"She's dead, you know?" I asked the woman.
"What? How could she be? Didn't she just change jobs?" the woman replied, surprised.
"How can you say she changed jobs?"
"Before, while she was putting on makeup, she was muttering to us that the treatment here wasn't good and she wanted to leave."
"What did you mean when you said she was involved in inappropriate relationships?"
"Someone heard she was doing that kind of part-time job outside. No one here is like her, so everyone hates her!"
It seemed this Min Xiang Fan, like the two previous victims, was also the type with a rather loose character.
After I finished questioning, I met up with Liu Yu Ning and Gao Ming Qiang. However, the conclusions they drew were all similar – that Min Xiang Fan was a bad woman.
When we returned to the police station after our inquiries, Xie Chu Chu came to my office with the lab report.
"Senior, Min Xiang Fan's lungs have started to cancerous change. If she doesn't do anything, she'll probably reach the mid-stage of cancer within a week. Her lungs contain a large amount of nicotine, likely from long-term inhalation."
"Mm, what about the cigarette ash report?" I asked. Xie Chu Chu handed me another report. I saw that no DNA results were found, only that it was a type of Chinese cigarette. This was completely insufficient because too many people liked smoking this brand.
Combining the commonalities of the deceased, the most we could confirm now was that they all had ordinary jobs and looks, but were all secretly engaged in prostitution.
We gathered in the criminal case conference room to discuss the information we had. All the officers aired their opinions, discussing heatedly and making various speculations.
"This case is really not simple. The killer always thinks of themselves as a symbol of justice. After killing, they leave tattoos of Xie Ze and Xuan Wu on the victims. Do they really think they are the law? Representing justice?" Gao Ming Qiang said.
"How is that possible? That's just twisted criminality!" Liu Yu Ning cursed.
I remained silent, staring at several crime scene photos, comparing them back and forth.
He Xin, however, said, "Can't this tattoo direction be investigated further?"
"You don't know, any tattoo parlor can do this kind of tattoo. Are you asking us to investigate there?" Gao Ming Qiang replied helplessly.
"No, that Xie Ze seems to have been tampered with. Look at the skin on the victim here, there are scratches!!" I said suddenly after a period of silence.
"Scratches?" Everyone leaned in, looking at the photo of the Xie Ze tattoo on the victim's back.
I said, "Let's go see that corpse immediately!"
We all went to the morgue in the forensic department. The moment we found the female corpse, we turned her body over. Facing her Xie Ze, I ignored everyone's reactions and directly took a scalpel and cut along that scratch on the Xie Ze!
Liu Yu Ning was about to scold me, but the Xie Ze tattoo was already cut open. From inside the female corpse, a crystal clear bead rolled out.
Seeing this, He Xin exclaimed, "Is this a pearl?"
"It's a bit like one, but why is there a strange smell lingering on it!" Gao Ming Qiang asked doubtfully.
I found another female corpse from the villa and the female corpse from the mountain. I cut them open, but no such pearl fell out from the other corpses.
Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what I was doing. I, however, said, "It seems the killer left this Sarira within the Xie Ze tattoo!"
"Sarira? Are you sure?" Hearing the word Sarira, everyone looked at me in surprise.
I explained, "Everyone should have heard of this term on television, but Sarira usually refers to relics. Sarira, Sanskrit śarira, also translated as 'She Li Luo' or 'Shi Li Luo', meaning bone body or remains. Legend has it that it is a pearl-like object formed after the cremation of Shakyamuni Buddha's remains, and later it also refers to the remains of Buddhas and eminent monks. Sarira can be divided into bone relics, hair relics, and flesh relics, and what is usually referred to is bone relics."
"Your reasoning is sound, but what does this prove?" Liu Yu Ning guessed.
"He killed people, but he was afraid of the vengeful spirits of the deceased haunting him. So he used the most powerful Taoist artifact for warding off evil, Sarira, to suppress them. This can prove that the killer believes in Buddhism!"
"But why didn't the killer place Sarira under the Xuan Wu tattoo as well?" Liu Yu Ning questioned.
I pondered for a moment and said, "Do you think Sarira is that easy to obtain? If I'm not mistaken, this woman with the Xie Ze tattoo was the one the killer least wanted to kill, but he had no choice at the time. So, fearing the vengeful spirits of the deceased, he had to use Sarira to suppress them."
"So, your meaning now is that we need to investigate the temples in Fuming City?" Liu Yu Ning asked anxiously.
"We can. There aren't many temples in Fuming City, especially with one where the abbot recently passed away..."
Before I could finish, Liu Yu Ning immediately reacted, but what she said was completely unexpected: "Are you crazy? Instead of investigating properly, you suspect those monks? I won't go. I'll continue to visit the deceased's social circle!"
"Are you sure? I'm telling you, this investigation direction is definitely wrong!"
"What right do you have to say I'm wrong? Just because you solved a case by luck last time?" Liu Yu Ning said dismissively.
"In that case, how about we make a bet!"
"Hahaha, this is interesting. What do you want to bet?"
"On this case. If I find the killer, you'll have to listen to me from now on!"
"And if I find the killer?"
"I'll withdraw, stop being a consultant. How about that?"
Hearing me say this, He Xin quickly tugged my clothes: "Dad, don't be impulsive!"
Seeing that Liu Yu Ning seemed to dislike me, this time I was going all out.
"Fine! Remember what you said!"
Liu Yu Ning stormed off. Gao Ming Qiang patted my shoulder: "Why do you always clash with Captain Liu? Weren't things fine before?"
"How would I know? Maybe she's just having one of those days," I said with a wry smile. Everyone else left the conference room. Although no one was with me, Gao Ming Qiang still chose to act with me.
"Are you really going to investigate the temples?"
"With He Xin's help, we won't need much time. There are only 4 temples in Fuming City, didn't you know?"
"Alright, I hope you're not mistaken this time, or else your consultant position will be..."
"It's okay, we'll definitely find the killer!"
I offered a word of encouragement and began inquiring about the temples. After a whole afternoon, we learned that the first three temples had not had an abbot pass away recently. Only the last temple, Qinghe Temple, had rumors of an old abbot's passing.
It seemed Qinghe Temple was where we needed to focus. By this time, He Xin had also joined us at the temple.
Not long after reaching the mountain, a young monk saw us and said, "Excuse me, are you here for worship? It's been a long time since anyone has visited us here."
"No, we want to investigate something!" Gao Ming Qiang showed his police ID.
"Oh? You're police? What are you doing here? Qinghe Temple has always been peaceful, why are the police here now?" The young monk's tone was a bit strange, as if something had happened at Qinghe Temple recently. I said, "What do you mean by that?"