Chapter 109: Treat the Other Way 03: Burnt Corpse in Mountain Temple

Chapter 3

"Let's walk faster. It feels like it's going to rain. After we climb over this mountain, there's a dilapidated mountain temple on the back. We can take shelter in the temple."

The boy was walking in front and said to the girl behind him: "Give me the bag so we can walk faster."

The boy and the girl were playmates who grew up together. They both loved hiking, especially wild mountains.

The two of them made an appointment before the New Year to climb this mountain together after the New Year.

This mountain overlooks the entire city of Bingjiang and is quite famous in the local mountain climbing circle.

There is a parking lot at the top of the mountain and you can drive up the mountain, but for mountaineering enthusiasts, this mountain is also a mountaineering paradise.

The boy walked in front to lead the way, and from time to time he looked up at the direction of the clouds on the mountain, fearing that it would suddenly rain and soak them. "This weather forecast is too inaccurate. It looked sunny in the morning, but suddenly dark clouds came in halfway up the mountain."

The girl followed the boy.

Finally, before the heavy rain fell, I ran to the mountain temple.

The two men stood under the eaves of the mountain temple, panting.

Dark clouds were gathering, and it seemed as if heavy rain was about to pour down in the next moment.

The girl took out a bottle of water from her backpack, gulped down half a bottle, and walked towards the temple, "We are not going to stay here tonight, are we?"

"It's not safe to walk in the mountains. Let's see when the rain stops. If it stops early, we'll rush to the top of the mountain before dark."

The boy followed the girl and they walked into the temple together.

"Why does this mountain god statue look so fierce?" The girl hid behind the boy in fear.

The boy put his hands together and bowed to the mountain god: "I was just passing by to take shelter from the rain. I didn't mean to disturb the peace of the gods. I hope the gods will forgive me."

The girl immediately closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, bowing to the mountain god like the boy did, "I didn't mean to bother you, I hope the god will forgive me."

After opening her eyes, the girl looked around and saw a black mass in the corner. She tugged at the boy's clothes and said, "Look what that is. Is it unburned firewood? Should we go pick up some firewood nearby to avoid being cold at night when it rains?"

The boy looked in the direction the girl pointed. The pile of things was burnt and didn't look like unburned branches. Branches couldn't be that thick either. It looked like... a person.

The boy used a hiking stick to pick it up and dug it out from the ashes. It was a charred corpse that was almost left with only a skeleton.

The next second, both of them screamed and ran outside in a hurry.

After running a certain distance, it leaned against a tree trunk and vomited.

Whenever I think of that scene in my mind, I can't help but feel nauseous.

After vomiting for a few minutes, they really couldn't vomit anything, so they hurriedly returned the same way. Their legs were weak and uncontrollable, and they supported each other to get back to the pass.

The girl asked tremblingly: "Should we call the police?"

The boy nodded and took out his cell phone. The cell phone signal was not very good and it was intermittent when he tried to dial through.

The girl took out her cell phone and checked. The signal was full, so she used her phone to call the police.

Soon the call was connected: "Hello, I want to report a case. We found a charred body in Butterfly Mountain behind Bingjiang New City."

About an hour later, the police drove to the top of the mountain, came down from the top and met them halfway up the mountain. It was raining by then.

The team was led by the captain of the Criminal Investigation Team 1 of the Pingjiang Municipal Public Security Bureau.

"Hello, my name is Ma Ji, I'm from the city's criminal investigation team. I'm the one who called the police, right?"

The boy and the girl both nodded.

Ma Ji asked, "Where is the body?"

The boy pointed to the mountain temple in front and said, "It's in the mountain temple not far ahead. Just follow this road and you will see the mountain temple."

Ma Ji asked, "How did you come up with the idea of ​​going to the mountain temple?"

The boy explained: "When we got here, I felt it was going to rain. It would take another hour to climb up the mountain, so I thought about going to the temple over there to take shelter from the rain."

Ma Ji nodded, looked at this place that was far from any village or store, and asked, "How did you know there was a mountain temple here?"

The boy explained: "Because I came here to watch the sunrise once before, the top of the mountain is a great place to watch the sunrise. When I flew the drone, I saw the mountain temple halfway up the mountain."

Ma Ji felt that what the boy said was credible. The two men's faces were pale and they were obviously frightened.

Seeing the two people carrying a lot of bags, he asked, "Are you planning to rest in the mountains for a night?"

The boy nodded: "Yes, I plan to camp and watch the sunrise tomorrow morning before going back. If I'm lucky and there are no clouds in the sky at night, I can also see the stars."

He took out his own stargazing telescope and showed it to Ma Ji.

Ma Ji thought his explanation was quite reasonable, and said to his men, "Xiao Gu, take them both up the mountain, take their statements, and send them home safely."

Then Ma Ji led his men towards the mountain temple.

Not far ahead, we saw the mountain temple they were talking about.

Ma Ji led his men into the temple and indeed found a charred human body in the corner of the wall.

Ma Ji's subordinates looked at the burning corpse and said, "This should be because of the addition of an accelerant. Normally, the body would not burn so badly without an accelerant."

The body was completely charred.

“I don’t know if we can still extract DNA.”

Several people left the scene and cordoned it off, waiting for trace inspection and forensic scientists to arrive.

It is not known whether any useful clues can be extracted from a scene like this.

It was pouring rain. Ma Ji and his subordinates stood under the eaves of the mountain temple, waiting for the forensic doctor and trace examination.

