Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  Xiang Wan was shocked to see her like that.

  She hurriedly said her goodbye to Bai Muchuan and hang up the phone before asking Fang Yuanyuan.

  “What happened to you? Where’s the food you bought?”


  The fright was still there in Fang Yuanyuan’s eyes and seemed especially creepy under the lights. “I think I saw a ghost!”


  “.……”


  She did not seem to be joking.

  Xiang Wan sized her up for a moment and spoke in a low tone. “What happened?”


  “I think I saw a woman!” Fang Yuanyuan was still in her terrified state when she passed by the fourth floor. For a moment, she seemed at a loss of how to explain what she saw and started to gesture agitatedly. “Didn’t we see with our own eyes that woman and her child got taken away by the ambulance? When I came back with food and passed by the fourth floor, I noticed that their door was open but the lights were not on. Then I saw a very dark shadow inside……”


  Ever since that suicide incident, the fourth floor had been locked.

  Fang Yuanyuan had never thought there would be anyone there. Therefore, when she noticed a dark shadow in the apartment with no lights on, she was scared out of her wits. She screamed, and the bags of food dropped to the floor. She did not even dare to pick them up and just ran straight back to Xiang Wan’s apartment.

  “Are you sure about it?” Xiang Wan was so stunned she got up from her seat and stared at Fang Yuanyuan with eyes wide-opened.

  “Sis, I have perfect eyesight. The distance is so close, how could I have seen wrongly?”


  “Are you sure it’s that woman?” Xiang Wan asked again.

  Fang Yuanyuan was still panting heavily. She clenched her hands as she heard Xiang Wan’s question and seemed to be recalling what she saw. She sighed, scratched her head and finally shook her head.

  “.…… I’m not sure about that. To begin with, I don’t know her at all. That night when I saw her, I couldn’t see clearly. Same for tonight as well.”


  Xiang Wan looked at her and furrowed her brows for a moment before she took her wrist and walked out of the room.

  “Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?” Fang Yuanyuan was alarmed.

  “Accompany me to take a look!”


  Xiang Wan was scared to go alone.

  But if she had Fang Yuanyuan beside her, she would be daring enough to go take a look.

  “Keys, remember the keys, my dear sis!”


  Fang Yuanyuan quickly reminded her as she noticed that Xiang Wan seemed to disregard everything whenever she encountered anything related to cases.

  However, Xiang Wan looked serious when she turned to look at her. “No need to lock the door. You take a video of me from the stairs and if something goes wrong, you run back home……”


  “What?! You’re going in there by yourself?”


  “Or you want to do it?”


  “You’ll go…… I’ll keep a look out for you.”


  Xiang Wan went down the stairs slowly.

  After several steps, she turned to look at Fang Yuanyuan.

  Fang Yuanyuan made an “Ok” hand sign to indicate she had seen her.

  Xiang Wan thought of the test questions that Bai Muchuan gave her as well as her desire to become the advisor for the Criminal Investigation Unit. If she couldn’t overcome this mental obstacle, she thought she was in no position to ask for that position before Bai Muchuan rejects her based on that reason.

  She quickened her steps.

  Fifth floor.

  Fourth floor.

  The door to the woman’s apartment was now closed, and there were no one else in the corridor nor stairway. There were only Fang Yuanyuan’s shopping bags that she dropped earlier.

  Xiang Wan picked up the bags of food, walked to the door, and gently knocked on it.

  “Hello, is anyone there?”


  Her voice was loud enough in the night that Fang Yuanyuan could hear even though she was standing at the stairway.

  However, she did not get a response.

  She knocked a few more times but there was still no response.

  Was that person gone or still inside?

  Or, maybe Fang Yuanyuan had mistaken something?

  Xiang Wan turned around and shook her head at Fang Yuanyuan who was videoing the whole thing.

  The two of them returned to their apartment and she verified with Fang Yuanyuan what she had seen earlier before giving Bai Muchuan a call.

  “Hello, Captain Bai, there seemed to be something amiss here!”


  Her nervous tone made Bai Muchuan sound solemn. “What happened?”


  Xiang Wan told him about Fang Yuanyuan’s experience, then asked him with uncertainty, “Would you like to come and see what’s going on?”


