Town" with a red marker pen. Then, he looked at several locations including "Highway 177", "Provincial Architectural Design Institute Family Area", and "No. 163 Honghe Street". , Outlined back and forth with a black signature pen. The driving was bumpy, and Du Cheng soon felt dizzy and his stomach began to churn.He put down his pen and looked out the window.Although it was only around five o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was gloomy.The wind whistled, and large lead-black clouds gathered in the sky, and the flashes of lightning could be faintly seen. He patted Ma Jian in the front seat: "It's going to rain." Ma Jian recovered from his contemplation, looked out of the window, cursed, and shouted: "Shaohua." Luo Shaohua responded and picked up the walkie-talkie: "Notify the brothers at the scene and protect the scene." Before the words were finished, big raindrops fell, crackling on the car window. The body throwing site is located on the east side of the water tower in Xiajiang Village, and you have to pass through a large field to get here.The car couldn't go in, so the police parked the car on the edge of the field and walked through the cornfield that was as high as a person. When they saw the water tower, everyone was soaked. Colleagues from the Yanglian Town Police Station greeted them at the outskirts of the scene and introduced the incident as they walked: a young man and a woman in the village had a tryst by the water tower. The woman first discovered the black plastic bag discarded on the east side of the water tower. Flies surround it and it stinks."The man pierced the plastic bag with a branch, and suddenly found a human foot exposed from the breach, so he called the police. Colleagues who arrived earlier had already set up a cordon at the scene. Probably because of the heavy rain, there were not many onlookers.However, there are still a lot of footprints left on the periphery of the site.Ma Jian frowned and looked at the trampled muddy ground, and waved his hands: "Let's open the passage." Knowing that it was of little significance, the investigators still laid a few wooden planks after observing the scene and guided the personnel to enter. A policeman squatted under the water tower with an umbrella all the time. Under his protection, the black plastic bag containing the body parts and the surrounding ground remained dry.After taking photos to fix the evidence, the police began to investigate the scene. The heavy rain and the stampede of the villagers made the investigation work extremely difficult, and more energy was put on the bag of body parts.It was the right thigh, right calf and right foot of the human body, which had begun to rot.Ma Jian looked thoughtfully at the silver-white stiletto sandal on his right foot. Luo Shaohua also came over: "Hey, it's the first time to extract clothes from a corpse." "Yeah." Ma Jian turned to Du Cheng and asked, "Chengzi, aren't you going home?" With his back to the water tower, Du Cheng was watching the village road behind the farmland from a distance. Hearing Ma Jian's question, he replied casually: "I won't go back, I'll be busy here first." "Do you want to call home?" "No need." Du Cheng turned around, wiped the rainwater off his face, and smiled, "She's used to it." "It's okay." Ma Jian obviously hoped that he could stay and help, "After finishing the case, I will give you a few days off..." "Cavalry!" An investigator suddenly shouted, "Come quickly!" Ma Jian hurried over: "What's wrong?" "It's been discovered!" The surveyor's voice could not conceal the excitement, "Look!" He pointed to the bottom of the black plastic bag, a tuft of hair looming in a pool of blood. "what is this?" "I don't know for the time being." The investigators carefully used tweezers to pinch the hair out and observed carefully, "But it's definitely not human hair." "Hurry up and extract it!" Ma Jian squeezed his fists, "The fucking bastard finally left something behind." "It's more than that." The surveyor looked smug, and stretched out his hand to signal to the colleagues behind him, "Gold powder and tape, hurry up." He pointed to the middle of the plastic bag. "Fingerprints found." Back at the bureau, the extracted hair and fingerprints were urgently submitted for inspection.Ma Jian left a group of people to visit the villagers at the scene, while Du Cheng continued to ponder over the map.Soon, the murderer's road map for throwing the body that night gradually became clear. "No. 163 Honghe Street - the family area of the Provincial Architectural Design Institute - along Highway 177 - Xiajiang Village, Yanglian Town." Du Cheng marked the sequence on the map with a red marker. Ma Jian touched his chin, looked at the map full of marks, pondered for a while, and said slowly: "So, the murderer's most likely place of departure is still in the railway station. East End." Luo Shaohua looked at him: "Take Tiedong District as the key investigation area first?" Ma Jian nodded: "I think it's okay, Cheng