Chapter 52 The Strange and Bizarre Him
Suffocation, pain, excitement—a man with shackles on his feet kneels in a metal cage.
A black rubber strap binding his Adam's apple was connected to his wrists, forcing him to raise his wrists to keep his neck from being buried in cement.
His vision was blocked by a blindfold, and he couldn't make a sound because he had something in his mouth. After several attempts to suffocate, he struggled to break free of the blindfold, allowing a faint light to penetrate.
She walked over, and through the limited view, one could see her arches stretched taut within her red high heels. The skin on the instep peeked out from the opening, dazzlingly white, each step leaving a trail of wet, forbidden fruit, making the man eagerly gaze at the alluring sheen.
She sat down, one high heel dangling precariously from her toe, the slender heel resembling a delicate weapon. The red heel clicked crisply as it hit the floor. Her toenails, painted red, gleamed like ripe cherries in the dim light, tempting one to take a bite.
Every movement she made struck a nerve with the man, who gasped for breath. The poured cement rose above his Adam's apple, reaching his chin, yet the man still conveyed with loving eyes the powerful message, "I'm willing to die for you."
Thinking about the even more intense intercourse that would follow this "game," the man suddenly felt his mouth go dry. To win the woman, he knelt naked in the dog cage, accepting this test.
However, the cement spread into his nasal cavity and was inhaled into his lungs, and this bedside "game" did not stop.
"Ugh—!"
Overwhelmed by fear, the man trembled violently. He struggled desperately, his limbs swimming in the solidifying cement slurry. Gradually, despair buried his body and head, leaving only a hand with a gold ring sticking out of the cement block.
After a long while, the woman released her motionless hand and calmly pushed it into the hardening cement slurry. As she turned around, her fingers, already in rigor mortis, reappeared, the gold ring gleaming eerily.
After the cement blocks were sealed, the body was taken from the crime scene that night and sent to a nearby, secluded coastline, where it was sunk into the sea and would soon never see the light of day again.
The exposed fingers did not attract the woman's attention. As the cement block rolled down from the bridge and plunged into the sea, she turned and left.
A man, his face contorted with despair, tumbled into the sea, a slab of concrete obscuring his face. His exposed left ring finger struck a sharp rock, separating from the concrete in the crashing waves. Playful fish chased and nibbled at him, and he was swept ashore by the waves, becoming wedged between barnacles and rocks...
......
"How can we be sure it was cut off after death?" Zhao Qiqi hadn't yet grasped the basic argument that the case was a murder.
Shen Zhenzhu composed herself, let out a soft sigh, and pointed lightly at the incision with the tip of her pen, saying, "If it were an injury sustained before death, there would be a bleeding reaction, similar to inflammatory cell infiltration. After death, the dismemberment is clean, without the above reactions. There are also irregular lacerations here, as if bitten by crabs and fish."
Qin An came in from outside and saw Shen Zhenzhu analyzing the severed finger with Zhao Qiqi. He stood aside and greeted her, "Taking on a newbie? Lucky you, you got to mentor one. How is it? It's well preserved in my office, isn't it? It's exactly the same as when it was discovered."
Zhao Qiqi didn't understand the principle behind storing it with soda, but she thought it was amazing.
After greeting Qin An, Shen Zhenzhu originally wanted Qin An to analyze the problem for Zhao Qiqi, but Qin An said, "I'm almost sick of studying this ring finger. Tian Yongfeng comes over to ask me questions every day, so I'll just listen to your analysis."
Shen Zhenzhu explained, "The severed finger swelled and peeled off due to prolonged immersion in the sea, but some deep dermis remained. Here, you can see the fat undergoing a saponification reaction, forming a grayish-white waxy substance, which is called cadaverization, which can delay decay."
Shen Zhenzhu paused, waiting for Zhao Qiqi to finish recording, before continuing, "Brother Zheng told us to pay attention to the sea area analysis. You need to know that different seawater environments produce different decomposition characteristics. Adipocere usually occurs in cold waters, where decomposition is slow and tendons are attached, which matches the characteristics of the sea area where it was found, namely Liancheng. If the seawater temperature is high, the soft tissue would severely decompose and expose the bones within a month, so we can rule out the possibility of it drifting from other sea areas."
Qin An nodded. He had done the chemical analysis beforehand, and it matched Shen Zhenzhu's current deduction. He kicked Lu Xiaobao: "Don't space out, remember this too."
Lu Xiaobao quickly took out his notebook from the drawer and stood next to Zhao Qiqi to listen.
