I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 15: Chapter 13: Saw It Twice

”I need a sketch artist.”

This was the first thing Su Miaoyi said to Zhuang Yanzheng after coming to her senses.

Zhuang Yanzheng saw her pale face and the beads of sweat on it, and immediately stepped out of the office.

”Qi Feng!” Only Zhuang Yanzheng would dare shout so loudly at the station. ”Have Lu Zhishen bring his drawing board to my office.”

”Okay.” Qi Feng ran off, a fried dough stick dangling from his mouth.

Zhuang Yanzheng stood in the doorway of his office and looked back at Su Miaoyi.

Su Miaoyi was sitting in a chair, her hands on the table.

She appeared to be sitting normally.

But her back was ramrod straight, her shoulders were tense, and if you looked closely, her arms were trembling slightly.

Her hands were clenched together, so tightly that they were shaking.

Lu Zhishen arrived quickly, holding a drawing board.

He was still dressed casually.

”What’s going on?” Lu Zhishen asked.

Hearing his voice, Su Miaoyi stood up.

When Lu Zhishen saw it was her again, he glanced at Zhuang Yanzheng.

”Lu the Painter,” Su Miaoyi called out.

Lu Zhishen looked at her.

A flicker of confusion crossed Zhuang Yanzheng’s mind.

’Her Mandarin is usually perfect. Why does she suddenly have an accent?’

”Sit.” Zhuang Yanzheng jutted his chin toward the sofa.

Lu Zhishen and Su Miaoyi sat on the sofa.

Zhuang Yanzheng sat down as well.

”You’re... an eyewitness again?” Lu Zhishen once again pulled a pen from his pocket.

Su Miaoyi nodded.

Lu Zhishen was a bit confused, but he didn’t ask any more questions.

”It’s a location,” Su Miaoyi said.

Lu Zhishen nodded. ”Go ahead.”

”I saw the buildings outside through a very small window,” Su Miaoyi said. ”The window faced west.”

She had roughly determined the direction based on the shadows from the sun and the orientation of the houses she saw.

Lu Zhishen understood what she was saying, so he began to sketch from the perspective she described.

”It was a self-built house, I think. Two stories, stone-gray exterior, no other decorations, just plain walls...” Su Miaoyi said, recalling what she had seen.

It was that same dim, cramped room again.

She was standing on a chair, looking out through that tiny window.

She saw the houses and streets outside.

There were no tall buildings.

Almost all the buildings in sight were two-story houses.

There were brick-red walls, as well as gray and white ones.

Streets, utility poles.

Following her description, Lu Zhishen made adjustments and quickly finished the drawing.

Zhuang Yanzheng watched and asked, ”Did you see the number on the utility pole?”

”No.” Su Miaoyi had just carefully tried to recall the utility pole but hadn’t seen a number on it.

She looked at the drawing of the location, thought for a moment, and said, ”There’s a signal tower here, very far away.”

Lu Zhishen revised the sketch based on her narration, recreating the signal tower she saw. ”Based on this scale... the signal tower should be on a mountain, or the terrain over there is higher.”

”I heard some people talking. From their accents, they’re Jinghai people,” Su Miaoyi said.

”Self-built houses, a mountain, a signal tower.” Zhuang Yanzheng picked up a tablet from the desk and opened a map of Jinghai.

Lu Zhishen glanced at Su Miaoyi again.

”What did you hear?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked, looking at the map.

”’One Bam, Two Dots, Pong! Your turn, draw a tile. It’s so hot, I can’t even sleep with the fan on. Then turn on the AC. The AC makes my legs hurt.’” Su Miaoyi repeated what she heard while standing by the window. ”They were all men’s voices.”

Lu Zhishen said, ”Playing mahjong? Legs hurting from the AC... The population in this area is on the older side.”

Zhuang Yanzheng continued searching the map. ”What else did you see?”

Lu Zhishen looked at Su Miaoyi again.

Su Miaoyi frowned slightly. ”I didn’t see anything else, but I heard another conversation.”

Zhuang Yanzheng’s expression froze for a second. He looked up at her. ”What?”

Su Miaoyi was still seeing everything through the young woman’s eyes.

She was standing on the chair, looking out the window.

Suddenly, the door was opened from the outside.

Hearing the door open, she was startled. Her legs gave out, and she fell off the chair.

She fell to the floor, curled up in a corner, and buried her head in her knees.

She trembled uncontrollably, hugging herself tightly, not daring to look at them at all.

So Su Miaoyi didn’t see anything either.

But she heard their conversation.

It was the voices of two men.

”What happened to her head? And what’s wrong with her face?”

”It’s nothing. She just fell by accident and hit her head. Her face is from an allergic reaction to something she ate. Just take precautions, it won’t be a problem.”

”Really? It’s not contagious, is it?”

”When have you ever heard of allergies being contagious?”

Suddenly, a woman’s voice cut in. ”I’ve already given her a bath, don’t worry.”

