deltrittennovels #539 - Late Night Tragedy
#539 - Late Night Tragedy
Tang Yin suppressed the churning in his stomach and refocused his gaze on the fragmented corpse before him. The heavy, bloody stench assaulted his olfactory nerves, but he knew this was not the time to show weakness.
He took a deep breath and slowly rolled up his shirt sleeves, revealing slightly pale arms. As his hand slowly and firmly reached towards the gruesome wound, Zhao Gang's urgent voice suddenly rang out from behind.
"Hey, hey, what are you trying to do?!" Zhao Gang's voice was filled with horror and incomprehension, as if he were witnessing something unbelievable.
"Although the possibility is low, I still need to confirm it," Tang Yin said in an unusually calm tone, his eyes gleaming with focus. Years of reading detective novels had taught him that sometimes the most obvious truth is the most perfect disguise. Destroying the victim's head could be to conceal the corpse's true identity—such as killing someone of similar build and disguising them as Gao Zhijie.
"Does Gao Zhijie have silver teeth in his lower jaw?" Tang Yin suddenly asked, his gaze still fixed on the corpse's face.
Zhao Gang's face instantly turned pale, and he subconsciously covered his mouth, his voice barely audible: "No, he doesn't."
Tang Yin knew that his actions might seem a bit excessive at the moment, but in this strange village, no detail could be ignored. He had to remain rational, even if it meant doing something unpleasant.
"Uncle Gao often boasted that although he was already in his sixties, he hadn't even had a single false tooth replaced…" Zhao Gang calmed down slightly and added, "Does the corpse have dentures?"
"No, I'm just asking to avoid being misled." Tang Yin's fingers carefully touched the dead man's teeth. "The corpse's teeth are indeed very healthy."
"What is it…" Zhao Gang breathed a sigh of relief, his tone full of helplessness.
Tang Yin carefully observed the corpse's facial features. Although the upper jaw and upper half of the face had been destroyed beyond recognition by some tremendous force, the lower jaw remained relatively intact.
The black hair, beard, and eyebrows mixed with white perfectly matched his memory of Gao Zhijie's appearance. This almost confirmed that the corpse before him was indeed Gao Zhijie's.
He lowered his raised hands, looked at his palms covered in dark red liquid, and realized that there was no need to continue dwelling on the killing method—in this bizarre case, ordinary reasoning might not be useful at all.
But one detail caught his attention. The corpse was covered with a thin blanket, and there were no signs of fighting or resistance around it. Did this mean that the murderer killed Gao Zhijie in his sleep with a single blow? Or did the murderer deliberately stage everything to look like a death in sleep before destroying his head?
Tang Yin's gaze slowly swept across the room. In either case, this could not be explained by an ordinary murder case. All the details pointed to an extremely special case, and the truth of this case might be much more terrifying than he imagined.
The morning light streamed in from the window, illuminating the blood-stained blanket. Tang Yin stood up, looked at his bloodied hands, and decided to wash his hands first before continuing to think about this suspicious case.
Tang Yin's gaze wandered around the room, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter.
Logically speaking, Uncle Gao had always carefully observed the rules of object taboo, but the current situation was full of strangeness. The door was intact, without any signs of forced entry, which meant that the deceased most likely opened the door for the murderer himself.
The morning sun shone obliquely into the room, casting slender bands of light on the blood-stained floor. No signs of fighting, no struggle or resistance, this peaceful way of death couldn't help but make one think of the possibility of a crime committed by an acquaintance.
But on second thought, if this was the unique killing method of the Yellow Spring Taboo Banquet, then the possibility of supernatural forces intervening could not be completely ruled out.
Tang Yin slowly stood up, his legs feeling a little numb from squatting for so long. He forced his attention back to the details of the scene and suddenly noticed an anomaly—the bedding and the floor were unnaturally damp, as if they had been completely soaked in water.
"Did the murderer clean something here?" Tang Yin muttered to himself, but quickly rejected the idea. Cleaning up bloodstains next to the corpse was completely unnecessary and would increase the risk of being discovered.