Zi, what's your opinion?" "This bastard should live alone and have a car." Du Cheng thought for a while, "Taxi driver?" "Or full-time drivers of enterprises and institutions." Luo Shaohua said, "Self-employed, it's all possible." "Check along this line of thought first." Ma Jian pondered for a while, "Leave everything else aside, and we must catch him as soon as possible." The investigation missions were deployed one by one, and people from all walks of life acted urgently.Ma Jian asked the chief to briefly report the situation, and when he returned to the office, he found Du Cheng alone. He sat in front of the map with a cigarette in his hand, looking thoughtful. "Chengzi, what are you doing, homesick?" Du Cheng came back to his senses and smiled: "No." "Call home." Ma Jian pulled a chair and sat in front of him, "Ask about the child." "No need." Du Cheng's mind was obviously not on this matter, "Old Ma, tell me, what does this bastard look like?" "Huh?" Ma Jian stopped lighting his cigarette, "What did you think of?" "All the deceased had non-fatal blunt trauma on the left side of the head. Moreover, I just read the transcript of the interrogation of Ji Qiankun. That night, his wife attended a colleague dinner, and the game ended at about 10:30 in the evening. Before returning home, he and Ji Qiankun Qiankun spoke by phone. Similar situations happened in the previous cases, and the deceased was hijacked in the middle of the night." Du Cheng said slowly, "In other words, the deceased may have been driven by the murderer after getting into the murderer's car. Shot in the direction of the seat, knocked unconscious, took away, raped and killed." "It's so late, and I'm still willing to get in a stranger's car..." Ma Jian thought for a while, then looked at Du Cheng again, "At least this guy doesn't look annoying." "Yeah, he may have a decent conversation, and he has a legitimate reason to strike up a conversation with the deceased." Du Cheng looked at the map, "For example, asking for directions or something." "Educated to a certain extent, neatly dressed." Ma Jian's eyes sparkled, "It looks like a trustworthy one." "Also, have you noticed..." Du Cheng was completely immersed in the high-speed thinking, "this guy is getting more and more confident." "Ok?" "When he committed the crime for the first time, it was obvious that he was not proficient in dismembering the corpse, and he was very flustered." Du Cheng pointed to several red dots on the map, "put the head and left thigh together, and the right thigh and The left calf was put together. However, in this case, not only was the body dismembered easily, but the body parts were discarded in an orderly manner." Suddenly, this image appeared in Ma Jian's mind: the murderer squatted on the ground, humming a song, and patiently stuffed the cut human bodies into black plastic bags in order. He felt sick, and with it, anger. "Hold!" "However, there are a few places that I still can't fucking figure out." Du Cheng extinguished the cigarette butt in the ashtray, "I always feel that something is wrong." "what do you mean?" "When this bastard committed the crime for the first time, he didn't even leave any fingerprints, and the bag was clean." Du Cheng lit a cigarette again, "Why are you so careless this time?" "Hair and fingerprints?" Ma Jian became more angry, "He thinks he's awesome!" "This explanation makes sense..." Du Cheng turned his head to face Ma Jian, but from the corner of his eye he saw the door of the office was suddenly pushed open. Looking closely, Luo Shaohua rushed in holding a few pieces of paper. "Boss, I found something!" He rushed to Ma Jian in a few steps, "It's pig hair!" After urgent inspection, the hair in the black plastic bag was identified as pig hair.Moreover, the fingerprint inspectors found four clear left-hand fingerprints in the middle of one side of the plastic bag, and one of the index finger fingerprints had a transverse mark. It is preliminarily inferred that the index finger of the person had been injured by a sharp object. This discovery excited everyone, especially the tuft of pig hair. "It may be a pig slaughterer or a salesperson." Ma Jian made a judgment immediately, "Simply put, a butcher." "That's right." Luo Shaohua supported Ma Jian's opinion, "People like this usually have a pickup truck or something." "You're not very old, or you haven't been in this business for too long." Du Cheng thought for a while, "At least a few months ago, he wasn't that proficient in his techniques." "Yes." Ma Jian's eyes lit up, "The scar on the index finger may have been formed during practice." While the task force was discussing the case, another clue came back from the police who stayed in Xiajiang Village to visit.According to a villager's recollection, when he got up to go to the toilet at 3:00 a.m. on August 7, he saw a car speeding past his house in the direction of the water tower in the village.As for the car model, he could not provide any valuable information other than