I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 11: Chapter 9: Saw It Again...

Ge Yu and Cheng Yong watched the two of them.

Ge Yu pulled Su Miaoyi aside. ”You know him?”

Su Miaoyi nodded.

Ge Yu immediately said, ”It’s not much money. Take it, it’s on the house. No need to pay.”

”It’s fine.” Su Miaoyi held up the payment QR code. ”Just scan this.”

’I’ll just consider it payment for his help.’

Zhuang Yanzheng scanned the code and paid.

A notification announced the receipt of four hundred yuan.

Su Miaoyi froze for a second, then broke into a smile.

Seeing her smile, Zhuang Yanzheng’s eyebrow twitched slightly. ”Let’s go.”

”Is it urgent? Do we have time for me to stop by my house?” Su Miaoyi asked. ”If not, it’s fine.”

”We have time,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi looked at her aunt and uncle.

Ge Yu immediately asked with a smile, ”A friend?”

Su Miaoyi looked at the beaming smile on her aunt’s face and had a feeling she had actually wanted to ask, ’A boyfriend?’

”Uh... yes, a friend.” Su Miaoyi couldn’t exactly say he was the captain of the Municipal Criminal Investigation Division.

If she did, rumors about the Cheng family’s adopted daughter getting arrested for all sorts of reasons would spread throughout the entire district within two hours.

”Good, friends are good, friends are good.” Ge Yu looked at Zhuang Yanzheng, her smile exceptionally satisfied and benevolent.

Zhuang Yanzheng gave her a polite nod.

Su Miaoyi stressed again, ”Auntie, just a regular friend.”

”I get it, I get it,” Ge Yu said with a knowing smile.

Su Miaoyi scratched her hat. ”...Auntie, something’s come up. I need to go back to the city.”

”Then hurry along,” Ge Yu said.

”Okay.” Su Miaoyi left with Zhuang Yanzheng.

Cheng Yong said, ”Look at that cheap smile of yours.”

”What’s wrong with my smile? Since when do you get to control my smiling?” Ge Yu retorted. ”That young man is so handsome, and he’s mature and quiet. Not like you, nagging and droning on and on, day in and day out.”

”He’s so grim, doesn’t even know how to smile. You can tell he’s not young, either! He’s not good enough for Miaomiao,” Cheng Yong said.

”He’s not good enough just because you say so? Who do you think you are? You stay out of Miaomiao’s business,” Ge Yu said.

”I’m her...” Cheng Yong started to say, but trailed off and fell into a sullen silence.

Seeing he was unhappy, Ge Yu sighed. ”That goes for me too, not just you. Let’s not get too big for our britches. We just raised her for a few years. We did it because we wanted to, so let’s not use that as an excuse to demand she do this or that.”

”I know.”

...

Su Miaoyi first went back to the house, put the cash she had withdrawn into an envelope, and placed it under Ge Yu’s pillow.

Only then did she follow Zhuang Yanzheng back to the city.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Su Miaoyi was quiet for a while before asking, ”Have the cases all been solved?”

”Mm,” Zhuang Yanzheng grunted in reply.

Su Miaoyi said no more.

”Why did you stop asking? Aren’t you curious?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”Didn’t you say case details couldn’t be disclosed to outsiders?” Su Miaoyi said.

”Mm,” Zhuang Yanzheng affirmed.

Su Miaoyi glanced at him, then turned to look out the window.

’He can’t talk about it, but he still tries to pique people’s curiosity!’

’How infuriating!’

When they arrived at the Municipal Bureau, Su Miaoyi got out of the car and followed behind Zhuang Yanzheng.

Entering the police station, Zhuang Yanzheng called out, ”Qi Feng.”

His voice made Su Miaoyi jump.

Qi Feng immediately ran out and stood ramrod straight in front of him. ”Captain Zhuang, your orders.”

Zhuang Yanzheng tossed him the car keys. ”There are groceries in the trunk. For those who cook at home. Split it among them.”

Qi Feng caught the keys. ”Did Captain Zhuang do his good deed for the day again?”

”Ran into a robbery today,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi pressed her lips together and said nothing.

