Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 93: 93, A New Beginning

In the wee hours past two o’clock, all the accomplices of the culprit had died. Who would call the gang leader at this hour?

He walked over to the car and gently took the cellphone out of the other party’s pocket, pressing the call button.

The number displayed as “Unknown Caller”.

Throughout this time, Qing Chen kept his finger of his other hand on the phone’s camera, preventing anyone from capturing his face through the phone, even though his face was covered.

On the call, the person on the other end didn’t speak, seemingly waiting for the gang leader to speak first.

However, Qing Chen on this side of the phone also remained silent.

The person on the other end caught on and started to chuckle lightly, “They’re dead, aren’t they?”

Qing Chen didn’t speak.

The voice on the phone continued laughing, “Well, since they’re dead, why don’t we have a chat?”

Qing Chen didn’t linger. He used the gang leader’s coat to wipe off his fingerprints from the phone, imprinted it with the gang leader’s, stuffed it back into the leader’s coat, and then slowly walked into the dark night.

He thought to himself, these were just seven criminals who couldn’t even afford synthetic skin, and yet they had nearly cost him half his life.

It wasn’t until this moment that Qing Chen suddenly realized his bizarre life seemed to have just begun.

…

By early morning, the fire on Laojun Mountain had been brought under control, leaving a whole street’s worth of guest houses reduced to a swath of charred ruins.

Some tourists were crying on the street, while others sat on the curb, their expressions blank.

Seven black SUVs sped up the mountain. They first made a brief stop at the scene of a car accident on the winding road, then left one car’s worth of people to conduct a thorough search, while the rest continued up the mountain.

Lu Yuan arrived at the entrance of the Cloud Inn, staring at the blackened building, lost in thought.

In front of him were the bodies of two Kunlun members, and a few steps away lay several more bodies of the criminal ringleaders.

Lu Yuan forced himself not to look at his fallen comrades and instead crouched down to conduct a preliminary examination of the criminals’ corpses.

“In total, eight criminals. The mastermind on the winding road had his spleen pierced during his escape. We found other people’s footprints on the mountain, but what’s puzzling is that it seems like the killer was barefoot.”

“We found bloody footprints on the ground; the blood samples have been sent back for DNA analysis.”

“There were seven criminals near the guesthouse, one in the parking lot had his kneecaps crushed but was still alive. The assailant clearly had the ability to kill him but didn’t, as if he was purposely left for us to interrogate.”

“Of the other six criminals, two were burned beyond recognition by the fire, one was shot by a firearm, and the remaining three, without exception, had all been stabbed through the spleen, with extremely precise methods, most likely the work of a professional assassin.”

“Road Team, some students reported that Wrench and Hawthorn helped open the gate before they died. Otherwise, over forty students wouldn’t have escaped… They didn’t let Kunlun down.”

Lu Yuan silently listened to the report from his subordinate, as a gust of mountain wind blew by, suddenly making his nose tingle.

The wind wailed and howled, whipping up the ashes from the burned remnants.

Lu Yuan wiped his nose; now was not the time for sentimentality.

He crouched down on the ground to examine the wounds of the criminals, as well as the locations of the corpses marked by his subordinates.

The location of the first corpse was found next to the Cloud Inn, but that wasn’t the site where the crime had happened.

Kunlun members found traces of blood and dragging marks on the road outside the door.

“It seems someone killed him on the road in the cover of darkness, and then dragged him to the next yard,” Lu Yuan said calmly. “The fire burned the building but didn’t spread to the yard.”

At this moment, as Lu Yuan looked at the wounds on the culprits, his heart grew more and more astonished.

His subordinate’s analysis was not wrong, each of these culprits had been killed with a single blow.

Moreover, whether the knife entered from the back or the front, the tip always precisely pierced the spleen.

“Strange, why only target the spleen,” Lu Yuan pondered with some confusion. “Could it be some sort of peculiar habit or preference?”

He followed the locations marked by his subordinates all the way to the back of the yard.

This should be the second crime scene. The killer took down the second culprit here before entering the yard.

Lu Yuan asked, “How are those students doing?”

His subordinate replied, “Three are seriously injured, two named Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen were hit in the abdomen by the culprits. Fortunately, only their intestines were hit, they’ve been taken down the mountain for surgery, their lives should definitely be saved.”

The subordinate continued to report, “There’s also one named Wang Yun, but this girl’s wound is very strange. According to her, a masked culprit shot her in the legs. It was a student named Nan Gengchen who dragged her out of the inn, otherwise, she would have been burned to death inside.”

Lu Yuan frowned, “Masked?”

“Yes,” the subordinate nodded. “I suspect this person is not one of the culprits, but the one who killed them.”

“There’s no need to suspect, it’s definitely him, and you should pay attention to this Wang Yun, there’s something wrong with her. Our vindicator who killed the culprits wouldn’t have shot her twice without reason,” Lu Yuan said. “By the way, why was Nan Gengchen inside the inn?”

“It’s said he was dragged into the inn by the culprits to commit violence,” the subordinate explained. “But he looks neat and tidy, not like someone who’s been through an ordeal.”

“Then he must have seen the killer, or perhaps the killer saved him on a whim,” Lu Yuan analyzed. “Did you get anything out of him?”

The subordinate answered, “He said the killer should be about 176 cm tall, barefoot, with slight crow’s feet at the eyes, looking like he’s in his thirties.”

Lu Yuan nodded, “Then let’s search within this range for now. Nan Gengchen is the first eyewitness, his testimony is the most reliable.”

Everyone returned to the front door where the bodies were laid out.

Lu Yuan looked at the devastated street and pondered thoroughly. Seven out of the eight culprits were dead, one shot, one kneeling in the parking area, one killed by a Kunlun teammate.

The remaining four died of a ruptured spleen, meaning the adversary struck four times and succeeded each time.

This person was extremely dangerous, but Lu Yuan suddenly felt a reluctance to continue the pursuit because this individual had avenged his teammate.

On the road of pursuit, the Kunlun members discovered countless blood footprints, and it was hard for him to imagine what kind of willpower the killer had, using his tenacity to kill each of the culprits.

Lu Yuan glanced at the other corpses and suddenly noticed a detail, “Only the culprit at the door is missing a walkie-talkie, he must have been the first one to die… No other walkie-talkies were found at the scene, so that missing walkie-talkie should still be on the killer.”

The next moment, Lu Yuan suddenly picked up the walkie-talkie from another culprit’s body, took a deep breath, and pressed the talk button, “Hello, this is Lu Yuan of Kunlun.”

But no one answered him through the mountain wind.

…

Please vote for a monthly ticket!!