dkrc Chapter 26 They are blood-stained knives
Chapter 26 They are blood-stained knives
"etc!"
Lu Yiming stopped the police officer who was about to leave and asked urgently, "Has the municipal government stopped all special subsidies?"
The officer paused, then shook his head with a wry smile: "It's been stopped a long time ago. Single mother subsidies, veteran benefits... all the funding was diverted by the mayor for political donations. The news is full of complaints about it every day."
Lu Yiming stood frozen in place, his fingers clenched tightly.
He only now realized that the clown in the group was right.
It's about taking their money. It's about taking the life-saving money of those who are least able to resist.
"Why hasn't anyone complained?" Lu Yiming pressed.
The officer waved his hand, giving him a "you're too naive" look:
"What's the use of complaining? If you complain today, the complaint will be on the mayor's desk tomorrow. It's rotten to the core."
"Have disability benefits been suspended too?"
"Yeah, didn't you hear Cohen say that his wife's share has been suspended for six months?" the officer shrugged.
"His family lives on that little bit of money."
disabled people...
The suspended subsidies...
Body dumped in subway station...
Declaring war...
All the fragments gradually came together.
Lu Yiming rushed back to the living room and grabbed Cohen: "Does your family live entirely off Elsa's disability benefits?"
Cohen stammered in fright, "Y-yes... a few hundred dollars a month, but we haven't been paid in six months."
Did you hit her because of this?
"No way! She's my favorite."
Click.
Lu Yiming pulled out the gun from the officer next to him and pressed it against Cohen's forehead.
"to be honest."
"Yes, I hit him!" Cohen immediately raised his hands above his head.
"But what can I do?! She's starving herself, and she's still giving money to those damn mutual aid societies!"
Lu Yiming pressed further, "Have you filed a complaint?"
Cohen thought for a moment, then yelled, "Hey officer, yes! Their damn mutual aid society filed a collective complaint, and the next day thugs came knocking on their door."
"They even posted the video on some media platform! It was gone in an hour! It was taken down."
Just then, Marcus rushed in with the documents in his hand: "Ming, confirmed. All five of them have disappeared, and their residences are all empty."
Lu Yiming took the report, which recorded their monthly income:
Elsa Cohen, facial burns, receives $220 monthly allowance.
Hank, missing his left arm, receives a monthly allowance of $280.
Uma, right leg amputated, monthly allowance $350
Malik, with a disability in his left leg, receives a monthly allowance of $300.
Nao, missing right leg, receives a monthly allowance of $310.
All five people are disabled.
That meager disability allowance is their lifeline, their only hope for survival.
And that hope has been extinguished for half a year.
Unable to file a complaint, they instead incurred retaliation from the mayor.
Lu Yiming slowly straightened up.
It turns out they were writing their complaint with their own flesh and blood.
A group of disabled people are unable to work like able-bodied people, and even suffer domestic violence and discrimination like Elsa.
They are completely denied existence by society and are not even considered "human".
They chose to answer in the most extreme way:
"We were incomplete in life."
"But after death, when they come together, they become a complete person."
Lu Yiming felt suffocated. His previous deductions weren't entirely wrong.
They were not victims, but martyrs.
But that wasn't enough. Cold sweat poured down Lu Yiming's back.
How did five disabled people manage to cut, sew, move, and dispose of the body? They were still alive when they sacrificed their limbs.
Does anyone know where I can get my hands on tranquilizers? Does anyone know if the subway station's security cameras have been compromised?
Unless someone helps them.
No, someone is using them.
He suddenly remembered some inexplicable questions.
Why does the news spread so quickly?
Why is the White House so concerned, yet not sending the FBI to take over the case?
This shocking mystery is like a ticking time bomb.
It will only explode at the most critical moment, turning into a scandal that shocks the entire United States.
"This was a political assassination."
Lu Yiming kept muttering to himself, while Marcus listened from the side, completely bewildered.
