Replacing the Evil Way

Chapter 30: Separation of Evidence

After realizing the possibility of spatial folding within the mansion, He Wei and Cheng Zesheng had to reexamine the evidence they held in their hands. They needed to determine which pieces of evidence truly belonged to their case and which ones might have seeped in from another world due to the folding phenomenon.

“Do you think these two cases occurred simultaneously or separately?” He Wei asked.

“There’s a high probability that they are interconnected,” Cheng Zesheng pointed out the similarities in two separate autopsy reports, showing multiple points of convergence. According to his analysis, the shooting case likely happened first, followed by the strangling case. He erased a section on paper and sketched a simplified crime scene, placing the bodies and traces from both worlds into it. “You see, if this were one crime scene, the reconstructed scenario suggests that the perpetrator killed Cheng Zesheng first, then engaged in a struggle with He Wei before killing him.”

“That’s the logical progression, but there are some crucial aspects we haven’t figured out yet,” He Wei circled two sets of shoeprints with a pen, raising a question. “For instance, are these shoeprints truly indicative of two individuals entering and leaving the scene at the same time, or did they each enter and exit separately in their respective worlds, with the shoeprints overlapping to create a false impression? This is essential; it has a decisive impact on determining the number of individuals present at the scene.”

Cheng Zesheng picked up the photo of shoeprints with the embedded stone and compared it to the incomplete shoe prints extracted from the group of shoe prints on He Wei’s side. He noticed that while the shapes and sizes of the shoe prints matched, the incomplete ones didn’t have the embedded stone, while they clearly aligned with the deceased He Wei’s shoe prints.

“The footprints on your side might have permeated into my crime scene,” Cheng Zesheng suggested.

He Wei remained silent, maintaining a skeptical attitude.

Cheng Zesheng circled a cluster of disordered shoeprints that shared the same pattern, saying, “These are obvious signs of a struggle, and it belong to my case. They can help reconstruct the complete movement sequence between the perpetrator and the victim. It’s not the result of overlapping infiltration.”

“Currently, only this piece is certain; the rest can’t be conclusively determined,” He Wei drew a stick figure next to Cheng Zesheng’s body, “There are some gaps in the blood spatter patterns around Cheng Zesheng’s body after he was shot. I initially suspected the presence of a third person nearby, blocking the blood spatters. Now, we can’t be sure if there really was a person standing there, or if your version of He Wei happened to be in that position, acting as a transparent obstacle, causing the gaps in the blood spatters.”

“I still lean towards the existence of a third person rather than the folding effect,” Cheng Zesheng compared the shoeprint with the embedded stone to the others, “This one was discovered later in my case. At the time, I deduced it might be a fourth person at the scene. However, if we consider it from your perspective, it could be that he and Cheng Zesheng entered the mansion together, and he was by his side when Cheng Zesheng was shot.”

“Following your line of thought, wouldn’t it be more logical for the ‘me’ from this world to enter with Cheng Zesheng?” He Wei chuckled and shook his head, “That’s impossible. Do you know what I was doing when he died? I was still working on another haunted case. I had just apprehended a suspect when I received a call in the middle of the night, reporting a homicide at the mansion.”

Cheng Zesheng didn’t doubt He Wei, but he knew that He Wei had a twin brother, and this fact couldn’t be overlooked. On his side, there was no established time for He Lu’s involvement in the case, leaving room for the possibility that He Lu from the other side might have been responsible. Given He Lu’s connection to Cheng Zesheng, it wasn’t implausible that they entered the mansion together.

He Wei fell silent, shaking his head slowly. “A-Lu wouldn’t do that. I know him. He can’t lie to me. He wouldn’t be able to hide something like this.”

Cheng Zesheng wasn’t familiar with the He Lu from He Wei’s world, but the He Lu on his side was rather straightforward – their common trait seemed to be an inability to hide emotions or secrets; everything showed on their faces.

