Chapter 197 Finally, I've waited for you.

At midnight on the third day after Shi Lina and her daughter's bodies were brought to light.

The DNA testing lab of the provincial technical team called, and Xiao Bai, who was standing by the phone, snapped awake: "Hello, Criminal Investigation Team Four. Yes... Good, great!"

Shen Zhenzhu was discussing the next key points of the interrogation with Wu Zhongguo: "If the judgment is correct, the first thing to do is to find the bodies of Shi Lina's parents."

Upon hearing Xiaobai's voice, the two of them turned to look in Xiaobai's direction.

Xiao Bai pressed the speakerphone button, and Zhao Qiqi excitedly repeated, "The DNA test results show that Shi Lina's parents are related to Shi Lin! They are not Shi Lina's parents; they are also imposters!"

Wu Zhongguo slammed his hand on the coffee table: "Now things will be much easier."

For the past three days, "Grandpa Shi" and "Grandma Shi," who have known each other for over ten years, have been making their presence felt everywhere in their social circle of elderly friends. They not only have boundless energy, but also extensive social connections with their children and grandchildren.

While it may not have influenced public opinion, it did generate some public debate and put pressure on solving the case.

"It's hard to imagine the negative impact if Sister Pearl had made a mistake." Xiao Bai breathed a sigh of relief, but before she could relax, she thought about how Shi Lina and her daughter had been murdered, and now even their parents had been murdered. It was truly bizarre that their lives had been taken over by someone else.

"They probably planned this from the beginning. They couldn't wait to move to a new neighborhood where nobody knew them, and they replaced them without anyone noticing. Everyone who knew them thought they were the real ones." Shen Zhenzhu returned to her desk and said, "Bring those two from the hospital tomorrow morning and let them air out. If they want to act, let them act in front of a white wall."

Wu Zhongguo got up first and prepared to make himself a strong cup of tea. As he poured the tea leaves, he said, "I'll interrogate you together."

Xiao Bai said, "I'll go listen in too."

Instead, Shen Zhenzhu said, "There's no rush now. You should all go back and rest. We can hold another hearing tomorrow morning after the case meeting."

Seeing that Chen Zhenzhu was no longer in a hurry, Wu Zhongguo thought for a moment and said, "That's fine then."

After they left, Shen Zhenzhu received a phone call from Lu Ye requesting assistance with another case in another city. Shen Zhenzhu gave him a few instructions, then hung up and began to think about Hu Caizhi.

How can we find a breakthrough? ...

As she pondered, her eyelids grew heavy.

After her vacation ended, Shen Zhenzhu assisted Captain Park in handling the "large-scale fake document case," followed by the "campus aqua regia dissolution case" and the "Jia Minliang kidnapping and assault case on the street," and then this case came one after another.

When Gu Yanzheng came over with his arms crossed, he stood at the door for a while and watched Shen Zhenzhu sleeping.

She rested her chin on her left hand, tilting her head to the side, while her right hand held a ballpoint pen. When she found a comfortable spot to sleep, she would nod slightly.

In her dream, Shen Zhenzhu smelled a familiar, comforting scent. When she woke up, she was wearing a gray jacket.

He glanced at the gray jacket and couldn't help but smile. As soon as he reached out, he discovered that the ballpoint pen in his right hand had been replaced by a clumsy little red flower made of red wax paper.

It seems that Director Gu really likes that bag of rice crackers.

Perhaps it was a small encouragement after learning about this case?

Shen Zhenzhu felt a strange feeling. She looked at the little red flower from left to right, placed it next to the telephone, but worried that some clumsy person would knock it away. In the end, she put it in the drawer.

The two exchanged small gifts. What appeared clumsy to others concealed a unique and genuine affection.

There was a light rain last night, and the fallen leaves on the parking lot floor were of varying shades.

Open the window, the air is moist and slightly cool, and the fresh air, when inhaled, is full of moisture.

Shen Zhenzhu saw her colleagues rushing to work, and the logistics department staff directing the truck to back into the criminal investigation team's office building.

"What are you doing?" Shen Zhenzhu asked Wu Zhongguo, who had arrived at work early.

