231 Blinded

 

I looked at the sharp glass piece beside my leg, and I had the urge to plunge the glass piece into the killer’s neck. I could see the killer’s blood squirt out to dye my eyes red. My heart raced. I only had two things in my eyes, the murder weapon and a dead person. At that moment, the world lost meaning to me. Everything was moving towards destruction. If I didn’t move too slow and discovered the killer too late, the nine people wouldn’t have died. I killed those nine people. Yes, since I had killed those nine people, what mattered with one more?

Without realizing it, I picked up the shard and slowly walked towards the killer. He was still facing away from me, waiting for Xiao Liu’s people to come in. I was getting closer until I could see the veins on the killer’s neck.

Even though I was not a professional coroner, I had followed Guan Zhenglin for a year already, and I had a rudimentary understanding of human anatomy. The shard I held was sharp. With a puncture, it would pierce through the killer’s skin and then his fascia superficialis. These two layers protected us from infection. But these two layers were enough to stop the shard from cutting into his neck.

Then would come the deep fascia, esophagus, air pipe, and blood capillary. The shard would slice through the killer’s airpipe, so he couldn’t even speak. But he would feel all the air bursting out from the wound. At the same time, he would feel warmth around his neck. Blood from vena cava would follow out, and it would be purplish-red in color. Then he would be squirting blood from his artery. It would be fresh red in color. He would die from blood loss in less than half a minute.

The last layer would be the muscle and bone. With my strength, I would only be able to cut halfway through his neck and not entirely sever his neck. However, that would be enough. As long as I was fast enough, he wouldn’t even have the time to speak. He would convulse on the ground, and one minute later, he would be unconscious. Even though I didn’t know where I was, from the time I was unconscious, I calculated that it would take the ambulance at least half an hour to reach the hospital. He only needed five minutes to die. No matter the secret that he knew about me, it would die with him.

As long as I could do that before Xiao Liu arrived, Xiao Liu would believe me over the killer. My jaw set, and my hand raised.

“Wu Meng!” A ray shot into my eyes and blinded me. My hand shrunk and the shard sliced through the air. I didn’t feel any resistance. I let go. The shard fell to the ground with a tingle.

The killer had no idea what had happened, but he did turn around when he heard the sound. Before he could say anything, Xiao Liu’s people had stormed into the room. The officers pressed the killer to the ground. The killer shouted, “I surrender!”

Xiao Liu holstered his gun and shone his flashlights at my eyes. I couldn’t see anything and tried to move his flashlight away. Xiao Liu looked at me and then at the officer behind him. I noticed that he wanted to say something.

I closed my eyes and massaged my temples. I asked, “How did you find this place?” I had no idea if Xiao Liu had seen me with the shard, but I was halted by the ray shot right into my eyes. So it had to be one of the officers who saw me, but I couldn’t tell if it was Xiao Liu or not. I opened my eyes and studied the eight officers in the underground. Xiao Liu stood beside me, looking at me. Three officers pressed the killer to the ground and confiscated his weapon. The other four officers searched through the underground space. I had no idea who had hit me with the flashlight among the eight officers. They were busy with their own thing. I couldn’t see anything from their expression. It was as peaceful as a pond, but the current underneath was raging.

After ensuring I didn’t have any wounds, Xiao Liu removed his jacket and covered it on me. “Captain Lee has installed the tracers on the bowl. We followed the signal to nearby but then the signal disappeared.” Xiao Liu looked around. “There are only two possibilities. 1, the killer has ruined the tracer; 2, the killer has gone somewhere the signal can’t be received anymore. I don’t think it could be the first because one has to break the bowls to get the tracer. The killer has gone through so much to have us reconstruct the bowls so he wouldn’t break it.” Then Xiao Liu told the other officers. “Bring the killer out and guard at the cave. The killer has his teammates, so I will send people over to assist you later.” The other officers nodded and led the killer out.

I looked at Xiao Liu. Even until now, Xiao Liu still believed the killer worked in a team, but the truth was the killer was singular. The other killers were the different personas of the same killer. They had different ages and genders, so their dressing and mannerism would be different. However, Xiao Liu would understand that when the killer talked. I didn’t have the mood to explain it to him. As Xiao Liu led me out, he said, “Therefore it has to be possibility 2. Based on the time you took, I arranged for the nearby officers to look around this place. The killer wouldn’t have gotten far.” If I were Xiao Liu, I probably wouldn’t reach this place earlier than he was. I added, “Because of the thing I told you about the sewer, so you believe the killer has brought me underground.”

Xiao Liu nodded. “That’s right. And we finally caught the killer. In Wu Xiufang and Wu Xiufen’s husband's home, I found much evidence for the case back then. They are now all in the car. You can look at them later. By the way, your clothes and phone are also in the car. Great job.”

I asked, “Have you contacted Gu Chen? Did they find Guan Zhenglin?”

Xiao Liu frowned. “I should ask you that. You were the one who told me that Guan Zhenglin is safe.” Hearing that, I froze. Xiao Liu didn’t look like he was joking with me. Plus, he wouldn’t joke with something like that. However, I had not said anything like that, so how did he get that idea?

Seeing my confused expression, Xiao Liu took out his phone and showed me his messages. I saw a person named Xiao Wu message him, ‘Guan Zhenglin is safe. Follow the tracer’s signal to save me.’

I grabbed Xiao Liu’s phone and read the message again. I didn’t remember writing this message, but the message did come from my phone. Someone had taken the stuff that I had left in the yard?

The more I thought about it, the likelier it sounded in my head. It had taken less than 10 minutes of cycling before the killer stopped me at the bridge. Technically I could walk that distance. So could the killer have designed this for me to strip?

When the killer knew about the tracers on the bowls, he didn’t get angry. This meant that he didn’t care about the tracers. So there was no need for him to make me strip.

With that in mind, I asked, “When you found my clothes and phone, how did you find them?”

Xiao Liu pinched his chin and said, “Your clothes were placed at the corner of the yard. The pants were at the bottom, then underwear, undershirt, shirt, and jacket. They were neatly folded. The phone was inside your jacket. Is there a problem?” Xiao Liu looked at me.

I was frozen and then said, “You know me. You know I had never folded my shirts so neatly before. Plus, do you think I would have the time to fold the clothes in that situation?”

Xiao Liu’s eyes widened. “I really haven’t considered that. I only charged into the room earlier because you said Guan Zhenglin was safe. I wouldn’t dare otherwise! But if it was not you, then who sent me the message?” Xiao Liu looked at me, waiting for me to answer.

My mind was a mess, I didn’t know what had happened. Suddenly I was reminded of Wu Zui, whom I saw when I was unconscious. Until now, I couldn’t tell if that was my imagination or he was real.

“We need to head up to the surface,” I told Xiao Liu. “There might be a bigger force behind this case. This case is not that simple.”