Arts anciens et merveilleux

Chapitre 1

Bloodstained Clothes on Ghost Festival Author: Tomorrow's Withered Flower

wedge

"Officer, thank you for accepting my interview." I closed my notebook and made a playful face. "Can we chat for a bit? You can brag and vent your frustrations all you want. I won't expose you."

"It's alright, go ahead and expose it, let this old man become famous too! How's your father doing?" Officer Chen's facial muscles relaxed, and a smile appeared on his face.

"Sigh, him? He's like a big boss, all pot-bellied! He has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar—a model of the 'three highs'! If only he were like you, you're so slim!" I sighed. "What's worse is, he doesn't want to be a policeman himself, but he absolutely refuses to let me be one, insisting I study journalism. Solving cases all day like you would be so exciting!"

"Haha, still that mischievous little thing! Your dad should really have made you go with the detectives to stake out a place for four or five days! I guarantee you'd come back pitifully and say: 'Dad, I'll listen to you and go study journalism!'"

"No way, staying still for four or five days is exactly what I'd like. Hmm, in this case, how did you come to the conclusion that the little dot on that person's nose was blood? I bet 99% of people would have overlooked it and thought it was just a small mole." I looked at him admiringly.

"It is only natural that even if a person is innocent, they will appear nervous and scared when questioned by the police. This person seemed too calm. Although he had ample evidence to prove that he was not present at the time of the crime, I subconsciously felt that something had been overlooked. After repeatedly reviewing his statement and documents, I finally discovered that the mole was not in the photo—it was that simple."

"No, no, I don't think so. This sounds a bit like a Sherlock Holmes story. Do you guys also draw a lot of conclusions from just a few clues, like he did?"

"Yes, of course not as good as him. Everything leaves a trace, recording what happened. Through fingerprints, smells, bodily fluids, hair, footprints, blood DNA testing, and so on, mysteries unimaginable in ancient times can be solved. The reason we're often helpless now is simply because our investigative methods aren't advanced enough. Perhaps in the future, an instrument will be invented that can detect changes in the composition of molecules in the air, magnetism, or even a machine that can rewind time, showing events that happened days or even longer ago on a screen like a movie. Then I'll be out of a job."

"Haha, it seems you're an atheist. But there are many phenomena that science can't explain these days; perhaps some mysterious force is at play. If it were flawless, would a deity be able to see what they're doing? Haven't you encountered any unbelievable cases in your decades-long detective career?"

“There are indeed a few unsolved cases, and the murderers are still at large. Incredible cases, huh…” He fell into deep thought, then raised an eyebrow and lowered his voice after a moment, “There is indeed one, hmm, it’s been almost twenty years, time really flies!”

"Tell me about it!"

Bloodstained clothes on Ghost Festival

"It happened in the mid-1980s, but I still remember almost all the details. People over thirty probably remember that sensational blood-stained clothes case." His deep voice took my thoughts back to more than twenty years ago.

"That autumn was particularly rainy, with a drizzle lasting for more than ten days. The whole city was shrouded in dark clouds, with dawn breaking late and dusk falling early. I remember it clearly; that day was the traditional Chinese Ghost Festival. When I was on night shift, I could still see scattered lights in the streets and alleys late into the night—people were burning paper money to commemorate the dead. In the early morning, I received a report from a clothing factory in the northern suburbs that a female worker had been murdered in the water room on the fourth floor of the dormitory. The person who reported the crime was incoherent, as if they had suffered a great shock."

I instructed them to protect the scene, and I and my colleague on duty quickly arrived at the factory. The factory security personnel had already sealed off the factory gates and the entire dormitory building. The female workers were whispering amongst themselves, their expressions filled with terror. I soon learned the reason for their fear. The crime scene was horrific; we both vomited on the spot.

A woman's corpse lay in the center of the washroom, the shallow water already stained crimson with blood. The victim was a young woman in her early twenties, her upper body naked, her body covered in numerous deep, crisscrossing slashes from her skin, the flesh turned upside down to reveal bone and internal organs. She was wearing only long underwear. Her eyes had been gouged out, leaving two dark red, bloody holes. Her mouth was wide open, filled with blood clots; upon closer inspection, her tongue had been severed. Her facial expression was unreadable, neither pain nor fear. Her ears had also been cut off, and, most horrifyingly, her skull had been shattered, her hair matted together with brain matter. "That was the most horrific scene I've ever witnessed in my life. The murderer was extremely, extremely vicious," he said, his face twitching; the bloody scene must have left a deep impression on him.

