Free Web NovelChapter 641: Chapter 609: Carefully Selected_1
Zhou Ning smiled.
Zhu Xingxing and Xia Momo saw this and didn’t say anything else; after all, this expression meant that Zhou Ning had been aware of their findings for some time, he just hadn’t elaborated during the autopsy.
"I was in a hurry to listen to that elder’s introduction at the time, so I didn’t explain in detail. You did a good job, let’s enrich the judgment, these children are very likely not just trafficked from other places, but perhaps obtained from those special institutions."
Mr. Zhao’s expression changed, and the word "obtained" used by Zhou Ning made him shiver all over.
"Obtained, you say? If you tell me that these kids were tricked out of an orphanage, I’m more inclined to believe it, but what do you mean by special institutions?"
Zhou Ning raised an eyebrow and spoke very seriously,
"For example, mental hospitals. The management in regular mental hospitals is strict, and there are rarely any issues. However, many mental hospitals in various places are privately run, and their admission requirements aren’t so stringent; after all, there have been precedents in the past.
Some people send their unsupportable elderly into these hospitals, and after the elderly pass away, they even get the hospital to handle the last rites. Things like fighting over inheritance, to sell off the elderly person’s property by admitting mentally sound people, aren’t that uncommon."
Xia Momo trembled slightly, and Mr. Zhao sighed,
"I’ve actually visited one before. I couldn’t tell what a seizure looked like, but everyone there had a vacant gaze and showed obvious stereotyped movements. When they saw doctors or nurses, they would either squat down or turn around and tremble. Not to mention, drug control is inevitable.
I accompanied Mr. Liu on the visit. A female patient, staying in a single room, was seven or eight months pregnant, and she hanged herself in her room. However, the fetus was gone; the placenta had been manually torn away, leaving virtually no traces."
"But the more it is so, the more it exposes the murderer’s identity. Mr. Liu thoroughly examined the room and later found a crumpled pair of shorts in the gap of the bed’s headboard pipe, stained with methylene blue. To leave behind evidence, do you think that person is mentally ill?"
Xia Momo covered her mouth and eagerly asked,
"Was the case solved? Was the murderer caught?"
"Yes, of course, it was solved. Director Xu personally took charge of the case. Zhou Xiaozhou hadn’t arrived at that time. What could be done even after catching the culprit? The girl died, only sixteen years old. It is said she was twelve when she was dumped into the mental hospital, sent there by her family claiming she was ill.
As for the reason, I think you can guess. Her mother was pregnant with a second child, and someone took care of her, saying this one was a boy.
Back then, violating birth policies incurred a fine, so she was framed with a non-existent mental illness and thrown in there. A healthy person would also become mentally unwell from taking medicine every day.
The one who violated the girl was a male nurse responsible for the floor in the hospital. After all, they all knew very well what the girl was like. They gave her medicine and then violated her.
Seeing that the girl was pregnant, he became afraid that his crime would be exposed and took a risky move, intending to separate the fetus and placenta so that he could not be traced back. He was caught and sentenced, but how could the girl’s parents be dealt with? Sigh."
Zhu Xingxing shivered and glanced at the two children’s reconstruction images in front of Xia Momo, biting down hard on his back teeth.
"What Mr. Zhao said didn’t happen many years ago. Twenty years ago, the supervision must have been even more lax. The kind of situation the boss just mentioned would have been easier to occur. These people, either discarded from drug trials or with mental issues, could have been sold here, becoming living offerings. Dead, no one would search for them, perhaps they never even had an identity."
Zhou Ning sighed, this was his greatest concern. The person orchestrating the rituals didn’t leave many clues, to say there were no clues, and trying to find something from a few children without identities seemed improbable.
For a while, Zhou Ning had no direction and felt perplexed, silent for a long time before finally raising his eyes to speak,
"Alright, back to the matter at hand, let’s hurry up and prepare the materials. Tomorrow we go back to the cave again, and I hope to bring back all the other cocoons. If even one of them has some distinguishing feature, it could give us a direction for the investigation.
Mr. Qu, prepare the surveillance equipment, the most advanced kind, wearable on the body, capable of long-distance eavesdropping, preferably wireless. Mrs. Fei and Chen Cheng are in one group, they’ll be on the reconnaissance mission tomorrow. Another group will be local officers dispatched, try to prepare as much as possible.
