winter past

As the sun rose in the east, Xiaoman felt sleepy, but he was lying on the mattress, and not long after he closed his eyes, Yin Miaozai knocked on his door and told him to wake up.Xiaoman lit a cigarette, propped himself up and opened the side window wider, the hot morning wind hit his face, wrapped in the smell of pancakes, deep-fried dough sticks, shallots and fried eggs The smell is particularly strong.He looked downstairs, and saw that several breakfast shops in the alley had opened their stalls, and the business was booming.Lu Yang got out of a row of parked battery cars with his schoolbag on his back, turned around, and waved to him.

Xiaoman waved his hand to respond, Lu Yang gestured to make a phone call, Xiaoman yawned and nodded frequently, Lu Yang pointed behind him again, and shouted: "If you owe more electricity, you will be charged." Got pulled!!"

Xiaoman scratched her hair with a smile, got up and opened the door for Yin Miaozai.Yin Miaozai coiled up her long hair, looked at him and pointed downstairs and said, "The ballroom opened the door for you."

Lu Yang's voice came again from outside: "Don't be late today!!"

Xiao Man smiled and nodded with Yin Miaozai, and said, "Okay, I'll brush my teeth and change my clothes." He turned and walked towards the refrigerator.

Yin Miaozai said: "I bought breakfast for you. Lu Yang and I have eaten it. Lu Yang said that you like sweet food and sweetened bean paste buns. Why don't you eat them on the road?"

"What time did you have an appointment?"

"It's at the Wulinyuan Cemetery at ten o'clock. It takes an hour to drive there. If you go late, people might change their minds and don't want to see us." Yin Miaozai spoke in a hurry, and she asked Xiaoman anxiously: "Why are you brushing your teeth and opening the refrigerator? Or should I send you to find Dai Rou now?"

Xiaoman calmly took a bottle of rum from the refrigerator and said, "It's okay, it's okay, I'll go by myself later."

He took the mouthwash cup, poured half a glass of wine, and drank the spirits. He instantly sobered up a lot, put the wine back, and drank the rest of the wine with his head up. With a cigarette in between, he drank some water and brushed his teeth.With a toothbrush in his mouth, he turned to look at Yin Miaozai and asked, "You said you made an appointment with Lin Midong's former colleague, right? What's his name? How did you make an appointment?"

"What are you talking about?" Yin Miaozai raised her wrist, tapped his watch at him, squeezed the word "Chuan" between her eyebrows, and the next moment, she came back to herself and said, "You asked me how to make an appointment. To Xu Tian?"

Xiaoman brushed his teeth carefully, up and down, left and right.Yin Miaozai walked in, handed him the phone, and said, "Look, it's on the top of the must answer. Didn't someone post a post asking others how to comment on the Aegean Killer? It's a long time ago, because recently The case of a few days was uncovered again, and there were many new replies underneath, I saw it in the group that day..."

Xiaoman glanced at her mobile phone, the screen was densely packed with words, he didn't look carefully, and saw two lines of words - "I'll just talk about one place, Qingshi No. 01 Funeral Home, and I won't say much about the rest. I joined the work with him in 08, and in [-], his behavior..." Then he looked away.

"What kind of WeChat group of yours hasn't disbanded yet?" He asked, smiled again, and said with foam in his mouth: "It is said on the Internet that every position has been swiped at least fifty times."

"No, hasn't this person been found yet?" Yin Miaozai said, "Don't underestimate our group of friends." She crossed her arms and looked at Xiaoman. Xiaoman finished brushing his teeth and washed his face. Walking to the hanger, he picked and picked among five or six pieces of clothes with a cigarette in his mouth.Yin Miaozai said with some displeasure: "In a new reply under that post, someone said that he was a former colleague of Aegean Killer, and even came out to reveal the news, saying that he thought the case was not reported in the police report back then. That Lin Moudong who was shot dead did it, but no one believed him. Now similar cases have appeared again. Many former colleagues and people who knew Lin Moudong before came to tell him that they actually suspected it back then... ..."

At this moment, her conversation changed, and her voice was low: "Do you not want to go?"

Xiaoman looked at her, and her two pitch-black eyes were staring at her like an eagle watching its prey, very sharp.Xiaoman shook his head, smiled at Yin Miaozai, picked up a hanger in his hand, took off a flowered shirt on the hanger, bent down and rummaged on the ground for a long time, and found out a pair of short pants that reached the knee.He looked at Yin Miaozai again, touched the back of his neck, and said, "It's so hot, I'm going to take a shower." He was still concerned about her: "Did you sleep hot last night? Are there mosquitoes? Do you want mosquito coils?"

