While waiting, Chen Shi made a phone call to Lin Qiupu. When Lin Qiupu picked up, he said, "Don't investigate. Captain Peng is on the road and will arrive soon. The body has not even been dissected yet. What are you even investigating? Don't mess with me!”

"Can’t it be my personal interest and curiosity? Oh yeah, help me find a place in this area. The deceased is 160cm tall, so it would have to be at least 1.4m deep for him to have drowned."

"You’re even trying to order me to do something? This is not negotiable!"

"Fine, fine. I’ll go find it myself."

"Stop investiga..."

Before waiting for Lin Qiupu to finish, Chen Shi hung up the phone. Tao Yueyue made a face. “Is he angry?”

"I couldn’t care less about him!"

At this time, the door opened. A woman wearing leather pants and shirt came over with a cigarette butt in her hand. Tao Yueyue remarked, "Uncle Chen, it seems to be her."

Hearing her words, the woman was shocked and began to run away. Chen Shi shouted after her in a low volume, "Why are you running? We are not here to sweep the yellow."[1]

The woman laughed embarrassingly like an idiot. "I was a little nervous because I heard that there were policemen."

"Are you the manager here?"

The waiter on the side informed them, "She is Li Jie."[2]

"This Li Jie is the manager?"

"Li Jie is Li Jie."

Li Jie said, "You can think of me as the manager."

Chen Shi responded, "It seems that you are in charge; then I am not going to talk in circles. Did someone throw a male corpse downstairs last night?"

"Officers, you seem to have thoroughly understood the situation. It’s as you said. At 8 o'clock last night, we found someone lying downstairs. Initially, we thought it was a drunkard. We only found out later that he wasn’t breathing. He was dead.”

"You are so casual about this, confessing everything just like that. Not only did you not report it to the police, but you transferred the body? Do you know how much trouble has been added to our work?"

"I knew that you would come to me sooner or later. I’ve been mentally preparing myself for this."

"Insulting the body is a felony."

"I didn't insult him though. What is it that I can insult a dead uncle with?”

“Knowing something but not informing the police is also a crime.”

"I recognize that. I have to pay a fine. I can do that. It doesn’t matter where this person was found anyway, as long as it’s not found in my store. If a police car comes in, how can I continue to do business? I bet it was done by the people across from us. We are competitors and the bitch on the other side keeps taking all the ladies I have over here… I’m talking about the ladies who accompany others to drink alcohol. We operate honestly here.”

"Oh, don't bother explaining it. It’s getting more and more shady the more you talk about it. We can talk about that later. I need to understand the situation a bit more. What was the situation like when the body was found? Is there surveillance here? Were there any suspicious people or vehicles around?"

"We don’t have surveillance footage and we didn’t see anything suspicious. It was only an uncle lying on the ground with his body dripping."

"He didn't wear any clothes?"

"Yeah... He was completely bare."

Chen Shi sneered, "That’s a lie. Tell me, what clothes was he wearing?”

Li Jie scratched her face in embarrassment. "Suit trousers, only one sock on one of his feet, and a shirt."

"What happened to his clothes?"

"When Xiao Song helped me transport him, my hands got dirty, so I pulled his shirt off and rubbed my hands with them. I just randomly threw it in one of those waste buckets. The pants were taken by Xiao Song."

"What did he want to do with a dead person’s pants?"

"He said that the trousers are from a designer brand and cost two thousand yuan on the market. He was going to buy them. At the time, I asked him, ‘You even want a dead person’s pants?’ He said that he didn’t mind it, so he took them.”

"Call him over! Why did you choose to abandon the body there anyway?"

"Because...Because..." Li Jie looked awkward. "One time I ordered from that restaurant and found a dead cockroach in my food, so I asked for a refund. The restaurant not only refused, but also made it out like I placed it there myself. I was fuming at the time. Who did they think I was? Would I do something that low? I’ll always remember this hatred I have for them! So, officer, how is their restaurant? Has it been closed off?”

"Yes, it’s as you wished."

Li Jie looked very happy and asked, "Can I leave now?"

"Wait."

Tao Yueyue pulled Chen Shi’s clothes and whispered, “Really like a policeman.”

Chen Shi blinked his eyes and whispered, "I was originally one."

Tao Yueyue pulled a silly face at him.

After a short time, Xiao Song was called over. The clothes he wore were very trendy. There were a lot of tattoos on his body, but all this could not conceal the reality of his financial situation. From the look of his dirty collar and cuffs, this outfit had not been changed or washed in a while.

Li Jie whispered to him, “This police officer here is asking about what happened last night.”

Xiao Song immediately put on a smile and reached out his hand. Chen did not accept the handshake. "What do you do for a living?"

"I’m part of the band."

"The props here are all yours?"

"Yes... It is all rented."

"Why did you abandon the body?"

"Li Jie mentioned that she didn’t know which bastard purposely threw a dead corpse downstairs to kill the nightclub’s business. That’s why it affected me. I am here to perform, and if the nightclub is closed, I have no place to work for food. If your lips fall off from the cold, so will the teeth[3]. Thus, I accepted in helping her transport the body, since he wasn’t killed by us anyway.”

"You’ve really got guts. Do you know that doing this is equivalent to increasing the difficulty of our investigation and indirectly helping the murderer?"

"If people aren’t selfish, the heavens and earth will kill you."[4] Xiao Song gave a full smile, revealing a line of yellow and crooked teeth.

"You seem to have thought about everything thoroughly. Hand over the things you took from the deceased. Those things are evidence that we need to take away.”

"Okay! Okay!"

Xiao Song went to pick up a bag. In addition to the pants, there was a keychain full of keys and a wallet. Chen Shi opened the wallet and glanced at it. The money inside had already been soaked through and was disintegrating, but there was also a bank card inside.

He picked up the trousers and noticed that the trousers were a little worn, but the wear was very even. Tao Yueyue said, "This was bitten by a hamster."

"Do hamsters have such big teeth?"

Chen Shi put the things together and asked Li Jie and Xiao Song to give their contact details. He also took the box that was used to transport the body. As they were leaving, Li Jie asked, "You won’t call others to come and investigate again, would you?”

Chen Shi took a look at the nightclub. At this time, it was already opening its doors. Some women wearing revealing clothing were walking around the hall. He smiled. "We don't investigate this stuff."

Leaving the nightclub, Chen Shi returned to the previous little community and put the pants, box and wallet in the car. Lin Qiupu called and informed, "I found out that there is a park nearby and there is an artificial lake inside."

"Didn’t you say that you wouldn’t help me?"

"Hmph, I just wanted to see your abilities. If you’re able to break this case solo..."

"Then what?"

Lin Qiupu changed the subject, "Is there any progress?"

Chen Shi roughly explained the situation and Lin Qiupu exclaimed, "They actually transferred the body and even took the victim’s clothes? They’ve really got guts. I really have to teach this nightclub a lesson."

"What about Old Peng?"

"He's still stuck on the road. Haii, this traffic... Wait, you call him Old Peng? Are you two familiar with each other?"

"Don't worry about these things... Is there a neighborhood near the park you talked about?"

"Yes, quite a lot actually. There’s five! You can check them slowly!" Lin Qiupu gave out gloating laughter.

1. An expression for catching prostitutes.

2. Jie is a term that means sister. A term used to address ladies.

3. If the shop closes down, so will his life.

4. If you don’t look out for yourself, you’ll get crushed by everything else.