Thirteen prisons

Chapter 12 Empty House
Zhou Yuan and Lao Hu were startled by the sudden sharp female voice, turned around and saw a fat middle-aged woman.

"Ah, I got it wrong." The fat woman held a big cattail fan and saw the two people who turned around, patting their fat chests: "I thought it was those people in the morning. Those people didn't look good at first sight." , and want to extort money from my old lady." She said uncertainly, "The two of you are here to rent a house?"

It seems that this should be the landlord.What she was talking about should be Aaron and the others, those guys will impress people wherever they go.On the way here, the two discussed it and said they came to rent a house.Since the landlord took the initiative to mention Aaron, Lao Hu said along the way: "Yes, we originally wanted to rent a house. But from what you said just now, it seems a bit messy here?"

Zhou Yuan nodded secretly, Lao Hu's move of retreating as an advance was good.Sure enough, the landlord was anxious when he heard it: "What's the matter! This place is in a good location, and the upstairs is quiet, so it's very safe!"

Old Hu smacked his lips: "Didn't you just say that some dubious people came here this morning?"

"Oh, that's a misunderstanding." The landlord waved his hands, the fat on his face trembling excitedly: "Mr. Liu was the one who lived here, but he left for some reason, and another group of young men came here with deposit slips to return the deposit. Money, then of course I will not, the tenant must come to check out. What if they stole the deposit, right?"

Seeing that Zhou Yuan and Lao Hu were nodding, the landlord felt that it was reasonable, and his voice became louder: "The group of people are vicious, and they want to beat people. Fortunately, an old gentleman came to send those bastards away gone."

What the landlord said was the same as what Aaron said. Although she didn't go into details, Zhou Yuan and Lao Hu understood that it must be true that the old man took 5000 yuan to get the deposit back, but Aaron was not sure about the latter. I don't know, after all he took the money and left.

Lao Hu pretended to be interested and asked: "The old man is very good, he sent a group of gangsters away by himself, tsk tsk."

The landlord blushed, stopped mentioning this, and began to sell the rental house: "Don't you two want to rent a house? This one is pretty good. You see, the third floor is very quiet, and it's lively when you go downstairs. It's convenient to go everywhere. .”

Old Hu pointed to the locked door: "Didn't you say that someone is still living there?"

The landlord curled his lips: "That Mr. Liu has something urgent to leave. The old gentleman came to help him check out, but the deposit slip fell into the hands of that group somehow. The old gentleman said that he will never come to this house again. It's live. So don't worry, it's fine."

Zhou Yuan heard other information from this sentence: the landlord said "will not come to live again", not "checked out", which means that after the old man bought a deposit note with 5000 yuan, he did not get the deposit from the landlord. The remaining rent is refunded there.But he probably won't come back again, that's why the landlord said so with certainty.

This shows that the old man should be relatively rich, and he must have some purpose in rushing to find Liu San's residence.Looks like this is the right trip, I just hope it's not too late.Zhou Yuan glanced at Lao Hu, and Lao Hu nodded towards him, obviously hearing these meanings from the landlord's words, and said casually to the landlord: "Then can you let us see the house?"

"Yes, yes, I have all the keys with me. I can move in with my bag at any time!" The landlord immediately took out the key and opened the door.

As soon as I entered this hut, I immediately felt a rush of heat.This kind of hut with no sunshade on the top will be baked by the sun like a big steamer during the day.Zhou Yuan said casually: "It's going to be so hot, isn't there an air conditioner?"

The landlord yelled from behind: "It costs less than 500 yuan a month, and you still want an air conditioner? I will pay you to death. If you want to install it, you can install it yourself, and I can install the electric meter for you."

Zhou Yuan shook his head and smiled wryly, this landlord is really shrewd and mean.The environment of this house is so bad, according to the market price, the maximum is 200 yuan a month and the monthly payment is about the same.She charged Liu San half a year's rent plus a deposit of 5000 yuan at one time. She must be thinking of deducting a part from the deposit at that time.

Thinking of this, another doubt also arises: Liu San is not very short of money, why did he choose to live in such a poor place?Zhou Yuan's heart moved just now, and Lao Hu had already said: "Boss, if you want to rent your house, do you need an ID card? I lost my ID card, and it will take two weeks to get a replacement."

The landlord waved his hand and said nonchalantly, "Then just pay a little more deposit."

Zhou Yuan's doubts just now got an answer from the landlord, obviously Lao Hu also asked this question on purpose.It seems that another reason why Liu San chose to rent a house here was that he didn't want to reveal his real identity, and most of the names were fake.

Old Hu pointed to the room and said in a low voice, "Did you see the problem?"

The room is not big, only about ten square meters in total, and the furniture in the room is very simple: an empty bed with no bedding, an old-fashioned wooden table with open drawers, a single wooden wardrobe, and two benches .Other than that, there is nothing else. It looks clean and empty, but it is really like what the landlord said, you can move in with your bags anytime.

Zhou Yuan immediately realized that the problem was that it was too clean, leaving almost no trace of the previous resident.He looked around and asked the landlord: "Boss, he checked out in the morning, and you just cleaned it so clean?"

The landlord shook his head: "The old gentleman cleaned up Mr. Liu's things. There were still a lot of things left in the house, but he took out all the bedding in the house and burned it outside. What a pity , otherwise I can use it for you.” As he spoke, he pointed to the outside of the house, and Zhou Yuan looked along, and sure enough there was a broken tin bucket in a corner of the roof, and there were traces of burning ash around it.

"There is nothing left?" Zhou Yuan was a little disappointed, opened the wardrobe door, and opened the drawer of the table a little more.Seeing that he didn't believe it, the landlord said, "There's nothing left. Later, the police also came, and when they saw that there was nothing in the house, they left."

"Police?" Lao Hu was also a little surprised. "What are the police doing here?"

The landlord may have seen their question in such detail, and felt that they really wanted to rent a house, so he patiently explained: "Come to check on the floating population. This place often comes to check on this. But when the two policemen were investigating, I heard that they were Whispering, what I said before was burning things, but this time it was a person."

"That's what they said?" Zhou Yuan interrupted the landlord's chatter.

"Isn't that all? I asked them, but they didn't tell me. I heard it from the door." The landlord gossiped with some complacency.

Zhou Yuan understood that the two policemen must have come to investigate Liu San's spontaneous combustion incident, but it seemed that there was no new progress.However, these two sentences overheard by the landlord made him feel relieved.Before, he thought that the six spontaneous combustion incidents mentioned by the 110 police meant that Liu San had spontaneously combusted six times.It turned out that in the previous spontaneous combustion incidents, it should be that something burned by itself, only the seventh time he happened to meet, it was Liu San who burned by himself.

In this way, many things can be figured out.It is a hot day, and many things are flammable. If they burn in the sun for a long time, isn’t that also called spontaneous combustion?No wonder the police don't pay much attention to such a small case.

There is only one problem. Liu San seems to have appeared near the fire scene several times, otherwise his portrait would not have appeared. It seems that he has been regarded as arson suspect.He is an outsider with a strange face, so it is not surprising that he is remembered, but is this a coincidence or does it really have something to do with him?Zhou Yuan vaguely felt that it was the latter, after all, the scene of him burning out of thin air still makes him shudder when he thinks about it.

Lao Hu's voice interrupted Zhou Yuan's thoughts: "What's going on on this wall?"

He was asking the landlord. Zhou Yuan looked over and found that there was an ordinary white wall facing the door, which could be seen as soon as he entered the house. Zhou Yuan didn't think there was anything unusual.Listening to what Lao Hu said at this moment, after a closer look, I found that the wall seemed too clean and white, as if it was newly painted.

Zhou Yuan rubbed it lightly with his hands, and found that it was really freshly painted. Although the paint had dried in this hot weather, it was not completely dry yet, and it felt soft to the touch.

"There's nothing wrong with this wall." The landlord felt that this problem was a bit inexplicable.

Lao Hu changed the question: "What color was this wall before?"

"It's just white."

"No, there is another layer under the white color, which is newly painted." Lao Hu picked out a small piece of the wrong color with his hands, and explained to Zhou Yuan: "This kind of quick-drying wall paint lasts for an hour. It dries in about a minute."

"Do you want to rent it or not? If you don't rent it, don't dig my wall." The landlord was not happy.

Lao Hu stopped, then ran his hands along the wall, and sighed.Zhou Yuan could also see that something might have been written on the wall before this layer of paint was painted, but now it was covered. Only by looking carefully, could he barely see the vaguely written words on the lower layer in some places. Dark color, seems to be traces of writing.

"What's inside?" Zhou Yuan was very close, trying to distinguish the traces under the white wall paint.

"No matter what it is, it is covered. The quality of this paint is very good, and it has soaked the bottom layer, you see." Old Hu said and stretched out his hand, which was just peeled off the wall. crumbs.

Looking at those things, Zhou Yuan knew why Lao Hu sighed just now. The colors of the dross were all the same, and some black substances were mixed into the white paint. If Liu San had written anything on this wall, According to the degree of penetration, even if the surface layer of paint is scraped off, nothing can be seen.

"Who could have done it?"

"Liu San and the old man are both possible." Lao Hu clapped his hands, "However, the old man is more likely."

Zhou Yuan nodded. The old man appeared very strange. What he did after buying the deposit, whether it was burning the bedding or taking away other things, all showed that his purpose was to eliminate any leftovers left by Liu San here. trace.

"If you rent it, you can paint this wall yourself." The landlord was still teasing behind him.

Lao Hu looked around the empty room again, and said to Zhou Yuan: "Go out first, it's too hot in here."

After leaving the house, Lao Hu didn't leave right away, but asked the landlord about his impression of Liu San.The landlord saw that they didn't seem to be determined to rent a house, they just kept asking questions, their enthusiasm was greatly reduced, and they were a little unhappy.It's just that Liu San is usually not at home, and often runs outside. He has lived here for a month and hasn't seen anyone for almost 20 days.Her only impression is that Liu San likes to leave early and return late.

"Two doubts, one is the old man, and the other is the mark." On the way back, Lao Hu sat in the co-pilot and said thoughtfully while picking at the remaining paint marks on his hands. "Unfortunately, it's gone."

"Maybe it's his father who knew his son had this problem and came to collect his body?" Zhou Yuan guessed wildly, neither Liu San nor the old man had a good impression on him.

"The old man disinfected the house." Lao Hu suddenly said, "Did you smell a faint smell in the house?"

Zhou Yuan didn't notice such details, the room was too stuffy, and he just felt that the air in the room didn't smell very good.But what Lao Hu said is probably not wrong.Zhou Yuan guessed: "So, he knew that Liu San was sick? He was afraid of infecting others, so he hurried to deal with it?"

Old Hu shook his head.Zhou Yuan is already somewhat used to this action of Lao Hu, and he will not jump to conclusions easily before he thinks things through clearly.

The only clue I got this trip was to be sure that the old man must have a close relationship with Liu San, but what kind of relationship it is can only be guessed.Zhou Yuan was most worried about how to treat his strange rash and low-grade fever.For him, that's the most important thing.

The car drove back directly to the Central Hospital, and Aaron and his attendants were gone.After asking Lu Ming, they found out that Xiaoqing's body had been taken to the crematorium. It seemed that the hospital's request for an autopsy to find the cause of the disease was not agreed to by them.

To this result, the reactions of the three people were not the same.Xiaoqing became like this overnight. Obviously, the cause of her strange disease has not been found out. It is very likely that it is a new type of disease that has not been discovered. Examination means that various understandings of it, such as the contagiousness, the cause of hair growth, and even the harmfulness, are not clear, so Lu Ming is disappointed by this.