He squatted down and carefully observed the footprints on the ground. The imprints were exceptionally clear, as if the treaders' feet were covered in blood, and the ground and bedding were already wet. The most striking thing was the shape of the footprints—neither modern shoes nor clogs, nor did they look like the paw prints of some beast. The footprints were in the shape of a peculiar elongated koban coin, most likely traces left by some kind of straw sandals.
Most of the bloodstains had been absorbed by the bedding, but the footprints remaining on the ground were particularly clear. What was even more concerning was that there was only this one shape of footprint at the entire scene, without any other messy footprints.
"Did you find anything?" Zhao Gang's voice suddenly came from behind, interrupting Tang Yin's thoughts.
"Nothing," Tang Yin replied calmly, straightening his body.
"That's normal, after all, you're not an expert in this field," Zhao Gang said, with a hint of imperceptible contempt in his tone.
"Yeah, what a pity," Tang Yin echoed softly, but secretly noted a conclusion in his mind—the murderer was an extremely dangerous human being.
While Tang Yin was washing the blood off his hands, Zhao Gang had already deftly removed the door panel from the room. The two of them worked together to carry Uncle Gao's body onto the door panel, gently covering the bloody face with a hand towel.
"Please," Zhao Gang said in a low voice, with a hint of heaviness.
"Okay," Tang Yin responded briefly, bending down to grab one end of the door panel.
The weight of the door panel and the corpse was far greater than expected, indeed requiring two adult men to carry it. They slowly lifted the door panel and carefully walked outwards. The morning mist seemed to be deliberately waiting for them, still thickly enveloping the entire village.
The two figures stepped into the mist, gradually becoming blurred. The mist flowed around them, as if whispering, telling the secrets of this village that were unknown to others. Tang Yin felt that this farewell journey might bring him closer to the truth.
The morning mist flowed slowly beneath their feet, like a cold river.
Tang Yin carried the door panel, feeling the chill seeping from his fingertips, and couldn't help but ask: "…Are we throwing the body into the God's Valley River?"
"Granny Rong said so," Zhao Gang's voice was hoarse and low, as if soaked in the mist.
"If we don't, will it be contaminated?" Tang Yin cautiously probed.
"Yeah," Zhao Gang's response was almost inaudible, revealing endless exhaustion.
Tang Yin glanced sideways at his companion. Zhao Gang's face was as pale as the mist, his eyes were hollow, and his lips were tightly pursed, obviously his mood was extremely bad. Tang Yin wanted to ask more questions, but intuition told him that asking now might drag him into some kind of danger as well.
Just then, Zhao Gang suddenly spoke: "It's all my fault." His voice carried a deep sense of self-blame.
"Why do you say that?" Tang Yin asked cautiously.
"Because I said the wrong thing at the [Banquet]," Zhao Gang's words contained some heavy meaning.
Hearing this sentence, Tang Yin couldn't help but sigh. It seemed that Zhao Gang had discovered something, or rather, confirmed some terrible truth. But now was obviously not a good time to make everything clear.
"Although I don't know what happened, I believe you did your best," Tang Yin tried to comfort him.
"No matter what, failure is failure," Zhao Gang's tone was full of self-abandonment.
"…Then turn defeat into victory, that is, you must become the new leader of Mist Hidden Village," Tang Yin suggested.
"…I can't do it," Zhao Gang's voice was almost squeezed out from between his teeth.
Tang Yin also felt a burst of powerlessness. As an outsider, he couldn't immediately revitalize this man who had fallen into a trough. Their destination was the Hanging Pine Cemetery, that legendary plain full of strangeness.
As they approached the cafeteria, a shocking scene came into view. Granny Rong stood at the entrance of the cafeteria, her hunched figure appearing particularly thin in the morning mist, chanting obscure scriptures non-stop. The old voice echoed in the mist, carrying some kind of mysterious power.
Chen Xiang stood beside the old woman, her eyes unfocused, as if her soul had left her body. Her fingers unconsciously tugged at the edge of her apron, her knuckles turning white.