Yin Miaozai ignored him and said nothing, her arms were tightly hugged to her chest, and her facial features were also tense.Xiaoman then asked: "Is that because someone in your group has the supernatural powers to find out the name Lin Midong?"

Yin Miaozai raised her chin and said dryly, "Are you interested?"

"I feel, I am really interested in this kind of perverted serial killer. Also, I thought about it all night and searched the previous news. It is true that the notice issued by the police back then was very suspicious and did not conform to their usual practice of handling cases. The process, you said that so many cases were written in the newspapers back then, and everyone discussed it. They all guessed whether this was the Aegean killer, and whether that was the Aegean killer. If you find the suspect, you should be arrested and tried for a trial. , so as to give the families of the victims in other cases peace of mind, even if they want to hate something, they have finally found someone to hate, and their emotions have a place to rest, right?"

Yin Miaozai's tone was not so blunt, and her eagerness eased a little: "Then you wash it, and I will tell you about Xu Tian in detail after washing."

After finishing speaking, she turned and walked downstairs.

"Okay, I'll be there soon." Xiao Man waved at her back with a smile, and went to the bathroom.He turned on the shower, finished smoking the cigarette in his hand, changed his clothes and pants, took some water from under the shower, washed his face, tied his hair with a rubber band, and went downstairs.

The air conditioner was turned on in the ballroom, and some people were already dancing, surrounded by music. Sister Xu was dancing the rumba by herself. When she saw Xiao Man, she winked at him in the direction of the bar.Yin Miaozai was cutting fruit at the bar. She wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses and a short dark brown wig on her head.

Xiao Man went over and held Sister Xu's hand, and said, "I have something to go out for a while, please take care of me."

The two danced the rumba, and sister Xu said: "I heard Yang Yang call her teacher, the teacher at his school? Don't you have to go to work? How long have you been here?"

Xiaoman showed a big smile, let go of Sister Xu's hand, blew her a kiss, and slid to the bar in three steps. Yin Miaozai just raised his head, put down a fruit plate on the bar, stretched his neck and shouted: "Sister Xu, here is the fruit plate for you!" She glanced at Xiaoman, then raised her eyes: "I sent him a private message on the website."

"For Xu Tim?"

Yin Miaozai took a bun and put a bag of soybean milk in front of Xiaoman.Xiaoman looked at her and said, "Do you usually go out like this?"

Yin Miaozai helped down the frame, grabbed the big bag by the sink, took out a box of business cards, and said, "This is yours." She also gave Xiaoman a camera: "This is yours, too."

Xiaoman looked at the business card, and it was printed on it: Jiang Cong, reporter of "China Legal Weekly".

"Is there really such a person?"

"No, this way we won't be counting as impersonating others." Yin Miaozai said.

Xiao Man asked her, "Then who are you?"

Yin Miaozai found another box of business cards in the big bag, and opened it for him to see——Xing Wenting, reporter of "China Legal Weekly".

Yin Miaozai lowered her voice, and said, "It's a small shop that helps students steal genuine books. It's a cash transaction."

Xiaoman laughed out loud, gave a thumbs up, and walked out of the ballroom with Yin Miaozai carrying the soy milk buns.Yin Miaozai was driving, and she continued to tell Xiaoman about her relationship with Xu Tian: "When I privately messaged him, I told him that I was a reporter for Legal Weekly, and I said that I was doing a special feature and wanted to interview him. After Mi Dong's death, many reporters approached him. Lin Mi Dong's funeral was handled by him. He was shocked at the time, and he left the funeral home not long after. He has been in a very bad mood for nearly a year. Well, I don't want to mention anything about Lin Midong with anyone, he feels that those reporters are just here to gossip, no one really cares about Lin Midong, so he didn't agree to any reporter's request for an interview, after so many years In the past, he always believed that Lin Midong was not the real culprit who committed those murders back then.

"By this month, another similar case appeared, and he became more determined. He also said that as soon as the case of the blue female corpse in Huangguozi Village came out that day, he received a call from a reporter from the Qingshi Evening News. Interviewing him, he was hesitating, and then he received my private message again..."

Xiao Man took a small bite of the steamed stuffed bun, only eating the skin, and he said, "Then you offered to give him the breaking news fee?"

Yin Miaozai said: "Do you doubt the authenticity of his identity? Do you think he is cheating money?" She said, "He said that he thinks that our Legal Weekly has more influence in the country than the Qingshi Evening News," she muttered He said, "Before I talked with him, I thought, if I want to fake it, I should fake a magazine or newspaper with a bigger name..."

