The cement pipe was placed on the ground vertically. Someone had thrown some garbage in there. There were a few pieces of tattered clothes, probably left by the tramps. I slid half of my body into it and rummaged through the garbage with my hands until I finally found the source of the weird smell.

I took out a pair of rubber gloves from my pocket and put them on. Then I picked up the paper towel that was emitting the medical-grade alcohol smell.

It seemed that my guess was correct. Xiaozhang was indeed kidnapped by the murderer!

This paper towel was probably here because the murderer had mistakenly spilled some nitrous oxide on his hand, so he used it to wipe his hands. It was clear that the murderer had long been eyeing Xiaozhang.

Xiaotao came over and sniffed it and asked, “How did you know it was here, Song Yang? It’s like you have a dog’s sense of smell!”

“I’ve been trained.”

“You can train for that? Can you teach me how? It would be convenient for me as a police officer to have a nose as sensitive as yours!”

In fact, I had to go through a lot of painful training to get this good. Every day, Grandpa would pierce silver needles on the acupuncture points on my nose. Not everyone would be able to endure that.

“Let’s talk about that later,” I tried to change the subject. “Did you bring an evidence collecting bag?”

“Yeah!” Xiaotao nodded.

I put the paper towel into the bag and sealed it. Then I waved my hand to Xiaotao, “There is nothing left to investigate here. Let’s go to the next place!”

“Okay!”

The second missing person, Xiaoli, was in many ways similar to Xiaozhang. He went missing half a month ago. He also did not inform anyone of his whereabouts. Xiaoli worked in a car wash and he lived in an apartment with two colleagues.

According to Xiaoli’s roommates, half a month ago, Xiaoli went downstairs to take out the garbage, and then he never returned. He wouldn’t answer their calls either, so they reported him as missing.

“Did his family come looking for him?” I asked.

“They did,” his roommate replied. “His mother was very tearful about it. One of his sisters is a lawyer. I hear they’re going to sue the apartment management about this, but management said their only responsibilities were to keep the apartment clean and orderly. This shouldn’t have anything to do with them.”

“What was Xiaoli’s personality like?”

“He’s a nice guy,” the roommate reminisced. “He’s the most hygienic among the three of us. He’s always the one to clean the house and take the garbage out.”

The other roommate interjected, “Yeah, he’s a special guy. He’s kind of an introvert. He doesn’t talk to us much when he’s at home. But he’s a hard worker, and he likes gardening too. Do you see those pots of flowers on the balcony there? Those are all his doing!”

I smiled. “Did he have a girlfriend?”

“Nah. He’s an inexperienced virgin just like us.”

“Speak for yourself!” the other roommate retorted. “Don’t compare me to the likes of you!”

“You loser, do you really think that Lili likes you? She’s only using you as a spare, idiot! You’ve known her for so long, yet have you ever had dinner with her once? Ever slept with her?”

“Shut up! What we have is called true love!”

“Holy hell! You’re sappy! Don’t you notice how she excuses herself to go take a shower every time you talk to her? She must be a real hygienic person!”

The two men argued till they were both red in the face. I didn’t want to get in between their fight so I uttered a quick ‘thank you’ and left quickly with Xiaotao.

Once we’ve left the apartment, I summed up our discoveries.

“One and a half months ago, twenty-seven days ago, half a month ago… Judging from the pattern, I’m afraid Xiaoli is probably dead.”

“So, the murderer kills a person every fifteen days?” Xiaotao gasped.

“Do you usually cook?” I asked her.

“Not really, why do you ask?”

“Well, the usual shelf-life of meat is about half a month,” I replied. “It seems that the murderer really thinks of humans as two-legged livestock.”

“In that case, does it mean that we have half a month’s worth of time to catch the bastard before he gets the next victim?”

“No, Xiaoli was missing half a month ago. That means the fourth victim will be caught in the next two days. Unless if we get to them before the murderer does, that is.”

“It’s a very tight deadline!” Xiaotao sighed.

At that moment, her phone rang. She picked it up and spoke for a while. Once she hung up, she turned to me and said, “You’re right again, Song Yang. Ma Yaozu really is Ma Jinhuo’s official name.”

