Living The Art Agony Chapter 5

The next day, Torry came to the police station early and asked Liam to call Liu Qingde to continue to help him, the "criminal suspect", to ask for leave.

"It's not easy. Before, we couldn't even get a sedan chair to come in, but now you are so proactive." Liam smiled sarcastically.

"Stop talking. If someone dies again, I'll see if you can still laugh."

"What's the meaning?"

"This guy is going to commit serial murder."

"Why?!"

"Don't ask yet. Didn't the murderer send you a video? I want to watch it now and tell you after I finish watching it."

Liam was made nervous by what he said and didn't dare to act rashly. He quickly took out the video and showed it to Torry.

"Not suitable for children." He reminded while clicking the mouse, "The murderer wrapped himself tightly, in black clothes, black hat, and black mask. He was interrogating Grace, but he muted his own voice and only used subtitles to type out his questions."

Torry found a chair and sat in front of the computer. The video started. Grace appeared naked in the center of the screen, with her hands and feet fixed on an iron stool. Torry was not prepared at all and his blood boiled.

Subtitle: "How about it, it seems you have a good time today?"

"Stop!" Torry asked hurriedly, "Did the murderer also have s3x with Grace?"

Liam pressed the pause but.ton. "I guess not. Watch it in its entirety first, don't be so shocked." After that, he glanced at Torry meaningfully, "Hey, I heard that there's a man harassing you every day?"

"Isn't that man you?"

Captain Lu couldn't refute this and pressed the play but.ton.

Hearing the murderer's question, Grace actually nodded.

Subtitles: "Not bad, she is indeed a 5lut."

Grace seemed to be quite interested in the murderer at this time, with her beautiful eyes flickering. However, she must not have known that the murderer was filming, let alone the murderer's true intention.

At this moment, a new subtitle suddenly appeared: "Do you know why I arrested you?"

It's like Liam is possessed.

"Because my brother wants me."

Torry was surprised that Grace spoke so bluntly.

Subtitles: "Oh, of course I want to, but I don't want you, I want your life!"

Grace's face changed when she heard this, and her originally relaxed body froze instantly. As her vigilance suddenly increased, she finally discovered the camera and shouted: "Are you filming?!"

As a public figure, Grace knew what the leaked video meant to her career. But she didn't know that she would soon lose her life, let alone her career.

The murderer didn't respond to her words, and the subtitles continued to pop up: "Your hypocrisy is disgusting. A wh0re should not be a virtuous woman, this is the rule of the underworld. If you admit it generously, I will respect you as a good wh0re. But if you pretend to be pure and deceive people everywhere like you, I need to teach you a lesson."

Grace shouted: "This is my job requirement! How did I offend you that you treat me like this! And... and... and you want to kill me!"

Subtitle: "You didn't offend me. I just happened to want to kill a liar, and you just happened to be the best liar I know."

Grace's voice became louder: "Are you crazy?"

Subtitles: "That's right, the most sober people in the world are you liars. How can you lie to others if you are not sober? And other people are really crazy and would believe the liars."

Grace said: "Even if I hide myself, does that mean I deserve to die? There are so many people who deserve to die in the world, many worse than me, why don't you go find them!"

Subtitles: "Hiding yourself? That's a good excuse. But do you realize that your lies have killed people? On May 10 last year, you met Zhao Chang, the son of Zhao Kangmei, the former richest man in Qin Province, at a charity dinner and quickly established a relationship. On May 25, you were harassed by a drunk on the road. It was his fault that he harassed you, but although he was extremely frivolous in his words, he didn't even touch you. And you lied to Zhao Chang that he touched you, k!ssed you, and groped you. Zhao Chang, that idiot, didn't check the facts, and immediately called the underworld to beat up the drunk, and the drunk was beaten to death. Zhao Chang only took three of his brothers to take the blame."

Grace trembled and said, "How...how did you know?"

Subtitles: "At the beginning of this year, a fan publicly expressed his love for you online. You continued to pretend to be innocent and said you would sue him for harassment. I support you. But two weeks later, the fan was hit and killed by a car. The case was closed as a traffic accident at the time, but the mastermind behind it was Zhao Chang. As for whether you are the mastermind behind Zhao Chang, that is a matter of opinion."

