Chapter 24 – Insomnia

In the rented apartment, the traces of the crime had been obviously cleaned up, leaving only the original appearance of the apartment at first glance. It was a small single room of approximately fifty square meters, with not much furniture; the original owner had the habit of ripping the calendar, but the date on the calendar on the desk was still last month’s.

There was even a third of a bowl of takeout left on a simple plastic foldable table.

At the bottom of the chili oil soup was a layer of solidified fat, with a layer of mildew floating in it. The remaining bean sprouts and yuba in the soup were faintly visible. The chopsticks set aside; there were even balled up napkins scattered across the table, lipstick stains visible on them.

The apartment was actually a bit messy. The deceased was probably not very good at tidying up; coats were piled up on the sofa, a lot of brightly colored coats thrown there.

The “refrigerator” Su Xiaolan mentioned was actually an old-fashioned freezer. It looked like it was brought over from a second-hand store, very similar to an ice cream freezer in a small shop. The freezer was square in shape, covered with a thermal insulation cloth.

This was an ordinary apartment that couldn’t get any more ordinary. Like thousands of women, the deceased lived alone in the apartment. Based on these traces of life, it was as if aside from coming home after work, the woman also ordered takeout for herself.

— If the lid of the freezer wasn’t opened, and the naked corpse curled up in it hadn’t been seen.

The woman’s long brown hair was tucked in a shawl, her knees pressed against her chest. Her body was slender, only able to do this to make herself as small as possible. There were obvious pressure marks on the neck, chest, and thighs of the corpse; the severe ones were purple-brown, indicating that there was subcutaneous hemorrhage. There was a layer of frost on her eyelashes. She died with her eyes open, wide with pain, her eyeballs bulging.

Everyone who saw her could feel the despair and panic she felt before dying.

As the first person to discover the body, the landlord who was asking people to move things one second, was so frightened that she fell to the ground the next.

It never occurred to her that the person she thought had disappeared had actually been quietly hidden in this old-fashioned freezer for a month.

Half an hour later, in the interrogation room.

Su Xiaolan wrote the two words “Xue Mei” in the victim section.

“She didn’t rent my place for many months, we signed the contract directly.”

“There wasn’t an agency?”

“I did make a posting before, but after thinking about it, the fee for the agency is so expensive. It costs 50% of the first month’s rent. The young woman also came here for work. We could save money by directly contacting each other.”

“So in your lease contract, there are only the two of you as Party A and Party B, no third party?”

“Yes, I saved the contract. If you want it, I will get someone to bring it over in a bit.”

The landlord was approximately sixty years old, a local, with several houses in his name. In her everyday life, she just collects rent and gambles.

“Does she go around with anyone usually?”

“I’m not sure about this,” the landlord said, “I think she worked at a cosmetics store, usually dressed up. She leaves early and comes back late every day. I only occasionally contacted her on WeChat. The water pipe broke last month, as she asked me to repair it once. We didn’t talk much otherwise, so I can’t talk about who she’s familiar with.”

“You know, it’s better to not be in too much contact with tenants. If she says that she’s short of money one day, or that she’s having a hard time or something, then should I press for the rent or not. I’ve encountered this before, so I never talk to them much.”

The topic of the discovery of a female corpse in Yangyuan a few days ago had not subsided, and another body was found in the community across the street immediately afterwards. The nature of the incident soared instantly, news outlets all over rushing to report: suspected serial case, female, living alone.

These three facts inspired the unlimited imagination of the masses.

The entirety of Huanan was in panic for a moment.

Everyone began discussing the safety of women living alone.

— I heard that there are no signs of forced entry, that’s the scariest part.

— You have to change the combination for your locks regularly!! If you find that there’s someone near you when you enter your password, you must be vigilant!

— Don’t be lazy either if you lose your keys, change the lock, don’t gamble with your own safety.

— It’s been so many days, there are too few clues released by the police, could it be that this case can’t be solved.

The brewing public opinion gradually placed more pressure on the police officers handling the case.

Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The meeting room was silent.

A questioning voice broke through the silence: “What do you mean the murderer didn’t leave any clues?”

“……”

A second voice: “Two cases, the crime scenes are so close to each other— there can’t be no connection between the location of the crime scene and where the murderer lives, you were told to investigate. What exactly have you investigated.”

The speaker was surnamed Yuan; everyone usually called him Yuan Ju. Yuan Ju was getting older; even if he used black hair dye all year long, he still wouldn’t be able to cover the strands of white hair growing. He was tall and thin, looking unnaturally tall and stiff sitting there. His upper body was as stiff as the police uniform he wore.

Yuan Ju glanced around them, calling them out by name: “Zhibin, the team that you’re leading this time, this doesn’t seem to be your style.”

Both cases took place under the jurisdiction of the Yongan Police Station. As the veteran criminal policeman leading the team, Wu Zhibin was also in the meeting.

Wu Zhibin sat in silence for a while, with the black crutch leaning against the side of the chair. When he spoke, he didn’t mention any clues, any suspects, or even a proposal. What he said was: “This time I’m leading the team. I want to ask for someone, I hope that Director Yuan will approve.”

