2434: Mysterious Phone Call 2434: Mysterious Phone Call All three sensed something was amiss.
Normally, given their status, arriving here would at least warrant a welcoming reception, if not a grand one—definitely not these expressions.
But Lin Yi quickly realized something was off.
These looks in their eyes, he had seen them yesterday upon visiting the village!
Only they weren’t as intense!
Instinctively, Lin Yi felt that there was something complicated at play!
“What are you doing here, get the hell out, you harbingers of doom!”
Just as the trio was stunned, a middle-aged woman suddenly burst out from the crowd, pointing at their noses and cursing loudly.
Lin Yi had some recollection of the cursing woman; she was the village chief Li Baolong’s wife and the deceased Song Guofu’s sister, Song Shulan.
Before the three could react, another woman charged at them.
She appeared a bit older than Song Shulan and dressed simply, resembling a local villager.
“Get out, all of you! It’s you calamities who caused the death of my Old Song; you’ll have no good end, all of you get out!”
Facing the sudden verbal abuse, the three of them didn’t know what to say, completely clueless about what was happening.
“What are you two doing! Move aside!”
Li Baolong rushed over, pulling the two women aside.
At the same time, the police from the town station approached Lin Yi and his colleagues, separating them from the crowd.
Yet the villagers continued to look at the trio with angry eyes.
“Village Chief Li, what’s going on with the villagers? Colleagues from Zhong Hai are here to handle the case and everyone is making noise and causing a scene, is this appropriate?”
The person speaking was in his forties, the director of the town police station, Liu Qiming.
“Ah…”
Li Baolong sighed helplessly and said:
“Some days ago, a Daoist priest came to our village, claiming to be adept at fortune-telling. He spread superstitions, saying that a harbinger of doom would arrive in our village soon and that one should not go out or interact with strangers to avoid trouble.”
The group exchanged glances, finally understanding the root of the issue.
The villagers had a low level of education and were deeply superstitious about these feudal beliefs.
In this case, the death of Song Guofu undoubtedly acted as a catalyst.
That they harbored such strong feelings of resistance was not surprising.
“What era are we in that people still believe such things,” said Liu Qiming.
“Director Liu, don’t be too hard on me. I don’t want them to believe either, but nobody listens,” responded Li Baolong.
“Let’s have the villagers disperse for now and allow the colleagues from Zhong Hai to assess the situation,” Liu Qiming suggested.
Regarding professional capability, Lin Yi and his two colleagues were certainly far ahead of Liu Qiming.
Moreover, since the case was also connected to a case in Zhong Hai, it was only natural for them to take over the investigation.
“Make way, make way,” Li Baolong said loudly:
“I’m telling you, anyone who dares to obstruct the police from handling the case will be arrested. Director Liu is right here, so don’t say I didn’t warn you!”
Seeing that things were getting serious, the people of Jindou Village didn’t dare to be too presumptuous.
There’s a saying that the law does not punish the masses; they had no problem causing a commotion together, but no one wanted to be the scapegoat.
After suppressing the anger in the villagers’ hearts, Lin Yi and the others approached the body.
There was a stretcher on the ground, covered with a white cloth. Lin Yi lifted it to reveal the body of Song Guofu.
“Do you have gloves? Give me a pair,” Lin Yi asked Liu Qiming.
“Yes, just a moment,” Liu Qiming replied.
Liu Changming called someone to bring over a pair of gloves, and Lin Yi began the autopsy work.
To Lin Yi’s surprise, Song Guofu’s cause of death was strikingly obvious, his neck had been broken.
Besides that, there were many minor wounds on the body.
Clearly, there had been a struggle with the killer before death.
Afterward, Lin Yi conducted a comprehensive examination of the body and then returned to the sides of Zhang Hui and Zhu Junchi.
“Our speculation was completely correct, the killer is professionally trained. Song Guofu’s neck was twisted, and that’s the fatal injury. He died approximately 28 hours ago, around 8 o’clock last night.”
“Eight o’clock?”
Before Zhang Hui could speak, Song Guofu’s wife, Ma Cailian, exclaimed in surprise:
“Impossible, he called me after 10 o’clock last night, saying he was drinking in town and would come back late. How could something have happened just after 8 o’clock?”
“Hm? He called you after 10 o’clock?”
Zhang Hui turned to Lin Yi, “Could there have been a mistake in the examination?”