Hearing this, Grace's face was filled with shock and fear.

Subtitles: "You two are really devils! I don't care if you want to pretend to be innocent. But if someone just expresses his love for you, even if he pesters you or even speaks frivolously to you, is it necessary to die?"

Grace shouted: "This is all Zhao Chang's fault! He is very chauvinistic and possessive, and he can't stand any man getting close to me."

Subtitles: "This is interesting. As far as I know, while Zhao Chang was with you, he also maintained unclear relationships with five other women. And you, on the other hand, were always hooking up with young handsome guys on the set. You two are really a perfect match."

Grace said: "But what does this have to do with you?"

Subtitles: "I can't stand it. The police didn't arrest the real bad guys like you, they just locked up a few of your little brothers. It's boring."

Grace said: "Then you should go and kill Zhao Chang!"

Subtitles: "Zhao Chang? That idiot was able to do these two things, all because of you! I don't kill people casually. If I hadn't found out that you were the cause of those people's deaths, you, a big star, would be nothing but a joke in my eyes. You wouldn't have the honor of being invited here by me."

He really wants to kill me, Grace suddenly thought. No matter how much she tried to defend herself, it was useless. She suddenly felt a huge fear and the approach of death, and burst into tears: "I beg you, can you please not kill me? I still have a lot of things to do!"

Subtitle: "The people who died because of you also have a lot to do. No one's life is worth half a cent less than yours."

Then, as the actress screamed hysterically, the man in black raised a hammer and knocked out her teeth in a very rhythmic manner. Grace's painful struggle and the man in black's high calmness formed a strange contrast. Soon, Grace's face was covered with a mixture of tears, snot, saliva and blood - she was no longer beautiful at all.

Just when Grace placed her only hope on going back to get dental implants and plastic surgery, the "great painter" threw her and the entire iron stool into a pre-dug pit not far away.

She then lay down in the pit.

It was at this moment that Grace realized that she was really finished. She immediately stopped screaming and turned to begging for mercy in a crying voice, even though her words were already unclear. Facing the cruelty of life but being unable to do anything about it is the first lesson for all the lucky ones and the last lesson for all the unfortunate ones. The camera was held up by the "great painter" to record the peak work of this actor.

But the "great painter" soon lost his patience and picked up a shovel.

At the end of the video, a line of white words appeared in the middle of the black background:

The autumn colors of Quehua are reflected in the cold forest with snow, and the early spring in the mountains is covered with pines in the valleys.

The video ends.

Seeing the second half, Torry was completely limp. He realized that this was not acting. Grace, a living person, went from life to death step by step, from noise to silence. All the glory of her life ended so quickly.

"Tell me what you think." Liam nudged Torry, who had not yet recovered from his shock, with his elbow.

Torry tried very hard to suppress his emotion and calmed down, saying: "First, it is obvious that the murderer killed Grace because he thought Grace was hypocritical and that she directly or indirectly caused Zhao Chang to kill people who were not guilty of capital crimes. This basically confirms our previous judgment. Second, we can rule out the possibility of acquaintances committing the crime. According to the video, the two people did not know each other, and the murderer and Grace had no personal grudge. Third, the murderer has a strong investigative ability and was able to find out the truth that the police did not know. But there is another possibility, that is, the murderer has a personal relationship with the person involved in the case and knows the inside story. We can follow this Idea, check all the people involved in the two cases, especially the social relations of the victims, to see if there are people who meet the characteristics of the murderer. Fourth, I still think that the murderer's way of killing has a strong sense of ritual, such as knocking out Grace's teeth, which is very likely to punish her for lying. I suspect that there is a reason for his final burial, although I can't figure it out for the time being. He went to so much trouble, it feels like killing a chicken with a butcher knife. In the process of committing a crime, which is almost every second counts, it is unreasonable to waste time and energy like this. Unless, he thinks Grace must die in this way. "

Liam and his friends had thought of the first three points last night, and the last sentence "He thought that Mesasa had to die in this way" inspired Liam. But he didn't have time to think about it, and continued to ask: "What do those two lines mean? How did you know that he was going to continue killing people?"

