Case Files Chapter 22: Angel of Death (2)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

Jinshan Street was an old street, and there were old houses left from the 1930s to 1940s scattered sparsely on either side of the road. Now, they either housed small, unique shops or tenants.

Today, when a husband and wife took their dog on a walk early in the morning, their dog ran into a nearby bush and wouldn’t come out. It kept barking furiously, so they went over to take a look. There, they discovered a woman with disheveled hair lying on the grass behind the bush. At the time, the wife had frozen from shock and fear, but fortunately, the husband was still clear-headed and immediately called 110 and 120 ¹.

“What’s the current situation?” Chen QiaoYu asked the police officers that were present at the scene as she and the others entered the area that was roped off by barricade tape.

“You’re here.” The last name of the leader of the Serious Crimes Unit was also Chen, and he had worked with Chen QiaoYu and the others before.

“Old Chen, thanks for your hard work.”

“How? The moment I saw this scene, I reported it. This is exactly the same as the previous two cases, and I’m afraid that it was done by the same murderer. We’ve already verified the victims’ identity, and I just sent it to your colleagues.”

Guan Jin walked to the body and inspected it carefully.

The body was of a young woman, and she was wearing cropped trousers and a long-sleeved, batwing top. Her long hair was messily covering and hiding her face. It wasn’t that Guan Jin had never seen a dead person. However, this was the first time he had seen a murdered, innocent woman up close, and he felt a little strange. Were those people that he had assassinated before also like this, surrounded by a group of policemen? And he had been that murderer whom they had gnashed their teeth about as they desperately analyzed things so they could arrest him and bring him to justice?

“Little Jin, are you okay?” Lu YunYang asked lightly when he noticed that Guan Jin’s face was a little pale.

Guan Jin cast aside his numerous emotions and shook his head, saying, “I’m fine.”

“As someone whose seeing a murder scene for the first time, Guan Jin’s behavior is rather normal.” Zheng Fei patted him on the shoulder.

“The initial judgement is that the time of death was around midnight to two a.m. last night, and the cause of death is mechanical asphyxia.” A senior forensic doctor lightly brushed away her hair and pointed at a long, dark purple mark on her neck. “She was strangled to death by a long, thin, and smooth object.”

“The marks are very even, and there are no traces of the pattern of a rope. Moreover, the sides are smooth, so it doesn’t seem to have been a normal rope,” Zheng Fei observed.

Guan Jin looked around and walked towards a wall.

“Ah, don’t step there! That’s where the footprint I want to extract is!” a forensic officer yelled at him.

Unfortunately, Guan Jin had already stepped…

“Okay, Guan Jin, you can go outside and question some people to see if there were any eyewitnesses.” Chen QiaoYu politely drove him away.

Lu YunYang didn’t seem to care about Guan Jin’s pitiful fate, and he observed the scene carefully. Then, he walked a circle around the corpse. “Was her hair covering her face when the body was found?”

“Yes,” replied the forensic doctor. 

“There’s half of a footprint here, look! On the body’s sleeve!” 

Chen QiaoYu walked over. “Could this footprint belong to the murderer?”

“What?” A forensic officer jogged to them. “That’s impossible, I looked at it carefully just then, and there were no footprints.”

“Huh?”

“Um,” Lu YunYang rubbed his nose. “I accidentally stepped there just now…”

“…”

Guan Jin glanced at the person next to him. “Oh, the dignified psychologist has also been driven away.”

“I did it on purpose,” Lu YunYang said shamelessly.

“On purpose?”

“Yep. How could I bear to let you be lonely out here?”

“Stop trying to make yourself look good, you’re just like me, a rookie,” Guan Jin was unappreciative.

Lu YunYang shrugged indifferently. “Anyway, JingHan told you to look after me, so I shouldn’t leave your side.”

Guan Jin was too lazy to quarrel with him, so he walked away towards the husband and wife who had discovered the body. They still seemed to be very shocked and scared, though they tirelessly told everyone nearby about their shocking discovery. Guan Jin asked them a few questions, but there didn’t seem to be anything new.

Lu YunYang swept a gaze over the people nearby. Most of them were whispering among themselves and shaking their heads. Suddenly, he walked towards the middle of the crowd and stopped in front of a young woman.

The woman looked up, her expression frightened.

Lu YunYang smiled warmly. “Hello, miss, I’m from the Special Cases Unit. May I ask you a few questions?”

The woman nodded, flustered. When Guan Jin saw this, he walked over.

“You’re a nurse in Hospital Three, right?” asked Lu YunYang.

“How do you know?!”

