Chapter 89: Chapter 89: It’s Time to Step Forward!

When they heard “it’s a human ear,” the scene was as if it exploded like a pot of boiling water.

Hu Yue picked up a loudspeaker and shouted, “What are the police officers from Nanqiao Town doing? Maintain order and disperse the crowd!”

The police officers were in a tizzy, but Hu Yue remained very calm, carefully placing the piece of earlobe into the evidence bag.

Then, his gaze seemed to turn towards Chen Xiao’s position.

However, Chen Xiao didn’t look at him and didn’t have the time to notice Hu Yue, who had come from Qingxi City.

His eyes were almost entirely on the onlooking villagers, and he couldn’t stay focused on any one person for too long.

Once the crowd was dispersed by the police, Chen Xiao’s brow remained furrowed, unable to relax.

At this point, a police officer approached him and Luo Dali, saying sternly, “What are you still doing here? Go back, there’s nothing more to see!”

Luo Dali smiled and nodded, then tugged at Chen Xiao, who reluctantly gave up.

Everyone he had noticed earlier had shown very normal reactions under his observation; no one stood out enough for him to focus on.

This result wasn’t disappointing and was, indeed, expected.

Firstly, this was just a small plan of Chen Xiao’s to provoke the killer; he couldn’t observe so many people at the scene.

Secondly, the killer’s identity was still unclear, and the possibility of this attempt yielding results was less than twenty percent.

Collecting himself, Chen Xiao returned to their van.

As soon as they got in, Luo Dali asked, “Brother Chen, are we heading back?”

Chen Xiao shook his head, “If we go back, wouldn’t we be just like bystanders here for the spectacle?”

“Then what should our next step be?”

“That piece of earlobe is likely Jin Meng’s, so now we wait for the police from Qingxi City to find her.”

Chen Xiao said, and Luo Dali scratched his head, “Although a piece of earlobe was found, we’ve searched for so long; can we really find her so easily now?”

“We can, because that piece of earlobe has already told us the location. The ear may be rotten, but it still retains the smell of smoked meat. Locally, cypress wood is often used for smoking meat in Xiaofeng Village. Although the village seems small by name, it houses six to seven hundred households, making it a large place, big enough that there is an old, unused smoked meat workshop at the back.”

“The Mouse must have dragged Jin Meng’s earlobe out from there and accidentally dropped it into a villager’s rice cooker. Now that piece of earlobe is in Hu Yue’s hands, and he has examined it. If he cannot associate it with the abandoned smoked meat workshop in the village, then he is not fit to be the captain of Qingxi City’s Criminal Investigation Team.”

Luo Dali suddenly understood, and Xiaoji thought and asked, “Since Jin Meng’s body has been in the village all along, why hasn’t anyone found it?”

“Very simple, the first three bodies were found in the forest. You can see the large area of that forest from where you stand, so many people assumed that they should continue searching there, which is why Qin Zhao and Jin Meng hadn’t been found yet.”

Xiaoji Knife Man pondered this, “Then why didn’t the killer hide them all in the village? Such a large village would make it easy to hide them, right?”

Xiaoji immediately retorted, “Are you stupid? The killer was creating a diversion! Hiding three bodies in the forest creates the illusion that everyone would be hidden there, wasting the police’s time looking in the forest!”

It must be said, Xiaoji was indeed clever, thinking of the term “creating a diversion.”

But was the strategy of a diversion really used correctly?

As Xiaoji spoke, his expression suddenly changed, “Brother Chen, wait. If it’s a diversion, wouldn’t that mean Qin Zhao and Jin Meng are two special cases among the five?”

“You’re thinking too narrowly. The three in the forest will eventually be found. But the two in the village are also inevitably destined to be discovered. Eventually, someone will visit the workshop, and eventually, Old San’s septic tank will be opened.”

“So, the killer’s strategy wasn’t a diversion at all, but rather a cunning plan of having multiple places to hide!”

At this point, Chen Xiao spoke up, “I’m starting to believe that the perpetrator might be someone from Xiaofeng Village. Even if they are not, they must be someone very familiar with the area!”

Just discovering Guo Ning and the others can give rise to many speculations about what kind of person the killer is.

But now that all five have been found, it is clear that the killer is very familiar with Xiaofeng Village and its surroundings.

The killer knows which places in the mountain forest are suitable for burial and knows which places in the village are seldom visited.

Indeed, almost every household with buildings has a septic tank.

But what about a smoked meat workshop that has been abandoned for long?

Someone from outside, putting aside the possibilities of intentionally learning about the place or stumbling upon it, leaves the likelihood that they are particularly familiar with the area.

After Guo Ning and her group arrived in Xiaofeng Village, the large village naturally also saw outsiders arriving, but those people were mostly relatives or friends of the villagers.

The social connections between them had already been thoroughly investigated when Zhang Xian and his team came, with absolutely no intersection.

So what Chen Xiao needs to consider now is whether he should reveal his identity and step out from the shadows.

As Chen Xiao was pondering this, his phone rang.

Seeing it was a stranger’s number with a Qingxi area code, Chen Xiao knew who it was.

“Hello, Captain Hu.” Chen Xiao answered with a smile.

On the other end, Hu Yue replied, “She was found in a jar in the basement of the smoked meat workshop. The jar hadn’t been cleaned, and there was still quite a bit of smoked meat inside. The killer put Jin Meng in the jar after killing her, so her decaying body blended with the smell of the smoked meat.”

“Yes, and there were some sections of cypress wood in the jar.”

“It seems he really followed the Five Elements principle in his killings, but now that all five bodies have been found, it feels more like following a formula.”

“Yes, Ye Wei corresponds to fire, Song Zhen to earth, Guo Ning to water, Qin Zhao to gold, and finally Jin Meng to wood. While it appears to align with the Five Elements, it actually feels a bit forced.”

“Whether it’s forced or not doesn’t matter now. What’s important is whether the cause of death for those two matches with Guo Ning and the others.”

Chen Xiao asked the question he was most curious about, and Hu Yue answered, “Yes, the killer acted cleanly and swiftly, killing with one strike each time!”

Hu Yue then asked, “Chen Xiao, what are you thinking now? Will you investigate with us, or will you continue your investigation behind the scenes?”

Having just acquired the ability of “Killing,” Chen Xiao felt he needed to be in close contact with the bodies at this time.

After some thought, Chen Xiao replied, “I’ll go to the workshop and find you. Although I haven’t been hiding for long, I’ve already achieved my goal, at least in finding Qin Zhao and Jin Meng without the killer noticing. Their discovery has also provided a lot of inspiration for me.”

“It’s time to step forward!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep