Atlas of Heaven and Man

Upon hearing Chen Chuan's instructions, Director Wang shuddered and immediately ordered the driver to stop. He then leaned out of the car window and loudly gave instructions, pointing at the approaching bald man.

The security officers immediately became excited. They had been patrolling for so long and were getting restless. Now that they finally had a target, they jumped out of the car and rushed to pin the man to the ground.

The bald man was a mix of shock and anger. He struggled and shouted, "What are you doing? What are you doing? Who are you? Let me go!"

One of the security officers said fiercely, "Don't you know what you've done?"

The bald man looked bewildered.

Seeing this, Chen Chuan said to Director Wang, "No need to be so rough. He's probably just someone who's been tainted by the butterfly tattoo, not the real target we're looking for."

Right now, the blurring of my second self is very slight, so this person shouldn't be the source.

But Director Wang was still uneasy. "This, Expert Chen..." He looked outside and tentatively asked, "Could these people be...?"

Chen Chuan said, "Don't be afraid. This kind of 'weird tale' isn't transmitted through normal means of infection. Otherwise, a county town this big would have been overrun long ago, not waiting until now."

In fact, the fact that he hadn't found anyone like this after driving around a few times was a good thing, indicating that the weird tale hadn't spread widely yet. So, some people get the tattoo because of some special reason.

Director Wang was relieved, but he still didn't get out of the car. He said to the security officers, "Drag him into the car and check if he has a tattoo on his body."

The security officers immediately dragged the bald man into the car and checked him. They saw a colored butterfly on his back, and everyone was shocked. One of the officers ran over and said, "Director Wang, he has it, he really has it!"

Director Wang quickly looked at Chen Chuan.

Chen Chuan said, "Ask him where he's been recently, and where he's been in the last few days."

Director Wang immediately repeated this to the officer, then said to Chen Chuan, "Don't worry, Expert Chen. These security brothers are best at questioning people."

Chen Chuan hummed in agreement and said, "Make sure it's the truth."

Director Wang cleared his throat and said, "Yes, it will definitely be the truth." After thinking about it, he was a little worried and said awkwardly, "I'll go take a look."

After a while, Director Wang returned. He said, "Expert Chen, I've asked..." Because he knew that Chen Chuan didn't know the roads here, he held the map in his hand and specially marked the locations on it. "Expert Chen, please take a look. This person has been to these places..."

Chen Chuan looked at it, then took out the previous map and compared it with the routes taken by those who had grown butterfly tattoos before. Of course, this only guaranteed the last few days; it was impossible to trace back any earlier than that.

He circled a range where these people overlapped and tapped it with a pen. "Let's go check this place out."

Director Wang looked at it, and his expression suddenly changed slightly, because he found a bus station in the center of the range. He said worriedly, "Could these people be coming from other places?"

If that was the case, the scope of the investigation would be much larger.

Chen Chuan said, "Not necessarily. Let's go take a closer look first."

"What about the person we just caught?"

Because the location wasn't far from here, they arrived in less than a few minutes.

This time, as soon as they arrived, Chen Chuan made another discovery. The phantom on his second self had obviously changed again. He looked at a middle-aged man standing on the side of the road, holding a briefcase, about to unfold a newspaper, and said, "That person."

This time, Director Wang didn't need him to emphasize it. He immediately got out of the car and ordered the security officers to arrest that person as well. The man seemed to struggle violently, but was eventually grabbed by the collar and dragged into the car.

After a while, Director Wang returned. He said with some confusion, "I've checked, Mr. Chen, but this person doesn't seem to have that butterfly tattoo on his body."

Chen Chuan said, "Not having it on the body doesn't mean it's not in the internal organs."

Director Wang couldn't help but shiver when he heard this and said, "Then I'll go ask again."

Chen Chuan thought for a moment and said, "I'll go with you." He also got out of the car and was about to walk to the back, but his footsteps suddenly slowed down.

He glanced at his second self and found that some faint blurring had appeared again.

No, there's more!

He looked around. Because the security officers were arresting people around here just now, they had startled away many passersby. Now, apart from these people, there was no one else.

He looked up at a high place. There were no tall buildings around, at most only a few flying birds. With that, his gaze fell and he looked at the street, finally focusing on a manhole cover. This is, underneath...

He walked over and said a few words to Director Wang, who was stunned and said, "Are you sure, Expert Chen?"

Chen Chuan nodded.

Director Wang hesitated for a moment, "Okay, I'll arrange it." He looked around and found a shop with a telephone next to the street and made a call.

Only half an hour later, maintenance personnel from the municipal engineering department arrived, opened the manhole cover, and went in to investigate. More than an hour later, they used tools to hook up a swollen, rotten, black-green corpse, with worms wriggling on it.

The members of the Security Bureau, upon seeing this scene and smelling the odor, even those who had worn masks beforehand, went to the side to vomit one after another.

Chen Chuan asked for a pair of gloves, walked over, calmly observed the scene, reached out and rummaged through the clothes of the corpse, and finally found a rope knot that had turned white and discolored from being soaked.

