After screening out a few missing persons who matched the characteristics of the woman, Lin Dongxue and Xu Xiaodong visited each residence one by one, but they did not exactly match the deceased.

After running around all day, both of them were exhausted. Lin Dongxue went home, fell on her couch and then fell fast asleep.

The next morning, the sun shone on her eyelids. She blinked and saw that the time was already 7:40am. She didn’t have time to take care of anything and rushed to the unit.

After swiping her punch-card to clock in for work, she saw Chen Shi was just walking in. He had a black bag in his hand and said with a smile across his face, “Miss Lin, didn’t have a good sleep last night?”

“Tch, you still have the gall to talk about this with me. We ran around all day. Pretty sure I’ve lost a few pounds on my legs. We didn’t even find anything.”

“Did you not brush your teeth?”

“Is there a smell?” Lin Dongxue breathed into her hand to smell.

“You usually change shirts every day. I see that the shirt on your body is still from yesterday. There’s dried rheum on the corners of your eyes, so I guessed that you didn't brush your teeth... You’ve worked hard.” He said whilst taking out a bag of Doublemint gum[1] from his bag to give to her.

“What is in your hand?” Lin Dongxue asked while chewing the gum.

“Sample.”

The two came to the forensics department. Peng Sijue strictly forbade smoking in the workplace, but the smell in the room was still pretty bad. Seeing the faces of several technicians, you could tell that they had to pull an all-nighter here.

Lin Qiupu and Chen Shi were investigating both directions at the same time. The amount of work that fell on Peng Sijue's head was naturally huge. There were other tasks to be dealt with as well.

“You’ve worked hard, Captain Peng.” Chen Shi smiled and said.

Peng Sijue stood up, pinched the bridge of his own nose and said, “The workload is too large. We couldn’t even finish everything after a whole night here. There are only a few test results that have been completed out of the ones you’ve asked for.”

He handed in a few printed documents.

Chen Shi glanced at the documents in his hand and said, “These are enough. By the way, give me a copy of the stomach contents.”

“Xiao Wang, go and copy one of the notes of the post-mortem examination to him.”

Chen Shi put down the bag in his hand to the table and said, “These are the dozens of cigarette brands that are common in the market. I have labeled them accordingly. Can you compare them with the ashes on the deceased? It shouldn’t take too long with the samples on-hand. Please notify me when you get the results.”

“Wow, you’re really not polite, are you?!”

Chen Shi patted Peng Sijue’s shoulder and said, “Thank you, old friend.”

“Don’t try using sweet words now.”

After Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue left, Peng Sijue opened the bag. Besides the samples of ashes, there was also a hot breakfast box in there. He coldly laughed and then called an assistant. “Test the ashes from yesterday against these samples.”

Chen Shi walked and looked at the documents in his hand. Lin Dongxue impatiently asked, “What does the report say?”

“The saliva enzymes of at least six people have been found on the deceased... The ‘repeated times’ you said should be unquestionable now.”

Lin Dongxue’s face was red. “I only said my thoughts. The case is at its climax. Shouldn’t we brainstorm?”

“I didn't mean to attack your self-confidence. I was only trying to encourage you to think more!”

At this time, a large number of policemen came out of the conference room. They talked and laughed, and they seemed to be happy all round. Lin Dongxue knew that it was only when the case showed significant progress that this expression would be on everyone's face.

She groaned in her heart. When the crowd had left, Lin Qiupu came out last. His eyes fell on the two people and smiled. “How’s it going? Is there progress?”

“Seeing the look of Captain Lin, there must be significant progress, right?” Chen Shi asked.

“Yeah, but I’m not going to tell you!”

“Ahem, we had agreed that we have to share our intelligence!”

Lin Qiupu, who was checkmated, squinted his eyes and said, “Then you say it first.”

“We haven't started yet.”

“Haha!” Lin Qiupu was very happy. “You have to hurry. We found blood on the knives that Jia had carried. I have already determined that it is human blood. It’s a fact that he has murdered recently.”

