Jinyi Residential Area.
Building 4, Room 102.
Standing outside the door, the officers could already smell the pungent stench of blood and decay emanating from within the house.
Everyone frowned.
Something seemed off...
"Did you guys smell that? It smells like blood," Wang Dachuan pointed at the door of Room 102.
The others nodded in agreement.
The smell was so strong that anyone with a functioning sense of smell would have noticed it. They certainly did.
The odor was coming from inside the room, indicating that someone had died there.
In such a situation, it was unlikely anyone would help them open the door.
Xu Mo promptly pulled out a piece of wire and demonstrated his lock-picking skills.
As the door opened, the stench of blood and decay grew even stronger, hitting them right in the face.
The room was also swarming with flies.
The first thing they saw was a man with dyed yellow hair lying face down in a pool of blood in the living room.
For a moment, the officers were stunned.
Was the man dead?
What was going on? Was it a case of guilt-induced suicide?
None of them had expected this scenario.
"Captain, could this be guilt-induced suicide?" Wang Dachuan pointed at the body in the living room.
Xu Mo remained silent and approached the body to examine it. He flipped the body over.
The corpse had dozens of stab wounds on its abdomen.
Xu Mo pointed at the wounds on the body. The location and angle of the stab wounds indicated that this was not suicide, but murder.
"It's a homicide. This victim is not the suspect we saw in the surveillance footage. He was also killed by the suspect we're looking for. The suspect had a lot of resentment towards this victim. Fifteen stab wounds, each deliberately avoiding vital areas. The victim bled to death. That's quite ruthless..."
In fact, after seeing the wounds on the victim's front, even without Xu Mo's explanation, the officers realized that this victim could not have committed suicide. The position and direction of the wounds were too precise; no one could stab themselves like that.
And even if someone could, no one would stab themselves dozens of times during a suicide... Who could have that much determination? A normal person would probably curl up like a shrimp after the first stab due to the pain.
At that moment, Xu Mo's phone rang.
The coroner? Why would he call me? Did he find something new? Xu Mo pressed the answer button.
As expected, Xu Mo was right. The coroner called because he had found new evidence. "Stretch marks, I found stretch marks on one of the body parts!"
"Stretch marks?"
"Yes, I just discovered them on an unopened section of the abdomen. The victim was pregnant!"
"I see," Xu Mo murmured.
He glanced at the body on the ground in front of him.
The male victim looked quite young, with dyed yellow hair, wearing tight pants and sneakers. His index and middle fingers were stained yellow, a sign of heavy smoking, making him look like a delinquent.
Combined with what the coroner just said, Xu Mo figured it out.
The two victims, a man and a woman, were likely a couple. The female victim was young, but she was already pregnant...
"I know who the killer is," Xu Mo suddenly said after ending the call with the coroner.
The officers perked up and looked at Xu Mo: "Who?"
"The father of the dismembered corpse."
Upon hearing this, the officers were puzzled.
"Huh?"
"The father killed his daughter? Why?"
"And who is this yellow-haired guy? Why was he killed too?"
"Is this yellow-haired guy also part of that family? So he's the son? What's wrong with this father? He killed both his children."
Xu Mo explained, "The coroner just called me and said he found stretch marks on the dismembered corpse. You know what stretch marks are, right? They're something women get when they're pregnant. The dismembered corpse was pregnant..."
"Pregnant? The coroner said the victim looked young... Oh! I get it now!" Wang Dachuan suddenly slapped his forehead, realizing the truth: "This yellow-haired guy and the previous victim were a couple. The female victim got pregnant, and her family found out. Her father was ashamed and killed her. After disposing of his daughter's body, he went to his daughter's boyfriend's place and killed the yellow-haired guy who got her pregnant!"
"Yes, that's what I mean," Xu Mo nodded.
The other officers also felt a sudden clarity.
This explanation made perfect sense.
Jinyi Residential Area wasn't the killer's home, so the killer coming here directly from the seafood market in the early hours wasn't to go home but to kill the next person!
With this, the investigation became clearer.
Officers always follow the principle of bold speculation and careful verification.
Now that Xu Mo had provided a reasonable hypothesis, they just needed to follow this lead.
The yellow-haired guy's body hadn't been disposed of, so it was easy to identify him and find his information.
As a result, the officers quickly obtained detailed information about the yellow-haired guy.
He had been expelled for fighting and later worked as an apprentice in a hair salon with a very simple social circle.
The officers planned to visit the hair salon where he worked to ask his colleagues if they knew who his girlfriend was.
...
"Xiaojiba Haircut Studio."
Seeing the name of the shop, Xu Mo's eye twitched. The name sounded like a joke... No wonder there were no customers!
Inside the hair salon, a few young people with various colored and styled hair were sitting around playing with their phones.
When Xu Mo and the others walked in, the young people glanced up briefly: "Getting a haircut?"
"No, we're officers. We're here to ask you some questions," Xu Mo showed his badge and pulled out a photo of the yellow-haired guy: "This person..."
One of the young men with a crew cut immediately stood up when he heard Xu Mo was a police officer, his attitude suddenly very polite.
"Hello, Officer! Are you here for the yellow-haired guy? He's not here; he hasn't shown up all day."
"I know he's not here. We're here to ask if you know who his girlfriend is."
"We know her, but... Officer, which girlfriend are you looking for?"
The officers: "???"
Wow, it seemed the yellow-haired guy had quite a few girlfriends!
Xu Mo's face darkened.
"The one who was pregnant."
"Pregnant... well, there were a few of them. Which one specifically are you looking for?" the crew cut young man scratched his head.
Xu Mo: "???"
"The skinny little one!"
"Oh! Her..."
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
