The weapon by the pillow

Chapter 34 The Different Paths of Two Women

Even though she's trending online, nobody pays attention to Liu Li.

The woman was thrown out with half a lipstick, as if she were already dead.

No one thought of anything else; perhaps in their minds, Liu Li had already been sentenced to death by half a lipstick and half a sentence.

However, in Cheng Jing's group, everyone was working at full capacity, doing everything they could to find this strange woman through various channels.

Cheng Jing lit another cigarette and took a deep drag.

According to the logic of time, and according to the other party's twisted idea, if that's really the case, then the "sacrifice" at 3 a.m. tonight corresponds to the time when Li Wan died back then.

Now another one has popped up with 3 days!

Should I believe it? Or should I believe it?

And that time three days later might correspond to... the time when the crime began?

Or is it the time when the ceremony is finally completed?

The master remained silent on the other end of the phone, seemingly waiting for me to process the details and analysis, or perhaps waiting for me to speak.

"Master, on the day of Li Wan's case, did you find out her whereabouts? From morning to night?" Cheng Jing couldn't help but ask again.

"We checked. She went to work at 9 a.m. and finished get off work at 5 p.m. She went to the market to buy groceries and returned to her rented room around 7 p.m. After that, no one saw her. The forensic doctor estimated the time of death to be between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m."

Zhou Zhigang recalled that he seemed reluctant to talk about this, and after a pause, he added, "But there's something strange: the groceries she bought were still on the kitchen table, uncooked. In other words, from 7 p.m. when she returned to her room until 3 a.m. when she died, she probably didn't eat anything or do any daily activities during those eight hours."

"Eight hours..." Cheng Jing pondered, "If the crime didn't happen instantly, but rather lasted for a period of time... then what happened during those eight hours?"

"Torture." Zhou Zhigang's voice was filled with pain. Recalling it was indeed painful for him, especially since so much time had passed and the deceased had not found peace. His heart was always uneasy. "Xiaojing, I've always been reluctant to think about this, but all the evidence points to... Li Wan underwent prolonged torture before her death. The crush marks on her wrists, other injuries on her body, but no signs of sexual assault, her clothes were intact... This doesn't fit the typical characteristics of robbery or a crime of passion. It's more like... punitive, ritualistic torture."

Who should be punished?

Why?

"Jin Dafu..." Cheng Jing uttered the name, "Master, were there any special circumstances surrounding the demolition of Anpingli by Jincheng Demolition Company back then? Was Li Wan a 'holdout'?"

"No," Zhou Zhigang said definitively. "The demolition compensation negotiations in Anpingli went relatively smoothly, and most residents signed agreements. Li Wan was just a tenant; she had even found a new place to live and planned to move out a month after the incident. She wasn't someone who was obstructing the demolition."

Why are they being targeted?

Unless... she wasn't targeted as a "holdout," but rather silenced as an "insider"?

Or, as a specific object required for a "ritual"?

"Master, does Li Wan have any special... background? For example, family background, religious beliefs, special skills?" Cheng Jing pressed.

“She came from an ordinary working-class family, her parents died early, and she had an older brother named Li Kai. She wasn’t religious and didn’t have any special skills,” Zhou Zhigang said. “But she… was very pretty. When I visited her back then, a neighbor said she was ‘like a person in a painting,’ ‘too clean, and didn’t fit into this dilapidated place.’”

She has delicate features, like someone from a painting, and is too clean-cut.

Could these descriptions, viewed from a distorted perspective, become the reason for being chosen as a "sacrifice"?

"A pure offering..." Cheng Jing recalled cases where "pure" objects were often chosen in some evil rituals.

However, at this moment, the direction of the comments in the live stream room, which had been focused on the dice and the eight people who were having a grudge against them, suddenly began to change subtly.

Some new opinions have emerged, and some seemingly "informed" opinions have begun to surface:

I heard that Li Wan owed money to loan sharks back then! Could it be that the debt collectors did it?

[Is a crime of passion more likely? She's quite pretty; maybe it was a romantic entanglement.]

[That die! Does it represent gambling? Is Li Wan or the murderer a gambler?]

Does a missing corner represent "incompleteness" or "defect"? Does it suggest that the killer has psychological problems?

Stop focusing on the demolition; thirteen years have passed, and the demolition companies are long gone.

[Li Wan! I heard she has questionable conduct... Many secrets haven't been exposed!!]

【Li Wan! How could she be like this!】

Why haven't the police gone in yet? Have they realized it's not a criminal case, just a prank?

One comment after another about Li Wan was mixed in with a large number of normal discussions. At first, it was inconspicuous, but it gradually began to increase and was forwarded and quoted by some accounts that seemed to be "rational analysis". They tried to steer the discussion away from "Jincheng demolition" and "multiple ritualistic murders" to more scattered and ambiguous possibilities.

The trend on the internet seems to be shifting from "East Wind" to "West Wind" just as a mahjong tile is being played...

The people inside the room were unaware that someone was searching for Liu Li and someone was targeting Li Wan.

They... knew nothing about it.

Li Kai was still pondering the meaning of the dice. He suddenly looked up at Cheng Tan: "Your nightmare... the third one was a wrench, right? What comes after the wrench?"

Cheng Tan replied, "The fourth is a paper cutter, the fifth is a paperweight, and the sixth is pliers."

"One, two, three, four, five, six..." Li Kai looked at the numbers on the dice. "Your nightmares have six clearly defined tool-related scenes, plus the first ice pick, but strictly speaking, the ice pick isn't a 'tool'? No... the ice pick is a tool too. Six in total? No, it's thirteen nightmares, with different weapons, but the main ones, the ones he described clearly... are probably six?"

He felt he had grasped something: "Six sides of a die, corresponding to six tools? A missing corner corresponds to one, two, and three, which are ice picks, wires, and wrenches? What does this mean? Are these three 'completed'? Or 'cleared'? Because Zhao Jianguo (ice pick) and Wang Bin (wire) are already dead, and the wrench, box cutter... which correspond to Wu Guodong, and Liu Li... are also dead?"

This line of thinking sent chills down everyone's spine.

If a missing corner on a die represents a "tool" or "participant" that has been "eliminated" or "paid the price," then the remaining two sides—five and six, corresponding to a paperweight, pliers, etc.—does that mean there are still two targets?

"There are two more people..." Lin Qian's voice tightened, "Besides Jin Dafu, Zhang Zhiqiang, Wu Guodong, and Liu Li, are there two other people who were involved back then? Or... people who know the truth?"

"Or," the shadow's voice was cold, "is right among us."

Suspicious glances met once again.