"There's algae attached here. I analyzed the growth cycle of algae and barnacles before, which suggests it entered the water about two months ago, roughly a month before it was discovered. The ring shows no signs of being forcibly removed, ruling out robbery and murder. We can consider a crime of passion or revenge..."
Shen Zhenzhu used her knowledge with ease and quickly analyzed the correct result, which impressed Qin An. He said again, "If only I had gone to the police station to bring you in last year, it's too late to say this now."
Shen Zhenzhu was still preoccupied with the "grandfather-grandson gathering" and couldn't offer any more comfort. After exchanging a few polite words, she took Zhao Qiqi, who had a big tail, back to her office.
"Before they return, we will use the time to conduct an oceanographic simulation to reverse the process. Taking the port near the discovered starfish beach as an example, we will try to deduce the original location where the body was dumped and see if we can find the main missing parts."
"Huh? Okay, okay." Zhao Qiqi didn't quite understand what she was saying.
Shen Zhenzhu comforted her, "Take it slow, this isn't something you can learn in a day. It took me more than a year to study Brother Zheng's notes, and there are still some things I need to ask Brother Zheng about."
Zhao Qiqi received effective comfort but failed to notice the intrigued smile on Gu Yanzheng's lips.
Shen Zhenzhu first asked Zhao Qiqi to go to the archives to ask Sister Zhang for the ocean trend analysis she had seen before, as well as the ocean current map that was kept at the bottom of the box.
Gu Yanzheng put down his pen and saw her struggling to reach out her arm to overlay the ocean current map, so he simply went over and used a magnet to help fix it to the blackboard.
Zhao Qiqi watched from the other side as she held a phone, inquiring about ocean current data from the Ocean Bureau's marine monitoring station from two months prior.
After spending an afternoon, Chen Zhenzhu stroked her chin in surprise at the roughly simulated data: "The body dumping site is near the Starfish Square where it was found. I heard there's a beer festival going on there."
Gu Yanzheng pointed to three to five hotspots of ocean current backflow and said, "Don't underestimate the suspect's audacity; he's done plenty of things in the dark. These areas need to be thoroughly investigated, and the investigation needs to be carried out as soon as possible."
Zhao Qiqi asked, "Are you afraid of losing?"
Gu Yanzheng scoffed: "It's because a piece of real estate here has been bought out and is going to be reclaimed from the sea. If it's really reclaimed, it'll be difficult to investigate later. Are you suggesting we demolish someone else's buildings before we can investigate?"
As Chen Zhenzhu recalled the scene of the body being dumped, she carefully examined the map and then looked at the recent promotional flyer for the beer festival at Haixing Square. In it, she found a place with bridge piers under construction.
“If I were a suspect, I would also choose to dump the body in this area.” Chen Zhenzhu pointed to the map and said, “Once the land reclamation project is completed, this area will be completely filled and fixed as land. The abandoned body will never see the light of day again, and the murderer will escape the law.”
"Hey, you guys found it too?" Lu Ye came in wiping his sweat and said while blowing the fan on himself, "Xiao Xizi, you tell us."
When Shen Zhenzhu saw Wu Zhongguo return with the files, she simply said, "Then let's have a case meeting and go over the clues. Let me first explain what Zhao Qiqi and I discovered to everyone."
Shen Zhenzhu gave Zhao Qiqi a look, and Zhao Qiqi quickly opened his notebook and stood by the blackboard, saying, "The ring finger is a male's left ring finger. The severed end shows signs of cutting and there is no sign of life, which is consistent with dismemberment after death. Based on the degree of seawater decomposition and ocean current simulation, it is estimated that the body was dumped about four weeks after it was discovered. We need to focus on investigating recently missing men wearing wedding rings."
“That’s pretty much what we suspected earlier,” Wu Zhongguo said. “I checked the police reports and there were no recent missing men. I’d like to check the medical waste disposed of by the hospital.”
“The angle is excellent, Uncle Wu. Then I’ll trouble you to continue the investigation.” Shen Zhenzhu looked at Zhou Chuanxi and Lu Ye, who had gone out with her.
Zhou Chuanxi's sweat subsided a bit, and he fanned himself with his hand, saying, "The inner band of the ring is engraved with the English words 'FL LOVE,' and it's 24k gold. It should be a custom-made wedding ring from the 'Jinshengsheng' brand. We asked the sales clerks at the counter, and they told me that for this classic style, we need to check the 'Jinshengsheng' headquarters' customization records; mainland distributors don't have the authority to customize them."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "This clue is good, it's a breakthrough. Let's continue to pursue it and contact the 'Jin Shengsheng' headquarters in Hong Kong to see if they can provide clues about the identity."
