Traveling Through Those Years Of Farming (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 6

“Someone’s dead. The bastard from the Wang family dies in his own home.”

“That’s right. The body stinks. The neighbor next door notices something’s wrong and asks his older brother to open the door. That’s when they find out he’s dead.”

A bungalow in Zhiliu Hutong is surrounded by onlookers. A cordon is set up outside the yard, and the police are busy collecting evidence inside.

(Translator’s Notes: Zhiliu Hutong is a traditional alleyway located in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, China. Situated near the intersection of Dongcheng District and the Second Ring Road, it is part of the city’s extensive network of hutongs, which are narrow lanes or alleys formed by lines of traditional courtyard residences. )

“Deputy Captain, we search the whole house and don’t find anything suspicious.” A young officer reports to a middle-aged man. “There’s no sign the door lock was forced open. There’s no sign of a struggle, and there are no visible wounds on the deceased. I think we can rule out homicide.”

The room is simple—just a bed, a wardrobe, a table, and a chair.

Though the room is messy, it doesn’t appear to be from a struggle. It seems that the occupant isn’t particularly tidy. His clothes are tossed everywhere, many of them damp and smelling sour.

“Don’t jump to conclusions so quickly.” Deputy Captain Lin Zhong rolls his eyes at the young officer. “Don’t you think his posture and expression are strange?”

Lin Zhong points at the body on the bed.

The deceased, Wang Youyou, is 23 years old. He’s an unemployed vagrant who relies on his brother and sister-in-law for support. The bungalow he lives in had been left to him after his father dies, but it is said that the two brothers had quarreled over it, and since then, the support he receives has dwindled.

People in the alley often complain of missing items, and many suspect Wang Youyou. However, they never catch him in the act, so there’s nothing they can do.

Many women also report that Wang Youyou often leers at young wives and beautiful girls passing by, which annoys them greatly.

In short, he’s a man without many friends.

Hardly anyone visits him, which is why his body isn’t discovered until it starts to smell.

By the time the police are called, the body is still in the same position it was found in.

He’s curled up in a corner, seemingly having witnessed something horrific. His eyes are almost bulging out of their sockets from the pressure, and when they check his mouth, they find he’s nearly bitten off his tongue. The blood on his body comes from that wound.

“Maybe a heart attack? Or epilepsy? Some people who suffer a heart attack don’t get help in time, and they end up biting their tongue or their arms.” The young officer can’t figure out what kind of situation would be scary enough to kill a young, healthy man.

“Take the body back first, and then seal off the scene.” Lin Zhong shakes his head, unable to come up with an explanation himself.

“Tsk, tsk, this kid really wasn’t serious. He actually reads this kind of stuff.”

When the body is moved, everyone finds pornographic magazines and books pressed under it. A couple of years ago, during a major crackdown, possession of such material would’ve been enough to send him to prison for several years.

“The dead are the greatest.” Another officer rolls his eyes at the young man, reminding him to be more respectful, since the person is dead.

The young officer quickly realizes his mistake and smiles awkwardly, falling silent.

After bringing the evidence back to the Public Security Bureau, Lin Zhong learns that there’s been another murder case in the county—this one a rape and murder.

“Why didn’t you call the police right away?”

Lin Zhong takes his team straight to the home of the person who reported the case, Feng Juan. He doesn’t take a break because of the case’s importance.

Before heading to Feng Juan’s home, Lin Zhong instructs his men to change out of their green 83-style police uniforms and into civilian clothes to avoid drawing attention.

When they arrive and see the victim’s body—already beginning to decompose and showing signs of Post-mortem Lividity—Lin Zhong can’t help but feel angry.

“I… I…” Feng Juan wipes away her tears. “The child’s father doesn’t want me to call the police. He says the child’s already in this state, and we can’t let her die in disgrace.”

Her daughter is raped. While some people might sympathize with them, others speak behind her back, calling her daughter dirty and mocking her behavior, suggesting that it is her own fault that led to this disaster.

Feng Juan understands that her husband’s view isn’t entirely wrong, but she cannot bear the thought of her daughter leaving this world in such a way. Shouldn’t those who harmed her be punished? Besides, she has several other daughters. If she cannot catch the criminals this time, how can she let her other daughters leave her sight without fear in the future? This could easily become an unbearable nightmare that haunts her forever.

