Hearing Chen Chuan's instruction, Officer Wang jolted into action and immediately told the driver to stop. He leaned out of the car window, shouting orders while pointing at the bald man who had just walked past.
The Public Security Bureau officers instantly grew energized. Having driven around in circles for so long, their nerves had been frayed, but now they finally had a target. In a rush, they leaped out of their vehicle, charged forward, and pinned the man to the ground.
The bald man was alarmed and furious. Struggling violently, he yelled, "What are you doing? What are you doing? Who are you people? Let me go!"
One of the bureau officers snarled, "You think you don't know what you did?"
A look of bewilderment washed over the bald man's face.
Seeing this, Chen Chuan said to Officer Wang, "No need to be so rough. He's likely just someone infected by the butterfly tattoo, not our actual target."
Even so, Officer Wang remained uneasy. "Well, Expert Chen..." He glanced outside and asked tentatively, "Could these people...?"
Chen Chuan replied, "No need to fear. Urban legends don't spread through ordinary contagion. If they did, it would have swept through a county seat this large long ago, rather than taking this much time."
In truth, driving around several times earlier without spotting anyone like this had actually been a good sign. It indicated that the urban legend hadn't spread on a massive scale; those who acquired the tattoo had done so for some specific reason.
Officer Wang was somewhat reassured, though he still didn't get out of the car. He called out to the bureau officers, "Drag him into the vehicle and check if he has any tattoos on him."
The officers dragged the bald man into their vehicle and inspected him. Seeing a colorful butterfly on his back, they gasped in surprise. One officer hurried over and reported, "Officer Wang, he has it! He really does!"
Officer Wang looked to Chen Chuan at once.
Chen Chuan said, "Ask him where he just came from, and where he's been over the past two days."
Officer Wang relayed the instruction to the officer, then turned back to Chen Chuan. "Rest assured, Expert Chen. Interrogations are what these bureau brothers do best."
Chen Chuan gave a slight nod. "Make sure it's the truth."
Officer Wang cleared his throat. "Right, it definitely will be." After a brief hesitation, feeling a bit uneasy, he said with mild embarrassment, "I'll go down and take a look myself."
After a while, Officer Wang returned. "Expert Chen, we asked him..." Knowing that Chen Chuan wasn't familiar with the local streets, he held a map in hand, having marked the locations on it. "Please take a look, Expert Chen. The man went to these few places just now..."
Chen Chuan looked at it, then brought out his previous map to cross-reference the routes taken by those who had previously developed the butterfly tattoos. Naturally, this could only account for the past few days; anything earlier was impossible to trace.
He circled the area where their movements overlapped and tapped it with his pen. "Let's make another sweep through this area."
Officer Wang glanced at the map, his expression suddenly shifting. Seeing a station at the center of the circled area, he said worriedly, "Could those people have come from out of town?"
If so, the scope of the investigation would be far wider.
Chen Chuan said, "Not necessarily. Let's head over and take a look first."
"What about the man we just caught?"
Chen Chuan said, "Keep him with us for now."
Under normal circumstances, once the source of an urban legend was neutralized, the remaining victims would likely be safe, though they might still suffer lingering aftereffects to some extent. That was beyond his control. All he could do was find the root cause as quickly as possible and eradicate it to keep more people from being infected.
"All right."
Officer Wang returned to the car and told the driver to head toward the location. The Public Security Bureau vehicle followed behind, bringing the bald man along.
Since the location wasn't far, they arrived in just a few minutes.
This time, the moment they arrived, Chen Chuan made another discovery.
Officer Wang didn't need any special prompting this time. He stepped out immediately and ordered the bureau officers to seize the target. That person struggled violently, but in the end was hauled by the collar into the vehicle.
Only a short while later, Officer Wang returned, looking puzzled. "We checked him, Mr. Chen, but he doesn't seem to have that butterfly tattoo on his body."
Chen Chuan said, "Not having it on the surface doesn't mean it isn't on his internal organs."
Officer Wang shuddered at the thought. "Then I'll go question him again."
Chen Chuan considered for a moment. "I'll come with you." He stepped out of the car as well and began walking toward the back, but after taking only two steps, his pace slowed.
He looked around.
No, there was another one!
He scanned his surroundings. Because the Public Security Bureau had just detained someone nearby, quite a few pedestrians had been frightened off. Now, aside from their group, no one else was in sight.
He raised his eyes toward higher ground. There were no tall buildings nearby, only a few birds in the air. In that case... His gaze dropped back to the street, finally settling on a manhole cover.
It was down below...
He walked over and exchanged a few words with Officer Wang. The latter froze in surprise. "Are you sure, Expert Chen?"
Chen Chuan nodded.
Officer Wang hesitated briefly. "All right, I'll see to it." He searched around, found a roadside shop with a telephone, and placed a call.
Barely half an hour later, municipal maintenance workers arrived. They pried open the manhole cover and went in to investigate. An hour or so later, using hooked poles and tackle, they hauled up a swollen, rotting, dark-green corpse crawling with wriggling maggots.
At the sight and stench of it, even with masks on, the Public Security Bureau officers retreated to the side one after another, retching.