Xiaoman tried hard to swallow the bun skin, shook his head, nodded again, wanted to say something, but couldn't say anything, so he looked at Yin Miaozai with a smile.

Yin Miaozai pointed to the big bag in the back row, and said: "I checked the people who worked with Lin Midong back then, and some of them even got photos and made a list. When I see him later, just check it out. It's all in the bag."

She also said: "From 2001 to 08, Qingshi No. 08 Funeral Home worked with Lin Midong, and there is indeed such a person who left in 20, Xu Tian. The photo shows him participating in a college basketball game when he was [-] years old. It’s been a few years, but the facial features can be seen clearly, so far, I think his identity is okay.”

Xiaoman was very sleepy for a while, put down the bun in his hand, his eyelids were twitching, and he vaguely heard Yin Miaozai say: "Go to sleep, I will call you..."

He actually fell asleep.

I don't know how long I slept this time, Xiaoman woke up by himself. He was covered in cold sweat, and the bun he held in his hand was deformed by him. When he looked outside the car, he saw the Wulinyuan cemetery standing on the side of the road. signage.The radio of the traffic station was turned on in the car, and the female anchor was talking about the weather, and there might be thunderstorms in Qingshi in the evening.

Yin Miaozai said, "It's almost here."

Xiaoman put the buns in the storage compartment on the car door, looking ahead, the gray air enveloped the street, enveloped the light green mountains, a large cloud gathered on a mountain peak.

"It looks like it's really going to rain." Yin Miaozai looked out and asked, "Don't you want to eat something?"

Xiao Man scratched the bridge of his nose: "I'm not hungry, I don't have much appetite in the morning." He smiled: "You won't make an appointment to meet Lin Midong's tomb, will you?"

Yin Miaozai said, "Lin Midong was buried here? How did you know?" She said, "I made an appointment to meet you in the tea room next to the martyr's cemetery."

Xiao Man said: "I don't know, I guessed it, according to you, this Xu Tian and Lin Midong have a good relationship."

While talking, they entered the cemetery, parked the car, and went to the tea room.The cemetery was deserted, there were more trees than people, Xiaoman walked with his head down, staring at the cobblestones on the ground.Yin Miaozai said softly: "Isn't it really buried here? Have you seen it?"

Without squinting, Xiaoman lit a cigarette.

When we arrived at the tea room, there was only one waitress standing at the counter with drooping eyelids, staggering, as if dozing off.

Yin Miaozai made a phone call, and after a while, a middle-aged man came out of a private room, looked at them, and said, "From Legal Weekly?"

Yin Miaozai nodded, and entered the private room with Xiaoman, and immediately the sleepy-eyed waitress brought two cups of tea and candied snacks.The man said to the waiter, "I didn't tell you not to come in."

The waiter responded and went out.

Xiao Man smiled and talked to the man: "Your own shop? The environment is good."

The man looked at the camera in his hand: "Want to take a picture?"

Yin Miaozai said: "It depends on the situation, maybe just take a picture of our interview environment, without showing your face." Yin Miaozai took out a recording pen, "Is the recording okay? Check your identity with you again, you are Mr. Xu Tian, ​​right? , if you don't mind, can you show your ID? Do you have any comments on the alias? Can you give me a name?"

"The recording is fine." Xu Tian said, and took out his ID card and put it on the table. He said, "You can use aliases, I don't care. What do you call them?"

Yin Miaozai handed over her business card.Xiao Man smiled, and put the camera on the table: "I'm her assistant, just call me Xiao Jiang."

Xu Tian accepted Yin Miaozai's business card.Yin Miaozai picked up his ID card, looked at it, touched it, and put it back.She arched Xiaoman.Xiaoman glanced over, pushed the ID card to Xu Tian's hand, and smiled all over his face: "Thank you, we just want to verify the identity, please put away the ID card."

Xu Tian took out the cigarette case and took the cigarettes.Xiaoman hurriedly lit the lighter and handed it up, Xu Tian lit a cigarette, and asked them: "What direction is your report going?" He sighed, scratched his eyebrows, took a few puffs of cigarettes, and said: " I just feel that my senior brother is quite wronged..."

Xiao Man asked him, "You came to the cemetery after you resigned from the funeral home?"

Yin Miaozai pinched Xiaoman under the table, and asked Xu Tian: "Do you think Lin Midong was wronged? You call him senior brother, you are from the same university?" She cleared her throat, "Our report is Wanting to restore the truth, I read a lot of discussions on the Internet, and I know that many people have doubts about the way the case was handled and the final notification, especially after similar cases appeared recently..."

