Siheyuan: Hang Jia Dongxu, smash Banggeng to death!

Xiao Wang pushed open the door, and a cold wind rushed in, making him shiver.

The heating in the interrogation room was too strong, making my head feel throbbing. But the cold wind has actually made me more alert.

He walked towards the duty room with the transcript between his fingers, the scene of the interrogation still replaying in his mind.

Xiao Wang pushed open the door and walked in. The two people in the duty room looked up at the same time and greeted each other.

"Is the trial finished?"

"If the trial isn't finished tonight, Director Li said we'll continue tomorrow."

Xiao Wang moved his stiff neck and heard a slight cracking sound from his cervical spine; his neck was almost as stiff as a piece of wood.

Zhang Defu leaned closer, glanced down the corridor, and then lowered his voice, saying, "Xiao Wang, you just came from over there, did you hear anything?"

"What's that noise?"

Xiao Wang looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Old Zhang said he just heard someone shouting for help.

Liu Jianshe interjected, his tone clearly sarcastic, "I told him he misheard, but he wouldn't believe me and argued with me for almost half an hour."

"I really heard it."

Zhang Defu became anxious. "It was in the direction of Nanluoguxiang, the sound was drawn out for a long time, and then there were a few screams."

Old Liu, are you hard of hearing? How could you not hear such a loud noise?

"There's nothing wrong with my ears."

Liu Jianshe slowly took a sip of tea. "The problem is with your brain. Who would run into an alley and shout for help in the middle of the night?"

Besides, something big happened in Nanluoguxiang tonight, you know that.

Besides, you were half asleep when you heard it, how can I believe you were hallucinating?

Xiao Wang suddenly raised his head.

Nanluoguxiang.

Courtyard No. 95.

Three lives have been lost tonight.

Could it be that another murder occurred after I took Qin Huairu and the others away?

The three bodies are still lying in the backyard of the police station, covered with white sheets.

This is the biggest case the Hongxing Police Station has handled in nearly ten years.

Although Director Li didn't say it, Xiao Wang could tell that he smoked twice as many cigarettes as usual tonight.

He would investigate any clue, no matter how small.

"Wait, Lao Zhang, you just said the sound was coming from Nanluoguxiang?"

"Yes, it's the alley leading to Nanluoguxiang."

Seeing that Xiao Wang was getting serious, Zhang Defu immediately perked up. "Although I was confused at the time, I really heard it."

How far is it from here?

Liu Jianshe said in a deep voice, "It's not far. It's only about fifty or sixty meters to the east from here."

The three people looked at each other in bewilderment.

A subtle expression appeared on everyone's face.

That expression when things aren't entirely clear, but your intuition is already kicking in.

"Tonight, three people died in succession at the courtyard house at No. 95 Nanluoguxiang. Another case of rape has occurred."

Xiao Wang's voice turned somber. "Could it be that someone else has really had an accident again?"

Zhang Defu's expression changed.

Now that Xiao Wang has said it, it really might be true.

Liu Jianshe's smile froze on his face. He stood up, his tone no longer as languid as before:

"Xiao Wang, don't scare people. This is not something to joke about."

"I'm not joking."

Xiao Wang picked up the flashlight from the table. "I'll go take a look."

"I'll go with you."

Zhang Defu immediately followed.

"I'll go too."

Liu Jianshe pulled another flashlight from the drawer and tucked a baton into his waistband. "Just in case something really happens, it'll be good to have more people to help."

The three pushed open the door to the duty room and stepped into the night.

It's much colder outside than inside the duty room.

The cold wind relentlessly seeped into my collar, cuffs, and trouser legs.

The three walked in silence, their pace quickening unconsciously. After turning two corners, the entrance to Nanluoguxiang came into view.

The alleyway was so narrow that it was cramped for two people to walk side by side.

The walls on both sides stood tall in the darkness, squeezing the sky in the middle into a thin line.

Xiao Wang stopped at the alley entrance.

For some reason, his heart suddenly started beating very fast, thumping as if it were about to jump out of his throat.

A gust of wind blew in from the depths of the alley, carrying a smell he couldn't quite describe.

It smells fishy.

No way?!

Has something really happened?

Xiao Wang's breath hitched for a moment, his grip on the flashlight tightened, and he stepped into the alley.

Zhang Defu and Liu Jianshe followed behind him, neither of them speaking, but their expressions were unusually solemn.

We were all veterans, so this taste was all too familiar to us.

Walk about ten more meters.

Xiao Wang's flashlight beam froze, and so did he.

On a round object on the ground.

A few strands of hair clung to his forehead, his eyes were half-open with unfocused pupils, and a trace of frozen fear lingered at the corner of his mouth.

Yan Jiefang's watermelons are not guaranteed to be ripe.

Xiao Wang's pupils dilated suddenly, a surge of acid rose in his throat, and his stomach convulsed violently.

But his professional training allowed him to suppress the urge to vomit at the last moment.

His gaze continued forward, the beam of his flashlight trembling as it swept deeper into the alley.

Then he saw more and walked a hundred meters forward.

Three headless corpses lay in different locations in the alley.

The most recent body was at the alley entrance. The area above the neck was empty, and the two arms were still in a forward-stepping posture, as if the victim was killed from behind while fleeing.

A little further away, a second corpse lay curled up on the ground, dark red liquid still seeping from the severed ends of its two wrists, pooling into a small puddle beneath it.

The smallest body, the furthest away, lay at the base of the wall, its legs twisted in an unnatural position.

Looking further ahead, there were two more watermelons scattered on the ground.

One of them was younger, with its mouth wide open, as if it were cursing someone before it died.

The other one was older, with a relatively calm expression, but his eyes were wide open, and his pupils still held the disbelief of that last moment.

Three corpses and three watermelons were scattered in an alley less than 100 meters long.

Just then, the moonlight peeked out from behind the clouds, casting a silvery-white glow across the entire alley.

The light shone on the corpses, on the bloodstains splattered on the walls, and on the dark red stream meandering along the road.

Everything was so clear, so clear it sent chills down my spine.

Xiao Wang's mind went blank. He had studied crime scene investigation, autopsy, and all sorts of professional knowledge at the police academy.

But no lesson ever taught him what to do when you actually face such a situation.

He had never been on the battlefield.

I tried hard to organize my thoughts.

But then he let out a terrified scream: "Something's wrong! Someone's dead! Something's wrong, someone's dead!"