Wu Zhongguo first went to Sister Liu's shop to buy beef noodles. After eating, he said in a good mood, "It's a national campaign to help farmers. The poor county that our municipal bureau is paired with is a major orange-producing county. Didn't we all donate last week? The municipal bureau received tens of thousands of tons of oranges and delivered them to each department. I heard that we have contracted two mountains."

As they were talking, someone called out from the office door, "Go get your oranges! Director Liu said he'd give your team an extra one!"

"Thank you, Director Liu!" Since she had nothing better to do, Shen Zhenzhu went down to queue up.

He was dumbfounded when he got to his own seat: "You... how many kilograms did you say?"

The officer distributing oranges looked utterly hopeless. Almost every person receiving oranges had to repeat herself to her, and she rattled off: "Two thousand catties. Not two thousand catties for the entire Criminal Investigation Team, but two thousand catties allocated to your team by the Municipal Bureau... Oh, and your superiors gave you an extra thousand catties, making it three thousand catties. Two hundred catties for now, one hundred catties per basket. Another two hundred catties next week, another two hundred catties the week after, another two hundred catties the week after that... continuing until the New Year."

"...This is the benefit? Ugh, stop talking, my teeth are aching." Shen Zhenzhu admitted defeat.

She and Wu Zhongguo each carried 100 jin (50 kg) of oranges, struggling up to the fifth floor, panting heavily: "It's truly an endless supply of oranges!"

Little Bai arrived a step late, unaware of how sore Pearl's shoulders were. She was happily squatting in the corner, peeling and eating oranges. It wasn't even time for work yet, and her teeth were already aching.

"Sister Pearl, why don't you take this back and have Sixth Sister make you orange and crucian carp soup, garlic oranges, and stir-fried oranges with green peppers?"

"How dare you hold a grudge!" Shen Zhenzhu remembered the orange dish she had asked the cafeteria to make last time.

When Director Liu arrived at work, Shen Zhenzhu went to him first to report the DNA results.

Director Liu said without any surprise, "Last time you said the fake Shi Lina had a problem with her accent, and then you caught Shi Lin. This time you said the fake old lady Shi had a problem with her accent, and then you caught the villainous couple. It seems that Political Commissar Guo was right, we should also expand our knowledge of local dialects."

Chen Zhenzhu said with a smile, "I think it's good too."

......

After finishing his report and leaving Director Liu's office, Guo Daye came over to chat with Director Liu about the year-end work. He immediately noticed six oranges under the chair and asked, "Hey, what are these oranges for?"

Director Liu sat up and glanced across the desk: "Hey, she's trying to pull a fast one on me. Since you're already here, why not take a couple home and try them?"

Guo Daye waved his hand, not even bothering to sit down: "I still have a hundred pounds left to digest."

After leaving Director Liu's office, Shen Zhenzhu called Wu Zhongguo over and said a few words. Wu Zhongguo nodded: "Can I act with you?"

Shen Zhenzhu said, "Absolutely! Did you forget that Sister Qing said you have a celebrity look?"

"Come on, she said I look like that person before plastic surgery."

"Even before plastic surgery, superstars weren't ugly."

The two talked all the way to the interrogation room, and instead of looking for the two old foxes, they sat down in front of Hu Caizhi again.

Hu Caizhi spent three days mentally rehearsing how to handle the upcoming interrogation.

As he had expected, Shen Zhenzhu and Wu Zhongguo kept asking the same questions over and over again.

“You said before that she ran off with a man,” Wu Zhongguo said.

Hu Caizhi said with frustration, "Yes, I wanted to keep it a secret. But I didn't know that Shi Lin was also wary of me."

Wu Zhongguo said, "Tell me the details of the murder."

Hu Caizhi then recounted the events of that day, including the murder of Shi Lina and her daughter. The events were recent enough that he had forgotten some of the details. After he finished speaking, Wu Zhongguo asked questions, which Hu Caizhi answered.

What started as a normal interrogation process gradually became suspicious to Hu Caizhi.

Shen Zhenzhu was initially the lead interrogator, but at some point she stopped saying a word.