Xu Tian said: "My elder brother became a teacher two years earlier than me."

"Apprentice?"

"It's the master who handles the corpses of the funeral home," Xu Tian said. "I couldn't find a job at the time, so I went to the funeral home through someone's introduction, and I met my senior brother. You can check it out. The old man left shortly after the accident. The family said that one day he went out for a walk and didn’t come home for three hours. The next day, someone found him in a nearby river. His corpse..." Xu Tian touched the corner of his eyes, took a puff of cigarette, and continued: "Actually, the police came to our funeral home once in 06 and asked us about some things. What are you doing? Is there anyone who can prove it? I also checked the inventory of our antiseptic solution, and after that question, I didn’t see anyone dealing with them. They just urged us to keep our antiseptic solution and other things properly. In 08, The police came again, and it was a routine interrogation again. They didn't take the senior brother away, and they didn't do any further investigation. It means that they think the senior brother is fine, right? Otherwise, they would definitely send the senior brother away at that time. Take him back and interrogate him, right?"

"Is the inventory of embalming fluid in your funeral parlor inconsistent with the quantity purchased?" Yin Miaozai asked.

"Yeah, but you go to ask, which funeral home can match the account of embalming liquid? This thing is used quickly, and sometimes it is used urgently. Sometimes a lot of corpses suddenly come in the middle of the night, just like a fire. , there was another accident on the construction site, I remember it very clearly, we needed to use a lot at once, and the purchaser was not there, so we went to buy some by ourselves, sometimes there was an invoice, and sometimes the invoice was lost.” Xu Tian raised his head, Said: "Senior brother is an honest man, really, if it weren't for the Olympic Games in 08, they would have to find a scapegoat and settle the case quickly. Let me tell you that I think..."

His expression changed: "I'm not conspiracy theory about who the police are protecting, nor is it saying bad things about our government. I just want to reflect to you. There is a person who also did it in our funeral home. It's actually very suspicious..."

Xiaoman picked up the camera, touched it again and again, took two puffs of cigarettes, changed his sitting position, put his hand down by his side, looked around, the sky outside the window was getting darker and darker, with dark clouds pressing down on the sky, and the sky turned yellow.He raised his camera and took a picture of the chaotic sky.

Yin Miaozai asked, "Who do you suspect?"

"A forensic doctor, who used to borrow a place from us to perform autopsies. His surname is Meng, Meng Nangui. He used to be a forensic doctor at the branch of the No. [-] Funeral Home. Later, he was transferred to the Municipal Bureau. Go and investigate him."

"What's up with him?"

"Lao Meng's daughter committed suicide in early 08 by jumping off a building. After that, he became a bit strange, and he was a forensic doctor. My senior brother and I both became monks halfway. We only came to do this when we had nothing else to do. He I majored in civil engineering in college, and I was looking for an internship in my junior year, just like me, because I couldn't find another job, so I found a funeral home, so I learned art from a teacher."

Xiao Man said: "Lin Midong's crime spanned ten years."

"Ten years?" Xu Tian seemed to have heard a big joke: "I'll do the math for you, then he had to start killing people in 98, and he was only 98 in 18! They suspected that he did it in 98." Is the case related to the woman in that village? That is doubtful. The news said it was suspected. I remember that it was also treated professionally. It is difficult to judge the time of death. My senior brother was only admitted to university at that time. , but he hasn't worked in a funeral home yet, where did he learn embalming? Or is it a special professional?"

Yin Miaozai said: "The suspected Aegean killer case in Huangguozi Village in 98 is indeed very controversial. Has Lin Midong mentioned Huangguozi Village to you? Is he familiar with Montenegro?"

"He didn't mention it. I don't know if he is familiar with Montenegro."

"Do you have any contact with his family?"

"Family?" Xu Tian smiled, looking a little miserable at the moment, "He grew up in an orphanage."

"Abandoned at birth? Does he have some congenital disease?"

"No, his mother died of dystocia when he was born, and his father also died when he was ten years old. I don't know exactly how he died."

"Which orphanage?"

"I don't know...he didn't mention it. Even if we know about this kind of sad past, it's not easy to inquire about it in detail, don't you think so?" No one who ever passed him would believe he did it, so it's impossible, you know? He's kind of nice to people, really."

Xiao Man said: "Did you know that a similar case happened in Biancheng, and the corpses of the deceased were also embalmed. Lin Midong studied civil engineering at Biancheng University of Technology, am I right? "

Xu Tian's face suddenly turned ugly, and he retorted: "You know that Lao Meng has never been to Biancheng? He often goes to other cities in the province to hold seminars."

