Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 45: Chapter 14: Bloody Manhunt (Part 2)

A pit full of fish?

Fish?

Zhang Shutong’s gaze shot to the man lying on the ground. He heard Qingyi say, holding his breath:

"We were all wrong. This guy isn’t a murderer. Du Kang was right after all..."

Never mind what Du Kang had said; Zhang Shutong now understood what was in the pit. He, too, exclaimed in surprise:

"What? He’s an electrofisher?"

The large pit was filled with the rotting carcasses of fish, emitting a thick stench of blood and decay.

"He *is* an electrofisher." Qingyi let out a rare curse, frustrated. "I thought he was a murderer, you know? I was scared shitless just now. If I’d known he was just electrofishing, we wouldn’t have had to hide for so long. If only I’d known... Ugh."

He shook his head.

"No point in saying all this. It’s just hindsight being 20/20. Even if he was just an electrofisher, if it hadn’t been for you, Shutong, Ruoping probably would have been in danger."

Zhang Shutong wasn’t in the mood to take credit. He didn’t care about that; as long as everyone was okay, that was what mattered.

Right now, he was just as frustrated as Qingyi, if not more so.

Although things had turned out fine in the end, the process of taking the man down had been a winding one. When Du Kang and the others pinned the man to the ground, even he had felt a long-lost surge of excitement:

’So it was you. The one who killed me, killed Gu Qiuyan, and killed Lu Qinglian. Never thought you’d get caught on my first day back, did you?’

He’d also had the strange feeling that things were being resolved too easily, but then again, he had been killed just as easily back then. Still, to think that in the end, all they’d caught was an electrofisher.

He really needed a cigarette right now.

But there were no cigarettes around, only the overwhelming stench.

"I need some quiet..."

"Me too."

The two looked at each other, simultaneously turned around to gasp in the tiny bit of fresh air behind them, then turned back to stare at the fish pit.

Qingyi rummaged through the things on the man’s body; he had already searched him.

"Look, this is the snakeskin bag Du Kang was talking about. It’s actually a bag for dead fish. And the other thing he was carrying was a shovel... Oh, right, and this. Shutong, guess what this is?"

Qingyi unstrapped a poker-like object from the man’s back.

"An electrofishing rod?"

"Exactly. I thought it was a gun..."

Zhang Shutong looked at his best friend’s speechless expression and almost laughed. He was frustrated, but seeing someone even more frustrated than him seemed to lessen his own vexation a little.

But the stench was just too awful, so he quickly shut his mouth, squeezing the words out through his teeth:

"Forget it. As long as everyone’s okay. I was worried you wouldn’t get my signal."

"Don’t even mention it. That gave me a real jolt. It was genius for you to come up with that plan, but it’s a good thing you threw it at my head. If you’d thrown it at the other two, they might not have figured it out."

Then Qingyi muttered again:

"You know, how does Du Kang manage to run into everything..."

"What do you mean?"

"You forgot? Last week he said he saw someone electrofishing and righteously went to report it to the police. The cops didn’t believe him, and neither did we. Turns out he was telling the truth. He probably saw this same guy."

Hearing that, a memory surfaced for Zhang Shutong.

He remembered when he went to the police that afternoon. The reason the officer didn’t believe his story was because he had just been tricked by them last week. A baby-faced kid had told him someone was electrofishing, but as soon as the police went to patrol, the group of friends had gone to fish on the other side.

Even Zhang Shutong himself had thought it was just a lie some brats had cooked up so they could go fishing. He never expected it was real.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the thought. But on second thought, it was a classic case of biting off more than you can chew. If the unconscious man had really been the murderer, the few of them might not have been able to handle him so easily.

In any case, this unusual night was finally over. He had spent the whole night pacing back and forth in the cold wind. Now that the man’s identity was confirmed, he realized how mentally exhausted he was. All he wanted was to go home and collapse onto his bed.

"But... don’t you think something’s off?" Qingyi suddenly asked again.

Now that the matter was settled, his friend’s annoying habit was flaring up again.

"Spit it out." Zhang Shutong rolled his eyes.

"I was just thinking. Back when I set up the fishing line, didn’t I specifically have Du Kang shout to lure him over?"

"But if he’s just an electrofisher, it’s not that big of a crime. The worst he’d get is a few days in detention if he got caught. Would he really pull a knife over that?"

"That’s true."

Zhang Shutong also stroked his chin, lost in thought.

Anyway, the situation was resolved, but they had to wait for the police to come and clean things up, so they couldn’t leave yet. He was interested in playing a little deduction game with his best friend; they used to love doing this.

"Maybe he’s a fugitive from a previous crime?" Zhang Shutong said casually. "Did you find anything else on him just now?"

"A wallet, a Swiss Army knife, a lighter and cigarettes... oh, and this, a cell phone." Qingyi went back and patted the man down again. "But we don’t know the password, so it’s useless."

"That all seems pretty normal." Zhang Shutong also stood up, but he still felt like something was wrong.

He frowned. It felt like he was just one tiny step away from connecting the dots. It seemed both important and unimportant at the same time, but that little piece was missing. Maybe he was just too tired tonight; he couldn’t grasp that spark of insight.

But it was Qingyi who lost interest first, even though he was the one who had suggested playing detective.

"Forget it. He’s just a bald guy who electrofishes. What are we doing here analyzing him? It stinks. I’d rather be home reading my novels. Look at Ruoping and the others. They went up and aren’t coming back down. It’s been so long, and not a peep. We look like a couple of idiots."

Zhang Shutong mostly agreed. There really wasn’t much to analyze about an electrofisher. Sure, the guy’s reaction had been a bit abnormal, but even a cornered dog will bite. Pulling a knife wasn’t that strange, all things considered.