Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Shadow of the Woods

The old woman sat under the tree, holding a yellow bamboo cane in both hands, her white hair was ruffled by the wind, and the wrinkles on her face were like dried orange peels. She doesn't have a name, Zhang Tian's is written in the household registration book, and many old people in China don't have names.

The village director said: Zhang Tian, tell me about your history, have you ever eaten people before?

The old woman said, "What nonsense."

The village chief said: Think about it, there was a famine in 1960, and you ate people.

The old woman said: 60 years...... I forgot it, I can't remember it, my family...... Eight generations of poor peasants, dare to do anything to me.

The old man's thinking was still stuck in the past era, and she babbled to the village director and the special case team that her family was good. For three decades, from 1949 to 1979, the Chinese were proud of poverty. The old woman slowly stood up with her crutches, she staggered, took a step, her body shook, and she could fall at any moment. Everyone looked at the back of this old man, and it was obvious that she had difficulty walking, and it was impossible for her to be the murderer of the serial disappearance.

Back at the Jiba County Public Security Bureau, Professor Liang held a meeting to analyze the case.

The first case of disappearance was a few years ago, and it was very difficult for the police to investigate, and they could only focus on the recently disappeared people. The case has a lot in common, the nine missing teenagers are all young men, the time of disappearance is concentrated in the morning or noon, and the place of disappearance is near the dirt road in Zhanghe village. Police agree with the family's speculation that the series of disappearances may have been committed by the same person or gang.

Professor Leung said: "These children have no signs of running away from home or being kidnapped, and they are likely to have suffered an accident.

Su Mei said: If it is a series of homicides, what is the motive?

Bao Chu said: We must rise to the level of a homicide case, and we must not treat it as an ordinary disappearance case.

Officer Mao said: Will the murder be the cutting of organs to sell?

Hualong said: You are stupid, I really don't know how you became the director. It is impossible to sell organs, and organ transplantation requires matching, prior physical examination, organ removal, preservation, and transportation, and any link is very complex and professional, and it is not something that ordinary people can do.

Bao Chu said: If it is a thirst for killing and revenge on society, you should choose no target.

Su Mei said: The missing people are all adolescent men, and I think it is likely that there is a sexual motive, a homosexual motive.

Professor Liang said: The motive is unknown, I am reminded of the famous disappearance of the frog boy in South Korea!

The three major unsolved cases in South Korea have not been solved: "The Missing Frog Boy Case", "The Abduction and Murder Case of Lee Hyung-ho", and "The Hwaseong Serial Murder Case". All three cases have thrown the entire Korean society into a panic, and the multi-award-winning film "Memories of Murder" is based on the Hwaseong serial murder case.

The case of the disappearance of the frog boy is very strange and bizarre, and it has also been adapted into a movie - "Children".

On March 26, 1991, five elementary school students in South Korea went to catch a lizard (misreported as frogs by the media) on a holiday, and then mysteriously disappeared. The family searched all over South Korea, and even alarmed the then president of South Korea, and the police, including the military, searched for about 320,000 people, but the search went nowhere. Until September 25, 2002, exactly 11 years and 6 months after the time of the crime, the body was found in Wolong Mountain.

The five corpses had been ossified, pressed against each other in the state of stacked arhats, and a large stone was pressed on top of the top.

The five teenagers showed obvious signs of murder, and their clothes were tied in a unique form that experts said was an unprecedented way to tie them. The specific legal police have not disclosed it, and it can be imagined that it is tied in a circle, or it is collectively tied up by the murderer.

The cause of death announced by the South Korean police early was "hypothermia", and the forensic team later determined that the skulls of the three deceased had traces of blunt force injuries, and some bullet casings were scattered at the scene. Strangely enough, corpses have no hair, a large number of teeth are missing, and tissues such as muscle fat are known to decay, but teeth, hair, and bones are difficult to oxidize and can be preserved for many years.

The murderer has never been caught......

Professor Liang arranged the work, and Officer Mao was responsible for investigating the last contact person of the nine missing teenagers, making a list to check one by one.

The place where the crime occurred was a dirt road, and the people who appeared there were employees of the nearby cold storage in addition to the villagers of Zhanghe Village, and Zhanghe Village and the cold storage were the key areas of investigation, and the murderer was likely to hide in these two places. Bao Chu, Hua Long, and Su Mei concentrated their efforts to carry out a detailed investigation with the cooperation of the local government. Everyone who has direct contact with the cold storage, including transport drivers and other related personnel who have business dealings. For the villagers of Zhanghe Village, they should go into the village to visit each house in the form of a census and record every person who has a criminal record and has been dealt with by the police.

According to the analysis of the special case team, the murderer lived alone near the dirt road where the crime occurred, met the conditions for committing a crime, and was likely to be a person who had been released from prison after completing his sentence.

Criminal investigations in China are characterized by crowd tactics, which are clumsy but often invincible. Bai Jingyu sent an inspection team to Jiba County, and Officer Mao did not dare to slack off, mobilized many police forces, and went all out.

