Chapter 139: Heart Knot
Chapter 139: Heart Knot
Upon hearing Chen Chuan's instructions, Wang Gan Shi's entire body tensed up. He immediately ordered the driver to stop the car and then leaned out of the window, shouting commands while pointing at the bald man they had seen earlier.
The members of the Security Bureau team became excited, as they had been patrolling for so long and were getting restless. Finally, they had found their target, and in an instant, they jumped out of the car and rushed to pin the man to the ground.
The bald man was both surprised and angry. He struggled and shouted, "What are you doing? Who are you? Let me go!"
One of the Security Bureau members glared at him and said, "You know what you've done, don't you?"
The bald man looked bewildered.
Chen Chuan witnessed this scene and said to Wang Gan Shi, "There's no need to be so rough. He's probably just someone who got infected by the butterfly tattoo, not our real target."
At this moment, the second self's ethereal state was very subtle, indicating that this person was likely not the source.
However, Wang Gan Shi still felt uneasy. "Chen Expert..." He glanced outside, then tentatively asked, "What if these people..."
Chen Chuan reassured him, "Don't worry. Ghost stories aren't spread through typical infection methods. Otherwise, a county this size would have heard about it by now."
In fact, after circling around for a while, they hadn't found anyone like this, which was a good thing. It meant the ghost story hadn't spread widely yet, and those with the tattoo probably had it for some special reason.
Wang Gan Shi finally relaxed, but he didn't get out of the car. Instead, he instructed the Security Bureau members, "Drag him into the car and check if he has any tattoos."
The Security Bureau members immediately dragged the bald man into the car for inspection. Indeed, they found a butterfly tattoo on his back, which startled everyone. One of the members ran over and exclaimed, "Wang Gan Shi, it's there! It's really there!"
Wang Gan Shi quickly turned to Chen Chuan.
Chen Chuan said, "Ask him where he went just now and where he's been these past few days."
Wang Gan Shi was relentless, repeating the question to the member and then to Chen Chuan, "Chen Expert, these Security Bureau brothers are the best at questioning."
Chen Chuan nodded and said, "Make sure it's the truth."
Wang Gan Shi coughed and replied, "Yes, it will be the truth." After a moment's thought, he added, "I'll go down and check."
After a while, Wang Gan Shi returned and said, "Chen Expert, I asked..." Knowing that Chen Chuan wasn't familiar with the area, he held up a map, marking the locations, "Chen Expert, this person has been to these places..."
Chen Chuan examined the map and compared it with the previous routes taken by those with the butterfly tattoos. Of course, this was only to confirm the locations within the past few days, as anything earlier was impossible to trace.
He circled the overlapping areas, marking a specific range, and tapped the map with his pen. "Let's go to this area."
Wang Gan Shi looked at the map, his face changing slightly. He noticed a station at the center of the area and worriedly asked, "What if they came from somewhere else?"
If that were the case, the search area would be much larger.
Chen Chuan said, "Not necessarily. Let's take a closer look first."
"What about the person we caught earlier?"
Chen Chuan replied, "Let's take him along for now."
In most cases, once the source of a ghost story was dealt with, the remaining people would likely be unaffected, or at least not significantly. However, some might still be influenced, and there was nothing Chen Chuan could do about that. All he could do was find the source as quickly as possible and eliminate it to prevent more people from being affected.
"Okay."
Wang Gan Shi returned to the car and instructed the driver to head towards the location. The Security Bureau vehicles followed, with the bald man in tow.
Since the location wasn't far, they arrived in less than a few minutes.
This time, as soon as they arrived, Chen Chuan noticed something. The second self's ethereal shadow had changed again, and he pointed to a man standing by the roadside, holding a briefcase and about to read a newspaper. "That's the person."
Wang Gan Shi didn't need to be told twice. He quickly got out of the car and ordered the Security Bureau members to apprehend the man. The man struggled, but he was eventually dragged into the car by his collar.
After a while, Wang Gan Shi returned, looking puzzled. "Chen Expert, I checked, but this person doesn't seem to have the butterfly tattoo."
Chen Chuan said, "Not having it on the body doesn't mean it's not inside the organs."
Wang Gan Shi shuddered at this and said, "I'll go ask him again."
Chen Chuan thought for a moment and said, "I'll go with you." He got out of the car and started walking towards the back, but after only two steps, he slowed down.
He looked at the second self and noticed more subtle ethereal changes.
Wait, there's more! He looked around. The Security Bureau's earlier capture had scared off many pedestrians, and now, aside from their group, there was no one else around.
He looked up, but there were no tall buildings nearby, only a few flying birds. He lowered his gaze to the street and finally fixed his attention on a manhole cover. Underneath it...
He walked over and spoke to Wang Gan Shi, who was taken aback. "Are you sure, Chen Expert?"
Chen Chuan nodded.
Wang Gan Shi hesitated, then said, "Okay, I'll make the arrangements." He searched and found a nearby shop with a phone, making a call.
Within half an hour, municipal maintenance workers arrived and opened the manhole cover. They went inside to investigate, and after another hour, they pulled out a bloated, rotten, greenish-black corpse, covered in writhing worms.
