Chapter 71

Du Ruoxin, Bai Luorui, and Wei Hong, the three suspects, were all captured. As soon as the news of the successful arrest operation came out, Commissioner Gu hurriedly went downstairs from the commissioner’s office to get updates. After confirming that the procedures for the three suspects had been completed, Commissioner Gu finally breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled at everyone and said, “The case is almost done. They can be transferred to the detention center, and further interrogation will be handled by them. Today is the Dragon Boat Festival, so don’t work overtime. Go home early and spend time with your families.”

With the case solved and the criminals brought to justice, the atmosphere in the office suddenly lightened. Since the beginning of this case, everyone had been under tension. Now, they could finally take a breath.

Smiling, Song Wen said, “Commissioner Gu, you’re especially generous today. Is it because you want to go home early?”

Commissioner Gu laughed, “Eat a few more zongzi tonight; they’ll shut your mouth up.”

Jokes aside, Song Wen knew that Commissioner Gu had personally supervised this case. It involved the reputation on his head, especially in the middle of the case when it was connected to Wushan Nursing Home. Commissioner Gu visibly lost some weight and appeared slightly hunched, looking like an ordinary elderly person. Fortunately, the case was solved in a timely manner, and the impact was within a certain range. The results were quite satisfying.

With the directive from the top leader, the junior officers below were swift in their actions. Even emergency responses weren’t as efficient as this. While packing up, Song Wen suddenly smelled a strange and unpleasant odor. He couldn’t help but frown and asked, “What’s this smell? What is the forensic department doing? Did they bring another body here?”

The smell wafted with the wind, affecting both the corridor and the forensic center.

“Captain Song, your professional illness is acting up again; everything smells like a corpse to you.” Lao Jia just came over from there and shook his head. “This is not a corpse; the smell is worse than that.”

Now everyone was even more curious. “What is it?”

Lao Jia then revealed the mystery, “It’s the mud dug up from the underground trench at Wushan Nursing Home!”

“Mud?!” Song Wen looked surprised, finding this news inexplicable.

Lao Jia explained, “Yes, Lin Xiuran dug up five big barrels of mud to check if there were any important pieces of evidence in the sewer. Now, the entire forensic department looks like it’s been attacked with chemical weapons. Staying there for too long might be life-threatening. Well, I won’t say more. I can’t stand this smell; I need to get some fresh air outside.”

Hearing his words, the office started buzzing with discussions.

“I think this time Chief Lin might have used too much force. What can we find in the mud from the sewer?”

“Maybe there’s some important evidence hidden in the mud.”

“Oh, don’t even mention it. I heard that they fished out something yesterday.”

“What did they fish out?”

“A lady’s shoe, but the fabric was almost completely rotten, only the sole was left.”

“What kind of evidence is that? Probably a nurse or an elderly person dropped it in the sewer in the past, right?”

“The weird thing is, those manholes have fine mesh covers. Without opening the sewer entrance, the shoe couldn’t have fallen in. So… if the shoe is in the sewer, where’s the person?”

“In a place where so many people have died, ghosts wouldn’t be surprising.”

The police were gossiping, but it didn’t delay their work. In the blink of an eye, only Song Wen and the leisurely packing up Lu Siyu were left in the large office.

Song Wen turned to look at Lu Siyu. He seemed indifferent, as if his nose was just a decoration and couldn’t detect the foul smell. Before Song Wen could speak, Lin Xiuran, fully geared up, briskly walked in. He carried an indescribable stench, and Song Wen covered his nose, saying, “Ah, Brother Lin, Commissioner Gu is exceptionally lenient today. You should go take a shower; our side’s people are about to fumigate you.”

For the convenience of colleagues working overtime, the police station had undergone renovations a couple of years ago, and Commissioner Gu even specifically added a shower room for easy bathing.

Lin Xiuran glanced around the empty office, raised his hand to remove his gloves, took off the mask, and said, “Fortunately, you guys are still here. Accompany me to Wushan Nursing Home again.”

“What happened?” Song Wen frowned slightly. Whenever this place was mentioned, he had a foreboding feeling.

“We found this in the mud.” Lin Xiuran handed over an evidence bag containing a pearl earring. It had been cleaned and placed in the evidence bag.

Song Wen looked at it, feeling a sense of familiarity. Before he could speak, Lu Siyu, who had been calmly packing up, suddenly stood up and reached out with a jade-like hand to take the evidence bag. She softly confirmed, “It’s from Xia Weizhi.”

Song Wen remembered the photo album he had seen at the nursing home before. Several pictures of Xia Weizhi all featured this style of earring. The lower density of pearls made it float up from the mud.

“It seems that there is something valuable in the mud of this nursing home.” Song Wen’s expression became serious as he discussed with Lin Xiuran, “Should we inform Commissioner Gu?”

Lin Xiuran waved his hand, “Forget it, let’s go there first. The old man is in a good mood now. We’ll tell him when we really catch the big fish.” He sighed, “Let him catch his breath first. If we do find something, it’ll be a Dragon Boat Festival surprise for him.”

