Volume Two: Portrait - Chapter 4: Bloodsucker

Grandpa Qin carried two grass carp, walking steadily into the corridor. Due to his age, he was already panting by the time he reached the fourth floor.

Leaning on the railing, Grandpa Qin wanted to catch his breath before continuing upstairs. However, he inadvertently noticed that the door of 401 was slightly ajar. Curiously, he peeked inside and then sat down on the floor.

The two gutted and gilled grass carp lay on the ground, still struggling for life. One of them unexpectedly hopped into 401, leaping on a puddle of dark red viscous liquid, oblivious to the fact that at the end of the puddle, another creature with its abdomen torn open was lying silently.

The police quickly arrived at the scene. The leading officer took one look and instructed his colleague to call the headquarters.

"That vampire has appeared again."

On the way to the scene, Officer Tai Wei changed his mind. He told his colleagues to go ahead and drove to J University himself.

Although the previous conversation with Fang Mu did not provide any new insights or leads for the case, Tai Wei still decided to listen to his thoughts again. There was no better way to understand the case than being at the scene.

Fang Mu was in the middle of a Japanese class.

This was a common class for over 700 graduate students in the largest auditorium at J University. Just a few minutes after the class started, a tall young man burst into the room. He walked straight to the Japanese teacher, flashed a card at him, and whispered a few words. The Japanese teacher then grabbed the microphone and said, "Fang Mu, who is Fang Mu?"

"I am." A bespectacled male student stood up in the corner.

"This officer from the Public Security Bureau is looking for you."

The entire classroom fell silent. All eyes shifted from the intruder to Fang Mu.

Fang Mu stood there as if he were oblivious to the curious, suspicious, and astonished gazes. He stared into Tai Wei's eyes, his brow furrowed.

Tai Wei made a gesture to indicate, "Let's go."

Fang Mu picked up his backpack and, under the curious glances, followed Tai Wei out of the auditorium.

Tai Wei didn't say anything on the way, and Fang Mu remained silent.

In the next encounter, someone would lose their life. This made it difficult for Tai Wei to find the right opening. What was even more strange was the boy next to him. What had happened? Where did he need to go? He didn't ask at all, just silently stared out of the window.

"Is that Mingzhu Community?" Suddenly, the strange boy spoke.

Tai Wei turned to look. "Yes, that's right." He suddenly realized that it was the scene of the first murder.

A few minutes later, the jeep stopped at the workers' dormitory of the J City Motorcycle Factory, known as Guangming Garden.

Guangming Garden was built in the 1980s. At that time, the motorcycle factory was a well-known large state-owned enterprise with excellent employee benefits. At the time of welfare housing, the workers' dormitory of the motorcycle factory was one of the few seven-story high-rise buildings. However, as time passed, the city saw more and more tall buildings, and these few old buildings, standing for 20 years, looked dilapidated.

The crime scene was in Room 401 of Unit 2 in Building 3. The scene had already been cordoned off by the officers who had arrived earlier. Fang Mu and Tai Wei crossed the police line and quickly climbed to the fourth floor. There were many policemen rushing up and down the stairs, many of whom looked at the bespectacled young man with a backpack with suspicion.

Tai Wei entered Room 401. It was an old one-bedroom apartment of about 40 square meters. Several forensic experts and technicians were busy examining the body, taking photos, and collecting evidence. A police officer at the scene told Tai Wei that the deceased had just rented the apartment and was a single woman, and the landlord was on the way to the scene.

The deceased was a woman who looked to be no more than 35 years old. Her body was lying on her back, with her chest and abdomen cut open with a sharp object, revealing ribs and internal organs.

"How is it?" Tai Wei tapped a forensic expert on the shoulder.

"The cause of death is mechanical asphyxiation, and the weapon is a nylon rope, which has been collected by the forensic team. The time of death is estimated to be within the past two hours."

Tai Wei glanced at his watch. "So, the time of death was probably between 2:00 and 2:30?"

"Yes."

Committing the crime in broad daylight, this person was too audacious. While muttering to himself, Tai Wei turned to look for Fang Mu but found him standing at the door, staring in horror at the body.

"Come here," Tai Wei called out to him.

Fang Mu seemed startled and hesitated for a moment. He nodded but did not move.

"Are you scared?" Tai Wei frowned.

Fang Mu looked at Tai Wei, took a deep breath, and walked in.

The forensic experts were carefully examining the wound on the woman's chest and abdomen, gently pulling apart the skin and muscle tissue. Fang Mu stared at the wound for a while, then looked at the congealed blood on the floor before swiftly darting into the corridor. He almost collided with a police officer carrying evidence bags, who scolded him in annoyance.

Tai Wei quickly followed him and found Fang Mu leaning against the wall, bent over, and retching in the corner of the corridor.

Tai Wei inwardly cursed Fang Mu as useless and asked a police officer beside him to bring some water for him before returning to the scene to continue his work.

Fang Mu knew that one day he would personally visit the crime scene of the bloodsucker, but he did not expect to feel so embarrassed. Despite being able to eat while looking at nauseating crime scene photos, the dim and filthy corridor, the solemn-faced officers passing by, the conspicuous police cordon, the cold instruments of the forensic experts, the body lying in a pool of blood, and the faint scent of blood in the air all gave him a chilling feeling. Pictures were just pictures, and they would never convey the same information as the scene itself, using sight, touch, and smell to communicate the message: a life had just been extinguished. This realization made him shudder, as if a part of his memory that he didn't want to touch had been violently struck.

Stay calm and don't let it affect your judgment. He reminded himself sternly as he vomited.

"Are you okay?" Tai Wei's impatient voice sounded in his ear.

Fang Mu gasped heavily, weakly leaning against the wall, and gulped down the half-empty water bottle handed to him by a police officer. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said laboriously, "There may be another person."

