Highway Burial Case (I)
Shen Xingyan was very surprised. This was not like Shen Lan's style. "You came back so early today."
Shen Lan smiled proudly and said, "I closed the store, found an office building, hired salesmen, and became an agent. I have already won several provincial agents. I have moved from retail to wholesale. I will no longer be like before, guarding the store and being tied to it."
Shen Xingyan didn't expect that in such a short time, Shen Lan not only adjusted the direction of entrepreneurship, but also made achievements. She took Shen Lan's arm flatteringly, "My mother is really amazing."
Shen Lan pulled her arm away, "Don't try that on me, I won't take it."
Shen Xingyan pretended to be hurt, "I was just praising you."
"Really?" Chen Lan didn't believe it. She put down the bird's nest porridge and poked her forehead. "I don't think I know what you are thinking. It was you who insisted on being a forensic doctor. You can't make much money and you are exhausted. In the future, I won't leave you a penny of my money."
Shen Xingyan knew that she had a sharp tongue but a soft heart, so she was not angry. Instead, she said happily, "It's best if you think this way, so that I don't have to go home and inherit the family business when I can't work anymore."
Shen Lan widened her eyes in surprise. Shen Xingyan would never joke with her like this before. In fact, ever since the incident with the "vicious" dog at home, the relationship between mother and daughter has become much closer, and she rarely says anything harsh anymore. She only wanted to have a daughter, and she had finally gotten closer to her, and she didn't want to ruin that relationship.
But she didn't expect Shen Xingyan to joke with her. Although she was surprised, her heart was as sweet as honey. Her daughter had grown up. If you like to be a forensic scientist, then do it. I have her to back you up.
Shen Lan touched Shen Xingyan's head and sighed, "Don't worry, I will take care of our family business. As for you, just be at ease as a forensic doctor. Once I can get Gu Fang, I will be at ease."
Shen Xingyan rolled her eyes helplessly, "How many times have I told you that I have nothing to do with him."
Shen Lan didn't want to listen to her explanation, "Anyway, I've chosen Gu Fang as my son-in-law, I don't agree with anyone else." She called Shen Lin, "Is dinner ready?"
Shen Lin came out with a plate, "Okay, let's eat."
The meal was very rich, with stir-fried chicken, steamed scallops with vermicelli, deep-fried hairtail, garlic vegetables, and dried bamboo shoots and old duck soup, all of which were Shen Xingyan's favorite.
Shen Lan filled a bowl of soup, picked up a vegetable, pouted, and ate it with great difficulty.
Shen Xingyan smiled, "If you don't want to eat, then don't eat."
"For the sake of your health, you have to eat it even if it tastes bad." She glanced at the deep-fried hairtail in Shen Xingyan's bowl, "Eat less oily food, it's easy to get spots."
Shen Xingyan deliberately bit the hairtail until it made a crunching sound, "I'm not afraid."
"I'm not afraid that Gu Fang will dislike me."
Shen Xingyan rolled her eyes and said, "I don't care!"
After the mother and daughter finished their meal and drank tea together, Shen Xingyan took Qiuqiu away. She had to go to work the next day and it was too far from Shen Lan's house. Qiuqiu was very reluctant to leave, and Shen Xingyan had to force him to leave.
After returning home, Shen Xingyan knocked on Gu Fang's door first, and even listened close to the door, thinking that he hadn't come back. Then the door opened, and Shen Xingyan stared at his sleepy face for a few seconds, "Are you home?"
"I've been back for a while." Gu Fang took the dog leash and asked Gu Qiuqiu, "Have you seen your girlfriend?"
Gu Qiuqiu ignored him and went straight into the house.
Gu Fang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "You dog, you actually learned to put on a bad face. Is it because I don't want to find you a girlfriend? It's because our family doesn't have the conditions. I'm so busy that I don't even have time to take you for a walk. If you add another one, I'm afraid you won't even have enough to eat."
