Chapter 46 - 44: The Glass Jars in the Wall

Chapter 46: Chapter 44: The Glass Jars in the Wall

"Where do you live?"

The voice in Su Miaoyi’s head went silent, so she started talking to Liu Fan.

Liu Fan ignored her.

"Not talking? That’s fine." Su Miaoyi crossed her arms, leaned against the wall, and looked down at the man squatting on the ground. "I know which apartment building you’re in. As for the floor... based on your running speed, it can’t be higher than the fifth floor."

Liu Fan remained silent.

Su Miaoyi said, "Forget the fifth floor. Even if it were the twentieth, it would still be easy to find your apartment."

Liu Fan suddenly struggled.

Su Miaoyi said, "After all this time, I thought you’d left Jinghai."

A thought suddenly struck her.

’Either he’s been hiding in Jinghai this whole time...’

’Or he left and came back.’

’Either way, it means there must be something very important to him in Jinghai.’

’That apartment building.’

Every time she blacked out, she’d find a corpse.

This time, she ran into Liu Fan.

’Is this a new case, or...?’

The sound of police sirens echoed from outside. At the same time, a car screeched to a halt at the alley’s entrance.

A car door slammed shut, followed by Zhuang Yanzheng’s shout, "Su Miaoyi!"

Su Miaoyi hadn’t shared her location with Zhuang Yanzheng; she had only told the emergency dispatcher that she was near the market.

She’d figured the nearby precinct would arrive faster than Zhuang Yanzheng.

She hadn’t expected them to arrive at almost the same time.

"Su Miaoyi!" Zhuang Yanzheng shouted again, his footsteps growing closer.

"Over here!" Su Miaoyi called out.

Zhuang Yanzheng appeared at the mouth of the alley and immediately strode in.

"I’m fine," Su Miaoyi said quickly, seeing his anxious expression.

Zhuang Yanzheng walked up quickly, his breathing a little unsteady. He grabbed her by the arms and spun her around to get a good look at her.

Seeing she was unharmed, he relaxed slightly and glanced at Liu Fan.

The officers from the precinct came over.

Su Miaoyi stumbled a bit from being spun around. Once steady, she asked, "How did you get here so fast?"

"I was working on a case nearby," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

"Did you sync up with the command center?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"Yeah." Zhuang Yanzheng hauled the squatting Liu Fan to his feet and glanced at the strap tied around his hands. "You called me, but it only rang twice before you hung up. Then I saw the message and figured you’d call the police, so I asked them about it."

"His tools of the trade," Su Miaoyi said, pointing to the hammer and scalpel on the ground.

She hadn’t touched them since they fell.

Zhuang Yanzheng, however, was staring intently at the rope tied around Liu Fan’s wrists, lost in thought.

The knot was a special kind—the more you struggled, the tighter it got.

He remembered... back then...

"Captain Zhuang," one of the precinct officers called out to him.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at him. "He’s the killer from a recent case. Transfer him to the municipal bureau."

"Got it." The precinct officer made a note.

Su Miaoyi briefly recounted what had happened.

The precinct officers assumed Su Miaoyi was Zhuang Yanzheng’s informant, so they didn’t question why she was there.

"Captain Zhuang," Su Miaoyi said, pointing at Liu Fan. "His place."

Zhuang Yanzheng replied, "Qi Feng and the others are already on their way."

Su Miaoyi nodded.

Since Liu Fan refused to say a single word, no matter how they questioned him, Zhuang Yanzheng and Su Miaoyi had no choice but to go with the precinct officers to find the building management.

But the building management here was as good as nonexistent.

They didn’t even know which units were occupied.

So, they resorted to knocking on every door from the fifth floor down.

They finally identified a room on the fourth floor.

They contacted the landlord, who then contacted the rental agent. After a whole rigmarole, they got the landlord’s permission, and the fire department came to break the lock.

They confirmed no one was inside.

They entered the apartment and flipped on the lights.

The moment they stepped inside, an oppressive feeling washed over them.

All the curtains were drawn.

Qi Feng and Chu Xingrou opened their investigation kits.

It was a two-bedroom apartment.

Zhuang Yanzheng went into the master bedroom, while Su Miaoyi went into the second bedroom.

The second bedroom had no bed, just a desk and a chair.

There was nothing on the desktop.

Su Miaoyi, wearing gloves, ran a hand over the desk.

It was spotless, which meant he was here often.

She pulled open the curtains in the second bedroom but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Chu Xingrou came to dust for fingerprints but found none.

Not a single fingerprint in his own home, in a room he frequently used.

"Are there prints anywhere else?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Chu Xingrou nodded. "The living room, bathroom, kitchen, and master bedroom all have them. This room is unnaturally clean."

Su Miaoyi scanned the room.

After a moment, she reached up and knocked on the wall above the desk.

"It’s hollow?" Chu Xingrou asked, hearing the sound.

Su Miaoyi looked around again and finally found a button in a hidden compartment of the desk drawer.

When she pressed it, the entire wall in front of the desk began to rise slowly from the floor, inch by inch.

It was an incredibly precise mechanism; there were no visible seams at all.

Hearing the noise, Zhuang Yanzheng and the others all came over.

Behind the rising wall panel was a black curtain.

Being the closest, Su Miaoyi pulled it open without hesitation.

Upon seeing what was inside, Chu Xingrou let out a scream before quickly clamping a hand over her mouth.

Although Su Miaoyi had been mentally prepared, her pupils still contracted. She stumbled back a few steps, treading on Zhuang Yanzheng’s foot.

She turned and looked back at him.

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced down at her, said nothing, and then turned his gaze back to the wall.

Standing beside him, Su Miaoyi couldn’t help but feel that his glance was saying...

’You did that on purpose, didn’t you?’

Su Miaoyi also looked back up at the wall.

Inside was a cabinet.

And on the cabinet sat a series of glass jars.

There were eight glass jars in total, each labeled with a date.

The cabinet had two shelves.

On the top shelf, a pair of eyes floated in each jar.

On the bottom shelf, a pair of hands floated in each jar.

Zhuang Yanzheng stepped forward to take a closer look.

The eyes on the top shelf and the hands on the bottom shelf corresponded with each other.

The dates were identical.

The dates roughly matched the two cases in Luo City, the case in Xian City, and the case in Jinghai.

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

Finally, Zhuang Yanzheng said, "Photograph them and take them back."

Qi Feng and a few others moved forward.

Chu Xingrou hesitated, wondering if she should help.

She wanted to, but she was terrified.

Su Miaoyi patted her on the shoulder. "Take it slow. Don’t rush it. You’ll get used to it eventually. Don’t force yourself."

Zhuang Yanzheng was looking at the glass jars but overheard her words.

Chu Xingrou nodded. "Sister Miaomiao, when did you stop being afraid? I think you’re amazing. You’re not scared of skeletal remains, and you’re not scared of this."

"Hey!" Zhuang Yanzheng had been staring at the jars. By the time he realized what Chu Xingrou was saying and tried to stop her, it was too late.

His shout startled Chu Xingrou.

But Su Miaoyi first froze, then looked back at the jars. A moment later, she stumbled out of the apartment and began to dry-heave just outside the door.

Her entire body went weak in an instant, unable to even stand, and she collapsed into a squat on the ground.

Chu Xingrou had no idea what had just happened.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her and said, "From now on, you are not to ask her if she’s afraid."

Chu Xingrou immediately pressed her lips together and fell silent, looking like a confused kitten.

’But why?’

She didn’t dare ask out loud, just silently made a mental note.

「...」