Yin Miaozai hurriedly came out to smooth things over, and said, "You said Lao Meng was strange, please tell me more specifically..."

Xu Tian looked at Yin Miaozai, and began to talk in detail: "There is a drawer in Lao Meng's dissection room with a lock, which is strange enough in itself? But he belongs to the forensic office. After all, we are not in the same system, and it is not easy for us to inquire about anything. Once, I went to deliver documents to him, and when I saw that the lock was not locked, I was curious. I opened the drawer and took a look. Guess what is inside? It’s all broken hands and feet, and internal organs!”

"Some stumps that fell on the scene when the car accident happened?" Yin Miaozai guessed.

"Then we'll sew it back, too."

Yin Miaozai asked, "How did Meng Nangui explain it?"

"He said that he has anatomy needs. Those things are for practicing hands and doing various experiments. But according to the rules, if you want to practice your hands again, your things can only be kept in the funeral home for a month at most. This is clearly stipulated Besides, you need to save so much for practicing hands? Where did you find so many broken hands and feet? I can assure you that most of the corpses that come in and out of the funeral home are very complete. It is impossible to provide him with so many hands for practicing material."

"If he was suspected, he would have been investigated long ago." Xiao Man said.

Xu Tian smiled: "On the eve of the Olympics, it's really unreasonable for a serial murderer to appear in the public security system."

Xu Tian looked at Yin Miaozai, waved his hand holding a cigarette, and said, "And Lao Meng is a member of the police, so he must be very aware of anti-investigation, and he must know how to deal with it during interrogation, right?"

Xiao Man stopped talking, smiled, and looked down at the phone.Yin Miaozai continued to ask: "Have you talked to the police about your suspicions?"

"I said it, but don't you see that Lao Meng is still doing forensic medicine?"

"You still in touch?"

"I heard about it." Xu Tian said.

"Did Lin Midong have any particularly close friends or girlfriends before? Do you have their contact information?"

On a whim, Xiaoman searched the Internet for "break-in and robbery in Qingshui Garden".Most of the news that appeared was more than a month ago. The content was similar, and they were very brief. They only mentioned the number of property losses. It was reported that the prisoners who burglarized were all targeting residents on the top floor without security windows. The water pipes are up and down, and there is no mention of the monitoring failure of the community.

Xu Tian said: "He has contacts with some college classmates. I have to find the phone number for you. I didn't have a girlfriend at the time. I know he talked with him a few times, but they didn't work out. I don't have the contact information." He took out I took a look at the phone and said, "I'm sorry, my family has something to ask me, so I'll call you back." Then I went out.

As soon as Xu Tian left, Yin Miaozai hurriedly took out a stack of materials in the bag, turned to a color-printed picture of a basketball court, pointed to a young man who was grabbing a rebound and asked Xiaoman: "Look, it's a person?"

Xiaoman turned off the news, clicked on a manor management game, absent-mindedly: "Yes."

"Is his ID card real?"

"right."

The game system pops up and prompts: Welcome back!Hurry up and weed your estate!

Yin Miaozai patted Xiaoman, but said nothing.Xiao Man looked at her, and when their eyes met, Yin Miaozai said, "Why are you so clear about Lin Midong?"

"Isn't it all online?" Xiaoman said, looking down at the phone again.

"You haven't logged in for [-] days!" Yin Miaozai grabbed his shoulders and approached him, "Is there something you are hiding from me? How do you know where Lin Midong went to university? You already knew him ?”

Xiaoman hurriedly clicked on the search engine, and said convincingly: "I must have seen it somewhere, I must answer it, I must answer the revelations on the website, I will search for you, it seems that the person is Lin Midong's college classmate, How about we contact this person via private message?"

Yin Miaozai let go of him, she leaned back, stretched her arms, and sighed: "Let's say that the policeman was too hasty back then, there are so many suspected cases, at least you have to ask, like you said, give other suspects The families of the victims in the case can feel at ease," she looked at Xiao Man, and moved her chin: "You search, you search for me, I'll wait."

She said: "I don't know how many people died at the hands of that pervert. I don't know how many people are still looking for the murderer who killed their relatives and friends. They are troubled by this knot and can't get out..."

Xiaoman's cell phone rang, and he was startled. Seeing that the caller was from Lu Yang's school, he quickly picked it up.Opposite was Lu Yang, he asked him in a cold voice: "Did you forget what day it is today?"

Xiaoman slapped his forehead, got up and was about to leave.Yin Miaozai said, "Where are you going?"

"I have to take Lu Yang to see his mother. I can only visit him for a few days in a month. I'm leaving first!"