An infinite journey starting from paradise

The patriarch made a deal with the young puppet god. The young puppet god would protect the village built by the puppeteer's family. In exchange, the villagers would offer sacrifices to the young puppet god regularly.

However, because the Young Idol God is a demonic deity, sacrifices to him must be made strictly according to the procedures, otherwise he will cause trouble and bring down divine punishment..."

"Suisha, the death of this deceased is consistent with the so-called divine punishment from the Hina Idol God, right?" Lin Shangren continued what Xu Hai Wenzhi said.

"That's right." Inuhai Bunji nodded, "The deceased was named Maeda Keiko, a widow who made a living by selling homemade drinks in the village.

It was her neighbor who discovered her body. Her body lay on the doorstep of her home. After the ceremony, the neighbor walked home from the shrine and saw blood all over the floor.

The police didn't find many clues on her body. The only physical evidence was the "divine body" doll stuffed into her stomach. Doctors deduced that she died on the night of the festival.

That night, except for her, everyone in the village went to the shrine to worship. This was a village tradition and a mandatory requirement for worshipping the Hina Doll God. It could be said that everyone in the village had an alibi.

Because Maeda Keiko did not go to the shrine according to the ritual rules, the villagers believed that she had angered the Hinakogo-god and was killed by the haunted Hinakogo-god.

"Did the police really believe it?"

Inu Hai Bunji explained, "The police couldn't help but believe it. The villagers of the Doll Village were quite xenophobic, and they didn't want outside police to investigate. Moreover, the Hinagami family had already established connections with the government through pharmaceutical companies. Considering the influence of the Hinagami family, the police were reluctant to intervene in the Doll Village."

"That's right. Then what? What other cases happened after that?"

"Hmm... I'm not too sure about the details of the other case, as it involves the inner workings of the Hinagami family. The victim in that case was the younger sister of the then-head of the Hinagami family. It's said that her death was very similar to Maeda Keiko's. While her limbs weren't chopped off, her stomach was cut open with a knife and a doll was placed inside.

Because the case involved the Hinami family, the police were more cautious in their investigation. However, before they could find anything, the war began. We launched a full-scale attack on China, and the police were pulled to the front lines, and the case was ultimately left unresolved.

"It's an invasion." Lin Shangren corrected Xu Hai Wenzhi's wording.

Then, Lin Shangren took Xu Hai Wenzhi's notebook and began to look through it. After a quarter of an hour, he said, "I have a general understanding of the basic situation. But there are still some details I want to ask. The first victim, the widow named Maeda Keiko, what was her reputation in the village? In such a secluded village, selling sweet soup is not enough to support herself."

"This……"

……

On the other side, in the Doll Village, in the Hinami family mansion, Madoka's bedroom.

Hinami Rito lay flat on the bed, with Madoka Nami on top of him. Madoka Nami straddled his waist, holding his erection, and slowly sat down.

Halfway through her squatting position, the crystal-clear erotic fluid trembled and squeezed out of the clam mouth, flowing down the stem of the pestle and down the crotch, making Hinami Rito's anus wet and cool. She slowly sat down to the bottom, her legs and thighs trembling unconsciously, until she reached the end, they both closed their eyes and raised their heads, exhaling a long breath.

Hinagami Rito stared at her beautiful face, towering breasts, and firm waist. The fresh and fishy smell of intercourse spread from the junction of the two, mixing with sweat and body odor, making it particularly addictive.

The woman before him was his stepmother, his beloved father's... wife. So gentle, so kind, so loving. Since he was ten years old, his stepmother had always taken care of him.

I shouldn't have fallen in love with her, let alone do such a thing with her.

But since that night, the sixteen-year-old boy seemed to be possessed. He sneaked into his stepmother's boudoir every night, performing immoral and absurd acts, defiling and dirtying his beautiful stepmother's delicate body over and over again, and never tired of it.

"That's it... Forget about Mom's identity, forget about her experiences with Dad and other men. Mom only belongs to me now... All I need is to stay with Mom."

Is that all that's needed?

Hinagami Rito wondered, as the eldest son of the Hinagami family, the family's legacy—the company, the village—would belong to him. Could he possibly desire more?

Yes, the Ame-no-ko Festival is about to begin, and he will meet his future wife then. No, he has already seen her. Just a few days ago, when he and his friends went to the mountains to play, the girl named Sunazuki claimed that she came from Tokyo to visit the Shikusa family.

According to tradition, she should be the child of heaven, the wife of his son Hinagami. Hinagami was very pleased with her and almost couldn't help but push her to the ground on the mountain.

"No, they're watching. Hanaren and Mikuri... No, what does it matter if they're there? After all, they're women in the village too, childhood sweethearts and younger sisters. They all like me, right? They all belong to me, right?!"

