Chapter 39

Murderer vs Murderer 12 – Students

"Self-mutilation?" Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, "Xiao Bai, are you sure?"

Bai Yutang frowned slightly, “I have seen a similar case before.” After he spoke, he called Zhao Hu, “Hey, Hu Zi. Come down to Li Fei’s dormitory to check something out. Also, have Gongsun come with you.”

As he hung up the phone, Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, “Hu Zi will know if it’s the same or not after seeing it.”

Zhan Zhao nodded and walked around the corpse to look at the furnishings in the room. As he looked around, he thought that the room was too clean and tidy to be a male dormitory. Zhan Zhao stretched his hand out and touched the bed frame; there wasn’t even a trace of dust.

Looking back at Bai Yutang, he saw that Bai Yutang had turned around to talk to the teacher whose legs were shaking, “The boy’s dormitory in your school is very clean.”

The teacher took a deep breath, shook his head, and sighed. “This is the only one that is like this.”

“Oh?” Zhan Zhao looked at the teacher, “Why do you say that?”

“Li Fei is well-known for having a cleanliness addiction.” The teacher shook his head helplessly.

“His two roommates don’t mind it?” Bai Yutang was curious.

“Wang Peng rarely lives here; there was an empty room in the dormitory so he stays there. His other roommate is a local, so he basically lives at home; he only uses this room to store some things.” The teacher replied.

“In other words, Li Fei has always stayed here alone, right? Zhan Zhao asked.

The teacher waved his hand and shook his head, “I know what you are thinking, but it’s actually the opposite of that. Li Fei is quite popular. The others don’t live with him as they are worried that he will have to clean up after them.”

“Captain.” Zhao Hu spoke as he opened the door. He entered the room with Gongsun following him.

“Take a look at it.” Bai Yutang nodded his head toward Li Fei’s corpse.

Zhao Hu frowned when he saw it. He squatted down to look at Li Fei’s feet and saw that his feet were tied to the legs of the chair. Zhao Hu stood up and said to Bai Yutang “The boss… has cleaned up the door.”

“Can you tell which group did it?” Bai Yutang asked.

Zhao Hu thought for a while and said, “Captain, this is indeed ‘cleaning up the door’, but something is off about it.”

“Oh?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and asked Zhao Hu, “What’s wrong with it?”

“Well, the so-called ‘cleaning up the door’ is actually a way to punish a traitor based on their identity and the number of brothers they have killed.” Zhao Hu whispered. “Traitors are usually tied to a chair, with their hands and feet being tied to the chair legs. Then a knife is used to start to cut pieces off of them, one for each brother killed, starting from the left arm.”

“But his hands are not tied.” Zhan Zhao looked at the wrists of the deceased, and there were no marks on them.

“He was placed here after he died.” Gongsun squatted down to look at the deceased’s ankles that were tied to the chair, “There are no marks on his ankles either. Anyone who is being tied up while they are alive would struggle and try to get out. Judging by the amount of blood on the ground, he was definitely placed here after he died.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, “There are at least several hundred pieces of flesh in the bag… Did he kill hundreds of gang members? If that were the case, the police would have noticed it by now.”

“Also,” Zhao Hu added, “There are no major active gangs in S City right now.”

Bai Yutang nodded, “I agree with this. The current economic crisis is making it difficult for gangsters to make money, so many have changed careers.”

Zhao Hu smiled and said “Also, it’s usually the big gangs that use techniques like this.”

“Listening to you, the layout of this scene seems a bit unprofessional.” Zhan Zhao said, “It’s like someone is imitating the techniques of the major gangs.”

Bai Yutang nodded again, “But there are not many people who know about this technique. The purpose of using self-mutilation should be to convey a certain message. Also, this technique is not a formal one. It’s possible that someone is imitating the technique in order to send some kind of message.”

“This boy’s obsession about cleanliness is very serious.” Zhan Zhao pointed to the books on the desk and said, “All of his books are wrapped in pure white book covers and are arranged in order of height and thickness.”