“The bag you’re carrying is exclusively used by Hospital Three, and at around ten o’clock, you were hastily walking on this road in the direction of Hospital Three. Most importantly, when you raised your hand just then, I saw that there were calluses on your right palm and thumb, which are different from the rest of your skin. Nurses who often use syringes to give people shots will repeatedly rub that spot. And based on your age, I hazarded a guess that you’re a nurse who works at Hospital Three.”

The woman was dumbfounded. “You’re good, kind of like Sherlock Holmes.”

“This isn’t a good place to talk. If you don’t mind, let’s move off to the side,” interrupted Guan Jin.

The woman nodded, and the three of them sat down on a bench next to a flower bed.

“I saw that you seemed to be a little scared just now, so I wanted to ask you if you knew something,” said Lu YunYang.

“When I arrived here, I noticed that something seemed to have happened. But it’s so chaotic, so I don’t know what’s going on. However, I’m timid and I overthink things, so I’m scared every time I walk down this road after my night shift. Can you tell me what happened?”

Lu YunYang exchanged looks with Guan Jin. “Last night, a woman was murdered. She was also a nurse at the hospital you work at.”

“Ah!” The woman covered her mouth in fright, and she was trembling slightly.

“Don’t be scared, you’re very safe now,” Lu YunYang consoled gently.

“Can you tell me what her name was?”

“Her name was…” Guan Jin quickly flipped through a small notebook, “Li Ling.”

“What, her…”

“You know her?”

The woman wrung her hands, “Mn, she started working at this hospital two years earlier than me. And, I work in the emergency room while she worked in inpatient care, so we usually don’t talk. Recently, she started working at the same night shift as me, so we’ll sometimes bump into each other after work, and we would occasionally walk down this road together. On the way, we would chat a little, and at the fork, we separate.” 

“Then yesterday, you two also got off your night shifts together?”

The woman shook her head. “Last night, I got off a little earlier, so I left first. When I left, I saw that Li Ling had just gone downstairs to change. We left almost at the same time, probably just a few minutes apart, but I was too tired, so I didn’t want to wait for her.”

The woman was still a little panicked, but she suddenly saw an orange lollipop in front of her. Guan Jin really didn’t know what to say, but in terms of comforting someone, he couldn’t lose to that sham of a psychic, “It’s orange-flavored.”

The woman was stunned, and she looked up at Guan Jin, finally smiling. She took the lollipop and shoved it into her mouth. “Thanks! I feel a lot better.”

Lu YunYang looked at Guan Jin in surprise, and received a smug glance from him.

As the woman sucked on the lollipop, she seemed to feel a lot more relaxed. “Actually, when I was walking here yesterday, I thought I heard footsteps behind me. I was a little scared, but I guessed that it was Li Ling or a passerby. However, when I looked back, there was no one there. At the time, I was already feeling apprehensive and panicked, so I ran and didn’t look back. In hindsight, it really was quite scary, since it might’ve been me who had died. And you know what? Two years ago, another nurse at our hospital died when she was walking home after her night shift. Every time I think about that, I feel very scared when I walk on this road. Officer, do you think I’m paranoid?” Women who weren’t nervous really were chatterboxes.

“Uh, this can’t be considered as paranoia. At most, you’re a little overly sensitive, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it’s not too excessive.”

The woman nodded in relief. “Right, do you have any leads for finding the killer? If they knew about this, I reckon that the nurses at my hospital wouldn’t dare to work night shifts anymore.”

Guan Jin could finally give somewhat of an official answer, “We’re in the middle of investigating right now, and we’ll definitely give everyone an explanation as soon as possible. As for your safety, the bureau will contact the hospital and give everyone some suggestions.” 

“Right, we still haven’t asked you for your name.” The rookie duo finally remembered.

“My name is Wu Meng, and I work in the emergency room. If you two ever need anything, you can come find me at any time, and I’ll do my best to help. Although I didn’t know Li Ling that well, I hope that you can catch the killer sooner, so she can rest in peace.” Wu Meng stood up and walked away. However, she had only walked a few steps when she suddenly turned around and waved the lollipop in her hand at Guan Jin. “Officer, you’re really healing, this is my favorite lollipop flavor.” Then, she left quickly.

“Little Jin, you really are very healing, it’s very cute,” Lu YunYang said as he stood up, and the corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled.

Guan Jin looked daggers at him. “Cute? Fuck off ²!”

“My little sister stopped eating lollipops a long time ago.”

“…What’s wrong with eating lollipops?!”

“It’s very good, I hope that you can continue being like this.”

“You’re mental.”

*****

 

Wu Meng turned the corner and walked in the hospital’s back door when she nearly bumped into someone. She looked at the person in front of her in surprise. “Brother? Where are you going?”