"This is terrifying! The killer must be a murderous monster!" I felt a chill run down my spine.

"The body was discovered by a female worker from the same building. She got up early in the morning to use the toilet, then went to the washroom to wash her hands, letting out a huge scream. People from nearby dormitories came out after hearing her scream and found her unconscious at the washroom door, and then they also discovered the body. They were all terrified. They reported the incident to the factory security department and took the unconscious worker to the hospital. After waking up, the worker was somewhat mentally unstable and did not recover for a long time. It is certain that she screamed around 5 o'clock, and her roommates also confirmed that only a few minutes had passed between her leaving the house and screaming."

Because there was water in the water room, the footprints were not visible. Before the security personnel sealed off the area, many curious people had come outside. Because it was raining, the footprints were very messy. I think anyone who saw it must regret it. That scene is destined to be a nightmare that never fades away.

A girl went to the toilet at 4:30 AM, and about five minutes later went to the washroom to wash her hands; at that time, the washroom was empty. The girls sleeping in the bunk above and opposite the deceased vaguely heard the victim get up and leave. Not long after, they heard a commotion in the dormitory building. They couldn't be sure how much time had passed between the victim leaving and the incident, but it couldn't have been very long.

"You mean the victim was murdered in about twenty minutes?"

"Perhaps, the forensic doctor later deduced that the victim was murdered between 3 and 5 a.m. But no one living near the water room heard anything. The forensic doctor discovered something strange!"

"What?" I immediately got goosebumps all over my body.

"She also had wounds on her back, cut with a very sharp object. The wounds were not only deep, but also very neat, as if they were drawn with a ruler. Moreover, the wounds formed a pattern—an old-fashioned men's vest, which is the close-fitting underwear worn by the older generation, and even the buttons on the chest were very realistic."

“It must have taken a lot of time to inflict such a wound, and the killer must have been quite skilled! Is it possible that the killer murdered her elsewhere, inflicted the wound, and then moved her to the washroom? But wouldn't that be incredibly foolish?”

“You’ve thought this through very well! The deceased went to bed at 11 p.m. that night and even chatted for a while. As for what happened between falling asleep and waking up, since everyone was sound asleep, no one can say for sure. We checked the hallway, but there was no blood.”

The doorman downstairs swore that no one had entered or left the house before the female worker on the fourth floor came down to report the incident, because the door was locked and only she had the key. Although she hadn't gotten up, she wasn't a heavy sleeper and would definitely have heard any noise, and there was only one entrance and exit. Others also confirmed that the doorman did have a habit of getting up early; if it weren't for the late sunrise, she would have gotten up at five o'clock to clean.

The gatekeeper at the factory gate said the gate was locked. He and his companion played cards until 2 AM and didn't see anyone enter or leave. They went to the toilet once, but out of fear, they went together and were gone for about ten minutes. One of them went to sleep, while the other read a magazine and also fell asleep. They didn't hear any noise that night. Furthermore, the entire factory wall was covered in moss, with no signs of climbing.

"So the murderer must be in the dormitory building?"

"Logically speaking, that's very likely! At dawn, the bureau mobilized all the female police officers to participate in the search. Every room, every box, every corner, even the toilet drainpipes, every inch of the wall bricks, and even the roof were searched carefully. It's no exaggeration to say that even a cockroach couldn't escape the search."

Undeterred, we mobilized the militia to conduct a thorough search of the entire factory area, including the male workers' dormitories. At the same time, we took a headcount of the dormitory occupants; everyone who had stayed there that night was accounted for.

"Still nothing found?"

"Yes, nothing was found, so we can basically rule out the possibility that the murder weapon was in the factory. We..."

The family members who kept quiet

"Did the deceased have a romantic relationship? Was she assaulted before her death? Were her clothes torn?"

The officer looked at me with surprise: "She wasn't assaulted; the forensic examination confirmed she's a virgin. Apparently, she hasn't been in a relationship yet because she's introverted and rarely interacts with boys. You've mentioned a crucial factor, which I'll discuss later."

"So, has her family offended anyone?" After being praised, my mind started to work.

"The deceased's father was a long-time employee of the factory, and she took over his job. She also had an older brother who graduated from university and was assigned to..."

I work in a city outside of my hometown.