“A cleaning addition is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder.” Bai Yutang shook his head, saying in his heart – ‘He is even worse than me.’

Zhan Zhao seemed to have heard Bai Yutang’s thoughts. He leaned over with a smile and said “Xiao Bai, if your condition gets worse, you will be the same as him. How about it, do you want me to treat you?”

Bai Yutang smiled slightly. Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, he leaned in to Zhan Zhao’s ear and spoke in a very low voice “Okay, let’s try to do it outside tonight.”

Zhan Zhao glared at him, and Bai Yutang laughed, “It’s tempting, isn’t it Cat?”

……

“He died earlier this morning.” Gongsun roughly inspected the body and said, “From the knife marks, more that one person cut his flesh.”

“Oh?” Zhan Zhao walked over to look.

“I have checked the pieces of flesh. Some of the cutters are left-handed and others are right-handed.”

“Meng Kuangyue is left-handed.” The teacher spoke up, “The twins are right-handed.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and understood the meaning of the teacher’s words.

“Listening to your tone, it seems as though you suspect those three students.” Bai Yutang asked the teacher, “Why do you suspect those three?”

The teacher looked at Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, “Those three students are socially isolated and exhibit weird behaviour. Because Li Fei is the class monitor, he has often tried to communicate with the three of them, trying to persuade them to change their ways and to be better people.”

“Did they find him annoying?” Zhan Zhao shook his head slightly. “That is just tension between students, do you need to be so ruthless towards them?”

“This is a murder case after all.” Bai Yutang smiled slightly, “If I were you, I would tell us everything that should be said.”

The teacher turned pale. He thought about it before nodding helplessly and saying “There were indeed some incidents that happened, but the principal won’t let me talk about them.”

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, “You’d better say it. It’s better to tell us now then to have to come back to the police station, isn’t it?”

“Then you are considered one of the best.” Luo Tian felt curious. “The principal seems to be quite powerful, why doesn’t he try to get close to you?”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao also nodded with doubt.

“Heh…” Bai Chi scratched his head in anguish. “You tell me. The teachers never knew about the relationship between me and the Bai family because my father didn’t let me talk about it. He didn’t want me to be treated specially. The principal used to scold me quite a bit. He’s not as kind as he seems to be.”

As they were talking, the four of them had already reached the entrance of Xingfu Community. They talked to the security personnel and learned that Meng Kuangyue and the twins lived in Room 408 of Building 29. Bai Yutang and the other reached the door of 408 and rang the doorbell.

The doorbell rang for a while but no one answered the door. Bai Yutang frowned suddenly and whispered “There’s something inside!”

Luo Tian nodded and he laid down on the floor. After listening for a while, he raised his eyebrows in confusion, “It sounds like it’s an animal.”

“Do they have a dog?” Zhan Zhao wondered.

Bai Yutang winked at Luo Tian. The two of them stepped back and prepared to kick the door down. Bai Chi was a little worried, “Is it okay to go in like this?”

Zhan Zhao touched his head and winked at him, “If someone asks, we heard someone calling for help. We suspected that the three students were being threatened so we went in.”

Bai Chi was helpless; he was too honest to be a police officer these days.

Bai Yutang and Luo Tian took a few steps back and kicked at the same time. With a ‘boom’, the door was kicked open. As soon as the door opened, a dark shadow rushed at them. Bai Yutang’s eyes were quick and his hands were quicker. He reached his hand out and grabbed the tail of the creature.

With a flick of his wrist, Bai Yutang threw the creature. It flew quite a distance, hitting the wall and collapsing to the ground. There was a low growl that came from its throat and it looked nervously at the people by the door.

“A dog?” Bai Chi stared at the arched and toothy dog. “What kinds of dog is this?”

Zhan Zhao frowned, “Why is it’s mouth so pointed?”

“Look at its tail.” Bai Yutang pointed to the ‘dog’s’ thick and drooping tail. “This is simply a wolf.”