"It’s not necessarily murder,” remarked Xiaotao. “It may be the same thing as what happened last time. Just people fighting and yelling nonsense.”

Despite that, we couldn’t ignore it, could we? We arrived on the second floor of the foot reflexology center, where a crowd of people surrounded a private room. Xiaotao flashed her badge so these onlookers would step aside.

"Officer, the man’s death has nothing to do with me!" said one woman.

Xiaotao waved her hand, "Let’s have a look first!"

When we entered the private room, we found a man slumped over the sofa, his head tilted aside, his feet still soaking in a wooden bucket filled with hot water. Between his fingers was a lit cigarette.

A closer look...