Chapter 39: Using Physiognomy to Find a Murderer Is Absurd

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Chapter 39: Using Physiognomy to Find a Murderer Is Absurd

Chen Yuan had become quite famous in Jincheng, at least in the area around Yu Shenliu’s home. Ask anyone living nearby, and who didn’t know that there was a “Chen the Half-Immortal” somewhere around? He could read fortunes, faces, palms, and characters, and he knew his way around feng shui too. Unfortunately, he only worked half a day each day, took weekends off, and if the weather was nice, he might even go out for a picnic or an outing. So getting him to do a reading was no easy task. Even so, the queue of people waiting to have Chen the Half-Immortal tell their fortunes had already stretched half a year into the future.

Actually, Chen Yuan had experienced this kind of situation before. It had taken him many years of hard work, from childhood onward, to reach that level back then. Yet after doing the city government a favor, he had effortlessly unlocked the achievement of becoming “famous throughout Jincheng.”

Even Chen Yuan couldn’t help sighing. No wonder so many people had once scrambled to do business with the government. Look at it: the money came quickly, they were easy to fool, and you got to make a name for yourself too, didn’t you? In the eyes of many people, wasn’t the city government basically just a bunch of idiots with money to burn?

Still, it was Yu Shenliu’s workplace, so Chen Yuan didn’t say anything.

Chen Yuan continued living his leisurely little life at his own pace. Every time Yu Shenliu saw him, he couldn’t help feeling positively green with envy. As Yu Shenliu gained more and more real power, his workload also continued to increase.

Finally, evening came. There was no overtime or meeting tonight, so Yu Shenliu sat together with Chen Yuan. One of them read documents while the other read a book, and the atmosphere was peaceful and relaxed.

Just then, completely ruining the mood, Yu Shenliu’s phone rang.

He glanced at the name displayed on the screen and pursed his lips, but then his expression turned into a smile as he answered the call.

“Hello, Party Secretary! It’s rather late. Is there some important matter?” He really did know how to talk. Rather than impatiently asking why the Party Secretary was calling, he asked whether there was some important matter. Still, somehow, there was a subtle hint of sarcasm in the way he said it. Or perhaps that was just an illusion.

Chen Yuan looked up at Yu Shenliu. It was already nighttime, yet someone was still calling him? It seemed that the saying about government officials being busy really wasn’t an exaggeration. It wasn’t as though they were all busy spending their nights in saunas and nightclubs.

Listening to the voice on the other end, Yu Shenliu frowned slightly. “Yulei City?” Was that from Qin Zui’s side?

“Mm, all right. I understand. I’ll go ask him right away. If there’s no problem, I’ll be there shortly. Keep in touch.” After saying that, Yu Shenliu hung up, but before he could say anything, his phone rang again. He had no choice but to answer it once more.

“Hello, Mayor Qin?” This time, the call was from Qin Zui.

“Mm, mm, I know. The Party Secretary just told me.” Although his tone remained pleasant, Chen Yuan could clearly see the displeasure on Yu Shenliu’s face.

“All right, I understand. It’s a matter of life and death. But this isn’t my responsibility. If I can help, I certainly will, all right?”

“As soon as possible. Yes, as soon as possible. All right. Goodbye.” After hanging up once again, Yu Shenliu pressed a hand to his forehead, looking like he had a terrible headache.

Seeing him like this, Chen Yuan glanced at the page number, set his book down, and finally asked, “What’s wrong?”

Yu Shenliu lowered his hand and looked steadily at Chen Yuan. After a long while, he sighed and began explaining the situation. “You remember Qin Zui, right? The one whose wife is quite the capable woman.” If Qin Zui knew that Yu Shenliu’s assessment of him had already been reduced to praising his wife, who knew whether he would be pleased to have such a capable wife or embarrassed that, in other people’s eyes, she had left a deeper impression than he had.

Chen Yuan nodded to show that he remembered. After all, he had met Qin Zui several times in a row, especially his wife. She had certainly left a deep impression. She was absolutely the kind of woman who brought good fortune to her husband.

“There’s been a problem in Yulei City. There’s been a serial murder and dismemberment case.” At this, Yu Shenliu couldn’t help sighing again. Compared with most countries, Huaxia was a civilized and powerful nation, and its crime rate was extremely low. But a low crime rate didn’t mean there would never be major cases. Once a murder case like this came to light, it would no longer be a matter of shocking the entire country. Even foreign countries would be watching. After all, this was a blemish on the superpower that was modern-day Huaxia, giving them another opportunity to boast about how other countries had problems every day while everything was supposedly perfect in their own country. Everyone could wash up and go to bed, couldn’t they?

The case had already happened, so there was nothing more to say about that. The priority was to find the murderer. But Qin Zui, who had been pushed forward by a group of people to take responsibility for the matter, was under tremendous pressure. Although this wasn’t his area of responsibility, the deputy mayor in charge of it was part of the same faction as him. If something happened to that man, Qin Zui wouldn’t escape unscathed either. He might even be sidelined. Yu Shenliu had experienced that kind of situation before, so he naturally knew how unpleasant it was. No wonder Qin Zui had acted the way he had.

“And then?” Logically speaking, no matter how serious the case was, it should still be Yulei City’s own affair. So how had it ended up in front of Yu Shenliu? Chen Yuan was a little puzzled. He turned his head, then silently recited the Rebirth Mantra in his heart.