When we went to the deceased's home that afternoon to investigate, their parents had already received the news. The two elderly people had wrinkled faces, almost no hair left, and cloudy eyes. They were very calm, not as agitated as we had imagined, but there was always a sense of apprehension and wariness in their eyes. Even the slightest unusual noise would startle them. Perhaps life had been too hard, making them appear very old.

Her mother, comforted by the neighbors, kept sighing softly: "What did we do to deserve this? Alas, it's fate! We can't escape it no matter how hard we try... Why couldn't it be this useless old woman like me?" Her father kept asking us, "Has my son Zhiguo come back? Is he alright?" But he ignored our inquiries. After a while, seeing that we couldn't get any information, we decided to go to the neighbors' house to ask.

Several neighbors were asked, and they all said the family were very honest and unassuming. They specifically mentioned that the deceased's parents were extremely low-key, never argued with any neighbors, and never complained even when wronged—a rare quality. The elderly couple were a bit neurotic, kind to strangers but very strict with their two children, constantly looking for them if they weren't around. If this hadn't happened, they would have been a truly happy family. They simply couldn't imagine who would commit such a heinous act against them.

As we were leaving, an old man in the courtyard had just gotten up. Seeing several policemen, he looked surprised and asked what had happened. Someone nearby told him, but he didn't hear clearly. Then someone shouted, "Old Bian's daughter has been murdered!" He muttered, "Another death in his family?" We sensed something was amiss in his words, quickly offered him a cigarette, and went over to ask what had happened. It turned out the deceased's uncle had died over twenty years ago, apparently also murdered, but he didn't know the specifics. We figured it was around the time of the three years of natural disasters. Not thinking much of it, we said goodbye, disappointed.

Panic City

"So you're saying you can't find a motive? And the murder weapon has already been taken out of the factory?" My mind started racing.

"Yes, let's put that aside for now. By nightfall, the murder had become the talk of the town, and the entire city was gripped by rumors and panic."

Some say the factory used to be a cemetery, and that ghostly wails could be heard on cloudy or rainy days. This claim likely originated from several female factory workers who suffered from insomnia. They reported hearing what sounded like a man shouting and cursing on the nights surrounding the incident, but upon closer listening, it also resembled the sound of wind and rain outside.

Some say that there was a masked thief who could scale walls and roofs. He would somersault from the trees around the dormitory into the dormitory building, kill someone, and then return the same way he came, leaving no trace.

Some speculate that perhaps the female worker had a habit of sleepwalking and killed someone in her sleep without realizing it, because it is said that people have special abilities when they sleepwalk.

Some people associated it with the Ghost Festival, wondering if they had offended ghosts who were out looking for food at night...

That's a vivid description. For a long time, adults didn't dare let children go out after dark, and the temple's incense offerings flourished.

The first possibility

"Yes, it's quite mysterious. The murder was extremely brutal. Perhaps only a devil would do such a thing! The wound you mentioned could not have been made by an ordinary person. I think we should start the investigation by looking at habitual offenders or butchers."

"Wow, I didn't realize you were such a good detective! We had the forensic doctor determine what weapon was used to inflict the injury, and the results were very disappointing."

"Why?" I asked curiously. "Detectives shouldn't have their own prejudices!"

“You’re right! Because this case has such a huge social impact, the Public Security Bureau is in the spotlight. The leadership has ordered us to go all out and solve the case within a week. We are under a lot of pressure! The forensic doctor told us that the wounds must have been made by a machine like a cutting machine. It’s impossible for a human to make such deep and clean cuts with a knife. They even invited the most famous butcher in the city to demonstrate on a pig, and he admitted that those wounds were beyond human capabilities.”

“Then the case seems easy; just find a lathe and a wood-cutting machine,” I said.

"To be honest, the forensic findings were initially hard for us to accept. Our initial theory was that someone broke into the building, murdered the victim, and then escaped from the dormitory and factory gates with the murder weapon and severed organs. The killer had at least two keys—one for the dormitory building and one for the factory gate. This person knocked the victim unconscious while she was using the toilet, and then, in the washroom, skillfully and cruelly slashed her with a knife. However, this seemed too simplistic. If the killer specifically targeted the victim, then they would at least have a key to her dormitory, allowing them to enter, knock her unconscious, and then escape. We felt this theory was more plausible."

Therefore, we strongly oppose the forensic conclusion. Just because the best butcher couldn't do it doesn't mean the murderer couldn't. Logically speaking, their conclusion is absurd. If the murderer had already killed the victim, why would he risk transporting the body back to the dormitory? Unless he'd gone mad!