The woman on his waist suddenly arched her back and began to tremble violently. Her tight vagina contracted as if hearing a horn. Hinami Rito suddenly stood up and hugged Madoka's body.

Komada Nami hugged his neck and put her sweet, cool and smooth little tongue into his mouth. The two of them sucked passionately, exchanged saliva, and kissed passionately.

"...Faster! I need to deal with someone with force, quick! Ah, ah, ah ah ah!"

The scream of addiction.

Hinakami Rito rubbed his stepmother's neck with his newly grown beard, and held her two pointed and perky breasts in his hands, squeezing, kneading and biting them at will, like a mad beast.

In his eyes, the person he violated was no longer his stepmother. She became his sister, his friend, the shrine maiden, the nurse named Nanako in the Kuroya Hospital, and even the Virgin Mary he saw in the Bible illustrations.

He wanted to invade and satisfy his desires.

"Good boy, dear, this is my good boy. As long as you want, you can do anything. Do you want to make them, make everyone in the world fall in love with you?

My dear son, do you want to become the 'savior' of this world? "

Chapter 133: Lecture Notes on the Reasons for Dismemberment

"If a woman sells her body just to have food to eat, to survive... then I don't think she's the one at fault."

Facing Lin Shangren's overly straightforward question, Xu Hai Wenzhi made his own response. Although he did not answer directly, his meaning was already very clear:

The deceased woman, a widow named Keiko Maeda, who died more than ten years ago, did have an improper physical relationship with someone or even some people in the village.

"So, who is it? Or rather, who are they?"

"This... the police didn't investigate this matter in detail at the time." Xu Hai Wenzhi lowered his voice, and it was obvious that he himself did not believe this statement.

Lin Shangren asked: "Did they not check, or did they not dare to check?"

Adultery kills, hatred deceives the eyes, and money deceives the heart. Excluding those lunatics who kill for religion or simply for fun, human life is nothing more than murders of love, revenge, and money.

No matter how incompetent the Japanese police were ten years ago, they would never have overlooked this basic fact. Since they didn't investigate the person associated with Maeda Keiko, it meant that this person had some influence within the Doll Village, most likely from the Hinagami or Shirakusa families.

"I don't dare to check."

"Oh." Lin Shangren nodded. "Then...are you among them?"

"what?!"

Xu Hai Wenzhi obviously did not expect Lin Shangren to ask this question. He subconsciously retorted: "I never thought of doing anything to Huizi... We are cousins!"

"It turns out they are related." Lin Shangren thought to himself.

The fact that the Xu Hai Bunji Association was actively involved in a cold case dating back over a decade speaks volumes. Furthermore, his contrasting attitudes towards the two victims easily suggest a connection between him and Maeda Keiko.

"Cousins..." Lin Shangren looked at Xu Hai Wenzhi meaningfully, and in his heart, he lowered his evaluation of the police chief a few points:

More than ten years ago, when Keiko Maeda sold herself to survive, you didn't lend her a helping hand. Isn't it a little late to make amends now?

Of course, Xu Hai Wenzhi might have had some difficulties back then, and there might be some hidden secrets, but that didn't matter, and Lin Shangren didn't care. He continued to ask, "Was the person who had an affair with the deceased from the Hinami family or the Shikusa family? Inspector Xu Hai, do you know?"

Note that Lin Shangren used the term "the person who had an affair with the deceased," not "the person who had an affair with the deceased" or "the man who had an affair with the deceased." But Xu Hai Wenzhi did not notice this.

Facing Lin Shangren's question, Xu Hai Wenzhi's emotions suddenly became a little excited. He said in a trembling voice: "Mr. Lin, Maeda Keiko's death should have nothing to do with her private life. Whether that man is from the Hinami family or the Shikusa family, they don't have to kill Keiko.

"That's unnecessary!" Xu Hai Wenzhi emphasized again, "With their power, if they wanted to silence Huizi, they wouldn't have to do that... Even if they wanted to kill her, they could have just buried her secretly. Why chop off her limbs?"

Damn, he's defending the man who might have killed her cousin?!

Lin Shangren noticed that when Xu Haiwenzhi mentioned the Hinami family and the Shikusa family, he would unconsciously shrink his neck and his voice would tremble. This shows that he subconsciously respected and feared these two families.

This is understandable. The idea that kings have divine right still has a market today, not to mention the 20th century, especially in 20th century Japan.

The Japanese in those days often had blind admiration and awe for the hybrid emperor who was the product of inbreeding, as well as the so-called royal relatives, those so-called high-ranking officials and people of noble blood.

