Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
Everybody had a unique scent. After Xiang Kun’s sense of smell improved, he had a much better understanding of this.
However, after waking up for a few hours that night, he was still rather unfamiliar with distinguishing the different scents. When he was at the crime scene earlier on, he thought about tracing the smell of the culprit.
However, Xiang Kun did not have the source of the smell. When the culprit had just left the scene, there could’ve been remnants of his smell. However, he could not distinguish the smell, as there were too many distractions.
After the police came, the increase in the number of people made it more difficult for him to trace the smell.
However, with Xiang Kun’s strong sense of hearing, he heard the conversation between the officers and knew that the weapon had yet to be found.
There should be the blood of the victim on the weapon. There was nothing left in the crime scene that could be used to wipe off the blood on the weapon. Therefore, the blood should still be on the weapon. The cloth or paper that the culprit had used to clean his hands and the weapon should also be with him.
Therefore, Xiang Kun had a thought. He wanted to use the smell of blood to track and find the weapon or the culprit.
The strongest scent of the victim’s blood came from the crime scene.
However, Xiang Kun would not return to the crime scene. Instead, he walked towards another direction.
Based on his judgement, when he saw the victim, the culprit should have been gone for about three minutes only.
When Xiang Kun smelled the fresh blood, he did not see any suspicious people or heard any frantic footsteps. Evidently, the direction that the culprit headed to was not in the same direction as Xiang Kun.
After eliminating one possible route, there were two other routes that the culprit could have taken. However, one of the routes led to the main street. The main street was still very busy and there were many pedestrians around. Moreover, there were quite a few surveillance cameras, so it would be easy for him to get located.
Since the culprit had not attacked at the ATM and had chosen to attack at a remote corner, he should not have chosen the path that led to the busy street.
Therefore, Xiang Kun chose the last path and walked down the road.
However, he could not use the victim’s blood to track the smell, as he would probably just end up in the crime scene.
Xiang Kun did not feel demoralized, because he was not trying to catch the culprit as his mission or responsibility. He was merely testing out his ability to track smells.
Xiang Kun imagined himself as the culprit. Whenever he met a crossroad, he made a choice and headed in that direction.
He walked for a long distance and the scent of blood from the crime scene became extremely faint. Xiang Kun was about to give up when, suddenly, he detected a very light and “familiar” smell amongst the other strong smells.
Xiang Kun became alert immediately. The smell was the same smell of the victim’s blood. Although it was extremely faint, the source of that smell was different from that of the crime scene. This meant that he had probably found the target.
Following the smell, Xiang Kun walked for more than ten minutes before confirming that the smell of blood was in an open rubbish bin.
The rubbish bin was meant for nearby residents to throw their trash. Some of the rubbish bags broke open and the food scraps spilled all over the place. When he walked near the bin, strong smells surged towards him. It was extremely terrible, especially since Xiang Kun’s sense of smell had improved.
He had to focus his attention to locate the scent of the victim’s blood.
Looking at the rubbish bin that had flies flying around it, Xiang Kun hesitated. He did not have the responsibility to find the culprit, why should he search the bin?
However, after a slight hesitation, he wanted to check if the target he had tracked was correct or not. He wanted to see if the object had the victim’s blood and whether it was the weapon.
Xiang Kun sighed and went forward to get rid of the flies. Then he began to dig through the rubbish bin.
After a short while, Xiang Kun found the object that had the victim’s blood. It was not the weapon. Instead, it was a pair of cotton gloves stained with blood.
Xiang Kun did not use his hands directly. He took a piece of plastic and grabbed the gloves before smelling it. The disgusting and unpleasant smell caused him to sneeze thrice.
However, he could detect the scent of a human from all of the unpleasant smells.
It was the secretion of sweat glands. It was trapped in the gloves, and it was not easy for this scent to disappear.
As for the scent of the victim’s blood. It was obvious. Without even needing to smell it, one could see the blood stains on the gloves.
Xiang Kun hesitated on whether to tell Officer Chen about the location of the gloves. However, after some consideration, he threw the gloves back into the rubbish bin. He also did not call Officer Chen, as he could not find an excuse.
Moreover, he thought that with the abilities of the police, they ought to reach that area soon.
Of course, he hoped that the bin would not be cleared by the cleaners by then.
Although he had obtained the smell of the culprit, after going around the area a few times, he was unable to obtain any other clues. In the city, there were too many distractions in terms of sounds and scents.
The next day, Xiang Kun added Officer Chen on WeChat and asked about the progress of the investigation.
He did not have much hope initially, as he knew that police officers usually would not reveal the investigation details. However, he did not expect Officer Chen to send him a photograph.
The efficiency of the police was much better than Xiang Kun’s expectations. They had confirmed the suspect overnight!
Based on what Officer Chen had said, the suspect had just been released from jail in March and reached the city in April. However, he had committed a crime in a few months’ time. The victim found last night had already passed away from his injuries.
The picture and details of the suspect had been sent to various bus stations, airports, hotels, and travel agencies. The news would report about the suspect that night as well. It was only a matter of time before the suspect was caught.
Officer Chen also told Xiang Kun to not be rash if he saw the suspect. Xiang Kun should call the police or Officer Chen himself.
Xiang Kun felt that the suspect was probably certainly going to jail. In this era, there were countless surveillance cameras around, and real-name verification with identity cards was required. Moreover, by committing a murder, the majority of the police force was tracking the suspect down.
Since that was the case, Xiang Kun did not continue his tracking. After all, the city had more than 10 million residents. Without confirming the area, it was almost impossible to locate the suspect with his scent.
However, Xiang Kun did not expect to meet the suspect before he was caught.