When he spoke of something ambiguous, Hu Caizhi would notice Shen Zhenzhu frown. When he spoke of something definitive, Shen Zhenzhu would nod in agreement.

It was as if Shen Zhenzhu was there back then, witnessing the entire murder firsthand!

"You just said you didn't know about that 'threatening letter,' and now we've asked you again, and you say you saw Shi Lin write it with your own eyes. Have you even thought about how to answer these questions?" Wu Zhongguo said sternly, "Your fingerprints and the murder weapon have been found, and the motive for the murder is clear. What's the point of you hiding this anymore?"

Hu Caizhi glanced at Shen Zhenzhu subconsciously, only to find that her gaze was still fixed on his shoulder. He turned around abruptly, but saw nothing.

He wanted to touch the jade Buddha on his chest, but suddenly remembered that the police had confiscated his jade Buddha last night!

There must be something wrong with confiscating the jade Buddha!

Without the jade Buddha statue to anchor him, Hu Caizhi shifted restlessly in his chair. He appeared distracted during the ensuing questioning. He curled his fingers to hide the calluses on them, clearly very agitated.

His subtle movements did not escape Shen Zhenzhu's notice.

Every time he looked up, he would see Chen Zhenzhu's gaze fixed on his left shoulder. No, sometimes her gaze would drift to his right shoulder. It felt as if something was rolling across both shoulders, and gradually he felt his shoulders becoming unbearably heavy.

This must be psychological.

Hu Caizhi kept telling himself not to be afraid. This was the police station, with so much yang energy. How could there be any demons or monsters here?

"Why don't you answer my questions?" Wu Zhongguo continued to ask.

Hu Caizhi looked up in astonishment: "What? What did you say?" He hadn't heard anyone speak at all.

The moment he looked up, he was horrified to see Shen Zhenzhu's gaze move again! It slid from his left shoulder to his right shoulder, and what terrified him even more was that Wu Zhongguo's gaze was actually aligned with Shen Zhenzhu's, moving from left to right, as if the two of them had seen something together!

"What...what did you see?!"

Shen Zhenzhu withdrew her gaze, paused for a moment, her eyes seemed to refocus, and murmured, "Was she wearing a pale yellow sweater that day?"

"What?!" Hu Caizhi's pupils dilated involuntarily!

On the day of the murder, Shi Lina was indeed wearing a pale yellow sweater, which was stained red with blood when she died.

The yarn was also one of the wedding gifts he gave her.

Hu Caizhi bolstered his courage and said with a dry laugh, "You guys are so resourceful, you must have found out through testing. Don't try to scare me."

Shen Zhenzhu glanced at his right shoulder again and shrugged.

This action sent chills down Hu Caizhi's spine. He looked back again, but still couldn't see Shi Lina.

Just then, as if repeating someone else's conversation, Chen Zhenzhu said, "'I will come back...' I will come back for what? Speak louder?"

As her gaze fell on her left shoulder, Wu Zhongguo looked over and said, "She said, 'I will come back to find you, Hu Caizhi.'"

Hu Caizhi was completely dumbfounded.

These are the words Shi Lina said before she was hanged! Her restless spirit haunted him for fifteen years!

"How...how could you know?! Impossible!" Hu Caizhi tried to get up, dragging the chair forward.

However, the chair in the interrogation room of the Major Crimes Unit was welded to the ground, and no matter how much he struggled, the iron chair did not budge.

"What are you talking about? Please stop!" Hu Caizhi was on the verge of a breakdown from their coordinated attack. "I want to leave! Let me go!"

“We’re used to these kinds of things when we’re handling cases, don’t mind it.” Wu Zhongguo waved his hand in a gesture of respect in the air and said, “Humans have their own way, and ghosts have theirs. After murder and arson, you’ll be put in a cauldron of boiling oil.”

"Who's going to be boiled in oil? Who are you talking to?!" Hu Caizhi asked Wu Zhongguo, but Wu Zhongguo completely ignored him.

Hu Caizhi looked at Shen Zhenzhu again and saw that Shen Zhenzhu shrugged behind him once more, seemingly disdainful of speaking to him.