As for tomorrow, Mr. Qu and Momo will follow Liu Da, assisting in the monitoring and tracking tasks. The rest of you will come with me to the cave, where we will continue to investigate the cave’s layout and see if there are any new findings. What materials have you all brought? Prepare whatever is usable."
Mr. Qu acknowledged with a sound.
"Peng Shinian will go with you, and I’ll compile a list in a while. We brought a lot of equipment this time, and I found something that you’ll definitely like. This thing was something Peng Shinian insisted on bringing."
As he spoke, Mr. Qu started scrolling through his phone’s photo album, finally stopping on a picture. Zhou Ning took a look—it was just a lamp, wasn’t it?
Looking puzzled at Mr. Qu, Mr. Qu laughed and flipped to the next photo.
"Wrong. This is the full picture. It’s like those lamps doctors wear near their glasses during surgeries. I think this will be absolutely useful in the caves. Look, isn’t it cool?
Plus, we brought lots of face masks, valves, and various other components. After all, we can’t transport oxygen tanks, but we can get them ready locally. Once everything’s connected, even if we go deep into the caves and encounter inert gases, we’ll be able to deal with it easily."
Zhou Ning gave a thumbs-up.
Only Mr. Qu and Peng Shinian would be so meticulous.
Mr. Zhao came over with a cheesy grin and put an arm around Mr. Qu’s shoulder, speaking earnestly,
"With so many of our own people here, and most of them following us, local archaeologists and religious societies will send people, too. There will even be workers to hoist the coffins. It’s safe to say, we’ll have a large crew.
But what worries me the most is you guys. You know what Liu Yufei is like; this isn’t Qindao, and there’s no Xu Dayuan to cover for you. We need to be a bit more restrained in everything we do. Make sure to keep a close watch on Liu Da. The key person to look after is Chen Cheng, safety first!"
Mr. Qu grinned, showing his teeth.
"Got it. Rest assured, if they go beyond my tracking range, I’ll just use a jammer to make their headsets screech. That’ll keep them in line and in contact with us. Don’t worry, I’ve learned plenty of such tricks from you."
Mr. Zhao’s eyes widened, and he clicked his tongue in disapproval.
"Tsk! What are you saying? These are life-saving measures. In an unfamiliar place, especially in a multicultural area, you can’t foresee every emergency.
Plus, that old lady is sharp enough—being in control of one of the Eight Great Families speaks for itself. It would be even better if we could overhear something.
If we can’t find out through investigation, I think we could also try other roundabout methods. There’s no need to do anything outrageous. Alright, you know my principle—I won’t harp on."
Zhu Xingxing rolled her eyes at him.
"You know you ramble, and Qu Heping knows safety comes first. Mr. Fang is going with Mrs. Fei tomorrow, so I’m not worried. Right now, I’m very curious. Are the remaining six cocoons related by the same bloodline as these two children?"
Mr. Zhao blinked, intrigued.
"So what if they’re the same, and what if they’re not?"
Zhu Xingxing looked at him as if he were an idiot. She pushed away his plump face, stepping back as if afraid her own IQ would drop just by being near him.
"Are you stupid? If they’ve chosen the same, it indicates that’s what they need. To use an inappropriate analogy, when you go to buy a chicken, doesn’t the seller ask what you’re going to use it for?
If it’s for an ordinary home-cooked meal, then definitely a young cockerel; if it’s for postpartum nourishment, an old hen is the standard. If it’s for ginseng and sticky rice soup, then a two-month-old chick; and if it’s for grilling, then it’s a ’three-yellow’ chicken.
If they have people of various bloodlines and the numbers are messy, it implies the ceremony is not easy to prepare for, they can’t make a big fuss about it, and only a few people are involved in completing it—essentially, the offerings for sacrifice are just cobbled together. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
On the other hand, if the bloodlines here are all from the Europa Race over by Tianshan, with consistent ages and origins, then the level of the sacrifice is different. The four words that come to mind are ’carefully selected.’
To release Asura and succeed in creating a god, they wouldn’t overlook any detail. Though I still have a question."
