Case 1.2: Luggage
The young police officer from the forensic department practically pressed his face against the rim of the suitcase, his nose only three centimeters from the rusty metal. His tweezers trembled slightly as he carefully picked up a brown crystal clinging to the groove in the axle.
"Urea compound fertilizer, sulfur content exceeds the standard by 23%." He pushed up his slipped glasses, the laboratory lights casting cold blue geometric spots of light on the lenses. "This ratio..." The elemental analysis spectrum on the computer screen flickered with abnormal peaks, "...like a homemade formula from those agricultural counties in the south, like Qingxi and Dalong."
Li Weimian suddenly slammed the evidence bag heavily onto the metal table, the plastic bag striking the stainless steel with a crisp "smack." Beneath her fingertips was a gas chromatography report; the peak curve of methyl jasmonic acid almost pierced the coordinate axis.
"The plant hormone concentration in the deceased's face mask was eight times that of commercially available products." She unfolded a map with her other hand, three red circles standing out like bloodstains. "In this province, only flower growers from the villages of Qingtian, Bailu, and Hongshan use this flower-inducing technique—" she pointed to three place names in turn.
Yu Yan, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, flicked his lighter between his fingers. Suddenly, he tapped the metal casing of the lighter against the glass display case: "Flowers growing in Fertilizer Village?" The case contained a few dried petals extracted from the deceased's clothing. "These must be man-eating flowers!"
Two neon tubes in the "Night Shanghai" karaoke bar were broken, leaving only the three dots of the character "海" (sea) barely clinging to life in the darkness. Just as Wen Lin tossed a close-up photo of lipstick onto the coffee table covered in cheap artificial leather, the LED lights beneath the glass surface turned a ghastly green.
Mommy Afang's false eyelashes trembled violently, and her fingers, painted with bright red nail polish, unconsciously scratched at the slit of her cheongsam: "This...this is a gift from 'Princess's' second anniversary celebration..." She suddenly lowered her voice, "But last June...the owner changed..."
The door to the private room was suddenly flung open, and a flushed-faced drunk stumbled in. His murky eyes focused on Wen Lin's police badge for a full three seconds before he suddenly let out a croaking, duck-like cry: "Holy crap! Aren't you that cop! The one who raided prostitution last year—"
Wen Lin moved with the speed of a cheetah hunting its prey. He grabbed the other man's wrist and twisted it, causing a switchblade to fall from the drunkard's sleeve with a "click." The number "B-17" engraved on the bottom of the handle was identical to the laser engraving on the lipstick tube under the rotating colored lights.
The torrential rain pierced the night like silver needles, and the hem of Fan Jinci's white coat was already soaked with mud and water, heavily slapping against his calves. The guest room floor of the farmhouse "Tingyuxuan" was illuminated by the survey lights, which made it look stark white. He knelt on one knee, scanning every crack in the floor with a blue flashlight.
"Found it." The tip of the tweezers picked up a piece of colored plastic the size of a fingernail, which glowed eerily under ultraviolet light. "Polyethylene material, a fragment of a children's puzzle rug." He turned to look at the cheekbone photograph in the evidence bag. "It matches the trace element composition of the scratches on the deceased's face perfectly."
A faint rustling sound of fabric came from behind. Yu Yan's sidearm was already pressed against the woman's temple behind the door, the click of the safety disengaging clearly audible in the rain. "Boss lady," he said, slowly pressing his thumb down on the hammer, "you really need to get this eavesdropping habit fixed."
The woman trembled as she raised her hands, the jasmine bracelet on her wrist emitting a sweet, cloying fragrance identical to the deceased's face mask. A few petals drifted down beside the puzzle pieces, like drops of dried blood.
At 2:17 a.m., only the faint green light of the emergency lights illuminated the corridor of the forensic center. Situ Jin's rubber shoes made a sticky sound as they rubbed against the epoxy flooring. He inexplicably opened the heavy metal testing room, a place he shouldn't have been entering.
The centrifuge hummed like a bee, and the bone sample swirled in the test tube, forming a blurry, milky-white vortex. Situ Jin stared at the fluctuating data on the screen, completely unaware that the surveillance camera in the corner had been slightly tilted at a 15-degree angle.
"Blood lead level: 880 μg/dL..." He gasped, a value that would send chills down the spine of any medical expert. Suddenly, the entire room went dark, and the centrifuge stopped humming abruptly.
The cold, metallic texture pressed against the back of his neck. Someone approached him from behind, their breath carrying a faint scent of jasmine: "Professor Situ," the scalpel slowly slid down his spine, "you shouldn't have touched this."
When Li Weimian inserted her silver USB drive into the police computer, the main unit's fan suddenly started spinning wildly. Three encrypted files popped up on the screen, and she noticed her thumb trembling slightly as she entered the police badge number.
In September 2016, a second-year dance student went missing; the last CCTV footage showed her dragging a similar black suitcase into a freight station restroom. In November 2018, the remains of a textile factory worker were found in a cement mixer at a construction site, her curled-up posture perfectly matching that in this case. In July 2020...
She slammed her notebook shut, but the close-up photo of the latest case was already imprinted on her retina—the victim's left little finger bone was missing. Meanwhile, in the evidence room, the previous case file on the box corpse that Fan Jinci had handled clearly recorded the unusual discovery of "an extra piece of ring finger bone."
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