Chapter 49: Bloodstains

Zou Zhengze pulled open the door and saw his beloved with another man, lying together. Upon his return, fear-filled eyes from the two of them widened in terror.

"You whore! You dare to cheat on me behind my back?!"

Images of past vows and tender affections surged through his mind, and Zou Zhengze's eyes instantly reddened as he raised the kitchen knife.

The blade paused in mid-air, and Zou Zhengze took two deep breaths before setting the knife handle down.

Not worth it.

"Scum! Stay together forever then."

Filled with hatred, Zou Zhengze dropped the kitchen knife and shut the door of the fridge's cooling compartment.

————

Snip off the crab's claws, remove the cover, flip open the shell, extract the stomach, suck out the roe...

Li Ang's skill in eating crabs was extremely proficient; using only chopsticks and a spoon, he achieved the effect of a scholar enjoying crabs with proper utensils, his elegant manners, dignified eating, and relaxed posture made Officer Wang Fengnian increasingly uncomfortable as he watched.

What was even more ridiculous was that this fellow was joking while eating, ranging from highbrow to lowbrow humor, he could handle any style, making Wang Congshan and her daughter laugh incessantly, creating a very harmonious atmosphere.

"Ahem."

Officer Wang Fengnian searched his mind for a joke and deliberately coughed to draw attention before saying in a deep voice, "Once there was a young man who achieved nothing in life, and as he was on his deathbed, he wished for someone to praise him just once. This yearning moved the heavens, and they sent a doctor who said, 'Your illness, it's quite serious.'"

... The atmosphere in the living room suddenly fell silent, leaving only the sound of the electric fan blades whirring.

"Haha, hahaha," Li Ang laughed, fitting the moment, and Wang Congshan and her mother started laughing too.

To break the awkward silence, Wang Congshan passed over an empty bowl, "Dad, pour me some soup."

Subconsciously, Li Ang took the empty bowl and served Wang Congshan a bowl of soup. When he realized what had happened, he saw the frozen palm of Officer Wang Fengnian in mid-air and the solemn expression on Mother Wang's face.

The atmosphere in the living room became even more solemn and oppressive, as if the air could drip water.

"... I almost forgot, last time Fang Ni from across the hallway brought us green dumplings. I'll take some crabs over to them."

Mother Wang stood up, went to the kitchen to grab a large-sized plastic container, filled it with some crabs, and without fully closing the door, she directly delivered them to the neighbors across the hall.

"Fang Ni, Fang Ni? Are you home?"

Mother Wang knocked on the neighbor's security door with her knuckles, while inside the living room, Li Ang and Wang Congshan bowed their heads, enduring Officer Wang's intensive and grave gaze.

"Why isn't anyone answering..."

Mother Wang sniffed curiously and said, "What's that smell? Is it coming from their balcony?"

In the living room, still in the midst of eating crabs silently, Li Ang suddenly lifted his head, alongside Officer Wang, they both turned to look at the neighbor's security door.

There was a very strong... smell of blood.

They exchanged glances and, without planning, both stood up and walked into the hallway.

"They might not be home," Officer Wang said to his wife with a smile, "Xinwan, you go back and start eating with Shan Shan. Xiao Li and I will go to the hallway to smoke a cigarette and have a chat."

"Chat?" Jiang Xinwan looked at her husband suspiciously, her eyes conveying "don't scare the child," before she turned and walked inside.

After his wife entered the house, Officer Wang closed the security door behind him. His gaze instantly turned cold as he crouched down.

Zeng Weiming and his wife, Wang Fangni, living opposite, had placed a rubber mat outside their door to block mud and other pollutants, while inside they had placed a cotton mat for its anti-slip properties and to isolate fine dust.

Particular.

Wang Fengnian saw a thick trail of bloodstains, stretching from the threshold of the neighbors' security door to under the rubber mat.

Lifting the mat revealed a sticky, half-dried pool of blood,

The amount of blood that had flowed from inside the security door to the outside... either the inhabitants accidentally spilled pig's blood intended for making blood cake at the doorway, or they were suffering from major arterial bleeding and were calmly watching their own blood dry while lying on the door.

Wang Fengnian banged heavily on the door, shouting the neighbors' names. After getting no response, he took out his phone to call his colleagues at the police station for backup, and also called the property management to have them and the community security come up.

Just as he was about to kick the door open, Li Ang leisurely took out a paperclip, twisted it a few times, and picked the lock of the security door.

"Officer Wang, can you not look at me with the eyes you use for criminals," Li Ang put away the paperclip and scratched his head, smiling, "Lock picking is just a hobby of mine, I even wrote a paper on it, discussing the security weaknesses of the top ten commonly used security door cylinders on the market."

Wang Fengnian said with a taut face, "Don't call me brother."

Li Ang's face brightened, and he readily agreed, "Got it, dad, I'll definitely take good care of Shan Shan."

... If it weren't for the inappropriate time and place, Wang Fengnian would certainly teach Li Ang what a military boxing punch felt like.

Officer Wang pushed open the security door, only to find Zeng Weiming's apartment pitch dark, so dark one couldn't see their own fingers.

Li Ang took out his phone, using the backlight to slightly illuminate the darkness.

Without stepping into the apartment, Wang Fengnian used the light from Li Ang's phone and, with a layer of his sleeve as a barrier, cautiously pressed the living room light switch on the wall.

As light flooded the living room, Wang Fengnian couldn't help but gasp sharply.

Blood, blood, blood, stains were everywhere,

Ceiling, lamp, walls, table, floor, TV wall, shoe rack... everywhere the eye could see was covered in a dark red hue.

Droplet shapes, splatter patterns, streaming columns, wiped streaks, contact stains... a bizarre and strange array of bloodstains pervaded the room.

It resembled the abstract painting of a mad artist.

The overpowering stench of blood was hard to ignore. It stabbed straight into the brain, making the scalp of Wang Fengnian tingle. In more than twenty years of investigating crimes, he had never seen such a bizarre and eerie scene, not even in the past seven peculiar months of frequent occurrences.

Adult humans have about six to eight percent of their body weight in blood; that is to say, a 70-kg adult male has about 4200ml to 5600ml of blood, approximately the equivalent of three 1.5-liter soda bottles.

To create the scene inside the room, Officer Wang quickly estimated the answer—it would take about the blood volume of two people.

"Fuck, this is..." Wang Fengnian's palm tightened around the doorframe, letting out a curse.

"Hiss..." Li Ang, just like Officer Wang, took in a breath of cold air and said in a solemn voice, "The Nordic pastoral style decoration in this room must have cost a pretty penny."