How You Can Sue Me for My Crimes in Dreams

’The scent of heather?’

Xu Huo paused, then turned his head to look at the deceased’s private area.

”What’s going on?” Li Jianye asked, his brow furrowing as he saw Xu Huo’s expression change.

”The deceased engaged in sexual activity to some extent.”

Xu Huo’s brow furrowed even deeper. He was absolutely certain the scent he smelled was that of the milky white fluid, and it was emanating from the corpse.

”How can you tell!?” Li Jianye asked, stunned.

Xu Huo pointed to his own nose without further explanation.

Detectives who make it to the top invariably have special abilities. Take the members of the Eight Tigers of Criminal Investigation, for example—some could sketch a suspect’s face just by looking at a footprint. That was practically defying the heavens!

A keen nose seemed perfectly normal by comparison.

Besides, having a lead to work with was better than fumbling through an investigation in the dark.

”A rape-murder case?”

Li Jianye froze. He was a bit sensitive to the word ”rape” these days; the memory of Sun Jiang’s single stab taking four lives was still fresh...

”No, it wasn’t rape-murder.”

Li Jianye shook his head again. He paused for a moment before adding, ”In most rape-murders, the female victim would have fought back. Resistance means there would be scrapes and bruises.”

”We’ve already examined the areas under her fingernails, as well as the rest of her body. We found no signs of a struggle.”

Here’s a bit of trivia: women’s sexual fantasies can actually be quite wild.

A significant number of women fantasize about being taken by force. But a fantasy isn’t reality; the human body will instinctively resist an actual assault.

However, there was no evidence of that on the body.

”Was it an internal organ issue triggered during sex that led to her death? Was she a willing participant? Not a rape?”

Li Jianye mused aloud after a moment of thought.

There have been many sex-related cases where someone died while ”playing cards” due to one reason or another. But if that were the case...

”That’s not right either. If that were what happened, the other person would have no reason to leave the body here. Even if they were scared, they should have buried it.”

Li Jianye once again dismissed his own theory.

The old principle of ”dump it far, bury it near” isn’t something one or two odd cases can overturn. The killer didn’t hide the body and didn’t even seem to intend to. This meant there must be a motive that overrode the need to conceal the corpse.

’What was that motive?’

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes and said nothing, his gaze sweeping up and down the corpse.

There were no traces of fluid on the corpse’s private parts; they had clearly been washed.

In the air, Xu Huo could also detect a faint fishy smell. Time had weakened it, making the stench very, very faint, but it was still there.

It was the smell of fish, and not the kind one gets from simply buying and cooking it. This was a smell that had accumulated over many years, one that was inevitably tied to the sea.

’In other words, the perpetrator isn’t far from here!’

But if that were true, the chances of the deceased willingly ”playing cards” before her death were very slim. No one in the fishing village recognized her, which meant she was an outsider. And the only outsiders who came here were either tourists visiting the scenic area or people buying seafood.

The former were here for tourism and might have a one-night stand, but their companions or hotel would file a report if they noticed something was wrong. The latter were here to buy seafood, not sell themselves, making the probability of consensual sex even lower.

In this era, the internet wasn’t well-developed. There weren’t any high-class prostitutes flying all over the country; most of them were local.

If it wasn’t consensual, then it had to be the other extreme: rape.

But that brought the problem full circle...

”If it was rape, there are no injuries on the body. This...” Li Jianye frowned, observing the corpse once more, but he still couldn’t see any external wounds.

”No. There is one type of rape that leaves no marks at all.”

Xu Huo spoke up suddenly, his eyes fixed on the corpse’s expressionless face.

Li Jianye paused, then looked toward Xu Huo.

Rape, by its very nature, is a violent term. For it to not leave a trace would be next to impossible.

”What about after death?”

Xu Huo spoke again. The four words he uttered held as much information as a compressed file.

That file detonated in the minds of Zhao Shui and the others. The few officers still investigating the scene couldn’t help but look up, staring at him in shock.

”After death!?”

Li Jianye’s eyes widened instinctively. His pupils contracted as he whipped his head around to look at the body.

The corpse was beautiful, with fair skin and slender fingers. It hadn’t yet reached the stage of bloating. If she were just lying peacefully on the ground, she would look no different than someone asleep.

She was a sleeping beauty.

”There are always people in the world with grotesque tastes...”

That was all it took to create a scene like this!

In his past life, he had seen videos on the dark web just like this. The content was exactly the same: a corpse staring blankly at the camera, completely unresponsive.

But now, a new problem arose. How did the victim die? And how did she end up in the fishing village?

”Let’s put those questions on hold for now. We’ll start by making a tentative attempt to catch the perpetrator.”

Xu Huo retracted his gaze. After a moment of thought, he said, ”Canvas the area. Focus on the fishing village and look for anyone who is sexually repressed.”

”An ordinary person couldn’t overcome the psychological barrier. Only repression could make someone cross that line.”

