Chapter 21

Jiang Xuzhou immediately asked, “That boy in the school uniform just now, is he the student you mentioned? His uniform looked familiar to me.”

“Yes, that’s him.” the waiter replied.

“He doesn’t come often, only when the fifteenth falls on a weekend.”

Jiang Xuzhou fell into thought. The two chatted casually for a while, and the food he ordered was quickly served.

The steaming waffle tasted very good. Jiang Xuzhou hadn’t been particularly hungry, but after one bite his taste buds were awakened.

“I’d like to order some more waffles, please pack them up later.”

Ruan Mingxi hadn’t eaten dinner when he appeared at the scene, and it was uncertain when he would return. Jiang Xuzhou thought it best to bring some food back for them, so that if they worked overtime, they wouldn’t all end up eating instant noodles.

After finishing his own meal, Jiang Xuzhou’s waffle order was rather large, and since it would take some time to prepare, he decided to go next door to the bookstore for a look.

On weekday evenings, the bookstore wasn’t crowded. The warm lights fell across the shelves, and lingering there gave one a drowsy feeling.

Walking further inside, Jiang Xuzhou saw a glass partitioned room where more than ten people sat in a circle. Each held a book, and all their eyes were fixed on the person seated in the center.

The soundproofing of the glass room was excellent. Standing outside, Jiang Xuzhou could only see their mouths moving, but not a single sound reached him.

“They’re holding a book‑sharing session. Every evening, people come here with books they’ve recently read, and share their thoughts with everyone.”

Music was playing in the bookstore, so Jiang Xuzhou hadn’t heard the footsteps.

Only when he heard a voice and turned around did he realize someone had already come up beside him.

“In the fast‑paced city life, there are fewer and fewer people who can calm down and read paper books.”

The person clearly agreed with Jiang Xuzhou’s thought, “Yes, that’s why I want to preserve the way of offline communication. So I organized this reading club, hoping to find a few companions who enjoy reading together.”

Jiang Xuzhou’s lips curved slightly,

“That’s an interesting idea.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the other person handed him a card, “This is an invitation. If you’re interested, you can join the reading club.”

Jiang’s gaze lingered on the “invitation” handed to him. It was a small card.

He had seen it before in Yan Zhan’s room. It was the card for Call to Arms*.

(*呐喊 (nàhǎn) means Call to Arms, a famous work by Lu Xun. 呐喊 literally means “shout” or “cry out.” Symbolizes awakening and resistance in literature.)

Taking the “invitation,” Jiang flipped it over. The back was covered in black ink, with no words at all.

“No words on it?” Jiang Xuzhou asked.

The other person smiled, “Friendship through literature, invitation through art. No extra words are needed.”

“I’m glad to meet you. My name is He Si.”

Jiang Xuzhou was a little surprised, then chuckled softly, “He Si, as in ‘He Si in the human world’?*”

(*何似 (hé sì) is a name, but also an allusion. The phrase “何似在人間” comes from poetry, meaning “How could this be in the human world?” Jiang recognizes the literary reference.)

“Yes.”

“Your name is very unique.” Their eyes met, and Jiang Xuzhou said, “Hello, I’m Jiang Xuzhou.”

…

Around the small restaurant, police tape had been set up. Crowds pressed together outside, bustling noisily. Those standing at the back couldn’t see clearly, so they kept rising on tiptoe, craning their necks to look.

In the back street of Dongping Restaurant, near the kitchen and garbage bins, two or three police officers stood. One of them held a slotted ladle, scooping through the trash.

Different foods were mixed together, carrying the sour stench of rot. As the ladle stirred inside the bin, the foul odor surged upward, hitting the head like a wave.

Ruan Mingxi and Ying Shi were working together at one garbage bin. Their eyes were red like rabbits, whether from the stench or from the strain of suppressing their stomachs’ urge to heave.

“Here’s another piece!”

Ying Shi scooped up the last piece of soft tissue, and Ruan Mingxi immediately turned sideways to let the officer holding a bag step forward to seal it.

After the items were taken away, the two stepped over the messy boxes on the ground and walked to the roadside. The moment they removed their masks, both let out a heavy sigh of relief.

The air still carried traces of the sour stench, but compared to the thick, overwhelming odor from earlier, this now felt like nothing more than a light drizzle.

“Today we didn’t retrieve any body parts, only internal organs. I found one heart, you found one, Xiao Jiang and Xiao Zhou each found one. All four hearts have been recovered.”

Ruan Mingxi took a deep breath, his face slightly pale, “On Qingping Road we only retrieved one piece of soft tissue from a victim. If tonight’s organs are all in sets of four, then there are still three corpses and their bones missing.”

“Qingping Road and Dongping Road are only about two kilometers apart. This small area has already yielded two dumping sites. It’s very likely the remaining body parts were also discarded nearby.”

As Ying Shi was speaking, his stomach suddenly churned, and a sour taste rose in his mouth.

He held his breath for quite a while before forcing down the strange feeling.

“The killer’s dumping sites are relatively concentrated. He must be very familiar with the surrounding environment.”

Ruan Mingxi removed his gloves, took out the tablet from his bag, and checked the map of the area.

Based on the two dumping sites, he marked points and drew a circle. The coverage was not small. If they were to search every trash bin in this area, it would be a huge workload.

“The body parts in the trash bin on Qingping Road were discovered one hour after being discarded. The organs here were also found one hour after being dumped, when we received the emergency call.”

Ruan Mingxi opened the computer’s split‑screen function and switched to a social media platform.

The account that had originally posted only one photo of the scene had uploaded another forty minutes ago.

The timestamp on the photo matched the time they received the emergency call, meaning the person who reported it had taken the photo first, then called them.

“The difficulty now is that even if I file a report and request personnel from the sub‑bureau to help dredge, to overturn every trash bin in this area, we still might not find anything.”

Ruan Mingxi said in a low voice, “We have no way to determine the killer’s exact time of dumping the bodies.”

Ying Shi’s face also looked grim, “We’re too passive. The source of the corpses cannot be confirmed, the dumping sites are badly damaged, and there are no valuable clues. It’s no different from looking for a needle in the ocean.”

They had already applied for a joint investigation notice. At present, aside from Yan Zhan, no family members of missing persons had come forward to report.

Since the source of the corpses could not be confirmed, they had no way to investigate based on the victims’ social connections.

Just then, Ruan Mingxi’s phone rang.

Opening it, he realized there were already several missed calls. Most likely, they had been too focused on dredging inside, and with the noisy environment around them, they hadn’t heard the ringing.

“Captain, when the account posted its update, the IP address was located right at the entrance of Dongping Restaurant. After posting, the account immediately went offline, and at present we cannot trace the device information.”

Ruan Mingxi narrowed his eyes slightly, “Have you identified the owner of the account?”

“It’s Yan Zhan.”