The security officers, despite wearing masks, were overcome by the sight and stench, and they rushed to the side to vomit.
Chen Chuan requested a pair of gloves and approached the scene, calmly observing the body. He searched through the corpse's clothing and eventually found a discolored, swollen knot.
As he held the knot, his body's ethereal signs intensified. It was a large and small symmetrical double-loop knot, resembling a butterfly.
Carrying it over, he asked, "Wang Gan Shi, do you recognize this?"
Wang Gan Shi, fighting his nausea, took a look. "A Heart Knot?"
"Is it common?" Chen Chuan inquired.
Wang Gan Shi pondered, "It's an old custom from the Skillful God Festival. Women would weave craft knots to symbolize their love during the festival. But nowadays, only the elderly still practice this tradition. Young people don't bother with it anymore." He then asked, "Chen Chuan, is this related to the butterfly tattoos?"
Chen Chuan replied, "It's not clear yet. We need to ask around. Let's bring those two over for questioning."
Seeing that Chen Chuan wasn't going to examine the body further, Wang Gan Shi heaved a sigh of relief. He immediately called over the two men who had been caught and showed them the Heart Knot, asking if they had seen anything similar recently.
The bald man who had been caught first took a look and nodded. "Yes, I saw it. The night before last, I went to the night market and found this in my pocket when I returned. I don't know who put it there."
Wang Gan Shi quickly followed up, "What did you do with it?"
The bald man scratched his head. "I threw it away. I'm a grown man, my son is almost as tall as me. What would I want with this?"
The middle-aged man glanced at the bald man and hesitated.
Wang Gan Shi fixed his gaze on him, "What are you trying to say?"
The middle-aged man spoke up, "I've seen it too. I only noticed it when I returned from the night market that day. But I clearly remember not buying it, yet it mysteriously appeared in my pocket."
"What did you do with it?"
The middle-aged man seemed hesitant but eventually said, "I gave it to a friend."
"Who did you give it to?" Wang Gan Shi asked.
The middle-aged man stammered, saying it was a friend, but from his expression, Wang Gan Shi could guess what had happened. He let out a cold laugh.
Chen Chuan, having formed a hypothesis, said, "Wang Gan Shi, please ask those with the tattoos who have been detained if they've seen or come into contact with something similar and how they disposed of it."
"Will do! Chen Chuan, please wait a moment. It might take some time." Wang Gan Shi also felt that they were getting somewhere, and with renewed vigor, he hurried off to make a call.
Chen Chuan, meanwhile, instructed the company driver who had followed him, and the driver nodded, buying drinks and cigarettes for the security officers.
Chen Chuan then took out a nutritional supplement and consumed it before joining the officers in conversation.
When they learned that he had a relative who was a captain in the Patrol Bureau, the officers immediately became respectful and friendlier.
For these security officers, the title of 'expert' held little weight, but 'Patrol Bureau' was a different story. Nominally, they belonged to the same government department, and for them to get a permanent position, they needed approval from both the County Government Office and the Patrol Bureau. Eager to impress Chen Chuan, they flocked to him, hoping he would vouch for them.
Over an hour later, Wang Gan Shi returned, sweating profusely. He handed Chen Chuan a document and excitedly said, "Chen Chuan, I asked everyone. They've all seen this Heart Knot. Here are their statements..."
Chen Chuan flipped through the statements. Although the timing of when they received the Heart Knot varied, there was a common thread: they all noticed it after returning from the night market, and eventually, the knot was either lost or given away.
After a moment of thought, Chen Chuan said, "After losing this knot, they developed the butterfly tattoos... Hmm, it's not that they lost it; it's as if the Heart Knot appeared on their bodies."
Wang Gan Shi was taken aback, then exclaimed in fear, "So, the Heart Knot is the butterfly tattoo?"
"It's very likely," Chen Chuan replied. "Wang Gan Shi, as of now, eight people have died from this. The earliest case can be traced back to ten days ago, right?"
"Yes, yes."
Chen Chuan nodded. "If that's the case, it means one person dies each day, which aligns with some patterns from the ghost stories. If we count from ten days ago, then ten people should have died consecutively. In other words, there should be approximately two more..." He remembered the recent corpse, "...or one more person has died, but it hasn't been discovered or reported."
"No, that's not right." Wang Gan Shi seemed to have an epiphany. "Yes, that corpse, Chen Chuan, the flesh... The flesh was still there, and the Heart Knot was still on the body. It didn't turn into a butterfly and fly away."
"That's because he died from other causes before the transformation," Chen Chuan explained.
Wang Gan Shi realized, "Chen Chuan, you mean he died from some other reason?" He muttered, "Yes, it should be like that..."
As for how he ended up dead in the sewer, perhaps the manhole cover was left open that day, and he fell in. Wang Gan Shi felt a wave of discomfort at the thought and quickly pushed it from his mind. He asked, "Chen Chuan, what should we do next?"
Chen Chuan looked up at the sky and said, "I've been thinking. If my deduction is correct, there might be a way to handle this."
...
...
(End of Chapter)
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