It was very late at night, and the lights were turned off in all the houses except ours. I couldn't hear anything except the wind outside. We returned to our respective rooms, wrapped in thick quilts, listening to the sound of the wind outside, and fell asleep warmly.
Early the next morning, I was woken up by the wind outside. The heating in the room is still sufficient. Looking through the window, I saw Captain Zhou leading people to shovel snow outside. The snow outside was not as heavy as last night. If we didn’t clear a road when the snow was light, I’m afraid The car couldn't even go out.
Walked out of the room, thinking about helping Captain Zhou and the others.
Captain Zhou saw me coming out and said, "Woke up so early? How did you sleep last night?"
"Slept well." I replied honestly.
While Captain Zhou was talking to me, he didn’t stop shoveling the snow. It was cold, but his forehead was covered with fine sweat: “That’s right, let’s not talk about anything else, just talk about this heater and that one.” It’s quite enough, and it’s comfortable when you sleep at night.”
I smiled and looked around. The surrounding area is covered with snow, and from time to time there is a "crack" sound when the dead branches are crushed by the snow. The roof of the car by the wall was covered with snow, which seemed to be more than ten centimeters thick. This kind of weather will cause a lot of obstacles to our investigation. I said with some concern: "I don't think anyone will shovel snow on the road in Tougouzi Village. Today we have to find out if there are any other scattered organs at the crime site."
Captain Zhou stopped what he was doing, stuck the shovel in the snow, leaned on the handle of the shovel with both hands, and looked up at the sky: "Yeah, I'm afraid you won't see such a ghostly weather in more than ten years, and I don't know if it's your luck or No luck. I'm afraid there's a lot of snow on the village road."
"We have encountered dismemberment murder cases that have not been seen in decades." I also looked up at the sky: "It is not a problem to encounter heavy snow that has not been seen in more than ten years. Last night, the snow fell by another ten centimeters. It almost covered the human calf. Including the snow accumulation of the previous few days, the snow accumulation by the village is estimated to be 20 centimeters?"
Captain Zhou let out a hot breath: "I see, it's 30 centimeters long, and if the snow keeps falling, it's probably going to reach your knees!"
"Let's eat." Captain Zhou put the shovel aside and shouted.
Everyone went back to the house to keep warm and eat. Captain Zhou turned his head and said to me: "Looking at the weather like this, I'm afraid that there will be many calls for help today. There are not enough people. If you want to find a limb, look at us. No, do you want to ask for manpower?"
I shook my head and said, "No, I'll ask Team Leader Shao to help us find people. He's much more useful than you and me. Let's go to Tougouzi Village today to inquire about the situation and see if there's anything there recently. People are missing. Now we have only one thigh, and we can't even tell if it's a man's or a woman's leg. I think, let's find out more information."
Captain Zhou nodded, patted my body, and motioned for me to eat together.
After a simple meal, Captain Zhou drove the car. Snow chains were added to the wheels of the car, but even so, Captain Zhou did not dare to drive the car too fast. A few people didn't report much hope for today's search. Firstly, there was not enough manpower, and secondly, the snow was so thick that even the footprints we left yesterday were probably covered.
However, we are still too optimistic, because the car can only drive halfway along the path, and further ahead, the snow completely covers the road, and Captain Zhou has no way to distinguish where is the road and where is the field ridge . If you continue to move forward, if you drive on a field ridge, it is easy to overturn.
The few of us didn't dare to take our own lives to make fun of. Captain Zhou got out of the car, stood by the car and looked around for a long time, and then said: "The road is just like this, but don't dare to walk indiscriminately." The path in the village has many turns and turns, and now it is covered by snow, so it is difficult for people who don’t know the way to find it smoothly.”
Captain Zhou sat in again, took out his mobile phone and said to us, "Come on, let me call the head of Tougouzi Village and ask him to send some people to meet us."
With that said, Captain Zhou made a phone call on his own.
It seems that Captain Zhou is quite familiar with the head of Tougouzi Village.
Ten minutes later, Captain Zhou said to us: "The village head has already told me that he will send Lao Xia to show us the way in a while. But you know what Lao Xia looks like. I don't dare to let him drive the car for us. Show me the way. I guess it's about an hour's walk from the village, why don't you walk?"
Captain Zhou seems to have cast a shadow on Lao Xia's previous behavior, but driving in such bad weather, especially in snowy fields with extremely bad road conditions, is really too dangerous. Walking is also a good choice, although the time to go is not short. I suddenly thought of a question. Under the circumstances at that time, the murderer had no way to use transportation, and he should have walked.
