Chapter 111 - 107: Human Head Fruit Tree: The Killer with Maxed-Out Counter-Surveillance Awareness

Wang Chao had a craving for watermelon.

Wang Chao no longer had a craving for watermelon.

Wang Chao decided he would never be greedy again.

"Eat. Keep eating. Have some more."

October 27th, inside the Criminal Investigation Division of Zhaozhou City.

With a gentle smile, Li Jianye handed a slice of watermelon to Wang Chao.

"Eat up. A little slice like that isn’t nearly enough. If anyone saw, they’d think I couldn’t afford to treat you!"

"I can’t eat anymore..."

"Come on, if you don’t eat more now, you’ll just get hungry later."

"I really can’t eat anymore..."

Wang Chao looked at the trash can full of green watermelon rinds, despair written all over his face.

To be honest.

’He was starting to feel a little homesick. Yeah, the place he’d had no desire to return to suddenly seemed rather warm and inviting.’

"CRUNCH!"

Li Jianye took a huge bite of watermelon. Sporting two dark circles under his eyes, he stared expressionlessly at Wang Chao as he chewed.

Wang Chao shrank back.

Just last night, Li Jianye had returned to Linlan City. He’d planned to catch up on some paperwork and then finally get a good night’s sleep.

But who would have thought...

A single phone call had yanked him back to Zhaozhou City before he could even settle in.

The moment he arrived at the crime scene, Li Jianye’s mind went blank!

What was at the crime scene?

Three human heads.

Three human heads, severed at the neck and hung from the branches of an apple tree!

Their features, though partially damaged, were still recognizable. Long hair, matted with viscous blood, clung to their faces. Each wore a stiff, icy smile, their eyes staring fixedly into the distance.

All three heads were smiling, but it wasn’t a natural smile. It was forced.

The killer first used their hands to pull their victims’ lips into a smile, then, as their eyes filled with terror, brought out a stapler...

And stapled the smile in place!

And thus, three heads with eerie, rigid smiles appeared in the world.

Without a doubt, this was a homicide.

A major homicide!

At the very least, it was a major felony case!

Three lives, snuffed out just like that. And after death, their heads were even removed...

"Damn it... Where’s that guy?"

Li Jianye muttered curses under his breath, but he didn’t refuse the assignment.

Wang Hu hadn’t come; he was helping him catch up on his backlog for the time being.

"Brother Huo rested for a bit and then took some men to the scene. They left a short while ago," Wang Chao said after thinking for a moment.

Hearing this, Li Jianye didn’t say much else.

He walked out of the office, got into a police car, and headed straight for the crime scene.

The crime scene was located in the area bordering Linlan City and Zhaozhou City.

It wasn’t far from the city outskirts, but the area was less developed, covered in vast stretches of farmland.

Of course, farmland isn’t just for growing crops; you can grow fruit trees too.

And the specific location of the crime was an orchard!

5:24 AM.

Seeing a long line of police cars parked by the roadside in the distance, Li Jianye’s expression flickered, and he quickly pulled over.

He had just gotten out of the car when he spotted a few familiar figures in the distance.

"What’s the status of the case?"

He quickened his pace, shouting the question as he walked.

Xu Huo glanced back, saw it was Li Jianye, and wasn’t surprised. Before he could turn away, Li Jianye was already at his side.

"Still collecting evidence."

Xu Huo shook his head and didn’t elaborate.

The crime occurred last night. It was pitch-dark, with no lights whatsoever. They had to rush to bring in generators and other equipment just to get some illumination.

But that wasn’t ideal. They waited until the sky began to lighten at dawn to conduct a second round of evidence collection.

"Find anything during the first sweep?"

Li Jianye asked with a frown.

In front of him was an apple tree.

A tree that had been growing for many years, the only one in the orchard that had reached a height of seven meters.

Generally, the fruit trees in an orchard are manually pruned to ensure they’re easy to pick from, but the owner had left this one tree untouched.

The reason was that he wanted to grow a ten-meter-tall tree to see how the fruit tasted. He never expected that before it reached ten meters, it would ’grow’ human heads instead.

The tree was now surrounded by police tape.

"We have information, but nothing that constitutes a lead. The perpetrator is very cautious."

As he said this, Xu Huo’s expression grew serious.

He tilted his head, motioning with his eyes toward a spot where several officers were gathered.

"The ’weapon.’ Or rather, what was used to transport the heads."

"Judging by the size, it was most likely a fertilizer sack."

Xu Huo said quietly.

’A fertilizer sack?’

’Three human heads were put in a sack and transported here!?’

’In other words, this isn’t the primary crime scene... So where is it!?’

Li Jianye looked over, full of doubt, but was taken aback by what he saw.

After finishing their evidence collection at dawn, a few officers moved aside, revealing... a pile of ash on the ground.

"It was burned. Not a single drop of blood leaked out here, but there was some fresh blood on the tree."

"Our initial guess is that the heads were wrapped in plastic wrap or plastic bags to prevent any blood from leaking and leaving a trail. Then they were thrown into the fertilizer sack and brought here."

Xu Huo shook his head and sighed.

"Finally, they burned the sack and everything in it."

"They did a clean job. Didn’t leave a single trace!"

It was a shame, but not a huge loss.

Fertilizer sacks aren’t just for fertilizer. If you’ve spent any time in the countryside, you’d know they’re most commonly used to hold agricultural products.

Corn, peanuts, or even wheat.

If the police could figure out what was in the sack before, they could try investigating the villages and towns in the surrounding area where that crop was harvested, looking for suspicious individuals.

But the reason it wasn’t a huge loss was that these sacks are incredibly common; almost every household in the countryside has them.

"This cautious?"

Li Jianye was rather surprised.

"What about footprints?" he asked.

"No footprints."