I Sent You to Take the College Entrance Exam, and You Ended Up Solving a Murder Case?! - Chapter 51
He stood in the center of the five pits and slowly closed his eyes.
These five points form an irregular pentagon on the map.
five……
Pentagram?
A thought flashed through Chen Mo’s mind in an instant.
In Western mysticism, the pentagram is often associated with rituals such as sacrifices and summoning.
The inverted pentagram, in particular, is considered a symbol of evil.
Could the murderer be performing some kind of evil ritual?
wrong!
He quickly dismissed the idea himself.
The environment here has no decorations related to Western mysticism.
Moreover, the number of corpses does not match the five vertices of the pentagram.
What could that be?
Are there any evil practices within Taoism?
Chen Mo wasn’t very knowledgeable in this area, but he knew a little bit about it.
But no matter how he tried to recall, there didn’t seem to be any evil spell that required more than thirty corpses arranged in this way.
My thinking seems to have reached a dead end once again.
Chen Mo opened his eyes somewhat irritably, subconsciously raising his head to look at the night sky.
Suddenly, his gaze was drawn to a few exceptionally bright stars arranged in an orderly fashion on the horizon.
That is…
The Big Dipper!
In an instant, a bolt of lightning pierced the fog in Chen Mo’s mind!
He remembered a proverb his grandmother often repeated when he was a child in his rural hometown.
“There are seven stars in the sky, seven emotions on earth, and seven orifices in man. Lighting the Seven Star Lamp can ward off evil and bring good fortune.”
Light the Seven Star Lamp!
Chen Mo’s heart skipped a beat!
He quickly lowered his head, his gaze sharp as lightning, and swept it once again over the five pits on the ground!
Pit 1, Pit 2, Pit 3, Pit 4…
These four pits are relatively close together, vaguely forming an irregular quadrilateral, just like… the head of a spoon!
Pit No. 5, which is a little further away, looks like the beginning of the handle of a spoon!
It’s the formation of the Big Dipper!
This discovery made Chen Mo’s blood almost boil!
He turned around abruptly and shouted at Liu Chengpei, Wu Xiubing, and others who were not far away.
“Map! Bring me a topographical survey map of this area!”
Everyone was stunned, but seeing Chen Mo’s excited expression, no one dared to be negligent.
Soon, a survey map, drawn by technical investigators, was completed, marking the precise locations of the five burial sites.
It was brought to Chen Mo.
Chen Mo snatched the blueprint and laid it directly on the hood of a police car, then took a red marker.
He connected the five points on the diagram according to the arrangement of the Big Dipper in his memory.
Pit 1 connects to Pit 2, Pit 2 connects to Pit 3, and Pit 3 connects to Pit 4D.
Finally, Pit 4 connects to Pit 5, which is a little further away!
A pattern resembling a spoon, composed of five red dots, appeared prominently on the drawing!
“The Big Dipper…”
The deputy director of the municipal bureau, standing to the side, looked at the blueprints and unconsciously muttered to himself.
“That’s right!”
Chen Mo’s voice trembled slightly with excitement.
“This is an unfinished Big Dipper formation!”
“Pits No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 form the ‘Dipper’, which is the head of the dipper, consisting of the four stars: Tian Shu, Tian Xuan, Tian Ji, and Tian Quan!”
“Pit No. 5 is the first star that forms the ‘Dipper’, the handle of the dipper, called ‘Yuheng’!”
At this point, he heavily drew two more circles on the drawing paper with his red marker, marking the direction in which pit number five extended!
“If my deduction is correct, then the killer’s goal was to assemble the complete Big Dipper!”
“He’s still missing ‘Kaiyang’ and ‘Yaoguang’, two stars!”
“That means he needs to find two more burial sites! And kill… at least two more people!”
boom!
Chen Mo’s words were like a bombshell, exploding in everyone’s minds!
This inference is more specific and more chilling than the previous inference that “there are still five spots missing in Pit 2”!
“You mean… the murderer used the method of killing and burying the body to set up a ‘Seven Star Formation’ here?”
Section Chief Lu Mingrui, who was in charge of criminal investigation, looked utterly incredulous.
“If we dig up the bodies now, wouldn’t that… destroy his formation?”
He asked a crucial question.
Chen Mo shook his head, his expression regaining its composure.
“This is just my reasoning. We can’t be 100% certain that the murderer killed people for the purpose of sacrifice or setting up a formation.”
“Moreover, there is a huge unanswered question here.”
He looked at Yuan Weiguang, the forensic doctor in charge of the autopsy.
“Forensic Doctor Yuan, based on your preliminary examination, approximately how long ago did the earliest remains die?”
Yuan Weiguang answered immediately.
“Report to Captain Chen, based on the most severely weathered skeleton in Pit No. 1, the time of death is at least fourteen years ago.”
Fourteen years!
Chen Mo’s brows furrowed tightly into a “川” shape.
“Fourteen years ago, he killed eight people and buried them in Pit No. 1.”
“Then he stopped. It wasn’t until the last two years that he started committing crimes again.”
“Where did he go during those long twelve years? What was he doing?”
“If he was unable to continue committing crimes due to serious injury or disability, how did he recover?”
“It is impossible for a person to continue committing such a series of murders that require enormous physical strength after suffering such severe injuries.”
“If he was arrested and imprisoned… then we should be able to find his information even more.”
Chen Mo posed a series of questions, but none of them were answered.
The atmosphere at the scene once again reached a stalemate.
Wu Xiubing and several municipal bureau leaders looked ashen-faced.
The discovery of the Big Dipper constellation certainly clarified the direction of the investigation.
But the twelve-year interval between the crimes is like an even thicker fog, shrouding everyone’s minds.
Even the identities of the 35 deceased still require a lengthy DNA comparison and screening process.
This case was in the most difficult situation from the very beginning.
Chen Mo also fell silent.
He couldn’t understand it.
What could have been the reason that the murderer would interrupt his “ritual” for twelve years?
This does not fit the psychological characteristics of a serial killer with obsessive-compulsive disorder and a sense of ritual.
unless……
Unless something momentous happens in those twelve years that completely changes the course of his life!
The Chengdu Municipal Public Security Bureau building was still brightly lit.
Chen Mo pushed open the door to the office of the Fifth Criminal Investigation Team, and a familiar scent wafted towards him.
Almost instinctively, he threw himself onto the old sofa.
Close your eyes, and you’ll see those five craters on Hualong Mountain, gleaming brightly in the searchlight.
Those rows of body bags covered with white sheets lingered in my mind’s eye.
His consciousness was sinking, and just as he was about to fall into darkness, the office door was suddenly pushed open.
“Captain Chen! Captain Chen! Wake up!”
Wu Che’s voice was like a bucket of cold water, forcibly pulling Chen Mo out of his daze.
He suddenly opened his eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“The expert team from the ministry and the provincial department has arrived!”
“The notice just came out: at 10:00 AM, a meeting will be held in Conference Room 3 of the main building to announce the establishment of the special task force and to analyze the case!”
Chen Mo glanced at his watch.
9:03.
I only slept for less than an hour.
He propped himself up on the sofa armrest, his hangover-like headache causing him to frown.
“knew.”
He went into the rest area’s washroom and splashed cold water on his face several times; the icy stimulation cleared his mind somewhat.
He then took out a clean police shirt from the closet, put it on, draped his police jacket over his arm, and strode out.
“Let’s go.”
…
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