Lu Ye leaned back in his chair and said unhappily, "I called the headquarters of the Hong Kong brand, and they said they couldn't disclose customer privacy and couldn't cooperate with the mainland police in solving the case. They also said that their order volume is so large that even if they wanted to cooperate, they couldn't."
The heated atmosphere was interrupted when Tian Yongfeng from the Second Team sent someone over to check the situation. Before they could even breathe a sigh of relief after hearing that the Fourth Team's Major Crimes Unit had also lost its lead, Shen Zhenzhu clapped her hands and said, "Losing one lead is fine. Everyone is coming with me to Haixing Square anyway. We've identified five possible locations where the body was dumped. Let's split up and check if there are any eyewitnesses and conduct on-site investigations."
Lu Ye groaned and stood up, stretching out his long arms, saying, "Can I bring my swim trunks? It's too stuffy."
Shen Zhenzhu laughed and said, "Sure, you can swim over there and see if there are any corpses from below."
"Boss!" Lu Ye was furious: "Sister Pearl has learned to bully people."
Gu Yanzheng knew he was on the right track, so he sat back down and frantically wrote the application. He looked up and said, "How about I come over and you help me write the materials?"
Lu Ye chickened out and quickly ran towards the door.
Zhou Chuanxi laughed at him from behind: "He has a nail on his butt. It's better to let him shoot at the sun than write reports."
Apart from Gu Yanzheng, who was still throwing wads of waste paper into the trash can, and Wu Zhongguo, who was contacting the hospital to see if any medical waste had been lost, the rest of the four teams headed towards Haixing Square.
The fourth team's office is on the fifth floor, and the second team's office is on the fourth floor.
A series of footsteps sounded at the stairwell. Xiao Min, who had just heard the news, ran over to Tian Yongfeng and said, "Team Leader Tian, they said they found five suspected body dumping sites and are going to investigate them."
Tian Yongfeng and his men were also heading outside, their destination the location where the severed finger was found: "What? Five suspected body dumping sites? Where are we going to find five of them?"
Xiao Min was an apprentice trained by Tian Yongfeng. Neither his master nor he understood. Recalling the words on the blackboard of the fourth team, he said, "It seems to be derived from ocean currents."
"She's so sophisticated, she can even make up ocean currents. Is it because of the weather station on TV?" Tian Yongfeng's wife and two daughters watched every episode of Shen Zhenzhu's program "Legal Scene". The two daughters even regarded Shen Zhenzhu as an idol star and bought privately printed posters to stick on the wall.
Xiao Min didn't quite understand: "No, it was created by stacking maps one after another."
“Cats have their ways, and mice have theirs. Let’s go to the scene first.” Tian Yongfeng said, “I’ve been busy for more than a month without solving the case, but she solved it in one fell swoop as soon as she took over. I’ve been wasting all these years.”
Loud music filled the Starfish Square as mounted police on white horses trotted past, attracting the attention of countless tourists.
Elegant aunties lined up and strutted around the center of the square, their postures upright and graceful. Wearing stirrup pants and disco music, they had more energy and spirit than the young people.
Inside the Starfish Square is the venue for the "Liancheng Beer Festival." Invited celebrities stood on stage, enjoying the cheers of the audience and performing captivating songs.
The beer festival was packed with people, making it impossible to distinguish between tourists and locals. The aroma of wheat juice and barbecue in the air was so enticing that even the most frugal person couldn't resist opening their wallet and indulging.
A person holding a beer mug stands comfortably on the beach, enjoying the beautiful sunset over the coastline.
Liancheng is friendly to its residents, allowing them to barbecue, set up stalls, and camp within reasonable limits without interference, as long as they have fun. As tourists stroll along, their eyes fall on the barbecue grills set up on the beach, where they find salt-grilled prawns, freshly grilled clams, and grilled yellow clams. Oysters, washed in the sea and placed on the grill, can be eaten as soon as they open slightly, allowing them to savor the fresh and sweet taste of the sea.
As Shen Zhenzhu and the others emerged from the Audi 100, they couldn't help but take a deep breath of the delicious air.
Thanks to Zhao Qiqi, although he is a newcomer, he has a driver's license, which saves them from the miserable situation of having to squeeze onto buses when they go out to solve cases.
The parking lot was two kilometers away from the first suspected location. Chen Zhenzhu led the team through the crowd, her hands now empty except for a stir-fried mung bean jelly in her left hand and a mutton skewer in her right.
