Chapter 239
Lao Yao enlarged the screenshot. There was mottled lime plaster on the wall, mixed with bits of red that appeared to be a common shade. It looked like part of a slogan but the words were already unrecognizable.
I tried recreating the words on my palm and eventually came to realize one of the words in the middle was "mouse."
"Are there any slogans with the word ‘mouse’ in it?” I asked.
"Down with the cow demon and the serpent G.o.d!" cried Dali.
"I said ‘mouse’!" I retorted. The idiot buried his head in embarra.s.sment.
"Unlimited wonders await at the click of the mouse!” Lao Yao chimed in. “When I was in kindergarten, I went to an internet cafe with those words written on the walls."
Since the other words on the wall didn’t match the slogan he mentioned, his input seemed meaningless as well.
At this point, w.a.n.g Yuanchao’s stoic voice interrupted my thoughts, "Our greatest responsibility is to guard against and exterminate all mice–it’s probably a granary!"
I traced each word on my hand and found the phrase was indeed a match. Xiaotao scribbled the clue in her notebook and asked Lao Yao to resume the video.
For several minutes, the man in the video begged for mercy but finally braced himself and stepped into the fire pit. With that one step, he immediately pulled his foot back, his screams filling the room. It took him some time before he attempted another step.
As one could imagine, the temperature in the room was constantly rising at the time. Trapped in the impenetrable armor, he must have been covered in sweat and suffocating from the heat.
The man wanted to run through the fire pit as fast as he could. However, the armor had springs attached to the joints, making it difficult for him to run so he was forced to slowly walk. I hadn’t antic.i.p.ated this detail but the old man in the prison did. I couldn’t help but suspect that Old Qi was either a s.a.d.i.s.tic murderer or had something to do with the murderer!
The man trekked through the pit, all the while screaming frenziedly. He was about to reach the end when he suddenly tripped, his entire body falling onto the hot charcoal. The violent convulsions he made sparked the surge of fiery flames.
We watched anxiously as the man struggled in the fire for half a minute before he finally stopped moving. Besides the crackle of burning charcoal came the sizzling sound of roasted flesh. Melted fat dripped into the fire from the crevices of the armor, kindling a few spurts of small flames.
I felt waves of despair that soon turned into unrelieved depression. A round of heavy sighs echoed, reflecting the low atmosphere in the room.
Xiaotao"s hand was shaking uncontrollably throughout the video but the expression on her face remained firm. "Listen up everyone, let"s continue a.n.a.lyzing the video and try to catch this madman as soon as possible!"
"Lao Yao,” I instructed. “Rewind to the moment he fell!"
Lao Yao did as I asked and played the video three times. I told him to play it frame by frame and on a certain frame, I noticed something within the charcoal–a long object that was glowing red.
"There was a steel rail in the fire pit so the murderer had intentionally tripped him. It looks like h.e.l.l’s judgement isn’t fair after all."
"He only makes it seem fair but in fact, his deeds are secretly despicable!"
Lao Yao enlarged the picture so everyone could study the rail. It looked like a section of a railway track, but obtaining that went beyond the means of ordinary people. An experienced officer stood up and pointed, "That’s not a steel rail, it’s an I-beam that’s used in constructing ceilings and that’s the model number on it! I know which manufacturer produces model number 64."
Xiaotao immediately noted this clue while the others expressed their opinions on the armor parts.
After a moment’s contemplation, I asked, "Isn’t an I-beam very heavy?"
The old officer nodded. "I"d say at least 30 to 40 kilograms."
"The murderer is only1.6 meters tall,” I remarked. “He might not be able to lift it."
"That’s a biased statement to make,” said Xiaotao, frowning. “Although I might have some difficulty, even I could carry something that heavy."
"Look, the pit on the ground was newly dug,” I pointed at the video. “And the armor parts also weigh a fair bit, not to mention this heavy I-beam. The murderer must be the brains so I think it’s difficult for him to cope with manual labor. I think he must have joined hands with someone else at this time, that is, the explosion madman–The Strongest Mantis Shrimp!"
"We already know this!" interjected Xiaotao.
"The addition of The Strongest Mantis Shrimp changed the way the murderer committed the crimes,” I continued my a.n.a.lysis. “The two men should have a rather close relations.h.i.+p. Perhaps they’re even living together, which means we can look for clues from The Strongest Mantis Shrimp’s live stream!"
“That way, we’ll have more clues..." added Xiaotao.
Lao Yao started screening The Strongest Mantis Shrimp’s video. We had to search through a bunch of videos because they were all unspecified. In the process, we were forced to watch a lot of horrific content. Many officers professed that they wouldn’t be able to eat for some time.
Finally, Lao Yao found several z-t.i.tled files which were all The Strongest Mantis Shrimp’s videos. When he clicked on the first one, a masked man facing the camera appeared in the video. His burly figure and muscular pecs were exposed through the tank top that he wore. He had several tattoos that perfectly blended with his wild and unrestrained air.
"It shouldn’t be hard to find this man!" exclaimed Xiaotao.
The location of The Strongest Mantis Shrimp’s live stream was a public toilet. Although his voice had been digitally altered, the excitement in his tone couldn’t be concealed. He gave a brief explanation while positioning several small bombs in a cesspit and then backed out of the picture.
A short while later, a man squatted over the pit and halfway through, a loud explosion sounded as feces flew all over the toilet, covering the man. Swearing, he quickly pulled up his pants and left while the streamer laughed so hard he had trouble breathing. Then, another man entered the scene.
"How long does this video last?" asked Xiaotao.
Lao Yao replied, "Four hours."
"You can stop playing this,” instructed Xiaotao with a wave of her hand. “Let’s move on to something else!"
The Strongest Mantis Shrimp’s live streams were really boring. No wonder he wasn’t popular at first. But when the second video played on the screen, we all exclaimed. Several officers even stood up in disbelief. Because the location in the video was the room our victim had been burned alive!
"Song Yang, just as you speculated, the two of them are well-acquainted with each other," acknowledged Xiaotao.
This time, The Strongest Mantis Shrimp placed a bomb in a pig’s stomach. Although the pig was still alive, it was in fact at its last breath and lay on the ground squealing. Xiaotao didn’t care to watch on and instructed Lao Yao to switch to another video.
“Wait!” I shouted, staring at the video. When Xiaotao asked me what I found, I said, "That’s an old sow!"
Dali, who was sitting at the back burst out laughing. "After staring at the pig for so long, that’s all you found?"
Other officers couldn’t hold back their laughter either.
But I soon brought our discussion back on track by asking, "Have you ever eaten meat from an old sow?"
The confusion cleared from Xiaotao’s face and her eyes suddenly brightened. "Yes, according to the agricultural law, meat from sows isn’t allowed to be sold on the market. Farmers are supposed to euthanize sows that do not give birth and will be compensated by the Ministry of Animal Husbandry. Of course, there are also illegal vendors who turn old sows into minced meat and sell them to steamed bun stalls. However, Nanjiang City’s Department of Food Safety has recently rectified the situation so there shouldn’t be any on the market."
"In short, the average person can’t get old sows!" I concluded.
The first victim was killed with a hook that Xiaotao a.n.a.lyzed to be a special iron hook used in slaughterhouses. And in this video, The Strongest Mantis Shrimp managed to obtain an old sow. From these two points, it was certain that–
The murderer was The Strongest Mantis Shrimp and his job was most likely related to a slaughterhouse.