Chapter 145: 142 The Madman

Li Duojin could tell that the late Mr. Zheng Yu was a man of taste. Although he could not identify all the modern artworks displayed in the other man's home, nor were the production techniques entirely consistent, each piece had a distinct style and unique character. Even someone like him, who did not study modern art much, could see at a glance that they were beautiful and excellent.

What made him certain of Mr. Zheng Yu's taste, however, were the antiques scattered among the cabinets in the hallway: likely clay pottery dancers from the Han Bang period, a tiger-headed silver goblet from the Zhen Li years, a palace Incense Burner from the Ming Yong dynasty... Every antique was authentic and extremely precious.

Of course, there was only one antique that Li Duojin could not make sense of.

It was an incomplete set of characters, and he had never seen similar poetry in the books he had read from childhood to the present, yet the style of the characters felt vaguely familiar.

"Does Mr. Zheng also work in the field of culture and art?" Li Duojin asked.

Chen Xiaolin glanced at him and nodded, saying, "Yes, he was a well-known art editor before, and later changed careers to become a writer."

She noticed Li Duojin looking at the specially framed, incomplete set of characters and explained to him, "Yu said before he died that when this set of characters was complete, it was very likely a piece of calligraphy and painting, but it was torn to shreds. Looking at these rough, frantic tearing marks, one wonders how much the person who tore it up must have hated it. However, Yu said that the person who tore up this calligraphy and painting was the very owner who drew it with his own hand."

"The owner?" Li Duojin was startled. He glanced at the only couplet that survived on the characters and read, "North wind, sunset, Heavenly Mountain cave; seeking the lonely like death, jade lad's bones... Why tear it up?"

"I was just as puzzled as you at first, until Yu told me its owner was the mad scholar 'Ye Gong', and then I wasn't surprised." Chen Xiaolin shook her head and sighed, "This person didn't leave behind many literary works. Most of his books were burned clean because they were filled with unbearable, dark taboos. Only a small portion was preserved. During my university years, with the help of a university professor I had a good relationship with, I accidentally read a small part of the content from a certain forbidden book that hadn't been leaked to the public.

The content was indeed unbearable; it recorded various bizarre customs that did not conform to common sense and personal insights that transcended ordinary moral values. As a young person at the time, I had nightmares for several days straight after reading it."

Upon hearing who the owner of the characters was, Li Duojin also suddenly realized: "So it was him."

As he spoke, Li Duojin leaned closer to the incomplete characters, wanting to see the broken calligraphy and painting more clearly, and said, "No wonder the style of the poetry looked so familiar."

Chatting as they went, the two reached the top floor.

But this did not mean they had arrived at the attic. To get to the attic, one had to go to the study on the top floor; there was a staircase in the study, which was the only way to the attic.

Under Chen Xiaolin's lead, Li Duojin arrived at the entrance of the attic, in front of a somewhat decayed metal iron door.

What made the two's hair stand on end was that this metal iron door was deformed outward, and the protruding parts displayed the outlines of what were likely several human faces, as if countless extremely terrified lives had been struggling incessantly inside the attic. Perhaps something terrifying had happened inside the attic, to the point that these people forgot their pain and desperately rammed the door to escape, but unfortunately, they did not succeed.

Li Duojin: "Was it like this before?"

"Definitely not!" Chen Xiaolin immediately denied it, shock reflected in her eyes, and said uneasily, "Could this also have been one of his crime scenes?"

"If you hadn't mentioned this, I would have almost forgotten." Li Duojin's brow twitched upon hearing Chen Xiaolin's words. "Since Zheng Yu was the murderer in the amusement park case, didn't the Enforcers investigate his home? This place doesn't look like it was searched at all; it's clean as can be."

Chen Xiaolin was stunned. Carefully recalling their journey here, she found it was indeed strange, because not even the entrance to the residence had been cordoned off with warning tape, and the things inside the residence were almost entirely intact, not looking like Enforcers had come here to collect evidence.

Her heartbeat began to accelerate, and Chen Xiaolin said with slight panic, "Could there be a problem with this?"

"Someone cleaned and tidied up this place afterward." Li Duojin speculated. He touched the handrail of the staircase; it was spotless, which was not a phenomenon one would see without daily cleaning.

"Who would still..." Chen Xiaolin wanted to ask who else could enter this place nowadays, but she suddenly remembered the words of Zheng Yu's daughter: Zheng Yu's "late wife" had appeared in the attic.

Zheng Yu's late wife was Zheng Yu's helpmeet. The wife herself was a neat freak and loved to tidy up. Household affairs, down to the smallest detail, were almost all handled by his wife alone. Everything from top to bottom was kept in perfect order by her, but unfortunately, she contracted an incurable disease and died young.

If Zheng Yu's wife "did not die," or rather, she died but survived in a way humans could not understand, then in that case, was there a suspect for why this house, which had been searched by the Enforcers, was suddenly cleaned?

"Is it safe?" Chen Xiaolin saw Li Duojin wanting to open the iron door, so she immediately grabbed the arm he was using to open the door and said earnestly.

Li Duojin smiled and said, "If there were danger, my eyelids would already be twitching, but unfortunately, they aren't."

Only then did Chen Xiaolin grit her teeth and let go, allowing Li Duojin to open the metal door of the attic.

Once the metal door opened, the dark, lightless environment inside the attic came into view. The light from outside the door spilled onto the floor, which was spotless, but countless fingernail scratches were clearly visible.

Chen Xiaolin tried to flip the switch for the attic's light, but found there was no reaction. Cold sweat broke out on her head: "Eh, that's strange, why won't the light turn on?"

Just as she was wondering, Li Duojin had already turned on his phone's flashlight and stepped into the attic area.

"Eh, you're just going in like that?" Chen Xiaolin followed closely behind, learned from Li Duojin to turn on her phone's flashlight, and followed him to explore this spacious attic.

Li Duojin's gaze moved along with the light. The attic was full of miscellaneous items, antiques, artworks, and discarded furniture, covered by cloths. On some of the discarded furniture, one could find scratches similar to those on the floor, as well as traces left by recent violent use. Combined with the signs of damage around the attic that were difficult to clean and repair, a fierce struggle must have occurred here recently.

Li Duojin silently kept these findings in his heart and continued to explore, eventually stopping with Chen Xiaolin in front of a dining table.

The dining table was covered with a white cloth, and on the cloth, strange symbols were drawn one after another with blood-colored paint. These symbols looked like a circuit board, eventually leading to a blank area, and it looked like something else had been placed on that area before.

"Eh? This symbol." Chen Xiaolin was also observing the symbols on the dining table, then let out a cry of surprise, grabbed the tablecloth, and then opened her phone to pull up a close-up photo of Zheng Yu's face after he was shot to death. She was shocked to discover that the symbol Zheng Yu had carved on his own forehead was completely from the same system as the one written on this tablecloth.