Empreinte de main en sang

Chapitre 10

A group of people gathered together like this must be up to something shady. If the police happen to find out, they certainly won't let it go easily. Qin Ge and He Lan stood in front of the building entrance, pulled out their guns and checked them, then were about to go upstairs. Just then, He Lan suddenly grabbed Qin Ge.

Qin Ge saw a hint of surprise on He Lan's face, so he followed her gaze.

In front of the building, there were some makeshift sheds piled up with various odds and ends, as well as bicycles. Although these sheds were connected, they were made of different materials, clearly belonging to different households. The shed that Helan was staring at was made of asbestos tiles and contained some scraps of wood. Compared to the other sheds, it had the fewest odds and ends.

Standing where Qin Ge and He Lan were, they could just see a corner of the timber inside the shed. At this moment, the sun was setting, and the slanting sunlight shone directly on that corner.

There was a white object on the ground, faintly reflecting the sunlight.

Qin Ge and He Lan both have excellent eyesight, and they immediately recognized it as a disposable medical syringe.

The presence of a medical syringe here speaks volumes. If a drug addict has begun intravenous injections, their addiction must be very deep. A person addicted to drugs is fearless, daring to face any hardship, even danger; they'll drink pepper spray and sit on the torture bench. That's why Xu Li went out to find Lao Qiang on that snowy night.

Xu Li went out during a drug withdrawal episode. Could it be that on her way home, unable to bear the urge, she injected herself anywhere? The freezing cold would be unbearable for most people, but drug users are different. Assuming Xu Li injected herself under that shed, she would definitely have lingered there for a while. It's important to know that anyone who has injected drugs will experience a reaction period.

Let's assume the killer saw her by chance, or followed her here. Kidnapping her would be the perfect opportunity then. However, there's a risk in doing so here: people live in the building next door. Even though it's late at night and snowing heavily, could someone have inadvertently seen something?

The syringe was half-covered by snow, which had obviously been revealed after the weather cleared and some of the snow melted. He Lan put the syringe into the evidence bag, and Qin Ge, who was next to her, suddenly looked up and saw a figure moving inside the third-floor window.

Without further hesitation, the two rushed upstairs. While climbing the stairs, He Lan called her team for backup, while Qin Ge began banging heavily on the door. After a long while, the door opened, revealing a room of less than 20 square meters crammed with no fewer than twenty people.

Qin Ge and He Lan were taken aback to see so many people, but they quickly calmed down. These people were all quite young, mostly dressed simply, and looked like honest, law-abiding citizens. The moment the door opened, everyone seemed flustered.

Qin Ge stepped into the room and immediately noticed a blackboard on the wall with some words and numbers scribbled on it. Qin Ge turned around and gave He Lan a wry smile. He Lan also looked helpless, somewhat amused and exasperated.

The contents of the blackboard made it immediately clear that this was a pyramid scheme gathering.

"Who's in charge?" Qin Ge demanded sharply.

No one uttered a sound. The young people shrank back, their eyes darting around, not daring to meet Qin Ge's gaze.

Knowing it was just a pyramid scheme gathering, Helan no longer hesitated and went into a nearby room. When she came out, she was holding a seven-inch photo frame. The photo framed a beautiful woman—a woman with even a little bit of attractiveness, whose artistic photos were radiant.

This time, a rather young girl reluctantly strolled out. Actually, even if she hadn't come out, she would have stood out among these people. She looked young and beautiful, dressed in a trendy and sexy style—a leather skirt and long boots, a sapphire blue low-cut sweater, and a small black mole the size of a grain of rice on the left side of her neck.

The girl's name on her ID card is Xu Wen, born in 1982, and she is a local resident. She has been involved in a multi-level marketing scheme for daily necessities for two years and has been investigated twice for illegal gatherings, so she is not flustered in the face of this situation.

Qin Ge first called his comrades in the team and told them not to come over, saying that such matters as pyramid schemes should be handled by the local police station.

Finally, he took out Xu Li's photo—which was printed from a CD provided by Yang Zheng—and showed it to Xu Wen. Xu Wen glanced at it casually and shook her head, saying she had never seen it before.

Hurried footsteps sounded on the stairs outside; it was the police officers from the local police station arriving.

Chapter 7

This morning, a client booked a home photography session, which involves the photographer and makeup artist going to the client's home for a shoot. For this kind of job, you have to bring all your equipment. Besides the camera and reflector, the most troublesome thing is the lighting. Most studios use flat lighting, with two lights shining from the left and right, maybe adding a floor light, and a more sophisticated one might add a background light. The resulting photos make faces look snow-white, large bumps become small bumps, and small bumps look like peeled boiled eggs. Women generally love this effect.

