disappearing gold

Chapter 1 Memories of the mystery
  March 2023, 3, Qingcheng City.

After a gray-haired aunt retired, she rented a simple house at the foot of Kulai Mountain. The strange thing was that she had no relatives or friends here, let alone any family members.

Gulai Mountain is a scenic spot located on the edge of Qingcheng City. This scenic spot was just established two years ago and has many artificial attractions and virgin forests. There are paid attractions and free attractions, you can choose as you like.

On weekends, she went hiking in Kulai Mountain as usual. After entering the gate of the scenic spot, looking ahead you can see the rolling mountains. The mountains farther away are connected to the low clouds and mists, like ink paintings, with traces of light and alienation.

She set foot on the familiar mountain road with ease. The road was very steep and extended almost straight to the top of the mountain. This mountain road may be difficult for ordinary people, but it is not difficult for her, who was once an old detective captain. My aunt's name is Sun Meifang, her peers call her Lao Sun, and the juniors call her Team Sun.

Halfway up the climb, the old dog who followed me got tired.

Although it is now panting from exhaustion after just a few steps, in the past it was a loyal old police dog. It had solved many serious cases with Lao Sun, made meritorious service, and won numerous medals of honor. It's just that it was in its prime when it followed Lao Sun, but now it has become old and frail after many years, and it is no longer as brave and agile as it used to be.

Lao Sun was about to retire. Seeing that it was time for the old police dog to retire, he applied to his superiors for adoption. The superior leader agreed and asked her to take good care of the old police dog. All the detectives who have worked with Old Police Dog and Old Sun are reluctant to part with them. But the old grandson has to retire, and the old dog has to retire eventually. If you don't want to let go, you have to let it go.

At this moment, Lao Sun also sat down to accompany the old dog. One person and one dog were sitting on the steps, resting quietly.

She murmured to herself: "Ah Huang, do you know? We have retired for a year, but I just can't accept it!" Ah Huang is this thin old police dog, with sparse hair and even eyelashes. White aging and fading.

The old police dog blinked at her.

Lao Sun thought of the cases he encountered before retiring. There were two murders in Kulai Mountain and Serang Mountain, but the murderer has not been arrested so far. Lao Sun once said that he would not retire until he caught the murderer, and he even took Ah Huang to swear with him. Unexpectedly, the murder case is complicated, with few clues and insufficient evidence. The murderer is like a diving fish, never showing up.

She slowly fell into memories, and her face returned to the solemn look it had at the scene.

One year ago today, March 2022, 3.

In the middle of the night, the police station received a call to report the crime. A young woman asked for help in a trembling voice: "Help me, help me——"

The police officer who responded asked: "Hello, please tell me where you are? What happened to you?"

"I am here" the woman's voice became weaker and weaker.

"Hello... hello... where are you? Hello..." The police officer shouted several times, but soon the phone fell into nothingness. Only the echo of "beep--" was heard.

He found it strange but didn't take it seriously. But half an hour later, while he was sleeping, he heard another busy call. After picking up, he asked casually: "Hello? Hello -"

The phone was hung up again, whether intentionally or not.

The more he thought about it, the more something was wrong, and he reported the matter to the police overnight.

Both calls came from the same number, starting with 147. According to detective technology, the first signal disappeared at Mount Serang, and the second signal disappeared at Mount Kulai. Kulai Mountain and Silang Mountain are separated by a steep mountain - Lingfeng Mountain, and the area is also very large.

Not long after, the bureau sent five criminal police officers to search the mountain in Kulai Mountain. The mountain is wide and the trees are densely packed, including common neem, pine and birch trees. They are half in shadow and half in light under the high-intensity lighting.

After searching the mountain for a long time, it was already midnight, and nothing unusual was found, let alone a woman!
  Xiao Li from the Trace Inspection Department suddenly found a gold bar under a big tree. When he measured it, the gold bar was as long as his index finger. In addition, a large area of ​​weeds was trampled down and the footprints were messy. He took the evidence bag and put the gold bars in. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the surface of the gold bars was uneven and had no identifying marks.

Late at night, the lights are as dark as ink. The wind was miserable, like a wild ghost blowing on the back of my neck.

There is something in the depression between the two Sentian ancient trees! He approached and saw a woman. He was startled and shouted: "Hey, there is a woman here!"

Everyone rushed over to take a breath, and the woman was dead.

The female corpse was lying on her back with her eyes open, her whole body was beaten and bleeding. The skull was sunken and the skull was deformed, which was very scary.

The receiving officer immediately vomited. This was the first time he saw a dead body.

However, the mobile phone used to make the call was missing, probably taken by the murderer.

When human life was involved, Lao Sun took Ah Huang to the scene overnight, had people collect evidence on the spot, and then rushed to Xilang Mountain.