The moment I grabbed this thing, the illusory signs on my body clearly deepened. It can be seen that this is a symmetrical double-circular knot, one large and one small, looking like a butterfly.

He walked over with it and asked, "Director Wang, do you recognize this thing?"

Director Wang endured his disgust and looked at it. "A lover's knot?"

Chen Chuan asked, "Is it common?"

Director Wang thought for a moment, "It's a custom from our Qiaoshen Festival in the past, where women would weave巧 knots (skillful knots) to give as tokens of affection during the festival. But now, apart from some older people, young people no longer make these." He tentatively asked, "Expert Chen, is this related to the butterfly tattoo?"

Chen Chuan said, "It's not clear yet. We need to ask again. Call those two people over and ask them."

Seeing that he didn't want to examine the body further, Director Wang breathed a sigh of relief and immediately called over the two people who had been caught. He showed them the lover's knot and asked if they had seen anything similar recently.

The bald man who had been caught earlier looked at it and nodded, saying, "I've seen it, I've seen it. The night before last, when I came out to stroll around the night market, this thing appeared in my pocket. I don't know who stuffed it in there."

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Director Wang immediately followed up, "Where is it now?"

The bald man scratched his head. "I threw it away casually. I'm a grown man, and my son is as tall as me. What would I do with this thing?"

The middle-aged man looked at the bald man, hesitating to speak.

Director Wang stared at him. "What do you want to say?"

The middle-aged man said, "I've seen it too. I also discovered it in my pocket when I came back from the night market that day. But I clearly remember that I didn't buy this thing. It just inexplicably appeared in my pocket."

"Where is it?"

The middle-aged man seemed a little hesitant, and finally said, "I gave it away."

Director Wang said, "Who did you give it to?"

The middle-aged man stammered that it was a friend, but judging from his appearance, Director Wang could guess what was going on and sneered a few times.

Seeing this, Chen Chuan had a general idea in his mind. He said, "Director Wang, please ask those who have confirmed tattoos and have been detained whether they have seen or come into contact with similar things, and also ask them how they finally dealt with them."

"Okay! Expert Chen, please wait a moment, it may take some time." Director Wang also felt that things seemed to be coming to a head, and he was full of energy, rushing off to make a phone call.

Chen Chuan then said something to the company driver who had followed him. The man nodded and went to buy drinks and cigarettes, handing them out to the members of the Security Bureau.

Then he took out an energy bar, ate one, and then walked over to chat with the members of the Security Bureau.

Upon hearing that he had an elder in his family who was a captain in the Patrol Bureau, the members of the Security Bureau immediately became respectful and became much more enthusiastic.

For these members of the Security Bureau, the title of "expert" wasn't very effective, but the name of the Patrol Bureau was very effective, because nominally they belonged to the same government department. They needed to become regular employees, and in addition to the seal of the county government office, they also needed to pass the approval of the Patrol Bureau. Now, they all came up to curry favor, trying to make Chen Chuan remember them.

More than an hour later, Director Wang returned, covered in sweat. He handed a list to Chen Chuan and said excitedly, "Expert Chen, I've asked everyone. Everyone has seen this thing. This is the statement…"

Chen Chuan took it and flipped through it. Although the times when these people received the lover's knot were different, they all had one thing in common: they only saw it after returning from the night market, and the thing was either lost or given away in the end.

He pondered for a moment and said, "After this thing was lost, butterfly tattoos appeared on their bodies… Hmm, it shouldn't be lost, but rather the lover's knot arrived on their bodies."

Director Wang was stunned, and then he said in horror, "Then, then the lover's knot is the butterfly tattoo?"

Chen Chuan said, "It's very likely that this is the case, Director Wang. The known number of deaths due to this is eight, and the earliest can be traced back to ten days ago, right?"

"Yes, yes."

Chen Chuan nodded and said, "In that case, it should be one person dying every day. This also conforms to some of the rules of 怪谈 (weird tales). If we start counting from ten days ago, then ten people should have died in a row, which means there are probably two…" He thought of the corpse just now, "There is one more person who died and was not discovered, or was not reported."

"No, that's not right." Director Wang seemed to have thought of something, "Right, that corpse, Expert Chen, the flesh of that corpse…" Saying this, he gagged again, "The flesh is still there, it didn't turn into butterflies and fly away, and the lover's knot is also there."

Chen Chuan said, "It's precisely because he died beforehand that the lover's knot remained on his body and did not become a butterfly tattoo."

Director Wang reacted, "Expert Chen is saying that he died for other reasons?" He muttered, "Yes, it should be like this…"

As for how he died in the sewer, maybe the manhole cover wasn't there that day, and he fell in, and then it was covered up again? Thinking of this, he suddenly felt uncomfortable and quickly dismissed these thoughts from his mind. He then asked, "Expert Chen, what should we do next?"

Chen Chuan looked up at the sky and then said, "I've been considering it just now. If my deduction is correct, then perhaps there is a way to deal with it."

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