As the bearded man opened the door, the stench from inside the room rushed toward Luo Fei. This was definitely not the smell of an ordinary animal carcass rotting. The odor was so thick, and judging by the man's wary movements, Luo Fei was certain something was going on in there.
Seeing the man's ferocious expression, Luo Fei steadied his panicked nerves and spoke up: "Sorry to bother you. Ms. Zhang next door has lost her cat, and I wanted to ask you a few questions. Have you seen a black-and-white tabby cat since eleven o'clock yesterday morning?"
"No," the bearded man replied impatiently, shaking his head.
"Alright then. If you do see it, please give us a call." With that, Luo Fei turned to leave.
Luo Fei had originally wanted to enter the room and investigate, to confirm what that stench actually was. But seeing the man's burly build and vicious face, then comparing it to his own scrawny, weak frame, he felt a pang of panic and immediately changed his mind.
With a body like his, if he went in and actually found something, he might well get slaughtered like a chicken on the spot. He had no desire to become one of those dim-witted, unlucky policemen from his own novels, foolishly showing up at a killer's door and getting killed. Although the odds of that happening in real life were extremely low, caution was never a mistake. Luo Fei planned to go fetch Zhang Haiyang and enter the room together—that would be safer.
At this moment, Luo Fei deeply wished he possessed great power. A person's confidence and courage came from strength. If he had real power, he wouldn't have just chickened out and refused to enter the room.
"They say ants can lift things 400 times their own weight, while humans can lift at most six times their own weight. If I fused with the ant strength gene, I wonder how much my strength would increase," Luo Fei thought silently.
Just as Luo Fei was about to go back for Zhang Haiyang, he saw Zhang Haiyang already walking toward him down the corridor.
"How was it? Find anything?" Zhang Haiyang asked casually upon seeing him.
"Zhang Lan's bathroom window is quite close to the balcony of Room 828, so I just went and asked the owner of 828. He said he hadn't seen the cat, but as I was leaving, I thought I heard a cat meowing. And when I was at his door, I smelled a horrible stench, like a rotting animal corpse." To lure Zhang Haiyang over to investigate the stench, Luo Fei told a lie.
"Let's go."
Hearing Luo Fei mention hearing the cat, Zhang Haiyang didn't hesitate for a second and headed straight for Room 828 with Luo Fei.
"Knock knock knock." Once again, it was Luo Fei doing the knocking.
After a good while, the bearded man finally opened the door—again only a crack, revealing his bearded face. From the expression on his face, it was clear he was extremely annoyed, and his tone was fierce as well.
"Is there something else you need?"
Having been a police officer for over twenty years, Zhang Haiyang had dealt with countless people of every stripe. This was a small scene for him. Unhurried, he said, "Ms. Zhang next door has lost her cat. My colleague says he thought he heard a cat inside your room, so we'd like to come in and take a look."
Hearing this, the bearded man shot Luo Fei a glare and snarled, "I already told you—I haven't seen any cat, and I haven't heard any cat. Stop harassing me."
With that, he moved to shut the door, but Zhang Haiyang braced it open with one hand.
The moment the bearded man had opened the door, Zhang Haiyang had finally caught the foul stench too, and he was certain it was the smell of a rotting corpse. Combined with the man's abnormal behavior, and with over twenty years of case experience, Zhang Haiyang was certain something was going on inside.
"Sir, please cooperate with our investigation." Zhang Haiyang dropped all pretense of politeness, his face turning cold.
Beside him, Luo Fei seized the moment while the bearded man was still caught off guard, stepping forward and shoving the door open with both hands, sliding into the room.
The stench inside was even thicker. Luo Fei looked around.
In the cramped living room, empty liquor bottles and cigarette butts were strewn everywhere. Peanuts and sunflower seeds were scattered messily across the coffee table in the center, and the TV was playing Legal Report.
The scene felt strangely familiar to Luo Fei. Then it hit him—wasn't this exactly the kind of crime scene he wrote into his novels?
After Luo Fei pushed open the door, Zhang Haiyang followed him into the room.
"You! Go sit over there on the sofa." Zhang Haiyang suddenly pointed at the bearded man, his expression unusually grave.
The smell of corpse, the messy living room, and the bearded man's behavior—all of this made Zhang Haiyang, with his twenty years of experience, sense an air of danger.
Luo Fei also stared nervously at the bearded man, on guard against any dangerous move. In a situation like this, there was no way the man wasn't involved.
"Luo Fei, go take a look—where's that stench in this room coming from? What is it?" Zhang Haiyang sent Luo Fei to check. In this situation, he didn't dare leave Luo Fei, a rookie intern officer, to watch the bearded man. If the man really was guilty, he might lash out in desperation. Zhang Haiyang couldn't trust Luo Fei with that.
Hearing this, Luo Fei headed straight for the kitchen side.
The moment he had stepped inside, Luo Fei had noticed through his sense of smell that most of the stench was drifting from the direction of the bathroom.
"Ugh—ugh—"
One second Luo Fei stepped into the bathroom, the next second he nearly vomited.
In the bathroom bathtub, a female corpse wearing nothing but underwear lay soaked in a pool of blood. The body was pale, bloated, and gave off a foul stench. The woman's neck, hands, and waist were all covered in gruesome, festering, disgusting wounds.
He had written scenes like this countless times in his novels, but this was the first time he'd come face to face with one in reality.
"Luo Fei, what's going on?" Zhang Haiyang's anxious voice came from the living room.
Luo Fei, face pale, backed out of the bathroom and hurried back to the living room.
When he reached Zhang Haiyang, Luo Fei glanced nervously at the bearded man sitting obediently on the sofa before speaking: "There's a female corpse soaking in the bathtub in the bathroom." As he spoke, his voice was still faintly trembling. In two lifetimes, this was his first time seeing a corpse so up close and directly—especially such a bloody, horrifying scene, with a living, breathing killer standing right beside it.
Hearing this, Zhang Haiyang's expression changed. Although he had already suspected as much, actually hearing that there was a corpse in the room still came as a shock.
The next second—
"Sit still and don't move. We suspect you of murder, and you are now under formal arrest." Even as he spoke, Zhang Haiyang hastily drew the handcuffs from his belt, stepped forward, and clamped one of the bearded man's hands, cuffing the other end to the coffee table. It was clear that Zhang Haiyang was nervous too—after all, this was a murderer who could erupt into violence at any moment. It was impossible not to be tense.
As Zhang Haiyang cuffed the bearded man, Luo Fei stood beside them, staring intently at the man, poised to pounce and restrain him at any moment.
Unfortunately, as an intern officer, he wasn't allowed to carry anything. If he'd had a stun baton or something in hand, Luo Fei felt he probably wouldn't have been so nervous.
Thankfully, everything went smoothly. The bearded man put up no resistance, allowing Zhang Haiyang to cuff him to the coffee table nearby.
Once the bearded man was cuffed, both Zhang Haiyang and Luo Fei breathed a sigh of relief. With the handcuffs on, the man's danger level dropped considerably.