Even though Hirohito became the personal boy of five-star critic MacArthur, there were still many Japanese people who firmly believed that the emperor was not a human being but a god.

This applies to the emperor as well as those so-called noble superiors. Under Japan's strict hierarchy, even if a superior wants to sleep with the wife of a subordinate, the subordinate must not only personally send his wife to the leader's bed, but also help push his buttocks.

In this system, even if those in lower positions suffer great injustice, as long as someone in a higher position is willing to apologize to them, make a gesture, or give them some compensation... they will most likely feel that the injustice they have suffered is "worth it". They will unconditionally accept any excuses and justifications given by the other party, and even if the other party does not make any excuses at all, they will make up their own excuses.

The general idea is: "Even someone in a high position has admitted his mistakes to a lowly person like me? And I still refuse to give in? Am I still a human being?"

That doesn't seem right either.

After all, under the Japanese system at that time, the superiors would not even issue a "repentance edict" for the sake of appearance.

"That's pretty despicable."

Dongzi, who was sitting next to Lin Shangren, thought so. After listening to Xu Hai Wenzhi's story, she felt that the police in front of her were really despicable and disgusting.

But isn’t this also the case in modern society?

In a consumerist society where materialism reigns supreme and even people are objectified, isn't the trend of laughing at the poor but not at prostitution even more blatant? Someone can gain a large following simply by being good-looking or born rich. What's the fundamental difference between such a trend and this kind of despicable thinking?

People who worship money make fun of people who worship the emperor? People who worship faces look down on people who worship bloodline?

Some people say this is human nature, but in Lin Shangren's view, human nature is not like this, it just tends to develop this way. After all, humans learned to train people before they learned to train dogs.

As for Xu Hai Wenzhi, he grew up in the environment of the human-shaped village, so it is not surprising that he has such thoughts and behaviors. Although Lin Shangren does not agree with it, he can understand it.

"Okay." Lin Shangren said, "Perhaps it's just like you said. If the two major families killed the person, they wouldn't have to disguise the body like this. Besides, the people in the two major families also have alibis."

Xu Hai Wenzhi did not realize the key point in Lin Shangren's words, and just echoed "Yes."

Lin Shangren felt somewhat helpless, but he did not offer any further explanation. Instead, he asked another question, seemingly mumbling to himself: "Why did the murderer chop off the victim's limbs?"

According to the legend about the Doll God recorded in the investigation notes, when the Doll God kills people, he will only stuff a doll into the victim's stomach, and there is no emphasis on chopping off the victim's limbs.

Therefore, the murderer's act of chopping off the victim's limbs was not to imitate the legend. So why did he chop off the victim's limbs?

Frequent murderers know that "killing is easy, dismembering is hard." Yet, many still revel in dismembering the body after killing. The reasons for dismembering a body after killing are myriad. Japanese mystery writer Yasuhiko Nishizawa explains nine reasons for dismemberment in his book "The Causes of Dismemberment." Combining the "Beheading Lectures" by Shinzo Mitsuda, author of "The Headless Haunted Thing," and the "Headless Corpse Lectures" by Takekuni Kitayama, author of "The Bell City Murder Case," we can generally come up with a "Lecture on the Reasons for Dismemberment":

First, dismembering the body is to facilitate its disposal.

Second, dismemberment was done to conceal the identity of the deceased.

Third, the purpose of dismembering the body was to use the tragic scene to attract the attention of the police or to draw the police's attention to the case.

Fourthly, dismemberment is done to imitate legends, religious doctrines or certain rituals.

Fifth, dismemberment was intended to confuse the number of victims so that the murderer could fake his own death and escape.

Sixth, dismemberment is to cover up the true cause of death.

Seventh, dismemberment is for the murderer's "emotional value", such as venting anger, perverted desires, or collecting "trophies".

Eighth, a madman kills people and just divides the bodies without any purpose.

Lin Shangren looked carefully at the body of Maeda Keiko in the photo, his brain working rapidly.

"The police ultimately failed to find the deceased's limbs... Did the murderer want to keep them, just like that pervert Kira Yoshikage? Or did he not want anyone to see the deceased's limbs? Is there something shameful on the deceased's limbs?

Also…did the killer really cut open the victim's stomach just to put the doll inside? The police report says the victim wasn't missing any organs…could there be something else missing?

For example... a fetus."

Assuming that the murderer who killed Maeda Keiko was really someone from those two big families, then, as Inui Bunji said, if it was just to cover up the scandal of their own family stealing the widow, there was no need for the two big families to kill Maeda Keiko.