Lao Hu and Lu Ming had similar attitudes, and they also felt that the autopsy should be analyzed.He had a vague feeling that Xiaoqing's death was not as simple as a sudden illness, and there might be a possibility of murder behind it.It's just that this kind of thinking is too unbelievable, and Lao Hu didn't show it.

Zhou Yuan thought it was good.He felt that people should go to rest early after death. The doctor Lu Ming and the policeman Lao Hu are both people who are used to seeing life and death, so they will inevitably be a little cold-blooded in this kind of thing.

But for Zhou Yuan, the most important thing is that Aaron should stop looking for trouble. After solving a big trouble, he can concentrate on solving his problems.

Lu Ming gave Zhou Yuan a series of checklists and checked in the hospital for nearly two hours.Blood draw, urine test, and chest X-ray, in short, almost everything that can be done in the central hospital was done.The results of the final overall examination came out, except that the white blood cell index in the blood was a little higher, and other physical indexes were all normal.

"The physical indicators are normal, which is a good sign, but the white blood cells are high. According to Western medicine, the body has inflammation, and fever is inevitable. However, it is still uncertain whether there is a connection between the suspected rash marks on the body and moderate fever. Further examination will be carried out later. I suggest that you should take a fever treatment first." After reading the test sheet, Lu Ming added some medicine: "Let's infuse the medicine first to see the effect."

Zhou Yuan has no objection. Lu Ming is a doctor, so to believe in him is to believe in science.Looking at the test results, he breathed a sigh of relief.The bad luck that started yesterday seems to have been resolved one by one, which is a good sign.

There was no one else in the infusion room, and Lao Hu sat aside, wondering what he was thinking.Zhou Yuan watched the medicine in the infusion tube slowly dripping, and felt that the room was too dull, so he asked casually, "Old Hu, what do you think is going on?"

"Are you talking about Liu San's spontaneous combustion? Or Xiaoqing's death? Or the old man who cleaned up all the traces in the rental house?" Old Hu asked rhetorically.He has been thinking about the relationship between these things, but the more he thinks about it, the more he feels puzzled.These things seem to be related, but after careful consideration, the connection between them seems too far-fetched.For example, Xiaoqing, everyone felt that her death had a lot to do with Liu San, but once Liu San was treated as a murderer, it was found that he had neither motive nor means of attack.And Liu San's spontaneous combustion is even more weird. If it is an accident, then his previous behavior obviously had a premonition of this result.But to say that Liu San committed suicide, his spontaneous combustion is completely against common sense.

Lao Hu couldn't figure it out, and Zhou Yuan, the person involved, was even more at a loss. He said with emotion: "Hey, I don't know if the police found anything?"

At this moment, Lao Hu's cell phone rang.He glanced at the screen and stood up: "I greeted my original colleague before, and he happened to pass by the hospital, so I'll go and inquire about it."

Knowing that the original colleague he was talking about was a policeman, Zhou Yuan nodded, and said casually: "It's better to have acquaintances. By the way, Lao Hu, you are a good policeman, why did you suddenly quit?" He paused for a moment, but did not answer the question, turned around and walked out of the door.

Walking out of the outpatient building, Lao Hu went straight to the small garden not far behind the building.A middle-aged policeman was sitting on a stone bench by the garden, smoking a cigarette with his head bowed.

"Brother Song, here we come." Lao Hu greeted, walked to him and sat down carelessly.

If Zhou Yuan were here, he would definitely recognize him immediately. He is the middle-aged policeman who found him in the alley last night.

"That Zhou Yuan is your close friend?" Lao Song raised his head, handed him a cigarette, and asked casually.

Lao Hu hesitated for a moment, but nodded.To be honest, Zhou Yuan and him are not very close. The two knew each other because when Zhou Yuan was investigated as a suspect a few years ago, although they hit it off, they didn't have much contact with each other after that.It's just that Lao Hu's character is of the kind with a warm heart, and he will help if he can.

Lao Song obviously knew Lao Hu very well, and shook his head slightly: "Forget it, I know you are nosy. I came to you specifically to tell you that it is best not to get involved in this matter."

