I came to my senses by the sound of his voice. After much deliberation, I added, "According to what the neighbors reported, they barely saw Wu Xiaolan, and even when they did, they just saw Wu Xiaolan alone without anybody walking her home. An aunt had seen her buy stuff downstairs last night, but the aunt just caught a glimpse of her and did not pay much attention to it. Alas, I had asked some people about the electric circuit of the community, and they said it usually works well and just malfunctioned recently owing to the raining season. Fortunately, the electrician fixed it in a timely manner every time. However, referring to the electrician, no one knows what he looks like. He always wears a hat and a gauze mask no matter what the weather is. Nevertheless, security said that the electrician had been working here for nearly two years and nothing wrong happened in that time."
Chu Haoran slowly nodded and said, "Since the electrician had been in the community on the nights when the two cases happened, I inquired of people about the electrician and I got some information similar to what you did. I already asked colleagues to investigate the address of the electrician. We can talk about it later."
The security had said there was no suspicious person on those two nights and everything went the same as shown on the surveillance video. Depending on the current circ.u.mstances, the two deceased did not know each other and there was no relationship between them.
Xiao Teng discovered there was nothing irregular about those two people"s mobile phone records and online records. It just occurred to me that, except for enshrining and worshiping the fox fairy, they had nothing in common but the same type of personality. They both were arrogant, indifferent, and not easy to get along with. According to the scene, the murderer committed the crime to vent hatred; therefore, was there any relation between the personality and the cases?
Nevertheless, people could stay away from them instead of killing them even when they were arrogant, indifferent, and not easy to get along with.
At this moment, Xiao Teng"s voice interrupted the flow of my thoughts. "There are some arguments about the revenge of the fox fairy online. Maybe they had done something wrong or the fox fairy they enshrined and worshiped was actually a devil."
After hearing this, Chu Haoran looked at him with a quiet glance and asked, "Have you found the resource of the fax fairy they enshrined and worshiped? Is there anyone in this community also enshrining and worshiping the fox fairy?"
Xiao Teng slowly shook his head and answered, "It is still under investigation. I need more time because this is something that happened in real life, not the internet."
We were lost in thought again soon. I began to recall what I was thinking about before Wu Xiaolan had been killed. She was killed all of a sudden, which interrupted my earlier thoughts.
"Well, there was a sudden outage before Qiu Nan was killed in the community. What about the night when Wu Xiaolan was killed? Was there an outage, too?" As something came to my mind just now, I still thought it was a critical clue.
After I said it aloud, Chu Haoran"s phone rang, and he was told that the electrician was already being sent here.
At this time, I doubted a lot in my mind about the ident.i.ty and the appearance of the electrician. I had these doubts because Chu Haoran said that no one knew what the technician looked like and he always covered his face no matter what kind of weather or season.
Xiao Teng pulled me over as I was thinking and asked me to look at the screen of the laptop. There was a snow-white fox sitting on a stone table, which looked ultimately sacred and lordly.
There was some more information about the fox fairy, mainly that people who enshrined and worshipped the fox fairy should do so wholeheartedly and with the utmost respect. It also mentioned that something that came from the dead was added to the fox fairy, such as female cadaver tissue, bone ash, and corpse oil. These facts made the fox fairy easy to trump up a countercharge against the one who enshrined and worshipped the fox fairy.
"Wake up! It was all done by people, not some fox fairy!" I was angry about his superst.i.tion.
Xiao Teng pursed his lips and said, "It is a large world and full of wonders. You will believe it when you personally see it."
After hearing his words, I wondered if he had seen something like what he mentioned. But soon, something came to my mind and I said, "Since enshrining and worshiping the fox fairy can make people lucky and adorable, why are they still arrogant, indifferent, and not easy to get along with? They even have no friends and cannot easily adapt to society."
"Maybe they did something wrong, so the fox fairy did not want to help them." Xiao Teng spoke as if he still believed in the fox fairy.
I shook my head and said, "No, it is supposed to . . ." Then I looked at him meaningfully.
"What?" Xiao Teng asked.
I held back my laughter and said, "The fox fairy thing is totally fake! It cannot help people at all!" I laughed eventually and turned around to take off.
Xiao Teng was speechless and helpless.
After a while, I heard footsteps behind me. I guessed the electrician had been sent over here and it was he, but I was stunned when I saw him.
"Lin Chen, what are you doing here?"
There was joy in Lin Chen"s eyes. He waved the bags in his hands and said, "I was waiting for you yesterday, but you did not call me. I know you are busy. Take a look and see what I have brought for you."
After separating yesterday, I had been busy with my work. It was already midnight when I went back home and I forgot about calling him. I said, "I am so sorry. I have been busy these days. Let"s have a big meal after we solve the case. My treat."
It seemed not to bother Lin Chen at all. "Fine," he said. "I will not let you go on that."
Lin Chen opened the bags, and I smelled a familiar aroma.
"You bought Sun Boxed Meal?" I asked almost incredulously. "I have not eaten that for a long time. I miss it so much!"
After seeing my expressions, the joy in Lin Chen"s expression grew more. He said, "What about getting your colleagues together? I have bought a lot of it. But this one belongs to you. There are and Kung Pao Chicken, which are your favorites. "
Sun Boxed Meal was a small restaurant near our middle school. The dishes there were always tasty despite the poor environment. My favorite was , Sweet and Sour Carp, and . We always had our lunch there when we were kids.
"I went there a little late and the Sweet and Sour Carp were all sold out. When you finish your work later, we can go there and eat it," Lin Chen said as he opened the box for me.
I said with a smile, "No problem. But I want to treat you with a big meal."
Xiao Teng walked over to us as we made jokes with each other. However, I did not see Chu Haoran once Lin Chen came in.
I heated the dishes for Xiao Teng as I said, "Lin Chen, do you want some, too?"
Lin Chen shook his head and said, "I had it earlier. You seemed to have thinned down a little, so you should eat more."
"Actually, Zhuxuan always eats a lot. She just stays thin and we just envy her," Xiao Teng said as he ate.
In the middle of eating, Chu Haoran walked into the room with a gloomy face. Just as I wanted to call to him, I found there were two more people following him. They walked over to the integration room, and I failed call out to him.