But what if Maeda Keiko was pregnant with a child from one of the two major families? What if the father of this child happened to be the head of one of the two families? Would the mistresses or concubines of either family eliminate this unborn child to ensure their own children's inheritance rights? This would undoubtedly be the murderer's own actions. Unable to borrow the power of the family to silently eliminate the deceased, they would instead pretend that the murder was caused by the haunted Hina idol god.

"The premise is that this case is really a murder case involving adultery."

Lin Shangren rubbed his neck.

"Of course, there are other possibilities. For example, someone from one of the two families was having an affair with the deceased, and because they were afraid of being discovered by their family, they killed the deceased to silence him. But, the question remains, why did the murderer take the deceased's limbs?"

Chapter 134: Water retention disease?

The armchair detective is a type of detective who, instead of searching for clues at the crime scene, can deduce the truth based on a few words from people involved in the case. Representative figures include Miss Marple, Nero Wolfe, and Inspector Doberman, the detective in Edgar Allan Poe's novels.

It sounds great to rely on reasoning based on fragmented information without the need for on-site evidence collection, but the "armchair detective" is very easy to be misled and make wrong judgments.

Just like Lin Shangren now.

Although he had made several logical inferences based on the information provided by Xu Hai Wen Zhi, and even these assumptions contained part of the truth, due to the lack of key information, even the most reliable of these speculations was still somewhat different from the truth.

This wasn't Lin Shangren's fault—even the most intelligent detective couldn't have guessed the truth of the case out of thin air. Furthermore, this "Child Puppet God Haunting Case" had been drastically altered, having strayed drastically from the original novel.

If it was the level of the original case of "The Girl in the Hollow", even if Lin Shangren didn't use any cheats, he would be able to see the truth in a few glances. After all, the level of the original "The Girl in the Hollow" is more of a family drama than a suspenseful mystery.

For those who haven't played Hollow Girl, here's a brief overview of the original story. As the second installment in IG's girl series, Hollow Girl continues the story and character relationships from its predecessor, Shell Girl. The story is told in two intertwined timelines: the past and the present.

The past storyline takes place in the Ningyo Village between 1940 and 1942, and the protagonist is the aforementioned Hinagami Rito. While he appears to be a horny pony run over by a cart in the early chapters of the book, in the original story, he's a decent character, gentle, kind, and somewhat indecisive, a classic Asian manga protagonist.

In fact, just looking at the first half of the past line of "Hollow Girl", it really feels like a youth love toilet paper comic:

The hero is the young master of a wealthy family in Yasashi. He has a lovely twin sister, two childhood friends, one gentle and shy, the other passionate and unrestrained, and a smart cousin who is his best friend.

A group of adolescent boys and girls, each with their own thoughts and mutual affection, live an ordinary life until one day the male protagonist encounters a mysterious beautiful girl named "Tianjiang". And then, as everyone knows, Xiao Xunran loses to Tianjiang.

Snow-capped mountains, shrines, forests, spring scenery... Then the boy meets the girl, and the girl hugs him tightly. Up to this point, it's still the classic romantic comedy routine.

After the Ame-no-Child Festival ended, murders began to occur. First, a widow died in the village, and then the beautiful girl named Sunazuki who "fell from the sky" was also brutally murdered.

After his beloved is murdered and his investigation is blocked by his family, Hinagami Rito becomes disheartened and wishes to die. When the Pacific War breaks out, he volunteers to serve on the front lines.

Then, having narrowly escaped death from the battlefield in the Philippines, Hinagami Rito returns to Japan, assuming the identity of his deceased comrade, Tomoyuki Masaki, and returns to the Ningyo Village to re-investigate the truth. While investigating, he accidentally strangles an insider, and then flees to Tokyo. A few years later, while attempting suicide, he is saved by a passing Tokisaka Yukari, and thus becomes connected to Tokisaka Reito, the protagonist of the novel "Kara no Shoujo."

Next is the present line of the original work, whose protagonist is Tokisaka Reito, the one who was shot and unconscious for three months at the beginning of our story. In order to investigate the whereabouts of Kuchiki Fuyuko's body, he was voluntarily involved in a series of cases in the Doll Village.

Yes, in the original storyline, Fuyuko died, and even if she hadn't died, she would have become a human stick without limbs. It's not just Fuyuko. If Hayashi Naoto hadn't intervened, Takigawa Yumi would have died, Tsukishima Orihime would have died, Shishinomiya Tsuzuko would have died, Mizuhara Toruko would have died, and even Tokisaka Yukari might have died—the entire original series is a complete tragedy.

The final truth of the original case of "The Girl of Hollow" is nothing more than a boring story about the yandere sister of "Japanese Duan Yu" killing all her half-sisters: no suspense, no reasoning, and even not bloody enough.

Fortunately, our story will definitely not develop according to the plot of the original work.