Gu Qiuqiu lay on the ground with his head buried in his front legs, ignoring everyone.
Shen Xingyan chuckled, "Don't blame him. I brought him back by force."
Gu Fang asked, "Come in and sit down?"
Shen Xingyan hesitated for a moment, and Shen Lan's words suddenly appeared in his mind. He was about to say forget it, but then he remembered that he had something else to do, so he followed him in.
When I entered, I first saw the coffee machine on the table. "Did you just buy it?"
"Well, I've been having trouble waking up lately, so I need some coffee to perk me up. Would you like some?"
"Okay, put more milk in."
While Gu Fang was grinding coffee, Shen Xingyan told him about Mo Xuyan's situation.
Gu Fang said: "It seems that Mo Xuyan is intentionally concealing his identity, but what is his motive for doing so?"
"I can't figure it out either. Fortunately, nothing else happened. For now, I have to let him go."
"That's the only way."
The room was filled with the aroma of coffee. Gu Fang ground two cups, one for Shen Xingyan and one for himself.
Shen Xingyan hadn't drunk coffee since he came here. After taking a sip, he couldn't help but squint his eyes.
Gu Fang was not as polite as her. He took a big sip, frowned slightly, and curled his lips in disgust. The coffee beans were still not very good.
Shen Xingyan went home after finishing his coffee and moved Qiuqiu's food bowl and bed over.
I don’t know if it was because of the coffee, but my dreams were so bizarre. Sometimes my parents from the future called her by her nickname, and sometimes Shen Lan asked her with a dark face where she had taken her daughter.
I woke up suddenly and looked at the watch. It was only two forty. I got out of bed and poured myself a glass of water.
I heard a police car passing by downstairs, and I didn’t know if there was a murder or a dispute.
I lay down again and finally stopped dreaming.
Early in the morning, I was woken up by the alarm clock. After washing my face and having breakfast, I rushed to work.
There was no one in the office. She went to the Second Detachment and found out that a murder had occurred last night. Bao Wu and An Xin went to the scene but did not call her.
The body was found on a road in the south of the city. There is a large shantytown in the south of Nanfu City, which is planned to be renovated in the near future. The plan has been drawn up. First, an overpass will be built, then the shantytowns will be demolished and a new city will be built.
The original old road had to be dug up. Due to the tight project schedule, the workers worked in three shifts and worked all night. But who would have thought that a piece of human bone was dug out in the early morning of this day. The workers were so scared that they called the police.
Bao Wu received a call and took An Xin to the scene.
The scene has been cordoned off by the police, and officers are digging the road with shovels. The full picture of the body slowly appears in front of everyone.
The entire body was sealed with cement, and as the cement was knocked off, the bones were exposed.
Seeing that more and more people were gathering to watch, Gu Fang was afraid of causing a riot, so he immediately decided to take the corpse and the cement to the forensic room.
In the forensic room, three forensic doctors carefully removed the cement from the bones, trying to keep each piece of cement intact.
The body had completely turned to skeletons, and except for the leg bones dug out by the workers, all other parts remained intact. Without cement support, the body lay flat with its neck tilted to one side.
The deceased was wearing a gray shirt and a black suit jacket. The suit was very loose and did not match the size of the shirt, as if he was wearing someone else's clothes. He wore dark blue jeans, black leather shoes, and socks of the same color.
After analyzing the skull, teeth and pubic symphysis of the deceased, it was preliminarily determined that the deceased was a male, about 172cm tall, about 45 years old, and had died between 3 and 5 years ago.
Due to the long time since death, the body has turned into bones, and it is impossible to determine whether the deceased was sealed in cement before death or after death.
Gu Fang stroked his chin and thought, "Is it possible to simulate the appearance of a deceased person being buried in cement?"
Bao Wu said, "It's difficult." He went to see Shen Xingyan, who said, "You can restore the cement blocks that were knocked off to the shape of the body, then pour in plaster water, wait for the plaster to solidify, and then break up the cement. The plaster will look like the body when it was buried in the cement."
