Captured By The Cold Detective (BL)-Chapter 189: It’s A Corpse

As soon as the door was opened, the four officers barged in and spread out to explore the place, whereas Tak Jung-Hwa remained outside, smiling at the flustered landlord.

"I–Is there something wrong, officer? Why... Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing, don’t be afraid," Tak Jung-Hwa said in a warm tone, which seemed to make the other man become even more panicked. "Don’t worry, I won’t hold you accountable for letting us in. I will even cover for you."

The landlord was dazed. "T–This kind of thing is not allowed...?"

Tak Jung-Hwa threw his head back and laughed, teasing. "Well, technically, it is an illegal trespass because we didn’t carry a search warrant." To comfort the landlord whose face was starting to turn green, Tak Jung-Hwa even patted his shoulder and reassured him, "I won’t go back on my words."

’What’s the good of you saying something like this?! You bastard @#$$%&...’ A wide variety of curses flew around the landlord’s head, but in the end he did not dare to say anything for fear that he would be forced to expire on the spot. Before he could squeeze a smile on his face and said a few casual words to drop the topic, he saw that the face of the officer in front of him suddenly froze. The landlord was startled and almost dropped the keys he was holding. W–What was going on?!

"Fuck!" There was a horrified exclaim from inside. "Oh fuck fuck fuck...!" As he was cursing, the officer rushed out of the room while covering his mouth, charging past Tak Jung-Hwa and the landlord to puke on the corner. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The landlord was stunned and could not react in time. "What..." He had just opened his mouth when he picked up the scent in the air. How to describe it? It was an extremely foul odor similar to damp and rotten meat that had been placed in an enclosed space without ventilation for God knows how many days. And worse, it was getting stronger and stronger!

Tak Jung-Hwa’s face turned somber, any traces of smile disappeared from his face. He had noticed this scent ever since he walked out of the elevator, but this was an old apartment after all. He assumed that someone had left their food waste somewhere and thus, he did not think too much about it. Who could have guessed that...

He ordered the landlord, "Go downstairs and call the police." The change in his aura was too sudden. One second he was still laughing and joking, and the next second he was emitting such a domineering aura. The landlord straightened up, stuttered out an ’oh!’ then rushed to the elevator as fast as a rabbit, carefully circling around the puking officer who looked like he was seconds away from fainting.

Tak Jung-Hwa took out a pair of black nylon gloves from his pocket and slipped it into his hands as he walked into the house. He bumped into another green-faced officer who was covering his mouth tightly. The officer only had time to point behind his back before he scrambled out of the house and joined his predecessor outside to empty his stomach. The sound of his retching echoed in the air.

"Stop." Tak Jung-Hwa told the two officers who had just come out from the bedroom and bathroom respectively. "Don’t look. It might be too much for you. Go outside and take care of them instead."

"Ge?" The officers were startled. Then they took a sniff in the air and immediately pinched their nose with a grimace. "Fuck, what’s this disgusting smell?!"

"It’s a corpse." After leaving that sentence, he did not wait for the officers to react before turning away.

In a glance, the room’s interior was not bad – at least, Tak Jung-Hwa had seen the worse ones in his own country. As soon as he entered through the door, there was a short hallway that was directly led to the small yet messy living room. A few dirty clothes were stacked on the corner of the sofa, magazines were strewn on the low table and there was a questionable stain on the rug whose source he would prefer not to know. All in all, he could already imagine what kind of person Cui Yan was from his living space.

Tak Jung-Hwa withdrew his gaze wordlessly and walked toward the kitchen where the odor was the heaviest. He had already prepared himself, and plus it was not the first time he had seen a tragic corpse. Nonetheless, the sight that welcomed him as he stood on the kitchen doorway still made him halt sharply on his tracks.

A body – male, he noticed – had been stuffed into a tiny refrigerator in a vertical fetal position. He was still dressed in a complete set of shirt and trousers, and if not for the corpse spots on his body, Tak Jung-Hwa might have mistakenly thought that he was playing hide and seek before deciding to hide inside the refrigerator in a moment of desperation, only to fall asleep forever inside.

The reason for it was... the man’s position.

He had both arms circled around his bent legs, with his head leaning on the top of his knees, facing Tak Jung-Hwa. As he looked into the corpse’s closed eyes and peaceful expression, a surge of nausea churned in his stomach and he hastily went to open all of the windows in the room.

Only after taking a few mouthfuls of fresh air from outside could he barely regain his composure. In those few short seconds, a lot of questions popped up in his mind.

...Who was it?

Who was so vicious to kill someone and stuff them into the refrigerator? Was it Cui Yan? Did he run away after knowing that the police were hot on his trail, so that they would not be able to find him?

Then why didn’t he dispose of the corpse? Why must he keep it in his own house? Even to the point of asking the landlord not to cut the electricity off... it must be because he wanted to preserve the corpse as long as possible. But for what?

’For the police to find it’, an answer sprung up in his mind, unbidden, causing Tak Jung-Hwa’s eyelids to twitch.

An indescribable restlessness and anxiety overcame him. Even his Alpha was pacing back and forth inside, agitated. The previous conjecture he had temporarily shelved to the back of his mind came to life again, this time with twice the force.

Someone was leading them here. Someone was watching over each of their movements in the dark, leaving behind crumbs of clues for them to pick up on. Exactly who was it? What was their goal? What did they have to do with Xuanlong? The deeper he dug, all he found was more and more questions with no answer in sight. It was like taking apart a matryoshka doll and he was utterly clueless as to how many little dolls were still left inside.

This was the first time Tak Jung-Hwa had ever been led around by the nose, and God... he disliked this feeling. Very much. He narrowed his peach blossom eyes and a hint of bloodlust flickered within.

If someone wanted to give them a tour, then... he would gladly receive their invitation. Not because he willingly fell into their trap, and not because he was helpless against them either. He simply wanted to play along and see what kind of motive they had.

He was never one who shied away from a challenge. On the contrary, this kind of tug-of-war managed to rekindle the fighting spirit in him – the spirit which had almost died down due to XIU’s disappearance seven years ago.

With this conviction in mind, he turned away from the window, fastened his gloves and went to check the corpse.