Chapter 27

"Cannibal 2, The Sewer Demon"

After a good night's sleep, Ang'er woke up the next morning enveloped in warmth.

Seeing him awake, Mo Fei got out of bed to cook breakfast downstairs. Ang'er snuggled in the blankets for a bit longer, lazily grabbing a newspaper from the table. He had specifically chosen it last night, with one news item marked with a check.

As usual, Ang'er came downstairs when breakfast was ready, holding that newspaper, and asked Mo Fei, "Has Os come by?"

"No," Mo Fei shook his head, a bit surprised, and asked, "Did he say he would come?"

"Hmm... he should have," Ang'er said, sitting at the table and setting the newspaper aside, staring at the brand-new telephone.

As Mo Fei brought out breakfast, the doorbell rang, and Os walked in.

Mo Fei turned to glance at him and noticed Os hadn't driven, but walked. He asked, "Os... why did you walk here? Have you had breakfast?"

Os waved his hand dismissively, "Don't talk to me about food."

Mo Fei, thinking Os was still upset about the time Ang'er tricked him with fake pork chops, chuckled, "No meat this morning."

Os looked up at Mo Fei, somewhat listlessly, and said, "Don't even mention the word 'meat'!" After that, he walked over to Ang'er, slumped onto the table, looking rather dejected.

Ang'er glanced at him and said, "What's wrong with you? Sick? Then you better go rest up. You're already slow enough; sickness will only make it worse."

Os looked up at him with a pitiful expression and asked, "Ang'er, tell me honestly, am I really cut out to be a police officer?"

Ang'er and Mo Fei exchanged a look, both surprised. Os was usually carefree, so why did he seem so disheartened today?

Ang'er started eating breakfast, while Mo Fei handed Os a freshly made egg roll, asking, "Shrimp filling, do you want it?"

Os looked up at Mo Fei, eyebrows raised, and said, "Mo Fei, you're such a good person... you're bound to have good karma!"

Mo Fei, feeling that Os was not his usual self today, placed the egg roll on the plate in front of him and continued to eat his porridge.

Os nibbled on the egg roll and mumbled to himself, "Ang'er, why are there so many psychos in the world? Wouldn't it be great if there were none?"

Ang'er turned to look at him and asked, "What happened to you this time?"

Oss grabbed his arm in distress, "The chief wants me to clean the sewers!"

"Cough, cough..." Mo Fei choked on his porridge. Seeing Os's resentful glance, he quickly apologized and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"What did you do to upset the chief like that?" Ang'er asked curiously.

"I lost a crucial criminal," Os lamented, presenting a document to Ang'er with a gloomy face. "And it's a cannibalistic psychopath!"

Ang'er and Mo Fei exchanged a surprised look. Ang'er reached out to take the document Os handed over, brows raising as he skimmed through it before passing it to Mo Fei.

Mo Fei, puzzled, took a look and frowned. Inside the document was a large, colored photograph of a grimy, dark sewer with a skeleton lying flat on the ground, surrounded by dead rats.

"What's this?" Mo Fei turned to Os, disgust evident as he set the photo down, immediately losing his appetite. He wondered if Os had come specifically for revenge over a previous incident.

"Gross, isn't it?" Os leaned in and said, "Disgusting, right? I've been grossed out for days!"

Mo Fei nodded, then looked at Ang'er, who seemed indifferent, simply nibbling on a shrimp dumpling and passing a newspaper to Mo Fei.

Mo Fei picked it up and saw it was the newspaper Ang'er had been reading for the past few days, with a sensational headline – "Cannibalistic Monster Found in Sewer."

Os frowned slightly, looking at Ang'er, "How did you know I came to you about this?"

Ang'er thought for a moment and replied, "Just a guess."

"Cannibalistic monster?" Mo Fei finished reading the article, which was filled with horrifying descriptions more akin to a horror story than a news report, lacking any real explanation.

Seeing Mo Fei's expression and his slight frown, Ang'er said, "Nowadays, newspapers of all kinds pursue entertainment value. It's an era of entertainment: first self-entertainment, then entertaining others, eventually leading to foolishness, and in the end, everyone's a fool."

Mo Fei chuckled at this, while Os looked up at Ang'er and said, "Ang'er, someone like you would be despised wherever you go!"

Anger raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "Why?"

"Because you first scorn everyone," Os said seriously. "The key is that many people's actions in this world should be scorned."

Anger looked at Os in surprise and said to Mofei, "Mofei, write this down and frame it. It might be the only smart thing Os has ever said in his life!"

Mofei shook his head with a bitter smile, while Os looked utterly dejected.

"What exactly happened?" Mofei asked. "Tell me about it."

