Chapter 40: The Unfathomable Chen Yuan the Half-Immortal

Previous Chapter ∇ Table of Content ∇ Next Chapter

Chapter 40: The Unfathomable Chen Yuan the Half-Immortal

After getting into the car, Yu Shenliu called the city government to let them know that he and Chen Yuan were on their way over, giving them an explanation of sorts. Then he drove there at top speed.

Given the urgency of the situation, Yu Shenliu drove straight up to the government building.

As soon as they got out of the car, they saw the Party Secretary standing in front of the building. The moment he saw Yu Shenliu get out, he said, “Mayor Yu, you’re finally here!” He had personally come out to welcome him, which certainly showed Yu Shenliu a great deal of respect. If anything, he seemed to be lowering himself a little too much. But this was a serious matter. If Yulei City couldn’t resolve the case quickly and the suspect started roaming around committing more crimes, what would happen to the other areas? And if the case could be resolved quickly, that would also be a political achievement worth taking credit for among the leaders of Jincheng. So the Party Secretary was standing here for one simple reason: his own future was at stake.

Although he felt somewhat disgusted by it all, Yu Shenliu still had to keep a smile on his face. “Please rest assured, Party Secretary. This matter will be resolved very soon.”

He said it because he had complete confidence in Chen Yuan, but to everyone else, it sounded like he was making a firm guarantee. Some couldn’t help sneering inwardly. Yu Shenliu might have connections and ability, but was this really something he could casually guarantee? If he ended up getting dragged into the mess, things might not turn out so well.

The Party Secretary then turned his gaze to Chen Yuan, who had gotten out of the car on the other side, and put on a friendly smile. “You must be Master Chen? A pleasure to meet you!” His tone was polite as he extended his hand toward Chen Yuan to shake hands.

This way of doing things… at a time like this, they still had to exchange pleasantries. Chen Yuan muttered inwardly, but he wasn’t unreasonable enough to blurt it out. He merely gave a faint smile, took the other man’s hand, and shook it.

“Party Secretary, shouldn’t we resolve this matter as soon as possible?” Yu Shenliu interrupted. He didn’t particularly like this Party Secretary. When he had been sidelined back then, could this Party Secretary really have had nothing to do with it? This wasn’t merely a matter concerning the mayor. It was just that, in official circles, everyone had to maintain an outward appearance of harmony, which was why he kept up this attitude. Still, seeing this man he disliked holding Chen Yuan’s hand left him feeling a little uncomfortable.

“Mayor Yu is absolutely right!” The Party Secretary laughed heartily, smiling broadly. “Let’s go take a look at the photos sent over from Yulei City and identify the suspect first. I’ll be counting on you, Master Chen and Mayor Yu!”

Even now, the Party Secretary was still laying a trap. He was pushing the entire matter onto Yu Shenliu and Chen Yuan. If things didn’t work out, then the fault would all lie with the two of them. After all, although Chen Yuan’s reputation had spread widely recently, the more fantastical rumors the Party Secretary heard, the more he felt that Chen Yuan was simply fooling people with nothing more than psychological suggestion, ambiguous tricks, and the like. Other people had simply been too ignorant to see through the deception. Fooling him wouldn’t be so easy.

The Party Secretary was convinced that Chen Yuan was a fraud, while some of the people present genuinely trusted him. They were simply waiting for Chen Yuan to come to the rescue.

The group then headed to the office in a grand procession. Inside were the photographs of the various suspects that had just been faxed over from Yulei City. Qin Zui knew a little about how Chen Yuan read faces, so he had paid close attention to the color accuracy and details in the photographs. The resulting images were exceptionally clear.

“Master Chen, I’m counting on you.” The Party Secretary placed the stack of photographs in Chen Yuan’s hands, then gave his shoulder a firm pat, as though entrusting him with a great responsibility.

Yu Shenliu looked at the Party Secretary’s hand resting on Chen Yuan’s shoulder and found it extremely irritating.

