Chapter 176 135: Human Flesh Fertilizer

'The money's gone again...'

'He killed two people and even dismembered them, but he still didn't forget to take the money... Is money that much of a temptation for him?'

'A few million would be one thing, but the second victim was just a street vendor. He couldn't have had more than a few thousand on him...'

'What does he need the money for? Is he planning one last spree before he gets caught?'

'It doesn't make sense. A normal person who wants to kill is either extremely enraged or extremely calm. Neither mindset fits with someone who's thinking about spending money in the middle of a murder...'

A person might go on a spending spree after a murder, or even before one.

But it makes no sense to be thinking about expenses while in the middle of killing someone.

However...

"In any case, the identical MO and the dismemberment prove this was a Murder."

"Did the victim... offend the killer?"

Xu Huo paused, classifying the nature of the case.

A crime of passion versus a Murder would determine the direction of the subsequent police investigation.

Murder... As Xu Huo had said before, murder means premeditation, and premeditation takes time!

A killer who uses his brain isn't going to kill a random passerby for no reason, especially one who knew about the small vegetable patch on the roof to dispose of the body.

This meant the killer had been observing the victim for a long time before making his move!

Also...

"Did the victims from the two crime scenes know each other?"

Xu Huo looked at Qian Hua and asked again.

"Bring the guesthouse owner over," Qian Hua said after a moment's thought, deciding to summon her.

The guesthouse owner was the one who called the police, so there was no reason to let her leave just yet.

Especially when they were short on clues!

A few moments later, the owner came up, trembling.

The owner was a woman, around forty-five years old. She was a middle-aged woman of average looks, with a plump, out-of-shape figure, a frizzy perm, and a pair of gold earrings.

"Did the Zhang Family have any friends they were particularly close with?"

Qian Hua didn't press her about the security cameras.

"Friends?"

The owner was taken aback. She thought she was about to be held responsible for something and hadn't expected such a question.

After thinking for a moment, an indignant look appeared on her face.

"Oh, yes. He was always messing around with a few people, a real bad crowd!"

"He'd call them over to the guesthouse in the middle of the night. A few swigs of that cheap booze and they'd forget their own names, getting rowdy and making so much noise that other guests constantly complained."

"And those guys, instead of apologizing, they'd just lecture the other guests!"

"Serves him right, getting himself killed..."

The landlady grumbled on, airing out all of his dirty laundry.

'This personality...'

'So awful?'

Xu Huo frowned. "Lecture them? How so?"

The landlady thought for a moment and said:

"Something about how they lacked vision and responsibility, how they were petty and small-minded, and how 'a young man should have a broader perspective'?"

"That was the gist of it."

"I mean, does that sound reasonable to you!?"

Xu Huo froze. He instinctively exchanged a look with Li Jianye and Qian Hua.

'Those words...'

'How to describe them?'

"Bureaucratic airs?"

Qian Hua paused, then frowned and uttered two words.

The landlady paused, then her eyes lit up in the next second.

"Yes, yes, exactly! Bureaucratic airs!"

"A broke-ass loser putting on official airs with people. A few sips of cheap booze and he really didn't know his place. If he hadn't paid his rent on time, I would've thrown him out long ago..."

Hearing this, everyone fell silent for a long moment.

"Do you know who his other friends were?" Xu Huo asked.

The landlady paused and shook her head sheepishly. It made sense; she didn't even know her own tenant, let alone his friends.

"How many people did he bring over?"

"Four or five, at least."

"Any of them have distinctive features?"

"I don't remem... wait. I remember one time I smelled a really strong fishy odor. I don't know if it was from something they were eating or on one of them."

The landlady wracked her brain but could only give a vague answer in the end.

Further questioning yielded nothing.

Xu Huo could only wave his hand, letting her leave for now, but telling her to keep her phone on and reachable 24/7.

Now, the expressions on the three men at the scene grew even stranger.

"The victims knew each other..."

"And the victim liked to put on bureaucratic airs!?"

"What the hell is this?"

Many people like to put on airs, but most of them actually hold some power.