affirming that "it is not a sedan". He only confirmed that the body of the car was white. Time was passing by quickly, and everyone in the conference room of Tiedong Branch was running at high speed like a machine at full speed.The phone rings one after another, and there are busy figures at every desk.At the same time, various ideas and analyzes silently collided in the air, sparking faintly. I do not know when, the rain has stopped. The sky gradually became brighter, and the outline of the suspect became more and more clear: male, aged 25 to 35, with a gentle appearance and decent conversation, engaged in pig slaughtering or sales, driving a white car (not a sedan), and living in Tiedong District, City C. "Now I have something to do." Ma Jian leaned over and stared at the map of Tiedong District on the table, "There are only a few slaughterhouses and farmers' markets in this district, and besides, this kid is gentle and a butcher, so his characteristics are quite obvious gone." "Then let's do it." Du Cheng threw away the cigarette butt, picked up his coat, "When are we going?" "No rush. I'll talk about it after dawn. I can't go to the farmer's market to check it now." Ma Jian looked confident and pointed at Du Cheng, "Your task now is to go home!" "It's almost four o'clock." Du Cheng looked at his watch, "Forget it, I won't come back, so as not to wake up the two of them." "Let's go back and have a look." Ma Jian picked up the car keys, "Didn't Liangliang have a fever?" Du Cheng hesitated, thought for a while, and asked tentatively, "Then I... go home and have a look?" "What nonsense?" Ma Jian had already started walking towards the door, "I'll see you off." Half an hour later, the black Santana car stopped downstairs at Du Cheng's house.Ma Jian put it in neutral, and pushed Du Cheng who was dozing off with his head down beside him.The latter raised his head blankly and rubbed his eyes. "Arrived?" "Hurry up and go to bed. If the child is fine, I will pick you up tomorrow." Ma Jian poked his head out of the car window and smiled, "Sister and brother are so funny, they haven't slept yet." Du Cheng looked at the window where the light was still on, and smiled: "You silly girl, staying up so late." Ma Jian watched Du Cheng staggering into the corridor, raised his hand to start the car, and galloped towards the branch office.Perhaps affected by Du Cheng's deep sleepiness, Ma Jian soon felt his eyelids become heavy.He managed to keep his eyes wide open, staring at the empty street ahead, however, at the intersection waiting for a red light, he fell asleep on the steering wheel. In a few minutes, Ma Jian seemed to have slept all night, and had a vague dream during the whole night. He didn't wake up until a truck full of muck passed by and honked. I was terrified.Ma Jian cursed, and at the same time found that cold sweat had flowed from his neck to his chest.He took off his jacket, threw it on the back seat, turned on the car radio, turned it up to maximum volume, and restarted the car. He didn't hear the BP machine in his coat pocket, which was continuously beeping sharply. On Thursday, August 8, 1991, the 28th day of the sixth lunar month, the beginning of autumn, heavy rain. City C resident Peng Juan and her son Du Jialiang died at home due to gas poisoning.After on-site investigation, the cause of the accident was a pot of soft-shelled turtle soup on the gas stove, which caused the fire to go out due to the overflow of soup.In addition, there was a heavy storm in the city that night, and the deceased closed the doors and windows tightly to prevent rainwater from entering the room.The possibility of homicide was ruled out. For other residents of City C, the death of the mother and child was a report on the evening news that lasted less than five minutes, a topic of conversation during gossip, and a wake-up call to turn off the gas valve before going to bed. For Du Cheng, the door to the world is closed. Cancel account.Organize relics.Preparations for the funeral.Appease the emotions of parents-in-law.Receive condolences from colleagues and friends.In the end, I watched two people, one big and one small, being pushed into the cremation furnace. It all seemed like a century.Everything seemed as fleeting as the blink of an eye. It's just that the one-bedroom, one-living room house that was once crowded has become empty. Twenty years later, Du Cheng's memories of those days are always vague, as if he had been hollowed out from the inside out, his eyes were gone, his mouth was gone, his brain was gone, and his heart was gone.No details remained, as if those two people had never appeared, let alone when they disappeared.He was always a man, always a man. The only clear memory is that Ma Jian grabbed his shoulders at the funeral, and Du Cheng, a clay and wood sculpture, looked at him blankly.Ma Jian stared into his blood-red eyes and hissed, "Chengzi, Chengzi...fuck it, I caught him!" The suspect Xu Mingliang, male, 24 years old, Han nationality, unmarried, registered