“Qin Zui’s side has already narrowed it down to several suspects. They’ve basically determined that one of these people committed the crime.”

Wouldn’t that mean the case was practically solved? If they had already identified the suspects, couldn’t they just arrest them? Chen Yuan didn’t quite understand why Yu Shenliu was continuing.

When he got to this part, Yu Shenliu wore an utterly helpless expression. “Our country’s laws stipulate that detention cannot exceed one day, and suspects cannot be subjected to torture during interrogation. So the people who were initially detained have to be released after one day. But then there’s another problem. The state also prohibits tracking or monitoring citizens in order to protect their right to privacy.”

Chen Yuan finally understood. “You mean that if they can’t figure out who the murderer is within a day, they have no choice but to let them go? And just let them destroy the evidence or flee?” This was seriously frustrating. If this had been in the past… people could die while playing hide-and-seek or taking a bath. Wouldn’t a situation like this have been solved in minutes?

Yu Shenliu could only shrug. “The law is paramount, and human rights come first. There have been cases before where, after suspects were released from detention, law enforcement officers happened to discover someone destroying evidence, so they arrested them and eventually found the murderer. But even though the murderer was brought to justice, the excuse of having ‘happened to discover’ them was rejected, and all the personnel involved ended up stepping down.”

“So Qin Zui was left with no choice and had to ask us for help.”

Ask us for help? Chen Yuan found that strange. They were looking for a murderer, yet they had come to Yu Shenliu for help.

At this point, Yu Shenliu began to sound a little hesitant. “What he means is… he hopes you can look at photos of the suspects and help identify the murderer. The municipal Party Secretary asked as well, so now both of them have come to me.”

“Huh?” Chen Yuan was dumbfounded.

If this had been ancient times, some scholar would have stood up and declared that this was utterly absurd. Finding criminals was clearly the government’s responsibility. It should be left to an upright magistrate, a coroner, and the constables. How could they leave it to a fortune-teller? It was a disgrace to scholarship and completely improper.

Even in this day and age, something like this was simply too bizarre. They wanted to catch a murderer, yet they had actually gone to Chen Yuan to have him read the suspects’ faces?

And yet, that was exactly what happened. There was nothing they could do about it. Everyone was at a loss, and under Huaxia’s legal system, if they wanted to resolve the case as quickly as possible, it seemed that aside from seeking out someone like Chen Yuan with extraordinary abilities, they really had no other options.

What else could they do? If they couldn’t solve the murder case, everyone would suffer the consequences. Desperate times called for desperate measures. So a group of people formally asked the Jincheng municipal government to assist with the investigation. The implication was clear: Please ask that master to lend a hand. As for the price, they could name it. As long as he could resolve the matter, money was no issue.

Seeing the expression on Chen Yuan’s face, Yu Shenliu felt a little awkward himself. Saying something like this out loud really was absurd. On the other hand, although Qin Zui and the municipal Party Secretary had both come to him asking for Chen Yuan’s help, their thinking was that, given how close the two of them were, what belonged to one belonged to the other. They were practically one and the same. If Chen Yuan really accomplished something, Yu Shenliu would benefit from it too, wouldn’t he?

But Yu Shenliu knew perfectly well that, from Chen Yuan’s perspective, he was at most his landlord and a friend. If he asked Chen Yuan for help and Chen Yuan was willing to do it, that was Chen Yuan doing him a favor. If he refused, Yu Shenliu couldn’t force him. Besides, Yu Shenliu had his own little ulterior motives that he couldn’t exactly talk about. What if Chen Yuan found out that everyone else had been treating them as lovers? What would happen then?

“If you don’t want to go, I’ll turn them down for you.” Although Yu Shenliu very much wanted Chen Yuan to help, he understood his own position even better. No matter how others might see it, if he were to unilaterally insist that Chen Yuan go help them right away, he’d be getting a little too full of himself.

“No, no.” Chen Yuan shook his head. Having to find a murderer like this was indeed a little too absurd. But someone who had committed a serial murder and dismemberment case could cause who knew how much trouble if they escaped. If he could help catch them sooner, that would count as doing a good deed. So Chen Yuan gave Yu Shenliu a firm answer. “The usual fee applies. Where are the photos?”

An awkward expression appeared on Yu Shenliu’s face again.

“To save time, I would have preferred for them to send the photos over the Internet immediately. But once something involves the municipal governments of two cities, things aren’t that simple anymore. We have to go to the municipal government and look at the photos they send over by fax in person. Their reasoning is that this is the proper procedure. It also prevents a situation where, if the photos are sent by computer and something goes wrong, someone could simply delete the photos and there would be no evidence left.”

Chen Yuan was completely speechless. They could go so far as to find a fortune-teller like him to identify a murderer by reading faces, something that was already so far outside “proper procedure,” yet they still had to be so particular about “procedure” along the way. Although Huaxia was far more advanced than his previous world in terms of its laws, national strength, and so on, when it came to this kind of bureaucratic wrangling, it was practically exactly the same!

Chen Yuan stood up and grabbed Yu Shenliu. “Let’s go. Drive. The sooner we get there, the better. We can’t drag this out any longer.”

Yu Shenliu also knew these people weren’t exactly being reasonable, but they were still technically on the same side, so it wasn’t his place to say anything. Since Chen Yuan hadn’t brought it up, he was relieved. He grabbed his car keys, and the two of them hurried downstairs. Without another word, they got in the car and headed for the municipal government.

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