Chen Chuan asked for a pair of gloves, walked over, and calmly observed the body. Reaching into the corpse's clothing, he searched through it and eventually pulled out a cord knot, bleached pale and discolored from water soaking.
Holding it in his hand, he walked back and asked, "Officer Wang, do you recognize this?"
Officer Wang fought back nausea and squinted at it. "A concentric knot?"
"Is it common?" Chen Chuan asked.
Officer Wang pondered. "It's an old custom for our Skillful Goddess Festival. Women would weave decorative knots as tokens of affection for the festival. But nowadays, aside from the older generation, young people don't really make them anymore." He asked tentatively, "Expert Chen, does this have something to do with the butterfly tattoos?"
Chen Chuan said, "It's not clear yet. We need to ask more questions. Bring those two over so we can interrogate them."
Relieved that Chen Chuan wasn't going to inspect the corpse again, Officer Wang quickly called the two apprehended men over. Showing them the concentric knot, he asked whether they had seen anything similar recently.
The bald man caught earlier took a look and nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, I've seen it! The night before last, I went to the night market, and when I got back, this thing was suddenly in my pocket. I have no idea who slipped it in."
Officer Wang immediately pressed, "Where is it now?"
The bald man scratched his head. "I threw it away, of course. I'm a grown man, and my son is as tall as I am. What would I need a trinket like that for?"
The middle-aged man looked at the bald man, hesitating as if wanting to say something.
Officer Wang glared at him. "What do you want to say?"
The middle-aged man said, "I've seen one too. I only noticed it after getting back from the night market that same night. But I clearly remember I never bought such a thing—it just showed up in my pocket out of nowhere."
"Where is it now?"
The middle-aged man hesitated, then finally confessed, "I gave it away."
"To whom?" Officer Wang demanded.
The man stammered that it was a friend, but seeing his evasive expression, Officer Wang could easily guess what was going on and let out a few cold sneers.
Seeing this, Chen Chuan formed a rough deduction. He said, "Officer Wang, please check with the detainees who have confirmed tattoos. Find out if they've seen or come into contact with something similar, and ask how they ended up disposing of it."
"Right! Wait just a moment, Expert Chen, this might take a little time." Officer Wang also sensed that they were finally getting somewhere. Full of drive, he hurried off to make the calls.
Chen Chuan spoke to the company driver who had accompanied them. The man nodded and went to buy drinks and cigarettes to hand out to the Public Security Bureau officers.
Then Chen Chuan took out a tube of nutritional paste, ate it, and walked over to chat with the bureau officers.
Upon learning that one of his senior relatives was a constabulary captain, the bureau officers were instantly filled with reverence, and their attitude grew markedly warmer.
To these Public Security Bureau members, the title of "expert" didn't carry much weight, but the constabulary's name was exceedingly potent. In nominal terms, they belonged to the same administrative system; for auxiliary members to gain regular status, they required approval from the constabulary in addition to the county administration's stamp. Now, they eagerly crowded forward to curry favor, doing everything they could to ensure Chen Chuan remembered them.
More than an hour later, Officer Wang returned dripping with sweat. Handing a list to Chen Chuan, he said excitedly, "Expert Chen, I asked all of them! Every single one had seen this item before. Here are their statements..."
Chen Chuan took it and flipped through the pages. Although the times these people received the concentric knots differed, all shared a common pattern: they had only discovered the knots after returning from the night market, and the items had eventually either been lost or given away.
He pondered for a moment before saying, "After losing the knot, the butterfly tattoo appeared on their bodies... No, it wasn't lost—the concentric knot transferred onto them."
Officer Wang froze, then gasped in terror, "You mean... the concentric knot is the butterfly tattoo?"
Chen Chuan said, "That is very likely the case. Officer Wang, the currently known death toll from this is eight people, tracing back ten days at the earliest, correct?"
"Yes, exactly."
Chen Chuan nodded. "If so, it should be one death per day, which aligns with certain patterns of urban legends. Counting from ten days ago, ten people should have died by now. In other words, there are roughly two..." Remembering the corpse just retrieved, he corrected himself, "There is still one death that hasn't been discovered, or wasn't reported."
"Wait, that's not right," Officer Wang said, struck by a thought. "Yes, that corpse, Expert Chen... the flesh on that corpse..."
At this point, he dry-heaved before continuing, "The flesh is still there! It didn't turn into butterflies and fly away, and the concentric knot was still on him!"
Chen Chuan said, "It is precisely because he died beforehand that the concentric knot remained on his person instead of turning into the butterfly tattoo."
Understanding dawned on Officer Wang. "Expert Chen, you mean he died of something else?" He muttered, "Right, that must be it..."
As for how he died in the sewer, perhaps the manhole cover was missing that day, he fell in by accident, and someone covered it back up afterward? The thought made Officer Wang shudder with revulsion, and he quickly banished it from his mind before asking, "Expert Chen, what should we do next?"
Chen Chuan glanced up at the sky before saying, "I've been thinking it over. If my reasoning is correct, there might be a way to handle this."
Chapter 138