Hegel's Confession Volume 1 Chapter 38

He had knocked down two men similar in age to him and broke their legs with bricks. Later, someone called the police, because the victims' situation could not endure such serious injuries. Since it was the two men who had insulted him first, he had only been in jail for one year.

It meant that Dai Lichun had served his time in jail, and now he had been out free for two years. He worked as an electrician not long after he got out of jail.

"Zhuxuan, do you think there is a problem with him?" Xiao Teng looked at the information on the screen. He felt that something was off.

"If the murderer is Dai Lichun, why does he kill people in such a cruel way? What's more, no one has seen any of his connections with Qiu Nan and Wu Xiaolan," I related as I quickly thought through this in my mind.

Xiao Teng leaned back and said, "What if Qiu Nan and Wu Xiaolan accidentally saw Dai Lichun's appearance? According to their personalities, they must inevitably hate and ridicule Dai Lichun, thus he was stimulated into killing them."

"Let's interview some older residents and security tomorrow. It is very likely that they have concealed something," I said in a low voice.

In fact, Xiao Teng's guess might be right. After all, it was unfortunate for Dai Lichun to be disfigured by fire and almost die. Nevertheless, he was ridiculed and met with disgust rather than sympathy. He just could not stand it; otherwise, he would not fight and go to jail.

I recalled his performance during the transcript. He could not quickly and fluently answer the questions like that under normal circ.u.mstances, even if he was outgoing. Even coupled with the fact that there was a sudden power outage in Qiu Nan's home the night she was killed, it was not enough to prove it to Wu Xiaolan. If the sudden power outage happened to both of the deceased, Da Lichun would be more suspicious.

We went to the community the next morning, and there were some uncles and aunts who wandered on the square. Xiao Teng and I casually exercised nearby and quickly locked in on the target, which was a 60-year-old aunt wearing a red dress a few meters away. Because there were no other people near her, it was easier for us to chat with her.

"h.e.l.lo, aunt," Xiao Teng greeted her, and praised her for her energy.

The aunt was as approachable as we expected, and soon we started some small talk. She also asked us if we were new to move in here and she barely saw us.

Xiao Teng nodded at her words and said that he had just moved in here. However, he hated the power outages these days, and he never thought about it as it happened so frequently earlier.

Speaking of this subject, the aunt seemed to have a lot to say. "You guys don't know. The electric circuit in this community is really bad. There always are sudden power outages in rainy seasons. Fortunately, the maintenance was relatively timely, so the power outage time did not last too long."

Xiao Teng said yes and nonchalantly glanced at me. Getting his suggestion, I pretended to be panicked and said, "Aunt, I have heard that two women died in the community recently. It is said that they were killed in a terrible manner. Do you know what is going on?"

The aunt was a little stunned, and she subconsciously looked around and said, "I have heard about it. It seems that the two women who died enshrined and wors.h.i.+pped the fox fairy. They seemed to have done something wrong and they have been killed the fox fairy. So, you young people don't do that, or something horrible will happen."

I felt helpless after hearing this. However, Xiao Teng listened with interest, and it seemed that he finally found a like-minded person. When I saw that the aunt was still talking about the fox fairy, I had no choice but to cut in. "You are right," I said. "This kind of thing is surely very evil. But have you seen the electrician in the community? I want his mobile phone number; otherwise, it will be troubled when the power outage happens."

Speaking of Dai Lichun, the aunt immediately nodded and said, "Of course I have seen him. I always see him in the rainy seasons and the windy seasons. Forget about the mobile phone number. If you need help, you can find security, and they will contact the electrician. Alas, the electrician was burned all over by fire; his face was full of disfigurements. He was kind of weird. I have seen him kick a stray cat into the air. Don't you think that is too cruel?"

"You said that his face was burned by fire?" I was surprised. I thought Dai Lichun had been wearing a mask for years and no one would know about his disfigurements.

The aunt answered at once. "Yes, but you will not see it anymore. When he first came here to work as an electrician, about two years ago, he did not wear the hat and the gauze mask like he does now. Everyone had seen his appearance. Some people felt sympathetic about him, some were afraid of him, and some pointed at him. Soon after that, he began to wear the hat and the gauze mask, no matter if it was summer or winter. What a pitiful man!"

Xiao Teng and I looked at each, and then I said to the aunt in a low voice, "Aunt, does the electrician get angry when he he's faced with other people's unfriendliness about his appearance? Are there a lot of people who know about it?"

The aunt was chatty and she did not feel I was asking her strange questions. "Sure he is!" she said without hesitation. "I still remember that he widened his eyes with anger when he heard bad words, which made his face more frightening. And some neighbors had complained that he was too scary and affected other's lives in the community. There were not so many people who knew about it. In the past two years, many new people have moved in here, many of whom are young people from other cities, like you guys."

We chatted more before we ended the conversation. We thanked the aunt and left. After this conversation, we thought Dai Lichun was more suspicious, but there were still some small questions that we had not figured out. For example, why the two deceased strangely smiled after their death? And no one saw the electrician appear near the homes of the two deceased. 

After we slowly came to the security room, we saw the security, who was resting inside. There were only two securities in this community, who worked in turns, one during the day and the other at night. Because there was very little trouble in the community, only a few security guards were needed.

I had been there twice before, but the two security guards knew nothing about that. The nights when Qiu Nan and Wu Xiaolan were killed were during Xiao Li's night s.h.i.+ft, but he was just new working there for about three months. As for the other security guards, they had only worked there for one year, so they had seen Wei Lichun many times without knowing about his real appearance.

"You are coming here again? I really don't know anything." Xiao Li was at his early s.h.i.+ft today. When he saw us, he couldn't help but sigh.

Xiao Teng was very unhappy about this. "If you don't like to talk here, we can change it to another place. There are more free places in our police bureau recently. You can live in there as long as you want."

After hearing it, Xiao Li suddenly changed his tone and said, "Please, I am joking! Please sit down and drink some water. I will cooperate with you."

Seeing his changing att.i.tude, Xiao Teng asked, "When Qiu Nan and Wu Xiaolan were killed, who left the community after eight o'clock?" We had investigated earlier who went in and found that the number was extremely large and it would be difficult to find the people.