The most common types include:

Teachers, driving instructors, bank tellers, and so on.

The more a person values something, the more they'll show it off.

The best way to flaunt power is, without a doubt, to use that power to make things difficult for others.

But the problem was...

If you want to wield power, you at least need to have some power to begin with!

"A street vendor?"

Xu Huo paused, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

"A watermelon stand owner... putting on official airs?"

"What power could he possibly have!?"

Li Jianye and the others fell into deep thought.

For a long time, they couldn't figure it out.

A sports car costs millions, and a tycoon can buy one on a whim.

But have you ever seen a homeless person buy a sports car just because he said he would?

Of course, a homeless person can insist he has money, but... you can't fake the kind of aura that comes from being raised with wealth.

By the same token.

Where would a watermelon vendor learn that kind of bureaucratic jargon?

Language habits are only changed gradually through long-term immersion in an environment.

What kind of environment does a watermelon stand provide? Putting on airs to get people to buy watermelons? If he didn't get cursed out as an idiot, it was only because the passersby were in a good mood!

"Could it be..."

"A habit from his previous life?"

Xu Huo paused, then suddenly added:

"The victims were of similar age, both around forty."

"The Zhang Family member only lived at the guesthouse for half a year. The landlady knows nothing about his life before that..."

In other words...

"Perhaps this habit was formed before?"

Li Jianye paused, understanding dawned on him, but then a new difficulty arose.

"The victim's ID was taken. No photo, no fingerprints..."

"His life before six months ago is a complete blank slate to the police!"

If the clues really were hidden in his past...

...then the police would have their work cut out for them.

But...

"The fishy smell..."

Li Jianye paused, shifting his line of thought.

"Could he be a fisherman?"

A person's scent is closely related to their environment.

A fishy smell?

A very strong one at that!

"Hard to say. We're a long way from the coast here. If he were a fisherman, it wouldn't make sense to travel all this way just for a meal."

Xu Huo thought for a moment and shook his head.

This is an inland area of Linlan City. Zhaozhou City is to the south, and the coast is to the east, while we are in the central-western part.

Travel isn't exactly convenient these days. A round trip of several dozen kilometers would take up a whole day, especially for a fisherman who needs to work hard at sea.

Especially since the landlady said they 'got together often'.

"Check the seafood refrigeration companies."

Xu Huo said suddenly, his thoughts leaping to another possibility.

"Seafood refrigeration companies?"

Qian Hua stopped, a look of confusion on his face.

"We can rule out the docks. Six months ago was a few months into the fishing ban, so the fishy smell shouldn't have been that strong. The location and the timing rule out the possibility of him being a fisherman."

"The seafood market... If he was a mover, that kind of work is usually done for a crew boss."

"The guesthouse owner said they drank at night. If he got dead drunk, he'd definitely miss work with the foreman the next day. Once might be fine, but it wouldn't fly if it happened several times."

"If he sold seafood, he'd be even less likely to get drunk. There's no way he'd miss the morning market. Seafood prices are highest in the morning, and if it doesn't sell in one day, a lot of the accumulated stock will spoil."

"So, the only remaining fish-related possibility is..."

Xu Huo explained.

Since they were investigating professions.

It was a matter of comparing the characteristics and details of each job!

It's like, if you're a homeroom teacher, it makes no sense that you could take a month-long leave of absence during the school term and still keep your job.

By the same token, the same logic applies to jobs that would cause him to constantly reek of fish!

After eliminating a large number of professions, the only thing left was...

"Refrigeration companies. And processing plants, of course, but Linlan City doesn't have many seafood processing plants. It mainly deals in raw materials."

Xu Huo stated matter-of-factly.

Qian Hua and the others were silent for a moment, thinking it over carefully, then nodded.

"Okay, I'll organize a team to investigate immediately!"

"Run a check on the internal registration files," Xu Huo added.

"Got it."

Time was of the essence now. It was wiser to search based on these filtered results.

Even if the lead was wrong, they would simply go back to investigating along the original lines.

As for the crime scene...

Xu Huo paused, his brow furrowed, and he looked back at the lock on the door behind him.