Chapter 153: The Beginning of Disappearance

"Between July and November 1983, five female corpses were found in succession in the waters of Dongji Town, a coastal town under the jurisdiction of Nancheng. The eyes of the deceased were dug out, a mirror was hung on their chests, and the corpses were all tied in a kneeling posture.

A passage of Sanskrit was carved on the palm of the left hand of each corpse. After deciphering, it was a sentence from the 'Vimalakirti Sutra': 'All phenomena are illusory, like dreams, like flames, like the moon in water, like images in a mirror, born from delusions.'

Because a mirror was hung on the chest of every deceased, this case was called the 1983 'Mirror Demon Case'."

Under the dome of the church, Qi Fei recited the Buddhist verse, incongruous and bizarre. Then he began to count the situation of the victims fluently, "July 19, the first corpse was found in the Dongshan Reef area, deceased Chen Afeng, 38, accountant of the aquatic products company;

August 25, the second corpse floated to the fishing boat pier of Qingbin Island, deceased Wang Lijuan, 25, broadcaster of the town radio station;

September 16, the third corpse was stuck in an abandoned air-raid shelter, deceased Lin Suzhen, 41, town primary school teacher;

October 30, the fourth corpse was washed onto the beach of Hudao Island by the ocean current, deceased Zhou Xiaomei, 19, student of the aquatic technical school;

November 21, the fifth corpse appeared at the Yuxing Island pier, deceased Wu Meiling, 33, nurse at the town health center."

Zhong Kui listened from the side, feeling slightly surprised: "You remember so clearly?"

Qi Fei said: "This is the biggest unsolved case in the bureau. It has not been solved to this day. The first thing every one of us in the criminal police team does when entering the police station is to memorize the victims of this case, hoping that one day we can solve the case. 42 years have passed, police officers have retired in rounds, and this information has been passed down and memorized from generation to generation, hoping that one day, we can give these deceased an explanation."

"Then what about Ye Ming?"

"Ye Ming was the captain of the Nancheng Criminal Police Team at that time. 1983 was the year of the national crackdown on vagrants. This case was initially characterized as vagrant crime. Against that background, such a serial disappearance case was no small matter. Not only He Wan Town, but the entire Nancheng was in panic. Single women dared not walk at night or go out alone for a long time. Conditions were limited back then. Ye Ming took people from the bureau to investigate suspicious personnel day and night, but never gained anything. On New Year's Eve that year, Ye Ming called the police station from a phone booth, saying that he had found the whereabouts of the suspect, located at Xinhua Square in JN District.

When the reinforcements from the police station arrived, they didn't find Ye Ming, let alone the trace of the suspect." Qi Fei said with emotion, looking at the remains wearing a police uniform, "I don't know what happened back then?"

He said, stepping forward to carefully examine the skeletons that had been excavated and neatly arranged on the church floor tiles: "Except for the tied posture, they don't seem to have mirrors hung on their bodies like the 'Mirror Demon Case'."

Zhong Kui pointed her finger upward, pointing to the seventeen mirrors on the dome: "Is there a possibility that this place can save him these troubles."

"After 1983, Dongji Town strengthened its security forces, and no female disappearances occurred in the following years. Except for Ye Ming, the identities of the other three female corpses still need to be compared with the missing persons database. The three female corpses were stacked on top of Ye Ming's corpse. It can basically be judged that the time of death was after Ye Ming was killed."

The rain cleared and the sky cleared, and the spring in Nancheng always accelerated to warm up.

Under the sun, winter clothes suddenly reached the time to be stored.

Wu Shanqiu, wearing a light yellow thread sweater, walked into the bright police station office, watching Qi Fei standing by the window with coffee, and patted him from behind.

Qi Fei was unprepared, and half of the coffee in his hand spilled, making him very embarrassed.

He wiped his pants with his hand: "What are you doing?"

"Hey, as an excellent criminal police officer, why didn't you even notice me behind you?" Wu Shanqiu always had a good complexion, and her face in the spring light was as full as an apple. "And, you have been standing by the window and dazing lately. What on earth are you thinking about? Thinking about Zhong Kui?"

Qi Fei didn't feel it himself: "I haven't had anything lately, the same as before, you think too much."

Wu Shanqiu was very sure: "You, before, were a workaholic. You were either at the scene or studying data in front of the computer. It was absolutely impossible to stand by the window and watch the scenery and drink coffee. But recently, I found several times that you stood by the window for half an hour. And it is this place, never changing position."

Being said by Wu Shanqiu, Qi Fei actually agreed a little.

He looked at his feet and then at the window, and had to admit that Wu Shanqiu was right. He always unconsciously came to this window and looked into the distance.

As for why he wanted to do this, he couldn't figure it out.

In the distance, the mountains already had new green. In the depths of the layers of trees, it was a famous historical site in Nancheng—the Nanling where the unjustly killed prince was buried. Now for Qi Fei, it was just such a Nanling. He muttered: "Being said by you, indeed, my brain hasn't been enough lately. I always feel that there are things that haven't been done, but I can't remember." As he spoke, his gaze fell on the data Wu Shanqiu was holding in her chest, "You didn't come to me for idle chat, right?"

"Right! Brother Fei, the identities of the three deceased have been confirmed."

Qi Fei was surprised: "So fast?" According to past experience, for such remains over decades, tracing the identity itself is a very difficult thing.

"Yeah, because the correlation with the 'Mirror Demon Case' is really too strong. We checked after the time Ye Ming went missing, and the next year, which was the autumn of 1984, Nancheng had three consecutive female disappearance incidents. In recent years, don't we have a 'Nest Return Plan' specifically for finding missing persons? It stores a large number of DNA samples voluntarily provided by the families of missing persons. The data of the three deceased were compared, and they were actually there." Wu Shanqiu said, opening the data and reading: "September 2, 22-year-old tailor shop female worker Li Yulan went missing after going to the provincial capital for further studies. October 2, 29-year-old He Wan District primary school teacher Wang Xiumei went missing after leaving a crooked leave note. October 27, 25-year-old paper mill female worker Zhang Hongxia went missing on her way home from the night shift. The three women did not know each other, and the only common point was that they were all female."

I don't know if it was the scorching sun or the heavy mood, Qi Fei's brows were locked, and the coffee cup in his hand was pinched out of shape: "We thought the 'Mirror Demon Case' stopped abruptly after Ye Ming went missing. In fact, he didn't stop at all."

"It's just, why did he change his modus operandi from Buddhist scriptures to churches?" Wu Shanqiu said puzzledly.

As if influenced by this, the sun high in the sky was suddenly covered by a cloud, and the surroundings darkened, just like the mood of the two at this moment. ===== CHAPTER 154 =====