While Song Wen’s team was on break, the forensic center didn’t take a break. A team arrived at Wushan Nursing Home again. Last time, their search area was just a small section of the sewer inside the nursing home. This time, Lin Xiuran and Song Wen decided to expand the search range. Several manhole covers of the sewers were pried open, and the entire backyard became unbearable under the sunlight. Lin Xiuran and several forensic experts wore protective suits and even added gas masks.

Protective gear was limited, so Song Wen and Lu Siyu wore protective masks. Yet, the nauseating smell couldn’t be completely masked.

With recent heavy rain, the water level inside the sewer had risen significantly, shifting the long-settled mud. Lu Siyu found an old underground structure map of Wushan Nursing Home. Based on the map, Song Wen measured a few times in the yard with a ruler and arrived at another sewer entrance. He beckoned to Lin Xiuran, “This might be the sewer’s outflow point.”

Although the sewer system here was somewhat complex, it was built relatively early, using an early drainage system. The sewer mainly handled domestic water and rainwater. At the intersection of the drainage system and the outside, there was a reservoir leading to the main pipeline outside.

After observing for a moment, Lu Siyu squatted down and whispered, “I think I have a rough idea of what they wanted to take away from here.”

Following his gaze down to his feet, under the sunlight, something resembling a shell appeared in the mud, emitting a faint yellow light – it was a piece of bone that had been washed out.

Over the years, the body in this lightless sewer, accompanied by various insects and mice, had slowly decomposed. Now, it had completely turned into white bones.

The swamp gas made Song Wen unable to open his eyes, but he still tried to look down, covering his mouth, and muffled, “Can we confirm it’s human bones?”

Lu Siyu nodded, “It looks like the pelvic bone of a human.”

Lin Xiuran, wearing waterproof plastic pants and a gas mask, went down first. He used a flashlight to illuminate the sewer walls and observe the environment. It was pitch-black underground, and the ground was filled with sewage and mud. The smell was even stronger, and there was a reservoir here, with a filter below. Therefore, the bones were washed here, not being washed out again.

In these eighteen years, the sewer of Wushan Nursing Home had undergone many storms. Initially, the bones in one part of the sewer were crushed and eventually intercepted by the main network leading to the outside in this reservoir. And the initial drop point… might have been where there were signs of prying open.

Thinking of this, Lin Xiuran took a few steps forward and used a flashlight to shine on the gas pool wall below another exit. He shouted, “There are deep nail scratches on the wall above the pool. The victim may have been pushed down alive.”

“This is indeed a big catch…” After hearing this, Song Wen straightened up and said, “I’ll call Commissioner Gu.”

By night, past nine o’clock, they finally pulled out twenty-seven pieces of bones. Based on the two largest bones, it was determined that the victim was a woman around 167 cm tall, aged between thirty-two and thirty-five.

Squatting by the sewer during the Dragon Boat Festival, helping out, and muttering, “Looking at the time and height, it’s quite similar to Xia Weizhi.”

The forensic examiner Xiao Zhang, who was on the side taking photos, whispered, “Don’t speak recklessly before confirming.”

Just as they were talking, Commissioner Gu and Song Wen walked over from behind. Commissioner Gu hurried over upon hearing this news. At this moment, with a solemn expression, he gave instructions, “You must conduct DNA identification as soon as possible to confirm the victim’s identity. Before that, inform the cyber police to block the information.”

This set of bones might be Xia Weizhi’s. Almost everyone thought of this. When the 519 task force was arresting Xia Weizhi, she suddenly disappeared from the police encirclement, which was already suspicious.

For eighteen years, the police had conducted various searches for Xia Weizhi. However, they never expected that the body might be right under their feet, right here in the Wushan Nursing Home.

This was probably what they called the truth hidden in plain sight, where the light of the lamp in hand cast shadows, concealing the facts and the truth.

Later, Commissioner Gu sighed and said, “We can’t avoid this case after all…”

Originally, Commissioner Gu was happy that Zhang Peicai’s case was successfully closed and was planning to celebrate. However, no one expected that even after closing that case, the case from eighteen years ago would resurface.

It was a busy day, from the morning arrests to the afternoon bone recovery. What seemed like solving a puzzle turned out to reveal new mysteries before them.

After a busy day, by ten in the evening, when Lu Siyu returned home, he found several packages of groceries outside the door that he had previously ordered online. There was also a pigeon in a cage, ordered as part of his lunch. When he left home today, he truly did not expect to be delayed for so long. He had only eaten a few pieces of biscuits, and now he finally felt the hunger.

Lu Siyu thought for a moment and called Wu Qing. The person on the other end hadn’t slept yet and quickly answered the phone with a greeting, “Hello?”

Lu Siyu took a deep breath, “Teacher, I entered the ancestral house and cleaned it up a bit.”

“And then?”

“I found a few ants.”

