After hearing the scream, everyone immediately rushed out. The cries continued to sound from the woods. They all rushed over, and when Bao Sir used his flashlight to see what was happening, everyone frowned.
They saw the young couple that they had just driven away. The girl was sitting on the ground screaming, her hands covered in blood. The boy was lying on his back and twitching on the ground. There was blood gushing out from his neck and a low growling sound from his mouth. It was as very strange.
"The aorta is not injured!" Zhan Qitian immediately went over and reached out to hold down the boy. Bai Yunwen also went to help, while Zhan Zhao quickly called an ambulance.
Bai Yutang asked the girl, "who did this?"
"I... I don't know... There was someone in black clothes and a white mask... just now..." The girl was so frightened that she could not speak coherently.
"Where?" Bai Yutang asked.
"There!" As soon as the woman pointed towards the forest, Bai Yutang pulled out his gun and ran. Bao Sir, Xiao Ding and Zhao Zhen all followed. Bai Chi wanted to as well, but Zhao Zhen waved to him and said, "you wait here." With that, the four disappeared into the woods.
Zhan Zhao was also a little anxious. Right at that moment, he heard the sound of footsteps in the distance. Gong Sun and Bai Jintang also heard the sound.
Gong Sun frowned as soon as he saw the boy on the ground, ran over to check, and then said, "very professional. It's the position between the aorta and the vocal cords, the jugular vein. Don't let him move. He can hold on for more than 10 minutes!" With that, Gong Sun reached out and pressed hard on the vein above the cut, comforting the boy, "don't move, can you hear the wind? Calm down. The more you panic, the faster you bleed."
The boy slowly calmed down, and everyone looked at each other. The wind was in fact the sound of his own veins bleeding out. It was said that people who had their throats cut could hear a sound like the whirling wind in the Grand Canyon, desolate but beautiful... This was the legendary voice of death.
Bai Yutang's mom came over, hugged the girl who was crying from hysteria, patted her on the back and calmed her down.
At that moment, a gunshot was heard in the distance.
Victor barked at the forest, and then ran into the forest. Zhan Zhao was really worried about Bai Yutang, so he wanted to follow. As soon as he took a few steps forward, he saw a dark shadow running towards him. Bai Yutang was chasing after him and shouted, "Cat, be careful!"
Zhan Zhao was surprised as the man had already arrived in front of him. Before he could dodge, Zhan Zhao saw a figure flash next to him. It was unknown when Mrs. Zhan had arrived next to him, as she raised her foot and kicked the knee of the approaching shadow. The man groaned, then his hand was folded, and shoulder grabbed by Mrs. Zhan. She turned him around and threw him away. Da Ding rushed forward to hold him down. By then, Bai Yutang and Xiao Ding had arrived, holding the man down as well.
When Zhan Zhao opened his eyes and looked at his mom, he saw her hold him and ask, "Zhao Zhao, are you okay?"
Zhan Zhao laughed dryly twice and looked up and down at his delicate, quiet and petite mom. On the side, Bai Chi could not help but say, "Aunty is amazing!"
"Um..." Mrs. Zhan smiled sheepishly, glanced at Zhan Zhao and grimaced.
When Zhan Zhao looked back at his dad, he remembered that his dad had no fighting skills. He was a scholar, and his expression was always scary.
Zhan Qitian kept silent as he pressed down on the man. Then, he heard Bai Yunwen laugh and say to Zhan Zhao, "haven't you heard that your mother used to be a policeman? She was a black belt in judo."
"Oh..." Zhan Zhao gasped. He always thought that his mother was a full-time housewife. Bai Yutang handcuffed the person who was held down and looked at Mrs. Zhan in surprise. "Auntie, can you fight again me when we have time?"
Mrs. Bai glared at Bai Yutang. "What are you talking about?!"
At this time, the sound of an ambulance siren was heard in the distance, and the car stopped nearby. As soon as the doctor came down to see the situation, someone took over from Gong Sun and carefully carried the boy into the ambulance. He was then driven to the hospital for emergency treatment. Bai Chi, Zhao Zhen, Da Ding and Xiao Ding followed to assist.
Bao Sir called the police and asked them to bring a police dog team to help search the mountain.
Bai Yutang took the man into custody and asked the girl, "is this him?"
The girl shook her head and said, "No... The man earlier was wearing a mask... and much taller."