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"What?" Tai Wei's eyes widened in surprise.

Fang Mu didn't answer him and continued to ask the police officer, "Have you found a cup or other container containing blood and other substances?"

The police officer glanced at Tai Wei and replied, "No."

Fang Mu closed his eyes tightly, muttered under his breath, then turned to Tai Wei and said, "There is another victim, and it may be a child."

"Another one, a child?" Tai Wei furrowed his brow. "How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Do you want me to explain it to you now?" Fang Mu had already started to leave. "That child may still be alive! Get your men and follow me!"

Tai Wei, Fang Mu, and several police officers got into the car. As they drove to the entrance of the community, Tai Wei suddenly slammed on the brakes.

"Where should we look?"

"Start from here and search in concentric circles, looking for a man aged between 25 and 30, about 170 cm tall, slim, with long and unkempt hair, carrying a large checkered-patterned bag, and with a vacant look in his eyes." Fang Mu paused for a moment. "Maybe he's wearing a relatively thick garment."

The police officers exchanged glances.

Tai Wei contemplated for a moment and instructed the police officers behind him, "Did you hear that? Pay attention to anyone matching that description!"

After circling around Guangming Garden twice, Tai Wei realized they were at a crossroads with multiple exits. He slowed down and turned to Fang Mu. "Which way should we go?"

Fang Mu stared at a junction for a few seconds and decisively pointed, "This way!"

At that moment, the sky suddenly darkened, and large leaden clouds rolled in the distance. Deep inside the clouds, distant thunder rumbled.

This was a newly built road leading to the outskirts. There were few pedestrians on the road, and low houses and fruit stalls were visible on both sides of the road.

The wind grew stronger, carrying sand and pebbles from the road, tapping against the car window. People either hurriedly ran or pedaled their bikes, and it seemed like a storm was about to arrive.

The people in the car pressed their noses against the windows, trying to look outside. Tai Wei's palms were sweaty, and he almost lost control of the steering wheel several times. He didn't notice that Fang Mu's expression was becoming increasingly grim.

A few minutes later, heavy raindrops finally began to fall, creating countless smoking craters on the road. The outside world became blurry, and no one looked outside anymore because there was nothing to see within sight.

Nobody spoke, and the jeep sped rapidly down the seemingly endless road. The sky seemed to be pressing down, and occasional lightning tore through the leaden sky, followed by a tearing explosion.

"Stop!" Fang Mu suddenly shouted.

Tai Wei quickly stepped on the brakes, and the jeep swayed and skidded for a long distance before coming to a stop.

Before the car had fully stopped, Fang Mu jumped out and ran back.

On the roadside were a row of ruins, possibly an abandoned factory for a long time. Perhaps there were once machines roaring and people coming and going, but all of that was now buried in waist-high weeds.

Fang Mu was soaked by the rain, staring at the rain-soaked grass, trembling slightly all over.

Tai Wei covered his head with his clothes and ran to Fang Mu. Before he could speak, he heard Fang Mu say through clenched teeth, "It's here! We need to search here!"

Without hesitation, the group immediately spread out to carefully search through the waist-high grass.

A few minutes later, a police officer to the west exclaimed and then shouted, "Found it!"

All eyes turned to him.

He knew what those looks meant. Swallowing hard, he said, "It's dead."

It was a little girl. The body was stuffed into a section of a concrete pipe, with her chest and abdomen cut open. Beside the body was a mineral water bottle containing a red viscous substance, resembling blood. In the nearby bushes, they found a large checkered-patterned knitting bag and a pointed wooden knife.

Tai Wei directed several police officers to seal off the scene and requested assistance from the headquarters. After finishing all this, he felt deeply exhausted. He opened the car door and saw Fang Mu sitting in the passenger seat, soaking wet, with water dripping from his hair. His eyes were fixed on the rain-blurred car window, and the cigarette in his hand was almost burnt out.

Tai Wei didn't say anything, even though he had a lot of questions for Fang Mu. Instead, he lit a cigarette and slowly organized his thoughts.

"Male," Fang Mu suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse. "Aged no more than 30, very thin, unkempt, lives nearby, parents were possibly former employees of a state-owned enterprise, deceased or not living with him. He has severe mental disorders, and blood has a very special meaning to him."

He took a hard drag from the cigarette, then rolled down the window and flicked the cigarette butt outside.

"I have two suggestions: first, search for people who have been hospitalized in the past five years due to blood-related diseases and look for those with the mentioned characteristics among them; second, search for people who have received blood transfusions in the past three years, especially those who voluntarily requested non-essential transfusions."

Tai Wei jotted down these points in his notebook, then asked carefully, "How did you know there was another victim?"

"That button. The deceased at the scene was about 30 years old, so it's unlikely that she would have used a button with a cartoon pattern. Also, I didn't find any matching garments at the scene."

"That button could have been left behind by a previous tenant."

"No. There was no dust on the button. Also," Fang Mu stared out the window, "the deceased must have just moved into this apartment. The bag of clothes hadn't been opened yet, but there were scattered clothes on the floor, and no bag for storing clothes could be found. There was a missing knife in the kitchen, probably the one used to open the deceased's body. Although the deceased's body was cut open, there was no evidence at the scene that the killer had drunk her blood. This suggests that the killer must have found more attractive blood and then taken the victim away using a bag."

Fang Mu turned to Tai Wei. "Younger blood. What do you think?"

Tai Wei was taken aback by the question. "I, I don't know."

Fang Mu didn't seem to expect an answer from him either. He turned his head to stare into the darkening sky.

Tai Wei thought for a moment and asked, "How did you know that the killer killed the child here?"

Fang Mu didn't answer immediately. After a long pause, he slowly said, "For him, this is the most suitable place."