I exchanged two bottles of Erguotou for a horrific story from the mouth of the old man Zuo Zhibo. Anyway, the test on Yuetong's side has not resulted, so I continued to chat with him. I didn't expect him to say that it happened more than 50 years ago. Similar corpse incidents.
When he was about to ask questions, he found that the wine bottle in Zhibo's hand was empty, but he obviously hadn't had enough. Although it is not suitable for him to drink so much alcohol at his age, there is an ancient poem that says "to be proud in life, do not let the golden bottle face the moon", it is possible to live a long life without smoking, drinking and abstinence, but what is the meaning of such a long life Woolen cloth? If I could exchange ten years of my life for ten days of joy, I would also like to exchange it.
I called Zhen Zhen who was in a daze by the door and asked her to buy wine. Although she was a little unhappy, she went anyway. Although this place is relatively remote, her feet are slender and she can run very fast. It shouldn't take much time to go back and forth.
I suddenly thought of a question, Yi Po said that Zhen Zhen is a virgin, but for a crazy girl like her, who runs up and down all day, the film is probably over. This kind of rupture caused by sports, Yipo probably can't see it!
After Zhen Zhen left, Zhibo started to tell me about strange things that happened over fifty years ago—
It was probably the mid-fifties at that time, I was in my early twenties, and I had been with my master for several years. Although it was liberated at that time, many things were still done according to the old rules, and mumblings like my master and I still often helped the office with autopsy work... Oh, the office seemed to be the same as it is now, and it was called the police station.
I remember it was early summer and early autumn, it should be around August or September as it is now. That day, my master and I were having lunch. The police station came and said that a human skeleton had been found outside the village and asked the master to come and help. The master didn't even bother to eat, so he took me there.
Judging from the height of the human bones, it should be a thirteen or four-year-old child. The flesh and bones are all gone, only the bones and hair are left, and it looks like he has been dead for several years. But the clothes are still in good condition. Although they are a little old and have been patched, it doesn't look like they have been in the wild for several years.
In those days, there were not as many people as there are now. Whose children are missing, you can know when you ask. At that time, only Uncle Tian's eldest son, Qiangzai, was missing. However, it was only five days ago that Qiangzi disappeared. How could he suddenly become a pair of bones? However, when Uncle Tian and his wife came, they cried as soon as they saw the clothes on the bones. The patches on the clothes are all patched up by Mrs. Tian, stitch by stitch, so I wouldn't recognize them!
At that time, this incident made people panic. Everyone thought that there were monsters eating children nearby, but the police station never found out about this incident, so everyone kept the children at home...
The location Zhibo said was about a kilometer away from the place where the suspected Zhou Shaolong remains were found, and the situation of the deceased was exactly the same, so the two things were definitely related. However, the two cases happened more than 50 years apart. If it was a man-made murder, even if the murderer was only in his teens at the time, he is already an old man. Like Zhibo, can he beat a young man in bloom? A question, peeling and scraping meat should not be able to be done.
At this time, Zhen Zhen had already bought the wine, and rudely threw it on the table, almost not breaking it. Zhi Bo ignored her bad attitude, his eyes lit up when he saw the wine, he unscrewed the bottle cap and poured it into his mouth. When I asked him if there was anything special about the discovery of the human bones, he thought while drinking, but since it was half a century ago, it was hard to remember the details.
After a long time, he seemed to remember a little: "At that time, there seemed to be some... what kind of grass was that near the human bones, that kind of purple..."
"Lavender?" In this area, the only purple plant is lavender.
"Yes, it's lavender. There was some lavender where the human bones were found. It must have been picked by children who were playful and picked it nearby..." Zhibo said and fell asleep on the table. Looking at the three empty wine bottles on the table, I thought it was me and fell down before half of the bottles were finished.
I took Zhi Bo back to his bedroom, which was less than ten square meters, covered him with a quilt and left with Zhen Zhen.
As soon as he left the door, the phone rang. It was Yuetong's call: "Amu, you guessed it right, this case is indeed related to a cult."
"Do you know what sect it is?" I asked anxiously.
"Christianity." Hearing this, I almost fell.