”Well, she doesn’t look very good. Make it cheaper,” the man said.

”Fine, fine. Just this once, but not next time.”

Then came the sound of a door closing.

The voices outside faded away.

Then the scene shifted, and she fell into a different kind of darkness.

She couldn’t see anything there either.

But it was different from the darkness of huddling in fear. This was a light, floating darkness, as if she had drifted out of her body, losing all her senses.

And then, Su Miaoyi snapped out of it.

After Su Miaoyi finished speaking, both Lu Zhishen and Zhuang Yanzheng were silent for a moment.

Zhuang Yanzheng lowered his head and continued to study the map.

Su Miaoyi said, ”Those self-built houses look pretty old. The soundproofing probably isn’t very good...”

”Everyone in the neighborhood knows each other. They’ve lived together for decades. It’s possible they’re covering for each other.” Zhuang Yanzheng put the tablet down. ”This place is the best match.”

After speaking, he stood up, opened the office door, and shouted, ”Qi Feng, grab a few men and come with me.”

Su Miaoyi followed him. ”Can I go too?”

Zhuang Yanzheng turned to look at her.

Su Miaoyi said, ”I’ve never seen two visions from the same person before. Listening to their conversation, this second vision seems to have happened after she hit her head. What I mean is, could she still be alive? And since I’m a woman, I might be more helpful.”

In the visions she’d seen before, the victims were always dead.

So when Su Miaoyi saw the vision at home this morning, she had also assumed the young woman...

But seeing it again just now, she felt this time was different.

”Grab the breakfast on the desk,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi quickly grabbed the breakfast from the desk and trotted to catch up with Zhuang Yanzheng.

Only Lu Zhishen was left in the office.

He was full of questions that no one could answer.

’I’m starting to wonder if I’ve forgotten how to understand Chinese this morning.’

’She saw it all, and she’s right here, so why doesn’t she know the location?’

’And why could she only hear, but not see?’

’What did she mean by all that? Seeing it twice?’

Lu Zhishen was starting to think he might be hallucinating from lack of sleep.

...

Su Miaoyi got into the car with Zhuang Yanzheng.

Qi Feng was in the passenger seat.

Su Miaoyi sat in the back, holding the breakfast. She asked, ”How are you going to eat while driving?”

”You haven’t had breakfast either, have you? You eat it,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi looked at it. ”I don’t usually eat breakfast.”

”Eat something,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”We don’t need you getting low blood sugar on the way and having to rescue you too.”

Su Miaoyi fell silent.

She stuck a straw into the soy milk and drank it.

She placed the breakfast wrap on the center console.

They drove for over an hour.

After getting out of the car, they were surrounded by almost nothing but two-story self-built houses.

Su Miaoyi saw the signal tower on the mountain in the distance.

Following the location in the drawing, they made their way over.

The area was huge.

The names were all variations of ”XXX Village.”

This area was divided into four such villages.

The signal tower was very far off; by comparing it to the sketch, they could only estimate an approximate distance.

The search area covered almost this entire large patch of land.

The group split up, searching by comparing the surroundings to the sketch and asking passersby for directions.

Zhuang Yanzheng asked, ”Sir, is there a place to play mahjong nearby?”

”What?” the old man shouted.

”A place to play mahjong! Mahjong!” Zhuang Yanzheng shouted.

The old man nodded and gestured with his hands. ”Yes, that’s right. I’m eighty-five this year.”

Zhuang Yanzheng was speechless.

He gave the old man a thumbs-up. ”You’re in great shape. That’s a real blessing.”

The old man laughed.

Zhuang Yanzheng sighed and continued his search.

Su Miaoyi jogged through row after row of streets.

The sun rose higher, and the temperature climbed.

As she jogged, her back quickly became soaked with sweat.

She ran into another street.

Looking at the houses around her, she ran a few steps further in.

Suddenly, she heard a cry for help.

A very faint voice.

”Help... help me... it hurts, it hurts so much... please, help me.”

Su Miaoyi picked up her pace, running deeper in and turning a corner.

She saw the stone-gray wall—the same house from her vision.

Then she looked at the building across from it.

The wall itself was unfamiliar.

But there was no mistaking the small, high window.

”Help... it hurts, it hurts so much... save me...”

Following the cries for help, Su Miaoyi walked to the door.

She heard a man cursing, ”What hospital! What would you say at a hospital! She’s not even showing yet, a little bleeding and it’ll just pass! Mix some brown sugar water for her to drink. The pain will go away. Bastard! Which son of a bitch didn’t use protection! If I find out who it was, I’ll bleed him dry!”

Listening to the voice, Su Miaoyi raised her hand and pounded heavily on the door.

”Who is it!” a voice came from inside.

Su Miaoyi pounded on the door a few more times.

”We’re not playing mahjong today! Go play somewhere else!” the man shouted.

Su Miaoyi’s pounding grew even heavier.

Finally, the door opened.

A man came out and saw her. ”Who are you?”

Su Miaoyi looked at him. ”Police.”

...