"Please say something, I beg you. Please don't stay silent... Shi Lina can't be here... You're lying to me... You must be lying to me." Hu Caizhi's legs trembled violently, and his teeth chattered loudly in the quiet interrogation room.

"Liar?...Shi Lina, what did you say? Oh, Hu Caizhi kneed you so hard, it almost broke your neck."

"Ahhh, Shi Lina, get out of here! Get away from me and don't come any closer!" Hu Caizhi screamed at the top of his lungs, "Get out!"

Shen Zhenzhu finally turned her gaze to him and said softly, "She also said..."

Hu Caizhi was too weak to struggle anymore. He collapsed and said, "Shi Lina, what else did she say?!"

"Please spare my daughter, she's so young. I can die, but she's your daughter." Shen Zhenzhu sneered, "She said that she begged you so much to spare her daughter, but you wouldn't agree. She'd rather die herself than let you go this time."

"No—! Please let me go!" Hu Caizhi was suddenly struck by the memories he was trying to forget, and the scene of Shi Lina's desperate pleas before her death kept playing in his mind.

Shen Zhenzhu's words perfectly matched what Shi Lina said before she died!

Shi Lina really came, and she really told Chen Zhenzhu herself!

As a father, Wu Zhongguo said with empathy, "She begged you so much, but you still took action. Sigh."

Shen Zhenzhu stared at Hu Caizhi's shoulder and suddenly leaned back; Wu Zhongguo, receiving the signal, did the same. It was as if Shi Lina had suddenly stepped forward.

The synchronized actions drove Hu Caizhi, who believed in ghosts and gods, even mad.

"Shi Lina, don't come any closer! I did mention that you resemble Shi Lin, but it's not me who wants to marry you. It's Shi Lin, Shi Lin said she wanted me to marry you! She orchestrated everything!"

Hu Caizhi's crotch was wet. He looked at his shoulders from left to right and sobbed, "Don't look for me, go find Shi Lin. She strangled the child with her own hands! You saw it, didn't you? Such a small child, I really can't bring myself to say it. I didn't even dare to watch her kill him! That was my child too, I couldn't bear it either."

Chen Zhenzhu mimicked Shi Lina's tone, saying, "'I miss my parents.'"

Wu Zhongguo stared intently at Hu Caizhi, knowing that finding the remains of the two elders was the ultimate goal of this interrogation.

Hu Caizhi had already broken down, straining his neck and almost forgetting how to breathe.

He gasped for breath, "They're in the flower bed behind the house! Right under the maple tree in the flower bed! Your parents are there. You can reunite down there. Please, please, don't come looking for me."

Shen Zhenzhu and Wu Zhongguo exchanged a glance and nodded.

Wu Zhongguo agreed when he heard about Shen Zhenzhu's plan.

When danger strikes, loving parents will pray that it stays away from their children, even at the cost of their own lives.

In his view, Shen Zhenzhu took advantage of this and, after learning the function of the jade Buddha, successfully broke through Hu Caizhi's defenses.

Before leaving, Wu Zhongguo glanced back at Hu Caizhi, who was slumped in a chair, his knees pressed tightly together.

Why didn't you tell us where the two elderly people were buried from the beginning?

Hu Caizhi said in a hoarse voice, "Hu Xiaolei is my child... I finally made it to the city, and I have to raise him no matter what. He can't go to an orphanage... He can't take someone else's surname... He has to be taken care of by someone."

"You finally made it to the city, and now you're going to plant the seeds?" Shen Zhenzhu said with a laugh. "So you and Shi Lin have reached an understanding. She chose not to report the fact that her parents took her place in order to protect her own parents, and you will not report it in order to protect your 'seed'."

Hu Caizhi lowered his head: "Yes."

Wu Zhongguo sighed, "When it comes to harming people, you guys are truly birds of a feather."

Shen Zhenzhu asked Hu Caizhi, "Why didn't you stop Shi Lin from extorting money from you at the hospital last time? Was it because you couldn't?"

Hu Caizhi murmured, "Money is her life; who can stop her?"

......