When five people, rejected by society, pieced together a complete corpse from their own flesh and blood, and then dumped it in the most conspicuous place in the city...
It's no longer a simple act of revenge; they are carefully chosen "knives."
A blood-stained knife was thrust at the mayor.
And the hand holding the knife...
Lu Yiming raised his head and looked into the distance.
This case was never a case from the beginning.
This is an election campaign.
Before he could continue thinking, a line of words appeared before his eyes.
[30-Hour Soul Analysis Concluded]
Perception +0.5, Medical Skills +1, Gluttony +1, Craving for Human Flesh +1
Hannibal's powers have come to an end.
That ability to see through appearances gradually faded away.
What follows is the exhaustion from excessive mental exertion, and an inexplicable lingering fondness for bloodshed...
At that moment, a police officer rushed in.
Marcus was getting annoyed; why was it always this guy who brought the news?
"Could it be another suitcase appearing at one of the subway entrances?"
The officer who reported the incident kept shaking his head, saying, "No, no."
Marcus breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good, that's good."
"This time it's directly on the roof of the city government building..."
The officer swallowed hard: "A Black man is going to jump!"
……
Outside the city hall, the crowd was completely jammed. Reporters, firefighters, onlookers…
Everyone was looking up, holding up their phones.
On the edge of the rooftop, the man teetered precariously.
The man's torso had a pair of slender Asian women's arms attached to it, his left leg was from a Black woman, and his right leg belonged to a white man.
Malik, a Black man. The last of the five "martyrs".
He wasn't disfigured. He didn't need to hide.
Today, his face must be seen by everyone.
He struggled to raise his head and roared with all his might, his voice echoing throughout the entire street:
"Mayor! Give us back our subsidies!"
"You drank our blood! You ate our flesh! And now there's not even a bone left?!"
His mission today is to complete the final act of this ceremony from the rooftop of the city hall in the most tragic and unforgettable way.
Click, click, click—
The cameras flashed wildly, the white light determined to imprint his distorted figure onto the screen.
The reporters surged forward like madmen, their shouts almost drowning out his cries:
"My God! Is this the living, assembled corpse?!"
"Is he the fifth victim?!"
"Sir! Who did this to you?!"
A jarring clamor broke through the crowd:
"Hey trash, why aren't you jumping yet? Hurry up and jump!"
"Come on, I'm waiting for you here, um."
Almost simultaneously, social media exploded.
Four pre-recorded videos were simultaneously released by an anonymous account.
Elsa, Hank, Uma, Malik.
Four haggard yet serene faces appeared on the screen one after another.
Facing the camera, they recounted in the simplest of words everything that had been taken from them:
"My name is Elsa. I have burns on my face and I am a victim of domestic violence by my husband. The $220 monthly allowance is for food for me and my daughter. I haven't received it for six months."
"I'm Hank, and I'm missing my left arm. The $280 grant was my guarantee that I wouldn't freeze to death. They even took down my tent."
"Uma, I've lost a leg and can't go to work. The $350 was for my medicine and food. They even sent people to beat me up after I lost the money."
"Malik. My left leg is a prosthetic. It's been six months, and I'm almost starving to death..."
"Nao was our partner. His subsidies stopped, he couldn't get any relief, and he starved to death at home. We used his body. That way... everyone will know about the mayor's atrocities."
There were no cries or screams, only a quiet despair.
Finally, Elsa raised her distorted, burned face and stared directly at the camera:
"They stole more than just money."
"They stole our right to be human."
"They said we were a burden, useless, numbers that could be crossed off the ledger."
"Alright then." She paused, a resolute expression on her face.
"Today, I will use the flesh and blood of these worthless people to tell everyone..."
"We can also be a person."
"Even five pieces of trash driven to the brink by you can scream."
"Mayor!" Malik's voice rang out at the end of the video, overlapping with his roar from the top floor of the city hall.
"Look carefully!"
"This is what you created..."