I didn't have time to eat lunch and was really starving, but unfortunately the stinky tofu line was too long and I didn't have time to wait in line.
Lu Ye had an even bigger appetite. In addition to buying five large red willow skewers of mutton, he also asked the owner for four steamed buns. He was in a hurry to get on his way and didn't need the owner to bake the buns. He ate the mutton sandwiches with the buns as he walked.
Zhou Chuanxi bought two bottles of soda, and the four of them each grabbed a straw and drank them quickly, head to head. They were all burping as they walked along the road, attracting attention with their constant burping.
The first suspected location was near the reef on the beach north of Starfish Square, but Shen Zhenzhu knew at a glance that it wasn't there. According to the data from the Sky Eye backtracking system, there should be a bridge pier there.
Shen Zhenzhu knew the destination, but she couldn't go beyond the task at hand and search for them one by one with the others.
"Big sister, what are you doing here?" Shen Yuyuan had just returned from out of town, and was quite tanned. She was currently enjoying the youthful exuberance at the beer festival with Li Lili.
When Shen Zhenzhu saw the fruit beer glass in Shen Yuyuan's hand, she thought that an 18-year-old girl could enjoy adult-sized wheat juice. She pulled over another glass of fruit beer that Li Lili was trying to hide behind her back and said, "Drink if you want, but don't drink too much. Don't come to Haixing too often lately. Go to Leopard Beach and Ocean World more often."
Shen Yuyuan, being a clever girl, whispered in Shen Zhenzhu's ear, "Is there another murder case? Don't worry, we'll go back after we finish this drink. We definitely won't talk to strangers or linger here."
Chen Zhenzhu generously took out her wallet, pulled out a ten-yuan note, and handed it to her: "The bus must be very crowded. You'll need to take a taxi at the taxi stand. Remember—"
"Remember not to take unlicensed taxis." Shen Yuyuan took the money, kissed Shen Zhenzhu on the cheek, and pulled Li Lili, saying, "We're leaving now, see you later."
She greeted all of Shen Zhenzhu's colleagues, and they were already quite familiar with each other.
Unfortunately, just as Shen Zhenzhu was about to leave, she saw Tian Yongfeng leading Xiao Min over from the other side.
Tian Yongfeng glanced at their empty soda bottles and the leftover lamb skewers, smiled, and walked past them without saying a word. Silence spoke volumes.
Zhao Qiqi asked Shen Zhenzhu, "Will Captain Tian tell Captain Gu that we eat during work hours?"
Chen Zhenzhu patted him on the back and said, "You know that the money you use to eat and drink out is from your secret stash, right?"
Zhao Qiqi said, "I know."
Shen Zhenzhu said slyly, "Then do you know who gave you the money in the slush fund?"
Zhao Qiqi thought for a moment and said incredulously, "Could it be that Captain Gu gave it to us?"
“If it’s not Captain Gu, who else can afford to feed us? He used to be very stingy, but I don’t know why he suddenly became so generous.” Lu Ye found the trash can, took the bamboo skewer from Shen Zhenzhu’s hand, and said, “Wow, Section Chief Shen actually eats so much.”
"Childish." Shen Zhenzhu blushed and hurried to the second location.
Passing by the discovery site, they saw the second team members bending over with their buttocks sticking out and their trouser legs rolled up, looking around in the rocks. Shen Zhenzhu felt it was unnecessary, so she walked around and left with her men.
At the second location, there was a sea fishing platform. Zhou Chuanxi lay down on it and examined it carefully: "No clues were found."
Not hearing Shen Zhenzhu speak, Zhou Chuanxi stood up, patted his pants, and saw a bridge pier to be built in the direction she was gazing.
“Go over there,” Chen Zhenzhu said.
Zhao Qiqi opened her ever-present notebook and saw that the direction was the third suspected site where the body had been dumped.
They entered through a small gate cut into the long fence. The land reclamation site was temporarily under construction due to the beer festival, and only an old man was guarding the gate to prevent thieves from stealing steel materials.
"The road over there is difficult to walk on. There used to be another road, but it's been closed off because of the beer festival." The old man followed closely beside them as he heard that the criminal investigation team was handling a case.
He noticed that Lu Ye was tall and burly, like someone in charge, and was about to ask him something when he saw a young man with glasses next to him who looked more like a leader.
But the young man was following behind another young man with a crew cut, which didn't seem like the demeanor of a leader in his mind, as leaders always walked at the front.
He looked over according to his own idea, and at the front was a short girl who looked to be about the age of a college student.