This was the Party Secretary’s office. He sat down in his office chair, looking perfectly comfortable, but his eyes remained fixed on Chen Yuan. His expression seemed calm and peaceful, but beneath it was scrutiny and suspicion. An ordinary person would certainly feel uneasy under such a gaze, but Chen Yuan was completely unaffected. He sat down on the sofa, not with the usual half-perch that people adopted when sitting in front of a Party Secretary, but with his whole body leaning back against the sofa in an utterly relaxed and comfortable posture. Only after Chen Yuan had sat down did Yu Shenliu take a seat beside him.

Immediately, someone gave Yu Shenliu a subtle look. Surely not? Even if he was worried about his little half-immortal being pressured by the Party Secretary, there was no need to make it so obvious, was there? Were the two of them really that close?

Chen Yuan didn’t notice any of this. Some people eager to curry favor poured tea for the Party Secretary and Yu Shenliu, while others who idolized Chen Yuan poured tea for him. Not a single person in the room spoke. The atmosphere was somewhat tense. Almost everyone was staring at Chen Yuan, waiting for him to say something or make his judgment. Only Yu Shenliu quietly swept his gaze around the room, forcing most of those gazes away. Being watched like this created far too much psychological pressure, and he was worried that it might affect Chen Yuan.

In reality, however, these few glances could hardly affect Chen Yuan’s state of mind. He calmly studied the several photographs in his hands. After taking a few breaths and settling his mind, he began examining them.

Time was limited. It wasn’t particularly realistic to examine every person’s entire face, so Chen Yuan chose to focus on the parts of the faces in the photographs that were clearly significant. The photographs were two-dimensional, making it difficult to discern the contours and depth of their facial features, so he could only examine features that were visible even in a flat image. It was like when he had previously read Rong Yan’s face from a photograph: Chen Yuan had focused on two moles to make his judgment. But not everyone had moles, and this time, trying to make a judgment based on the positions of moles and the like wasn’t going to be so easy.

So Chen Yuan chose to examine the eyebrows.

Physiognomy was an enormous field of study. Every part of the human body could be read, including the hands, feet, bones, face, and even the elbows. Facial physiognomy had developed particularly extensively, with each of the five facial features able to be examined independently, each with its own complete system.

The ears were hard to see, while the nose and lips were difficult to judge in detail because the photograph was two-dimensional. The eyes also tended to be somewhat inaccurate when viewed without seeing the person in person. At a time like this, the eyebrows were the best choice.

In the first photograph, the person’s eyebrows grew in an inverted direction and were also very thick. People with eyebrows like these had poor family relationships, with siblings likely to die young, and their marriages and children would not go smoothly. But it had nothing to do with murder cases. Chen Yuan made a rough judgment and set the photograph aside.

Everyone saw Chen Yuan glance at the photograph and put it aside in less than two seconds, as though he were merely going through the motions. They couldn’t help being surprised. Even the Party Secretary was taken aback. Could this man be planning to just brush him off? But this wasn’t something they could simply bluff their way through.

Yu Shenliu, however, was completely confident and not worried in the slightest. Once the result came out, everyone would certainly be convinced.

In the second photograph, the person’s eyebrows drooped downward. He looked somewhat petty and narrow-minded, but people with drooping eyebrows were generally honest. If he had really committed a murder, it would be difficult to make sense of. So once again, Chen Yuan set the photograph aside.

The third person had sparse, clear eyebrows with a good shape. Unfortunately, compared with Yu Shenliu’s, these eyebrows were too short. In other words, although this person was blessed with good fortune, that fortune was limited. There wasn’t much connection to murder either. Chen Yuan shook his head and set the photograph aside.

The fourth photograph was of a woman with straight, horizontal eyebrows. Chen Yuan couldn’t quite understand why there would be a female suspect in a serial murder and dismemberment case, something that seemed like an unlikely crime for a woman to commit. But since they had sent her photograph over, he still took a look. Women with straight, horizontal eyebrows tended to have straightforward personalities and little flexibility, making them prone to offending others. At the same time, however, they were bold, driven, and capable of succeeding in their careers, with signs of marrying young. With such a straightforward personality, how could she possibly be the criminal behind a case this serious?