”Sexually repressed?”

Li Jianye’s brow twitched at another new term.

”It refers to people with no sex life, who are in their forties or fifties and have never married, and who live in extremely harsh conditions.”

Xu Huo explained, ”People like that have no release, so their moral baseline regarding sex gets lower. That’s what’s known as sexual repression.”

Take the simplest example.

In Lizard Country, the lower class is just like that. Life is so oppressive that they need an outlet, and so...

Li Jianye paused, then fell silent. He began arranging for his men to start the investigation.

Sexual repression is often caused by poor living conditions.

Such as appearance, money, and so on.

Of course, it could also be someone who’s played the field so much that normal encounters have become boring, leading them to seek greater thrills, which could also result in a scene like this.

But that kind of person would need the means to be so promiscuous. No one like that exists in the fishing village, so they could only investigate the opposite.

”Poor conditions?”

”An old bachelor?”

Wang Hu, who had been lecturing Wang Chao off to the side, paused when he heard this and turned to look over.

”Does an old bachelor count?”

Hearing his voice, Zhao Shui, who was just about to head out, froze and turned to look.

”Yes.”

Wang Hu thought for a long time before saying:

”There’s an old bachelor in our village. He’s about five-foot-three, pretty ugly, fifty-four, and never married. He works as a security guard over at the cold storage.”

”Son of a bitch, I saw him stealing my stuff last time. That old bastard steals from everyone...”

As he spoke, Wang Hu started trailing off into a string of curses.

’He fits the profile, and he stole from Wang Hu?’

Li Jianye and Xu Huo exchanged a look, their eyes narrowing. ”What’s his name? Where does he live?”

”Don’t know his name. He lives over by the cold storage. His place is right near it, not far from here.”

”Let’s go!”

Wang Hu started to lead the way, followed by several plainclothes police officers.

Around the Jiangsan City fishing village, a few far-sighted individuals had established seafood companies. They bought the catches from the surrounding fishermen and shipped them to inland cities via cold storage.

Since it was seafood, cold storage was essential. Otherwise, no amount of fish would be enough to cover the spoilage.

On the outskirts of the fishing village was a cold storage warehouse, filled with countless frozen seafood products.

「11:00 AM.」

The group stopped outside a door. Xu Huo paused and stepped back, pulling Wang Hu, Chao Zi’s uncle, aside with him.

Li Jianye and Zhao Shui exchanged a look, understanding each other’s intent. Zhao Shui leaned against a nearby wall, concealing himself.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Li Jianye knocked on the door.

”Who’s there~”

A voice came from inside the house. It was thick and murky, as if the speaker had a ball of thick phlegm caught in his throat.

”Sir, we’d like to ask you something. Please open the door.”

Li Jianye’s calm voice rang out.

”Comin’.”

Soon, the sound of shuffling came from within the thatched hut. Everyone held their breath.

A moment later...

CREAK~

The door opened, revealing the face of a middle-aged to elderly man. He was disheveled and greasy, with ugly features.

”What do you want?”

The old man yawned and spoke while scratching an itch.

”Sir, we’re here to ask you about something.”

Li Jianye narrowed his eyes, peering past the man. Seeing nothing of interest, he took out a photograph of the corpse.

”Do you... recognize her?”

At that moment, Zhao Shui, standing nearby, tightened his grip on his baton. The others held their breath.

The old man took the photo and glanced at it. The next second, he broke into a wide grin.

”Sure do.”

”Isn’t this the one I carefully picked out to send over!”

”Heh, I felt bad about eating two of that kid’s salted fish last time. Saw he was all alone, too...”

’He confessed...’

’Just like that!?’

Li Jianye froze. He felt like a swordsman who had drawn his blade only to find himself lost and with no one to fight.

’How could he admit to something like this!?’

’This guy’s mental state... there’s something wrong with him, right?’

Zhao Shui instinctively started to rush forward.

But a voice suddenly called out, stopping him.

”Wait. What do you mean by... ’picked out’?”

Xu Huo’s heart skipped a beat. He dropped his cover, stepped forward, and stared intently at the man.

”Just what I said, picked out. Took me a whole lot of effort to find one that’s good-lookin’ and comfortable.”

The old man grinned, revealing a set of yellowed teeth.

”’Picked out’? Are there others?”

It dawned on Li Jianye. His pupils contracted, and a sense of dread washed over him as he stared at the man.

”Yep,” the old man nodded.

”How many more!?”

The old man held up his hand. Under the detectives’ icy stares, he raised one finger, then two, then three...

A deeper chill settled in everyone’s hearts, until the old man finally lowered his hand.

”Too many to count. There’s about...”

The old man looked up, thought for a moment, and said:

”A whole warehouse.”

A sharp cry escaped Li Jianye. He felt cold all over, staring at the man in utter disbelief.

An indescribable, suffocating feeling enveloped everyone present.

The sky...

Had fallen.