  Bai Muchuan did not hesitate. “Wait for me!”
……

  Bai Muchuan’s team had just taken over the case from the community police station. The house had been investigated once and nothing suspicious was found. Kong Xinqiong had been living together with her son all along. She was currently in the hospital, and her son was lying frozen in the mortuary. The police had been trying to contact the rest of her family members, but to date, no one had arrived at Jin City to help her with the aftermath.

  The house had been empty since that fateful day.

  While on the way there, Bai Muchuan instructed Tang Yuanchu to inform the landlord.

  The landlord expressed that he did not and would not visit that apartment during this period so as to avoid bad luck.

  So who exactly was the one that Fang Yuanyuan saw?

  Xiang Wan stayed at her apartment at the sixth floor till Bai Muchuan arrived.

  Although it was only hours that they had parted ways with each other, when they met each other’s gaze, she felt a sense of warmth that seemed to come from a century ago.

  It was really warm.

  Or rather, it was a sense of security.

  “Detective Bai!” Fang Yuanyuan squeezed over and had wanted to continue talking when she noticed the two of them were still looking at each other. “I’m not in a hurry,” she shrunk her head, “I’ll talk again after both of you finished looking at each other.”


  Xiang Wan: “.……”


  Bai Muchuan: “.……”


  It was embarrassing.

  There was a moment of silence when Xiang Wan cleared her throat and turned to stare at Fang Yuanyuan.

  “Don’t talk so much nonsense! Tell Detective Bai what you’ve seen one more time.”


  When someone relates another’s experience, it is easy to get influenced by one’s subjective mind. Therefore, it was better for Fang Yuanyuan to give her own account of what happened.

  The three of them were talking when Tang Yuanchu shouted from below.

  “Boss, I’ve been knocking for some time. There’s nobody in there!”


  Bai Muchuan turned to Xiang Wan. “Let’s go down for a look.”


  “Okay.” Xiang Wan nodded her head and thought of letting Fang Yuanyuan stay back to wait for them when she hurriedly took the keys and dangled them in front of Xiang Wan. “Don’t let me wait here alone, I’m scared,” she immediately let her thoughts be known, “I want to follow you to take a look.”


  And she hurried down the stairs as if there were spirits chasing her away.

  Well, now that there was an even more timid Fang Yuanyuan around, Xiang Wan felt a sense of heroism and hooked Yuanyuan’s arm.

  “Don’t be afraid, I’ll protect you.”


  Bai Muchuan, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

  This action made Xiang Wan’s heart skip a beat.

  “What happened?” She was so nervous that her pupils contracted.

  Bai Muchuan did not say a word but turned around all of a sudden, similar to those slow motion scenes that dramas tend to show. He was looking right behind her with a bizarre expression.

  Xiang Wan’s spine instantly chilled. She screamed and turned around to see what was behind her.

  But, there was nothing at all!

  She looked confused for a few seconds before she noticed that she had been pranked by Bai Muchuan.

  “Hey!” She glared at him furiously. “What do you want?”


  “Heh,” chuckled Bai Muchuan who had the advantage of being tall, looked at her for a while before lowering his head and looking into her eyes. “I thought you’re really not afraid and able to protect another? So you’re only a paper tiger.”


  Xiang Wan wished she could kick him down the stairs.

  Bai Muchuan, on the other hand, laughed as he strode down the stairs.

  “.……”


  Xiang Wan thought angrily in her head.

  A fuming Xiang Wan went down the stairs to the fourth floor with Fang Yuanyuan.

  The few of them stood at the small space together, making the atmosphere cramped and confined.

  Besides Bai Muchuan and Tang Yuanchu, there were another two police officers that Xiang Wan was not familiar with. The few of them discussed with each other, and after making another call to the landlord to get permission to enter the house, they started to pick the lock.

  The one who knew how to pick locks was still Bai Muchuan.

  Xiang Wan stood aside and watched him put on a pair of gloves when she started to examine the lock and asked. “Did anyone else touched the lock before?”


  Bai Muchuan shook his head. “Can’t be confirmed as the lock’s too old!”
……

  The lock was opened.

  All it took was less than a minute.

  Xiang Wan jested softly as she took a glance at Bai Muchuan, “In the future, if you want to rob the rich and help the poor like Robin Hood, remember to take me along.”


  Bai Muchuan grunted a laugh. “What can you do? Warm my bed?”


  Xiang Wan: “.……”


  The sudden teasing remark hit Xiang Wan’s soft spot.