That's even less likely.
Just as he finished thinking, he heard the little girl instruct him: "Brother Aye, go check out the intersection the old man mentioned. Brother Axi, go to the other end. Brother Qi, come with me to the bridge pier and observe it."
The girl's sweet voice made it easy for the three grown men to obey her instructions without hesitation.
The old man recalled the saying, "Society has changed; women can hold up half the sky now."
Unaware of what the old man was thinking, Shen Zhenzhu hurriedly went to the vicinity of the bridge pier and carefully observed the clues from the angle retrieved by the Heavenly Eye.
The place where she stood had been raised up to form land, with warning posts placed in front of it. Behind the warning posts was a blocked road, and at the end of the blocked road was the ocean.
This height is equivalent to two stories above sea level. From the broken road, Chen Zhenzhu could see the bridge piers in the distance.
Knowing full well that the body, which had been filled with cement and dumped underneath, was right below, her mind raced. She needed to find a strong lead to request permission for the search team to conduct a search.
After Lu Ye and Zhou Chuanxi returned, they reported that Shen Zhenzhu had not found any clues. However, they found Shen Zhenzhu lingering at the dead end, as if she suspected something.
“I’ve looked this way.” Chen Zhenzhu headed in the direction Zhou Chuanxi had come from, and as she walked, she found the intersection that the old man had mentioned, which was blocked off by the beer festival.
She suddenly squatted down and pointed to a two-finger-wide tire track on the ground, saying, "Would there be such fine tire tracks at a construction site?"
A casual remark made Zhou Chuanxi break out in a sweat. He quickly squatted down next to Shen Zhenzhu and carefully observed the mark, saying, "The mark isn't deep. The road base has a certain load-bearing capacity, so it was made before the cement dried completely."
Shen Zhenzhu told him, "Ask the old man when this road was paved with cement."
Zhou Chuanxi ran off to find the old man, and soon brought him back. To avoid any further problems, he had Shen Zhenzhu talk to the old man directly.
“You’ve come to the right person. I’m here all the time. I know exactly what’s been repaired and what’s been filled in. This road was paved with stones three months ago, and the tire tracks on it are awful. The cement road was just paved two months ago, and it was about to start maintenance when a few more tire tracks appeared overnight. The foreman gave me a good scolding.”
“Two months ago!” Zhao Qiqi’s eyes lit up as she excitedly looked at Chen Zhenzhu.
Shen Zhenzhu said to Zhou Chuanxi, "Brother Xi, could you please take photos of the tire tracks as evidence? They might be the tools used to dump the body."
The old man seemed to have misheard, rubbing his ears vigorously and saying, "What did you say?"
Lu Ye put his arm around the old man's shoulder and said, "It's nothing. Come here and let's have a chat. Did you see anyone suspicious on the night the tire tracks appeared two months ago?"
As the old man walked away, he said, "Aren't you just rubbing salt into my wound? If I had seen someone suspicious, I would have stopped them. How could I let someone leave tire tracks all over the cement?"
Lu Ye clicked his tongue, "That makes sense."
He led the old man aside to ask him a statement, and Chen Zhenzhu walked along the tire tracks to the broken road where they had just been.
Suddenly she pointed to the friction marks on the bridge pier and said, "Brother Xi, Brother Qi, look over there, those are the marks of receding tide. Do you see that rock down there? The edges are sharp and pointed. If someone falls from here, I think they could break their bones. What do you think?"
Zhao Qiqi nodded: "I think so too."
Zhou Chuanxi, a veteran of the criminal investigation team, was roused from nearly missing a clue and carefully observed the area, saying, "Sister Pearl's judgment is correct; this could be the location where the body was dumped. You can see that the depths of these two tire tracks are inconsistent, which clearly indicates that a heavy object was dumped here, and the tire tracks became shallower when they returned."
Chen Zhenzhu successfully obtained the result she wanted. She twisted her cloth bag, took out her mobile phone, and called Gu Yanzheng: "Brother Zheng, we've found something at the third suspected location..."
She went to the side and started reporting. When Lu Ye came back from the old man's place, he saw her holding Captain Gu's mobile phone and exclaimed, "If I had known that this thing could be passed down, I should have tried to become a vice captain back then."
"Go wash up and go to sleep. You can dream about anything." Zhou Chuanxi waved for him to move aside: "Don't block the light, I need to take pictures."
Shen Zhenzhu quickly hung up the phone, shook her mobile phone, and said, "Brother Zheng, please help us apply for the salvage operation. We should ask the Coast Guard patrol team for their cooperation. Let's sit here and wait."