Tonight, the worldviews of these two adept investigators were once again shattered. Their original thought processes were torn apart, requiring complete reassembly. Unsolved mysteries piled up one after another, and with the introduction of another world, the situation became even more intricate.

It was clear that the mansion was a focal point, but the mysterious force behind it allowed certain traces from both worlds to fold and infiltrate. Moreover, the evidence that left the mansion didn’t disintegrate in the atomic structure like the situation in 404 and the situation was much more stable.

After pondering for a moment, He Wei snapped his fingers. “Tomorrow night at 12 o’clock, I’ll go to the mansion, and you should come too.”

“…Is the nature of that place the same as here? How do you know if we can communicate?”

“It’s precisely because we don’t know that we need to verify it,” He Wei stood up, closed his notebook, and placed the pen back in its original spot. “If the mansion’s state is even more stable than this one, who knows, you might even be visible.”

———

At the Hutaoli Community, Yun Xiaoxiao and a police officer from Shunhe Street Police Station knocked on the door of Unit 203 in Building 32.

The man who answered the door was wearing a tank top and shorts, his hair in a messy style, and his eyes barely opened from sleepiness. “What’s the matter?”

“Registering residency, please cooperate,” the police officer entered the apartment, followed by Yun Xiaoxiao holding a registration book, while Hu Songkai stood at the doorway like a guardian deity.

The man took out his ID card for registration. The police officer asked, “Are you the owner of the property?”

“No, I’m renting the place.”

“Do you live alone?”

“I have a roommate, but he hasn’t been back for a while, and he hasn’t terminated the lease either. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Yun Xiaoxiao looked up. “What’s the name of your roommate?”

“Ma Guangming, I think? It should be that.” The man yawned. “We haven’t talked much. I’m on the day shift, and he’s always out at night. We hardly ever cross paths.”

“Oh, he works night shifts, right?” the police officer remarked.

“Who knows, really? That guy seems not to need to work. Someone’s probably supporting him.” The man suddenly became enthusiastic, winking, “Tall and thin, really handsome, like a celebrity. I even suspect he’s in that line of work.”

Yun Xiaoxiao pretended to be clueless. “Which line of work?”

“That one! They call it ‘Nulang‘1 in Japan, and here it’s a ‘duck’.”

“Now that you mention it, I remember. I have a friend who said they often see a handsome guy in nearby bars, with a charismatic and charming presence. Incredibly good-looking.” Yun Xiaoxiao timely pulled out her phone and displayed the photo. The man looked at it and immediately exclaimed, “Yes, yes, that’s him! I knew he wasn’t a decent person. He must be going to bars to attract wealthy women.”

Yun Xiaoxiao smiled, then glanced back at Hu Songkai, exchanging a look. They had found the right person!

“Where’s the bathroom?” Hu Songkai asked.

The man gestured inside, and Hu Songkai nodded, giving Yun Xiaoxiao a signal to continue the conversation while he went in to take a look.

Using the excuse of needing to use the restroom, Hu Songkai entered the room opposite the man’s bedroom. He gently turned the doorknob, and a musty smell, built up from days of being sealed, wafted out. This indicated that Cheng Zhenqing hadn’t been living here for at least half a month.

Compared to the messiness of the man with messy hair, Cheng Zhenqing’s room was relatively tidy. There weren’t many clothes in the wardrobe, as if a batch had been packed and taken away. Presumably, after Cheng Zesheng’s incident, he had a premonition that the police would eventually find him. So, he had found a temporary place to lay low.

Several pamphlets were placed on the table, and Hu Songkai pocketed all of them. Opening a drawer, he found a few philosophy-related books, and beneath them was a thick dictionary. Hu Songkai absentmindedly flipped through the dictionary, causing a few photos to fall out. They were all pictures of Cheng Zhenqing and Cheng Zesheng together, with a foreign backdrop. The flagpole in the background displayed the Canadian maple leaf flag.

Hu Songkai took the photos with him as well. After searching the room thoroughly, he came out. Yun Xiaoxiao was still chatting with the man. Hu Songkai signaled to her to leave first.

