Chapter 22: One and a Quarter Murderers
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Sure enough, Lin Xiangyuan had visited more than one hospital ward. In the end, it seemed that a patient in Ward 327 had believed what he said and directly damaged the ward’s oxygen system, forcing the room to be temporarily vacated for repairs.
“Did he say anything else to you at the time?” Cen Lian pressed.
“I can’t remember that clearly. But I do remember that he was losing his hair, and he had an incredible amount of dandruff. It all fell onto me.” Auntie Yang thought for a long while, but that was all she could recall.
“All right, Auntie Yang. We’ll leave it there for now. We may need you to come to our bureau in a few days to give a formal statement.” Cen Lian exchanged a few more words with her. When Zhang Guixia saw that they had finished, she came over as well.
Yang Junmei cast a hesitant glance at Zhang Guixia.
“Sister Yang, don’t worry. Going to the bureau to give a statement is a good thing. You’re helping rid the people of a menace!” Director Zhang took Auntie Yang aside and began speaking with her.
Auntie Yang soon agreed to give a statement, then went home with her belly full of curiosity.
After she left, Director Zhang came back to find Cen Lian.
“I’m familiar with all the communities where the other people you’re looking for live. I’ve already notified them, so you can go straight there and find them.” Director Zhang handed Cen Lian a slip of paper with a phone number on it. “I know you’re investigating a murder case. It concerns a human life, so it’s no small matter. There isn’t much I can do to help—I can only put you in touch with the right people.”
“Thank you, Sister Zhang.” Cen Lian quickly put away the slip of paper. “We’ll be leaving now, then. We still have several places to visit.”
After watching them leave, Zhang Guixia began wondering what kind of case they were investigating this time.
Cen Lian, meanwhile, had thought of a possibility based on what Yang Junmei had said.
“You drive. I’m going to call the team.” After getting into the car, he said this to Tang Hua, then dialed Yuan Chenxi’s number.
“Senior?” Yuan Chenxi had not expected to receive a call from him at this hour.
“Check Lin Xiangyuan’s premarital medical examination results and see whether they mention any sexually transmitted diseases.” Cen Lian paused, then continued, “Also, submit a request to the team for another autopsy on Sun Xiaoyu, and have every article of clothing preserved from the Sun Xiaoyu case reexamined.”
After Cen Lian hung up, Tang Hua stared at him with wide eyes.
“I understand why you want to check the premarital examination results, but what do you mean by asking for another autopsy? Six years have passed. Sun Xiaoyu’s body should have decomposed into a skeleton by now, shouldn’t it?” Tang Hua could not imagine that they would still find any fresh clues on a skeleton.
“Auntie Yang said that Lin Xiangyuan was losing hair and had dandruff. I suspect he had syphilis.” Cen Lian had been wondering all along why Lin Xiangyuan had been so worried about the results of his premarital examination. The only explanation was that he had some illness he absolutely had to conceal.
“But would he really kill someone just to deceive a woman into marriage?” By his own logic, Tang Hua could not understand why Lin Xiangyuan would make such an extreme choice.
The decision to kill someone was not an easy one to make.
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“About that…” Cen Lian hesitated before telling Tang Hua, “Tian Wenwen’s father used to be the chairman of the major state-owned enterprise where Lin Xiangyuan worked. Later, he was transferred to the provincial government.”
Tang Hua understood immediately.
“Then he really had no choice but to marry her.” Tang Hua suddenly felt sick. “So it’s entirely possible that Tian Wenwen lived with him for six whole years without knowing anything?!”
Cen Lian did not deny that possibility.
In truth, he was not certain whether Lin Xiangyuan had left any traces at the scene. But during the original autopsy, no one had conducted a detailed search of the clothing and the victim’s hair for strands or flakes that did not belong to her.
After all, Sun Xiaoyu had been a medical student in residency training, working endless overtime day after day. She herself had short, ear-length hair and suffered from considerable hair loss. Because she often stayed up late, she also had scalp problems.
Without a clear line of suspicion, it was difficult for anyone to notice whether a medium-length strand of hair belonged to her or not.
But based on the traces reconstructed by the forensic technicians at the time, Cen Lian could determine that although Sun Xiaoyu had not struggled for long, the killer had charged at her from behind. Considering the force of that motion, if his hair loss really was as severe as Auntie Yang had described, there was a strong chance that he had left traces on Sun Xiaoyu’s body.
Unless he had been wearing a hood.
What they lacked most now was direct evidence. Otherwise, it would be difficult to pin the murder firmly on Lin Xiangyuan.
With the evidence they currently possessed, they could only prove that Lin Xiangyuan had incited someone to damage hospital equipment before Sun Xiaoyu’s death, and that he had happened to appear at the hospital on the day she died.
In Cen Lian’s experience, that evidence was nowhere near sufficient to put someone away.
“Whether it’s true or not, we have to try. Otherwise, the chain of evidence we have now probably won’t be enough to secure a conviction.” Cen Lian raised his head with a troubled expression, only to discover that the city was caught in another traffic jam.
Tang Hua took both hands off the steering wheel.
“There must be at least thirty or forty cars ahead of us. The lunchtime rush is terrifying.”
Cen Lian had originally planned to close his eyes and rest for a moment. But as his gaze swept across the distance, a text bubble suddenly appeared above an SUV.
Then another text bubble appeared from inside the SUV’s trunk.
Cen Lian’s eyebrows began twitching violently. He felt certain he must have neglected to consult the almanac before leaving home that morning. How could he run into two criminals even while stuck in traffic?
After carefully reading the criminal records in the text bubbles, he silently withdrew that thought.
It was not two criminals.
It was one and a quarter.
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[Name: Hu Tingting]
[Sex: Female]
[Age: 34]
[Criminal Record: Killed Chen Nan and dismembered him in Qiongshan City seven days ago]
[Imprisonment Record: None]
Although he had not yet seen what Hu Tingting looked like, any woman capable of killing and dismembering an adult man in this day and age was probably quite strong.
If he had not seen the text bubble above the trunk, Cen Lian would have regarded this as nothing more than an ordinary murder-and-dismemberment case. After all, with the population so large these days, every kind of person existed, and married couples had long since found countless creative ways to kill each other.
But the text bubble in the trunk made the case much more interesting.
[Name: Chen Nan — one-quarter of a corpse]
[Sex: Male]
[Age: 36]
[Criminal Record: Killed Zhu Yao in Jiangyuan City nine days ago]
[Imprisonment Record: None]
His supernatural cheat was always so conscientious. Even though only a quarter of Chen Nan was in the trunk, it still displayed his imprisonment record.
As if he still had any chance of going to prison.
Neither of them was from Kang’an City. Judging by the license plate, they were not even from Yunling Province. Cen Lian could not help wondering why Hu Tingting had come to Kang’an City.
“I get the feeling you’ve set your sights on that SUV. Come on, what has your intuition discovered this time?” During the traffic jam, Tang Hua carefully observed Cen Lian, who sat beside him with his mind elsewhere. It did not take long for him to infer something from Cen Lian’s expression.
“This time, it isn’t intuition.” Their car had already drawn fairly close to the SUV Hu Tingting was driving. “Look at the trunk. There are bloodstains on it.”
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