I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords-Chapter 88 - 087. Is he innocent_1
Chapter 88: 087. Is he innocent?_1
Chapter 88: 087. Is he innocent?_1
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Night.
With bellies full from food and drink, Lu Ban and Qin Tiantian left the barbecue restaurant.
Some university students who didn’t plan on returning to their dorms that night, focused on gaming, were purchasing midnight snacks at the various stalls that were closing one after another in the back alley, preparing for battle at Summit of the Gorge.
Right next to the Northeastern barbecue was an internet café, and by its entrance was a slightly dark alley.
Lu Ban walked just behind Qin Tiantian, saying that from this angle, he could observe everything around them. Should any strange thing suddenly appear, he would be prepared.
The two walked out of the restaurant, and the trash cans diagonally across from them suddenly clanged loudly, startling Qin Tiantian so much that she quickly stepped back, hiding behind Lu Ban.
“It’s a cat.”
Lu Ban glanced over; the scruffy cat that had been rummaging through the garbage can had been disturbed by them and had already darted into the back alley.
“Scared me to death.”
Qin Tiantian muttered.
“In the daytime, you can’t walk past a cat without calling it cute, but at night, it ‘scares you to death.’ What a difference in treatment.”
Lu Ban teased.
“…”
Qin Tiantian gave Lu Ban a look.
She looked back at the trash can.
It was almost entirely kitchen waste, with some cigarette packs, lunch boxes, drink bottles—one for wet waste, one for dry, both overflowing with a day’s trash.
It was only a casual glance, but Qin Tiantian thought she saw something strange.
Was that… a hand?
In that dirty, fruit peel and meat shred-filled trash can, with chicken bones scattered about, there lay a hand buried among the rubbish.
The skin on the hand was damaged, and not from a scrape; it looked like it had burst from high temperatures. Despite this, the shape of the fingers was still recognizable—not a prop, but a real human hand!
“Ah!”
Qin Tiantian screamed, stumbling and falling into Lu Ban’s arms.
“Take care of her for me.”
Lu Ban said to his imaginary friend by his side, then had Qin Tiantian stand behind him.
“Find the owner, call the police.”
He commanded and approached the trash can.
Lu Ban didn’t reach out rashly to disturb the scene but made a simple check around it.
The hand had likely been severed at the wrist with obvious signs of charring on the surface—not typical of normal burn marks.
“Hot oil… deep-fried?”
Lu Ban came to this conclusion with his limited culinary knowledge.
“Wait, if the body is here, could the meat we just ate… ugh!”
Qin Tiantian leaned against the wall and immediately vomited out everything she had eaten that evening.
In the distance, the sound of police sirens approached, and the dim light from the street lamps in the alley cast deep shadows on Lu Ban’s face.
…
“Name.”
“Haven’t we seen each other many times already, Officer?”
“We’re following procedure, your name.”
“Lu Ban.”
“Age.”
“22.”
Lu Ban was being questioned at the police station, facing him were Chen Danshen and He Youwu, whom he had met before.
“Officer, I want to ask, am I speaking to you as a witness right now?”
“Of course.”
“Then why are there handcuffs on your table?”
Lu Ban looked at the two officers who were even more nervous than he was, as well as the handcuffs lying on the table.
“We are professional police officers; this is all standard procedure,”
He Youwu sat up straight and said.
“Tell us about your schedule today, and then how you discovered the body?”
Chen Danshen started taking notes with his pen.
“Well, I got up in the morning, had breakfast, then studied some common film transition techniques. After lunch, I watched some videos and then went to the balcony for photosynthesis. Afterward, I chatted with my ‘air friend’ for a while, and Tiantian asked me out for dinner. I then tidied up a bit and went out to eat. We ate until just recently. When we left, there were some stray cats by the trash can, and that’s when we saw the hand in it.”
Lu Ban briefly outlined his day’s activities.
“Photosynthesis… is that sunbathing?”
He Youwu muttered to himself, then noticed another term in Lu Ban’s words.
“Air friend, what’s that?”
“It’s a friend you can’t see; they are just standing there.”
Upon hearing Lu Ban’s words, He Youwu was suddenly startled. He felt as if the temperature in the room dropped abruptly, as if someone was blowing on his neck.
Chen Danshen, who was sitting beside him, also looked slightly disturbed. He felt stiffness in his neck, and slowly turned his head to look behind him.
The wall was empty, with nothing there.
“Stop talking about such nonsense,”
He Youwu, who had just looked behind himself and was sweating coldly, reminded him.
After asking a few more questions, they let Lu Ban leave.
Once Lu Ban had left, the two police officers sat in silence for a while. He Youwu stood up, checked outside the door, and then sat back down to look at the notes they had taken.
“The recent murder cases have involved the perpetrator dismembering the bodies, and this one looks to be part of that pattern.”
“His behavior seemed a bit deliberate, especially the talk of ‘air friends.’ It’s too far-fetched even for a person with mental illness.”
“But if he really was the culprit, where would he find the time to commit the crime? And why would he call the police himself, making himself the primary discoverer?”
“According to criminal psychology, some gratification offenders return to the scene of their crimes, leave in the presence of the police; maybe that’s what he was doing.”
“Could there be a possibility of copycat crimes? If this case is categorized as part of the serial killings, being cleared of suspicion in one case would mean he’s cleared for all the others. If it’s a copycat crime, he could be providing himself an alibi for the other cases.”
“But we’ve kept the details of the case confidential from the public; only insiders know them. How could he know the details?”
He Youwu and Chen Danshen went back and forth, continuously analyzing the possibility that Lu Ban was the perpetrator.
Just then, they were brought back to reality by a knock on the door.
He Youwu opened the door to find Lu Ban standing there.
“Is, is there something wrong?”
He felt somewhat uncertain as this was the police station; surely Lu Ban wouldn’t do anything dangerous here?
“I rushed out earlier and just realized I might have locked my friend in your office. I came to pick him up.”
Lu Ban maintained a gentle smile.
“???”
The two policemen looked at each other, then at the empty room.
“Then we’ll be leaving,”
Lu Ban waved his hand and disappeared around the corner of the corridor.
“…Was he serious?”
He Youwu felt a bit weak, unsure how to describe his feelings.
“It must have just been him checking out the situation…”
Chen Danshen’s phone rang. He answered it and listened for a while.
“The other girl’s statement is done too, and it’s basically consistent with what Lu Ban said. If they didn’t coordinate their stories in advance, then it’s likely neither of them is a major suspect,”
He conveyed the news from his colleague.
“Can’t be…”
He Youwu thought that someone as handsome and elegant as Lu Ban, not playing the role of a serial killer in some movie would be a total waste of his good looks.
“Could it be… he really is innocent?”
*
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