Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

When Bai Muchuan heard that, he gave Old Kong, who was pestering him, a kick before pulling Xiang Wan along into the bedroom.

The bedroom was still dark, only Tang Yuanchu’s cold, white flashlight was seen in there. A man was lying under the halo of the flashlight, his hair rumpled and his body tied up by a rope that went around him many times that he looked like a huge worm. There was a pool of blood that came out from his body which seemed really dark-colored when mixed with the soil and was disgusting to see.

Bai Muchuan closed in slowly to the man.

He put on his gloves, squatted down, and turned the head of the man around.

Ah! Although Xiang Wan had mentally prepared herself to not be scared, she was still frightened by the sight before her.

That man’s eyes were wide-opened with bruises around it. His mouth was taped up tightly, and he was not moving even an inch.

“I’ve taught him a lesson,” muttered a sobbing Old Kong who staggered his way into the bedroom at that moment.

“It’s true… I really taught him a lesson…”

“It’s the father’s fault for not teaching his son… My son’s sins are my own sins… Detective comrade… I’ve already taught him a lesson, could you please… spare him? I beg of you… please catch me instead… Let me go to jail in place of my son. Please, I beg of you…”

Nobody answered him.

Inside the bedroom, the atmosphere was unusually cold.

Bai Muchuan retracted his hands slowly from the dead man and got back up, shaking his head at Tang Yuanchu.

“Dispatch the forensics team to come investigate the scene!”

…

The deceased man was Kong Qingping.

He died inside his own house, inside his own bedroom.

When the police cars entered the village, it attracted even more villagers to surround the courtyard.

Cheng Zheng led another two of his team members to gather evidence and examine the crime scene.

At the living room, Old Kong had not come out of his drunken stupor. He would howl at one moment, and kneel or kowtow to the police at another. He behaved like a lunatic.

With his state being like this, it was certainly not suitable to interrogate him.

With that, Xiang Wan decided to chat with the villagers outside.

That huge, black dog was lying obediently at a corner. When it saw Xiang Wan coming out of the house, it barked at her two times before getting shouted at by a villager. The dog then backed off and rested on the ground.

Xiang Wan thanked the villager who helped her out and stood beside him, casually talking to him as well as the villagers around him.

“All of you have seen Kong Qingping come back home, right?”

The villagers shook their heads.

“Nobody saw him came back.”

“This young lad was always nowhere to be seen. He seldom kept in touch with his father. I’ve already not seen him coming home for two to three years.”

“He was a paranoid person. Perhaps he knew his life was coming to an end and came back to die inside his own house…”

No one had seen him coming back to the village which was in line with their investigations.

However, there was only one way that one could enter the village. How did he come back unnoticed?

Maybe he did it secretly. That was possible, too.

Xiang Wan analyzed the case inside her head and asked another question, “Is the relationship between father and son good?”

“Good? No way, they would quarrel the moment they see each other and fight when they couldn’t agree. When they fight, they did not care that they are related by blood at all. They’re on bad terms…”

Xiang Wan inquired, “So for the past two days, did anyone hear the two of them quarreling with each other?”

The villagers shook their heads and claimed that they had not heard anything.

“If Old Kong had not told us about his son when he bought wine, we would not have known at all…”

“His son committed theft and killed someone, and this is not something to be proud of, why did he want to tell everyone about it? This is too strange!”

“There’s nothing strange about it,” a villager heaved a sigh, “we’re all used to it. His son had been stealing from others ever since he was a child. If not for his granny, he would have been bashed to death… Old Kong would always say his life has been ruined because of this son of his whenever he meets someone…”

“Well, he does have a point. Back when Old Kong went to jail, it was all because of his son who stole something that caused Old Kong to get into a fight with someone. He got charged for intentionally causing bodily harm and was jailed for years.”

Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows and chatted with the villagers for a little while more.

By this time, the forensics team had almost completed their investigation of the crime scene.

There were some snacks scattered around the entrance. There was also a packet of milk with visible blood stains on it. The forensics team colleagues were collecting all these evidence into evidence bags and carefully labeling them…

Kong Qingping’s body had now been kept inside the corpse bag, leaving a pool of blood stains on the ground that still looked eerily shocking.

Everyone was busy working. Even though Xiang Wan had a lot of doubts, she did not raise them but looked on as an onlooker.

…

When they left Kong Village, it was already midnight.

Old Kong was also taken away, wailing and sobbing as he was led inside the police car.

“Let my son off… I beg of you all… Detective comrades… Let my son off… It’s all my fault!”

Tang Yuanchu had already told him that his son had passed away.

However, it was unsure if Old Kong was really so drunk that nothing could go inside his head or he was avoiding to face the reality, nothing the police say could go inside his head. He only repeated one sentence throughout.

“It’s the father’s fault for not teaching the son… I want to go to jail in place of my son…”

…

The police cars were up ahead with the siren on.

Xiang Wan followed Bai Muchuan to go back in the car that she came with earlier.

After staying silent for a moment, she turned around and cleared her throat as she looked at Bai Muchuan’s indifferent expression.

“Has the doll been found?”

She had been thinking about asking this question for a long time.

Bai Muchuan narrowed his eyes. “Nope.”

Xiang Wan’s heart skipped a beat. Seeing that he did not look good, she murmured, “Where could he have hidden the doll?”