"You're having fun with me again." I said helplessly. If someone else made such a joke with me, I would definitely greet her mother, but even if Yuetong played tricks on me, I could only accept my fate, who told me to owe her.
"The piece of paper found in the bag of the deceased can be seen clearly after being disposed of frequently. It says not 'Believe in what to get a buffalo', but 'Believe in God and get eternal life', here are some introductions about Christianity , and the address of a nearby church. And the plant residue on the bicycle gear has been tested and confirmed to be lavender, and you may want to look near that church."
Didn't Zhibo say that lavender was also found at the scene of the corpse disintegration incident more than 50 years ago? Could it be that the two deceased were killed because they had been to the same place
"Is the identity of the deceased confirmed?" This question is very important. If the identity of the deceased cannot be determined, the direction of the investigation is prone to deviation.
"It has been confirmed. It has been confirmed by DNA testing that he is Zhou Shaolong."
After finishing the call with Yuetong, I called Liu Nian and asked if it was possible for the head to open his eyes. The answer I got was: "The possibility is very low, but it cannot be said that it is impossible. After death, a person has a short period of time. Within the time period, muscle contraction may occur, so it is theoretically possible to open your eyes, but the probability of occurrence is probably only 1 in 100,000. Like you said, you can still open your eyes three years after death , the possibility is even lower, maybe only one in a billion, it can only be said that this possibility cannot be ruled out.”
The reason why I specifically asked Liu Nian is to prove whether Zhi Bo was drunk and talking nonsense. Since Liu Nian said it is possible, then Zhi Bo's words have certain credibility.
After hanging up the phone, Zhen Zhen and I came to an orphanage between Kaisek Middle School and Zhou Uk Village, which is not far from the place where the two corpse disintegration cases happened more than 50 years ago. The orphanage is called Smith Children's Welfare Institute, which seems to be a non-governmental organization. We're here because there's a church in the orphanage, and that's what the handwritten leaflet says about it.
The size of the church is not large. It adopts European Baroque style. It should have been built in the early period of the Republic of China. However, it seems to be quite sturdy, unlike those rubbish rubbish projects that have been classified as dangerous buildings in thirty or fifty years. Today is Sunday, and there is a service in the church. When we arrived, the pastor was already leading the believers to sing Amen. It seemed that the service would end soon, so we did not rush in, but stood outside the door and waited, while observing the situation inside. After all, this is a small church in a remote location, so there are not many believers who come to worship, but I actually found foreigners. Compared with us, foreigners attach great importance to religious belief. Although from one perspective, religion is a product of politics, people without belief are indeed more prone to depravity and even sin.
After the solemn service was over, an elderly nun in her sixties with a kind face and the believers walked each other out of the door chatting and laughing. When she saw us, she showed us a friendly smile and asked humbly: " Need help? Father's child."
"Hello, my name is Mu Shenyu, and I'm a detective from the Criminal Investigation Bureau. There was a murder case nearby, so we came here to ask some information, hoping to get clues from it." I showed my police ID and said, "Excuse me. What should I call you?"
"May the Lord forgive the sins of the deceased and lead his soul to heaven, Amen!" The old nun drew a cross on her chest, "Just like other brothers and sisters, just call me Sister Yuan, I hope I can help busy."
"Have you seen this boy?" I handed Zhou Shaolong's student ID card with his mugshot on it.
Sister Yuan looked at it for a while and then returned the student ID card to me: "This child used to come to play some time ago, but he hasn't been here in the past few days... May the Lord bless his soul!"
"Has he been in contact with those people here?"
With a look of compassion on her face, she said slowly, "He is a good boy. He often comes to play with the children in the courtyard after school, teaches them to write, and has contact with people in the courtyard. A few days ago, he told Pastor Liang to Confession."
Confession is a religious ritual that simply means repenting of one's sins before a clergyman in order to seek God's forgiveness. However, what sin would a teenage boy have? Perhaps, I can get some clues from the content of his confession. However, when I asked Sister Yuan to introduce the pastor for us and expressed my hope that we could learn the content of the confession from the pastor, I got this reply: "I would be happy to take you to see Pastor Liang, but I am afraid he will not give the confession. The content tells you, because as clergy, we have an obligation to protect the privacy of our faithful."