And if the murderer was walking, then he must not be far from Tougouzi Village, but not too close. If it is too far away, it is difficult to start, and if it is too close, it will definitely be discovered.
We waited in the car for about an hour before Lao Xia arrived late.
Through the car window, we can see Lao Xia's figure shaking. He wears a heavy hat covering his ears, but the mouth still hasn't taken any measures to keep warm, and it's still abrupt and terrifying. When Lao Xia saw our car, he stopped his footsteps, stretched out his hand from a distance and waved, motioning us to find him.
Captain Zhou locked the car, looked at Lao Xia, then at us, and said, "Then let's park the car here, and let's go with Lao Xia. When we arrive at Tougouzi Village, let's go to the village chief first. , maybe the village head can tell us some details about the village."
Lao Xia still walked forward silently and quickly. He seemed to have a unique way of walking in the snow, and he never dragged his feet. And every time we step on it, we must first explore the reality, for fear that if we don't step on it correctly, we will slip into a shit. Lao Xia seemed to have eyes on his back. When we walked slowly, his speed also slowed down, and when we speeded up, he also accelerated.
He kept a distance of three or four meters from us all the time, as if he didn't want to get involved with the few of us.
He was really a weird person, but presumably if anyone's face became like that of Old Xia's, no matter how cheerful he was, he would also become taciturn and dull.
It is estimated that it will take more than an hour to walk on the road. It may be possible for Lao Xia to be taciturn and not say a word for a day, but we cannot do this. On the way, we were discussing our thoughts about the case, whether the portrait of the murderer was accurate, and we talked about Lao Xia for some reason.
Guan Zengbin said in a low voice: "Actually, to be honest, the first time I saw this old Xia, I was really shocked. I have seen many people with severe burns before, but this is the first time. Seeing the burns on the face so badly. Let me tell you the truth, it's really not easy to survive like this."
Guan Zengbin deliberately lowered his voice, fearing that Lao Xia in front would hear it. But judging by his indifferent appearance, Lao Xia probably wouldn't hear it.
Gu Chen glanced at Lao Xia's back, and said: "Now there is an online game called Dead by Daylight, the content is that the butcher chases and kills survivors. When I saw Lao Xia for the first time, I felt that this person was as tall as he was in it. The butcher is exactly the same. But Wu Meng, there is something worth noting about the content of your profile, do you think the murderer is a butcher?"
I nodded and said slowly: "From my intuition, the murderer should be a butcher, and he has been doing this for many years. He is not used to such bloody things. There was no difference in his mind."
I don’t know if it’s because of the ambiguity between Gu Chen’s words and mine. Captain Zhou has been staring at Lao Xia’s back this week, as if he wanted to see through his skin directly into Lao Xia’s heart. Looking at Captain Zhou's appearance, I knew that Captain Zhou might start to doubt Lao Xia.
Thinking of this, I hurriedly whispered to Captain Zhou: "I said Captain Zhou, although Gu Chen said that Lao Xia looks like a butcher, but that doesn't mean anything. He has a big head and a thick neck, he is either rich or a cook, It's also a joke."
"Lao Xia is about 1.8 meters tall." Captain Zhou began to analyze each item one by one: "Wu Meng, among the conditions you mentioned, this Lao Xia satisfies quite a few."
Clearing his throat, Captain Zhou became serious: "As I said just now, everyone can see that Lao Xia is more than 1.8 meters tall, and you can see that his physique is indeed strong. He is wearing rain boots and leather gloves. Although it is said that there is no uniform, no big belly, no blood-stained apron on the stomach, and no machete in hand."
"But they won't show their true colors, right?" Captain Zhou stared at Lao Xia's back and said, "You can't carry a machete all day long, and act like I'm here to catch me, right?"
I was almost amused by Captain Zhou's words, and said: "Naturally, what I described was only the appearance of the murderer when he was killing people. And when the murderer is not killing people, he may change his appearance. After all, everyone's The heart is unfathomable, everyone has many different aspects. And maybe only when he kills, he truly becomes himself."
Captain Zhou nodded.
At this time, Gu Chen handed each of us a cigarette, and he lit one himself, saying: "But Lao Xia's occupation is not a butcher, he can't look like a butcher, so he has to be a butcher. According to this, I should go to the gym and become a fitness instructor?"
Captain Zhou stopped suddenly, then looked at us with a strange look, then quietly pointed to Lao Xia in front of him, and said in a low voice: "But what if Lao Xia was a butcher before?"
We all looked at Captain Zhou.