CH 55.2

A swollen scalp with hair attached to it was all he could get out of the sewer.

Attached to the scalp was a mass of rotting debris, which had blocked the drain because of the long soaking and swelling.

The hair was also thin and long, corresponding with the hair at the mouth of the sewer.

The crayon-faced woman had been leaning against the doorframe as she watched Bai Lixin wasn’t afraid when she saw the tangled scalp. She just came up and looked at the hair carefully with dark eyes.

“So it was her hair. What bad luck. She died and won’t let us be in peace. I thought the man was cheating.”

The woman’s tone was nonchalant, “Look again, see if there’s anything else.”

Bai Lixin placed the scalp on the stained floor, “This is human hair and scalp. Why aren’t you scared at all?”

The woman put her hands on her waist. “What do I have to be afraid of? Everyone has to die. It’s not like I killed her.”

She pointed to the place next door and began to speak in a righteous tone, “Do you know why we are the only family left in this building? We would have moved too if we had money. The person next door died six months ago.”

The woman lowered her voice, her red crayon mouth opening and closing like she had eaten a child. “It was a woman who died, a single mother to a boy and a girl.”

” I don’t know who killed her. The police haven’t solved the case so far. The woman was shredded and broken into very, very small pieces, and the body parts were flushed down the toilet.”

Perhaps the woman’s voice was too eerie, but the little doll head in Bai Lixin’s arms frowned tightly and its features squeezed together, looking like it was about to cry out.

Seeing this, Bai Lixin took off a rubber glove and patted the doll’s head soothingly.

Feeling the familiar scent, the doll head immediately loosened its tight frown. The brow smoothed out, and he went back to sleep.

The woman didn’t seem to have any curiosity towards the doll head.

While soothing the doll head, Bai Lixin asked the woman, “How was the body found later? The two children called the police?”

The woman paused for two seconds, then she shuddered as if she remembered something terrible. “Evil came upon us. It was the two children’s teacher who noticed that something was wrong.”

“The two children were twins, so they were in the same class. They brought boxed lunches to school every day during that time, but the boxed lunches always smelled pungent and foul, like something rotting.”

“Some students and parents responded to the class teacher, who called the two children to her. It was discovered that it wasn’t just the boxed lunch that was emitting the foul smell, but also the clothes and bodies of the two children.”

“It was then that the teacher felt something was wrong and asked them who had prepared all the lunch boxes.”

“And guess what?”

Bai Lixin: “I take it that the two kids said that their mother had prepared the lunchboxes?”

The woman paused for a couple of seconds, and a curse escaped from the corner of her mouth, “You’re no fun. That’s right, both kids said that their mum made the lunchboxes, washed their clothes, and gave them baths.”

“The class teacher didn’t think much of it at the time, thinking it was a parental prank. She followed the children home that day and made a home visit.”

“As soon as they got home, she saw two children calling out ” mom” to the air.”

“The class teacher was so scared that she peed herself and she called the police before she fainted from shock.”

Bai Lixin looked at the scalp with hair on the floor, “But you guys didn’t find anything? Like the smell of a corpse or something.”

“We’re in a slum, stenches come up all the time,” the woman sighed, “who could think of that? We all don’t know each other well, and we don’t see each other often. All we know is that there’s only one mother with two kids in that house. The two kids went to school on time every day, so we thought that the adult was fine.”

“It was only when the police came to investigate that we realised the stench we had been smelling at that time was actually the smell of corpses. The police searched the sewers for a long time and couldn’t put all of her together. The police told us before they left that if the residents found any more body parts of the victim, we should contact them in time.”

The woman tapped her head, “Right, I need to call the police station quickly. There should be a reward for finding the body parts.”

Bai Lixin stopped her, “When did the police say the victim was killed?”

The woman stopped in her tracks. “She died six months ago and the body has been soaking in the gutter.”

Bai Lixin and Dijia looked at each other.

Dijia asked in a deep voice, “Having died six months ago, where is the person who cooked for the two children? Where are those two children now?”

The woman said, “Didn’t I just say that? The two children said that their mother has been there for the past six months and that she cooked the food. But I have seen them picking up rotten vegetable leaves from the market.”

“I don’t believe in *gods and ghosts. Those two children are not too young nor too old. They’re both quite close and they feared that they’d be sent to the orphanage and separated once the mother’s death is found out and that’s why they told such big lies.”

“But kids are kids, and if the police had been called earlier, they might have been able to find more clues. Now six months have passed and all the clues that should have been there are gone.”

“The two were sent to the orphanage once the police found out that the mother had been killed. But I’ve heard that they’re not doing well in the orphanage. You know what the gossip is like? Everyone said they were cursed and didn’t play with them. So they were isolated.”

Bai Lixin stared at the creepy crayon face, “……”

You don’t believe in gods and ghosts?

Don’t you need to look in the mirror before you say that?

Don’t you know that you already look like a ghost?

The woman sighed, walked over to the phone, and started dialing for the police.

In the dark and dirty bathroom, Bai Lixin looked at the scalp and asked, “What do you think about the cooking part?”

Dijia, “I don’t think the kids lied.”

Bai Lixin took the rusty pocket watch out of the system backpack just as the woman hung up the phone. She moved towards them, her steps brisk and seemingly in a good mood. “I just asked, this scalp can be exchanged for ten yuan. Great, we’ll have food for the week.”

“Was this the family next door?” Bai Lixin opened the pocket watch and held it up to the woman.

The woman’s black eyes looked away, and her tone was suddenly guarded, “Who the hell are you people? How come you have their stuff?”

Bai Lixin calmly pointed to the sewer, “I pulled it out just now. I heard you say it was a mother with a boy and a girl, and this picture happened to have a woman with a boy and a girl, so I thought it might be them.”

The woman relaxed. “So that’s how it is. Yes, it is them.”

Bai Lixin observed the woman without moving, “The picture is blurred, but you can still see that the woman is beautiful.”

The woman smiled disdainfully, “Beautiful? Just a vixen that hooks up with men. I think it was because of her indiscretion that her lover killed by her.”

Bai Lixin put away the pocket watch “The murderer hasn’t even been found yet, so why are you so sure?”

“Why? Because she lives next door to me. Do you think I can’t hear what’s going on next door just because there is a wall? The sounds are so loud.”

“Have you seen the man?”

The woman said, “Not really. The other man was quite secretive and I never caught him. And it’s not always one man, I’ve seen that vixen flirting with men in this corridor several times, even old men in their seventies. She has no shame, and she’s not afraid that her children might get some kind of disease.”