The Snake's Loneliness (Continued)

Two white, fleshy worms stared in astonishment at Lin as he walked in and the tea and snacks in his hand.

Lin paused for a moment, then silently finished the tea and snacks in two bites, and then picked up his phone, the flash going off rapidly.

That damn rich pervert, doesn't he lock the door when he's cheating?

"Lin boy, this is the fourth time today."

"As a private investigator with professional ethics, I will definitely complete the task once I accept it."

Sitting opposite Lin was a red-haired woman in a police uniform, holding a steaming glass of... beer? It was definitely beer, wasn't it? A police officer on duty drinking ginger beer?!

Lin, a regular customer, was used to his presence here. After hearing what he said, she scoffed, "Professional ethics? Didn't you say that a private investigator's professional ethics are like leftover chewing gum under a bus seat?"

Lin waved his handcuffed hands. "But there will definitely be leftover chewing gum."

"I actually hope you can find another job, so as not to increase my workload."

"It's just sitting together for tea, what's the trouble?"

Lin hasn't been taken in yet because he has information on a lot of wealthy people. As long as he doesn't go too far and push them to the brink, he'll only be in detention for a few days at most.

The red-haired woman put down her empty glass, let out a burp, and rudely picked at her ear, saying, "Instead of digging up those pointless scandals all day, why don't you do something for me?"

"First, I apologize to the God of Private Investigators. This is not a trivial scandal, but our very spirit. Second, I charge a high price."

What is the God of Private Investigators?

"May God protect us from getting caught taking secret photos."

"... Are all your gods this tasteless?" The red-haired woman sighed. "Alright, I know, I'll pay."

This was the first time Lin had ever worked for a cop. He had occasionally heard that people in their line of work sometimes cooperated with the police, and most of the time the news that came back after the cooperation was that they had successfully gotten a government job.

... As for what kind of government-funded meal it was, that remains to be seen.

"A murder case..."

Based on the information provided by the red-haired woman on his phone, Lin arrived at a villa in a locked-down upscale neighborhood. After comparing it with the photos, he confirmed that the dilapidated villa in front of him, which looked like it had been ransacked by robbers, was his destination.

Because it was a private collaboration, Lin could only come at night, and the red-haired policewoman in charge of guarding the scene would help send him away.

Lin walked into the dilapidated courtyard, stepping on hollow tree branches that made a sickeningly soft sound. Large patches of dried blood, as if blood had been splattered freely in a movie, covered the villa, walls, and ground. The white lines drawn on the ground marked the original locations of the corpses.

What can I say... This is the most fitting Murder Scene.

Two weeks ago, Schicksal occurred here. A family of four and five relatives who came to visit were all killed. There were screams everywhere. People nearby only heard faint screams and pleas for mercy, but it only lasted for less than half a minute. When the police arrived, all that was left at the scene were dismembered pieces of flesh.

In the information age, there are still cases of family annihilation, and the perpetrators have escaped without a trace, leaving us completely baffled even with modern methods. This is truly rare.

Lin didn't rush inside. Instead, he walked around the area with bloodstains. In such a horrific scene, it would be difficult for most people to remain rational, but he strolled around as if he were in his own home.

There's a famous saying in their line of work.

"If you want to hide a tree, a forest is the perfect place."

At first glance, this place is indeed terrifying. The killer seems to be setting up a B-movie scene, splattering blood everywhere. But setting aside the extremely unlikely possibility that the killer is a irrational psychopath—to kill all seven victims in a short time, one must have meticulous planning and efficient action, which is completely opposite to the situation at the scene—there must be clues here that Lin needs.

So, what did the killer want the bloodstains and scattered pieces of flesh to cover up?

Fingerprints, footprints...

Lin, who was pinching her chin, raised her head.

"Number of corpses?"

Lin made a phone call to the red-haired woman.

"How many bodies can be confirmed at this time?"

"Only five bodies were found, and most of them were severely missing and could not be reconstructed. The rest were likely taken away by the murderer."

"I see."

Five people?

