Chapter 27 A Brief Encounter with Her
When Chen Zhenzhu arrived at the fifth-floor office in the morning, she placed steamed buns and soy milk on her desk: "These are steamed buns with braised pork and steamed buns with vegetables, and this is the last day of cold noodles. There won't be any left tomorrow, so help yourself if you want some!"
"Cold noodles, mine!" Wu Zhongguo couldn't often go out for dinner, but he was very enthusiastic about breakfast.
He opened the cold noodle lunchbox, which was filled with plenty of sesame paste and peanuts, much to his delight. I had mentioned it briefly last time, and the young man remembered it.
Zhou Chuanxi prefers meat buns to vegetable buns, and returned to his seat with a braised meat bun in each hand.
Lu Ye was away on business, but his vegetable buns were left for him.
After finishing her speech, Chen Zhenzhu wiped her chairs and benches, then looked down to admire the dazzling crystal vase.
The previous pink carnation had vanished, and all that remained on the desk was a crystal vase—a gift reportedly taken casually from Captain Gu's mansion as a present for Chen Zhenzhu. Its price and age were unknown. It exuded an aura of wealth and opulent ornamentation.
Especially when the warm autumn sun shines on it in the early morning, you can see shimmering, colorful light from downstairs. Anyone who's seen it knows there's something good in this spot.
Unfortunately, being located in the office of the Fourth Criminal Investigation Team felt like being in a dragon's lair, a place that could only be admired from afar and not approached.
Thanks to it, Chen Zhenzhu has been in a good mood for months. The poor child wears a smug smile all day long at work.
Money really does have magic.
Unfortunately, the office landline interrupted the brief moment of peace.
"Call the police!" Zhou Chuanxi practically jumped up, grabbing his briefcase and pager, and said, "A dismembered body has been found in the community garden, 200 meters west of Huaqiao Old Street!"
Wu Zhongguo hurriedly shoveled down a few mouthfuls of cold noodles, then wiped his mouth after putting them down. He had been looking forward to enjoying his meal: "Why is it dismemberment again? Can't you ever stop?"
Chen Zhenzhu snapped out of her reverie in the dreamlike light, grabbed her notebook and pen, and ran outside.
Gu Yanzheng returned to the corridor just then, clearly having also been notified of the case. He didn't even have time for breakfast; he went back to his desk, grabbed his car keys, and ran downstairs.
In cases of heinous murder, the window of opportunity is fleeting; the moment a case is received, it's a race against time with the criminal.
Gu Yanzheng was driving, and Zhou Chuanxi was in the passenger seat. Comrade Shen and Comrade Wu were in the back seat.
It was the first time Shen Zhenzhu had ridden in a Cherokee in two months since her transfer. She was both excited and nervous, as it was also her first time going to a police station to report a crime.
To act as a legitimate criminal police officer.
The Cherokee honked its horn, and the gatekeeper jogged to open the door. Amidst the billowing smoke of traffic, the iron beast, carrying four upright and pure hearts, charged forward with fervent passion.
According to Shen Zhenzhu's plan, she would wave to her old colleagues at the police station at this moment, but at this moment the situation is urgent and the case is serious, she can no longer be smug and is wholeheartedly hoping that she can do her part.
So this is what it feels like to sit here every time I go on a call.
***
The community garden isn't very large; it's basically just a space for residents to hang out. It has a pavilion, two flower beds, a large open area in the middle, and some slightly malfunctioning exercise equipment.
The only good thing is that it's not far from the coastline. It's said that at high tide, the entrance to the community garden is locked with chains, and seawater often floods in. This makes matters worse, as the already malfunctioning sports equipment is further corroded by the seawater.
The Cherokee, carrying the imposing detectives, pulled up nearby. Lu Ye was already waiting on the side of the street: "This way."
Gu Yanzheng's impressive and robust physique, Lu Yexiong's strong build, and Wu Zhongguo's height of over 1.8 meters made Shen Zhenzhu look like she was being carried by a group of tigers as she walked in the group.
