S.C.I.谜案集 (Special Criminal Investigation) Book 2

Case 4. Love Murderer: Chapter 13. The Past

Xu Bao's words made Zhan Zhao and the others stunned. The old lady opened the door and said, "come in and sit down. Don't stand at the door."

Bai Yutang nodded and followed the old lady into the courtyard. Xu Zhong and Xu Bao also followed.

After entering the house, Bai Yutang looked around and saw that it was a clean but simple room with white walls and bundles of firewood and grass on one side. In urban and rural areas, there were a lot of old people these days who liked to boil water with firewood on a coal stove. There was a lot of food at home. It was possible to see that people took care of the granny. On the wall facing the front door of the living room was a spiritual platform, a black-and-white picture of Xu Tian, and an incense burner... Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, as they both could see the old lady's yearning for her son.

When everyone sat down, Ma Han helped the granny bring tea to everyone. Xu Zhong handed cigarettes to Bai Yutang, who waved his hand to signal that no one here smoked.

Xu Zhong did not push further. He sat on the bench at the table, while Xu Bao sat on a bamboo chair at the door, lit a cigarette and began to smoke.

The way he smoked attracted Zhan Zhao's attention.

There were a lot of smokers in SCI, but none of them were addicted to it. They all smoked occasionally. After all, cigarettes were a good sedative and stimulant for people on this job who saw either rotting corpses or perverts.

After a simple autopsy at the scene, Gong Sun would stand at the door and smoke a cigarette if the corpse was too disgusting. Gong Sun looked very gloomy when he smoked, but only after the autopsy. Most of the time, he just felt helpless, especially when he was in the medical examiner's office wearing a white coat, holding a newspaper on his legs, a cigarette in his hand and wearing a pair of glasses... He was like a dispirited uncle, but just younger.

Ma Han, Zhang Long and Wang Chao would occasionally smoke as well due to their profession. Ma Han was a heavy smoker and would sometimes find a place to smoke two cigarettes. It was said that this was a habit formed by snipers for many years, especially before and after the mission, in order to calm the heart so that they would not tremble later. Therefore, when they smoked, there was a certain silence in the air. No wonder a woman like Chen Jiayi would get dizzy when she saw Ma Han smoke.

Da Ding and Xiao Ding smoked in order to pose or because they were in a good mood. In short, when they smoked, they squinted their eyes, and had a smile on their faces. They also became a little more ruthless, for fear that people would not know they were present.

When Bai Jintang smoked, he was... sexy. No one had ever smoked a cigarette like him before.

Luo Tian had given up smoking because of Yang Yang, but occasionally he would have one in his mouth when he went on a mission. However, most of the time he would hold it in his hand. Zhan Zhao carefully observed that most of the cigarettes were burned out by themselves. Luo Tian smoked two or three cigarettes at most, and he always seemed to be in a daze. If he wanted to speak, he would put out the cigarette.

Zhao Zhen could imitate all kinds of ways people smoked, because he needed to act it out. However, he never smoked in real life. Most likely he was too lazy to smoke. Bai Chi did not smoke, because if he did, he would be known as a bad kid.

Zhan Zhao recalled that in his memory, Bai Yutang occasionally smoked cigarettes. When the cases were very serious, and the corpses looked disgusting, he would smoke two cigarettes. However, after he smoked, he would find a place to brush his teeth, and his obsessive-compulsive disorder for cleanliness would intensify. Zhan Zhao actually liked the way Bai Yutang smoked. He felt as if Bai Yutang looked a few years older. The two brothers had similar genes and could make simple movements look very sexy.