Bai Muchuan did not say a word.

Inside a police car, as Old Kong’s voice was loud and powerful, and was continuously making a scene, he was making people all around feeling annoyed and frustrated.

Is there such a muddle-headed father? His son is dead and he did not even know about it.

Xiang Wan puffed a sigh as she mulled things over. “Did you feel that this Kong Guangming might have a mental problem?”

“Hm,” responded Bai Muchuan, “if he’s alright, he wouldn’t have a need to take medicine.”

Oh right! Xiang Wan then got reminded of the fact that he had been on prescription of that sedative drug from a private clinic. She pursed her lips and asked, “If he really has a mental problem and killed someone, will he be charged?”

Bai Muchuan thought for a while. “That would depend on the circumstances!”

Isn’t this equivalent to not saying anything?

Xiang Wan noticed that Bai Muchuan seemed a little out of sorts and lost her interest to discuss about the case.

There was a thick fog on the night roads in the countryside.

The car drove slowly along the road, making the process especially torturous.

After a long while, the car finally reached the main road.

Xiang Wan heaved a sigh and stretched her stiff arms when Bai Muchuan suddenly said something to Tang Yuanchu, “You’ll send Teacher Xiang back later!”

“Eh?” Xiang Wan knew that they would be working throughout the night and hurriedly shook her head. “Don’t bother. All of you are so busy, I want to go back to the office, too. Moreover, I’m very curious as well…”

“Curious about what?”

“I’m curious about the whereabouts of the doll as well as Kong Qingping’s death…”

Bai Muchuan furrowed his brows. “Aren’t you supposed to be writing your update?”

Xiang Wan smiled casually. “I can write it while in office!”

Bai Muchuan did not raise any objection to that. “You have more guts now,” he said without much emotions.

“Eh? Why did you say that?”

“You didn’t scream when you saw the corpse earlier!”

Hur! Well, I screamed inside my head. That’s why you didn’t hear it.

Xiang Wan thought inside her head. “Well,” she laughed awkwardly, “maybe I got used to it and who knows one fine day, I might be able to join Captain Cheng to do autopsy on corpses…”

She was just purely joking around.

But the words “join Captain Cheng” made Bai Muchuan pull a long face.

“Why not do it today instead? You can give it a try later.”

“…”

No! I’m just joking! Ahhhhhh!

Seeing how serious Bai Muchuan looked when he made that remark, Xiang Wan felt she was turned into stone and shattered into pieces in an instant.

Looking at a corpse from afar was totally different from watching an autopsy up close!

She was scared!

However, if Bai Muchuan and Tang Yuanchu were to go to the forensics team, she was even more afraid of being left behind.

On the cold operating table of the forensics team, Kong Qingping’s corpse was placed on top of it; it was a naked body without anything covering it. At this moment, that body did not seem to be a human but an animal with a research value instead…

This scene was too cold, causing Xiang Wan to turn her head away.

“The initial findings showed the time of death was yesterday evening at seven o’clock.” Cheng Zheng stood in front of the autopsy table. His doctor’s coat when matched with the metallic autopsy table brought about a feeling of unspeakable apathy. He showed no emotion as he handled the corpse. “The fatal wound is the one in the chest where a dagger had pierced the deceased’s heart directly. This led to a massive hemorrhage, and the deceased died due to not being saved in time.”

“Is this the dagger that stabbed the security guard at Jinyi Hotel?” Tang Yuanchu asked.

“Yes,” said Cheng Zheng, “it basically fits the data…”

“That means, Kong Qingping’s father stabbed his son with the dagger that his son brought back?”

“No!” Cheng Zheng took a look at Bai Muchuan. “From what we’ve gathered at the scene, it was Kong Qingping himself who held the dagger when he suffered a heavy blow that happened to make him fall toward the tip of the dagger…”

“He actually died this way? That’s so unlucky of him!” There were many instances of Tang Yuanchu being a curious young detective. “Can I understand it like this? Kong Qingping was tied up and his mouth was taped up by his father at home, where he couldn’t escape and couldn’t shout for help. Hence, he wanted to save himself by using the dagger but suffered a heavy hit from his father, which led to him getting pierced by the dagger. As for his father, he just continued to drink his alcohol…”

Cheng Zheng hesitated for a moment and said, “Before that, Kong Guangming was already drunk. The attack on Kong Qingping should not have come from his father…”

Tang Yuanchu asked, “Are there any signs of a third person in the scene?”

“We did not find signs of a third person at the scene.” Cheng Zheng shook his head. “This is also my greatest doubt.”

Tang Yuanchu asked, “Then why are you so sure that it’s not Kong Qingping’s father who hit him?”

Cheng Zheng replied, “This is because no father would sit by and do nothing when he saw his own son being pierced by a dagger…”

“Well, not necessarily!” Bai Muchuan, who had been silent all the time, suddenly grunted a laugh. “There are many cold-blooded fathers in the world. Kong Guangming could jolly be one of them.”

Cheng Zheng squinted his eyes as he looked at him.

Bai Muchuan raised an eyebrow. “Am I wrong to say that?”

Cheng Zheng chose to stay quiet. The two of them met each other’s gaze, and the atmosphere instantly turned hostile.