They waited as promised, the four of them sitting by the broken road watching the setting sun, so captivated by the breathtaking scenery that no one dared to disturb it.
"What are you four teams doing?"
Tian Yongfeng and the others poked their heads out from behind the fence. He said with a cheerful expression, "Could it be that you're frustrated because you can't find any clues?"
Shen Zhenzhu lay back on the broken road, lazily looking at him and said, "Team Leader Tian, is there still a long line at that stinky tofu stall?"
Tian Yongfeng was amused by her: "What time is it and you're still thinking about food? If your Captain Gu calls me grandpa, then you're all monkeys and their grandchildren."
Chen Zhenzhu laughed and said, "If I call you Grandpa now, can you conjure up some stinky tofu for me?"
Tian Yongfeng pointed at her and said, "Smiling and joking."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "It's none of your business."
Zhao Qiqi said blankly, "Our Captain Gu just loves to see the vice-captain grinning like that."
This remark made everyone present laugh.
Tian Yongfeng walked up to them, lowered his head and said, "Let me tell you, there was a group of old men who were just looking for soy sauce when they found the severed finger. I just ran into them. If you're looking for them, I can give you directions."
Hearing the sound of a boat approaching in the distance, Lu Ye dove to his feet, nearly plunging into the sea, and scrambled to his feet, crying out, "Ah—help! Help! Help!"
"Watch out!" Shen Zhenzhu bravely grabbed Lu Ye by the collar with one hand and pulled on Tian Yongfeng's trouser leg with the other, scaring Tian Yongfeng so much that he stumbled and almost fell into the sea!
Shen Zhenzhu would rather die than lose her own friend, and together with Lu Ye, they scrambled and tumbled, each grabbing one of Tian Yongfeng's trouser legs and refusing to let go.
If Xiao Min and the others hadn't been holding him back, Tian Yongfeng would have been ambushed, but he still managed to fall on his backside.
Shen Zhenzhu gripped his trouser leg and exclaimed, "Team Leader Tian, your horse stance is a bit off!"
"Was that a horse stance? You two dragged me!" he said angrily. "Is this how Gu Yanzheng arranged for you to solve cases? Your Fourth Team is outrageous!"
"That's outrageous." Shen Zhenzhu scrambled to her feet, secretly thinking how lucky she was that she hadn't worn her police uniform today, otherwise she would have been incredibly embarrassed.
She ignored Tian Yongfeng's words, patted her knees and buttocks, and even had time to glare fiercely at Lu Ye: "You're dead."
Lu Ye casually patted the road a few times, only to be kicked by Zhou Chuanxi. He quietly moved a little further away from the broken road and said, "Stop hitting me, I need to signal!"
Not only was Tian Yongfeng puzzled, but the four or five people from the second team were also puzzled.
Lu Ye, being tall, stood by the broken road and waved vigorously: "Here it is!!"
Seeing the coast guard patrol boat approaching, Tian Yongfeng asked in confusion, "Why aren't you looking for clues? What are you doing here?"
Chen Zhenzhu chuckled: "Finding clues is less useful than retrieving a corpse."
"Corpses? Here?" Tian Yongfeng and the others stood cautiously by the blocked road, watching the coast guard patrol boats approach. "Why are there so many? And fishing boats too?"
Four patrol boats and six small fishing boats approached from a distance. Some of the coast guard officers on the patrol boats were wearing diving suits, while others carried tools such as long hooks and iron rakes for retrieving floating corpses.
Then, on the fishing boat, the fishermen were holding fishing nets on the deck, intending to cast the nets and repeatedly try to hook the body.
"Such a big fuss," Xiao Min said softly. "Even if there were any bodies here, they would have been swept away by the sea."
These words resonated deeply with Tian Yongfeng. He simply did not believe that Shen Zhenzhu could find the body so quickly. He said calmly, "Even if it wasn't swept away by the sea, it would have been eaten by fish and crabs, or it would have rotted and been dismantled."
"I wonder how much money this will cost," another member of the second team exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like this in all my years of solving cases."
Shen Zhenzhu knew that retrieving a body from a concrete-seabed sinkhole would be difficult. If it were twenty or thirty years later, side-scan sonar, magnetometers, and underwater robots could be used for precise location, and the identity of the deceased could be quickly confirmed through a DNA database after retrieval. However, in the 1990s, retrieving a body from a concrete sinkhole still relied on experience, manpower, and rudimentary tools, making the investigation extremely difficult.
