Chapter 433: Dressing Sister Yuanyuan in a Qipao

The personnel were found at a most peculiar moment, which startled Chen Fan, because instinctively Chen Fan knew that the other party had very likely come looking for him on their own initiative.

Li Tian and Chen Fan went together to make the arrest, and at that moment when they entered the tailor shop, a man was measuring a woman's body.

A simple set of clothes, an apron, and a cloth measuring tape in his hand highlighted the man's identity.

The man pushed his glasses up and said, "We're closed for the day."

The girl left.

The cameraman switched on the camera.

The man said, "Follow me. Of course, if you're not at ease, you can slap a pair of handcuffs on me too."

Wouldn't they put the handcuffs on him? The answer was no, because that was in the movies; in the real world, the handcuffs went straight on.

With the handcuffs on, they followed the man to his back courtyard, and then descended into the basement.

Rarely was the basement lighting so abundant; standing in the basement was a woman.

A woman who had been sculpted.

The man said, "This is what I consider my most beautiful work. What do you think?"

Li Tian looked at Chen Fan — clearly, the man was asking for Chen Fan's opinion.

The reason for giving Sister Yuanyuan a qipao was, at its core, still because Chen Fan was here; perhaps it was a mutual reliance, or perhaps it was a desire to show off his skill for Chen Fan to see.

It seemed, somehow, like a student hoping to curry favor with the teacher.

Chen Fan stepped up to the woman, carefully examining the skin, and said, "It's still a touch off. What you know is far too little."

"What makes you say so?"

"When it comes to skin-grafting, what matters is the fit. I know your dream — you want to complete a graft while the person is still alive, to stitch a person together flawlessly, what you consider your most beautiful work."

A gleam shone in the man's eyes as he said, "Yes, yes, exactly that. So many girls really are just one point shy of a perfect score, but that one point never seems to come. I feel I should grant these people a stroke of fortune."

Chen Fan said, "I can't be bothered to ask how you did it. I'll just tell you — you need to learn a great deal."

"Learn a great deal?"

Chen Fan produced a scalpel and said, "When it comes to cutting open the skin, you have to follow the path of the blood vessels. That way, you won't leave behind any excess flesh, and the graft won't look so abrupt. Also, your stitching path is no good — it's just the traditional sewing path. You need to switch to a different needle technique."

Chen Fan spoke in earnest, and the man listened in earnest.

Every time Chen Fan reached an inspired point, the man would clap and cheer outright.

Every cell in his body seemed to boil over.

My heavens — so it could actually be done like this?

Damn, that really was an eye-opener.

The audience was the most baffled of all.

"Why do I get the feeling this is a teacher educating a student?"

"It really does feel like this murderer is seeking Chen Fan's approval."

"This feeling is just strange — Chen Fan seems to have become the king of crime."

"Damn it, this guy deliberately laid out his case — could it all have been just to win Chen Fan's attention and admiration?"

In the observation room, Qin Ming said, "This counts as provocation, and it also counts as seeking another person's praise. And incidents like this have happened several times."

Happened before?

Teacher He said, "What do you mean, happened?"

Teacher Luo said, "I've been through it too. At the peak of my fame, someone who provoked the judiciary appeared — they created perfect cases specifically to target me, but it didn't stop me from sending them away."

Qin Ming said, "Li Tian ran into it before too. Back then Li Tian was at the height of his fame, hailed as our China's Sherlock Holmes, with newspapers singing his praises. Someone cooked up a case, specifically naming Li Tian to solve it. Li Tian didn't take more than five days before he had the guy caught."

"Then shouldn't we stop promoting these things from now on?"

Qin Ming said, "But the warning effect is actually greater. Weighing the pros and cons, we still need to promote them."

At the scene, the man said, "Do I still need to learn about blood types?"

"Yes. Knowing skin-grafting alone isn't enough. The idea is good, but unfortunately your professional level is far too lacking — you really need to read more. Skin-grafting alone won't cut it."

"Still, you do know to have one woman go find another woman — that takes some brains."

