As soon as I turned over, I pinned Xiaotao under my body, "I don't believe we would be that unlucky. We’re now in a small county town in the northwest. Would the murderer who’s been dormant for twenty years start committing crimes again?"

Xiaotao turned over, reversed our positions and placed her finger against my lips. "That may not be true. You shouldn’t speak about certain things!"

I pulled out my cell phone and placed it on the bed. "Look, it's so quiet at the moment, just like a cat. It’s not going to disturb its owner!"

Xiaotao poked my forehead with her finger, "Are you going to get down to business? You’re going to regret it when Wang Yuanchao returns."

When the phone suddenly rang, my heart sank. "It can't be." It turned out to be an annoying salesman. The man went on and on about a sales promotion, so I couldn't get a word in.

Smiling mischievously, Xiaotao suddenly moaned. The person on the other end of the phone paused and asked, "Sir, are you busy right now?"

I lowered my voice, "Yes, you’re interrupting me."

"Oh, I’m sorry!"

Upon hanging up, Xiaotao and I laughed. Just as we were about to proceed, the cell phone rang. Xiaotao and I exchanged a look of consternation. Pulling out her cell phone from her pocket, she put it next to her ear.

There was pin-drop silence in the room so I could hear the fat officer’s voice from the other end of the line. He reported that a dead woman had been found in a school playground. Since it was difficult to explain over the phone, he hoped we could drop by.

Xiaotao immediately agreed. The ambiguous atmosphere in the room was swept away and we switched back to work instantly.

After getting dressed, we left the hotel, hailed a cab and informed Song Xingchen, Bingxin and Wang Yuanchao on our way there. I thought the address that the fat officer sent was rather familiar. It turned out to be Liangchuan No.3 Middle School.

When I arrived at the scene, there were already many officers in the playground. Fortunately, this was the weekend so there were no students around.

The fat officer led us past the cordon. When I saw the sandals on the dead woman's feet, I was shocked. These were the exact ones Shen Lijuan wore. I immediately lifted the white sheet covering the dead woman. Although it wasn’t Shen Lijuan, I gasped.

The victim was a young woman in her early twenties. Her head swollen black and blue, a clear sign she had been strangled. There were bright red wounds all over her naked body–her chest, neck, and waist had missing skin.

I slowly lifted the sheet and found that some flesh had been cut off from her legs. There was blood seeping between her legs and a layer of lubricating oil that had solidified.

For a moment, I couldn’t speak, though inside, I kept repeating, It’s impossible. Impossible!

The MO was exactly the same as the murders that happened twenty years ago. Was he back again?

"Consultant Song! Consultant Song!"

I realized the fat officer was calling me.

"Do you think this is the work of a copycat, or did Ma Sanyou do this?" he asked.

I shook my head, "Bring me a pair of rubber gloves!"

Right then, Bingxin and the others arrived. I asked Bingxin for help with the autopsy. The victim was about twenty-three years old, and the time of death was eight hours ago. The cause of death was strangulation. There was a brown scar on her throat and areas of subcutaneous bleeding around the scar. The cartilage in her throat had been broken.

Upon listening with the Echolocation Rod, I found her lungs contracted, which was consistent with the characteristics of suffocation. The victim’s spleen and liver showed signs of bleeding, which seemed to have been impacted by external force. Additionally, I heard noise that indicated spinal damage so I asked Bingxin to turn the body upside down. Only then did we notice that a large piece of skin was missing from the middle of the victim’s back. It was shaped like a shoe, and the exposed flesh and blood was stained with grass and dust.

I felt her back with my fingers and found signs of a spinal fracture. The murderer most likely stepped on the victim’s back, then strangled her with a weapon such as nylon rope. The victim couldn’t resist or scratch the murderer.

Listening carefully, I also noticed signs of dislocation in the seventh vertebrae. I mused, "There are two points of attack."

"What does this mean?" Bingxin asked.

"It means that the murderer paused during the murder."

Bingxin pointed to the edge of the missing skin, "Should we check if it was removed antemortem or postmortem?"

I shook my head, "No need, it’s definitely postmortem. The murderer had the habit of removing all the skin parts that he left marks on." Running my fingers over the edge of the wound, I said, "The cut is neat and clean, so it was done in one go. From the angle, it appears that the murderer is left-handed?"

I widened my eyes in shock.

"Song Yang-gege, what’s wrong?" cried Bingxin.

"The murderer on file was right-handed!" interjected Xiaotao.

"Yes, all nine murders were committed by a right-handed man,” I said. “This is strange."

"It looks like a copycat. I can't understand why people worship criminals,” Bingxin puzzled.

I waved my hand, "Let’s not rush to conclusions. We’ll look elsewhere."

The dominant hand was an important clue, but after 20 years, the murderer could have completely changed that.

At the moment, my thoughts were contradictory. I hoped it was the same murderer because I wanted to bring him to justice. But at the same time, if it was really him, Grandpa’s concessions would be meaningless!

More importantly, if he was arrested, news of Grandpa’s deals with criminals would be made public.

I cast aside these thoughts and continued with the autopsy.

I observed the edge of the wound with Cave Vision. Judging from the incision pattern and the shape of the wound, the weapon was a wide-base dagger more than a foot long.

Before turning the body over, I asked Bingxin to extract the stones, sand grains and grass from the victim’s back. This was the basis for judging whether this was the murder or dump site. Additionally, I made her take some blood samples.

For a while, I stared at the victim’s face. At the moment of death, her face was frozen in extreme panic and despair. I picked up her hand and found soil under her fingernails which seemed to be caused by an intense struggle.

The scene played in my head. Like a predator, the seasoned murderer approached silently from behind, placed a rope around the victim’s neck, stomped on her back, and knocked her down to the ground, strangling her till she suffocated to death.

The scene made me shudder. Murder was an extremely antisocial behavior that went against one’s instincts, unlike other skills which could be repeatedly practiced and tempered.

This was definitely not the first crime for a murderer with such skill and composure.

Xiaotao suddenly pointed to the victim's ear. Her earring was missing on one side and showed obvious signs of having been pulled off. I removed the other earring and placed it in an evidence bag.

"Could it be him?" Xiaotao asked.

I gulped, unaware of how to answer.