Yang Zheng and Yang Mei worked for half a day, and it wasn't finished by noon. They ordered takeout from the customer's house, ate something quick, and continued working in the afternoon. Around 3 p.m., the work was finally finished. The two packed up their tools and took a taxi back to the back alleys.

Before the car even reached the gate, a person could be seen standing at the entrance of the old house from afar. He was wearing a dark blue uniform and pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back. Without asking, it was undoubtedly the household registration police officer again.

Yang Mei's face immediately darkened. Although Yang Zheng didn't say anything to her, how could she not understand the purpose of the household registration police?

"You're finally back!" the police officer shouted through the glass, as if he were seeing a family member.

Yang Zheng and Yang Mei got out of the car without saying a word and started moving their equipment. All the lights were packed up, including the lamp holders, lamp heads, and light shields. There were more than a dozen pieces for just four lights. The police officer from the household registration office helped them enthusiastically, carrying two lamp heads in each hand and tucking two lamp holders under his arm.

"Take a break, men can do these rough jobs," he said to Yang Mei with a smile.

After moving everything into the house, Yang Zheng busied himself putting the disassembled lights back together. Yang Mei had just sat down when the household registration police officer sat down next to her: "Where have you been all day? I've come three times already, and all the doors are locked. I was so worried."

Yang Mei glanced at her but remained silent.

“Last night, we arrested a guy in our station. Do you know what he does? He’s a driver, that’s right, a driver. He works for a car rental company. Three days ago, the company assigned him a long-distance job to pick up 20 mental patients from the county and bring them to the city’s mental hospital. After picking them up, he got hungry halfway there, so he stopped by the roadside to buy a boxed lunch. When he came back, all the patients had run away.”

Yang Mei continued to watch Yang Zheng working as if nothing was wrong, but she became interested in what he was saying.

"That kid was dumbfounded. Losing his bonus for not completing the task was a small matter, but having 20 mentally ill people roaming the streets was a big deal. To shirk responsibility, guess what despicable thing that kid did?"

This time, Yang Mei's gaze finally fell on him, and Yang Zheng over there also turned his head.

“He drove around the city, pretending to be a bus, and after picking up 20 passengers, he drove directly to a mental hospital. He even told the doctor who received the patients that these people were seriously ill, and none of them admitted that they were sick.”

A smile flashed across Yang Mei's face and then disappeared. Her gaze fell on Yang Zheng over there. Yang Zheng saw some sadness in her eyes again—Yang Zheng understood perfectly well why she was sad, but he still smiled nonchalantly, as if the story the police officer was telling was ridiculous.

"Are you telling the truth or not?" This was the first time Yang Mei had spoken to the household registration police officer.

"It's fake." The police officer smiled smugly. "Looking at your long face, I spent all night thinking about how to make you smile. You look much prettier when you smile than when you have a long face."

Yang Mei was taken aback, and her gaze softened considerably when it fell on him this time.

Just then, footsteps sounded in the courtyard, and the three of them turned to look at the door. A moment later, the door opened, and a man entered. He was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, of medium build, with hair longer than Yang Zheng's, tied in a small braid at the back of his head. He wore a beige short trench coat, light blue jeans, and chunky leather shoes, looking like an artistic young man.

"Busy, huh?" the young artist greeted casually, clearly quite familiar with Yang Zheng and Yang Mei, a smile on his face. But the smile quickly froze as he spotted the uniformed police officer.

"Oh, there's a police officer here too. He really startled me."

"Are you so timid, and we police officers so scary?" the household registration officer said with dissatisfaction.

"No, no, only criminals are afraid of the police. I'm just a little guilty," the man said seriously. "This society is too complicated. People are often not in control of their own lives. You never know when you might make a mistake. We honest people feel uneasy if we make a mistake. If a policeman stands in front of us, our legs will definitely tremble."

"What mistakes have you made? Have you considered how many years you might be sentenced to?"

"I don't understand the law, I'm legally illiterate, how many years I'll be sentenced to is up to you." The newcomer was very familiar with the police and sat down directly opposite the police officer in charge of household registration. "It's not easy to run into the police, I really want to ask you to help me weigh this, is taking off a young girl's clothes for no reason enough to constitute the crime of hooliganism?"

The police officer in charge of household registration perked up and sat up straight, his expression complex: "Really?"

“That’s right.” Yang Zheng took over the conversation. “But this is something you police can’t handle. His name is Luo Bin. He works as an advertising planner, but his major is fine arts, oil painting. He’s best at painting naked girls.”