Huang Xiaotao asked me what I was going to do next. I said I had nothing to do for the moment and suggested we go back to the hotel to get some rest and recharge before their break ended.
We returned to the hotel and Wang Dali was still lying in bed. I brought him the packed roast duck and food and Wang Dali ate with gusto, asking about the investigation. I briefly updated him.
After hearing my conjectures, Wang Dali asked, "Yang Zi, do you think this case wasn't done by a person?"
"No, no matter the case, I firmly believe it was done by a person, otherwise it can't be solved." I said resolutely.
Just then, the sound of running water came from next door. Wang Dali suddenly became spirited and said lasciviously, "Listen, Sister Xiaotao is taking a shower!"
"No, the room next door belongs to Wang Yuanchao," I replied.
He lay back down listlessly, "Che, Old Wang next door!"
We drove through the night to Wuquan City. I was exhausted and took a nap, feeling much better when I woke up. I checked my phone and saw several messages.
The task force created a WeChat group. A policeman said he found important information. There was also an update on Bai Yidao and Luo Weiwei's situations.
I got dressed and knocked on Huang Xiaotao and Wang Yuanchao's rooms. After about five minutes, Wang Yuanchao appeared, dressed neatly. I asked, "You didn't sleep?"
"I did," he replied plainly.
After a while, Huang Xiaotao finally opened the door. She was wearing the hotel's pajamas with a hydrating face mask on. She stretched leisurely, "Ah, I slept great. What's up, got a lead?"
"Yes, ten minutes to get dressed and let's go," I urged.
"Ten minutes? Hey, do you have experience waiting for girls? Just getting dressed and doing my hair will take at least half an hour, makeup will take longer." Huang Xiaotao said anxiously.
This was the first time I learned it took women so long to get dressed. I said, "Then Uncle Wang and I will go first. Come when you're ready."
"OK!"
We went to the 2nd floor conference room. Bai Yidao, Luo Weiwei and another policeman were already waiting. I handed Bai Yidao the two packages. Opening them, one contained three wooden masks carved from catalpa wood and the other contained some Chinese medicines.
I praised, "You got things done quickly!"
He lazily replied, "I have a buddy who makes crafts. He has a lathe in his shop. What do you need this stuff for?"
"It's important, that's all I'll say," I said mysteriously.
Luo Weiwei brought the white rats, caged in a small iron cage.
The policeman said he looked into the victims' bank accounts and found a suspicious large withdrawal! Over 5 million disappeared after their deaths. The recipient was named Yu Jun.
I told him and Bai Yidao to look into this Yu Jun. As for Luo Weiwei, I had no tasks for her and said she could leave early if she wanted.
But Luo Weiwei insisted on going with Bai Yidao to investigate. As she left, I asked her to give me a copy of the murder scene keys.
I borrowed the lab and slowly simmered the Chinese medicines over a low flame, then had the accompanying policeman get me samples of the male and female victims' serum.
Once the serum was separated, I had them inject the two white rats with 20mm doses each. By then Huang Xiaotao had arrived. Seeing the simmering medicine and injecting rats, she joked, "Song Yang, what evil experiments are you doing?"
"You'll see soon," I said.
After the injections, I waited quietly. The two white rats were still scurrying around energetically. Huang Xiaotao asked puzzledly, "Nothing's happening?"
"Alright, experiment failed. I was trying to see if they would attack each other." I spread my hands helplessly.
"Attack each other?" Huang Xiaotao asked.
"Yes, waiting for the tech team's results is too slow. I wanted to run a biological experiment to see if drugs played a role in the murders..." I sighed disappointedly.
"Song Yang, you're so cruel!" Huang Xiaotao cried.
I told the tech team they didn't need to keep analyzing. The tech team, who was prepared to work through the night, cheered and got ready to leave work.
Once the medicine was done simmering, I used a paper towel to daub a bit inside each mask. Smelling the strange odor, Huang Xiaotao asked, "What is this? It smells weird."
"You'll see soon," I said.
Once the medicine dried on the masks, I grabbed them and the rat cage, "Let's go, back to the murder scene."
"Now?" Huang Xiaotao looked at her watch, "It's already 5:30, it'll be dark when we get there."
"That's fine, I intended to go at night!" I smiled mysteriously.
The three of us drove to the old street. After sunset, every household was inside eating dinner and watching TV. We ducked under the police tape to the victims' front door and unlocked it with Luo Weiwei's key.
The atmosphere was even more sinister at night. Huang Xiaotao turned on the light but there was no electricity. I smiled wryly, "They probably got cut off for not paying."
I took out my phone for light.
The flour I had sprinkled earlier didn't show any traces. We went upstairs and I put the white rats on the windowsill and opened the window. Then I took out three pairs of gloves from the bag and had them tidy up the scene a bit. The tables and chairs were put back in place and the debris on the floor swept up. I put the phone in the middle of the table for light.
Once it was roughly cleaned up, I took out the three masks and said, "Let's reenact the crime scene!"
"What?" Huang Xiaotao exclaimed, "Hey, your timing couldn't be worse! The floor is covered in blood, how much creepier could it get?"
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," I said.
Huang Xiaotao was reluctant, "Is it absolutely necessary?"
"Yes!" I said firmly.
"Fine!" Huang Xiaotao reluctantly nodded.
I assigned the roles. My original plan was for me and Huang Xiaotao to play the couple with Wang Yuanchao as the old lady. But coming here, I did feel the atmosphere was sinister and it gave me chills. To be safe, let's skip the old lady role! She didn't have lines anyway, so I had Wang Yuanchao stand watch and immediately stop us if anything seemed off.
I handed Huang Xiaotao a mask and put on another myself. The masks were heavy and I could only see out of the eye holes. Huang Xiaotao weighed it in her hands, "I've studied crime scene reenactments at the police academy too, but never heard of using these kinds of weird masks. What exactly are you up to?"
I explained with a smile that this was the ‘Acting Murder Art’ recorded in the Broken Prison Sutra.
It was inspired by an ancestor who got the idea from ritual performers. Ancient shamans wearing ferocious masks and dancing mysteriously were said to be able to communicate between yin and yang. This ancestor thought, could a similar method be used to recreate crimes?
So after ten years of experiments, he created this ‘Acting Murder Art’. By having several people take on the roles in a murder case and reenacting the crime process, they could explore the criminal's psyche and find overlooked clues.
The roles in ‘Acting Murder Art’ are divided into categories based on gender, birthdate, life and death. They use the Twelve Ancestor Witches from ritual performances as stand-ins. The twelve masks grew increasingly hideous, intended to evoke terror in the actors.
For example, Huang Xiaotao got the ‘Ju Mang’ mask representing the middle-aged deceased woman, while I wore the ‘Chi You’ mask representing the middle-aged male murderer.
The inner sides of the masks were coated with a substance to elicit emotional reactions, making happiness, anger, sorrow and joy feel vividly real.
The profundity of ‘Acting Murder Art’ is hard to fully elaborate. It contains psychological suggestion and other scientific principles, as well as some things that can't be explained scientifically.
It's said some have suddenly fainted while performing it, then screamed out the murderer's name in the victim's voice, solving a decade-old cold case!
But there's no denying ‘Acting Murder Art’ is extremely dangerous.
My reasons for using it were, first, the case has made zero progress so far. Second, I have a conjecture that needs verification...