Madness of the Heart

Chapter 3: Demon Hunt (03)

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Before the transformation of the economic structure, Dongye City used to be a city of heavy industry.

Along with large factories is a semi-closed community culture—in the community with factories as the core, there are not only primary and secondary schools, hospitals, department stores, but also their own swimming pools and dairy farms.

Thirty years ago, the most important factory in Dongye City was the Tianhong Weapons Factory in Xicheng District. Its community intelligence and worker welfare are so complete that it is unimaginable for today's young people. In terms of education, it has everything from kindergarten to high school. In terms of entertainment, there is even a popular science playground for children.

Today, Tianhong Weapons Factory has long since withdrawn from Dongye City, and the factories and communities have been replaced by high-rise buildings.

Even the factory does not exist, why is the popular science playground still in place

This is related to the objective situation of Dongye City at that time - more than ten years ago, there were only park-like playgrounds in the city. Together, these playgrounds are not as influential as Tianhong's popular science playground. When Tianhong was evacuated, a real estate developer, at the behest of the Xicheng District government, bought the popular science playground from Tianhong Weapons Factory, and planned to upgrade and maintain it and build it into a paid attraction.

However, this backfired. The transformation of the economic structure meant that a large number of foreign capital and emerging industries poured into Dongye City. After Tianhong's exit, the popular science amusement park was only brilliant for three years, and was replaced by two large-scale modern chain amusement parks.

Since about ten years ago, the popular science playground has no longer been managed. And because of cooperation disputes and entanglements of interests, it cannot be dismantled there.

Today, the popular science playground has become a joke in Dongye City.

Many young people dubbed it "the cemetery of childhood".

In recent years, this "childhood cemetery" has actually become a favorite place for photographers and young couples.

Winter Ye City is changing with each passing day, and the popular science playground is surrounded by towering commercial office buildings. Its decay and obsolescence just happens to be another fascinating sight, attracting people who are tired of the city and cannot escape from it.

It was late at night, and the LED lights of the office building shone on the edge of the popular science playground, but could not penetrate into the deepest part.

A mottled amusement train was parked in the wildly growing bushes, the head and tail had fallen off. The sound of rapid gasping came from the third compartment, and suddenly, a hand clapped on the dirty yellow and dirty glass, and the nails were scratching, making a sour sound.

This rusty train is the favorite of the "Little Freshmen" during the day - people put on various sad poses on the rails, and then the camera freezes, accompanied by a paragraph such as "You don't understand my pain" Such texts are posted on social networking sites; in the evening, the train becomes a pleasure den for sensual men and women.

Ten minutes later, the slanted door was pushed open with a bang, and a plump woman in a white suspender skirt jumped out of the train first. I saw her staggering a few steps, took out the lighter, and lit the lady's cigarette in her hand with a "ding", puffing out the smoke comfortably.

Soon, the shirtless man jumped down and shared a cigarette with the woman. The two snuggled together, talking in low voices, and occasionally giving out ambiguous laughter.

After three cigarettes, the woman patted her skirt and seemed to be planning to leave.

The man seemed to have no end in his mind, holding her hand, kissing and sniffing.

The woman compromised with a smile, shaking her graceful waist, "Let's change places."

This popular science amusement park has a confined space like a train carriage. The man looked around, his eyes lit up, "Let's go there and make a card."

The woman followed the man's fingers, frowning slightly, "Not good? It's too dangerous there."

The man was referring to a bicycle suspended on a steel frame. The steel frame is about three stories high from the ground, and the bicycle has no security facilities, and it is quite dangerous just to climb up.

"Danger is exciting." The man smiled and seduced, hugging the woman's shoulders, "Xiao Shan, didn't you suggest that we go to different 'toys' to check in every week? Why, if you change to the one in the sky, you're afraid?"

The woman snorted, "Why am I afraid?"

"Then go." The man was full of confidence, deliberately showing the bravery of a man, "Don't worry, with me, nothing will happen."

Before long, the two climbed on a bicycle. The old antique was teetering on the steel frame, making constant creaking noises. What's even more heart-wrenching is that most of the thin railings in the speeding car have long been broken, and three of them are crooked and shaped like sharp iron thorns. Once hit, the consequences are unimaginable.

The woman carefully grasped the railing that had not yet broken, her face turned pale in shock, "Forget it, forget it, this thing is too unsafe, we make a big move, it will definitely fall."

The man swallowed his saliva and was obviously scared, but he didn't want to show his timidity in front of the woman, and said bravely: "Don't be afraid, it's fine. It's not too high here, and we still have a carriage to protect it. Even if it does fall, it will fall. No problem."

After speaking, the man stretched out his hand, intending to pull the woman into his arms.

The woman slipped and fell to the right.