”Who would dare rob Captain Zhuang? They must have eaten a bear’s heart and a leopard’s gall,” Qi Feng said.

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced back at Su Miaoyi.

Su Miaoyi immediately said, ”I’ve been a law-abiding citizen since I was a child.”

Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t say anything and continued walking forward.

Su Miaoyi trotted a few steps to catch up.

They went from that building to the one behind it.

Before going in, Su Miaoyi looked at the sign hanging outside: ”Forensic Center.”

A blast of cold air hit her as soon as she entered.

Su Miaoyi shivered.

The two of them finally stopped at an autopsy room.

He opened the door and went in. There was another door inside.

Zhuang Yanzheng gave her shoe covers, a mask, and gloves.

Then he opened the second door and went in.

A medical examiner was at the autopsy table.

Su Miaoyi saw the needle and thread in his hands.

She also saw blood on the autopsy table.

The medical examiner didn’t stop suturing, nor did he acknowledge them.

Only when he finished his stitches did he look up at them.

Su Miaoyi saw a pair of classic phoenix eyes.

She judged his age by the state of his eyes.

’Thirty at most.’

’The captain, the medical examiner, the profiler... they’re all pretty young in this precinct.’

”So this is the one you mentioned...” The medical examiner looked at her, hesitated, choosing his words carefully, but finally said two words, ”Little Schizo?”

’Little Schizo?’

’Who?!’

Su Miaoyi looked at Zhuang Yanzheng.

’You came up with that name?????’

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her and made the introductions. ”Su Miaoyi. This is the Municipal Bureau’s medical examiner, Yan Cheng. He was on a business trip for a while and just got back a couple of days ago.”

”Hello,” Su Miaoyi said.

”Hello.” Yan Cheng’s tone gave off a very gentlemanly and polite impression.

”Can you see any images related to him?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked Su Miaoyi, pointing at the autopsy table.

Su Miaoyi looked at him. ”See them live?”

”Mm.”

Su Miaoyi looked back at the autopsy table.

The body was covered with a white sheet.

’The last two times, the visions came suddenly. Will I see anything by confronting the body directly?’

Su Miaoyi wanted to find out, too.

She slowly walked over.

Yan Cheng stood to the side, watching the two of them.

Zhuang Yanzheng had told him about Su Miaoyi.

He found it completely incredible.

He had even given Zhuang Yanzheng a psychological evaluation, wondering if the sheer number of cases had driven him crazy.

But the test results showed he was perfectly normal.

More normal than most people, even.

But even so, listening to their conversation now, he felt like both of them had mental problems.

Su Miaoyi walked to the side of the autopsy table, took hold of the white sheet, and slowly lifted a corner.

She subconsciously took a step back.

To be dissected and then stitched back up... it was really...

But she only retreated that one step before accepting the sight before her.

She made a rough assessment.

’Male. Looks to be around twenty-two or twenty-three.’

’There are ligature marks on his neck.’

’The marks go upward. Death by hanging?’

Aside from these observations, Su Miaoyi didn’t see anything else.

She looked at Zhuang Yanzheng and shook her head.

Yan Cheng stood by without a word. He was even starting to think that Zhuang Yanzheng was just overtired lately and was messing with him for fun.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at Su Miaoyi and asked, ”Cause of death.”

Yan Cheng stared at him.

”Death by asphyxiation?” Su Miaoyi offered, uncertainly.

Yan Cheng wasn’t surprised in the least.

Anyone with a little common sense would reach the same conclusion after seeing the ligature marks on the corpse’s neck.

But an autopsy couldn’t rely on surface-level observations alone.

”Time of death,” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Su Miaoyi pulled the white sheet down a little more, then reached out and touched the deceased’s skin. ”Rigor mortis is starting to subside, livor mortis... around forty-eight hours?”

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at Yan Cheng again.

Yan Cheng just nodded.

That didn’t prove anything either.

At most, it proved she had a certain amount of knowledge.

But just as the words left Su Miaoyi’s mouth, the scene before her eyes suddenly changed. Only this time, the vision was a little different...