Bao Wu nodded, "This method is feasible."
An Xin stared at Shen Xingyan without blinking, wondering where she got the idea from.
A few people got to work right away. They restored the cement to its original shape, then used tape to stick it together, leaving only the head area, and poured in plaster water. While waiting for the plaster to solidify, several bones near the stomach of the corpse were extracted for toxicology testing.
Then he found an empty bottle, put the skull and teeth in it, and poured in anhydrous ethanol. After more than half an hour, the roots of many teeth turned orange-red, indicating that the deceased had suffocated due to lack of oxygen. The surface of the skull did not change, which suggests that the skull had not suffered any violent blows.
At this time, the plaster has solidified, and the plaster statue retains the appearance of the deceased when he was alive, with his hands raised, head tilted back, and legs raised. The posture looks more like calling for help.
The toxicology results came out and the deceased was not poisoned.
No mechanical damage was found on the bones, and the deceased was most likely buried alive.
An Xin said: "What kind of hatred is enough to bury people alive in cement."
Bao Wu said: "Is it possible that it was a live pile?"
"What is a pile of living things?"
Gu Fang explained: "Driving living piles is a superstitious belief. In ancient times, when people were engaged in large-scale construction, they were afraid of disturbing the gods and ghosts. In case of accidents during the construction process, they would bury living people on the construction site. This was equivalent to offering sacrifices to the gods and ghosts to prevent accidents. This was especially common when a bridge was being closed or a building was being capped."
"Speaking of which, I have seen a banner hanging when a building is topped out, saying 'Good luck with the topping out'. Is it similar to this?"
Gu Fang nodded, "After all, this is a new society, we can't just take human life lightly. However, this case doesn't seem like a burial of a living person. Burial of a living person is very particular about where to bury him, and the place where the body was found was a bend in a downhill slope, which doesn't match the location.
So, Xiao Shen will go with me to find Professor Zhong to restore the appearance of the deceased so that we can find the source of the corpse. ”
Zhong Jiaoren has become a non-staff member of the police force. Whenever a portrait of a deceased person or a criminal suspect needs to be drawn, he is always the first person they look for.
Gu Fang drove the car, and Shen Xingyan carried the skull to find Zhong Jiaoren.
Zhong Jiaoren was already very familiar with the technique, and with his recent experience in studying skulls, he was able to draw the portrait with divine help and quickly restored the appearance of the deceased. The deceased had a slanted face, a narrow forehead, thick eyebrows, a pair of thin eyes, a bulbous nose, thick lips, a protruding mouth, and a short chin.
Zhong Jiaoren looked at the portrait and said, "He looks fierce and difficult to get along with."
Shen Xingyan agreed with his point of view that a person's appearance can indeed reflect his personality, and the saying "appearance reflects the heart" comes from this.
The two men rushed back to the Municipal Bureau with the portrait and the skull. It was already dark at this time. The whole city was lit up, and the neon lights formed a line behind them.
Gu Fang said: "I have asked Jiang Shengyu to check the construction team that built the highway that year, hoping to find some clues."
Jiang Shengyu found out that the project was contracted by a private owner, who has now opened a construction company. According to his recollection, when the highway was built, due to lack of funds, they hired cheap temporary workers. Anyway, it was built for the shantytowns, so no one was held accountable for the problems with the road.
As for whether any special circumstances occurred at that time, he had long forgotten it. The boss gave me the contact information of the person in charge of the project at that time. Jiang Shengyu went over to find the man, but he didn't remember much about what happened back then.
Jiang Shengyu asked: "Is there anyone missing at that time?"
The man shook his head. "Because I need to pay the temporary workers, I count the number of people every day, for fear of making a mistake. I can confirm that no one is missing."
Jiang Shengyu came back with the news and reported everything to Gu Fang.
If no one was missing that year, then who was buried in the cement?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
No comments yet.