"If you have some knowledge of Chinese painting, it is easy to understand. These two lines of poetry contain the names of five traditional Chinese paintings handed down from ancient times - 'Autumn Colors of Quehua' refers to Zhao Mengfu's "Autumn Colors of Quehua"; 'Snow in the Cold Forest' refers to Fan Kuan's "Snowy Cold Forest"; 'Mountain Residence' refers to Huang Gongwang's "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains", which is the one in this case; 'Early Spring' refers to Guo Xi's "Early Spring"; 'Pines in Ten Thousand Valleys' refers to Li Tang's "Wind in Pine Valleys"."

"So this guy has to do it at least five times?!"

"Yes, but if nothing unexpected happens, he will probably stop when all five people are dead. Because the 'great painter' regards this as a complete artistic creation, there shouldn't be any complications. He will be satisfied once he finishes these five paintings with the blood of five people."

"You pervert!" Liam cursed. "What five? I won't let him kill the second one!"

"Captain Lu, please don't make such a fuss. We don't even have any reliable clues right now. We are just receiving the information that the other party has taken the initiative to leave for us."

Liam closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He then asked, "Why did he choose these five pictures? Is there any deep meaning behind it?"

"Obviously, he's alluding to the seasons."

"Isn't it five pictures?"

"Listen to my analysis. "Autumn Scenery in Quehua" is autumn, "Snowy Scenery in Cold Forest" is winter, and "Early Spring" is spring. These three are very clear. What season is "Wind in Pine Valleys"? In fact, there is no definitive answer in history. Many people think it should be spring. But I think it is most likely summer, and obviously the "great painter" thinks so too. If he really kills this one, I will analyze why in detail. "Fuchun Mountain Dwelling" does not specify the season, but the vegetation on the entire scroll changes from lush to sparse and withered, just like the transition of the four seasons. So he added this one, maybe to indicate the change of seasons, maybe to make up the number of words in the poem, or maybe he just wanted five people to die. Of course, there may be some deeper considerations. I can't tell from just this one."

"How many more do you want him to do to you? Three? Four? Five?"

Torry shrugged.

"Then analyze for me, which one will he paint next? Is it the "Autumn Scenery of Quehua" which ranks first in the poem?"

"If he really wanted to follow the seasonal order, it should be Early Spring."

"But isn't Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains also out of order? Otherwise it should be placed after Wind in the Pine Valleys."

"Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains comprehensively expresses the connotation of the four seasons. The 'great painter' probably intended it to be a prelude to the killing."

"You guys who study art are all crazy, right?"

"So artists can flirt with girls."

Liam secretly greeted the artist's sister on behalf of all the science and engineering men in the world, but said nonchalantly: "Isn't this guy a perfectionist? Then when he wrote the poem, why didn't he write it in the order of spring, summer, autumn and winter? Wouldn't it look more perfect that way?"

"Oh my, it's terrible to be uneducated! When writing poetry, you have to pay attention to the level and tone. For example, the last word of the previous sentence must be a flat tone. Obviously, is not a flat tone, but the word " is a flat tone.  seems to be imperfect because it is not arranged in the order of seasons, but that is precisely because he pursues the perfection of the level and tone of these two lines of poetry. After all, this is the core of his entire work!"

"You intellectuals are even more terrifying. I have to learn all the arts of calligraphy, poetry, and song to handle a case. This is killing me!"

"I'm here, Captain Lu, all you have to do is be a quiet and silly baby."

"Do you know how many cases your captain Lu has solved?" Liam rolled his eyes in protest, but he knew in his heart that the impact of this incident was serious. He shook his head to make himself more sober. "No, we have to find a way to stop this guy from committing the next crime. What else can you interpret from the existing information? Can you predict the target and location of his next crime?"

"I really don't understand your humor anymore. You haven't even figured out the first case yet, but you want to predict the next one. Do you think I'm a fortune teller? Captain Lu, the most urgent thing is to quickly integrate the clues and find the murderer, not wait to see his next act."

Liam slapped his forehead and said, "My bad! I was misled by your fallacies. As I said just now, I had arranged for someone to check before you came."

"Now it is proven that the murderer can write classical poetry in addition to modern poetry. There are not many people who truly understand the rhythm of poetry and are proficient in using it these days. With this accomplishment, he is not an ordinary person. You should add this condition as well, combined with the social relationships of the people involved in the two cases mentioned just now, and screen them as soon as possible."