Hua Lu tightly covered Xiao Mie's eyes, but her own gaze was fixed on Tang Yin and Zhao Gang, and the door panel they were carrying. Her eyes contained both fear and some kind of inexplicable expectation.
The most striking was Gao Mei—Uncle Gao's granddaughter. Her expression shocked Tang Yin. There was no trace of sadness on that young face, replaced by naked anger, deep resentment, and undisguised disgust. She stared fixedly at the remains on the door panel, as if she wanted to burn a hole in it with her gaze.
Tang Yin couldn't help but speculate in his heart: Could it be that something unpleasant had happened between the grandparents? But on second thought, even if there had been conflicts, they were still blood relatives after all. Was it really necessary to be so cold and ruthless at this final farewell moment?
But soon, Tang Yin forced himself to stop these speculations. He reminded himself that as an outsider who knew nothing about this village, it was best not to easily judge other people's family affairs.
The mist flowed between the crowd, as if weaving an invisible net, shrouding everyone's secrets.
"Damn it!" Tang Yin cursed inwardly. The thick fog swirled before his eyes, like a heavy veil, obscuring all possible clues. As an outsider, his current situation was extremely awkward, like standing in a corner of a maze, unable to even see which direction the walls were in.
Later, when the truth gradually surfaced, Tang Yin realized how naive he was. His understanding of this village at that time was like observing the tip of an iceberg with a magnifying glass, completely underestimating the severity of the situation.
"Can't find Qin Yi."
On the hillside leading to the cemetery, Wang Lina's voice suddenly rang out. Her face was frighteningly pale, and fine beads of sweat oozed from her forehead, obviously she had been searching for a long time. Helplessly, she had to search separately with the two high school students. But in this village shrouded in thick fog, finding someone was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"We'll come and help after we bury Uncle Gao," Tang Yin had just finished speaking when he and Zhao Gang tacitly quickened their pace. Although the cemetery was nearby—after all, Mist Hidden Village was a pitifully small place, but for some reason, perhaps because of the surrounding thick fog, or perhaps because of the weight of the door panel in his hands, Tang Yin had a feeling that the journey was long and arduous.
"Hehehe."
A piercing laugh interrupted Tang Yin's thoughts. It was Grandpa Wolf. The old man stood by the roadside, clapping his hands while laughing, his foolish appearance sending chills down one's spine. Tang Yin suddenly thought: Was this old man still alive?
Now the only person missing was Qin Yi. According to the rules, the wolf can only kill one person a night. Thinking of this, the two quickened their pace even more, without saying a word, the air filled with a suffocating tension.
A few minutes later, they found the answer—a disgusting, bloody answer.
Zhao Gang, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped. In the grass leading to the cemetery, Qin Yi's body was scattered on the ground like a pile of broken blocks.
The heavy stench of corpses mixed with the fragrance of wild grass and the unique fishy smell of some wild beasts stimulated the two's nasal cavities. The blood-stained grass and the broken corpse silently told of the tragic struggle that had taken place here.
Broken clothes, torn limbs, every detail told of the pain experienced by the victim.
"——Xiao Yi" Zhao Gang's voice trembled, he bent down and carefully picked up an object about the size of a soccer ball. It was Qin Yi's head, the once handsome face had been disfigured by wild beasts, leaving only a grim expression with clenched teeth.
"You are very brave——" Zhao Gang's voice choked. In this cursed land, Qin Yi proved his courage with his life, but also remained silent forever.
The mist flowed slowly around the corpse, as if the earth was silently mourning for this young life.
Tang Yin stood aside, feeling the coldness seeping from the soles of his feet all the way to his heart. This was not just a simple murder case, but something darker and more evil was at work. But at this moment, all they could do was continue to move forward, sending the dead to their final resting place.
Tang Yin said: "Can I take a look?"
He found that there seemed to be something in Qin Yi's mouth.
He took Qin Yi's head from Zhao Gang and put his fingers into his mouth.
——Short and long animal hair!