  After that, he pushed the door open as if nothing had happened and switched on the lights. His face was emotionless as usual, totally in the state of mind when he was working. It was as though that remark he made was not by him. The rest of them were looking around the cluttered room carefully, and nobody noticed the little conversation they had.

  Xiang Wan rubbed her slightly burning face and focused on her surrounding.

  Fang Yuanyuan was busy expressing her shock. “Goodness, did a robbery take place or something?”


  There was nobody in the messy house.

  The sofa was moved, and the cushion was thrown onto the floor.

  The ashes of the charcoal created by Kong Xinqiong were scattered all over the house. They could find no words to describe how terrible the mess was.

  Bai Muchuan frowned. “Is the scene like this on that day?”


  “Let me see.” Tang Yuanchu took out his mobile phone.

  He took a look at the picture, then he took a look at the living room.

  Xiang Wan and Fang Yuanyuan’s hearts were in their mouths due to the gloomy expressions of the detectives.

  After Tang Yuanchu verified the photo with the actual scene, he nodded seriously and passed the phone to Bai Muchuan.

  “Boss, look. There isn’t any difference.”


  It was too messy.

  Doing a visual comparison for such a messy scene was uncomfortable to the eyes.

  However, from the surroundings and the positions of the smaller items, it really didn’t look like someone else had moved it.

  “Just now, we asked the security guard, but he did not see any stranger entering or leaving the neighborhood……”


  When Tang Yuanchu said all these, he took a peek at Fang Yuanyuan.

  Obviously, he doubted the credibility of Fang Yuanyuan’s words.

  His gaze as well as expression agitated Fang Yuanyuan so much that she quickly defended herself.

  “I don’t know if that person is a stranger. I only know someone is standing inside the house, right here. Look…… that person had stood here and I’m standing outside. When I saw that someone, I was so shocked that I forgot to move. That person also didn’t move but just looked at me like that. I was creeped out and my shopping bags fell to the floor. Then I ran all the way up to look for Xiang Wan.”


  From the time she went upstairs and then both of them went downstairs, it took five minutes at most.

  If someone came and left, it must have happened within these five minutes.

  Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows, unsure why that person disappeared into thin air.

  Well, she believed in Fang Yuanyuan as she had always been reliable.

  “Security guard Uncle Wang is already more than sixty years old. We can’t expect him to always stare at the entrance,” said Xiang Wan who suddenly chuckled. “I always go in and out, and he might not have seen me sometimes. How is it possible for him to know every person coming in and out of the neighborhood?”


  The old neighborhood did not have any surveillance cameras nor an access control system.

  Many residents here were tenants and came from complicated backgrounds. The management here was lax as well.

  Bai Muchuan nodded his head, concurring with what Xiang Wan had said.

  “Everyone, look around and see if there’s anything that might have been overlooked.”


  “Okay, Captain Bai.”


  They started to get to work.

  Fang Yuanyuan was so nervous that she didn’t know where to stand. She held onto Xiang Wan tightly.

  “Sis, I’m scared……”


  “The detectives are here. What are you scared of?”


  Xiang Wan calmly patted her hands then swiftly got away to stand next to Bai Muchuan.

  Fang Yuanyuan: “.……”


  “Captain Bai, we’ve examined the house carefully the last time but did not find anything……”


  The two police officers who had come with Tang Yuanchu were the police officers that appeared on the scene that day.

  “Look, that day after they saved the mother and son, their footprints are still here. Nobody should have come in after we left……”


  Messy footprints were daubed with charcoal dust on the floor.

  Everyone suspected that Fang Yuanyuan might have been wrong, but Xiang Wan trusted her. In addition to the doubts she had in her mind, when they were discussing, she kept quiet and followed after Bai Muchuan, surveying and examining the house patiently.

  Kong Xinqiong’s house was really shabby.

  The furniture and decorations were old fashioned and simple.

  Kong Xinqiong and her child took one room each.

  In the child’s room, there was only a bed, a study table, and a simple wardrobe.

  In Kong Xinqiong’s room, there was only an additional huge wardrobe when compared to her son’s room.

  At this moment, Bai Muchuan was standing near the huge wardrobe, frowning upon the sight of the disorganized heaps and piles of clothes inside it.

  Xiang Wan saw his expression and went up to him with a smile. “Captain Bai must have never seen how the wardrobe of a poor family look like?”


  She had thought that Bai Muchuan’s earlier frown was dislike.

  However, Bai Muchuan gave her a glare instead. “Don’t you think it’s kinda strange?”