Su Mei and Bao Chu installed surveillance equipment, two cameras, one fixed on the outer wall of the cold storage public toilet, and the other placed at the entrance of Zhanghe Village, and arranged for the police on duty to monitor the dirt road where the crime occurred 24 hours a day.

At night, the surveillance screen is very terrifying, there are no street lights on the dirt road, in the dark, some wind and grass can make people worry, especially the grove, the staff on duty has been watching for a long time, and the spirit is extremely nervous.

In fact, as long as you pay attention, even in the city, there are similar eerie roads.

When you walk at night, you always feel that there is a dark shadow following you, you walk fast, he follows fast, you run and he runs, when you stop, you look back and you can't see people, only the dark night around you surrounds you.

Su Mei and Bao Chu pretended to be staff of the Family Planning Commission, and with the cooperation of the local government and the village director, they went door-to-door to try to find the suspects. On this day, the two worked late, and it was already 11 o'clock in the evening after eating at the village director's house, and it happened that the vehicle broke down, so the two decided to walk back to the county public security bureau.

Zhanghe Village is not very far from the county seat, and when passing through the dirt road, a creepy strange thing happened.

At that time, the moon was hidden in the clouds, and in the dark night, there was no finger visible, the surroundings were very quiet, and the grass on the side of the road gave a cool and eerie feeling. Nine teenagers disappeared on the road, most likely killed, or their souls lingering here...... Thinking of this, Su Mei couldn't help but be a little scared.

The two walked side by side, Su Mei looked around and said, "Xiaobao, did you bring a gun?"

Bao Chu said: No, Brother Hualong often carries guns, we are now family planning cadres, what are we doing with guns.

Su Mei said: I have

A little cold.

Bao Chu said: No, it's like spring all year round here.

Su Mei said: You hate it.

Bao Chop said: Ah...... Xiaomei, are you scared?

Su Mei said: No, I want you to hold my hand.

Bao Shu hesitated for a moment and said: This road is monitored, and it will be seen.

Su Mei said: No matter, it's so dark, others can't see it, you have to listen to me.

Bao Chu took Su Mei's hand, and when he walked near the grove, he faintly heard a sound from the woods.

Bao Chop said: Shhh

Su Mei said: You bastard, don't scare me.

Bao Chop said: It seems to be ...... Someone spoke.

The two men stood still, and the grove looked eerie, this one was full of eucalyptus, the trunk was not thick, the crown was shaped like a tower, and the glade was covered with some low shrubs that the locals called "airplane grass". In the darkness, I could faintly see a person standing behind a tree peeking at the dirt road, and there were two red dots suspended in the air, which seemed to be the eyes of some ghost.

Su Mei was a little nervous, holding Bao Qi's hand tightly, and Bao Qi shouted: Who is there?

In the silence, the clouds broke through the moonrise, and suddenly there was a terrifying scream, and two ghosts ran out of the woods, in a very strange posture, their hands swinging back and forth sharply, but their feet seemed to be restrained by something, and they could only jog in small steps. Bao Chu and Su Mei were both stunned by the scene in front of them, and the two ghosts became like zombies, jumping straight over the dirt ditch at the edge of the forest. Bao Shu and Su Mei stood in the middle of the road, hand in hand, and the two ghosts turned their heads and ran when they saw them, letting out a long-sounding ghost crying wolf howl as they ran.

Bao Chu had a keen eye and recognized the two men as the son of the village director, who had once seen them at the village director's house.

They returned to Zhanghe Village the same way they came, and the two sons of the village chief recounted the horror of encountering ghosts in the woods**.

The brothers were reunited with their classmates in the county town and came home late because of the many disappearances on that road, and they traveled together. When passing through the grove, my brother had diarrhea, and he said to his younger brother: "Ouch, my stomach is uncomfortable, the spicy tang I ate at night is stinky, did you bring paper?"

The younger brother said: No paper, I have cigarettes, I can wipe my butt with a cigarette case, I just ...... It was as if I saw an old woman in the woods.

My brother said: What time is it, and I'm still joking, I can't hold it anymore, and I'm about to get into my crotch.

The brothers went to the woods to make it easier, and in order to be brave, they lit cigarettes. The two red dots that Bao Shu and Su Mei saw were the cigarette butts in their hands. The brothers squatted in the woods, and the elder brother picked up a few leaves on the ground to devour them and prepare them to be used as handpapers. At this time, the moon appeared and disappeared in the clouds, and the younger brother looked at his brother's shadow and saw that there was suddenly an extra head on his shoulder. The younger brother was so frightened that he quietly pointed to the shadow of the extra human head on the ground, and the moonlight disappeared, and the darkness was dark, and the elder brother saw nothing.

At this time, a cool breeze swept the dust from the back, the local temperature was like spring, the elder brother was very strange why there was a cool breeze, the brothers looked back, and couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

Behind them, near a tree, a man stood upright, dressed in a costume similar to that of a period costume, with sleeves hanging down. The scalp was numb, the man's feet were suspended on the ground, his head was lowered, and his face could not be seen, and then there was an unbelievable scene, the man's body slowly floated towards them.