chapter 40
Song Xiaotian and I sat in the teahouse.
After about an hour, he sent me a bunch of electronic files on his phone.
I looked at one of them first and couldn’t help but be astonished.
An hour, that fast… He sent me all the information I asked for.
“Brother Tian, how did you get these files?”
He had been drinking tea with me in the teahouse the whole time, only made two phone calls, which meant he got someone else to find them for him.
But wasn’t he already fired…
Suddenly, I realized I had judged him by his appearance.
Song Xiaotian was truly not simple.
“Don’t worry about it for now.”
Song Xiaotian shook his head, seeming addicted to the gesture: “The files are sent, just read them first.”
I nodded and started carefully browsing through all the files.
The files were very detailed, recording the entire process and conclusions of the Massacre Case. From them, it was clear that the investigators back then were extremely responsible and meticulous. They had also identified the murderers, namely Li Xiumei and Lv Zhengxian.
It was just a pity that they hadn’t managed to catch the two killers back then.
I noticed some details that made me reevaluate Lv Zhengxian.
It was recorded… one of the victims, Du Yuwei’s mother, had been assaulted before her death.
Moreover, there were photos of Du Yuwei’s mother before she died. From the photos, it was clear that she was very beautiful, bearing a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to Du Yuwei.
Du Yuwei inherited her mother’s beauty.
Seeing this, I was convinced-Lv Zhengxian was utterly inhuman, a complete pervert.
The next detail caught my attention again.
The files stated that the cause of death for Du Yuwei’s family was suffocation, but a murder weapon was left at the scene, which should have been left by the killer.
The strange thing was, the killer clearly had a knife and could have killed in a faster, more convenient way, but chose the most troublesome way to smother the whole family.
The files recorded that the killer used a piece of white cloth, which was also left at the scene.
The investigators annotated: Smothering someone to death isn’t easy. The victim will struggle desperately, cry out, and make a lot of noise, easily alerting nearby residents.
Yet the killer still chose this method, so it was suspected that the killer had extreme religious beliefs and was using a superstitious method to kill.
Reading this, I was a bit confused too.
What was Lv Zhengxian thinking when he committed the crime?
He had a knife but insisted on using such a troublesome method.
Was there some hidden meaning behind this?
Unfortunately, Seventh Master wasn’t here. If he were, he could probably answer my questions.
Now, only Song Xiaotian was here. He had been a policeman, so I asked him for advice.
He looked at the files too and immediately frowned: “This reminds me of a case, a Serial Murder Case that happened in Lanjiang City. There were seven victims.”
I was sensitive to the number ‘seven’ and was startled, quickly asking him for details about the case.
Song Xiaotian said, “Coincidentally, this case also happened fifteen years ago, and all seven victims were smothered to death. It wasn’t until the third person was killed that the three cases were merged into a Serial Murder Case.”
“But even now, that case remains unsolved. They don’t even know who the killer is.”
“I actually heard about this case from an old police officer.”
The more I listened, the more bizarre it sounded.
Again, it involved seven people, and the method of killing was exactly the same.
What was even more coincidental was that fifteen years ago, after Lv Zhengxian and Li Xiumei committed the Massacre Case in Qindao, they fled to Lanjiang City. At that time, they bought a house in Lanjiang City, and that house was registered under my father’s name.
So, did this serial case in Lanjiang City happen before or after they arrived?
If it happened after they arrived…
I looked at Song Xiaotian and voiced my suspicion: “The case you just mentioned, is it possible… that Lv Zhengxian was also the perpetrator?”
Song Xiaotian was stunned, and his expression quickly changed: “At the time, there were some superstitious speculations about the serial case in Lanjiang City. People said the reason the killer suffocated the victims instead of using a quicker method was because the killer was performing some kind of sacrifice, or needed to take something from the victims.”
“The modus operandi of this case is indeed somewhat similar to Lv Zhengxian’s, but there was basically no possibility of combining the cases for investigation, because there was no direct evidence to prove that he did this one as well.”
Whether the cases were combined or not, I didn’t really care.
What I cared about was that the methods in both cases were the same, and this serial case also involved some kind of sacrifice. Isn’t that exactly the process of the Seven-Deaths Life-Exchange Technique?
Sacrificing seven victims to make up for the Fate Pattern defect caused by Soul Seizure.
So back then… there were actually two instances of Seven Deaths for Life Exchange, and the perpetrator was very likely Lv Zhengxian in both.
But why did it happen twice?
Wasn’t the first time supposed to be Lv Zhengxian attempting Soul Seizure on Du Ruhai?
Then what was the reason for the second time?
Or was it that the second time was actually the attempt to seize Du Ruhai’s soul?
I continued to look through the remaining materials, hoping they would give me the answer.
Soon, I noticed another detail.
The investigators at the time found, through interviews, that half a month before the Massacre Case, Li Xiumei’s family suddenly received a large sum of money-ninety thousand yuan.
Ninety thousand yuan may not seem like much now, but back then it was a huge amount.
Moreover, the records showed that Li Xiumei’s family was very poor. She had a younger brother who was seriously ill, but the family had no money for treatment. After receiving the ninety thousand yuan, her brother was finally able to get medical care.
So for Li Xiumei’s impoverished family, that ninety thousand yuan was indeed a fortune.
But the question was, where did the money come from?
Li Xiumei and Lv Zhengxian had no legitimate jobs, and when the ninety thousand yuan was sent back to her family, they had not yet committed the Massacre Case or robbed the victims’ home.
So this ninety thousand yuan couldn’t have been sent by them.
At this point, Song Xiaotian was also looking at the files with me. He stroked his chin and said, “Based on my experience, this ninety thousand yuan was probably a payment-a hiring fee.”
I was stunned for a moment, and suddenly some things became clear: “Someone used this ninety thousand yuan to hire Li Xiumei and Lv Zhengxian, getting them to commit the Massacre Case and kill Du Yuwei’s entire family…”
“So the first Seven Deaths for Life Exchange wasn’t actually planned by Li Xiumei and Lv Zhengxian. They were just hired to do the job…”
If that’s the case, then the person who came to sabotage the Soul Summoning that night-their identity becomes clear!
He was most likely the one who hired Li Xiumei and Lv Zhengxian!”