Fifteen years is enough time for an infant to grow into a teenager, and it also makes the truth buried deep beneath the flowerbeds in the community heavy and shocking.

In this ordinary old residential area, the flower beds are crumbling and peeling from their brickwork. The weeds, neglected and withered, grow wild and messy. A maple tree stands tall and strong, its unusually robust branches swaying in the wind towards Hu Caizhi's kitchen window.

"The bodies should be under here, let's dig." Shen Zhenzhu led her men to set up a cordon and headed towards the kitchen window, through which they could see the place where Shi Lina and her daughter were buried.

Beneath this tranquil soil lies a chilling secret that has been buried for over a decade.

The two elderly people sleeping under the maple tree stretched out their branches with all their might, swaying the leaves through the kitchen glass, as if comforting their beloved daughter and telling her, "Don't be afraid, look, Mom and Dad are here."

"The grass is growing really well. Besides the smell of dog urine, there's also a mixed smell of old leather and bitter almonds." Xiaobai fanned his nose, looked around at the residential buildings in front and behind, and said, "There are quite a few people watching the spectacle."

The officers began digging up the tree. Wu Zhongguo directed the operation, looking at the maple tree that had grown for fifteen years, and remarked with admiration, "The ornamental varieties here usually grow to a maximum of two meters, but this maple tree is almost three meters tall..."

He swallowed the rest of his words; the source of the maple tree's nutrients was self-evident.

Hu Caizhi told them to dig under the maple tree, so they pulled up the maple tree, put it aside, and started working.

"What the hell are you police doing now?" an old woman from the building across the street shouted. "Release them now!"

"There's a ghost here!" shouted a boy from a house on the third floor. "Even my dog ​​doesn't like to play here. It always barks when I take it on my leash."

His parents hurriedly pulled him inside from the balcony, saying, "Little rascal, don't talk nonsense."

The operators dismantled the flower bed and dug a two-meter-deep pit. One operator's shovel made a dull thud.

"Could it be another rock?" one of the operators said.

Shen Zhenzhu stood to the side, leaning on her shovel, and said, "Be careful."

Wu Zhongguo threw the shovel aside and carefully dug through the soil, revealing first a faded but still faintly recognizable blue and white checkered synthetic fabric.

"We've found it," Wu Zhongguo said.

Section Chief Qin, who was waiting on the side, stepped into the flower bed with a shovel in hand: "Don't use the shovel, be careful not to destroy the evidence."

Lu Xiaobao led the forensic doctors inside with shovels and yellow bags. The yellow bags were laid out to one side as they began to collect the remains.

Shen Zhenzhu stood aside, watching quietly.

Soon another overlapping skeleton appeared before everyone, wearing a men's Zhongshan suit that was tattered to pieces.

The forensic experts carefully removed the skeletons from under the two flower beds, revealing the unmistakable erosion caused by time. The yellowish-brown bones, stained by years, had become fragile and porous due to prolonged exposure to damp soil.

Lu Xiaobao carefully picked up the bones and placed them on the yellow bag, numbering them. The human bones looked like a pile of old ivory that had been picked up.

Section Chief Qin said in the pit, "The soft tissue has long since completely decomposed and merged with the soil." He picked up a piece of bone, and only some dark brown mixture of grease and soil remained at the joints of the bone.

Shen Zhenzhu observed that although the bones of the two elderly people were fragile, they were relatively well-preserved as the excavation work progressed.

The joints of both bones, especially the pelvis and spine, show signs of age-related degenerative changes, consistent with the physiological characteristics of the elderly.

Xiao Bai squatted to the side and examined the skull, saying, "There is a depressed fracture about three centimeters in diameter on the top of the male's skull. The edges are irregular. It was probably caused by a blunt object like a hammer striking him hard." After saying that, he stared longingly at Chen Zhenzhu.

Shen Zhenzhu nodded, carefully moved the skull to examine it closely, and said, "There is a severe comminuted fracture on the left temple of the female skull. The angle of the wound is similar to that of the male skull, which is very likely caused by the same person using the same tool to commit repeated violence in a short period of time."

"Captain Chen, look." Section Chief Qin lifted a hammer out of the soil and wrapped the handle with an evidence bag: "If nothing unexpected happens, it should be the tool used in the crime."

