Although it was an old case twenty years ago, after all, it involved human lives and directly caused the demise of a festival. It is easy to find traces of such a sensational case.
Ma Xiaochao led Liu Mengwei to the archives, followed time into the deepest corner, and opened the case file that had been sealed for twenty years. She finally found Jasmine.
A black-and-white photo that was so blurry that it was difficult to distinguish her facial features immediately came into view, but she could still vaguely see that her face was soft, delicate and dignified. The girl in the photo is thin, with shackles on her hands, and her eyes are blurred, like a lonely and injured young swallow. She stood under a tall female statue, which made her even more weak, helpless and isolated. Her eyes were unfocused, wandering as if searching for someone standing outside the photo, but unfortunately found nothing.
The statue in the background of the photo, with its open sleeves and flowing skirt, is rippling like water waves, as if there is no wind, and it is as airy as an immortal. It is naturally the flower god in the Flower Temple. Although Lin Xuerou's painting is simple and lacks many details, the outline of the figure, the direction of the clothes, and the posture and movement are basically consistent with the statue of the Goddess of Flowers in the photo. At this point, Liu Mengwei was able to confirm that the picture of ancient ladies painted by Lin Xuerou was the flower god in the flower temple east of Xibaozhuang.
But the Jasmine she painted had no identifiable features as the girl in the photo. After looking through all the photo information, Liu Mengwei found a relatively clear photo, which was taken from the right side of the girl, clearly recording the right half of her face. There were no marks there, no birthmarks, scars, or moles. Her young and delicate face was clean.
Liu Mengwei could only continue to look through the files in his hand.
Several dirty clothes stained with blood, a candlestick with spikes, a body of a young man with severe burn marks, a thick stack of fingerprint samples, blood sample samples, visit records, interrogation transcripts, etc. The information has been sleeping in the file bag numbered CRF19980321XE in the archives room for twenty years.
Jasmine was actually an orphan. A primary school teacher in Xibaozhuang adopted her, and she became the teacher's daughter. But in fact, the teacher named Bai Yuyang did not meet the conditions for adopting a child. Therefore, Jasmine has never been able to enter the household registration system. Without any identity documents, she lives quietly in an unknown place.
She has never entered school, but her father is a teacher, and maybe he has been teaching her in private, or maybe his father, an intellectual, believes in the idea that "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue" and believes that it makes no difference whether she studies or not. .
There are multiple transcripts in the case file. The recorder's handwriting was neat and beautiful, horizontally and vertically, and sharp, as if he had written a coherent prose poem. There are questions and answers, and answers will be given.
Question: Where were you on the night of March 21?
Answer: In the Flower Goddess Temple, I am the maid of the Flower Goddess. My father asked me to stay there to talk to the Flower Goddess.
Q: What happened that night?
Answer: I don’t know. I’m so scared. Where is dad?
Question: Were you the only one in the temple at that time?
Answer: Yes.
Q: What happened next? Is someone coming again?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Who is coming?
Answer: I don’t know, I don’t know him.
Question: Is this the person in the photo? (Photos of Li Youlin are shown here)
Answer: I don’t know where my father is. I want to go home.
Q: What did he do to you?
Answer: He wants to arrest me.
Q: What then? What happened?
Answer: I was afraid of him. I ran away and he kept chasing me.
Q: Were you caught by him?
Answer: Caught, I was caught by him.
Q: And then what did he do to you?
Answer: He caught me. He grabbed me and wouldn't let me go.
Q: What did you do then?
Answer: I want to run away and go back to find my father.
Question: When you look at this, do you have any impression? (Photo of the menorah shown here)
Answer: Candle, I took the candle from the table of the Flower Goddess.
Q: What are you doing with the candle?
Answer: The Flower Goddess gave it to me.
Question: There is no Flower Goddess.
Answer: Yes.
Question: There is no Flower Goddess. It is just a sculpture and will not move.
Answer: Yes.
Question: What did you do after you took the menorah?
Answer: I hit him.
Q: How did you hit him? How many hits?
Answer: I don’t remember, several times.
Q: Did he let you go?
Answer: Let go. He was lying on the ground, so he let me go.
Q: Where are the candles above?
Answer: The candle fell to the ground.
Question: What happens after it falls?
A: Then it fell to the ground.
Question: Is the candle that fell on the floor still burning? Is the fire out?
Answer: No, the temple of the Goddess of Flowers is always on fire.
The writing is so detailed that it almost perfectly recreates the situation at that time. Closing her eyes, Liu Mengwei seemed to have entered a narrow dark room, with dazzling white light shining directly into her eyes. The cold voices of inquiries, urgings, and orders were overwhelming like an impatient rainstorm.
The eyes of the girl who was chained to the chair were as clear as the crystal dewdrops in the morning, and as helpless as a mourning deer whose neck was bitten. Her answers were sometimes contradictory, sometimes vague, sometimes repetitive, and sometimes she did not answer the question. Under the pressure like thunder, she could only let the flood of tears pour down, crying until her eyes were dry and her voice was hoarse, screaming that the sky would not respond and the earth would not work.
Liu Mengwei fell into the blue and black deep sea. Fear invaded her heart and lungs along with the vast sea water. She began to feel suffocated, and her chest felt like a heavy weight. When her hands once again touched the yellowed pages, she finally saw Jasmine.
I'm afraid that the recorder didn't know when he had the magic power to imprint the strong thoughts of a dying person on the papers he wrote.
In fact, every piece of paper that is written on has more or less its own story and emotions, but there are too few people who can read it.
What kind of strong mental power is needed to capture that smoke-like soul in the chaotic ocean of consciousness?
Do you believe there are ghosts in this world? They are actually everywhere. Sometimes they dissolve in every breath of air you breathe. Sometimes they turn into a group of wind and hit you violently. Sometimes they surround you like the warm sun in winter. They are scattered in the memories of people who have interacted with them during their lifetime, and occasionally or often come out to cause trouble, making you feel sad, nostalgic, regretful, painful, and afraid for them. This is the ability of their ghosts.
Turn to the last page of the file and there is a court judgment notice.
"The suspect Bai Moli, female, 18 years old, unknown place of birth, unemployed. Together with Wang Jinlong, Zhao Qiang, Chen Weidong and other villagers of Xibaozhuang, Yunhe City, they carried out gangster criminal activities. And at 9:30 pm on March 21, 1998 In the Flower Temple, he stabbed Dongbaozhuang villager Li Mou to death with a candlestick on the desk, and tried to burn the body of the victim Li Mou to cover up the evidence of the crime. This court believes that the facts of the above crime are clear, the evidence is conclusive, and the crime is particularly serious , the means are very bad, seriously endangering social security and disrupting social order. Based on the defendant's crime, the People's Court, in accordance with Articles 160 and 232 of the "Executive Law", as well as the Standing Committee's decision on severely punishing criminals who seriously endanger social security It stipulates that Bai Moli be sentenced to death immediately for hooliganism and intentional homicide and deprived of political rights for life."
The dark wilderness, the chilling sound of the wind, and the sobs around me that sounded like ghosts weeping one after another, made people feel chilly all over. Among these people, only a girl as pure as jasmine did not cry. She opened her pair of deer-like black eyes and stared blankly ahead. .
"Bang——" The gun against the back of the head rang out. Sometimes, the strict and rigid laws of physics also want to be naughty and take those unusual paths.
The bullet broke through the hard skull, minced the brain, and then penetrated from the corner of the right eyebrow, leaving a bloody hole the size of a broad bean.