Lin hung up the phone and found a group photo of the victims in the file given to him by the red-haired woman.

Lin stared at the two people in the house, then walked into the "Haunted House".

Special Feature: Detective Rhapsody (Part 2)

To be honest, Lin didn't want to come into contact with words like "mystery," "murder case," and "serial killer" at all, since they represented trouble, and trouble was the thing he hated most.

The reason I took this commission was because I was tired of digging up scandals and dirt, and I wanted to exercise my stiff brain... It was definitely not because the pay was too high.

As soon as Lin entered Qiu's house, he smelled an even stronger stench than outside. He carefully avoided the white line to avoid disturbing the scene and observed everything inside.

The murder weapon has not yet been found, and only most of the body has been recovered. The rest of the body was found in other places, like installment payments. So, in addition to the villa, the police are still tracing the murderer's escape route through the locations where the bodies were dumped.

Did that unreliable guy really have that much influence in the police station? He could provide such detailed information about serious cases...

Lin muttered to himself as he looked around, then squinted and stared at a certain spot.

There were seven victims. The bodies of five of them have been identified. The two who have not yet been found are the two youngest victims, their daughter and son.

The reason why there was no suspicion that the two people were still alive was because their blood samples were also found in the bloodstains, and the body of the fifth person was not in the villa before, but the head was found elsewhere a few days later.

But Lin doesn't think so.

The killer's motive is often a key element of the case. Even if the killer killed someone for food, that can still be considered a motive. But in this case, the villa was not looted, the female corpse was not desecrated, and it was unlikely to be a revenge killing. Even if the body was dismembered, there were no extra signs of torture on the corpses, indicating that the killer dismembered the body very calmly.

Of course, these inferences are not necessarily correct. He makes judgments based on certain premises, and if the premises are wrong, then his inferences will naturally be wrong as well.

The premise is that... the murderers are those two children.

It's normal that the police didn't expect this; they couldn't fathom the psychological distortions that might occur in some wealthy families when their material needs are met.

For example, we could organize a fun little party.

For example, playing a partner swapping game.

For example... unethical feelings developed between close relatives.

Lin was able to say that because in that group photo, there was a captured moment where her daughter and son were looking at each other.

Others might find it normal, but Lin had previously handled a rather indescribable case that gave him a new understanding of the twisted concept of "emotion."

The task was to investigate the disappearance of a family's son, whom the police couldn't find. Lin finally found him in the basement of a wealthy heiress's house.

The rich heiress kidnapped the man and did all sorts of things to him that would make people envious, but the problem was that the man was of average appearance and build, and didn't have any outstanding talents; he was just an ordinary person.

Why would a fair-skinned, beautiful, and wealthy girl kidnap a man like that? Lin couldn't understand.

Afterwards, the rich heiress answered him, saying she had no ulterior motive.

That man was one of the few who didn't care about her, but she just wanted to imprison him and force him, even though she had never had similar thoughts about anyone before.

What's even stranger is that the man fell in love with the feeling of being imprisoned and forced by her. It wasn't an equal "love," but rather a form of abuse in that special environment.

Their relationship still baffles Lin, but the way they looked at each other is something Lin can never forget.

Indeed, the way the son and daughter looked at each other reminded him of those perverted people.

He walked to a bookshelf where books were scattered all over the floor, almost all of them splattered with blood, giving an idea of the horrific scene.

In order not to disturb the scene, the books were not moved.

"Order? No, judging from this position... it should be reverse order."

Lin stroked his chin. He picked up the books whose bloodstains had completely congealed, then sorted them alphabetically by the first letter of each book and put them back on the bookshelf.

A tremor ran beneath his feet, and Lin looked down at where he was standing, and began to sink.

"So that's how it is. It was converted into an almost solid elevator, which is why the fact that the bottom was hollowed out didn't get discovered?"

After the elevator reached the bottom floor, Lin walked along the only path until he reached the end, where there was a door.

There was some noise inside the door. He listened intently with a blank expression, and sighed after he understood what it was.