I recalled the file I had read before.

“Wait a minute, didn’t Ma Jinhuo go missing three months ago? He resigned from the abattoir three months ago too. The staff there didn’t report him as missing, so who did?”

“You’re right! Ma Jinhuo probably has some relatives in Nanjiang City!”

Xiaotao immediately called the police station. She was told that an anonymous person had reported Ma Jinhuo’s disappearance. After hanging up the phone, Xiaotao cursed, “Damn it! Another dead end!”

I shook my head slightly. “No, it’s not a dead end. In fact, it’s an important breakthrough!”

“What?” Xiaotao quickly reacted. “You’d better not give me false hope!”

“Didn’t Shopkeeper Tang tell us Ma Jinhuo had been delivering meat to him during the past six months? But the information we gathered told us that Ma Jinhuo had already disappeared three months ago. Perhaps Shopkeeper Tang was lying to us!”

Xiaotao suddenly realized it too. “Let’s go find him again!”

We rushed to the bun shop, but its doors were closed at noon.

“Where are the police officers who are on stakeout?” I asked.

“See that black car over there?” she indicated with her head. “There are two police officers inside. If Ma Jinhuo appears, they’ll immediately arrest him.”

“It’s a hard job, isn’t it, being on stakeout?” I smiled sympathetically.

“Nah! You get to eat and drink in the car all day! I was on stakeout once and I used up a whole pack of diapers in a week!”

I was struck by how frank and open Xiaotao was to be casually revealing this detail to me as if it was nothing at all. But that only made me respect her more.

We knocked on the door and heard Shopkeeper Tang answer, so we opened it and entered the shop. I saw him wearing a leather apron and his hands were covered in flour. I asked, “Are you making the buns?”

“Yes, I am,” he replied. “Come in and take a seat, both of you. I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

“There’s no need for that,” I put up my hand to refuse. “We’ll be quick. Just a few questions, that’s all.”

It was dark in the shop. Shopkeeper Tang was kneading dough on the chopping board, and there was a big bowl beside him that was filled with minced meat. Small containers of spices surrounded him. When I saw the meat filling for the buns, I couldn’t help but be reminded of those human meat buns that I almost ate. The thought alone riled up my stomach.

Xiaotao squinted and muttered, “The meat...”

“Oh, don’t worry!” Shopkeeper Tang reassured her. “I just bought this from the supermarket this morning. It’s the freshest pork from the hind legs! I can steam some for you right now if you like!” He smiled and rubbed his hands on his apron. His face was red.

“No, no! Don’t bother!” Xiaotao refused, waving her hands frantically.

“It looks like you’re very passionate about making buns,” I remarked.

“I absolutely am!” He sat on a chair. “There’s nothing I love more than making buns! It gives me a lot of joy! I often come up with new recipes for them, and I’m always trying to improve the ones I have now. When I see how happy my customers are when they bite into my buns, my heart just bursts with delight! I don’t know if it’s an appropriate analogy, but it’s like when you write a book and everyone enjoys reading it!”

I secretly thought about how rare it was to find someone who enjoyed their work so much and was so dedicated to it.

Xiaotao took out her notebook and started to jot something down.

“I need to ask you a few questions,” she told him.

“Yes, go ahead.” Shopkeeper Tang nodded.

“Have you really seen Ma Jinhuo recently?”

When Xiaotao asked the question, I immediately scrutinized Shopkeeper Tang’s expressions with Cave Vision.

“Yes, I have,” Shopkeeper Tang replied. “He just delivered me some meat three days ago. What’s wrong?”

“Ma Jinhuo disappeared a long time ago. Didn’t you know about this?”

“Since when?”

“Three months ago. He resigned from the abattoir where he worked three months ago too. His disappearance was reported by an anonymous person.”

Shopkeeper Tang was so shocked his eyes bulged out.

“But that’s impossible! I swear to God I saw him just three days ago!”

Xiaotao looked at me. I shook my head slightly, implying that he was not lying.

Still, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was not right somewhere!