Netherworld Investigator

When Dali was settled in and I was about to leave, Huang Xiaotao sent me a text message saying, “Song Yang, you must come to the parking lot right now! Something’s gone wrong!”

That made me really worried. I hurried to the parking lot as quickly as I could, but when I found out what Huang Xiaotao meant when she said something went wrong, I almost burst out laughing.

It turned out that Luo Weiwei accidentally hit a pillar as she drove Huang Xiaotao’s black BMW out of the parking lot. A piece of paint chipped off of the car door. It seemed that Luo Weiwei’s car skills were not up to par!

Huang Xiaotao was groaning as if in pain while caressing her car. Luo Weiwei stood there beside her saying, “Oh, what’s the big deal? I’ll pay you the money for the repairs, okay?”

Huang Xiaotao waved her hand and said, “Forget it, I have car insurance, but it’s just too much trouble! I hate dealing with those people from the insurance company!”

Huang Xiaotao asked me to help her get the car out as it was stuck between pillars, but I told her I might make things worse. In the end, it was Wang Yuanchao who came to the rescue. In seconds, he got Huang Xiaotao’s car out with seemingly no effort at all.

“Well done! You really are an experienced driver!” praised Huang Xiaotao.

“Do you know what the phrase experienced driver means?” I asked her, almost choking.

“Doesn’t it just mean what it says?” Huang Xiaotao wondered.

I was speechless for a while. It seemed that Huang Xiaotao was not online that much.[1]

I regretted letting Luo Weiwei be the driver, but she swore that she could do the job once the car was on the open road. Eventually, we let her drive anyway, and it turned out that she really did just fine once she was out of the parking lot.

Half an hour later, we arrived at the crime scene. The house was on an old street with many shops nearby, but they were all closed. The buildings here were unorganized, and there were clothes hanging on the top of our heads everywhere. Because it was almost noon, most of the residents here were cooking at home, and I could hear the clanking sound of cooking and the smell of food coming from the open windows.

Luo Weiwei said that this street had been in Wuqu for many years now. There used to be many shops that sold groceries here, but as time went on, there were more and more supermarkets nearby, so  younger people were less and less interested to come here, and the business on this street gradually declined...

Luo Weiwei led us to a two-story building with yellow tape sealing off the house and a police seal on the door. Huang Xiaotao asked, “But I thought the victims were doing quite well financially. Why didn’t they live in a nicer apartment complex?”

“The father of the deceased used to have a calligraphy and painting business here,” Luo Weiwei explained. “This street-facing house used to be a painting studio that the deceased inherited from his father.”

I asked Huang Xiaotao, “Have you never lived in this type of old-fashioned house before?”

She shook her head. “No. Surely it’s not as comfortable as an apartment, right? I have always lived in an apartment building since I was a child.”

I had lived in the old Song family house since I was a child. Old wooden houses like these were warm in winters and cool in summers. We didn’t even need air conditioning. I found this type of house especially comfortable. Later, when I went to college, it took me a long time to adapt to the modern dorm buildings.

We tore the police tape and went into the house. The first floor was very spacious, like a big open room, and it was obvious that it used to be a shop. But because not much light was let into the house, the first floor looked a bit gloomy and sullen.

“I don't know how to describe it, but it feels like we’re in a horror movie!” Huang Xiaotao exclaimed.

“You shouldn’t be a police officer if you’re so easily scared,” sneered Luo Weiwei.

Huang Xiaotao glared at her.

“Oh, you're one to talk!” she snapped. “Who was it that fainted in the morgue earlier?”

“I just slipped and fell!” Luo Weiwei argued.

“Yeah, you were even foaming in the mouth,” jeered Huang Xiaotao. “You’d better get a CT scan and check if your brain was damaged somehow!”

“You!”

I didn’t want their argument to get more heated, so I told Luo Weiwei, “Dr. Luo, I need you to get me a bag of fine flour.”

She was still glaring at Huang Xiaotao when I said that, and she tersely replied, “What do you need that for?”

“I need you to go get it now!” I ordered.

Luo Weiwei reluctantly went out. Huang Xiaotao sighed, “That woman is pretty, but her temper is just foul! I bet her rich boyfriend must’ve spoiled her.”