Yuan Ju had been in office for over twenty years. All the cases that happened in Huanan in the past twenty years have passed through his hands. Although Wu Zhibin didn’t mention a name, Yuan Ju came up with a certain name in his mind immediately.

“The situation is indeed more complicated than we imagined. The crime scene is too clean. It’s very likely that this isn’t the first time the murderer is committing a crime. We are currently investigating similar cases in other cities, there may be more than two victims.”

Wu Zhibin lifted his eyes, looking at Yang Ju as he spoke: “I want Xie Lin to come back.”

“……”

The originally silent conference room fell even quieter after the two words “Xie Lin” were spoken.

The people sitting in the conference room had all been in office for more than ten years.

No one had forgotten the case from that year.

“It’s been ten years since the kidnapping,” Wu Zhibin said, “Prisoners will be released one day, just based on a single psychological evaluation report…… Is a ten year observation period not enough, no matter how dangerous he is, he hasn’t done anything in these ten years.”

After Wu Zhibin finished talking, Yuan Ju was the one who fell silent.

The old file seemed to reappear before Yuan Ju’s eyes.

Every single word in the file was still vivid.

He couldn’t deny what Wu Zhibin said. It’s been ten years. It was his decision to oppose Xie Lin’s continued stay in the General Administration, but ten years had passed. His views on many things have changed now.

Yuan Ju thought of Xie Feng once again: “My brother…… He does have an inexplicable sensitivity to crime. He sometimes surprises me with how well he understands criminals, but I have faith in him. I trust him, please also trust him.”

Now that the times have changed, Xie Feng, who had a bright future and everyone had high hopes for, has also been buried in the Garden of Heroes for ten years.

Yuan Ju’s straight back bent slightly, making him appear older. There were many marks left on him as well by the ten years. He finally sat in his seat and exhaled deeply: “If he is willing…… Then let him come back.”

Since the incident, the voices in Chi Qing’s ears became disordered and frightened.

[I lost my key once, I should change the lock.]

Countless suspicions, delusions of being persecuted, everyone thought that the next “accident” would likely happen to them. No one could guarantee that where they currently live was absolutely safe.

The home was originally a private space, providing people with a sense of security, dispelling all the fatigue after a day.

When the private space is at risk of being invaded— many people became paranoid, just like every time after watching a horror movie, they felt that there might be someone in their home.

[Changing the lock isn’t enough, I have to buy a surveillance camera online…… This is too scary.]

[The surveillance camera has to be concealed, a miniature surveillance camera is best.]

In the middle of the night, a woman’s voice kept rambling in the building.

She was very cautious, carefully selecting the surveillance camera, starting with the style and model.

Chi Qing got in bed an hour ago.

An hour later, he opened his eyes again.

The minute hand on the clock on the wall had already made one round by this time.

He stayed up for a while with his eyes open, and the woman who was picking the surveillance camera slowly stopped talking, seeming to have fallen asleep while on her phone.

Chi Qing closed his eyes again.

The minute hand turned half a circle. Right as he was about to fall asleep, someone else in the building woke up.

[Coming home so late every day, are you really so busy at work, why are you busy when everyone else isn’t?]

[……]

Chi Qing opened his eyes.

The sky outside the window was very dark, the hour hand pointing to “3.”

Chi Qing was usually a light sleeper, waking up easily at the slightest movement. It was really impossible to ignore the voices that appeared from time to time in the middle of the night.

He had suffered from insomnia for nearly two weeks in a row. He could barely sleep for a few hours by taking some sleeping pills in the beginning, but starting the second week, unless the dosage of sleeping pills was increased, it was hard for him to fall asleep even using medication.

Compared to that, what was more painful was that he didn’t know how long this out-of-control state would last.

After Chi Qing was woken up, he went to the kitchen to pour a glass of cold water, sitting on the sofa holding the glass.

Due to lack of sleep, his overall mental state was extremely poor, his cold didn’t get better, relapsing repeatedly.

He originally gave off a gloomy feeling, but after suffering from dark circles under his eyes during this time, his eyes darkened, as if his eyelashes cast large shadows, his entire body becoming darker.

The phone on the coffee table indicated that the battery was low.

It made a “beep.”

In addition to the power notification sound, there were also vibrations from messages from time to time.

[You have a new message].

[……]

He didn’t contact many people in the past few days, his head in so much pain that he didn’t have the energy to check his phone.

The one thing he did most often was curl up on the sofa. Sometimes when he wanted to get away from the voices, he’d go to the bedroom, lock the door, sit on the floor, and lean against the door for a long time.

During that long time, he would sometimes think of Xie Lin.

Think of that moment of silence.

Chi Qing’s eyelashes trembled, and finally couldn’t control himself, reaching out for the phone on the coffee table.

He quickly glanced through his recent contacts list.

Ji Mingrui: Remember to eat the dumplings, I recently……

Agent: There is a new script, do you want to take a look……

He skipped over the messages that weren’t fully displayed in the list, his eyes falling on the two words “Xie Lin.”

Xie Lin: Is your cold better.

Chi Qing stared at these words for a while, pressing his finger against the screen to type two words.

– Not yet.

He paused, then typed again.

– Do you still have medicine.

The author has something to say:

(＞人＜；) I’m sorry I was half stuck yesterday