Chapter 140: Eaten by a Dog [3]

That night, Yan Yu experienced five car accidents.

Yet, he remained completely unscathed.

The masked man suffered multiple comminuted fractures in both hands, had his arteries severed, his eyes sprayed with sulfuric acid, and his thighs run over by a train...

What a wretched state to be in!

After successfully delivering the masked man to the hospital, the feeling of panic in Yan Yu's heart finally vanished.

Since he had merely broken the masked man's head by accident, he only had to pay ten thousand yuan in compensation.

The doctor on duty couldn't help but sigh upon seeing the masked man's condition, remarking that in their decades of practicing medicine, this was the first time they had ever witnessed such a tragic patient.

Before leaving, Yan Yu grasped the masked man's hand and said with utmost sympathy, "Brother, you are truly unlucky..."

Masked man: "#￥%#%￥#&%**..."

" Hang in there! There is still hope in life, don't give up on treatment!"

Finally, after a night of tossing and turning, Yan Yu dragged his exhausted body back home.

However, as he approached his building, Yan Yu noticed numerous police cars parked downstairs, with Chen Chuandong maintaining order at the scene.

Frowning, Yan Yu hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "Brother Chen, what's going on here?"

" I knew I'd run into you, kid," Chen Chuandong said, clutching his head. "Captain Wang was right; you really are a jinx."

"What the hell does this have to do with me?!" Yan Yu protested, feeling wronged.

Chen Chuandong asked, "You live on the eleventh floor, right?"

"Yeah!" Yan Yu's heart skipped a beat. Could something have happened to Su Han?

"Don't panic, it's not your place, it's your next-door neighbor's," Chen Chuandong said. "This morning, we received a report. The tenants next door hadn't paid rent in two months. The landlord reported it and came with us to collect the money. But when the door was opened, they found a young man collapsed in his own living room, already dead."

"Someone died?" Yan Yu was startled.

"Yes, and the state of his body is gruesome. The victim is covered in bite marks, not a single patch of unblemished skin left, as if he'd been gnawed on by dogs."

***

As Chen Chuandong was speaking, Wang Mo emerged from the elevator with a team, followed by several people in white hazmat suits carrying body bags to the vehicle.

"Yan Yu, we meet again." Wang Mo greeted Yan Yu, accompanied by a middle-aged man wearing a down jacket.

The man was around thirty-five years old, with sharp and exceptionally piercing eyes.

Yan Yu gave a wry smile. "This really has nothing to do with me."

"I know. The time of death was last night, but you spent the entire night at the hospital; we've already checked," Wang Mo said.

Yan Yu clicked his tongue inwardly. Wang Mo's intelligence network moved fast.

"Even though you have nothing to do with the victim, you do live next door to him, so we still wanted to ask if you heard any commotion yesterday?" Wang Mo inquired.

Yan Yu recalled the events and shook his head. "I just moved here and don't know anyone yet. The loudest commotion last night was probably at my place..."

The bespectacled man beside Wang Mo suddenly spoke up. "The victim's name is Cui Hao. We investigated his interpersonal relationships and found that he was a shut-in with no job, living off his parents' monthly pensions. He spent his days playing video games and watching anime at home, with virtually no friends."

"A parasite living off his parents?" Wang Mo raised an eyebrow and introduced, "Yan Yu, this is our group's new criminal investigation consultant, Liang Youchuan. I'm still tied up with the Fengmen Village case, so he will be taking charge of this one moving forward."

"Hello, Uncle Liang." Yan Yu shook hands with Liang Youchuan and noticed that the man's grip was exceptionally forceful, nothing like his scholarly appearance suggested.

Liang Youchuan adjusted his glasses and continued, "Some of our officers checked Cui Hao's mobile phone and found that he was active on major online forums, disguising himself as a successful person with an annual income of a million yuan. He frequently posted other people's photos on social media to satisfy his own vanity. Aside from that, he also loved reading online web novels, but he frequently badgered authors for faster updates, hurled abuses at them, and left one-star negative reviews."

"To sum it up, this Cui Hao was an internet troll."

Wang Mo said, "Let the cyber crimes division continue investigating. Could the murderer be one of the targets Cui Hao abused online?"

"That is entirely possible," Liang Youchuan said. "Cui Hao's recent social media activity shows he was constantly posting extremist remarks, calling on the citizens of Rongcheng to scatter isoniazid to poison dogs. At the same time, we found a large quantity of isoniazid and cheap ham sausages in his drawer."

Thinking of that pitiful poodle from yesterday, Yan Yu couldn't help but say, "So it was this guy. He had already started committing crimes. Yesterday alone, over twenty pet dogs in our residential complex were poisoned to death by him."

"He wasn't a first-time offender. A week ago, a large number of pet dogs in the residential complex next door already suffered the same fate."

Chen Chuandong curled his lip. "He ruined dozens of lives. Doesn't this count as reaping what he sowed?"

"Dongzi, we can't be the ones saying things like that," Wang Mo cautioned.

"Fine."

***

Yan Yu pondered and said, "Brother Chen just mentioned that Cui Hao's body is covered in numerous bite marks, as if he were mauled by dogs. I think this is very likely related to his dog-poisoning spree. Could it be that the owner of one of the dogs he poisoned came looking for revenge?"

"That possibility cannot be ruled out, but we need further investigation and evidence collection," Liang Youchuan said.

Wang Mo nodded and patted Liang Youchuan on the shoulder. "Youchuan, I'll leave this case to you. Besides, Xiaoyu is actually a smart and very righteous young man. The deceased Cui Hao was his neighbor, so perhaps he can be of some help to you."

Yan Yu glanced sideways at Wang Mo.

This Captain Wang clearly suspected his connection to the previous two incidents, which was why he was deliberately pulling him into this case to find out more about him!

Therefore, Yan Yu directly declined, "Captain Wang, I'm still a student. The college entrance examination is less than two months away..."

Wang Mo smiled. "Then the two of you can exchange contact information, surely that won't interfere with anything?"

One does not hit a smiling face. Yan Yu had no choice but to exchange contact information with Liang Youchuan.

The crime scene still required further evidence collection, and Liang Youchuan had plenty of tasks to attend to.

When Yan Yu returned home, Su Han had already taken Zhao Qingqing to school. Yan Yu had to make do by frying a couple of eggs for himself, sharing the meal with Big Black.

While eating his fried eggs, Yan Yu suddenly remembered the photos he had taken on the balcony the previous night. Curiosity prompted him to retrieve his phone from the balcony.

Photographs taken with a film camera needed to be sent to a developing shop, but Yan Yu wasn't that particular. He simply pulled the film out and exposed it to the sunlight for a short while, allowing the images on the film to become faintly visible.

In the photograph, Yan Yu was standing with his back to the balcony, holding the camera in one hand while flashing a V-sign with the other.

Behind him was the dear brother whose eyes had been blinded by the flash.

Further back...

Was the balcony of his neighbor, Cui Hao.

Yan Yu suddenly discovered that on Cui Hao's balcony, there were more than a dozen pairs of glowing red eyes, staring intently straight at him...