The forensic doctors were already arranging the dismembered body parts. The body parts, wrapped in fishing nets, were cut into very small pieces, with haphazard and uneven cuts.
“Last night’s high tide must have washed the body up with the seawater. Not only were they wrapped in fishing nets, but they also weighed down the body parts, probably intending to feed them to the fish.” Qin An was among them. He handed Gu Yanzheng a pair of gloves, wanting to hear Gu Yanzheng’s opinion.
He brought three students to the scene today, and especially hoped that the experienced Captain Gu could give him some guidance.
The three newly recruited forensic doctors from the Municipal Bureau, having long admired Captain Gu's reputation, all looked over expectantly.
But then Gu Yanzheng called out, "Old Shen, what do you think?"
Old Shen?
This title sounds like it belongs to a senior colleague, right? Calling him "Old Shen" at this moment means he can definitely help Captain Gu analyze the situation, so he must be someone important.
Just like Di Renjie's line in the TV series, "Yuanfang, what do you think?", they are very much looking forward to the judgment of this expert who can make Captain Gu listen to his voice.
"Here you are!" A sweet, clear voice squeezed through the crowd, and a pretty young woman came running over: "Team Leader Gu!"
"This is our team's new criminal investigator, Comrade Shen Zhenzhu. She's quite skilled at crime analysis."
Qin An: ...He's someone I know.
Lu Xiaobao paused in arranging the body parts, a mixture of surprise and astonishment washing over her. So she really had become a criminal investigator!
We'll have even more opportunities to work together in the future!
Shen Zhenzhu took the gloves Gu Yanzheng gave her and put on a mask, completely covering her face. At the scene of the dismembered body, which reeked of decay, she carried a faint floral scent of face cream—a scent that even the rough-around-the-edges criminal investigators would never possess.
"Also a newbie?" A new forensic pathologist, seeing that she was younger than him, muttered, "Stop throwing up."
Shen Zhenzhu smiled, her eyes crinkling, but she didn't speak to him; she focused on looking at the body parts.
Seeing that she hadn't spoken for a long time, Qin An stood up and stretched his legs, then said to Gu Yanzheng, "You're too impatient. It's not good to force things so soon after she joins the team. If you scare the girl badly, you'll regret it if she never shows up again."
"Don't look down on people." Gu Yanzheng looked past the small figure squatting on the ground and glared at the tiny pieces of corpse that were hard to distinguish from body parts.
This is why he specifically called for Shen Zhenzhu to come forward on the spot. If the other units don't respect her, it will cause problems in future cooperation. Others will think she's inexperienced and lacks professionalism.
Wu Zhongguo and others took action on the spot spontaneously. They understood that Gu Yanzheng wanted to build Shen Zhenzhu's confidence today to facilitate future work.
"Aren't you afraid of making a mistake in the analysis?" Huang Aiyang, a junior forensic doctor, said to Lu Xiaobao. "Captain Gu is really strict. Is he going to bully her just because she's a woman?"
Lu Xiaobao rolled his eyes at him: "You don't know anything."
If your superiors don't think much of you, they won't give you even the slightest chance to get ahead. It's nothing like now, where they immediately call someone over to do the analysis in front of a group of forensic doctors and colleagues from other departments.
Is this bullying? This is clearly helping her to protect her and back her up.
"Captain Gu, the body parts have been eaten by fish, so the bones at the ends of the limbs are completely exposed, while the torso still retains some saponified fat. It can be determined that the body was dumped about 15 days ago."
Huang Aiyang disagreed, saying, "How can we determine whether the body was dumped there by ocean currents from other places? To know the specific time and location, we also need to combine chemical change indicators, such as chloride ion concentration, to make a judgment."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "I remember that testing the surface of diatoms and plankton on the body can be used as a basis for determining the waters where the body was dumped. You see, there are barnacles and oysters on some of the body parts, as well as unique gravel, which is consistent with this sea area, so the body should have been dumped here."
