Chapter 77

On the second evening after Song Wen moved into Lu Siyu’s house, they had just finished dinner when Song Wen’s phone rang.

In a city like Nancheng with millions of people, there were always births, and there were always deaths. Having cases to solve was normal, and the lack of cases during idle moments made people feel abnormal.

After answering the phone, Song Wen quickly packed up, preparing to go to the crime scene with Lu Siyu. Lu Siyu considered for a moment, went upstairs to grab his glasses and also took a pen and notebook. Little Wolf, seeing the two suddenly packing up, got excited and leaped towards Song Wen.

Song Wen patted the dog’s head. “Can’t bring you tonight. We’re dealing with official business. Can’t bring our own police dog.”

The dog seemed to understand Song Wen’s words, made a sound of acknowledgment, immediately rolled its eyes, turned around with an expression of disdain, and went back to its doghouse. Its tail even wagged as if showing off.

Isn’t this too realistic? Song Wen pointed at the dog and said, “White-eyed wolf, if you have the guts, don’t come looking for me next time.”

Lu Siyu glanced at Song Wen, then at his own dog. A faint smile appeared on his lips. “It’s only been a couple of days, and you two seem quite familiar.”

Pretending not to catch the sarcasm, Song Wen thought for a moment and said, “Considering my past experiences with animals, we’re already getting along quite well.”

The location where the body was found was an old chemical factory outside the western part of the city. It took about forty minutes to reach the scene by car.

The factory was built twenty years ago, a medium-sized chemical plant named Qinghe South Chemical Factory. It was situated next to a river originally called Qinghe, and the chemical factory was named after it. However, in the rapidly developing decades, South Chemical Factory continuously discharged pollutants into the river, causing Qinghe to become less clear than its name suggested. Later, due to severe pollution, aging equipment, and financial issues, the factory ceased production when it underwent restructuring a few years ago.
*qing – clear he- river

The workers were laid off, the equipment was sold off for next to nothing, yet this area remained undeveloped, leaving behind several empty factories. Even in a city as well-developed as this one, there were always places like this, like scars on the urban landscape.

At around eight o’clock in the evening, the area was enveloped in darkness, the sky a deep blue, serene and profound, with a few stars twinkling above.

Song Wen parked Lu Siyu’s car next to the other police cars. In the distance, various insects could be heard chirping. Song Wen sighed as he locked the car. “I have to say, shutting down and managing these factories has made a difference. When I was a child, my grandmother used to live nearby. Back then, you couldn’t even see the stars at night. Now, at least there’s a little light.”

Lu Siyu asked, “Who reported it?”

Song Wen replied, “It was a underground band practicing here. This place is like a paradise lost for those young people.”

The main building of this abandoned chemical factory was tall and spacious, with an internal structure that naturally created reverberations. Later, for some reason, it was discovered by some underground bands. There were no residential buildings nearby, so even if they made a lot of noise, nobody would bother them. Eventually, this place gradually became a gathering spot for young people. Song Wen looked around and added, “If it weren’t for those bands, this would be a good place to hide bodies.”

The body was found in the largest building. Lu Siyu stood in front of the dark factory building for a moment, then Song Wen said, “Let’s go. Let’s get this done quickly so we can go back and sleep tonight.”

Only then did Lu Siyu nod, obediently following Song Wen.

When Song Wen and Lu Siyu arrived, Lin Xiuran and Fu Linjiang were already inside. Several police cars were parked outside the factory building. Song Wen lifted the police line and led the way in, exchanging greetings with the others who had arrived earlier.

It was now eight o’clock in the evening, and the sky was completely dark. The heat of the day had dissipated, and this old factory building became a natural refuge from the heat. As soon as Lu Siyu stepped inside, he felt a cold breeze.

This place had been abandoned for a long time. For the convenience of the bands that came here to sing, they had run wires for electric guitars. At this moment, several spotlights were on inside the dark factory building, just like the ones they used for their underground concerts. Although the bright lights couldn’t illuminate the entire factory building, they were enough to see the surroundings clearly.

The windows of the factory building were long gone, and the walls were covered in graffiti. It seemed like this place was rarely cleaned. There were not only cigarette butts on the ground, but also beer cans and various snack wrappers. In a corner of the warehouse, there were some musical instruments, and nearby were two makeshift tents, giving off a strong sense of desolation.

Song Wen looked around and joked, “These young people have quite the courage. If a zombie movie were filmed here, they wouldn’t even need to set up the scene.”

Lu Siyu frowned slightly as he glanced around. The scene was quite damaged, and it was likely that these young people had already made this place their second home.

Despite being empty for so long, there was still a faint smell of sulfur in the air. Fortunately, the factory building had good ventilation, making it bearable.

Seeing Song Wen approaching, Fu Linjiang put away his pen, which was tucked into his pocket, and pointed to several young people squatting or sitting nearby. “They found the body. They said they were tired from rehearsing and decided to play tennis for a while. They found it while picking up the balls.”

The young people were all very young, three men and one woman, dressed in avant-garde styles, with a rebellious air about them. The one leading had an earring on one side and took out a cigarette from his pocket, wanting to light it. Song Wen said, “This is a crime scene!”

