It took over forty minutes by car to get from Jiangcheng's Huaiyang Road to the tin plate factory.
After getting out of the car, Zhao Yan could hear the rushing sound of water.
Standing on the small hillside, she saw the tin plate factory. It was very large.
Elder Jiang said that the tin plate factory covered more than two hundred mu of land and had employee dormitories and a large staff canteen.
Many young men and women had worked here in the past.
With the reform and restructuring of state-owned enterprises in the 1990s and the subsequent wave of layoffs, the tin plate factory's development gradually declined.
By 1994, the tin plate factory had completely closed down.
"Miss Zhao, this way."
"It's been so many years since I've been here. The grass has grown so tall, and I don't even know which path it is anymore."
Elder Qin sighed as he walked, picking up a dry twig from the ground and parting the weeds.
Zhao Yan followed behind Elder Qin, with Jiang Yu and Wu Jiaxin behind her.
The weeds grew up to their knees, and some buildings had cracked.
"This is the path. Walking this way will lead you to the factory entrance," Elder Qin found the path and said with a smile, turning back to Zhao Yan.
Zhao Yan, worried about Elder Qin slipping, quickly walked over to support his arm.
Her feet made crunching sounds as they stepped on the ground, the gravel rubbing together.
Arriving at the factory entrance, she saw the five large characters "Jiangcheng Tin Plate Factory."
The iron gate was already rusty, and the lock cylinder was blocked by rust.
Zhao Yan shook the iron gate, and a lot of rust fell off.
When Zhao Yan tried to climb over, Elder Qin quickly grabbed her clothes.
"Miss Zhao, the murder scene is not inside, but outside," Elder Qin said, pointing to the back of the tin plate factory.
Zhao Yan let go, her palm covered in rust.
While Jiang Yu was looking away, she reached out and rubbed her hand on his back twice.
Seeing that he hadn't noticed, Zhao Yan stuck out her tongue.
Elder Qin walked ahead, passing by the river. Seeing Zhao Yan so close, he reminded her, "Miss Zhao, don't get too close to this river. Someone drowned in it in 1992."
Zhao Yan stepped back, and Elder Qin pointed to the right.
They arrived at a small grove, and Elder Qin stopped.
Zhao Yan looked up at the canopy. The leaves were dense, and some of the smaller plants had withered.
"This is it," Elder Qin said, looking at the sunken pit in front of him.
He would never forget that day in 1996.
He was on duty that day when he received an emergency call.
A female corpse had been found in the small mountain forest to the left of the tin plate factory.
The victim was Zhang Wenwen, twenty-six years old.
Her head had been violently struck, causing her skull to shatter.
In that crime, the killer did not use glass shards or anything similar. Instead, they carved the letter A on her ankle.
There were no significant friction marks on the ground.
At the time, Elder Qin thought that the victim had a familiar relationship with the killer. The victim was lured here by the killer, who then, while the victim was not paying attention, smashed her head with a hammer from behind.
It was later confirmed that the timing was incorrect.
The victim had been killed and then dragged here by the killer.
What puzzled him was that the body had not been buried by the killer.
Instead, the killer had dragged the body here and left it unattended.
He still couldn't understand why the killer had dragged the body here; it seemed like an unnecessary step.
Zhao Yan took out a talisman and placed it over her eyes.
She had come here to look for the first victim from 1996.
She wanted to find the victim's soul.
Even if the first crime was committed perfectly, it was still the first crime.
It would definitely leave some traces.
"Elder Qin, Officer Jiang, wait for me here for a few minutes. I'll go look around," Zhao Yan said.
"Sister Zhao, I'll go with you," Wu Jiaxin said.
Watching Zhao Yan and Wu Jiaxin walk towards the edge of the small grove.
Jiang Yu asked curiously, "Master, you've been to this crime scene more than ten times before. There's no evidence left here. Why did you wake up so early and specifically bring Miss Zhao here?"
Elder Qin shook his head with his hands behind his back. "I don't know."
When Zhao Yan had asked before, Elder Qin had agreed without knowing why.
The victim had died so tragically that there was a high probability of her becoming a bound spirit.
After walking around the area, Zhao Yan felt disappointed.
She hadn't found Zhang Wenwen's soul.
"Sister Zhao, what are you looking for?"
Wu Jiaxin had followed Zhao Yan around for a while and saw Zhao Yan constantly looking around.
"Xinxin, you know I can see ghosts, right?"
"I'm looking for the first victim from 1996."
"Unfortunately, no matter how much I look, I can't find her," Zhao Yan sighed.
Wu Jiaxin said from behind Zhao Yan, "Sister Zhao, is it possible that it's not the victim's soul?"
Zhao Yan turned to look at her, a little confused.
Wu Jiaxin pointed ahead. "Didn't Elder Qin just say that someone drowned in that river?"
"Do you think it's possible that, besides the victim, the water ghost in the river also saw something?"
Zhao Yan was stunned at first, then thought carefully. It wasn't impossible.
After all, water ghosts needed to find a replacement before they could reincarnate as humans.
"Let's go," Zhao Yan said, feeling a surge of excitement, and walked quickly towards Elder Qin.
Zhao Yan was fine, but Wu Jiaxin, following behind, was panting heavily.
"Elder Qin, has anyone else drowned in this river?" Zhao Yan asked, pointing to the river.
Elder Qin shook his head. "No, only one person drowned. Later, to prevent people from drowning, the factory even put up a warning sign."
"Okay, I understand," Zhao Yan smiled.
Seeing Zhao Yan smile, Elder Qin glanced back at Jiang Yu, wondering why Zhao Yan's mood had suddenly improved.
"Elder Qin, let's go back first," Zhao Yan said.
She planned to come back here tonight to prepare things for meeting the water ghost.
She asked Elder Qin for the name of the drowned person.
So many years had passed, and she didn't know the drowned person's name.
When she checked back, she found out that the drowned person was Liu Antong, twelve years old.
She also found Liu Antong's biological parents. Fortunately, they were both in Jiangcheng.
Taking the young Officer Qin with her, Zhao Yan bought some items and went to an apartment complex according to the address, finding Liu Antong's parents.
The family was eating when Zhao Yan knocked on the door. Under the pretense of a community population survey, they opened the door. With Officer Qin by her side, it added to their credibility.
Zhao Yan needed to understand everything about Liu Antong.
When Liu Antong was mentioned, his parents were stunned.
There was a young person in their twenties in the house, and he didn't know he had an older sister.
His parents had never told him about this.
The more he learned about it, the more he realized that his sister had drowned. It was no wonder that when he went to play by the river as a child, his parents became furious and beat him severely.
While hitting him, his mother kept crying, crying even more fiercely than he did.