  “What’s so strange about it?”


  “Look carefully.”


  Xiang Wan opened up every door and drawer of the wardrobe and examined carefully before shaking her head.

  “What’s wrong? It’s just clothes.”


  “A five-door wardrobe. Just from this portion alone, the insides are filled with dust and not maintained.”


  “Is it?” Xiang Wan was amazed by his good eye. When she came closer for a look, it was just as what he said.

  Every item inside the wardrobe was in disarray, but the portion closest to the wall seemed to have been left untouched. The corner of the wardrobe was accumulated with dust.

  “Maybe this part of the wardrobe was filled with clothes they don’t normally wear, so……”


  “You mean you don’t throw away clothes that you’re no longer wearing?”


  “.…… Detective Bai, I’m poor.”


  Bai Muchuan gave a snort and pulled his gloves. There was a gap between the wall and the wardrobe. He suddenly reached his hand inside the gap and knocked on the wall.

  Every knock made Xiang Wan’s heart drum loudly.

  “Found anything?” she asked.

  She was very nervous as she had never experienced anything like this.

  Bai Muchuan ignored her and continued to knock a few more times before turning to Tang Yuanchu.

  “Move the wardrobe away.”


  “Ah?” Tang Yuanchu looked back and after confirming that his boss was not joking around, he nodded his head. “Yes.”


  The wardrobe was heavy and the room was very small. Furthermore, the wardrobe was stuffed with all kinds of items. Moving the wardrobe away was not a simple task.

  “Come, brothers, lend me a hand.”


  “Push! Push harder……”


  “This way, this way, a little bit further down here.”


  The three young men tried hard to move the wardrobe away. Their foreheads were already drenched in sweat, yet they had only managed to move a distance of around 20 centimeters.

  “Captain Bai, it’s only a wall behind the wardrobe.”


  Looking at the empty wall, the two police officers were perplexed by Bai Muchuan’s behavior.

  Xiang Wan looked at Bai Muchuan’s handsome and aloof face and a thought came to her mind.

  “Are you suspecting that it might be the same as ‘The Palace’ that something might be hidden inside the wall?”


  Bai Muchuan walked closer to the wall without saying anything. That pair of sharp eyes was too cold, emitting an aura so chilly that no one dared to make any noise.

  Next, he continued the knocking action on the wall.

  The room was very quiet.

  Nobody said anything as everyone focused on what he was doing.

  Bai Muchuan continued to knock on different spots of the wall.

  This process took around one minute. Xiang Wan was so nervous that she was also perspiring. Just then, he suddenly turned around to face everyone.

  The dim light in the room fell on his face—his eyes seemed to give off a chill as he squinted at them.

  “Human behavior is habitual. According to Zhang Decheng, Wu Hongliang and Kong Xinqiong were already staying in this rented apartment back then. The landlord told us the tenant remained the same all these years. Therefore, if Wu Hongliang sealed Tan Ziyang’s body parts at ‘The Palace’, would he use the same method to seal Tan Ziyang’s bones somewhere else?”


  Of course he would.

  It was a reasonable deduction.

  But the “somewhere else” he was referring to, would it include this rented apartment?

  Who would want to live with a corpse that he had killed by himself?

  Just that thought alone made Xiang Wan’s scalp go numb and goosebumps went all over her body.

  Bai Muchuan seemed to see through her and remarked, “Once one crossed the mental limit, one will no longer be afraid of it.”


  This mental limit was referring to killing someone as well as the desire to live.

  When one just killed someone for the first time, one would definitely be afraid.

  However, his mentality should have undergone changes due to the fact that he had mutilated the body, then made the parts into minced meat to blend inside the cement, all because he did not want to be found out……

  Xiang Wan gasped. “Is the wall hollow?”


  A faint smile appeared on Bai Muchuan’s face. “I don’t know.”


  “.……”


  Bai Muchuan continued, “At least I have not noticed a difference on this wall compared to the other wall.”


  “.……”


  That means there was no problem!

  Xiang Wan had just eased up when Bai Muchuan smiled again.

  “Well, there’s a problem with the wardrobe.”


  “What problem?” At least three people asked him at the same time.

  Bai Muchuan did not answer but took the flashlight from Tang Yuanchu and shone on the back of the wardrobe. “Look everyone, what is that?”


  The room was too narrow and the back of the wardrobe was against the light, so it was difficult to see what was there.