The pedal car is inherently unstable and can't stand the toss at all. The woman's behavior directly caused the car body to lose its balance. The wheel made a "click" sound on the steel frame, and it went off the rails.

The man and the woman looked at each other, and before they could react, they felt the world turned upside down.

The pedal car carried the two of them straight down from the height of the three-story building!

"what-"

The terrified cry disappeared in the swamp-like darkness. The bicycle tore through the air and crashed into the rocky ground below, making a heavy muffled sound, and then flipped over, stabbing the ground like a vehicle that fell off a cliff.

Five minutes later, a bloody hand came out of the car. The woman's white dress had been dyed blood red, and her nails were flying from the flesh against the rhinestones.

Her face was covered in blood, crying in a low voice as she crawled, her long hair soaked in blood covering her heavily make-up face.

This picture is extremely intimidating, like a female ghost crawling out of the TV.

Behind her, the man kept moaning in pain. She knelt on the ground, turned around mechanically, and when she saw the situation in the carriage, her pupils shrank fiercely.

The man's upper abdomen was actually pierced by a slender iron thorn!

She wanted to shout, but was too frightened to speak. The man looked at her fearfully and said weakly, "Xiaoshan, save me... save me..."

Her eyes were blank, she shook her head dumbly, the blood on her forehead dripped down with her movements, "No, no..."

The man gasped, his expression became fierce and distorted, "What are you doing standing still? Call an ambulance, call a doctor, hurry up!"

The woman suddenly stood up from the rocky ground, her blood-colored dress fluttering in the night wind.

"I can't save you." She murmured and stepped back, looking like a sleepwalker. She took three steps back, but suddenly woke up, picking up the man's phone that fell on the ground.

"You..." The man's pupils were already blurred, and more and more blood was pouring out of the wound.

"Can't let others know, can't let others know..." The woman shook her head frantically, "I'm sorry..."

"You stop!" The man struggled hard, and the woman disappeared into the darkness as if she had escaped for her life.

In the early morning of the next day, the primary school students who came early to occupy the site saw a bloody scene only found in horror movies - a man lying on his side among the rubble, with a rusty iron thorn stuck in his stomach, and the gray-white stone had been dyed. Black and red. His eyeballs protruded, his eyes were frozen full of pain, his right hand stretched forward, as if to seize a chance of life.

The golden light of the early sun sprinkled on him, and his breathing had already stopped.

After receiving the police, the Criminal Investigation Detachment of Xicheng Branch quickly blocked the scene.

The forensic doctor preliminarily judged from the degree of corpse spots and corpse stiffness that the man's death time was between 11:30 last night and 0:00 this morning. The iron thorn penetrated the man's liver, which was the main cause of death.

Several police cars were parked outside the popular science amusement park, and people watching the lively were blocked from the warning belt. It was summer vacation at this time, and although the equipment in the amusement park had long since stopped, it was still a "holy place" for children nearby. They stretched their necks one by one, and Baba looked inside. Some imaginative children have even made up a "Midnight Horror", gearing up to invite a few partners at night to explore the place where the corpse appeared.

The car of the serious crime team was not parked with the car of the Xicheng Branch. When Mingshu got off the co-pilot, he happened to hear a little boy excitedly say to his companion: "Do you know how the person inside died? My brother and I Say, he died from the witch's poison needle! The poison needle was so-so-long, it went from the top of his head to the soles of his feet!"

Mingshu: "…"

The little boy spit, "On the night of the full moon, witches will appear and punish those who make mistakes with poisonous needles! Do you want to see witches? Sign up with me! My brother will take me, and I will take you!"

The children were eager to try, with expressions of anticipation and fear on their faces.

Mingshu said "Hello", the little boy turned around and looked at him with a wink, "Uncle, do you want to go to see the witch with us too?"

A fat kid said, "No way, my uncle is an adult, and we are not from the same country. What if I file a lawsuit?"

But the little girl with braids said, "Uncle looks good, let's let uncle participate!"

Mingshu crouched down, "Do you want to go on an adventure?"

The most active little boy said: "If you are willing to be our bodyguard and don't tell the truth, I will let you participate!"

"Bodyguard?" Mingshu showed a distressed expression, "But there are too many of you, I can't protect you."

The little boy opened his eyes wide and said suspiciously, "But you are very tall."

"I heard that witches like to eat children the most. They eat at least seven children every night to maintain their appearance." Mingshu counted the points seriously, "You have exactly seven, and I can protect at most one."

Hearing this, the faces of the children changed.

The little girl was the first to say, "Really?"

Mingshu: "Of course it's true."

The little boy said quickly: "Impossible! Don't listen to his nonsense! Witches don't eat children!"