When they looked at the man again, they saw that he was wearing a very old shirt. The man was also bald, stout and slightly chubby. He seemed a little fierce.
"Who are you? What are you doing in the woods in the middle of the night?" Bai Yutang asked him.
The man looked up at Bai Yutang and said, "are you a policeman?"
"Yes." Bai Yutang nodded.
"I saw the man you were looking for." The man said, "is he very tall, wearing a white mask with only two holes on it, and black clothes?"
"Yes." The girl nodded hurriedly. "That's him."
"He ran away." The man said. "He bumped into me. I was almost scared to death."
Bao Sir asked the man, "what's your name? Why are you here in the middle of the night?"
The man sighed and said, "my name is Qian Gui. I was wanted by the police for drug trafficking. I wanted to avoid seeing anyone, so I'm hiding in the mountains for a couple of days. I didn't expect to be scared by that man. Then I bumped into you guys, so I ran away."
Bai Yutang frowned, then wanted to look for the man again in the woods. However, it was dark, and the man had most likely run away by now, so he could only wait for help from the police dog team. Zhan Zhao asked the girl, "didn't you guys go back to the village? What are you doing here?"
"We..." The girl cried regretfully, "I was going to go back, but he said he still hasn't calmed down, and wanted to finish it... so we came here... and then..."
Everyone shook their heads, thinking that these two youngsters were too ignorant.
"And then..." The girl went on while sniffling, "we got to the tree... When we were kissing, he leaned against the tree, and then the man suddenly flashed out with the knife and cut his neck. I shouted in horror, then the man turned and ran away."
"You mean the man was already behind the tree when you came?" Zhan Zhao asked.
"Mmm." The girl nodded. "We didn't see anyone approaching. He was probably hiding behind the tree."
"That means he was already nearby when we came." Bao Sir said. "Who could it be? Why kill a student for no reason?"
Everyone shook their heads, while Gong Sun patted Bai Yutang and said, "where is the body of the forest keeper? I'll do an autopsy."
"Okay." Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao went back to the cabin with Gong Sun. Bai Jintang and the others packed up their tents, put out the bonfire, and gathered at the side of the cabin.
Li Siben walked to the cabin with Lu Ban and Lilia, who were fighting as they walked. Lu Ban's attention always seemed to be attracted towards something by the side of the road. Li Siben bit it on the back of its neck and threw it to the front.
Before long, the police cars arrived, and Zhao Hu and the others came yawning.
Ma Xin staggered into the room with the suitcase and performed an autopsy with Gong Sun.
Zhao Hu said to Bai Yutang, "Captain, what kind of luck do you have? Murders follow you wherever you go."
Bai Yutang rolled his eyes at him and asked, "why are you asking nonsense? Did you bring the police dog team?"
"I did." Zhao Hu nodded and waved to the people behind him.
Several members of the team came with police dogs.
Bai Yutang told them that someone went into the woods and told them to go search. The several police dog members asked, "Captain, is there something from the man for the dogs to smell? Otherwise, it will be difficult for the dogs to identify the direction and track it."
"Source of smell?" Zhao Hu was curious, "porridge or juice?"
Before he could finish speaking, Ma Han grabbed his collar and threw him into the cabin. Bai Yutang shook his head, took the police dogs to the tree and said, "he was standing here."
The police dogs sniffed around, still not very clear of the smell. They sat on the ground looking up at everyone.
"Is there anything more specific?" The police asked. "Something like clothing."
After thinking about it, Zhan Zhao suddenly ran back into the cabin, took out a cup and a book, which were relatively new, and handed them to the police. "Will these work?"
"Yes." The policeman handed them to the police dogs to smell. After smelling them, the police dogs sniffed around and squatted aside, looking at a certain direction. It was the direction that Bai Yutang had just chased towards.
"Got it!" The policeman said to Bai Yutang, "should we chase after it?"
"Yes." Bai Yutang took Luo Tian, Wang Chao and Zhang Long. Zhan Zhao went as well, as everyone followed the police dogs into the woods.
The police dogs sniffed and ran all the way until it reached the periphery of the woods. When everyone arrived out of the woods and saw the road ahead, they stopped. The police dogs sat next to a small pile of things.
Bai Yutang walked over, squatted down with a flashlight and said, "it's clothes."
There was a black T-shirt and a white mask on the floor. It was a basic mask with no decoration, just two holes.
"Why did he leave his clothes here?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled.