  But with the flashlight now shining on it, everyone noticed that there were patches of greyish white on the back of the wardrobe.

  “What is that?”


  “Wall paint,” answered Bai Muchuan with a cold voice.

  “What?”


  Under normal circumstances, no one would place their wardrobe onto the wall when the paint was wet. Moreover, from the cohesion of the wall paint and the wardrobe, it did not look like it was caused by friction during the moving of the wardrobe but directly pushed onto the wardrobe……

  Everyone was dumbstruck.

  They roughly understood Bai Muchuan’s deduction.

  Next, Bai Muchuan instructed coldly.

  “Let the forensics team come and break up the wall!”


  “.……”


  Since when did the forensics team specialize in breaking up walls?

  How pitiful of them!

  Tang Yuanchu dared not delay any further and called up Cheng Zheng.

  He also gave a call to the landlord to get him to come over……

  While waiting, nobody touched anything in case they damage the scene.

  Xiang Wan, as well as Fang Yuanyuan, had not taken their dinner. Nevertheless, at that point in time, they were not hungry at all.

  They had originally planned to wait for more results before they eat, but they had never expected that Bai Muchuan actually ordered take-out delivery for them.

  No choice, the take-out delivery arrived sooner than Cheng Zheng. Both of them did not want to eat at that house so they went back upstairs……

  When they finished their meal, approximately 30 minutes had past.

  By the time they finished eating, they noticed that it was already crowded along the corridors and stairways.

  The landlord was there and kept saying how unlucky he was. That attracted the attention of the neighbors.

  Cheng Zheng had arrived as well as Mei Xin and another member of the forensics team. They were inside the house, carrying out their job in the room. There were two police officers blocking the main entrance, so the residents and onlookers were unable to go in. They could only crowd around the corridor and stairway.

  The crowd started to talk and discuss amongst themselves.

  It was such a hot day, but that did not deter them to find out what was going on.

  When they saw the police officer allowing Xiang Wan to go inside the house, some people started to speak in a low voice.

  “Isn’t this woman living in our neighborhood?”


  “You’re right! But why is she able to go in?”


  “Who knows? Maybe she’s the one who called the police?”


  “.……”


  Xiang Wan heard all these remarks as she made her way to the bedroom and walked toward Bai Muchuan.

  “Stay there, don’t come over!” Bai Muchuan caught a glimpse of her and suddenly stood up, pointing at her fiercely.

  Xiang Wan was startled and stopped in her tracks. “What happened?”


  Bai Muchuan’s expression was grim. He walked slowly to her and spoke softly. “We found a corpse. You’d better not see it.”


  “.……”


  Generally, girls are afraid of such things.

  Xiang Wan was not interested in viewing corpses as well.

  She asked without moving a step more. “Is it Tan Ziyang?”


  Bai Muchuan turned to take a look. “Let’s wait for the forensics team’s report!”


  Scientific examination and investigation results were the most reliable answers.

  Everything was just guesses and deductions as of now.

  Xiang Wan’s heart was pounding very fast, and the same went for her brain. She did not go inside the room, opting to just stand quietly at the door of the bedroom as she did not want to affect their progress. She looked on quietly without a word.

  A portion of the wall was scraped open.

  The forensics team worked slowly. Cheng Zheng’s movements seemed cautious.

  That feeling…… it was as if they were excavating an archaeological site, like digging for treasures.

  However, as the surface area of the wall that got scraped expanded as time went by, a foul stench started to get obvious and slowly filled the air……

  Bai Muchuan got a mask from Mei Xin and gave it to Xiang Wan.

  “Wear it!”


  “Thank you!” Xiang Wan felt warm at his considerate act.

  He was so busy and yet he was able to notice and take care of her?

  She lowered her head as she smiled secretly. She was about to wear the mask when suddenly, a police officer dashed out of the room, covering his mouth as he ran toward the restroom. The next moment, she heard dry retching sounds coming from the restroom.

  That was a new police officer, and he seemed unable to withstand that.

  Xiang Wan pressed onto the mask and tried to hold her breath, trying not to breathe in the foul stench.

  “D*mn, there’s actually sh*t inside!” Tang Yuanchu suddenly exclaimed.

  Xiang Wan’s stomach started to feel uncomfortable.

  She covered her mouth and wanted to move away when suddenly, she stopped and turned back to look at Bai Muchuan with an unbelievable and horrified expression.