Chen Yuan tugged at the corner of his mouth and set the photograph down. The people around him had also caught sight of the woman’s photograph and looked somewhat surprised. They immediately understood why Chen Yuan had made such an expression.

He picked up the next photograph. The moment he glanced at it, Chen Yuan thought to himself: It’s him!

The person in the photograph Chen Yuan was holding had a pair of extremely short, thick eyebrows. They looked incredibly coarse, almost as though two poorly made brushes had been glued above his eyes. They didn’t look like human eyebrows at all and were jarringly out of place. Short and thick like brushes, devoid of vitality, with coarse, densely packed hairs, this type of eyebrow was a classic sign of someone who harbored deceit and wickedness in his heart, was unable to control himself when it came to relations between men and women, and had a volatile temperament that made him prone to getting into trouble.

More importantly, in facial physiognomy, the eyebrows were considered the ruler and the eyes the subjects. The eyebrows were said to play the greater role, but without the subjects carrying out their ruler’s will, the eyebrows could not accomplish much on their own. The moment Chen Yuan saw those eyebrows, his gaze instinctively dropped to the man’s eyes. They looked dull and vacant, almost numb, but on closer inspection, there was an inexplicable vicious glint in them, a viciousness born of such numbness that he seemed to regard everything as utterly inconsequential.

Chen Yuan set that photograph aside, then hurriedly flipped through the remaining ones. After confirming that none of the others had any major problems, he pushed that photograph forward. “This person is the murderer.” His tone was utterly certain, but the entire office fell into stunned silence, everyone looking at one another.

Had he made a mistake? He had merely glanced at the photograph and was already saying that the person in it was the murderer? Could this really be reliable? Even those who had heard their wives and others repeatedly say that Master Chen was extraordinary were starting to have doubts. It looked far too much like he was just going through the motions, making it difficult to believe him.

This was precisely why Chen Yuan usually liked to explain everything clearly to Yu Shenliu. When people watched him finish something so effortlessly, they assumed there was no real skill involved. In reality, it was like Sherlock Holmes’s habit of making rapid deductions. The skill involved in the process was far beyond what ordinary people could imagine, which made it look as though he were simply acting recklessly.

“Master Chen, would you like to take another look?” the Party Secretary couldn’t help asking. If they arrested the wrong person and a claim for state compensation was filed, it wouldn’t be something they could easily deal with. Responsibility would have to be assigned to everyone involved. Chen Yuan wasn’t a government official, so he had nothing to worry about, but they certainly did.

Chen Yuan slowly shook his head. “It’s him. There’s no need to worry. There won’t be a problem.”

Chen Yuan assured him repeatedly, but the Party Secretary still couldn’t put his mind at ease. He asked again and again, wasting half the afternoon before finally hesitantly notifying Yulei City that this person was “probably” the murderer.

It wasn’t long before Yulei City sent back a response.

Not long before this, the one-day detention period had already expired, so they had no choice but to release everyone under suspicion. The others were no problem, but the man Chen Yuan had singled out had fled and disappeared without a trace. After Chen Yuan’s conclusion was sent over, Mayor Qin insisted that the police search the man’s residence, even though doing so meant risking punishment for everyone involved if they had arrested the wrong person. There, they found some human body parts that had not yet been disposed of.

The difference of just a little time had allowed the murderer in this serial murder and dismemberment case to escape.

The fact that the municipal government had insisted on having everyone come to the government offices to look at the photographs had inevitably contributed to this. So had the Party Secretary’s repeated questioning just now, which had wasted precious time. It was just that no one dared say so out loud.

As for Yu Shenliu, he held the Party Secretary in even lower regard now. That kind of behavior was simply…

Once they received the news, everyone except Chen Yuan himself and Yu Shenliu, who had always firmly believed in him, stared at Chen Yuan in utter astonishment.

Was this a joke? He had really managed to identify the murderer just by casually glancing at the photographs a few times? What had looked like nothing more than a perfunctory gesture had actually been that incredible?

This wasn’t scientific at all!

Previous Chapter ∇ Table of Content ∇ Next Chapter