Shen Zhenzhu took the hammer and compared the impact surfaces of the two skulls. The tortoise-shell-shaped bone cracks successfully covered the hammer's impact surface: "Basically a match."

Xiao Bai said regretfully, "It would be great if it were like the fingerprints on the roof beam. The environment here is too bad; we only have a hammer but no fingerprints to identify the murderer's fingers."

Shen Zhenzhu glanced at the bones, blinked, picked up the shovel Lu Xiaobao had placed aside, and said, "No one can commit a crime without leaving evidence."

She and the forensic team continued digging. The flowerbed was no longer what it used to be; it had been dismantled and was now a mess. The maple tree lay alone, leaning to one side, its leaves swaying wildly in the wind.

Xiao Bai put on work gloves and squatted down next to Shen Zhenzhu to help with the digging. He carefully picked up a finger bone, sighed, and placed it on the yellow bag.

Time ticked by, and the excavation work was nearing its end.

After a long day, everyone had sore backs and aches.

Chen Zhenzhu dug for a long time but couldn't find what she was looking for. She stood up and walked towards the building. Xiaobai brought her a chair and said, "Section Chief Qin said that it would be complete with just two more finger bones. How come two more are missing?"

Chen Zhenzhu stopped sitting, stood up to stretch her waist and pat her back. A gray rat scurried past in the corner, completely unafraid of people.

Shen Zhenzhu said, "I hope I won't get eaten."

Xiao Bai unscrewed the mineral water bottle, waiting to give it to Chen Zhenzhu. Seeing her sister Zhenzhu moving her head, she suddenly walked forward with her head tilted to the right: "What is this...?"

The busy police officers on both sides quickly made way and looked over.

"Hey, Pearl, what's wrong?" Little White quickly followed.

Shen Zhenzhu continued to tilt her head, walked straight to the maple tree lying diagonally on the cement ground, which no one paid any attention to, knelt down, squinted and stared for a long time: "...There is something in the crack of the roots."

Xiao Bai also squatted down, but his direct line of sight completely obscured what Chen Zhenzhu was seeing.

Xiao Bai didn't know why her Pearl Sister was suddenly digging in the dirt, but she still grabbed a small stick and helped dig.

After shoveling the pearl for a while, Chen Zhenzhu suddenly said, "Evidence bag."

Xiao Bai quickly took it out and handed it to Chen Zhenzhu: "What did you dig up?"

With her head tilted, Shen Zhenzhu pulled out an ivory-white finger bone from under the roots of the maple tree, which were still covered in soil.

"A finger bone! We've found a finger bone!"

Before Xiao Bai could even celebrate, she noticed another finger bone, entangled with the tree roots, being pulled out by Chen Zhenzhu: "Great! We've found them all... Wow! This is... this is—a denture!"

Shen Zhenzhu stood up by lifting her finger bones, the ends of which, like maple leaf roots, were connected to a set of old, grayish-white plastic dentures!

Shen Zhenzhu squinted and said, "The teeth on the skeleton are basically complete, so there is no possibility that dentures are needed."

Xiao Bai hesitated and said, "Would the murderer... have forgotten their dentures while burying the body?"

Shen Zhenzhu glanced at the finger bone, pursed her lips, and said, "The most likely explanation is that the victim deliberately hid during the fight."

Section Chief Qin rushed over, examined the dentures, and exclaimed excitedly, "The shape of the dentures has hardly changed at all. The wear and tear from daily use and the unique internal sutures are like the murderer's signature!"

Shen Zhenzhu turned around and looked again at the maple tree growing on the bones of the two elders.

For 5479 days and nights, I endured countless days and nights of sunshine and rain, witnessing the murderer's family living a happy life.

Shi Lina's father clutched the evidence accusing the murderer tightly, waiting for the day it would see the light of day again.

-----------------------

Author's Note: Pearl: I've been waiting for you, I'm here.

***

See you tomorrow, there are 100 red envelopes!

The excavated skeletal remains and dentures were based on and modified versions of the book "Forensic Medicine" and online sources.