While smoking, I recalled my state of mind when I faced the two cases. Although I was still very young at that time and did not notice many details that I should have noticed long ago, I have to admit that in the end I still found the decisive key evidence and solved the two cases with great difficulty.
In the first heart-stealing case, the main factor driving the case was the express deliveries that the boss Zhang Peng kept sending out. The motive for the murder was almost perfectly hidden. If I hadn't happened to meet the mahjong friends of the boss Zhang Peng, and found out that the place where they played mahjong recently was exactly the same as the place where several cases occurred, and if I hadn't guessed the boss Zhang Peng's motive for the murder, I would never have been able to solve the case so quickly.
For the second corpse-fraud case, I also found out that the murderer was Zhao Tiezhu after discovering that the murderer was lying and finding out that everyone involved in the case wanted to leave Heishan Village. Similarly, if Zhao Tiezhu had followed Qiongqi's arrangements at the time, it would still be difficult for me to discover that he was the murderer.
Although those two cases are still vivid in my mind, when they overlap with the two murders in front of me now, many problems arise, because I can no longer think about these two cases along the same lines as before. No matter the motive or the means, the murderer should have hidden it perfectly. Therefore, the two murders in front of me can be treated as a new case to be solved.
After making a preliminary plan in my mind, I put out my cigarette, stood up and prepared to go out to ask the village chief a few questions. Bai Longfei and Lin Yingxue were both going, and I said to let Bai Longfei stay here and help me record all the information of those brave people last night, and by the way, see if I can find out anything from the people at the scene. Then, Lin Yingxue and I walked out of the yard.
"Why are you recording the information of those brave people? Do you think the murderer is among them?" Lin Yingxue asked me as we walked.
Before I could answer her question, I found that the village chief who had been standing outside the yard explaining the incident to us was gone. After asking, I learned that the village chief had gone back. The surrounding villagers were very disgusted with the village chief's timid style and had begun to discuss replacing the village chief.
Since the village chief wasn't here, we had no choice but to go to his house to look for him. On the way, I answered, "I think it's almost certain. Even if there's no real murderer among that group of people, there must be at least one person who has some kind of relationship with the real murderer! Think about it, the victims in both cases died of having their hearts ripped out, and they deliberately imitated the two previous cases to prove that the murderer is the same person or the same group of people. If the murderer wants to connect the two cases, then the body of the first victim, Zhao Fugui, whose heart was ripped out, is a very critical prop! Only by using Zhao Fugui's body can the necessary conditions for replicating the 'corpse fraud case' be met!"
From what I have learned now, the idea of carrying the body of the first victim, Zhao Fugui, to the land temple was thought up by those brave men. On the surface, they said that they wanted to let the spiritual energy of the land temple suppress the evil spirits in the corpse, but the real reason was that the murderer wanted to put the corpse in a place where no one would notice it, so that he could use this important prop on the second victim without anyone noticing!
I have just seen the bodies of the two deceased. They were both in their forties or fifties, but their bodies were not very strong, which means they were not very heavy. I believe that except for women, the brave villagers would be able to move the bodies.
"Then according to what you said, we just need to call those brave people together and interrogate them, then we will know everything, right?"
This time I did not deny it. I nodded and said, "You are right. This is indeed the most effective method. As long as the person's psychological quality is not very good, he will definitely reveal a lot of flaws. Even if he is not the murderer, we can find information about the real murderer from him."
"Then why are we going to the village chief? Why don't we just go back and interrogate him?" Lin Yingxue asked in confusion.
"I went to see the village chief for two reasons. The first was to confirm from him whether there were any other outsiders who had come to Zhaojia Village from yesterday to today. I also wanted to know from the village chief where the courier company that delivered the package to Zhao Fugui's family was located. I always felt that the person who delivered the package was not a real courier."
"Of course, the most important thing is that I'm going to check the dashcam. We've been in Zhaojia Village for such a long time. I'm afraid that the man wearing the evil ghost mask has sneaked in. I hope the dashcam can capture some details for us."