The young man, accustomed to hanging out here, sneered and held the cigarette between his fingers. “Officer, when can we go home? It’s already past eight. We’re innocent, we didn’t do anything wrong, just made a call to the police.” Then he sighed and said, “If I knew it would be this troublesome…” There was regret in his words for making the call.

“It’s all because you meddled…” One of the girls among them glared at him and said, “My mom told me to be home by ten tonight. If I can’t go back later, I won’t let you off.”

“What are you complaining about?” The young man who hadn’t lit his cigarette turned back to retort, “It’s all because of you. You insisted on playing tennis. If you had played badminton, this wouldn’t have happened, would it?!”

The girl didn’t respond for a moment, her eyes widened in confusion. “Why?”

“Badminton is lighter, and you can’t hit it that far.” Song Wen couldn’t stand it anymore and coughed. “Stop arguing. Aren’t you a couple? It’s not worth arguing over such trivial matters.”

The boy was a little surprised and turned to ask Song Wen, “How did you know…”

Song Wen pointed to their hands. “You’re wearing couple rings.” Then he reassured the two young people, “You didn’t kill anyone. We’ll let you go later. Just tell us about how you found the body.”

The girl lowered her head when she heard this. “We found it while picking up the balls. I saw a hand when I was digging in the pit over there. It was so thin, like a mummy. It scared me to death…”

“When did you start using this place as a rehearsal space?” Song Wen asked again.

The girl recalled, “It was around March. We wanted to participate in the music festival in May. We rehearsed elsewhere and were complained about several times, so we found this place. After the music festival, we found this place to be quiet and less crowded, so we continued to use it.”

As they recounted their story, the chubby one among the three became nervous when he saw the forensic team examining the equipment they had placed nearby. “My bass is newly bought. Please don’t damage it. Um, can I… take it with me? You won’t confiscate everything, will you? That would be misappropriation of public property.”

Song Wen pointed to Fu Linjiang. “You guys let the forensic team check the equipment later, then go back to the station with him, make the record, and then you can go home.”

On the other side of the factory, Lu Siyu had already found Lin Xiuran and took gloves and masks from him.

Today, only Lin Xiuran, a forensic expert, came. He was already used to treating Lu Siyu as half a forensic expert.

After so many years, although the equipment in the factory building had been sold off long ago, there were still many chemicals left over from before. There were also several large tanks with some powdery substances inside. Getting closer, there was a faint and lingering smell of chemicals, but no smell of bodies.

The body was hidden in one of the pits where chemicals were piled up, the pit measuring about three meters square and approximately one and a half meters deep. Inside, there was about half a meter thick layer of white chemical powder, resembling a pool of snow.

At this point, the body had already been pulled out with the help of the police who arrived first, inevitably getting covered in a lot of white powder.

Most of the lights on the scene were now concentrated here, but the lighting was still not very bright. Lu Siyu pulled up his mask and bent down to carefully examine the body. At first glance, it was difficult to even call that thing a “person”. The face and torso of the body had been corroded, all the moisture had been sucked out of the body, the thighs had shrunk to one-third the thickness of a normal person, and it had turned into a mummy.

Lu Siyu could only preliminarily identify the victim as a male. Judging from the skeletal structure, the victim was not short, standing about six feet tall.

Lin Xiuran also lowered his head to look at the gruesome body, calmly reaching out with gloved hands to examine the head of the corpse. As the white powder fell from the body, the face was finally revealed.

However, Lin Xiuran suddenly frowned and muttered, “Damn it.”

Having been to several crime scenes with Lu Siyu, Lin Xiuran’s reaction seemed peculiar. Following Lin Xiuran’s gaze, Lu Siyu looked at the body. The facial expression of the corpse was already dried up, eyes closed, but it could be seen that the corners of the mouth were upturned, as if smiling. He had seen various expressions on corpses before, mostly horror and pain, rarely smiling.

In the middle of the night, a desolate factory suddenly appeared with a dried-up corpse, and a smiling corpse at that. This scene was undeniably eerie and sent shivers down one’s spine.

Lin Xiuran quickly regained his composure and used his gloved hand to press on a suspected stab wound on the chest. “It might be muscle deformation caused by facial muscle corrosion. The victim is a young man, probably around twenty-five years old. The cause of death appears to be a stab wound to the chest, but it’s difficult to determine the time of death due to the corrosion caused by the chemicals.” He then pressed on the muscles of the body. “Conservatively estimating, it’s been at least a few months. This corner is remote, so it hasn’t been discovered until now.”

The time of death of the body was an important clue in solving the case, but with such a dried-up body, determining the time of death would undoubtedly be very difficult.

“There… seems to be a wound on the abdomen,” Lu Siyu said, as he touched the area with his fingers. Although the skin had been corroded, it was still possible to vaguely see that the skin there was different from elsewhere, with a noticeable wrinkle. He touched it and then exclaimed, the feeling was completely different from that of a wound.

“It doesn’t seem like a wound…” Lin Xiuran also reached out, feeling that the skin in that area was different from other parts, but there was no blood, no penetration.

Lu Siyu pondered for a moment and judged, “Perhaps it’s an old injury.”

Lin Xiuran agreed with this inference but remained cautious. “It’s possible. When we conduct the autopsy later, I’ll pay special attention to this area.”