Lin Dongxue involuntarily opened her mouth in surprise. This time, would she really lose to her brother?

“It seems that Jia must have many friends then.” Chen Shi smiled and said unhurriedly, raising the identification results on his hand. “The saliva enzymes found on the dead belong to at least six people. These were all found on the surface of the deceased’s body. Do you care to explain this?”

Lin Qiupu suddenly frowned and said, “The unreasonable point in the case is often the most critical breakthrough point... I will find out.”

“I don't know who said this sentence, but I think you have used it in the wrong context. This unreasonable point in your overall hypothesis simply does not make sense.”

“Oh, really? We’ll see!”

Lin Qiupu walked away, then circled back and said, “The person who said this sentence is a hundred times better than you!”

“Oh really? I really want to know him.” Chen Shi smiled.

After Lin Qiupu left, Lin Dongxue said, “If we go with my brother's idea, the saliva of six people could still be explained. Do you remember the first case? Maybe the deceased was contaminated before death.”

“I also considered this point, but the probability is not high.”

“Why?”

“Six men and one woman, Even AVs[2] do not shoot that!”

Lin Dongxue’s face went red and she growled, “Pervert!”

“How come you’re telling me off? I am just talking about facts here.”

Chen Shi called Xu Xiaodong, and the three went to Xu Xiaodong's car. Xu Xiaodong said with excitement, “Brother Chen, where are we going to investigate today?”

“We’re going to eat!”

“Huh? It’s only around eight right now!”

Chen Shi smiled, opened his mobile phone navigation, found the location of the corpse abandonment, and used his fingers to draw a circle around it saying, “We start looking for a restaurant ten kilometres away from where the corpse was abandoned.”

“If we investigate like this, we might take years to find it!”[3] Xu Xiaodong immediately grumbled under his breath.

“The clues we need can only be found this way!”

Lin Dongxue asked, “Can you rule out some of the restaurants within ten kilometers? There are at least a hundred of them!”

“Let’s see!” Chen Shi took out a copy of the notes and spread it out.

The three people stared at the list of foods above. Lin Dongxue said, “Green capsicum, red chillies, black beans... These are the ingredients commonly used in Sichuan or Hunan cuisine.”

Xu Xiaodong said, “There’s Chinese softshell turtle and scallops, which is definitely from a higher-grade restaurant.”

Chen Shi said, “There are four kinds of aquatic products in her stomach contents. I think this restaurant must have an aquarium... A top-grade Sichuan cuisine or the Hunan restaurant with an aquarium, so find it! Depart!”

The work was extremely tedious and repetitive. The investigation continued until noon, yet they still didn’t gain anything. The three people had a meal at a restaurant.

Lin Dongxue asked, “Nothing has been found, what should we do?”

Chen Shi said indifferently, “Continue to check and expand the scope.”

Xu Xiaodong said, “If you still can't find it?”

“The corpse abandoning should be done by more than two people. When they were driving the car, since there were two people involved, it would have been discussed with each other where the corpse should be thrown. When the experiences of people overlap, there will be more conservative and stable results. The location chosen is most likely a place where one person has been or often passes by. So, this location should not be too far from the crime scene. I guess it should be within ten kilometres.” Chen Shi responded while pouring himself a bowl of soup.

“How do you know that there was more than one person involved?” Xu Xiaodong asked puzzledly.

“Isn't the scene right next to a road? There are many stones beside the road. Now it has been confirmed that the body was packed in a box, but there are no drag traces on the stone. This proves that two people were carrying it rather than one person dragging it.”

Xu Xiaodong was deeply impressed and nodded. Lin Dongxue raised an objection. “That is not necessarily the case. What if the murderer was a strong man?”

1. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71nirfaBQuL._SY355_.jpg is the bagged version, and the normal one looks like this: http://alcoholandbooze.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Doublemint.jpg

2. Porn.

3. He used an expression that questions the number of months and years it would take using the Chinese zodiac animals and lunar calendar. However, it sounded a lot smoother and more made more sense in English to say that it may take them years to find it. https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/