"Well," Os began, touching his hair, "remember those dismemberment cases? The forensic analysis revealed that the bodies had been gnawed on, and many tissues were missing, so we suspected a cannibal. Later, when the identity of one, a plumber, was discovered, it was said he disappeared while fixing the city's sewer system. We went down to the sewer section he was fixing... and then we saw a living person."

Both Mofei and Anger raised their eyebrows, feeling a bit of a chill.

"Our reaction was much more exaggerated than yours at the time," Os said with a helpless shrug. "But after we got over the shock, realizing that person might be the murderer, we chased after him and then found a monster."

"A monster?" Mofei asked in confusion. "What kind of monster?"

"I suspect he was born and grew up in the sewers. His skin was completely pale, and he looked really strange, with a large mouth... The sound he made when he roared at us was like that of an animal."

Anger and Mofei exchanged glances, and Anger asked, "Do you have a photo? I want to see."

"A photo... I didn't have time to take one," Os said somewhat disappointedly. "This is a composite sketch made based on our descriptions... Take a look." With that, he handed the photo to Anger.

Mofei leaned in to look, and the two stared at the photo for a long time, frowning. Anger asked, "Mofei, doesn't it look a bit like a..."

"Octopus," Mofei said with certainty.

"But I think it resembles E.T.," Anger objected.

"Uh... somewhat, like an octopus E.T.," Mofei said earnestly. "Definitely an extraterrestrial being."

"Hey!" Os shouted. "You two, enough with the jokes!"

Anger returned the photo to Os and asked, "Since we have a photo, why not issue a wanted notice?"

"Huh?" Os scratched his head in irritation and said gloomily, "I showed the photo to the chief, and he said if we don't mind the whole police department being ridiculed as idiots by the public, then go ahead and issue it."

Anger raised an eyebrow, "The chief has a sense of humor."

Os sighed, "He does. He also said that if I can't catch him within a week, he'll have me cleaning the sewers!"

Mofei chuckled, "The chief is just joking with you."

Os was silent for a long while, then said, "When I brought him out of the sewer, I let him escape... I had grabbed his arm, but he was wet and slippery, cold like a water-soaked corpse. I got startled and he took the chance to escape."

Mofei looked surprised, while Anger pointed at the skeleton in the photo and asked, "What about this? Where did you find it?"

"Later, when we searched the entire sewer, we found this skeleton... The forensic analyst said it had been gnawed clean," Os said with a mournful expression. "Then, yesterday morning, we found a woman's body in a phone booth on the outskirts of the city, eaten..."

Mofei was startled, suddenly recalling the strange call from that woman the other night, along with the eerie animal cries.

Anger glanced at Mofei beside him, noticing his slightly furrowed brows, and knew he must be thinking of that night's phone call.

Folding away the newspaper and documents, Anger picked up an egg roll with his chopsticks and said while eating, "Mofei, let's go check out that phone booth after dinner."

"Yeah," Mofei quickly continued eating.

"Do you want to take a look in the sewers too?" Os asked.

Anger shook his head, "I'd rather not!"

Os looked pitifully hopeful, "There might be clues."

Anger mercilessly refused, "No! Even if there are important clues, I won't go! You can sweep the sewers yourself!"

Os was speechless for a long while before saying to Anger, "Why are you so heartless not to go even if there are clues?"

Anger wrinkled his nose and dropped a single word, "Stink!"

Os was exasperated.

"Right." After packing up and getting into the car, Anger suddenly asked Oss in the back seat, "The woman found in the phone booth, was her body intact or dismembered?"

"Dismembered," Os replied. "That phone booth was in a remote location, it's puzzling why she went there. Her body was cut into several pieces."

Holding the photo of the skeleton, Anger pondered for a while before asking, "If it's the same perpetrator, why is this skeleton intact? And... what was used to dismember the body?"

"A sharp blade," Os answered. "The forensic examiner said it was a sharp iron tool like a knife or an axe."

"What about the phone call?" Mofei suddenly asked Os. "Why did that woman die in the phone booth?"

"Probably hid inside," Os speculated. "Think about it, the place is quite secluded. Seeing a monster, a woman would instinctively hide in the phone booth, then the monster burst in before she could shut the door."

Anger nodded and asked, "There must have been a lot of blood in the phone booth, right?"

"Yes," Os grimaced, "a lot of blood indeed."

"And the telephone?" Anger continued, "Was it properly placed or hanging off?"

Os paused to remember, "It was properly placed."

"If it had been hanging, would you think the woman was trying to call someone before she died, and would you check the dialed numbers?" Anger asked.

"Uh, right!" Os nodded and questioned, "So you suspect that the woman wasn’t hiding but was attacked while making a call?"

"In such a confined space as a phone booth, if the woman struggled, the phone would definitely be knocked off, so hanging it would appear more natural," Anger stroked his chin. "In other words, the phone might have been deliberately placed back on the hook... That creature, whether an octopus or E.T., likely wouldn't do that."