Traces of evidence can still faintly be seen on the body. Their local public security bureau lacks modern equipment and has limited staff, so they might need to call in a gynecologist from the county hospital to examine the victim.

“It takes too long,” Lin Zhong comments.

Lin Zhong isn’t angry with Feng Juan. The area they live in has outdated views, and some still think it is shameful for girls to be victims of such crimes. A few years ago, there had even been cases where after a girl was raped, her parents refused to acknowledge her, saying she had shamed the family and advising her to commit suicide to preserve her honor.

Lin Zhong has witnessed too many of these situations. It is already rare and courageous that Feng Juan has called the police.

Unfortunately, the timing of the report greatly impacts the investigation’s success.

According to Feng Juan, her daughter, Yu Caifeng, was raped and murdered in a grove outside the county town five days ago. There has been heavy rain in the area two days earlier, and any potential evidence left by the murderer has likely been washed away. The decomposition of the body makes it difficult to find fingerprints, which only makes the case harder to solve.

Lin Zhong cannot promise Feng Juan that the murderer will be caught.

“What should I do then?” Feng Juan asks, her eyes fixed lifelessly on her daughter’s body, questioning whether she has made a mistake by calling the police.

“Don’t worry. We will do everything we can to bring the murderer to justice,” Lin Zhong reassures her.

With the victim’s body taken back, they don’t waste time and take Feng Juan straight to the crime scene. Unfortunately, as Lin Zhong had feared, the rain has washed away any traces. Not even a single footprint can be found.

They have no choice but to return, empty-handed.

In a small place like theirs, murders are rare. With the controversial Wang Youyou case already consuming much of the public security team’s efforts, these two cases are enough to keep the entire department busy.

Especially with one of them being a horrific rape and murder.

With the help of gynecologists, they determine that Yu Caifeng endured severe abuse before her death. Her hymen is ruptured, her lower body severely torn, and the marks on her body from hands pressing and twisting indicate frequent abuse. While they cannot collect fingerprints, the strength and size of the handprints lead them to suspect that she was assaulted by multiple individuals.

The cause of death is determined to be cervical suffocation. Flesh recovered from the gaps between the victim’s fingers suggests that she fought back, scratching the murderer in an attempt to defend herself. This might provide a crucial clue for solving the case.

During this time, Lin Zhong and his men visit various locations, hoping to find witnesses. However, this inevitably leads to the victim’s identity being exposed.

Additionally, some members of the public security team are not discreet, and relatives and friends get hold of the details. Soon, the name of the victim spreads throughout the small county.

As more girls become fearful for their safety, Yu Caifeng’s tragic story becomes a hot topic. Her family, both the Yu side and Feng Juan’s maternal side, also learn of the rape and murder.

From that day forward, whenever Feng Juan and her husband leave their house, they are met with stares and whispers. Some people even approach them, asking about the case and probing into what happened to their daughter before her death.

Feng Juan’s husband, enraged, stops going out altogether. As for Feng Juan, she has to manage the household and take care of the family. She has no choice but to go out for groceries. Everywhere she goes, people gather around her, pretending to offer sympathy while actually trying to gather more information. She feels overwhelmed and dizzy.

The suffering inflicted on the living is only just beginning.

Feng Juan feels like crying. Her tears have been constant, and if the murderer is not found, she is not sure she will have the strength to carry on.

“Boss, it’s been several days, and we have no leads.”

The entire Public Security Bureau has been dispatched to investigate along the route that Yu Caifeng might have taken that day, but with the time that has passed, no one can recall seeing the girl along the way.

Days of searching have yielded nothing.

“Don’t give up. Everyone, stay positive and think about whether there are any clues we might have overlooked.” Lin Zhong goes to the canteen, buys a few bottles of water, and hands them out to his team.

“Comrade, why not go ask Lady Hua? She’s very powerful. She can help summon the spirits of the dead. You could ask the girl who harmed her, right?” The canteen owner, one of the people Lin Zhong and his team have questioned, suggests. Seeing the police working tirelessly, staying up late and interrogating strangers, he cannot resist offering his idea.

“What’s this, boss? No superstition allowed.” Lin Zhong chuckles. If there really were witches, then what would they, as police officers, be doing? There would be no unsolved cases in the world. He dismisses it as a joke and does not take it seriously.

“Bang—”

Just as Lin Zhong is paying for the water and preparing to continue his investigation, a loud crash echoes in the distance, followed by screams.