"It should be here!" Chen Zhenzhu didn't lose heart and shouted at the coast guard on the patrol boat.
Zhao Qiqi saw a diver jump off the patrol boat and, following Shen Zhenzhu's gesture, swim to the vicinity of the bridge pier and drop a fixed-point buoy.
Then four or five divers jumped off the patrol boat, put on simple diving equipment, and conducted a search in the marked suspected waters.
"Underwater visibility is low and the current is strong; we may not find anything!" shouted a person in charge on the patrol boat.
Chen Zhenzhu gave an OK sign: "Understood, thank you for your hard work!!"
"The cell phone is ringing," Lu Ye nudged Chen Zhenzhu's shoulder to remind her.
Shen Zhenzhu took two steps toward the fence. It was a pity that there was no caller ID yet, but luckily she wouldn't mistake Zheng Ge's voice.
"Has the person arrived yet?"
Seeing a large crowd of curious onlookers gathered behind the fence, looking over from all sides, Shen Zhenzhu turned back to where she had been and said, "We're here! Let me tell you, there are ten ships of all sizes here. They're really impressive. If you didn't know better, you'd think we were going to catch pirates."
Hearing that Shen Zhenzhu could chat with him on the phone, Gu Yanzheng felt relieved and said with a smile, "It seems you are very confident in finding the body."
Chen Zhenzhu said softly, "Brother Zheng, don't worry, I'll definitely bring good news back. Don't believe anyone who complains to you."
"Okay, don't worry, those who accused you are talking nonsense."
"Yes!" Shen Zhenzhu was delighted, and hurriedly hung up the phone when she heard someone calling her from the other end.
Gu Yanzheng had intended to encourage her, but he was encouraged by Chen Zhenzhu instead. After exchanging a few words, he hung up the phone, suppressing his urge to go to Haixing Beach, and forced himself to write complicated materials at his desk.
"Comrade Chen!" Lu Xiaobao, carrying a forensic briefcase, squeezed through the small gate of the fence, followed by Qin An.
Chen Zhenzhu said with surprise, "Why did you arrive early?"
Qin An laughed and said, "Anyway, I was thinking of coming over to have some fun after work. It's on my way anyway, so you don't have to ask us to come."
Lu Xiaobao said from the side, "Master said you would definitely find the body. Someone as proud as you wouldn't have called so many people if you weren't absolutely sure."
With her hands in her pockets, Chen Zhenzhu looked smugly at Tian Yongfeng, Xiao Min, and the others, raising her chin provocatively and saying, "Did you hear that?"
Gu Yanzheng was able to send his deputy to take over the second team's unsolved cases, and Tian Yongfeng also wanted to see what the fourth major crime squad was capable of. He simply invited the second team members to "learn" the fourth team's crime-solving techniques here.
"The nearby sea area has been searched, but no body has been found!"
"The entire reef area, abnormal areas, and areas affected by ocean currents have been searched, and nothing was found!"
"No findings were found in areas with complex coastal terrain!"
The lack of discovery made Chen Zhenzhu's face darken. She stood in front of the broken road, squinting at the area below the bridge pier. The coast guard on the patrol boat opposite said, "Comrade, could we search further down? I suspect it might be stuck in a crevice between the rocks or sunk in deep water with a heavy load inside!"
"We need to call the Maritime Safety Administration to apply for the use of fishery administration equipment. It's getting dark, and we can't conduct a search without the equipment." The other party was very experienced in marine searches and did not leave early despite a series of "no findings," which relieved Shen Zhenzhu.
The other party quickly contacted the Maritime Safety Administration and learned that the Municipal Public Security Bureau's Criminal Investigation Team wanted to retrieve the body here. The Maritime Safety Administration personnel quickly sent over high-end equipment of that era—an underwater searchlight.
Fishermen stood on the deck, casting their nets to test the waters, while divers, now equipped with new oxygen tanks, plunged into the deep sea to rescue bodies that were nearly lost to time.
More than an hour later, the patience of the people on the shore ran out. Tian Yongfeng stared intently at the determined figure ahead, seemingly unmoved by the surrounding discussions or the fruitless search.
Time passed slowly, the scene was dull, and Shen Zhenzhu heard that some of the onlookers on the other side of the fence had left.
The old gatekeeper was blocking the entrance to the small gate and got into a big argument with some troublemakers who wanted to squeeze in.
"Let's go back first." Tian Yongfeng had been standing on the shore for more than four hours. Seeing that he had gained nothing from Shen Zhenzhu, and recalling his own fruitless thirty-odd days and nights, he extinguished the flames of mockery and decided to leave quietly so that everyone could save face.