"Captain, there are tire tracks here that are quite new." Luo Tian said to Bai Yutang.
Bai Yutang went over to have a look and exclaimed, "bicycle?"
"Yes." Luo Tian nodded. "Looking at the wheels, it's most likely a bicycle."
Everyone looked at each other in astonishment. "Riding a bike to the woods to kill someone?" They all wondered in confusion.
"The bicycle may not be his." Zhan Zhao said. "The forest keeper may have come to work by bike."
Everyone nodded, then Wang Chao asked Bai Yutang, "Captain, he wouldn't have gone far by bike. Should I get this area blocked off?"
Bai Yutang nodded, then Wang Chao went to make the call.
"Cat..." Bai Yutang sighed and shrugged. "It's weird."
Zhan Zhao also nodded and asked, "was the forest keeper drained of blood?"
Bai Yutang laughed dryly twice. "I didn't see it clearly. It was dark below. As soon as I turned on the flashlight, I saw a pale face looking at me and a pair of eyes wide open."
Zhan Zhao could not laugh or cry as he said, "there are times when even you get scared?"
Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows. "With that scene, even ghosts will be scared. It's already amazing that my legs didn't give way."
Later, police officers were left here to collect the tire tracks, while everyone else returned to the cabin.
Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao's parents went back first with a group of pets, so as not to interfere with the case. Bai Jintang sat in the cabin looking at the old books, while Gong Sun and Ma Xin lit a bright light in the basement and conducted a preliminary autopsy.
"How is it going?" Bai Yutang asked them.
"He's been dead for two days. It's not very hot these days, so it doesn't smell too bad. His throat was also cut, just like that student earlier." Gong Sun replied. "He has an armband in his hand!" With that, Gong Sun picked up a red armband and showed it to everyone. On it were the words 'forest keeper'.
Everyone nodded, and after the evidence collection was over, Gong Sun took the body back for further autopsy.
After a busy day, it was dawn.
Looking at the rising sun in the valley, Zhan Zhao walked to the side of the cabin and saw that the cabin was built on a small dirt slope. Below was a winding mountain road, and in the distance were patches of canola fields, mulberry fields, and houses with white walls and black tiles. Most of the farmers got up early to farm and work. The entire village was indescribably quiet and peaceful.
"That village is really out of harmony with this cabin." Bai Yutang frowned.
Zhan Zhao nodded, looked at the book in his hand and said, "that man was probably here a few days ago. He lived here and killed the forest keeper. Earlier, he probably just happened to have gone out. When he came back, he noticed people inside the cabin, so he didn't go in and just observed from a distance. Then, he attacked the boy."
"Why did he attack the boy?" Ma Han was a little puzzled. "If he hid well, he wouldn't have been found."
Zhan Zhao also shook his head. "The timing of his appearance is too coincidental. I'm not really sure why."
Bai Yutang thought for a moment and said, "the way he kills is very unique."
"You mean, the way he cuts the throat?" Zhan Zhao asked.
"Mmhmm." Bai Yutang nodded. "Gong Sun just said that the two victims had their throats cut at almost the same angle. The injuries are exactly the same... This technique is very professional."
"You're saying instead of cutting the carotid artery, the vocal cords and the jugular vein was cut?" Zhan Zhao asked.
"Yes." Bai Yutang thought for a moment and said, "if the carotid artery is cut, the blood will gush out like a fountain, and the person will also make a sound... However, the vocal cords were cut, which means the victim can't scream. Also, with the vein cut, the victim will be alive for a few minutes before they die... This is no ordinary throat cutting."
"Throat cutting?" Zhan Zhao asked.
"Huh?" Zhao Hu looked at Zhan Zhao in confusion. "What is throat cutting?"
"Westerners sometimes use it as an insult and threat, like putting up the middle finger." Zhan Zhao said. "It originated in the ancient Roman Colosseum. After the slaves were killed, the audience will point their thumbs down if they were not satisfied with the performance of the slaves. Then, the moderator of the arena would shout to let people cut the throats of the slaves."
Everyone looked at each other in astonishment.
"This method has a certain symbolic meaning and cannot be practiced overnight." Bai Yutang frowned. "Seeing how skilful the killer is, I think he has received some sort of training."
While talking, the phone rang. Bai Yutang answered it. After hanging up, he said to everyone, "Bai Chi said the boy has been saved."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the good result.