Another junior forensic pathologist asked, "How could you determine it was 15 days?"
Shen Zhenzhu looked up and glanced at Gu Yanzheng.
Gu Yanzheng knew that what she said matched the notes; he had studied marine forensics abroad and had also made some notes there. He was surprised that Shen Zhenzhu had applied what she had learned so quickly, and nodded with satisfaction: "You're right, continue."
Comrade Shen, now confident, said, “That’s easy. I just mentioned barnacles and oysters. Look here, the barnacles have passed the 5-7 day larval stage and have developed obvious calcified shells, which means they’ve reached the 15-day growth cycle. As for oysters, our sea oysters, their average growth rate is 0.1mm per day. I tested it with my knuckle and it reached about 1.5mm. Combining these two, we can roughly estimate the 15-day timeframe.”
Huang Aiyang looked at her raised index finger in disbelief and said, "You even remember the length of your own finger joints?"
Comrade Shen nodded solemnly: "I memorized not only the index finger, but also the length and width of all five fingers and the palm, just so that I could quickly estimate the values when the on-site conditions were not good."
Qin An muttered under his breath, "Won't taking an unorthodox approach prevent me from getting into the fourth team?"
"Birds of a feather flock together." Gu Yanzheng was very satisfied with Comrade Lao Shen, and the young comrade even surpassed his own enthusiasm back then.
"Well said!" Lu Ye wanted to pat Chen Zhenzhu's back hard, but he raised his hand and thought about it and held back, not wanting to hurt her thin arms and legs.
Qin An knew that Gu Yanzheng had tacitly agreed with Shen Zhenzhu's words, which meant that Shen Zhenzhu's judgment was correct. She had obtained information in just a few minutes that would take a laboratory 24 hours to obtain, based solely on the naked eye.
“No wonder you’re so smug, but we’ll need concrete experimental data to support our report when we get back.” Qin An glanced at Gu Yanzheng, then turned to the other forensic doctors and said, “Alright, everyone else, don’t crowd around here. Go examine the surrounding area.”
"Sister Pearl, what do you think of this?" Lu Ye leaned closer to the body parts. The twenty-odd pieces of body parts looked no different from pork chunks in a butcher shop.
Corroded and soaked by seawater, pecked at by fish, the mixture of bones and rotting flesh may make it even more gruesome.
Just as Chen Zhenzhu was about to answer, she heard his stomach rumble loudly. She glanced back to make sure no one was watching, then pulled Lu Ye back a few steps and squatted down: "Here."
She pulled a red bean packet from her pocket: "Have a bite first. If you collapse from low blood sugar, I can't carry you."
Lu Ye glanced back at Gu Yanzheng and quietly broke the red bean bun in half: "You eat first, I'm scared."
That's a complete mess.
Shen Zhenzhu took a bite and chewed quickly.
Lu Ye felt relieved. It was just like the feeling of doing something naughty in class. Doing it alone or with your deskmate was a completely different feeling.
Gu Yanzheng stared speechlessly at the two people munching on red bean buns and taking notes in front of the body parts. Didn't they see the operatives digging for clues not far away, completely dumbfounded?
Qin An felt the same way. Team Four finally found a softer character, and he thought that when he got to the scene, he could be like the other newcomers, throw up and feel dizzy, at least like an ordinary person. Who knew it would be so weird.
You're eating red bean buns while your body is decaying and mangled? Girl, you have an appetite like an ox!
Qin An's heart was the same as that of his other colleagues who pretended to work but were actually secretly watching.
Comrade Shen is quite a character. No wonder Captain Gu specifically singled her out for analysis; she has something special about her.
No wonder they dared to explode their eggs.
***
"The marine geology professor just confirmed the growth time of the marine plants: 15 days, which matches what Lao Shen said." After finishing his call, Lu Xiaobao looked at Chen Zhenzhu excitedly and nodded emphatically.