permanent residence in City C, lives at No. 87-311 Siwei Road, Tiedong District, self-employed, selling live pigs at No. 632 Chunyang Farmer’s Market. After investigation, Xu Mingliang lost his father in his early years, had a technical secondary school degree, and has been waiting for work at home after graduating from C City Vocational and Technical College.Since January 1991, he followed his mother to sell live pigs at the Chunyang Farmer's Market.The Xu family has a white Jiefang pickup truck for their own use, and Xu Mingliang has obtained the driving qualification since June 1990. After identification, the fingerprints of Xu Mingliang's left hand and the fingerprints extracted in the "8.7 homicide, mutilation and dumping of corpses" case can be identified as the same. Xu Mingliang's left index finger did have a sharp cut mark. After Xu Mingliang arrived at the case, he refused to admit that he had committed multiple murders.After interrogation, Xu Zuo finally confessed to his crime.The case has been transferred to the People's Procuratorate of City C, and will be appealed to the Intermediate People's Court of City C in the near future. August 22, 1991, C City Intermediate People's Court, Criminal Division. Although Xu Mingliang's murder case didn't start until 9 o'clock, just after 8 o'clock, the gate of the trial court was completely surrounded.In addition to the media who came to interview, there were also many people who came to listen to the news.However, because the case involved a crime of rape, only the family members of the victim and a few other people were allowed to attend the court. At 8:40 in the morning, under the strict interrogation of the judicial police, the observers entered the court with their certificates.As soon as Ma Jian and Luo Shaohua took their seats, they heard the door of the courtroom being closed heavily.Ma Jian looked at the family members of the victim sitting on the other side of the court. Almost everyone had extreme resentment and a desire for revenge.Ma Jian looked back, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a person in the back seat. It's Du Cheng. He had lost a lot of weight, his cheekbones bulged terribly, and thick stubble covered his cheeks.If it weren't for that familiar expression and gaze, Ma Jian would hardly have recognized him. Ma Jian got up and walked to Du Cheng along the long row of seats. "Why are you here?" He looked Du Cheng up and down, "Didn't the bureau give you a holiday?" Du Cheng looked at him, then turned his head to look at the empty dock. "I've got to see—what kind of man this is." At 9 o'clock sharp, the judge entered the court and announced the opening of the court.The defendant was brought into court. When Xu Mingliang appeared at the gate of the court, behind him was the sound of shouting and pressing the shutter.Under blinding flashing lights, Xu Mingliang, dressed in a prison uniform, handcuffed and fettered, was brought into the courtroom by two bailiffs. Almost at the same time, there was a burst of crying and cursing in the auditorium, and almost all the family members of the victim got up from their seats and rushed towards Xu Mingliang who was staggering forward with his head bowed.Although the bailiffs in charge of maintaining order in the courtroom were well prepared, it still took a lot of effort to forcefully restore silence in the courtroom. Ma Jian noticed that in the entire court, except for him and Luo Shaohua, there were only two people who remained still. One is Du Cheng, and the other is Ji Qiankun. The trial process was not smooth. When the prosecutor read out the indictment, Xu Mingliang began to cry loudly and kept calling for grievances.During the cross-examination stage, Xu Mingliang broke away from the obstruction of two bailiffs, took off his prison uniform, and claimed that he had been tortured by the police to extract a confession. The bony body was covered with large and small bruises. The presiding judge turned his attention to Ma Jian, who just raised his chin slightly and stared at Xu Mingliang in the dock with a blank expression. The trial lasted more than four hours. Xu Mingliang was crying all the time and denied all the allegations.However, everyone present knew that although there was little direct evidence, with his confession, there was no obstacle to conviction in that era. There was no sentence in court.After the clerk announced the adjournment, Ma Jian was the first to get up and leave the court.When he walked to the door, Ma Jian heard a commotion behind him.He turned his head subconsciously, and saw Ji Qiankun, who had been carved out of clay and wood, quickly turned over the seat and jumped straight to the aisle.His movements were so fast that the bailiffs present had no time to react. Hit him, hit him hard! Ma Jian watched him silently, without any intention of stepping forward to stop him. However, Ji Qiankun just turned Xu Mingliang's shoulder and looked straight at his face full of snot and tears.