The next morning, Chen Shi drove alone to a city village on Limin Road. The issue of the structural integrity of the roads and houses here was very serious. The ground was covered with mud and dirty water after the snow melted. Some young people squatted together and were smoking. They cast their eyes on these new strangers in alertness.

After Chen Shi found a place to park, a few sneaky youths came to look at his red BMW. Chen Shi said, “I’ve got the driving cam on, so don’t get any ideas!”

“What do you mean, smelly Uncle?” The young men felt insulted and started walking over to him. One of them even kicked his car tires.

Chen Shi took out his “badge” and said with a smile, “Want to talk to me?”

When they saw it was a “policeman”, they immediately dispersed.

Walking through the maze of privately constructed buildings, the cries of children, the quarrels between husband and wife, and the barks of dogs could all be heard. This old city can be said to be the internal organs of Long’an.

Such dirty and messy places couldn’t be mapped with just a blueprint.

He arrived at a canteen that had no customers at all, only a yellow-haired young man behind the counter was playing mobile games. Chen Shi said, “I’m looking for Dr. Yang.”

“Who introduced you?”

“No one introduced me. I’m his guest.” Chen Shi pointed at his own face.

After asking for Chen Shi’s name, the yellow-haired youth called someone and then took him to the back where a basement was hidden.

Upon entering the basement, it felt like going into a paradise for a murderous monster. The old tiled walls were filled with suspicious dirt and the air smelled of blood and disinfectant. Behind a door with frosted glass was a shadow.

There was a voice. “Come back in a week to take out the stitches. During this time, remember to take your medicine on time and not to eat the foods I mentioned to you.”

Chen Shi smoked a cigarette outside before Dr. Yang came out of the operating room. His customer did not come out with him. In fact, there was another exit in the operating room to prevent customers from bumping into each other.

Dr. Yang wore a surgical gown. The blood stains on them layered on top of each other like a butcher who had just killed a pig.

“Officer Song, what kind of wind blew you here?” The doctor over fifty laughed, and his receding hairline had wrinkles forming on it.

“I'm no longer Officer Song.”

“Yes, yes. Chen Shi, do you have something you want from me?” Dr. Yang opened the silver jug and took a sip.

This doctor used to be a top cosmetic surgeon in China with superb skills, but his personal life wasn’t great. Due to gambling, he owed so much money to loan sharks that he could never repay it all. Later on, an underworld boss was willing to help him, but the condition was for him to change what the boss looked like. The guy had committed murder with his current face.

Then, he started doing this as a living, doing cosmetic surgery on people in the underworld that needed an escape.

He also had a VIP service here which completely turns one person into another. Even personal information could be arranged. Those replaced people were often people who had disappeared over ten years ago but haven’t had their deaths officially announced. You could even search for these identities on the police system. Or they would imitate the KGB’s methods of buying a dead baby’s information from the hospitals. That way, their record was clean and there wouldn’t be a problem no matter how they falsified the identity.

“How have you been recently?” Chen Shi asked.

“Same old, same old. I’m not worried about my customer base, but the police keep bothering me.”

“Let me show you a picture.” Chen Shi pulled out the wanted order from his mobile phone of a suspect that committed a family massacre. He stared at Dr. Yang's face. “Is he your customer?”

Dr. Yang glanced at the photo and shook his head with a smile, “Isn't this making things difficult for me? I can't reveal customer information. To be able to live in peace today is thanks to me keeping my mouth shut! There are also many people who want to kill Song Lang outside. Maybe some of them have even taken your taxi. Do you want me to tell them the truth? If it’s inconvenient for others, it’ll be inconvenient for yourself too, Song... No, Mr. Chen!”

Chen Shi pulled out another wanted warrant and continued observing Dr. Yang's expression. He asked, “What about this one?”

“Aiya, don't make it difficult for me, okay? I want to live well.”

“What about this one?” Ji Chunma was the one Chen Shi showed him this time.

“I won't tell you anything.”

Although he said so with his mouth, Chen Shi already had an idea from his expression. He shouldn’t have seen Ji Chunma before.

Chen Shi took out a fourth photo. “What about him?”

Seeing the face in the photo, Dr. Yang's pupils narrowed but he still shook his head. “No comment!”

Chen Shi suddenly became excited and grabbed Dr. Yang's shoulder. “He changed his face here?!”

“You have a problem? I said I have nothing to say. Don't guess randomly!”

Chen Shi released Dr. Yang and had a sense of inexplicable panic wash over him. The fourth photo was Zhou Xiao who had caused his current circumstances. It was originally reference data to test Dr. Yang, but he didn’t expect this discovery.

Chen Shi said, “If you do business with this person, you have to be careful. He’s a crazy dog!”

“Rest assured, someone is backing me. I’m much safer than you are.” Dr. Yang adjusted his clothes. “I didn't say anything. You figured it out yourself.”

“Take care!”

“Don't bother me anymore. I have a lot of work to do.”

Chen Shi left the city village and rushed to the bureau at 11:00 AM and asked Peng Sijue what his findings were. Peng Sijue showed him two things. One was a hundred-yuan banknote from the Bank of China. This was the money that was marked in the abduction case five years ago.

Peng Sijue pointed to the banknote in the evidence bag and said, “There is a stain in the lower left corner. It’s human blood. I am comparing it right now.”

“So it was like that. There’s DNA evidence that the mastermind left behind. This is undoubtedly a nuclear bomb[1]!” Chen Shi finally understood everything.

“Mastermind?”

Chen Shi told Peng Sijue his reasoning and Peng Sijue nodded. “It makes sense. But why was this bill spent?”

“It seems that it was accidentally used by the mistress, so Ji Chunma chose to kill them to prevent the police from hunting it down... What’s the other thing you wanted to show me?”

The second thing was the fragments found in the garbage bag at the crime scene. There were two groups of debris in total. One group seemed to be from a ceramic item. The other group was black porcelain which should be a small pot. Lin Qiupu suspected that it was an antique and they were looking for experts to appraise it.

Additionally, some information about the victims had also been updated. Both of them should be Ji Chunma's mistresses, but at the same time each of them had their own lovers. Their source of income was partly from Ji Chunma and partly from their respective lovers.

“The two mistresses live under one roof. How harmonious.”

Peng Sijue picked up a document issued by the task force and said, “The young victim Qiuping moved in three years ago. It should be someone Ji Chunma met and raised while he was a wanted man. According to Qiuping's second lover, Wang Xifeng is a jar of vinegar[2] and often got angry at Qiuping. Qiuping's grievances could only be communicated to outsiders.”

“Just like a main wife and a concubine.”

“I think they are more like a main wife and a maid.”

“What about on your side?”

“After the autopsy, it can be estimated that Qiuping's time of death was about 10:00 that night. Wang Xifeng's time of death seems to be a little later. I don't know if this is due to the drop in liver temperature caused by the excessive bleeding, but it should not exceed 10:30. The murder weapon used on the two of them was the same. For the other details, you can read the autopsy report!”

“10:30?” Chen Shi recalled. “Dog Egg arrived at the scene afterwards. Was the murderer still there?”

1. Powerful/shocking evidence or news.

2. Is someone who is easily jealous.