“At this time of the season, it’s when ants are most active. If you haven’t found the ant nest yet, as long as the nest exists, the entire house may be bitten into an empty shell.”

“I found one that’s somewhat larger, and it has been dead for a while.”

“These ants didn’t appear overnight, and don’t expect to clean them up in a day. Soon, someone will come to remove the ants.” After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wu Qing hung up the phone.

Lu Siyu sat on the sofa, holding his phone, lost in thought. He wanted to ask his teacher if he had any connection with Zhang Peicai, whether he had ever revealed some information to Zhang Peicai, so when Zhang Peicai died, he received the message and was advised to follow this case.

Zhang Peicai, an ordinary investigative journalist, how could he have such detailed lists? Initially, perhaps he was just curious about his own wife. Who leaked the information to him?

Regardless of the truth, in the end, he was like bait thrown into the ocean, drawing out the sea monsters competing for food.

Someone was stirring the deep, bottomless waters of Nancheng, exposing those hidden evils, and a catastrophic event was about to unfold.

He remembered Wu Qing saying that to initiate a battle, there would be sacrifices. So was Zhang Peicai sacrificed?

After staring into space for a while, Lu Siyu felt he should eat something, a small supplement to his stomach to prevent any issues with that delicate organ. He quickly washed a few vegetables and then reached for the pigeon.

The pigeon seemed unaware of its fate, cooing a few times in the cage. Lu Siyu took the small creature out, caressing its feathers. Then he submerged the pigeon’s body in icy water. At first, the bird struggled, but after a while, it became still.

Lu Siyu coldly watched the pigeon. The slaughtering process was swift and clean, yet undeniably cruel. Although pigeon blood was considered nourishing, Lu Siyu didn’t particularly like it. He quickly drained the blood, plucked the feathers, and reached into the pigeon’s abdominal cavity, extracting the soft, dark-purple organs that were still warm to the touch, feeling no different from those of a deceased human.

Little Wolf came out of the house and glanced at him. Lu Siyu remained silent, and with a cold gaze, he stared back at it. Little Wolf whimpered, shivered, and ran away with its tail between its legs. Only at this moment, its owner seemed like a stranger, as if it could be stewed into a pot of braised dog meat in the next second.

Then Lu Siyu placed the cleaned ingredients into the pot, brought the water to a boil, and started simmering the pigeon soup. Lowering his head, he looked at the pigeon blood on his hands and in the basin.

Finally, Lu Siyu turned on the tap, and all traces of blood were washed away by warm water.

The pigeon soup was soon ready, emitting a delicious aroma, a miraculous transformation from the previously foul-smelling corpse. The rice cooker played a pleasant tune, and Lu Siyu quickly stir-fried two simple dishes. With two dishes and a soup, it was a bit extravagant for one person.

By the time everything was ready, it was already past eleven. Lu Siyu arranged the dishes and soup neatly on the table, then took out chopsticks, creating a somewhat ceremonial atmosphere.

Perhaps due to the drastic emotional fluctuations of the day, Lu Siyu couldn’t taste the soup in his mouth; something that should have been delicious.

Throughout the day, Lu Siyu’s entire mind and body had been immersed in the case, as if all his attention had been drained. At this moment, he felt somewhat overwhelmed.

After finishing dinner, he carried Little Wolf upstairs, opened the medicine box, took a few painkillers, and finally fell into a drowsy sleep.

In the semi-conscious state, mist enveloped his mind, layer upon layer, endless, as if trapped in a labyrinth or descending through eighteen layers of hell. Lu Siyu slept uncomfortably, his heart beating irregularly, feeling as if his chest was constricted and he couldn’t breathe.

Later, he discovered a terrible thing—his stomach was hurting again. It started as a mild discomfort, but it escalated, preventing him from finding peace. Lu Siyu woke up in pain, holding his abdomen. Even with all his strength, the pain didn’t subside; instead, it intensified. It felt as if snakes were gnawing at his insides or knives were relentlessly twisting within. He tightly bit his lip, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.

Whether it was because he ate too late the night before or due to the overwhelming experiences of the day, the pain relievers he took previously had no effect.

Lu Siyu started to panic. He didn’t know what time it was or whether it was already daylight. He considered calling 120 (emergency services), but he didn’t want anyone to see him in his current distressed state, and he didn’t have the strength to open the door for someone else. He picked up his phone, hesitated for a while on whom to call. He had no family or friends, then he thought of Song Wen and dialed his number.

“Hello…” The phone rang several times before being answered. On the other end, Song Wen’s voice sounded groggy, “What’s up? Are the test results out? Or do we need to go on a mission?”

Lu Siyu’s hands were trembling. He endured a wave of intense pain with closed eyes, licked his bitten lip, and with a shaky voice, said, “Captain Song… I… have a bit of stomach ache…” He wanted to explain further, but a low moan got stuck in his throat, rendering him speechless.

On the other end of the phone, Song Wen’s voice became clearer, “Wait for me for fifteen minutes; I’ll be right there.”

TN:
Even the dead tell stories.