"However, this may be related to the cause of Zhou Shaolong's death. Rather than protecting his privacy, it is better to give him justice and find the murderer." Although I also understand the other party's difficulties, I feel that justice for the deceased is better than reserved for the deceased. Privacy makes more sense.
"This child has been liberated, and the world's affairs have nothing to do with him anymore. The Lord will make arrangements. What we should do is to pray for him, not to expose things he doesn't want others to know." Although her expression was kind, her attitude was firm.
Head-to-head wouldn't solve the problem. Since you couldn't force the other party to reveal the content of Zhou Shaolong's confession, he had to use side-by-side attacks to obtain relevant information. Because Sister Yuan had a lot of work to do, she left after introducing us to Pastor Liang.
Pastor Liang is a middle-aged man in his forties with a very friendly attitude. When we met him, he was teaching writing to the children in the orphanage in the house behind the church. These children are between three and ten years old, mostly girls and only two boys, but all of them have obvious disabilities. One of them seems to have low intelligence, smirking and scribbling on paper. The other is a little better, intelligence should be fine, but the natural cleft lip makes him a little weird. I paid attention to what they were writing, the younger ones were writing their names or scribbling scribbles, and the older ones were copying the "Believe in God and Have Eternal Life" leaflet.
"Brothers and sisters, what can I do for you?" Pastor Liang instructed the older children to take care of their younger siblings, and then went for a walk with us in the small garden outside.
"Do you know him?" I handed Zhou Shaolong's student ID.
"I know, he often comes to help the children in the school to write, although he can be naughty sometimes, but he is very caring and a kind child. However, I haven't seen him for a few days, and I don't know him. How is it now?" Pastor Liang said with a worried look on his face.
"He has... passed away." I felt a little reluctant to tell the other party this unfortunate news.
Pastor Liang was stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered his calmness and drew a cross on his chest: "May the Lord lead his soul to heaven!"
We were silent at the same time. After a while, Zhen Zhen broke the silence: "Isn't the orphanage funded by the government? Why is there no teacher to teach the children to read?"
Pastor Liang replied with a smile: "This hospital was founded by a pastor named Smith, not a government agency, so it does not receive government funding, and daily expenses are mainly based on donations from believers. Because the government does not assign teachers to us, So we teach the children to read by ourselves.”
Zhen Zhen nodded as if she didn't understand, and I continued to ask: "General orphanages are managed by government departments, how can you operate it yourself?"
Pastor Liang explained slowly: "Actually, before I came here to serve as a pastor, the government did ask to take over the orphanage. But because the orphanage was founded by Pastor Smith, the dean asked the church for help, and the church came forward to deal with the government, and finally was able to take over the orphanage. Maintain the status quo. And that's why I've been posted here to serve as a pastor."
I don't care how the orphanage works. I only care about Zhou Shaolong's relationship with the people here. The purpose of asking this question is to let the other party relax a little so that I can talk. I hope to be able to set out the content of Zhou Shaolong's confession.
After talking with Pastor Liang about some innocuous things, I began to ask questions related to Zhou Shaolong, but when I tentatively asked about the content of confession, he explained to me dutifully: "Confession is the confession of believers to the Lord. As clergy, our role is that of the Lord's messengers, so we must never disclose the contents of the confession to a third party unless with the consent of the believers."
Everyone is dead, so go there and ask him to agree! Do you want to go to heaven to find him? Although I never burn incense and worship Buddha, the sister-in-law I believe in is one of the saints of Buddhism, and I have been blessed by my sister-in-law for many years, and I can be considered a Buddhist. Nothing to do with heaven. Of course, even if I can go to heaven, it will be after death, and it may not solve the problem now.
One plan is not enough, so I plan to use another method to obtain information: "Did Zhou Shaolong have a special conversation with anyone in the courtyard?"
"He and Meilong can talk best. In fact, every time he comes here, he comes to find Meilong."
"Who is Meilong?"
"She's an orphan in the courtyard, sigh, she's actually very pitiful... Hey, she's right there!" Following the direction indicated by Pastor Liang, I saw a beautiful girl who was about fourteen years old. But wearing a very strange dress. Maybe, I can get some clues from her.