“I think her looks are average. She’s nowhere near as pretty as you are.” I replied.

I didn’t even think of what I said, it just rolled off my tongue, but to my surprise, Huang Xiaotao reacted very strongly to my comments. She cheerfully took my hand and asked me, “Do you really think so?”

“Um… yeah!” I shyly admitted.

Luo Weiwei was indeed a beautiful woman, but I felt that her beauty came with pointy edges around it somehow—she had a pointy chin, upturned eyes, and eyebrows that slightly curved upwards. In contrast, Huang Xiaotao’s features were round, harmonious, and very pleasant to the eyes.

However, in terms of temperament, Huang Xiaotao was very cool and confident, befitting of a police officer; while Luo Weiwei had the temperament of a delicate rich girl who was used to being pampered.

In short, comparing them was like comparing an apple to an orange.

Huang Xiaotao poked me with her elbow and said, “By the way, I’ve known you for a while now, but I still don’t know what type of girl you like!”

“Um…” I glanced at her, and my cheeks suddenly became hot. “I think girls with long hair are cute!”

“What? That’s just the opposite of me!” cried Huang Xiaotao. “You didn’t just say that because you’re too embarrassed to say you like me, did you?”

“No, absolutely not!” I denied.

We stepped on the creaking wooden stairs to go up to the second floor, and from the stairways, we could see the dining room where the murders occurred.

It was in total chaos—the table lay sideways on the floor, the windows were broken, the floor was full of dishes and chopsticks, and the walls were so splashed with blood that you couldn’t see the color of the original wallpaper. On the floor, white tape was used to mark the outlines of the victims. The thick curtains by the windows completely blocked the sunlight from coming in. There was what I could only describe as a thick sinister atmosphere hanging in the room.

“This house has terrible feng shui,” I stated with furrowed brows.

“You even know feng shui too?” Huang Xiaotao asked.

“Feng shui is actually not that esoteric,” I explained. “My grandfather told me that it is mostly about the first impression that a house gives people. Look at the doors of the bedrooms here. They’re all right there next to the dining room, giving the occupants no privacy at all. And the stairs are so steep, yet the old lady’s legs weren’t strong, so she must’ve had a lot of difficulties getting upstairs and downstairs. Apart from that, the bedrooms and the bathroom are so far apart! You’d even have to go through the stairs! It must be tough on cold winter nights!”

“That makes a lot of sense,” nodded Huang Xiaotao. “If I’m going to buy a house, I’d definitely ask Master Song to take a look at it first.”

“No! I’m not that much of an expert!” I laughed.

While there were indeed some defects in the design of this house, that alone was not enough to cause the tragedy that happened here. Feng shui should have nothing to do with the murder case.

We walked into the dining room, which was connected to the kitchen. The kitchen was very messy. The floor was full of broken tiles. The knives that scattered the ground had been taken away by the police. White tape was used to outline a human form in front of the kitchen counter.

I quietly observed for a while, trying to recreate the sequence of the murders in my mind. There was no need to reason out the murderer of the case anymore, because we know what happened. What needed to be figured out was the reason behind their grisly actions!

I opened the curtain and noticed that there was an empty house on the opposite side. Then I stared at a handmade mask hanging on the wall for a long time. Huang Xiaotao remarked, “If you like that thing so much, I can buy one for you when we go back!”

“No, I’m thinking about something else,” I replied.

“Any ideas?” asked Huang Xiaotao.

I shook my head. “No, nothing yet.”

“I can’t figure anything out either,” said Huang Xiaotao. “This case is just too bizarre! Wang Yuanchao, you’re the most experienced person here, do you have any ideas?”

Wang Yuanchao stood there expressionless and made no replies at all for ten seconds. Huang Xiaotao sighed, “Well, thank you for your valuable input.”

Just then, I heard footsteps downstairs. Huang Xiaotao said: “Is Dr. Luo back already?”

She was about to go downstairs, but I stopped her and listened intently to the footsteps.

“No,” I warned her. “Those aren’t Luo Weiwei’s footsteps!”

1. An experienced driver is Chinese internet slang for someone who has long and varied experience in sexual activities.