199 Right Under the Eyes

 

At that moment, I felt my face warm, and I tasted something coppery. I was very familiar with this taste because I came into contact with it often. My eyes were misty, and there was a red mist everywhere.

This was blood, and before us was a blood mist. The blood mist enveloped the entire factory. Everywhere was crimson. Through the mist, we couldn’t even see the workers. At the same time, screams swallowed the factory. People panicked and trampled everywhere. The heady smell of blood rushed through my nose and gripped my brain.

I came to my senses and shouted, “Don’t panic, be careful!” However, the situation was too chaotic for anyone to heed my order.

Manager Liao’s voice echoed. “I’ll go close the machine. Someone go stop the main power!”

We could hear the machine buzzing. The rapid blades could slice through metals, much less human flesh and bones. The blood mist continued to pour. If someone were inside the machine, they’d be dead by now.

Through the mist, I couldn’t recognize the others. Based on my memory, I ran forward. But at that moment, a hand grabbed my shoulder. I turned back and was surprised to see Zhao Mingkun. She placed her finger on her lips. Then she pulled me and ran outside.

The blood mist didn’t float out. We were exposed to the sun. As Zhao Mingkun pulled me along, she said, “The murderer has run out from the back.”

I frowned and asked, “Are you sure it’s safe for you to expose yourself here?” Zhao Mingkun didn’t answer. The two of us ran out of the factory. Along the way, Zhao Mingkun said, “When my investigation reached this place, I noticed someone had installed a timed hacking program in the surveillance system. About 10 minutes of the surveillance will be wiped, so don’t worry. They won’t find my trace here.”

“Why are you here?” My voice was shaking from the quick running. In contrast, Zhao Mingkun didn’t even stop to breathe. She answered, “I was helping you with your case. I’ve seen those 3 stories already, and it’s not hard to predict the last death will happen at the factory. Therefore, I’ve been staying here. I’m surprised the killer managed to slip away so successfully.”

“You saw everything?” I frowned. “The whole killing process?” And then I saw the worker’s uniform Zhao Mingkun was wearing. Many things clicked.

Zhao Mingkun nodded. “I saw everything. I was on the assembly line then. There was an extra worker, but no one noticed it, or rather the others weren’t paid to notice. When I noticed the hacking program, I knew the killer would make their move in these 10 minutes. But I had no idea who the target was.”

I frowned. “Then you could have stopped this murder! If you had pulled the electric brake, the person wouldn’t have died.”

Zhao Mingkun sneered. “Wu Meng, don’t press your luck. You’re a cop, but I’m not. I agreed to help you for myself. If I stopped the murder, how would I know who the killer is? If you want to blame someone, blame the killer.”

I looked from the corner of my eye. Zhao Mingkun was aloof. This was Shi Huacheng’s adopted daughter, a criminal of great experience, not a kind sister next door. She had no choice but to be ruthless. But somehow, she wasn’t that ruthless around me.

Then it hit me. If Zhao Mingkun could infiltrate the factory with this method, so could the killer. The killer had predicted the scenario before they shoved someone into the cutter. This blood mist had been calibrated many times in the killer’s mind. Using the chaos caused by the blood mist, the killer would slip away from the factory. If Zhao Mingkun didn’t help me, when we came to our senses, the killer would have been long gone. The surveillance wouldn’t capture anything. The other officers might conclude this as suicide. But the big problem remained, who was the victim?

“Who died?” I asked.

Zhao Mingkun looked around and led me down a small alley. “The victim is Ol’ Wang. When you spoke, Ol’ Wang came in from the side door. He saw and walked towards you guys. But along the way, he was knocked into the cutter. Instantly blood misted everywhere.”

The alley was deserted, and we stopped. As we walked down the alley, Zhao Mingkun explained, “The killer knew the cutter well. They knew with the spinning blades, blood wouldn’t fall like rain but instead would form a mist. The killer used this opportunity to escape.” Zhao Mingkun turned over a paper box. There was a worker’s uniform inside, and it was stuck with red dots. Clearly, it had just been removed.

“If not to grab you.” Zhao Mingkun frowned as she sniffed the uniform. “I would have caught him. But this killer is highly unusual. He is familiar with all kinds of knowledge, be it computers or machinery. That’s very rare.”

I nodded. “The killer must have removed his clothes, changed, and mixed into the crowd. However, I know the killer has a preference for black clothes. He wouldn’t have gotten far.” Then I made to run out. Zhao Mingkun stopped me. “That might not be necessarily true.”

I saw Zhao Mingkun drop the uniform. “What is your opinion?” Zhao Mingkun smiled and said, “You are people who live under the sun, so you always like to look up. You never notice what happens right underneath you. That’s why you fail to capture me. Human beings wish to conquer outer space, but they don’t even know what is happening underneath them.”

Zhao Mingkun’s face was filled with an indescribable loneliness and solitude. There was a moment where I felt how she couldn’t fit into this world and felt her trace of fear and helplessness. But the moment later, her queenly presence returned. She pointed underneath her and said, “If I’m not wrong, the killer has escaped from here.” She was pointing at a sewer cap.

“But the killer has a cleanliness obsession,” I argued.

“How did you know that?” Zhao Mingkun challenged. I was silent before I answered, “Criminal profile.”

“Then your profiling is wrong. When I was at the mental hospital, I checked your file. You suffer from paranoia. You will place yourself in the killer’s shoes whenever you come up with their profiles, it triggers your paranoia. You’re afraid that one day you’ll get schizophrenia from it.”

“Why did you look through my file?” I stared at her.

Zhao Mingkun lifted up the cap and said, “Why do you care? I’d advise you to stop with the criminal profiling. If you don’t go in-depth, the profile will be wrong; if you do, you might lose yourself. I don’t want to see you back in the mental hospital.”

Zhao Mingkun slithered down into the sewer. Since she had already made her move, I had to follow.

It was dark inside the sewer. When I was down there, I understood what Zhao Mingkun meant. This was the perfect locale for the killer. The light from the hole was only the size of a penny. Looking down the distance, there was nothing but darkness. When I encountered the killer in the tunnel leading to the adult toy store, the killer moved freely in the dark. Darkness was the killer’s best cover.

Zhao Mingkun looked left and right. She asked, “Which way do you think the killer has taken?”

“Left!” I said confidently. “We’re in the countryside, going right leads to the sea, the killer will not go there. He needs crowds, so definitely left.”

Zhao Mingkun smiled. “You still have your brain. Let’s go.” Zhao Mingkun moved ahead. She made no sound at all. If she were tailing behind you, you wouldn’t discover her. This was similar to the killer. If Zhao Mingkun weren’t 1.75 meters tall, she would be a great suspect. We didn’t speak in the dark. Zhao Mingkun was not affected by the darkness, but I was. I kept worry that I would trip on something or walk into a wall.

At that moment, I knocked into something soft. I lost balance and landed on Zhao Mingkun’s back.

“Sor…” before I could say anything, Zhao Mingkun yanked me forward and closed her hand over my mouth. Her soft lips leaned into my ears. “Listen closely.”

I put my other thoughts away and paid attention to my hearing. At the fork ahead, there was a girlish giggle. It was similar to the sound I heard inside the tunnel leading to the adult toy store. The killer was right ahead of us and the giggle was slowly getting louder.