Chapter 089: The Scarred Man Appears Again

Ma Baoguo thought it over and quickly understood what Li Tianque meant.

“You mean this guy was trying to frame you?” he asked.

“Yeah. At the very least, it could have shifted the suspicion elsewhere,” Li Tianque said.

“That is indeed a line of investigation worth paying attention to. I’ll have Xiao Liu focus on checking it thoroughly.

“It’s just a pity. There’s no citywide surveillance system in the township, only a few cameras owned by wealthy households, and the killer chose the murder scene so cleverly that it happened to avoid all of them,” Ma Baoguo said with some disappointment.

“All right, let’s go see the research team first. And before anything is figured out, don’t let them leave,” Li Tianque said.

“Of course. I’ve already made arrangements. But... once the autopsy report comes out tomorrow, Lin Ya’s body will be sent to the county.

“By then the people from the research team will all head back as well, and we won’t be able to restrict their freedom,” Ma Baoguo said helplessly.

Li Tianque frowned. It seemed the investigation tonight would be extremely important.

As he walked on in thought, he had only taken a few steps before Ma Baoguo called out,

“Hey, hey, this way. You’re going the wrong direction.”

Li Tianque glanced at him.

“First, let’s go back to the police station.”

“Hm?”

“I need to get that black sphere of mine back first.”

Li Tianque thought that the research team might leave tomorrow, and it was necessary to have them help him figure out what exactly the Shi Erwu inside the sphere was.

That Lu Zuzhi had previously made an extremely precise judgment about the creature’s weakness.

From that alone, it seemed very likely he knew Shi Erwu quite well.

So Li Tianque and Ma Baoguo returned to the police station. On duty there were Officer Xiao Wang and the auxiliary police officer assigned to rotational night duty.

They went to the blast-proof barrel in the police office. Since the black sphere inside had been separated from Li Tianque, he could no longer sense what was happening within it.

But the moment he picked up the sphere, he immediately noticed that something was odd: its color had clearly faded quite a bit.

Li Tianque felt puzzled and at once reconnected the sphere to his nerves. Very quickly, he understood what was going on.

It turned out the Shi Erwu inside was not dead.

It kept gnawing at the black sphere. As it did, the sphere itself kept rotating, until it was evenly eaten into a network of grooves. The whole thing had grown much thinner, and some air was even able to seep through.

Li Tianque thought to himself that he had returned just in time; otherwise, the thing inside might well have gnawed through the sphere and escaped.

At that thought, he immediately spread more cancer cells around the outside of the sphere, wrapping it layer by layer.

When Ma Baoguo saw this, he was utterly astonished. He could not understand how Li Tianque was doing it, how he could release clusters of black, soft tissue from within his body, as though he were secreting oil.

“My goodness, what on earth is going on with you? Can your body still ooze oil?”

Li Tianque naturally had no intention of explaining much, so he merely shrugged.

“Ha. If I really had that skill, I’m afraid some Middle Eastern sheikh would’ve had me kidnapped long ago.”

The two of them then went to the evidence room and took out the caterpillars and powder sealed in glass jars, preparing to bring them together to the research team.

The motorcycle roared along the road and soon arrived at the township guesthouse.

It was a three-story building attached to the neighboring residence. The stairway was mottled with age, the bricks and stones cracked in places, and from the gaps grew clusters of vivid green vines winding upward, forming a rare patch of living color in this ancient town.

After entering the guesthouse, a slightly fat, ruddy-faced man immediately greeted them with a broad smile.

He was just about to ask whether they needed a room when he saw that it was Ma Baoguo. At once, he swallowed his words and no longer paid them any mind.

Li Tianque did not care. He followed Ma Baoguo upstairs.

On the stairs, they met a tall, thin middle-aged man. He had a fair complexion and wore black-rimmed glasses, looking rather scholarly.

“Ah! Officer Ma! You’re here!” the man greeted them, though his voice was not especially warm.

After all, such a thing had just happened within their team; everyone was already on edge.

“Yes. Professor Lu and the others are all upstairs, right?” Ma Baoguo asked.

“Of course. You wouldn’t even let us leave,” the man said, with obvious resentment in his tone.

Ma Baoguo pretended not to understand and kept going upstairs with a cigarette between his lips.

“He’s Liang Zhichao from the research team. He was romantically involved with the deceased,” Ma Baoguo said.

Li Tianque gave a slight nod and looked Liang Zhichao over carefully.

He appeared to be in his thirties, with a kindly face. His first impression was not bad at all.

The two of them reached the second floor. Li Tianque noticed that at the entrance of the corridor, a burly man in uniform was seated at a small table, fiddling with his phone and yawning incessantly.

When he saw Ma Baoguo and the other man arrive, his eyes lit up and he hurriedly said, “Oh? Station Chief Ma! This is... huh? Why was he let out?”

Li Tianque also recognized him. He was the scar-faced Kang man whom he had once fought.

Ma Baoguo scratched his head and said irritably, “Don’t talk nonsense. He’s already been cleared of suspicion. And don’t ask me why. My superiors think my level isn’t enough, so they’ve brought in this famous detective to help us solve the case.”

“Come, come, let me introduce you two. This is the auxiliary police officer for this district, Tudeng Nima. And this great detective here is called Li Tianque.”

Tudeng Nima stared at Li Tianque in astonishment, his face alternating between red and white.

Though this Kangba man greatly admired Li Tianque, in his heart Li Tianque was still the biggest suspect in the murder case, after all, he had been the one to arrest him personally.

He truly could not understand why Li Tianque had been released so quickly.

Still, since the leader had already spoken, he naturally would not ask any further.

At that moment, Liang Zhichao, who had gone downstairs to fetch hot water, heard their conversation and immediately looked over at Li Tianque and the others with alert eyes.

He seemed as though he wanted to say something, but after meeting Li Tianque’s sharp gaze, he still held back.

“How has it been? They haven’t been running around, have they?” Ma Baoguo asked.

“No. Their emotions have basically stabilized now, and I’ve told them clearly: although the killer has been caught, it’s not yet confirmed, so they must not wander about. They’re scared, too, so they’ve stayed in the guesthouse the whole time. If they need food or anything else, I go out and buy it for them,” Tudeng Nima said.

Ma Baoguo nodded and gestured for Li Tianque to follow him.

As the two of them headed toward Professor Lu’s room, they passed the largest room on the second floor and, by chance, cast a glance sideways.

It had once been a meeting room long abandoned. After the research team arrived, they converted it into a temporary laboratory. Inside were now piled all kinds of experimental equipment, along with insect specimens.

The room was pitch-black, with only a transparent glass case glowing faintly.

Inside the case, a number of crystal-like insects were writhing. Their shape was somewhat strange, with long antennae, a little like crickets but smaller; from a distance, they looked like clusters of flowing grains of rice.

Li Tianque was curiously watching the glass case when, all at once, a twisted, monstrous face appeared through the glass.