“But didn’t the old lady downstairs say he would hear any noise? And the murderer is so familiar with the environment, would he choose to flee the scene in the early morning? And the time of the crime is too rushed, isn’t it? You said that the people in the victim’s dormitory said that she hadn’t been away from the dormitory for long, and the wounds wouldn’t heal so quickly,” I was completely focused, my thoughts became well-organized, and I launched into a series of questions.

The officer's eyes lit up: "It's a real shame you didn't join our line of work! You've hit the nail on the head! Listen to my analysis, and you'll see how meticulous our hypothesis is. According to our initial guess, the killer was definitely a bold and cunning individual. He sneaked into the dormitory early, carrying some kind of container. After carefully removing the victim from the dormitory, he placed the victim in the container and calmly murdered and disposed of the body in a secluded corner of the dormitory building. That's why we didn't find any bloodstains."

He could have left before dawn, before the old lady downstairs woke up. But he didn't. Instead, he ran back to his dormitory, pretended to be the deceased, and slept until dawn, deliberately letting others hear him leave. Then he wrapped the severed organs in the deceased's clothes and fled the factory with the murder weapon. As for the old lady downstairs and the security guard, we practiced; with enough care, we could have remained completely silent. You can't trust a person's senses when they're not fully conscious. Do you think that makes sense?

"Hmm, that seems pretty good. Let me think, then why would the murderer return to the victim's dormitory instead of running away directly?" I immediately grasped a key point.

The officer gave me a thumbs up and said, "Perhaps this is where the killer's brilliance lies, but also his stupidity. He wanted to frame someone! He deliberately let the victim's roommate hear him get up and leave, then moved the body to the washroom. He risked betting that the old lady downstairs wouldn't hear him leave, and he deliberately made so many arrangements with the body. His goal was to set a trap regarding the timing of the crime, making us believe that the killer couldn't have entered from the outside, and couldn't have committed such a murder in such a short time. That's indeed very clever! But why do I say he's stupid? I'll leave that to you for now!"

The police officer looked at me with a smile. I scratched my head and suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "It must be the murder weapon! And he shouldn't have taken the murder weapon and the victim's organs with him! This means that if the murderer is really in the dormitory building, then she must have sent the murder weapon out of the factory and then returned to the dormitory, which is very risky for her."

"Yes! And the real culprit overlooked a very important issue: even if the route from the female workers' dormitory to the factory gate were unobstructed, it would take about twenty minutes to run back and forth at a fast pace! That would leave him no time to commit the crime! But it would be enough for him to escape! So he made a mistake in his plan!"

The second possibility

“That’s indeed a perfect guess!” I pondered for a few seconds, but quickly a doubt arose. “Wait a minute, let me sort out my thoughts. No, I think you’ve overlooked another possibility!”

"Really? What could be?" the officer asked curiously.

"The murderer may not have left the dormitory at all, and may not have even used the dormitory and the main gate keys," I said firmly.

"Tell me about it!" The officer's interest was piqued.

I said confidently, "The murderer could very well be the female worker in the building. She could have killed the victim, cleaned up the scene, rolled up the murder weapon and other items, and thrown them downstairs, with an accomplice catching them. Then she could have gone back to the victim's dormitory to sleep, and then, as you described, moved the body to the washroom just before dawn, before secretly returning to her own dormitory."

She definitely had accomplices, and probably more than one! One person would receive the item downstairs and then throw it over the wall using the same method, while others outside would catch it and take it away! This way, there was no need to risk going through the main gate. The accomplices inside the factory are very likely people from the male workers' dormitory.

Of course, it's also possible that there was only one accomplice who sneaked in through the factory gate, waited downstairs, caught the things the murderer threw down, and then sneaked out again.

With the addition of the accomplice factor, the time difference issue you mentioned no longer exists. What do you think of my guess? Is there any flaw in it?

"Hmm, this little girl is quite something! We really didn't expect your guess at the time. You explained very well why the murder weapon wasn't there, but how do you explain the murderer's motive of going back to the victim's dormitory and impersonating the victim? I was just saying that I was framing someone in this building, but now I've become the one who got burned, haven't I?" The officer put me in a difficult position again.

“Well…” I thought for a moment, “It’s easy to explain, or rather, that’s where the murderer’s brilliance lies. She also wanted to frame someone, but not someone else, but a ghost! You might think I’m making this up, which is why you didn’t think of this possibility, but I did – you don’t believe in ghosts.”