Leaving Building 32, Yun Xiaoxiao hurriedly asked, “ErHu-ge, did you find any clues?”

Hu Songkai pulled out the photos and pamphlets from his pocket, saying, “The guy indeed hasn’t been here for a while. Take these back and have Lao He analyze them. He can calculate where he might be.”

“Calculate?”

“Yes, Lao He made the calculation, and all the criminals are done for.”

———

He Wei was in his office, with crime scene photos pinned on a whiteboard. He added the information he had obtained from Cheng Zesheng, fitting the scattered puzzle pieces into their rightful places, making the scene instantly more coherent.

“What are you studying? I’ve seen you stuck here for quite a while,” Chong Zhen walked in, handing him a bottle of soda along the way.

“It’s the mansion crime scene. I received some crucial information yesterday. We need to overturn and rebuild the case.”

“Is it from that informant again? Hey, what’s this? Where did these shoeprints come from?” Chong Zhen pointed at the color photocopy.

He Wei twisted open the soda and tapped the whiteboard with his index finger. “Tell me, doesn’t the scene look much clearer and more complete now?”

Chong Zhen rubbed his chin, becoming more fascinated the longer he looked. “The elusive third party we’ve been unable to find clues about. Now it seems that Cheng Zesheng went in with that someone, and he was also present during the shooting. But where did these shoe prints come from? Were they photographed at the scene?”

“Do you really want to know?” He Wei beckoned with a curled finger. “How about joining me for a visit to the mansion tonight?”

“…Can’t we do it during the day?”

He Wei shook his head. His first priority was undoubtedly experimenting with the time related to the apartment’s node. If it didn’t work out, he could try a different time later.

“Then you have to tell me what we’re going to do there,” Chong Zhen asked.

“We’re going to find Cheng Zesheng.”

“…,” Chong Zhen stood up, took hold of He Wei’s hand, and earnestly advised, “Lao He, listen to me. You should go to a temple, burn some incense, and ask for a protective charm. Dealing with cases is one thing, but being all mystical and superstitious all the time is quite unnerving.”

He Wei knocked his hand away and said bluntly. “I’m perfectly fine. Just tell me whether you’re coming or not.”

Chong Zhen was torn. Going to the crime scene for an investigation was one thing, but summoning spirits seemed to be crossing a line, right? Did they really need to find a professional medium or Taoist priest? What if they actually summoned something? The two of them wouldn’t be able to handle it.

“If you don’t want to go, that’s fine. I’ll go ask Lan-jie. She’d probably be happy to come along and see what’s going on…”

“Hey! What’s wrong with you? Lan-jie is a delicate woman. Do you have the heart to put her through that?” Chong Zhen grabbed He Wei’s collar, “Fine, I’ll go. But don’t bother Lan-jie. I’m a bit jealous, you know. If you keep looking for her, I’ll be jealous.”

He Wei was caught in his grip, stumbled a bit, and almost fell to the ground. He instinctively grabbed onto Chong Zhen’s clothes and furrowed his brows. “Stop using force when you talk. If you keep this up, I’ll report you for harassment.”

“As long as you stop bothering Lan-jie, I’ll accept being accused of harassment.”

As they were joking around, Zheng Youqing happened to be standing at the doorway, holding coffee and mousse cake for He Wei. Seeing their actions, her eyes shimmered with surprise.

Chong Zhen quickly released He Wei, raising his hands to show his innocence.

“Youqing, there’s a misunderstanding. I was just saying I’m jealous of Lan-jie. Lao He has a good relationship with her, and I don’t feel comfortable about it. I warned him to keep his distance from Lan-jie…” Chong Zhen explained, halfway through realizing that his words sounded strange, so he rephrased, “Actually, I don’t have any intentions towards Lao He. He’s a grown man, and he’s also a bit of a germophobe, right…”

Zheng Youqing intentionally huffed, “No need to explain. Love rival.”

“…”