The Masses become Parties

Over the next three days, Su Mo kept following Xie Kun from afar, but Xie Kun was very alert, so Su Mo didn't dare appear in Xie Kun's field of vision and could only track his whereabouts through positioning.

In these three days, Su Mo didn't gain much substantial information, but his suspicion of Xie Kun grew even more, because Xie Kun's behavior was a bit strange—on the surface there was nothing unusual, but when you thought about it carefully, it was extremely horrifying.

Once, when Xie Kun went to collect garbage, the customer thought the price was too cheap and wanted to raise it. After symbolically refusing twice, Xie Kun agreed.

Another time, Xie Kun went to eat lunch and ordered a vegetable noodle dish. Seeing that he looked pitiful, the boss kindly brought him a bowl of beef noodles with lots of beef instead.

Xie Kun's face darkened instantly, and he got up and left. It was obvious that the boss felt very wronged and might never show kindness again.

In the blink of an eye, it was almost New Year's Eve, and tomorrow would be the 30th day of the 12th lunar month. The entire Lin'an was filled with joy everywhere, and crowds of people surged excitedly.

That night, lying in bed, Su Mo looked forward to it—because if his guess was right, if Xie Kun really was a man-eating monster, then tomorrow, Xie Kun would most likely commit murder again.

The reason was simple. Su Mo understood these perverts. New Year's Eve had arrived, and even a murderer needed to celebrate.

So the question was, how would a man-eating monster choose to celebrate? How would he spend this wonderful New Year's Eve? The answer was obvious—by eating fresh, delicious food, of course.

During this time, the police in Lin'an had also been driven to distraction. They knew clearly that the man-eating monster had started committing murders again.

But in order not to make a big deal out of it and to keep the people of Lin'an from panicking, this case had always been suppressed. Externally, they only called them missing person cases, and they deliberately blocked information.

But in these two months, they had been working overtime, searching and investigating everywhere, yet in the end they didn't find any useful clues. They didn't even know where those missing people had disappeared, and the police were helpless.

Today was New Year's Eve, and everyone could finally relax for a day, so ninety percent of the police force had already taken leave and gone home to celebrate the new year.

Since coming to Lin'an, Wang Jian found that his life wasn't much different from before.

His parents left early and came back late, exchanged barely a few words after coming home before going to their room to sleep.

As for him, he usually didn't go out much either, spending most of his time at home playing games and browsing forums and social media. Occasionally he would also go to various platforms to show off.

That morning before his parents left, his mother said to him, "Jian'er, remember to go buy groceries, oh, and don't forget the seasonings either. We're running low at home."

"Okay, Mom," Wang Jian reluctantly replied.

Going out on such a cold day really wasn't comfortable, plus having to go to the farmers' market to buy things—he had absolutely no interest in that. But there was no other way; his parents would get off work around eight o'clock, so he had to be the one to go shopping.

However, he wouldn't go in the morning, mainly because he didn't want to get up so early when it was so cold. He decided to go in the afternoon, and even later in the afternoon when there would be fewer people and no need to wait in line.

After staying home and playing until around four in the afternoon, he finally went out wrapped in a thick down jacket.

His home was on the edge of the northern district, not far from a produce market. The infrastructure in this area was very shabby, but there were a lot of people, mostly migrant workers from out of town.

On the way from his house to the market, he would pass through a small shantytown area with many small alleys. In the past, there had been many streetwalkers here, but frequent police raids had reduced their presence.

It was after four in the afternoon now, and the sky was somewhat gloomy. There were few passersby, since most people who needed to buy groceries had already done so early. Latecomers like Wang Jian going shopping at four in the afternoon were rare indeed.

After entering the shantytown area, he began looking left and right—this was his habit, he would always look all around as he walked, which was also how he had discovered those previous two crime scenes.

Suddenly he saw a man in one alley who appeared to be tinkering with his car—one look was enough to know he was a junk collector.

The man also turned his head and looked at Wang Jian, flashing him a smile and waving him over.

Wang Jian looked at the man's legs and saw from his standing posture that he was clearly disabled.

With a kind heart, he walked over without any hesitation, asking as he approached, "Uncle, what happened here? Did your car break down?"

"Ah, I just drove the car here and it stalled. Don't know what went wrong," Xie Kun sighed.

By this time, Wang Jian had arrived at Xie Kun's side. He went to the engine and bent over peering at it. Actually he didn't understand any of it, but as a show off he still had to put on a performance.

Just then, after looking left and right and seeing no one around, Xie Kun swiftly took out a stun gun and jammed it against Wang Jian's neck. Wang Jian's eyes rolled back instantly and he fainted.

Xie Kun then grabbed Wang Jian with both hands and tossed him directly into the carriage, moving very quickly and smoothly. If one hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they might not believe that a cripple could easily lift up a chubby little guy like that without any apparent effort.

After throwing Wang Jian onto the carriage, he placed him at the very bottom, with various paper shells and garbage covering and burying him completely.

Fortunately, the garbage covering Wang Jian didn't prevent him from breathing, otherwise that would have been the end.

Having done all this, Xie Kun then calmly and unhurriedly, with a tranquil expression, headed out. Along the way, he even picked up a few bottles, in an extremely good mood.

There were no surveillance cameras in this area to begin with, and with the coming and going of so many shady characters here, no one paid any attention to the crippled junk collector.

Except Su Mo. He had been following Xie Kun from a distance since the morning.

Just now, when he saw the chubby young man heading toward the alley where Xie Kun was, Su Mo didn't follow. He was afraid of startling the prey.

And when he saw this scene, he smiled, feeling that Xie Kun was about to make his move.

The reason was simple. Man-eating monsters think differently from normal people—to them, people were no different than pigs. The fatter the person, the more delicious they appeared to these monsters, arousing their hunger even more.

Therefore, when the chubby guy entered the alley, Su Mo guessed that he would most likely be knocked out and taken away.

The result was similar to what Su Mo expected—after more than 10 minutes the chubby guy still didn't come out. And the GPS showed Xie Kun was on the move, so he immediately followed.

At the same time, Su Mo suddenly felt that silhouette seemed familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before, but he couldn't remember for the moment. Pushing aside distracting thoughts, he set out after Xie Kun.