Ah Huang was sniffing around at the top of the mountain, and suddenly stopped and barked under a huge old tree. Lao Sun rushed over and found Ah Huang standing outside a shallow pit. There was a male corpse in the pit, and the smell of blood was strong. The male corpse was covered in blood, with many stabs in the heart and abdomen. There were blood holes everywhere and he was stabbed like a hedgehog. What's even worse is that the intestines came out and a small piece was chewed off by something.

But no murder weapon was found at the scene, so she asked Zhu Lan to pay attention.

In addition, there was a powered off mobile phone next to the male body.

Apprentice Zhu Lan and detectives Tong Ge and Xiao Li continued to collect evidence at the scene. Lao Sun suddenly felt severe pain in his stomach, and beads of sweat as big as soybeans broke out on his forehead. Forensic doctor Xiao Cao took the body back to the police station for autopsy.

In the middle of the night, Lao Sun couldn't bear it anymore and had no choice but to go back to the bureau to check on the autopsy.

The deceased was young, dressed in ordinary clothes, and had ordinary financial status. Kulai Mountain is a scenic spot, and people come and go, so the entrance door is usually closed at night. People who can break in at night may be staff of the scenic area, or know the staff of the scenic area, or people who stay in the scenic area before closing and refuse to leave.

However, the scenic area is an entire mountain. Are there other entrances that can be freely entered and exited?
  So did the dead know each other? What is their relationship? And why did they die on different mountains?

The identity of the deceased must be determined first.

Xiao Cao worked overtime all night and brought the autopsy report over at noon the next day. The male victim was stabbed to death by a knife. From the wound, it can be inferred that the blade was not long and it was not a controlled knife. The deceased woman died due to severe injuries from the beating and a sunken skull.

The death scenes in both cases were the scene of the first crime. I don’t know if the murderer is the same person. But what is certain is that at both scenes there were only the footprints of the deceased and the murderer, and no third party was present.

Based on the gold bars left at the scene, Lao Sun speculated that the murder might be related to it. But the gold bar has no provenance, and it is impossible to start with it.

Xiao Feng found out the identity of the deceased man based on the phone card on his cell phone. The deceased man was named Zhang Zhen, 35 years old, and lived in Zhuyu Village, not far from Gulai Mountain. His wife's name was Huang Min, and looking at the photo album, it was exactly the face of the deceased woman. The deceased woman's name was Huang Min, 28 years old, and her household registration was in the old town of Nanhua City. His father's name is Zhang Jinli, and he is sixty-seven years old. And his mother is no longer alive.

So Lao Sun and Xiao Cao rushed to Zhuyu Village and found Zhang Zhen's house. After showing his identity, Mr. Zhang - Zhang Jinli had a vague premonition.

Lao Sun asked Lao Zhang: "Is your son named Zhang Zhen?"

"Yes! Where did you find my son?" Mr. Zhang was very happy.

"I'm sorry to tell you that he was killed." Lao Sun didn't want to tell the old man such a cruel fact, but he couldn't find the murderer without telling him.

Mr. Zhang's face turned pale, he was so frightened that he slumped down on the sofa, speaking incoherently: "What, he, he, how could he do that?"

"Someone killed him." Xiao Cao added to Master.

Mr. Zhang burst into tears, and an old man burst into tears, "No wonder, no wonder..."

It turned out that he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night last night, his heart was very blocked, and he couldn't fall asleep no matter how he turned over. He felt bad, so he called Zhang Zhen, but he couldn't get through. He was worried and hesitant to call the police.

Lao Sun and Xiao Cao looked at each other tacitly and said nothing.

"Why do you have this premonition?" Lao Sun asked.

"My intuition tells me. Besides, they have been traveling for a week." Mr. Zhang recalled.

Lao Sun asked: "Did they say where they went to travel?"

"No, don't say it at all!" Mr. Zhang said.

Xiao Cao was about to ask why he didn't tell her that he knew it, but Mr. Zhang was already completely immersed in sadness, anger and regret.

"It's all that woman's fault. She must have killed my son!"

"They often quarreled, and I couldn't help it at all."

Mr. Zhang slowly talked about family affairs.

"why?"

"Huang Min is so awesome!"

Xiao Cao shouted: "You guys live together?"

Mr. Zhang lowered his head in embarrassment, with a sad look on his face, "No, we have already lived apart. I live in the east courtyard, and they live in the west courtyard. My son ignores me, and my wife dislikes my love for eating salted fish, saying it smells like salted fish. It can smoke her to death."

Lao Sun showed a trace of sympathy and opened his mouth to comfort.

Mr. Zhang waved his hand and said, "You don't have to sympathize with me, I deserve it all."

　This is my first time writing a suspense mystery novel at Qidian. Book friends, please give me your feedback!
  　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)