The man said, "Every person carries a deep-rooted flaw. That flaw drives a woman, when targeting her own close friend, to make a different choice. And the funny thing is, in all these years I've never failed, which proves these women truly hate their close friends."

Chen Fan was speechless and said, "The main thing is it's just not interesting. Didn't you slip up too — someone killed was a man."

The man, also at a loss, said, "That woman was a lunatic. Sigh, I miscalculated one step — I overlooked some people's hatred for others. At the time, to cut open that man so he'd fit a woman's body, I spent ages sketching it out."

"So there's one body missing from here."

"I dissolved it with chemical agents. A woman like that doesn't deserve to be my work — she's just garbage, completely destroying my creation."

Li Tian reached out, clapped the man on the shoulder, and said, "All right. Stop blabbering here, let's go. Since you've confessed, come back with me and record your statement."

The man turned around.

He walked toward the outside.

"Chen Fan, let me give you some qipaos — pick a few, how about it?"

"I'm not interested. I make my own. But I'm curious about one thing — that woman, did you like her that much?"

The woman's fingers touched the female corpse before her as she murmured to herself.

The man said quietly, "What did you see?"

The back of Chen Fan's hand slid slowly down along the woman's face.

"I saw a very young fellow standing in front of a woman. The woman lit a cigarette and undid the boy's pants. You must have been quite happy at the time."

"She sat there, questioning you — 'Kid, ever touched a woman?'"

The man said nothing.

Li Tian hauled the guy off on the spot — no more chatting, or that self-criticism report was as good as written today.

Night fell, the sky gradually darkening. Just the work of handling the corpse was extremely difficult.

And Chen Fan, using One's own skills, took needle and thread and returned these skins to the women they had belonged to.

It was painstaking work. On Xiang Qinqin's teacher's side, only rough matching could be done, but on Chen Fan's side, it could be done flawlessly.

When they saw these women appear so exquisitely restored, even morticians who had been in the trade for many years were startled.

This kind of craftsmanship — without having sutured hundreds, even thousands, of bodies, would be absolutely impossible.

This is a skill bordering on the divine.

After finishing the last woman, Chen Fan finally went to eat his dinner.

At the dinner table, everyone had already finished eating and was chatting idly. When Chen Fan arrived, the chef had specially prepared a portion of chicken soup.

In winter, a bowl of chicken soup, along with some steaming-hot dishes, could really restore a person's spirits considerably.

Li Tian returned to the dinner table and said, "Damn, that was really something. I'm completely in awe of this guy. He really did it all just to earn Chen Fan's approval."

Everyone looked at Chen Fan. Chen Fan acted indifferent and continued to show off his appetite.

"I asked that man who the first person he killed was. He said it was his lover. But I visited some people and got an answer — that woman was no lover at all. That woman was a prostitute."

Li Tian continued, "Qipao, high-end escort — how should I put it, a relatively upscale kind of escort, I suppose. The kind who hangs around nightclubs and parties. I've investigated the woman. She was proud her whole life, had affairs with many people — 083, all of them rich."

"She lived proudly even at the point of death. In the end, that man never even slept with her."

"When the woman died, she said her heart was still young, only her skin had grown worse. And after the man fulfilled this woman's wish, he gave her a new skin."

"From then on, the man couldn't stop himself."

Li Tian took a sip of baijiu and said, "So you see, criminals don't deserve pity. They all deserve to die."

After saying that, he provocatively glanced at Chen Fan. Chen Fan said, "Li Tian, I've put up with you for a long time. Do you know that? Do you have a problem with me?"

"Yes, I do have a problem with you. This guy — damn, he actually wants your approval. You've read Sherlock Holmes, right? Moriarty inside? I think damn, that's you."

Chen Fan said with a chuckle, "Too bad you're not Sherlock Holmes."

"Why am I not?"

Chen Fan said, 'Because Sherlock Holmes is never bald.'

Pfft — hahahahahaha.

Everyone at the table burst into unrestrained laughter. They were all rendered speechless by Chen Fan's absurd humor.

Li Tian laughed dryly and said, "Goodbye."