Lin opened the door and said to the two people on the bed in the center of the room who were having sex and had been stunned by the noise behind them, with dead fish eyes, "Hey, you two, it's time to end this incestuous drama. The bad kids should go to jail."

"As expected, asking you for help was the right thing to do." The red-haired woman lit a cigarette and offered one to Lin, but he shook his head and refused.

He hates the taste of nicotine.

"I didn't do anything, you'll find out sooner or later anyway." Lin looked at the two people being pushed into the police car. "By the way, you'd better investigate this family, you might find some unexpected surprises."

"What do you mean?"

"Their dismemberment techniques were too skilled; it was clearly not their first time doing this. Moreover, the bloodstains in the basement that this family built were quite old, so they definitely weren't just their own blood."

"You mean they're committing crimes in secret?"

"Who knows? After witnessing real psychopaths, I suddenly feel that cheating doesn't seem so bad anymore."

Did the two children kill each other because their family disapproved of their forbidden love, or because they couldn't bear the family's hidden bloodshed and perversion? It didn't matter to Lin.

The important thing is that this matter was resolved simply, quickly, and easily.

However, he still had some doubts. Lin didn't believe that the two children were capable of planning this massacre and handling the aftermath, and how they managed to dump the bodies hundreds of kilometers away without being discovered.

Moreover, it was so easy, as if he had grabbed the person the moment he walked in.

"Then I'll have someone go with you to the basement." The red-haired woman beckoned to the nearest policewoman, who then walked over and followed behind Lin.

...strangeness.

Lin glanced at the red-haired woman.

Never mind.

He took the policewoman with him, started the basement elevator, and the two of them slowly descended.

The light was gradually swallowed up.

When the elevator reached the bottom, Lin lay on the elevator floor, unconscious.

In a daze, he seemed to feel someone dragging him into that secret room.

Special Feature: Detective Rhapsody (Part 2)

My head hurts so much...

That's true. After all, the trick in the movie where hitting the back of the neck causes fainting without any aftereffects is simply unrealistic. Most patients with carotid sinus syncope are middle-aged or elderly. Gently massaging the carotid sinuses on both sides of the neck for five seconds can cause fainting. Not to mention the possibility of cardiac arrest, nerve damage, or even sudden death if the force is too strong. That kind of scene should actually be the protagonist giving each of the fifty or sixty-year-olds a neck massage.

The person who did it was really confident they wouldn't kill him...

Lin was half-asleep, thinking to himself, while cautiously squinting his eyes and pretending to be still unconscious to observe the situation.

"Hey, stop pretending to be asleep, your breathing rhythm has changed." Wei

Lin could only open his eyes. "These days, criminals need to be able to tell if someone is awake or not just by listening... Wow!"

What appeared before me was a gleaming body, so gleaming that not a single piece of fabric could be seen.

Should he close his eyes to show his gentlemanly manners, or open them wide to respect the other person's physique?

Wait, body shape?

Lin looked closely and saw that the woman with long gray-blue hair did indeed have a perfect figure, neither too fat nor too thin. It was just a pity that compared to her fair, long legs and hips that made people drool at first glance, her upper body was... disappointing.

"What kind of look is that? Do I look that bad?" The unfamiliar girl stood in front of Lin with her arms crossed, looking annoyed.

"Well, when you asked this question, you already knew the answer."

Lin tried to move his hands, but they were firmly handcuffed to the headboard.

Fortunately, this couldn't stump Lin; he would...

"Don't waste your energy. I know you'll dislocate your own hand and then get it out of the handcuffs."

Please, do you people all have the superpower to see through someone's information just by saying "I know"?

The girl smiled wickedly, staring down at Lin with an air of superiority. Her silence instilled a great sense of pressure in Lin.

"Why don't you put on some clothes first?" Lin's mind raced, and he suggested with a forced laugh.

"Since we'll have to take them off anyway, what difference does it make whether we wear them or not?"

"..." Lin's smile grew even drier. He tentatively asked, "Are you planning to take a shower later, that's why you're not wearing any clothes?"

"Heh." An unmistakable sneer.