Mingshu shook his head, "Why should I lie to you? Little baby, if I protect you, I can't protect your companions."

Children, look at me, I look at you, and in the end they all quit.

Ming Shu smiled, then pulled up the security belt and walked towards the corpse.

This case should not have disturbed the serious crime team, and the Xicheng Branch should be able to solve it, but soon after Mingshu returned to Dongye City, he needed to enter the role of "serious crime team leader" as soon as possible, so he rushed to the scene with someone.

The trace investigation is in progress, and the extracted bloodstains and footprints need to be brought back to the branch for further inspection. Mingshu squatted beside the corpse and looked up at the steel frame in the air.

"That's where people fell." Zhang Haiyu, the vice-captain of the Xicheng Detachment, wiped the sweat from his face, "There was blood all over the pedal car. After the deceased fell to the ground, he crawled out of the carriage for five meters to his current position. "

Mingshu put on latex gloves and thought to himself, "Why is he there in the middle of the night?"

"Some scavengers like to spend the night here." Zhang Haiyu said: "But looking at this person's clothes, he doesn't look like a scavenger."

Mingshu nodded, "Is there no surveillance installed around here?"

Zhang Haiyu frowned slightly, "No one cares here for a long time. There are no cameras in the park, only on the street outside."

Mingshu pressed his fingers on the deceased's neck and collarbone, and then moved to his lips, "There is another person who fell with him, most likely a woman."

At this moment, the trace inspector shouted that two kinds of fresh footprints were extracted from the carriage and on the rocks, one was determined to belong to the deceased, and the other was from a woman who was 1.55 to 1.6 meters tall and weighed no more than 95 pounds. .

Zhang Haiyu looked at Mingshu and gave a thumbs up, "Team Ming, amazing."

Mingshu walked to the carriage, his eyes swept across the blood stains, and finally landed on the left seat.

The seat has been knocked crooked, and the iron plate and the wood plank are squeezed and deformed. He bent down, twisted a long hair from the gap in the seat, and squinted at the sun.

The hair has been dyed, which is the golden red that is popular recently, and the hair roots have hair follicles, which can be tested for DNA.

"Others are walking a tightrope for love, this is climbing a track for love." Mingshu sealed his hair in a physical evidence bag and handed it over to the tracer, his eyes were cold, "I don't like a safe hotel, so I have to go to such a place to toss. life."

Zhang Haiyu is also an experienced criminal policeman, so he can see what happened at night.

But what he didn't quite understand was that since the two were lovers in the wild, why did the woman in the car leave the man behind after the bicycle crashed

Men don't die if they get to the doctor in time.

"The two of them had a secret rendezvous. Maybe they each have family members. This relationship is not visible." Mingshu said: "There is no lack of evidence at the scene. This case is not difficult to solve. First confirm the identity of the deceased. Does he have any documents on him

"Yes." Zhang Haiyu picked up a physical evidence bag, which contained a gray men's wallet, "Zhang Sihao, 24 years old. But his identity has yet to be verified. What's strange is that his mobile phone can't be found anywhere."

Mingshu raised his eyebrows, and after a while, his eyes narrowed into a long and narrow line, "It's his lover who took his cell phone."

When the police came to the Joy Hotel, Xu Linshan was cleaning up the ashtray smashed by the guests.

She is 27 years old this year. She was born in a backward village in a neighboring city. She came to Dongye City to work when she was still a child. She worked as a cleaner, sold fake wine, and sat on the stage in a hair salon. Three years ago, after being introduced by someone, she married an honest taxi driver, and her life settled down. She gave birth to a child and worked as a room cleaner in this hotel.

She hadn't read many books, she had no common sense or knowledge, she had a certain beauty, she was vain, she hated her husband for being old and ugly, and she didn't even notice the little work in bed.

Half a year ago, she met Zhang Sihao, who was also working at the Joy Hotel.

Like her, Zhang Sihao was born in the countryside. He left his hometown when he was 10 years old. He drove a car and worked as a duck. He was handsome and sunny, and his figure was many times better than that of her family. But Zhang Sihao was poor and couldn't save money like her.

She looked down on her husband, but not so much Zhang Sihao. In the years she sat on the stage, she slept with many rich men. But in contrast, they also looked down on her.

Otherwise she wouldn't have married a bald beer belly taxi driver.

When Zhang Sihao chased after her, she hesitated. But after hesitating and hesitating, I thought it might be better to sleep a few times first. Anyway, it is not me who suffers. If I meet a man with better conditions in the future, I will just kick Zhang Sihao away. She has always had a clear understanding of herself - she is not a good wife and mother, greedy for the body of a handsome guy, and reluctant to live a stable life given by her husband, she can cheat, but she cannot be discovered.

