"Toxins in human flesh?" Xiaotao tossed me a questioning look.
"When people are killed, they feel great fear, uneasiness and anger. These negative emotions are actually realized by the endocrine glands. When these hormones enter the blood, they form a sort of toxin. Long-term intake of said toxins is definitely harmful."
"But if that’s the case, wouldn’t pigs and cows be the same?" Xiaotao asked.
"Yes, which is why certain high-grade beef will euthanize their cattle while playing soothing music. However, animals don’t secrete as many toxins when they die. Perhaps our nervous system is more developed or this is our creator’s punishment for cannibalism.”
"I think we should just be vegetarians!” Xiaotao tsked. “Isn’t it supposed to be good for you? Besides, you can lose weight!"
I laughed, "I wouldn’t like to be forced to be a vegetarian. Let's try to get rid of the poison in our bodies... Then again, you are not fat at all!"
"Who says I'm not fat?"
Every time we spoke about the subject, Xiaotao would overreact by pointing out her supposed chubby areas and thick waist, going on and on in my ear. Girls were so sensitive about their own bodies.
Upon opening the trunk, I carefully examined every nook and cranny but found nothing suspicious. As I leaned in, I caught a whiff of perfume, though very faint. I also found a strand of long hair within the cracks which indicated the car had been used to transport the victims.
The hair was safely kept in an evidence bag so we could match it to the victims later on, if only there was still a body!
When we entered the station, Bingxin immediately handed me a stack of files. "Here you go. These people look delicious!"
As I scanned through the files, I noticed the missing persons selected by Bingxin were all good-looking, young and healthy which met the criteria. They were either white-collar workers, civil servants or business owners. I couldn’t help making the connection–were good looking people given better opportunities because of our beauty-obsessed society?
"You might be right,” remarked Xiaotao. “Once, when we were recruiting officers, everyone unanimously rejected a horse-faced mustache man. But now that I think about it, his resume was actually pretty decent."
"But I’ve never felt that way,” argued Bingxin. “I’ve relied on my grades ever since I was a child."
"Think about it, if you had a swollen face with acne and a thick, manly waist, would Song Yang bother befriending you?" Xiaotao chuckled.
"Hmph, all you have are big boobs and a perky bum, you dairy cow!" retorted Bingxin.
"What are you dissatisfied about, Princess Flat-All-Over? Do you even have any womanly characteristics?"
The girls began their eager personal attacks while I stood before them, unwilling to get involved. I knew it wasn’t a serious argument.
Returning to the subject, I analyzed, "These missing persons are all respectable people with high positions. Check for an intersection and we might be able to determine the area the murderer haunts..."
Having said that, I paused in silence, the gears in my head turning. If I compared this case to Chef Tang’s, the latter committed the murders himself because he was merely the owner of a food stall. On the other hand, we were currently dealing with a powerful man, one that had numerous people working for him.
Even if those bodyguards were well-paid, would hired men be willing to take risks working for such a dangerous man, regardless of their conscience?
There seemed to be only one possibility–the bodyguards were personally trained by the Crazy Six Tao Chef.
"Are the bodyguards awake?" I asked.
"I'll have a look!" replied Xiaotao.
When we entered the detention room, one of the bodyguards had awoken so we took him to the interrogation room. At first, he refused to speak and only relented after being stared at with the Eyes of Yama for ten whole minutes.
As I expected, the murderer had his own bodyguard company!
Xiaotao and I exchanged a meaningful look. "So this involves a criminal gang."
"What’s the company called?" I added.
"D-Di Jiang!" Cold sweat dotted the bodyguard’s forehead.
“Does this company really exist?” I whispered to Xiaotao.
Shaking her head, she hammered the table with her fist and roared, "I want the truth!"
The bodyguard shivered, "That's what it’s called."
"What’s the company’s address?" I asked.
"I don't know. The boss doesn’t allow us to go there,” he replied. “We’re given a monthly salary, and we’re only called to work when the club has activities. Besides that, there’s nothing else that needs to be done."
"How much does he pay for you to willingly be part of something so unconscionable?" sneered Xiaotao.
"It's not about the money.” A strange gleam flashed in his eyes. "We agree with the boss's practice!"
"What?!" At this point, Xiaotao could no longer remain composed.
"Cannibalism!" The bodyguard smacked his lips, "My first taste of a human being was a girl's hand. Because we had eaten other weird things, I wasn’t opposed to it at all. The hand had been steamed in a pressure cooker, then it was deep-fried in oil. It came out crispy and had a mouth-watering fragrance. When I bit into the bone, the juices from the bone marrow squirted onto my tongue. I had never eaten anything so delicious. I even saw her photo. She was a beautiful girl. Although she smelled delectable, I was still a little sad. But the boss said that real love for something is to eat it and make it a part of myself…”
"Stop it!" Xiaotao slammed the table, her brows tightly knitted.
Noticing the tattoo on his wrist, I asked, "What did you do before this?"
"No one wants to hire a guy who’s been to jail, but the boss took me in."
Thus, he recounted the selection process. After being released from prison, he committed little petty thefts here and there due to his inability to find a job. Eventually, one of the gang bosses found him and asked if he was interested in working as a bodyguard.
Naturally, he agreed immediately. Without so much as an interview, he was hired. All he did was make a phone call before he was sent a debit card. Despite doing nothing, he received a monthly salary of 7,000 yuan without fail.
Three months later, he received a phone call about the pre-job training at an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts. He was surprised to find that the rest of the employees were much like himself: ex-prisoners. When the boss appeared, he gave a confusing speech which could be summed up in one sentence: “Different roads lead to different destinations so I hope everyone has similar interests.”
At the end of his speech, each employee was served a plate of pangolin. As formerly incarcerated men, who cared about protecting animals? Hence, they happily dug into their food.
The second session of their pre-job training was held a week later. The boss repeated the same perplexing speech and then invited them to a big meal. This time, they ate raw monkey brains. The monkeys were placed under a hole in the table, their fur removed, skin opened and hot oil poured onto their brains. Then, the bodyguards dug into the brains with their spoons and relished a live monkey in groups of three.
Throughout the entire ordeal, the monkeys screamed miserably, prompting protests from several of them. However, the boss threw his head back in laughter, courteously inviting the protestors to leave, at the risk of losing their jobs of course.
With the boss’s mysterious ways, these men had long grown suspicious and several walked away at this point.
Then came the third session of their pre-job training. This time, it was something no one had ever seen–a huge golden-fried, pupa-shaped thing. Smiling, the boss introduced it as the Golden Grain Meal, that is, a girl's excrement!