Lu Ye, who was observing from a distance, was overjoyed upon hearing this and couldn't help but want to pat Chen Zhenzhu on the shoulder to encourage her, but Gu Yanzheng intercepted his hand halfway.
Lu Ye withdrew his hand and scratched his head haphazardly: "Sister Pearl, you're simply amazing!"
Qin An also laughed and said, "With your skills, what are you doing in the criminal investigation team? Not to mention the city, our province is also in dire need of forensic talents. You can come here with me, and you will be able to work on your own in no time."
Zhou Chuanxi walked over, closed the notebook filled with eyewitness testimonies, and said, "You're poaching our team right in front of us, Team Four?"
Gu Yanzheng didn't look at Qin An, but instead looked at Chen Zhenzhu.
Chen Zhenzhu jumped up and immediately stood at attention: "Reporting to Captain Gu, Team Four is my home, I will love it forever! I will never leave it, betray its trust, or betray my home!"
Lu Ye and Zhou Chuanxi couldn't help but burst into laughter, and Wu Zhongguo also walked over and said, "Hey, who's reciting doggerel here?"
Gu Yanzheng suppressed a smile in his eyes, patted Chen Zhenzhu's head and said, "What are you thinking? Do you think I'd let you leave so easily? Hurry up and investigate the surrounding area to see if you can determine the route and time the body was dumped."
"Yes!" Shen Zhenzhu accepted the order and encouragement, took out her notebook, and went to the vicinity.
Lu Ye said from behind her, "Wait, don't be alone, I'll go with you."
Gu Yanzheng then told Zhou Chuanxi, "Send people to search the vicinity, especially places that are not easy to find, such as ditches, sewers, and caves. You focus on the scene and interview the onlookers."
"Yes." Zhou Chuanxi closed his notebook and left.
Gu Yanzheng stood not far away, assessing whether the route taken to dispose of the body, as one of the dumping sites, covered the area where the suspect lived.
Qin An, still dejected as Chen Zhenzhu left, turned to Gu Yanzheng, wanting to bargain: "I don't have anyone you like here?"
Gu Yanzheng, finding no room for argument, simply stated, "I want her. Don't even dream about it."
"Tch, we've been partners for so many years, and you've managed to snag such a promising talent first. Let me tell you, if she gets any interest in me, you have to let her go."
"Dream on, she'll never fall for you." Gu Yanzheng said this and left.
"You're so smug! Wait until those girls run off with other guys and you're all done with it!" Qin An was just being a sour grapes; his resentment was more intense than the pieces of corpses his men had disposed of.
Lu Ye and Chen Zhenzhu searched the vicinity for clues but found nothing. The group spent the entire morning at the scene.
Back in his office, Qin An's documents arrived promptly, a rare occurrence for him to personally make the trip.
"We've pieced together the body parts as closely as possible to their anatomical locations, to reconstruct the deceased's physical information. Comrade Shen Zhenzhu's judgment is absolutely correct; the body parts consist of three victims." Qin An paused here, glancing deeply at Shen Zhenzhu, his eyes filled with regret.
"Based on the skeletal age, the victim should be between 20 and 30 years old. The 'step-like' marks on the long bones indicate that the body was dismembered with a cleaver-like tool. Cut marks and depressed fractures can also be seen in some bones, indicating sharp and blunt force injuries, respectively. These are pre-mortem injuries. Two of the bones show pathological signs of osteoporosis and arthritis. It can be seen that the suspect's dismemberment skills and techniques were not very advanced."
Gu Yanzheng took the materials and handed them to Chen Zhenzhu, saying, "Go and make a few copies."
"Okay." Shen Zhenzhu's expression was not good as she went to the printing room.
The information derived from the twenty-five body parts largely matched the fragmented information she "saw".
She recalled the scene she saw at the body disposal site: a dark, damp place filled with shadows, where a group of women were shouting and yelling at them. The words were filled with insults and jealousy. Because they were intertwined and fragmented, she couldn't make out a complete sentence, only scattered phrases like "Die!", "You stole my man!", "It's your turn to die!", and "I want to live!"
