"Or what, do you have any suggestions? Nephew."
"Uncle, don't you want to find Officer Du? She's definitely still alive!"
"Heh heh, it's been so many years, the chances are slim. Actually, I've long prepared myself for it. I consider her dead anyway."
"How can that be? Uncle will help you find her!"
"Haha, you're still so confident, He Sheng."
I nodded, then suddenly brought up Wang Dajun's case: "This guy confessed too easily."
"Yes, I've seen his confession. Before, I thought this person would deny it all the way, but I didn't expect him to admit everything as soon as we started the interrogation. What is his purpose in doing this?"
"I think there's someone behind him, but if he confesses, we won't investigate further."
"I feel the same. If this mastermind hides and doesn't commit another crime, then he can truly get away with it."
"What do you think of that suspense writer?"
"What's his relationship with Wang Dajun? Even if I feel he's a bit suspicious, can you produce evidence?"
Of course, I understood what Uncle meant. I never expected to be stumped by such a question.
I was about to discuss it further when my phone suddenly rang. I quickly answered, "What's wrong, Yu Ning?"
"Come back immediately. We were wrong. It seems the case isn't over!"
"I knew it all along, hahahaha, I told you it wouldn't be that quick!"
"Hmph, are you happy now? But don't gloat, this is a homicide!"
"I know. Where are you?"
"Gaogang City, No. 21 Xiongxin Road."
"I'll be right there!"
After responding, I explained the situation to Uncle. He said he wanted to drive with me. I saw he was quite interested in the case, so I agreed.
Arriving at Xiongxin Road, we both carried our examination kits and entered the scene, which Gao Mingqiang had handed to us earlier.
Seeing my uncle there, Liu Yu Ning was a bit surprised and said, "Ah! Team Leader He, you even invited this great deity?"
"No, just passing by! Just passing by!" Uncle joked deliberately.
We walked into a courtyard on this road. It looked like a park. There was a river nearby that crossed the center of the park. Antique paintings were hung on the walls everywhere. I thought, this wouldn't be some tourist attraction again, would it?
I remembered the murderer liked to kill in places like this. I asked Captain Guo, and it turned out this place was called Yushan Lou, a tea garden.
I'd heard of teahouses many times, but this was my first time in a tea garden.
There were still quite a few customers drinking tea inside just now, but they had all been sent out by the police. Captain Guo said that the person who found the body was the tea master here. He was going to deliver tea to a customer when he opened a tea cabinet and found a male corpse inside!
Led by the teahouse owner, we passed through a network of corridors, winding and fragrant. It was unexpected that such an elegant place would have a homicide.
Walking beside the cobblestone paths and looking at the endless bamboo forest, we finally arrived at the kitchen. The male corpse was still stuck in a cabinet, neither fully in nor out, and Ling Xiaotao and other forensic technicians were trying to move him out.
The kitchen looked very simple, with white smoke rising everywhere. Many tea cabinets and iron cans were placed against the walls. In the center was a large stove with a big wok on it, presumably for stir-frying tea. Beside it were tea-making utensils. A corridor extended to rooms and a bathroom behind.
I approached a cabinet and found that the upper and lower parts of the body were separated, with a wooden board in between. No wonder the body was so difficult to move out.
After examining the structure of the cabinet, Liu Yu Ning said, "We should lay it on its side and cut through the wooden board."
"That's right, get a pair of pliers and an electric saw!" Gao Mingqiang and Xiao Yuande were also present this time.
It was probably Liu Yu Ning who called them over.
Once the tools were ready, Xiao Yuande was the first to act. With his skillful hands, he quickly separated the wooden board.
Then, Ling Xiaotao, I, and another forensic technician carefully separated the body and placed it on the ground nearby.
The broken parts in the middle were covered in blood. I used a shadowless reflector and other tools to conduct a routine examination of the body. To my surprise, the body had not been scalded or refrigerated. Instead, the person had been starved for many days. His body was extremely thin, down to the bone. I tapped his chest and heart area with a bone-tapping stick and found that his stomach seemed to have necrotized.
This person had at least been starved for a week before his abdomen was severed and he died. There were marks on his abdomen resembling a sickle cut, but I would need to go back and conduct experiments for comparison to be sure.
The estimated time of death was 9 days ago, but to be precise, I would need to test the rectal temperature back at the lab. Of course, theoretically, I didn't need to do these things; Ling Xiaotao could complete them.
I flipped both parts of the body over and found that his back and buttocks were relatively normal, with no signs of injury. I scanned again with the shadowless reflector and found that his skin was just a little tight, and everything else was normal. I stood up, looked at the surroundings, and suddenly muttered.
"A feathered fan and a silk scarf, laughing and talking, the warships turned to ashes."
My uncle immediately reacted: "There are many paintings on the walls here, depicting ancient people in silk scarves and robes, talking. Combining this with the smoke around, you got this line from a Song Dynasty poem?"
"Yes, this is the timeless phrase the murderer left for us this time."
Liu Yu Ning said in surprise, "It's indeed a similar case, but wasn't Wang Dajun arrested?"
"There's still one more, have you forgotten? That suspense writer!"
"It's him, but we've never seen him go to the scene!"
"This guy is very suspicious. He probably has people like Wang Dajun around him."
"I understand. You mean these people willingly worked for him?"
I nodded. "It will be quite difficult to catch him unless someone exposes him."
As I spoke, I sprayed some Luminol reagent around the area and found a bloodstain behind the tea cabinet that extended all the way to the vicinity of the restroom.
I asked Ling Xiaotao to continue the examination and followed the blood trail to the restroom. I discovered that the window here had been pried open. Looking out the window, I saw a large bamboo forest, and there were footprints on the muddy ground.
I thought that if the murderer passed through here to dispose of the body, it would be easy to hide as there was no surveillance to capture them.
At this moment, Uncle also arrived. He patted me on the shoulder and pulled me along, saying, "There seems to be bloodstains on that tree over there!"