It turns out that a long-distance bus, ready to leave the county town, has collided with a truck making a turn. The truck, carrying goods, cannot stop in time and pushes the bus into a house along the street, the front of the truck wedged into the middle of the bus.

Pedestrians in the area, frightened by the crash, run in all directions, worried the leaking truck might explode. Lin Zhong quickly instructs one of his men to use the convenience store’s landline to call the hospital and the fire department, then rushes to the scene with the rest of the team.

They work together to pry open the twisted door of the bus and evacuate the passengers inside. The front and back of the bus are intact, but the middle right section is completely crushed. The people seated there are in grave danger.

Fortunately, there are not many passengers on this trip, and only four people are sitting in the affected area.

Two are crushed beyond recognition, with no breath left in them. One is still breathing. Lin Zhong hands the injured person to a colleague and prepares to lift the iron plate pressing on the last person.

He expects to find a bloody body, but to his surprise, the person who should have been most severely injured is staring up at him wide-eyed as he lifts the iron plate.

“I… I’m not dead.”

When the truck hit, the young man thought he would die, but now there are only a few scratches on his body.

Lin Zhong is also surprised, as the young man’s cousin, who has been seated beside him, is crushed half to death.

“It’s the peace amulet, the one my mother got for me from Lady Hua. It was Lady Hua who saved my life.”

The boy, still dazed, reaches into his pocket, pulling out a yellow amulet and a handful of black ash. The yellow amulet is a spirit-suppressing talisman, but the amulet it is supposed to be paired with is missing. The black ash in his hand might be part of the amulet.

He now fully believes in Lady Hua’s powers. After all, how can he explain that his cousin, who sat next to him, died, while he survived with only minor injuries, and the amulet he has been carrying has turned to ash?

Even if the amulet burned in the car accident, it is strange that only the paper talisman has been destroyed, while the amulet it was with remained intact.

This is the second time Lin Zhong has heard of Lady Hua.

Looking at the boy, who is muttering over the amulet, and considering the situation, Lin Zhong’s staunch atheism begins to waver.

With Yu Caifeng’s case still at a standstill, could it be time to consult a fortune teller?

Lin Zhong hesitates.

Meanwhile, Jiang Runzhu also hears about the rape and murder case that occurred outside the county town.

She remembers it because it is one of the rare violent crimes in the area. However, the case will not be solved until 1988, when DNA testing technology is first applied to criminal cases. At that time, in 1987, DNA testing is still new. Jiang Runzhu recalls that the captain of the criminal police who eventually solved the case had been in charge at the time. He has been obsessed with the case, so after the emergence of DNA technology, he requested that the DNA from dandruff and semen samples found on the victim be extracted and added to the criminal database for future comparison.

In 1988, one of the criminals is arrested for attempted robbery and rape in another province. When he is returned to his hometown, it is discovered that his DNA matches the one left at the crime scene.

The criminal confesses to the involvement of the other four suspects, but oddly, all except for the first arrested criminal are already dead.

The first to die was Wang Youyou, who had been the whistleblower on the others. He never has the chance to assault the victim, as she is killed by another person. Wang Youyou’s death is the least suspicious.

The other three die under even more gruesome circumstances. Though there is no direct evidence to prove they were murdered, their deaths remain unresolved.

The first criminal arrested is so terrified by the deaths of his companions that he flees. Eventually, he is caught and sentenced to death, but before he can be executed, he commits suicide in prison. It is said that he smashed his head against a wall, and when they found him, half of his skull was crushed.

At the time, many people believed it was the revenge of a female ghost. Jiang Runzhu remembers how, during that period, amulet sales surge in temples, as people fear retribution for their wrongdoings.

She knows who the murderer is. As a woman, she sympathizes with the victim, but as someone who has barely left the village and is just recovering from a serious illness, how can she know the identity of the murderer?

Moreover, she knows that even without her involvement, the murderer will eventually be caught.

Jiang Runzhu acknowledges that she is too cautious in her approach—this has been true both in Sheng Baobao’s case and the girl’s case.

Wait.

Jiang Runzhu’s eyes widen. She is certain now that Sheng Baobao died before the girl. Although she doesn’t remember the exact time, she clearly recalls the order of the events.

But Sheng Baobao is still alive and well!

Jiang Runzhu wonders if she has been reborn into the world she once lived in.