Fisherman Case 1.2
At 5:20 a.m., the thick fog had not yet dissipated.
The river water lapped against the rotten wooden pier, producing a hollow echo.
Zhang Quan's fishing boat was still surrounded by a cordon, its hull swaying slightly with the waves, like a floating coffin.
Fan Jinci squatted at the bow, his fingertips tracing several deep scratches on the deck—not left by a knife, but more like some kind of sharp claw, tearing from the plank all the way to the gunwale.
“These are not marks that could be made by human hands,” he said in a low voice.
Situ Jin was scanning the cabin with an ultraviolet light when he suddenly noticed a fluorescent reaction in a corner.
He carefully picked up a translucent, scale-like object with tweezers; it gleamed with an eerie bluish-green hue in the morning light.
“It’s not fish scales.” Situ Jin’s glasses reflected a cold light. “The texture is similar to… the keratin layer of human fingernails, but the structure is mutated.”
Li Weimian stood in the fishing tackle shop by the dock, her fingertips tracing the dusty ledgers on the shelf. The shop owner was an old man missing his index finger, squinting as he mended fishing nets.
"Does Master Chen come here often?" she asked casually.
The old man didn't even look up: "Haisheng, he hasn't fished since the 'Blue Fish' incident, but he often comes to buy ship sealant." He grinned, revealing uneven, yellow teeth. "Nobody uses that stuff anymore. He said... it's for mending ship seams."
The last page of the ledger records the items Chen Haisheng purchased last month:
Deep-sea fishing line (load capacity 500kg)
Preservative wax (industrial grade)
Dissecting scalpel (for veterinary use)
Li Weimian's fingertip stopped at the last line—"Custom-made grappling hook (mermaid style)"
On the other side of the dock, on Jiang Zhaoyan's private yacht, his assistant was handing him a newly declassified file.
“A fragment of the ‘Bluefish’ ship’s logbook from 1998,” the assistant whispered. “Their last fishing trip before the accident showed that they captured an unknown creature over 3 meters long.”
In the photo, a blurry black figure is huddled in a fishing net, with humanoid limbs and reflective scales vaguely visible.
Jiang Zhaoyan chuckled and dialed a number: "Prepare the submarine, I need to go check out the 'Blue Fish' sinking site."
In the temporary office of the criminal investigation team, Wen Lin pinned the photos of the five victims to a board.
“They were all crew members from the ‘Bluefish’ back then, and—” he pointed to the autopsy report, “the same bronze plaque was found in the stomach of each of them.”
Yu Yan suddenly plunged his dagger into the map: "Not only." He pointed to the bend in the river, "The places where they died, when connected, form the route of the shipwreck from back then."
Outside the window, a pale hand slowly slid down the glass, leaving a damp trail...
.
Time: 2:15 AM, the third day after the incident
Location: Home of Zhao Jinshui, an elderly fisherman in Linjiang Village
Zhao Jinshui's pipe flickered in the darkness, its wrinkles etched with the furrows of decades of river winds.
“That night I got up to use the restroom and heard someone singing on the river…” The old man’s throat produced a murky tune, which sounded like both crying and laughing. “It wasn’t Chen Haisheng’s voice, but the tune was ‘Crying on the River,’ a song his wife used to love to sing.”
Li Weimian's recording pen ran silently, and the firelight reflected off her right earring.
"Did you see the person singing?"
The old man suddenly gripped his pipe tightly, his knuckles turning white: "In the fog... that thing was lying on the side of Chen Haisheng's boat, its hair floating like seaweed." He lowered his voice sharply, "When it turned its head, its eyes were vertical!"
The fire crackled and popped, while the muffled sound of the river lapping against the shore came from outside the window.
.
Time: 3:40 AM
Location: Molecular Laboratory, Municipal Forensic Center
Under Situ Jin's microscope, the bone marrow slices of the deceased were glowing with an eerie fluorescence.
“CO1 gene sequence alignment shows…” He adjusted his focus, his voice unusually tense, “15% of the fragments are completely identical to those of the deep-sea hagfish.”
A warning popped up on the computer screen:
[Unknown traces of gene editing found in the sample; matched database: Lane Biosciences 1996-1998]
Fan Jinci suddenly grabbed Situ Jin's shoulder: "Check Ryan Labs' procurement records for the three months before the 'Blue Fish' sank."
The printer slowly ejected a page of paper—in April 1998, Lian Biotechnology purchased 200L of deep-sea high-pressure culture medium. The recipient was Ya Bin.
(Note: Ya Bin is the mastermind behind the "ghost student" case)
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