Lao Hu stopped when he was about to light a cigarette, and glanced at Lao Song, but didn't ask any questions.

"How's business going?" Lao Song didn't continue the topic just now, but started chatting.

"It's okay. Thanks to everyone's care, the business of the barbecue restaurant is now on the right track. I don't need to watch it every day. It's very easy." Lao Hu opened a barbecue restaurant after resigning. , Business is very good.

"Actually, we all think that you are born to be a policeman." Lao Song sighed and looked at Lao Hu: "Have you thought about coming back? Actually, the director also meant that."

The light in Lao Hu's eyes flashed, but then dimmed again, and he silently shook his head.

Lao Song's lips moved, trying to persuade him to say something, but in the end he just sighed again: "Is that matter still on your mind? It's not that my brother is talking about you, you are kind and helpful, it's nothing, but there are some other things It's not easy to manage."

Lao Hu didn't speak, and smoked heavily in silence.The "that matter" that Lao Song said directly caused him to leave the police force and the profession he loved, and he didn't want to mention it again.

Lao Song finally got back to the topic: "I know that you and Zhou Yuan have a normal relationship, at most half acquaintances. It doesn't matter if you help him, anyway, this matter has nothing to do with him. But I have to give you Make it clear, this matter is about to be closed, so don't get involved in it."

"Closed the case? How could it just be closed like this? That Xiaoqing's death was too strange, and Liu San's spontaneous combustion..." Lao Hu was a little surprised, there were too many doubts, and he habitually refuted.

"That person's name is not Liu San. His real name is Lin He. He has a history of mental illness, and the identification document says he has delusional disorder, which is what people call daytime hysteria." Lao Song corrected: "He is a suspect in several arson cases. People. As for Xiao Qing who died of a sudden illness, it has little to do with Lin He."

Lao Hu understood what he meant, and took a drag on his cigarette.

One is suicide due to mental illness, and the other is due to the death of the young lady. Such a conclusion will not involve strange powers and confusion, and it is the most worry-free and labor-saving. Everyone is happy.But he still felt that this was inappropriate, and the conclusion was too hasty.Today, Lao Song was actually specially invited by Lao Hu. He originally wanted to tell him what he found when he went to the rental house before. He thought this clue might be helpful, but according to Lao Song, he didn’t plan to investigate this matter again. down.

Just as Lao Hu was about to say something, Lao Song suddenly lowered his voice and said seriously: "Hu Dongdong, don't make mistakes. This matter is full of weirdness from beginning to end, so don't meddle in your own business."

Lao Song was able to say such words, and Lao Hu knew that he was sincerely doing it for his own good, so he hesitated for a while.There must have been reasons for the police's decision to end the investigation.And after the incident a few years ago, he also vowed not to meddle in other people's business, and with his years of experience in the police force, he instinctively felt that the two deaths were more like accidents, but the way was too weird.

"I'll go first." Seeing Lao Hu lowered his head in thought, Lao Song stood up and patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Remember what I said."

Lao Hu nodded, and made up his mind not to worry about this matter: "Old Song, I'll listen to you."

But what I didn't expect was that only 5 minutes later, an accident shook Lao Hu's idea of ​​staying out of the matter.

In the afternoon, there were not many patients in the Central Hospital, so Lu Ming found an empty examination room and asked Lao Hu to accompany Zhou Yuan to infuse fluids. Zhou Yuan also joked that enjoying the treatment in a single room was a small matter.But when Lao Hu returned to the room after seeing Lao Song, he found that Zhou Yuan's eyes were closed tightly, and his face was pale and slumped on the chair. His whole right hand with the needle pierced, from the back of the hand to the next door, there was an obvious red spot. Very scary.

Zhou Yuan has passed out and lost consciousness.Old Hu didn't know if he had an allergic reaction, so he rushed out the door to find a doctor, and at the same time, he was filled with self-blame. If he hadn't left for a while, he would have discovered Zhou Yuan's abnormality immediately.

(End of this chapter)