About half an hour later, the forensic doctor and trace investigator rushed over.

A group of people came down the mountain in the rain. It is unknown when the mountain temple here was built. According to common sense, not many people should know that there is such a mountain temple here.

There used to be a village on the other side of the mountain. In the 1990s, a heavy rain caused a landslide and the village was collectively demolished and relocated to a town on the outskirts of the city. Not many people live here anymore, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is sparsely populated.

"Ma Dui, come over here and take a look."

The director of the trace examination picked up a metal object with tweezers and held it under the sun.

The thing had been burned black, but it was still recognizable from the appearance. It was the mark of the Judge.

Ma Ji looked at this thing and frowned.

Now, police officers across the country are afraid of receiving cases from the judge when they go out on patrol.

Who knows when the judge will come up with a warning letter to all netizens and send it to Pingjiang City for publication on the Internet.

Ma Ji sighed: "In the next period of time, I'm afraid that we will have a hard time."

"Everyone, come here." He immediately gathered everyone in front of him, "This case is about the judge. I hope you will devote 120% of your energy to participate in the investigation of this case and strive to solve it as soon as possible. Do you have confidence?"

"have."

"Okay, go do your work and see if you can find any evidence around to extract the murderer's DNA."

Ma Ji wanted to call to report, but it was raining heavily and the signal was bad. He gave some instructions to his men and went outside to try to call to report.

The forensic doctor conducted a preliminary examination of the body and found signs of life on the body's surface, with the body in a curled-up position, indicating that the person was burned to death while still alive.

There were signs of restraints on his hands and feet, which means he had been tied up before death. He fell to the ground with his head facing the corner and his feet facing the door. Someone poured accelerant on him from head to toe, and the entire wall in the corner was burned black.

There were ashes of burning wood around, and the murderer probably left the scene only after confirming that the deceased was completely burned to charcoal.

The mountain temple was very empty, with only three statues placed alone in the middle. After the fire started, there was nothing else that could be burned except the corners where the accelerant was sprinkled. The fire was just controlled in the corners, and the temple was high enough, so the flames jumped up and blackened the beams on the roof without affecting other places.

The body was burned completely and no useful information could be extracted from the body surface, nor was any information related to the deceased obtained from the surroundings.

The clothes he was wearing were burned.

A burnt watch was pulled out from the ashes. The shape of the watch matched the area on the deceased's hand that was not severely burned.

Only the watch didn't have a strap. The strap should be made of leather or other flammable material, which is why it fell to the ground after the leather was burned through and was not completely burned.

Ma Ji came back just in time to see the trace examiner putting a watch into the evidence bag and asked, "Can the identity of the deceased be confirmed through the watch?"

"Let's go back and take it apart and see if we can find the manufacturer of the watch. The forensic doctor should be faster than me. The burns on the victim's head aren't serious, so we should be able to extract DNA from his teeth."

Ma Ji nodded.

The director of the Trace Inspection Department asked, "Has the report been submitted?"

"I have reported it. For now, we will proceed according to our schedule and try to confirm the identity of the deceased first."

The director of the Trace Inspection said, "It is impossible that the deceased came all the way here without any preparations, but we did not find anything related to the deceased in the area. It is very likely that these things were taken away and destroyed by the murderer."

"If it were me, I would probably be destroyed right here." Ma Ji looked at the forest outside the road.

The director of the trace inspection shook his head: "This mountain is too steep, and the vegetation below is very dense. The area is too large, and there are no conditions for searching the mountain."

“If we can’t find the identity of the deceased, we’ll still have to search the mountain.”

Ma Ji walked to the edge and looked down. There was quite a lot of garbage underneath.

There are also traces of camping in the temple, indicating that people had passed by here in the past.

I picked up a stone about the size of a mobile phone and threw it downwards. The dense vegetation in the jungle provided good shielding, so the stone didn't go very far.

It is still raining now, so it is indeed unsafe to send people down to search the mountain. Ma Ji has not made any arrangements for the time being.

The trace investigator carefully used a sieve to pass through the ashes under the body, and some debris, clothing fragments, etc. were picked out.

I picked up a lot of useful and useless garbage from the surrounding area.

After putting the body into the body bag, the preliminary autopsy was completed. All that remained was to return to the bureau for a detailed autopsy.

Ma Ji asked someone to help the forensic doctor move the body.

After receiving the news, the serious crime squad assembled and set off as quickly as possible.

Bingjiang City is a fourth-tier city with a permanent population of only four million. It is located on a tributary of the Yangtze River. It has no airport and no high-speed rail. One can only fly to the provincial capital, then take a train to Bingjiang Railway Station, and then take a taxi to the Municipal Bureau.

By the time the serious crime team arrived at the Bingjiang City Police Station after transferring vehicles, it was already past nine o'clock in the evening.

The lights in the Municipal Bureau were bright, and all members of the Criminal Investigation Team were on duty, waiting for the serious crime squad to arrive and begin work.

Yue Fanglin dialed Ma Ji's number, and soon a man in his thirties came down from upstairs in a hurry and greeted him enthusiastically, "You must be colleagues from the serious crime team, right? My name is Ma Ji, and I'm the captain of the criminal investigation team. I led the team to the scene."

After several members of the serious crime team introduced themselves one by one, they followed Ma Ji to the meeting room of the criminal investigation team.

In the conference room, a briefing on the situation on site was prepared.