Chapter 71
Chapter 71
“Senior, Senior, why are you arresting him? Maybe he really was just out walking his dog.”
Wang Qiang tilted his face up and raised his hand like an elementary school kid.
Senior’s muttering stopped. He clicked his tongue at him.
“He’s not crazy. Who goes out in the middle of the night to walk a dog at a place where someone just died, then hides in a cornfield acting all sneaky? One look and you can tell he was up to no good.”
After being scolded, Wang Qiang behaved himself.
He obediently tucked his hands into his pockets, awkwardly tugging at his hoodie. It had only just covered his butt, but he pulled it down as if trying to cover both legs. Only then did he grin foolishly, lift his face again, and continue listening to Senior tell the story.
“We brought him back to the bureau and questioned him. It wasn’t much use, but later we checked his identity. Guess what?”
Senior raised his brows at the three of them.
Seeing all three shake their heads at him, he slapped his palm and let out an “Aiya!”
“He was the Village Chief’s illegitimate son! And not with the woman he remarried or with his ex-wife, either. It was with some other woman outside.
“So the few of us started wondering: could this illegitimate son have killed the Village Chief’s only daughter? After all, the Village Chief is already at that age, and he can’t have children with his current wife anymore. His future assets would definitely go to his only daughter. The illegitimate son technically has inheritance rights, but the Village Chief might very well refuse to acknowledge him.”
A massive piece of gossip landed right on their heads.
It left Wu Xiaojiu completely dazed.
Bo Suihan, on the other hand, looked calm and composed, as though he had seen this sort of thing too many times to be surprised.
“Is that all? Then how do you explain the stepmother going insane?”
Senior scratched his head, then shook it. Mainly, they still hadn’t fully investigated that lead.
Wang Qiang, however, clapped his hands and jumped up.
“Isn’t that obvious? The Village Chief is already at that age. Every day he lives is one less day he has left. Once he dies, the property goes to the only daughter, and the stepmother won’t get a single cent. Her ending would definitely be miserable.
“I bet the stepmother and the illegitimate son colluded to steer the whole thing toward monsters killing people. Then when the time comes, they split the Village Chief’s assets fifty-fifty. No matter how you look at it, that benefits both of them!”
After hearing that, Bo Suihan stood. A little dust clung to his overcoat.
But because he was the one wearing it, he didn’t look disheveled at all.
Instead, against the desolate surroundings, Bo Suihan looked like a god who had walked out of an era of chaos.
He pointed at the grave pit, his expression still calm.
“The Village Chief must have sensed something. That’s why he won’t let us dig up the grave and examine the body. As long as we can identify the corpse, won’t everything become much easier?”
Following his gesture, the other three all turned their eyes toward the deep pit.
Senior hesitated for only a moment, then gave a soft hum of agreement.
Agile as ever, he jumped down first. Amid the rustling fall of dust, the creak of a coffin lid being shifted came from below.
“The coffin lid is heavy. I’ll help him.”
Wang Qiang jumped down right after him.
With proper business right in front of him, he had no energy left to be jealous of Bo Suihan’s intelligence.
He could only secretly stab a little voodoo doll of him in his heart.
And he also wanted to crack the case as soon as possible, so Wu Xiaojiu could add another impressive line to his resume and escape this sea of suffering sooner.
The two grown men barely needed to use much strength. The coffin lid was so light that Senior could have pushed it open by himself.
The two of them were still muttering about why it was so light.
Bo Suihan set his trench coat aside and slowly came down with Wu Xiaojiu.
“Could the nails sealing the coffin be gone?”
At that reminder, Senior nodded repeatedly.
“Probably when they opened and closed it before while dismembering the corpse, the forensic examiner forgot. Actually, there wasn’t any need to nail it shut again. Tomorrow, they’ll be separating the body anyway.”
“That doesn’t make sense. I don’t see any nail marks on this coffin lid. Who buried him here?”
Bo Suihan rapped his knuckles against the coffin lid.
The sound that came back was crisp. One tap was enough to tell the lid was thin and light, made from poor material. The inside hadn’t even been sanded smooth; the wood fibers were rough and knotted, snagging at the hand when touched.
“A pair of brothers, trying to collect a little reward money, chopped off their own father’s head and buried him in a mad rush. That’s why this coffin and lid were thrown together at the last minute. Fine, it’s crude, but how could they not even use coffin nails? Were they not afraid their old man would turn into a zombie and crawl out to demand their lives?” Senior grumbled.
Bo Suihan, meanwhile, used the moonlight to examine the corpse inside.
The body had begun to rot, and the face was even worse, the skin mottled beyond recognition.
But the key was the bones beneath the features. They looked as if they had been struck. Some were cracked, while others had already been smashed into powder.
It was as though someone had been determined to make sure no one could identify the head by its appearance.
“This head doesn’t belong to this body, does it?”
Bo Suihan reached out as if to touch it, then withdrew his hand halfway. He lifted his eyes and glanced at Wu Xiaojiu beside him.
Seeing that the other man had not noticed his movement just now, he tucked his hand behind his back.
“No. What about it?”
Wang Qiang clearly did not want to talk to him. Senior also noticed the displeasure on the boy’s face.
He clicked his tongue and patted the insensible rookie cop.
Then he explained in person, “That’s exactly why we opened the coffin and examined the body. Those two brothers claimed the reward with their father’s head, but their father’s corpse still has a head on it. So there’s an extra head out of nowhere, and no one knows who it belongs to.”
The moment Senior saw Bo Suihan’s manner of speaking and bearing, he could tell this man was no ordinary person.
Especially that face. A rosy complexion and money were the best ways to nourish a person. Bo Suihan had once been a green young man, his face tender like a green apple, sweet with a hint of tartness.
Now, his entire face had grown sharply defined, his eye sockets deep-set, and his emotions never showed. As Senior told the story, he secretly observed him.
He found that whether it was Wu Xiaojiu or Wang Qiang, their expressions shifted along with his story, and when they spoke, there was still a youthful childishness to them.
Only Bo Suihan’s expression did not change from beginning to end. His demeanor remained indifferent, neither warm nor cold, and when he raised his eyes to look at Senior’s face,
there was an invisible pressure to him.
For some inexplicable reason, this man made people feel he was reliable. Senior trusted him quite a bit.
“In other words, you don’t know whether this head is male or female, and the identity hasn’t been confirmed either.”
Senior froze at that.
Because the corpse was male, they had subconsciously assumed that the head stuck on the spear should also be male.
On top of that, the head’s hair had been shaved into a buzz cut. The face was rotten, the nose high and prominent, the face had hair, and there was stubble on the chin in particular. Every part of it displayed male characteristics.
So they had never even considered that the head might belong to a woman.
Wang Qiang was stunned too. He looked at the corpse, then at Bo Suihan.
For a long while, he could not say a word.
The story was so full of twists and turns that his feelings were extremely complicated.
Suddenly, a gust of cold wind swept past, carrying the stench of decay. Wang Qiang’s legs trembled, and he snapped upright.
“This is way too bizarre. But if you’re putting it that way, don’t tell me you’re trying to say this head might belong to the Village Chief’s Daughter.”