I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 278: Chapter 276: It Doesn’t Feel Like Jinghai

Su Miaoyi, who had been sleeping, woke with a start. She opened her eyes, gasping for breath, and took in her surroundings.

It was her bedroom.

She sat up, beads of sweat trickling down her neck.

She touched her lips, then looked out the window.

Dawn had broken.

She thought about the images from her sleep.

’It wasn’t a dream. I saw something.’

Although it happened while she was asleep, she could distinguish between a dream, a memory, and a vision.

It was a subtle feeling, but she could tell them apart clearly.

The alarm on her phone went off. It was her usual time to get up.

She turned off the alarm, got out of bed, and went to wash up.

Then she left her apartment and headed straight for the municipal police department.

On the way to the department, she called Zhuang Yanzheng and told him she had seen something and was coming in to explain the details.

After hanging up, she called Lu Zhishen.

By the time she arrived at the department, they were all there and went straight to Zhuang Yanzheng’s office.

Lu Zhishen had brought paper and a pen.

Su Miaoyi started by describing the house and its surroundings that she had seen.

”I saw it at night. The sky was very dark, but the stars were bright. The area was wide open, with low mountains in the distance. I couldn’t make out what kind of plants were on them.”

Lu Zhishen sketched the mountains from her perspective based on her description.

Su Miaoyi gestured over the drawing paper. ”The range runs like this—high here, low here.”

It was dark and far away.

She had only been able to make out a rough, undulating outline.

”Then, from the foot of the mountains to the village, there’s a large, open field here. There must have been crops. It was a little windy at night, and I saw them swaying, but I couldn’t see what they were.”

Lu Zhishen kept drawing.

”There are houses in these spots, all with tiled roofs. Under the streetlights, all the houses I saw were made of wood. The house of the murdered family was also made of wood.”

”Completely wooden?” Lu Zhishen asked.

Su Miaoyi nodded and described the house she had seen.

The wooden house had a small yard.

Inside the yard were some farming tools, a pile of branches, and some other things.

Lu Zhishen quickly sketched the house and the items in the yard as she described them.

”Yes, that’s exactly it,” Su Miaoyi said.

Chu Xingrou studied the house and its vague surroundings. ”It doesn’t look like a house in Jinghai. We rarely have completely wooden houses around here. If we do, they usually just look wooden on the outside. Besides... the house in this drawing looks pretty old.”

Su Miaoyi looked at her.

”These things piled in the yard... this is a pile of branches, but what’s this leaning against the wall?” Chu Xingrou asked.

It was some kind of crop.

A harvested crop, already dried and yellowed, leaning against the wall.

”It’s definitely not wheat, rice, or corn. I recognize all three of those,” Su Miaoyi said.

”Not soybeans, either,” Yan Cheng said. ”I’ve seen soybeans before.”

”I’ve seen peanuts,” Lu Zhishen said. ”We can rule those out.”

Even after ruling those out, they still didn’t know what it was.

”Aren’t these usually brought home to be used as firewood after the harvest?” Yan Cheng asked.

”Probably,” Lu Zhishen said.

”It’s a very accurate drawing, isn’t it?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Su Miaoyi nodded.

There was a light on in the yard, so she had seen it relatively clearly.

Zhuang Yanzheng took out his phone to run an image search.

Because the plants were dried, yellowed, piled together, and from a drawing, the search returned many different results.

They sifted through them one by one.

They finally identified it and then searched for its primary cultivation regions.

It was more common in the south.

However, it could also be grown in the north.

There wasn’t a large amount in the yard. If a family was just growing a small patch for themselves, it could be grown anywhere.

”I don’t think this location is in Jinghai,” Chu Xingrou said. ”The architecture and the surroundings don’t match.”

She knew every corner of Jinghai too well.

In her school days, she had spent all her free time studying the different areas of Jinghai.

That’s why she was always so fast at pinpointing locations.

”I tend to agree with Xingrou’s point,” Yan Cheng said.

”The few cities that cultivate this crop on a large scale are indeed to the southwest of Jinghai,” Lu Zhishen said.

Zhuang Yanzheng was silent for a moment, then looked at Su Miaoyi. ”Tell me... is it possible that the crime scene is simply too far away, too difficult to reach on foot, and that’s why you’re always just looking in that direction?”

Su Miaoyi met his gaze. ”Very possible.”

After a moment of silence, she added, ”But it’s still hard to determine the exact location. I didn’t see much.”

”Just start by telling us everything you saw,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”At first, I was seeing things from a man’s perspective.” Su Miaoyi looked at Lu Zhishen’s drawing. ”I was standing in this spot in the yard, and the dog kept barking in this direction. I was holding a stick, shouting, and I even hit these branches a few times. Then there was a noise at the gate. As I walked toward it, I was struck on the back of the head...”

Because she had been standing in the yard, she saw its layout and the mountains in the distance.

After being hit, just before she collapsed and closed her eyes, she saw a red, ghost-like mask.

Then the perspective shifted.

Someone grabbed her from behind, covered her mouth, and dragged her into the house.

As she was being dragged inside, she saw the man lying collapsed in the yard.

But she didn’t see his face.

After being dragged into the house, she passed out from being choked and having her mouth and nose covered.

When she came to again, the room was pitch-black.

It was the same scene she had witnessed at the entrance of the Weiyang Palace apartment building.

The masked person was sewing her mouth shut.

She recounted the entire process to them in full detail.

While the others studied the murder process, Su Miaoyi described the killer’s mask and attire to Lu Zhishen.

”He wore a black robe, like the Grim Reaper’s,” Su Miaoyi said. ”The robe dragged on the ground; it was baggy and huge, covering even his feet. I’d guess his height was around five-foot-eight, and his weight... somewhere between 130 and 145 pounds.”

The black robe hid his body, and the mask covered his face, so she could only give a rough estimate of his weight.

Lu Zhishen nodded.

”The mask was mostly red, with a little bit of black,” Su Miaoyi continued. ”It was pretty terrifying. It had two horns on top, kind of like a ram’s horns. The eyes were about this big,” she gestured, ”and bulged outward. They were mostly white, with just tiny black pupils.”

”The mouth was sort of squarish, baring its teeth. Two long lower fangs pressed against the upper lip.”

Lu Zhishen sketched it out according to her description. ”Like this?”

Su Miaoyi didn’t make a sound.

Hearing no response, Lu Zhishen looked up at her.

Su Miaoyi had frozen again, completely motionless.

”She’s seeing something again,” Lu Zhishen said.

Zhuang Yanzheng and the others looked at her, then glanced at Chu Xingrou, tipping his chin in her direction.

Chu Xingrou understood. She immediately moved to Su Miaoyi’s side, watching her, ready to offer her ”support” the moment she came to.