Zhang Sihao loves to play, and took her to the popular science playground "night battle" for the first time two months ago. She was hooked, proposing to "check in" at every ride.

Yesterday was the eleventh time they "punch in".

Her husband drives a taxi with others and often drives night shifts, which gives her the opportunity to have an affair, and she sings with Zhang Sihao almost every night.

But she never thought that something like that would happen last night.

This is simply unfortunate.

Since the incident, she has always been in panic and confusion. The unstoppable blood in Zhang Sihao's abdomen and the ferocious and painful expression on his face were imprinted on her retinas, causing her to keep shivering.

I didn't do it on purpose, I didn't do it - she said to herself over and over - I really can't call an ambulance, and when the ambulance comes, our business will definitely be discovered, and I'm done! I have kids and a family and I can't let anyone find out I'm having an affair with another man!

The moment the police showed her credentials, she panicked like a puppet and didn't understand why she was found.

Xicheng Branch Criminal Investigation Detachment, interrogation room.

Facing her hair that fell on the scene, her footprints, and the blood test report, Xu Linshan still refused to admit that she was with the deceased Zhang Sihao last night.

"You are mistaken. He and I are just colleagues, and we don't even talk to each other. I have a family, and my child is only one year old. How can I stay with a man in the middle of the night?"

"The public camera outside the east gate of the playground has captured you - at 9:03 last night, you and Zhang Sihao entered the playground and behaved intimately; at 11:12, you left alone and looked flustered." Mingshu watched leisurely. She turned the laptop on which the surveillance video was being played, "In addition to the evidence I just presented, Ms. Xu, your confession is not as important as you think."

Xu Linshan did not have any sense of anti-reconnaissance, did not know the existence of cameras, and did not know that footprints and blood could lock a person's identity, thinking that as long as Zhang Sihao's mobile phone was taken away, Zhang Sihao could not call for help, and left the scene before being witnessed. Foolproof.

She scratched her fingers irritably, all she wanted to do was cover up her affair.

Mingshu said again: "Your actions contributed to Zhang Sihao's death."

Xu Linshan's eyes widened, "That was an accident! I didn't know the iron thorns would be inserted into his body!"

"So you admit that you were in the carriage with Zhang Sihao at the time?" Zhang Haiyu said.

Xu Linshan shuddered, "I..."

"Would you like to see Zhang Sihao's autopsy report?" Mingshu pushed a folder in front of Xu Linshan, his fingers crossed, "He had multiple soft tissue bruises on his body, two broken ribs, and internal bleeding, but he did not fall to the ground. Immediate death. If hospitalized in time, he could have saved his life."

Xu Linshan's eyes wandered and her teeth clenched.

"And you, except for the head, have no other injuries." Mingshu leaned back, "It seems that Zhang Sihao protected you when the accident happened?"

There were tears in Xu Linshan's eyes, and she shook her head gently, "I don't know, I didn't know he would die..."

"Really? You really didn't know he was going to die? Did he ask you for help? I begged you to dial 120 for him. But not only did you not call an ambulance for him, but you also deliberately took his cell phone." Mingshu His eyes became colder, "Ms. Xu, it won't do you any good to keep it a secret."

Although Xu Linshan maintained an unclear relationship with different men all the year round, she was even swept several times when she sat on the stage in the hair salon, but she never entered the interrogation room, let alone dealt with the serious criminal police. After being forced by Mingshu with a few words, he immediately became confused, shaking Suosuo and confessing his affair with Zhang Sihao.

At the end, she looked at Mingshu with red and swollen eyes, "I... Will I be sentenced? But it's not that I killed him, I didn't kill him, it was just an accident... "

The case was completely clear, Mingshu glanced coldly, got up and left the interrogation room, but when he closed the door, he saw a middle-aged man with half of his head bald waiting in the corridor with a sad face.

The middle-aged man is Xu Linshan's husband. He looks ordinary, even a little ugly. To use a popular word to describe it, it is "greasy".

Mingshu looked at him for a moment and sighed softly.

At first glance, a man is an honest man who lives his life with his duties, works diligently, and gives his wife and children the best possible life with a small salary.

People always laugh at "greasy", but they don't know that "greasy" is actually a state of happiness.

Xu Linshan was disturbed by this, secretly having an affair with a bright-looking young man, and easily shattered the man's sustainable happiness.

This woman is typically stupid, poisonous, and ignorant.

Xu Linshan's cry came from the interrogation room. The man's facial features wrinkled even more ugly. He asked a policeman crampedly, "What's wrong with Xiaoshan? Don't hit her..."

Mingshu curled the corners of his lips and was about to leave when he heard the sound of hurried footsteps.

"Master!" Fang Yuanhang ran over, looking excited, "The police are going to be called again! There is actually a body buried under the rubble!"