Chapter 62

Chapter 62

The saying really proved true.

Wu Xiaojiu went to investigate that very day.

He was met by an intern, an inexperienced young man who wore the unmistakable stupidity of a college student on his face.

Unlike back then, the intern couldn’t find the file right away, so he had Wu Xiaojiu pull the records with him.

The records room held three full shelves of this year’s cases and filings alone, though thankfully murders had been rare in what had once been a peaceful city.

The two of them searched together from dawn until daybreak before they finally found the case involving Miss Zhao from that year.

“This case dragged on and on without being closed. It was only after pressure came from above that they finally cuffed the two of them. The sentence was pretty heavy too. But I heard that after this case, the city’s employment rate dropped by ten points.”

The intern was quite curious why Wu Xiaojiu was looking into this case, and as he explained, he kept his eyes fixed on him without blinking.

Wu Xiaojiu only flipped through the case file in silence, working hard to recall the information from that year.

“This case was closed locally, right? Was there anything else that happened before or after it was settled?”

The intern nodded, and his eyes brightened. He probably took Wu Xiaojiu for some kind of case fanatic, and he pulled another record from a different shelf.

“Now you’re getting to the point. When this case was about to be closed, there was some progress in the headless corpse case that had made a huge stir in the city. The head the couple claimed back then actually wasn’t their child’s.”

As he spoke, the intern flipped through the booklet, braced both hands against the bottom of the file shelf, and spread it open to show Wu Xiaojiu the photo.

“The first person to figure it out was a detective sent by Maozi. He questioned the two brothers who had delivered the head. Guess what? That head was actually their biological father’s head.”

The intern’s expression was exaggerated, but the photo was even more shocking. Once this was confirmed, and after the two brothers confessed, the head that had originally been claimed could no longer stay linked to the Headless Corpse.

So the body that had already been buried was dug up again.

The photo showed the grave after it had been opened, the corpse pulled out, and the stitches where the original head and body had been joined cut away.

That head had been separated from the other heads. The man had already been dead for many days, and the head that had once lain with him in the bird nest had already begun to rot. By the time the body was buried, it was the height of summer, and it had spent month after month sealed in the ground, baking in the heat and trapped in the suffocating air.

Once the grave was dug up, it was impossible to look at.

Wu Xiaojiu frowned as he looked at the photo, his eyelid twitching repeatedly.

He pressed at it with a hand, then rubbed his chest to steady his breathing before he could finally say, “This one was solved. What about the remaining few heads?”

The intern looked embarrassed by the question. He scratched the back of his head and motioned for Wu Xiaojiu to turn back through the file.

Wu Xiaojiu did as he was told, but when he flipped past that photo, he found the record book had reached the end.

“It’s a mystery. They couldn’t figure it out. Later, after interrogating those two burly men, they found that aside from hurting their own father, those heads had nothing to do with them at all. They’re still investigating, but there’s only so much that can be done. After all, anyone can tell this is a cold case.”

[Host, why are you investigating a case again? Don’t you know Long Aotian’s important turning point is about to arrive?!]

Just as Wu Xiaojiu’s mind was racing,

System started making a racket in his head at the worst possible moment.

[This is the male lead’s first female lead in the later part of the story! She’s going to provide him with huge help. You could say it starts with a glance, deepens with a second, and seals a lifetime by the third!]
The System’s tone was firm and unyielding, and Wu Xiaojiu’s internal alarm bells blared.

[What? Su Zhishi, Feng Jiutian, paragons among our kind, and Bo Suihan still didn’t have anything with her according to the plot. How did a true heroine suddenly pop up in the middle of the story?]

Wu Xiaojiu’s hand was trembling as he held the file, enough to show how excited he was inside.

[It’s different. That girl has five major buffs. First, she is the one Bo Suihan’s fifth master thinks most highly of. She is the fifth person among the nine Marriage Contracts,

and also the fifth most important person around Bo Suihan. People outside that group call her Five Dharma Celestial Maidens.]

The corner of Wu Xiaojiu’s mouth twitched, and he put the file back where it belonged.

The intern had his back to him, dusting the top of the archive shelves. Taking advantage of that, he said one more thing to the System.

[The back door isn’t that easy to find. This is the only chance to get into this place. Can this wait a bit? I think he can handle it.]

After saying that, he no longer paid attention to the screaming in his head.

He turned and waved the intern over, preparing to ask a few more questions.

Even though Wu Xiaojiu’s hands were shaking, he still felt that these two cases had to be cracked.

And quickly.

“After comparing the DNA for Miss Zhao and the female corpse from the Deaf Man case, did you find a matching head?”

Their city was peaceful, and murders like this were rare. Although there had been two in a year, and both were extremely ugly cases, the one good thing was that the missing matching body parts should be easier to find.

“No.”

Who would have thought the intern’s very first sentence would shatter Wu Xiaojiu’s hopes.

The other man spread his hands, looking helpless.

“No matter how we questioned Miss Zhao and Wang Gang, they said they knew nothing. They wouldn’t say where the body was hidden, and they couldn’t even explain how the crime was committed or why they did it.”

How was he supposed to keep investigating?

With no clues at all, there was simply no lead.

Wu Xiaojiu frowned in frustration. His hands, clasped behind his back, kept trembling. Anxiety and irritation tangled together. He clicked his tongue and paced back and forth in the archive room.

[Stop investigating this. This case is closely tied to the Bo Family massacre, but that’s all later plot. There won’t be even a hint of it in the early stages. You should hurry and check on Bo Suihan’s current situation instead.]

The System’s reminder rang out in his head.

Unconsciously, Wu Xiaojiu picked up his phone. A few messages popped up on the screen.

But none of them were from Bo Suihan.

By rights, after what happened yesterday, and with Wu Xiaojiu not contacting him all night, that man should have gone crazy.

Let alone messages, he should have called several times.

Yet there was still no sign of anything. Bo Suihan was silent without the slightest movement, as if he were dead.

Wu Xiaojiu’s confusion deepened, and he grew even more irritated. Just as he was about to leave the police station because he couldn’t hold back any longer,

it struck him.

Suddenly, inspiration flashed.

He remembered.

There had been two murders, and a lot of heads. Maybe the headless corpse could be checked through the other case.

“Have you all done DNA tests on the heads in the tree hollow? Those heads were of mixed genders. Could the female corpse’s head have been mixed in among them?”

The intern narrowed his eyes slightly and drew in a breath.

“One of the heads was smashed to pieces, so the DNA was hard to collect. We didn’t pay much attention to it at the time and just sorted out the others. Now that you mention it, there really might be a chance.”