The phrases "It's your turn to die" and "I want to live" led her to believe that this was not a simple crime of passion. Based on the noisy background sounds, the number of people involved might be five to seven, or even as many as ten!
This outcome sent chills down Shen Zhenzhu's spine.
"There was her too." Chen Zhenzhu recalled the face that flashed by in the fragment, one of the hostesses who was waiting on the side when she lost her wallet that day.
Is the woman who found the wallet alright?
Chen Zhenzhu picked up the test reports page by page and returned to her office with a worried expression to hold a case meeting.
There are very few known clues, listed on the blackboard as "Victim 1", "Victim 2 (has given birth)" and "Victim 3 (has given birth)".
Faced with the empty blackboard, everyone had the same thought: Could there be other victims?
"The search team is looking for body parts along the coastline, but so far they haven't found anything." Gu Yanzheng's brows were furrowed.
“This case is complex and brutal, something that happens only once every ten years in the whole country. How did it have to happen here?” Wu Zhongguo gulped down a large cup of chrysanthemum tea, already prepared for his mouth to be full of blisters.
After receiving the call from the provincial department, Director Liu came over with an extremely somber expression.
The atmosphere in all four teams was gloomy, and even the newly hired Shen Zhenzhu looked weary.
Director Liu sighed. That's what it's like to be in the Major Crimes Unit. It's not just about risking your life, but also about testing your physical and mental strength. If you're not in good physical condition, most people really can't handle it.
The province originally wanted him to put some pressure on him, but after circling around the door, Director Liu still went to the third team.
The case of the missing persons in Team Three had made no progress for more than half a year. The office was shrouded in gloom. Director Liu wanted to say a few words of comfort but didn't know how to say them, so he simply said nothing and went back to his office to help them withstand the pressure from the provincial department and ensure that their investigation would not be disturbed.
"The person who found the dismembered body parts was an old man named Zhao Hongwei, nicknamed 'Air Force Commander,' who was fishing at sea that morning."
If you can't catch any fish, you're called "Air Force" by fellow anglers. You can imagine how bad your fishing skills are as a "Commander of the Air Force".
"He heard that fishing is best at high tide, so he got a head start and went into the Huaqiao Community Park before dawn to wait. When the tide came in at daybreak, he was the first to catch this thing. After pulling and tugging for a long time, the hook got caught in the gaps of the bones, and he pulled the body parts up with the fishing net." Wu Zhongguo opened his notebook, glanced at it, and said, "The person was already in critical condition. We only called the police after taking him to the hospital. I gave my statement at the community hospital."
"In the photo of the dismembered body, there's a piece of pubic skin that hasn't completely fallen off. You can see it's some kind of tattoo. What do you think this shape is?" Gu Yanzheng picked up the enlarged photo and passed it around for them to see.
When there was a major case, several people would put the table together in the middle and sit around it for easy discussion. Shen Zhenzhu sat at the very end, waiting for Lu Ye to hand her the photo.
Gu Yanzheng wrote a few words on the blackboard. Shen Zhenzhu was standing to the side with Lu Ye. She craned her neck to see, but he blocked her view for a long time.
Gu Yanzheng seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, and said without turning his head, "Old Shen, sit opposite Old Wu. She's short, so take care of her."
The closer to the blackboard, the more auspicious the location.
Lu Ye scratched the back of his head and pointed forward: "Go on, Lao Shen!"
Shen Zhenzhu quickly picked up her notebook and pen and sat down opposite Lao Wu, directly opposite the blackboard. Gu Yanzheng was sitting next to the blackboard.
Excellent.
She carefully examined the photo and noticed that the pattern resembled the later popular non-mainstream butterfly pattern. She pondered how to sketch the complete pattern on the paper, but before she could speak, a deep voice came from behind her, its breath brushing against her ear: "How did you know it was a butterfly?"
These straight men have no idea what girls want. Besides, I've seen it in some movies and TV dramas: some prostitutes have tattoos on their private parts.