"Go ahead, I'm confused, but solving a case requires bold assumptions and careful verification!" The police officer encouraged me with a smile, clearly admiring my logical reasoning ability.

"Why did the murderer choose the Chinese Ghost Festival as her target? From your description, I sensed a terrifying ghostly atmosphere. The continuous rain for over ten days, with its gloomy skies, easily evokes thoughts of ghosts. The reason she committed such a brutal act was to exploit people's superstitious beliefs. The case is so flawless, so extremely terrifying, and the timing so perfect—only a devil could pull it off. And so many rumors are not unfounded; the murderer might even be one of the female workers who fabricated the story of hearing a man's voice! And she certainly achieved part of her goal; the public's panic is proof of that!"

The third possibility

“You make a very good point! We didn’t really analyze it from that angle at the time. If what you said were true, I would really regret it,” the officer suddenly changed the subject. “However, neither of the two possibilities we mentioned were valid. A later discovery made us stop arguing with the forensic doctors, and it turned out they were right.”

"What? That can't be right?" I was unwilling to accept that my guess had been denied.

"On the third day after the incident, an old shepherd discovered the victim's clothes and organs. It was in a place called Silang Mountain in the southern suburbs of the city, more than ten miles from the crime scene. The victim's upper garment was a nylon thermal undershirt and a thin sweater, covered with blackened bloodstains and torn to pieces. Later, the shape of the scratches and wounds matched, indicating that the victim was slashed while wearing the upper garment. The other organs had begun to decompose and were also confirmed to belong to the victim. It was the sweater and thermal undershirt that overturned our previous conclusion."

"I don't quite understand..." I said, puzzled.

"The two garments are quite elastic and resilient. It would be difficult to cut them with a knife, let alone when they were on a corpse, making such neat and deep cuts on the body! When we saw the corpse after the forensic examination, the wounds were very smooth. They couldn't have been slowly cut with a knife or saw, which is beyond human capability! The only explanation is that they were cut with a cutting machine."

"Oh, I see. So what else did you find on Silang Mountain? Why did these things end up there? Why didn't the murderer hide them?" I suddenly realized.

"Yes, we were puzzled too. Because it had been raining on and off, by the time we got there, the footprints had been washed away. We learned from nearby residents that this place was a mass grave before liberation, and rainwater would often wash up human bones. We didn't have any other clues."

"So what are your new guesses about the case?" I asked.

“We started to wonder if the victim had run out of the factory on his own in the middle of the night for some reason. But that was impossible. If the deceased had gone out on his own, he would have worn a coat and carried an umbrella. However, after the family and his roommates checked his belongings, they concluded that the coat was not missing and the umbrella had not been touched.”

"Since we can be sure that the murderer slept in the victim's bed, were there any hairs left behind?" I suddenly interjected.

"No, the murderer was so efficient that he wouldn't make such a mistake. We just slightly modified our original hypothesis: the murderer took the victim out to kill him and then brought him back in a sealed container. The rest of the hypothesis remains the same. The only thing we can't explain is why he would go to such lengths to transport the body back to the dormitory. Even your reasoning of framing a ghost doesn't make sense, because leaving the body outside the factory and only returning to the dormitory alone could have misled us about the timing and method of the crime, and the risk would have been much lower."

"The killer's psychology is beyond what ordinary people can imagine; a normal person wouldn't do such a thing. This killer seems to be very knowledgeable about criminology and is mentally unstable. I think you must have started from the angle of the cutting machine and the killer possibly having a criminal record."

"Indeed, we published a tip-off hotline in the newspaper, welcoming tips from the public. We checked crime records from the years since the Cultural Revolution to see if there were any similar cases, inquired with both detained and released criminals, and even went to mental hospitals, but to no avail. We investigated cutting machines, lathes, and all sorts of things, but still found no clues worth pursuing. Apart from the victim's clothes and organs, we found absolutely no other trace. It's truly bizarre!"

Memoirs of an old scout

"You must have been at your wits' end, under a lot of pressure. Did things turn around later?" I said sympathetically.

"A week passed quickly because the case remained unsolved and the body remained frozen. The deceased's brother came several times, expressing that his parents wanted to retrieve the body for burial as soon as possible so that the deceased could rest in peace. The leadership did not agree because they needed to give an explanation to the deceased's family and the public."

The morning before the deadline, we received a call from a middle-aged man who said his father had something to report, so we rushed over. The old man was over seventy and had just returned from the hospital. He had heard people talking about the case and had his son call us. He said he used to be a policeman but retired more than ten years ago.