Chapter 72: The Bizarre Truth (Part 2)

  After Tan Rongjie finished describing Chen Baotang's death, he looked at Liu Li with some confusion and asked: "There is one thing that I am quite puzzled about. There were several employees in the crematorium, why did you lock onto me? If I hadn't come here tonight, would you still have targeted me?"

  "Even if you hadn't come here tonight, we would still have made you the focus of our investigation. Apart from your disappearance that night with a 'hulu' sound, you also revealed another flaw."

  At this point, Liu Li paused for a moment and then continued: "At first, I was suspicious of you, but I wasn't quite sure. Yesterday afternoon, after asking about your respective itineraries, I had the five of you go to the funeral parlor to compare footprints... Hehe... actually, that footprint was one I left in the hall of the funeral parlor.

  At that time, I told you that the footprint was left by the black shadow, and then directly told you that the black shadow was among the five of you. The purpose of doing so was to create a psychological hint in your minds, making the black shadow think that it had made a mistake in its midnight movements.

  "After I've done all this, I'll let the five of you go to the funeral parlor again. Then, from behind, I'll observe the route each of you takes to get there, because I want to see who will choose the road that leads to the crematorium's entrance."

  When Liu Li said this, Tan Rongjie couldn't help but interrupt: "At that time, I was the only one who chose that road. Although it was the farthest from the funeral home among the three roads, the road surface was very flat and many people would walk there. Is there a problem with this too?"

  "There's a problem." After the words fell, Tan Rongjie still looked somewhat puzzled, and Liu Li explained: "The night we found the black shadow, the black shadow took the route from the office area to the memorial hall.

  When we heard the footsteps and followed the black shadow, we chose to take the road in the green area. Afterwards, the black shadow discovered our trail and escaped into the funeral home. I've studied criminal psychology, which has a topic called "escape suggestive psychology".

  This avoidance implies a psychological meaning, similar to the common saying "a guilty conscience," and can be illustrated with a simple example. After committing a crime, someone escapes from police encirclement, and afterwards, no matter where they hide or what position they are in, as soon as they see a policeman or hear a siren, they will produce an avoidance psychology.

  Here is the translation:

  Let's take another example, a thief stole 100 yuan in a supermarket. After that, if someone tells the thief about the theft in the supermarket, at this time, the thief's psychology will produce an avoidance mentality. He will subconsciously change the subject or express to others that he has a lot of money in some way, hoping that the other party will not associate himself with the thief.

  These are all human subconscious psychological activities. Unless you have received special training, it is impossible to conceal such emotions. You chose the road of the memorial hall that night, and when we tracked you down, we took the green belt road.

  After I pointed out the black shadow's weakness, you subconsciously chose the road to the crematorium gate in order not to arouse others' suspicion. This is because only the road to the crematorium gate has nothing to do with what happened after you sneaked into the crematorium. Your avoidance psychology led you to choose this route.

  When I saw the route you chose, I had already determined that you were the black shadow. In order to catch you in the act and obtain evidence, when my colleague called me at that time, I deliberately didn't answer, then calculated the time and rushed to the front of the funeral home, because I knew that colleague would continue to call me again.

  This is exactly what I wanted, because I need to find an excuse to delay the comparison of footprints. That's why I did this, in order to leave you with hope. As expected, just as I arrived at the funeral parlor entrance, my colleague's phone call came again.

  I answered the phone in front of several of you, then borrowed an excuse that something urgent came up and needed to leave, suspending the work of comparing footprints. After I returned to the unit and finished my work, I quietly called Manager Yang and told him to wait for us at night, hiding with us beside the funeral home to watch the show.

  Because I knew you would come here to destroy the evidence before comparing footprints, and indeed, my guess was correct. Although I already suspected you, there is one thing that I don't quite understand.

  Now that you've already moved Xiaohui's body, why did you still go back to the funeral home at dawn the next day? If you hadn't sneaked into the crematorium that time, perhaps we wouldn't have been able to pinpoint you.

  After hearing this, Tan Rongjie sighed: "After hiding Xiaohui's body, I deliberately put Xiaohui's fingerprints on the outside of the original freezer and opened it halfway. The purpose was to create an illusion, making people think that Old Chen encountered some kind of paranormal phenomenon in the morgue and was scared to death."

  Although everything was done perfectly, there was still a flaw in one detail, which was the second freezer that stored Xiaohui's body. On that day, I randomly found a freezer to store Xiaohui's body and didn't put any signs on the outside.

  Others may not understand the indicator lights on the freezer, but if Dong Chengjin, who is in charge of managing the morgue, enters the morgue, he will definitely find something unusual, because the empty freezers and those with corpses inside have different indicator lights.

  To be on the safe side, I decided to sneak into the morgue under the cover of night and move Xiaohui's body slightly. As I often assist forensic doctors in autopsies and am responsible for returning the dissected bodies to their original positions afterwards, I knew that two of the corpses in the freezer were incomplete.

  I plan to put those two incomplete corpses together, so that an ice cabinet will be empty. If I put Xiaohui's corpse in that ice cabinet, as long as I don't say anything, no one can find Xiaohui's corpse.

  Yesterday, in the early hours of the morning, I rushed to the crematorium and first took a look inside the office area. Seeing that the lights were already off, I walked along the memorial hall road towards the funeral building. However, I didn't expect that when I reached the entrance of the funeral building, I heard a voice behind me.

  I turned around and saw you and the police officer getting up, seeing this place, I was so scared that I quickly hid in the funeral home. Because I am familiar with the structure inside, I know that there are not many places to hide, so after thinking for a moment, I hid in an ice cabinet in the morgue.

  After you left, I moved Xiaohui's body to a new freezer. After finishing this, I quietly returned home. Later, Manager Yang asked me to report to the unit and said there was something important.

  I thought coming here was just a formality, but when you mentioned that there was a black shadow left in the funeral parlor with footprints, I suddenly panicked. When you asked everyone to compare footprints, I was scared to death.

  But unexpectedly, when you arrived at the funeral parlor door, your phone rang. After hanging up the phone, you actually suspended the comparison of footprints. Seeing this, I really breathed a sigh of relief in my heart, thinking that God still favored me and let me temporarily avoid disaster.

  I went to the city today and bought a pair of small-sized rubber-soled shoes, waited patiently until late at night, and came here quietly, wanting to exchange that shoe print. As for what happened next, you already know, so I won't say any more.

  Alas... A moment of indulgence, a lifetime of happiness destroyed. I wish all this were just a dream, I wish that when I open my eyes again, everything could start anew. I regret it... but unfortunately, it's too late for regrets..."