"I saw a design similar to a tattoo shop while shopping with my sister," Chen Zhenzhu said, feigning hesitation. "I don't know if it is."
Gu Yanzheng compared the sketch she had drawn with the photo and found that they were about 70-80% similar. He handed it to Wu Zhongguo and the others and said, "Let's visit a few tattoo shops first and see if we can find any clues. Every tattoo artist has different skills, so the results will vary. If we can find out who did the tattoo, we might be able to find out the identity of the deceased."
There aren't many tattoo shops in Liancheng; most are concentrated in the Glory Underground Plaza, a commercial underground city frequented by young people.
Gu Yanzheng instructed Zhou Chuanxi and Lu Ye to investigate, and added, "Old Shen, go to the archives and see if there are any missing persons cases in the past two years involving people between 20 and 30 years old, with tattoos, a history of childbirth, or who might be considered unemployed or undocumented. Screen out all the suitable cases."
Shen Zhenzhu immediately stood up and said, "Understood!"
Liancheng is a small coastal city. Shen Zhenzhu had done a survey at the police station and found that the permanent population was only 5.17 million. However, since people go missing every year while swimming in the sea or hiking in the countryside, the number is still considerable.
With only a few clues, it's like searching for a needle in a haystack.
As Shen Zhenzhu headed to the archives, she was still thinking about the woman who found her wallet near the old train station. She was determined to go and look for her after get off work, hoping to find out something.
Her archives were on the seventh floor. Shen Zhenzhu knocked on the door with Gu Yanzheng's handwritten file transfer form.
In the crisp autumn air of September, the seventh floor offers a panoramic view of the surrounding neighborhood, making it a cool and tranquil haven amidst the busy and stressful work of the criminal investigation team.
The door opened, and Chen Zhenzhu first smelled a sandalwood scent that repels insects, making her feel that this place was perfect for rest and recuperation.
However, Shen Zhenzhu felt that she was a rough person, cough cough, not suitable for lying around like a lazy bum. She still had great ambitions and aspirations.
"Is that you?" Zhang Jie was sorting through old files in the archives room. She was bored out of her mind. There were only two people in the office who worked shifts. They had been working there all summer and were still not very familiar with each other.
When she saw Chen Zhenzhu, who was being replaced by the fourth team, she was taken aback. She took the transfer slip, glanced at it, and said with a smile, "Come in with me."
Her office has a door that, when unlocked, leads to a large archive room.
Her files from the past two years were in the front metal cabinet. As she searched through them, she said, "How are you doing in the fourth team? If you're too tired, tell Captain Gu, and he'll take care of you."
Shen Zhenzhu stared intently at the bags of brown files, flipping through the case summaries, and blurted out, "Not tiring at all, every day is very interesting."
Zhang Jie smiled and said, "That's good. Actually, they're all easy to get along with. It's just that Lao Wu is older and has more rules, and sometimes he likes to vent his frustrations."
Chen Zhenzhu took out another bag of files, glanced at it, and said, "Add extra peanuts and cucumber shreds to the cold noodles, and don't pour the tea into the gladiolus. It's not a big deal. He doesn't let me pour it, but if I secretly pour it, he won't even know. Today he even said that more gladiolus are blooming, haha."
Zhang Jie glanced at Chen Zhenzhu's expression and, seeing her earnest look as she looked over the screen, said, "That's good."
Looking back, Chen Zhenzhu revealed her dimples and said, "This is the job I've always wanted, a job I will cherish, and I will cherish them very much. Sister Zhang, don't worry!"
“I have no worries.” Zhang Jie avoided the girl’s intense gaze, squatted down, took out a few files, and flipped through them.
Shen Zhenzhu wanted to say a few more words to her senior.
How can I put it? I can't thank them for leaving, since they had no choice, right? But I hope you can understand my emotional state, hahaha.
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Author's Note: Thank you for your support! There's a red envelope coming, and there will be one in the next chapter too!
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