Soon we arrived at the village chief's house. At this time, the village chief seemed to be discussing something with his wife. When he saw us come in, he immediately became a little nervous.
"Why do you look like that?"
I asked with some confusion after entering the house, and the village chief looked at me guiltily and shook his head quickly, saying, "No, it's just that the villagers were talking about me just now, and it seems that I can't keep my position as village chief anymore. What are you doing here? Is there anything else you want to ask?"
"Before Zhao Fugui died, he received a courier. Do you know where the courier company is located?"
I still didn't quite trust the village chief, but I couldn't stop asking the question because of this. After hearing my question, the village chief immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I haven't heard of the courier company. I guess it's in another bigger village. We don't have internet in Zhaojia Village, and usually no one buys things online. And it's been so many years, and I haven't heard of any courier company delivering things to us, so I don't know how to answer you."
The village chief's answer was within my expectations, so I was not surprised. I continued to ask, "So from last night to now, besides us, have there been any other outsiders who have come to the village?"
"That's not the case. Usually when outsiders come to the village, the villagers will definitely come to tell me first and let me decide whether to let the outsiders stay. So far, only the three of you have been here. If you're talking about the recent period, there were often tourists coming here."
I don't know why, but when the village chief spoke, I always felt that he seemed to be intentionally avoiding my gaze. I thought that there might be something wrong with this village chief, and I would have to investigate secretly later.
After I finished asking the questions I wanted to ask, we prepared to go out to check the contents of the dashcam, but before we left the room, the village chief chased us out and said, "Well, I'm really sorry. Something like this happened in the village recently. The police have just contacted me and said that they will send someone to investigate tomorrow at the latest. They also said that this is their jurisdiction and you are not allowed to interfere. So I think you should leave, otherwise it will cause unnecessary misunderstandings. This is the money you gave me this morning, and I will return it to you now."
The village chief casually took out the three hundred yuan from his pocket and handed it to me. I looked at him puzzledly and said, "Are you really not going to make any money from this?"
"Of course the more money the better, but if I get into trouble for making this little money, it's not worth it. The police here heard that other police officers were involved in this case, and they sounded very unhappy. So I think you should leave quickly. It would be bad if you offend those police officers and let them vent their anger on our Zhaojia Village."
The village chief spoke righteously, but his guilty look had completely betrayed him. I sneered at him, put the three hundred yuan in my pocket, and said, "But our car is broken now, and we probably can't leave until tomorrow at the earliest. You can't let us leave on foot, can you?"
"Then you guys can do whatever you want. Try to fix your car as soon as possible. If you really can't make it today, you can stay at my house temporarily. But no matter what, you must leave before the police arrive tomorrow. I hope you won't make things difficult for our small village."
"Don't worry, we won't make it difficult for you. But if you want to stay here today, do you want me to pay you the rent first?"
The village chief waved his hand generously and said with a smile: "No need, it's not much money. It's not easy for you to be police officers. If you can't go back today, you can stay at my place for free."
After the village chief finished speaking, he happily hummed a little tune and turned back to his home. After the village chief left, Lin Yingxue asked in confusion: "Why don't the police here want us to get involved? Could it be that they already know that the two of us are here, and they are afraid that Chief Bai will blame us, so they want us to leave as soon as possible?"
I sneered and said, "No, the one who wants us to leave is not the local police, but the village chief! Don't you find that this village chief is a little weird?"
"It's really a bit weird. When we came in the morning, we took out three hundred yuan and gave it to him. He hid it immediately as if he had found a treasure. But now he suddenly returned the money to us, and he was so generous. The contrast is really big! Ji Wen, have you guessed something?"
"I can't say I guessed anything, because it's already very obvious. The village chief must have received a large sum of money before we came here, so he didn't care about the mere three hundred yuan. It seems that everything is just as I imagined. We all imagined Qiongqi to be too mythical. In fact, he is not that scary at all. This case has been solved!"