Before he could finish speaking, an excited voice, barely above his own, shouted, "Found a block of cement used to seal the body! Start the fishing boat's hook!!"
"Quickly! Hang the hook!"
"Hang up!"
The people on the ship seemed to have been injected with adrenaline, relaying messages one after another, and everyone sprang into action!
Tian Yongfeng stopped, rubbed his ears, and asked Xiao Min, "Did they really find a body?"
"We...we found it!" Xiao Min and the others' eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as they ran to the shore to get a better look.
Cheers erupted from Lu Ye and Zhao Qiqi behind them. Lu Ye shouted, "I told you, you can't go wrong listening to Sister Pearl!"
Zhao Qiqi nodded vigorously and wrote down the six words "Listen to Sister Pearl" in big letters in her notebook.
Fishing boats are equipped with semi-automatic gravity lifts on their hulls to lift heavy objects from the seabed to the surface, in order to catch fish in the ocean. This is another important reason why patrol boats need the help of local villagers.
Shen Zhenzhu's almond-shaped eyes widened slightly, her hand secretly clenching into a fist at the seam of her trousers. She turned her head, wanting to call Zhou Chuanxi to pay attention to taking pictures, but Zhou Chuanxi had already raised his camera, ready to record the moment the body emerged from the water.
On the shore, Qin An was the most anxious. Upon hearing the words "cement-sealed corpse," he was furious: "What I feared has come to pass!"
He hurriedly told Lu Xiaobao to find the old man at the gate to see if he could borrow an electric drill to break through the cement. He couldn't bring the dirty cement covered with marine life to the forensic department!
Fishing boats bobbed on the sea, and groups of fishermen worked hard to crank the rollers, slowly lifting a cement block about one square meter out of the sea and into view.
Reporters who had rushed to the scene from the other side of the construction site were warned to keep quiet after a few flashes of their cameras, and their film was confiscated. The onlookers were eager to climb over the barriers to witness the spectacle of the body encased in cement. Gasps of astonishment rose and fell, and Tian Yongfeng immediately arranged for people to maintain order at the scene.
Lu Xiaobao successfully borrowed an electric drill, hammer, and chisels from the old man and distributed them to the people in Team Four and Team Two. Regardless of whether they were competing or not, they should get the corpses out first.
Shen Zhenzhu received a hammer, which suited her abilities. Knowing it was inappropriate to laugh at the sight of a corpse, she suppressed the urge to smile as she stared at Tian Yongfeng's donkey-like face.
But then something unbelievable happened.
Qin An stood on a stool, forcefully breaking through the cement block, when suddenly the electric drill emitted dazzling sparks, almost splashing onto Chen Zhenzhu, who was wielding a hammer next to him.
"What's going on?" Qin An approached and touched it with his hand, then cursed, "How come there are iron bars!"
Shen Zhenzhu knew perfectly well what was going on, so she stepped forward and said, "There are some here too. The spacing and thickness don't look like iron bars, but like a cage, a dog cage."
The crashing waves on the shore sent chills down one's spine. Qin An, who had been thinking of quickly removing the body from the cement to conduct an autopsy and obtain fresh clues, swallowed hard upon hearing this: "So perverted."
Shen Zhenzhu nodded: "Yes, that's how perverted it is."
Qin An stopped drilling with such gusto and became more cautious and meticulous.
Some disobedient members of the public took photos, and under the flash, a middle-aged man, naked and covered in gray cement dust, appeared before everyone. He was kneeling in the dog cage, his neck hanging from the cage, his left hand, missing an finger, raised upwards in a strange and eerie posture.
He was like a statue permanently sealed away; the cement isolated him from the air, slowing his decay. His muscles were hardened, and some of his hand bones were highly decomposed due to exposure.
Qin An quickly conducted a preliminary examination and told Shen Zhenzhu and the others: "The adipocere of the body is consistent with the severed finger found. The teeth are well preserved. Except for the missing ring finger on the left hand, the rest of the body is intact."
Standing beside him, Shen Zhenzhu remained silent; she had witnessed an unexpected flashback through the Heavenly Eye—
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Author's note: Team Leader Tian: Hey, Lao Gu, I have something to tell you. That Chen Zhenzhu in your team is absolutely amazing!
Old Gu: I know she's amazing, I'll hang up now if there's nothing else... beep beep beep...
Team Leader Tian: !! I curse the fourth team's immortal!
***
Wishing all the babies a happy day! [sparkling eyes]
See you tomorrow, there's a red envelope!
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