Volume 31: Disciples

On August 4th, downstairs of a certain neighborhood, a pet dog broke free from its owner's leash and lay greedily at the mouth of a sewer to eat something.

The owner found their beloved dog and saw the red and bloody object. They couldn't help but complain, "Oh, Doudou, what are you eating now? Be careful of getting a stomachache. Do you know how expensive it is to go to the vets for injections? How can you worry your mother so much?"

"Which family poured this stuff down?" An uncle on a walk was attracted to it. Then, more and more bystanders came over to study the suspicious things that came out of the sewer.

"It must be minced meat stuffing that someone made. It hasn’t gone bad, so why did they dump it out?”

"It looks like pork belly. There’s fats and lean meat."

"But it doesn't look like pork. Is it lamb?"

"No, no. It doesn't smell like beef or mutton and the color doesn’t seem like pork. It’s definitely not chicken or duck either."

"Perhaps it’s human flesh!" The joke made those who looked at it have terrible thoughts. Their smiles disappeared and they exchanged glances with each other as they discussed, "Do we... Do we need to call the police?”

At 7:00 in the evening, the criminal police arrived. At this time, the crowd had reached sixty or seventy people. Some people even came to join in the commotion without eating dinner.

No one noticed someone in the crowd wearing dark glasses and a peaked cap with a mysterious smile on the corners of their mouth.

Peng Sijue looked at the test results of the hemoglobin test in his hand and slowly nodded to Lin Qiupu. Lin Qiupu understood and said, "Disperse, disperse. There's nothing to look at. You should go back to what you were doing and not hinder the police work here. Thank you everyone!"

"Officer, is it human flesh?" Someone asked.

Lin Qiupu said “no comment”, but the next actions taken revealed the truth. He ordered people to block the surrounding area with a cordon. The masses thought that if it was animal meat, there would be no need to protect it. There was no doubt that it was human flesh.

Lin Qiupu found the first bystander who discovered the "mysterious meat filling" to record their statements. He also sent people up the building to question the people from each household.

Peng Sijue asked the bureau to send over some protective suits as well as send more manpower to go to the water well to retrieve the rest of the corpse.

Half an hour later, the officers who went upstairs called Lin Qiupu and said, "Captain Lin, everyone has been questioned except for one family who refused to open the door, as if no one was in the house."

"I'll come up immediately!"

Lin Qiupu hurried upstairs and knocked on the door of the unit a few times. No one answered the door. So, he took out a hook-shaped iron needle and slid it back and forth a few times in the keyhole. He was able to crisply open the lock with ease.

Pushing the door into the room, the living room seemed to be under renovation. The walls were covered with newspapers and there was a strange smell in the air.

Everyone instinctively pulled their guns out. When they got to the bathroom, the lights were still on. There was a meat grinder placed on the ground which was covered with minced meat. The bathtub was red with blood and a layer of oil floated on the blood. There was the grotesque smell of internal organs coming from it.

Several officers in the room couldn't hold it in any longer and ran outside to vomit.

This was a cruel corpse mincing scene. Lin Qiupu furrowed his brows and dared not look at the bathtub any longer. He immediately called Peng Sijue to bring people up to obtain samples and evidence.

After Peng Sijue looked at it, he asked people to bring several large buckets and ladles to get everything out of the bathtub.

The two stood in the bathroom and Lin Qiupu shook his head. "I haven't seen such a brutal scene in a long time. It seems like this case won’t be a small one."

Peng Sijue said, "I'm a bit better. The forensic laboratory looks like this every day."

"Who would have the same nerves as you! By the way, with regards to this case, do you..."

"I’ve already called."

"Eh?! Did you know what I wanted to say?"

"I do. You wanted to ask if we should call Chen Shi."

Lin Qiupu felt like he had lost face since his intentions were so easily read. Peng Sijue continued, "I thought that we’d most likely have to find him, so it might be better to let him arrive sooner rather than later. He might be able to find more clues that way.”

"Good… That’s good too."

Half an hour later, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue came over together. Seeing Lin Dongxue dressed so casually today, Lin Qiupu guessed that the two might have been playing outside. He was a bit unhappy in his heart.

Lin Qiupu said, "Don't go in. There's blood everywhere. You might stain your clothes. You can just let Old Chen go in alone.”

"Oh?" Lin Dongxue raised her eyebrows. "Captain Lin, are you treating me as Old Chen's follower? I'm here to handle the case, okay? Why not let me in?"

"I don't mean it like that. Forget it, go in if you want!"

Seeing the scene in the bathroom, Lin Dongxue's face became pale. She somewhat regretted getting her way and insisting on coming in to have a look. The scene would have been terrifying enough to see in photos, let alone in person.

Chen Shi poked his head in and glanced at the scene before leaving immediately. Lin Qiupu said, "Aren't you going in to have a look?"

"It's too disgusting. I won’t go in. Old Peng can handle it. I believe in him!"

"You actually have times when you’d admit defeat?!"

"They’re specialists. I’m not a forensic doctor. What can I do except saying ‘wow’?”

The other officers couldn't stand it either. They hid in the corridor and smoked. The smell of nicotine wafted over. It smelled particularly sweet to Chen Shi who had quit smoking for several months.

Even Lin Dongxue, who usually disliked the smell of smoke, felt that the smell seemed much better than the smell of blood.

Chen Shi studied the newspapers on the wall. Lin Qiupu explained to him, "We’ve asked about this house. The landlord works abroad and has handed the property over to the real estate agent to rent. We’re still trying to contact the agent. The residents said that it was raining heavily about two days ago and a lot of debris was washed into the sewer causing a blockage. That’s why this 'meat filling' would overflow out and be smelled by the dog. Otherwise, the case may not have been discovered."

Chen Shi said, "It’s a disgusting but practical method. Mincing the body and throwing them into the sewers is a method that’s used in many homicides… But seeing it with my own eyes, it’s still very impactful."

Lin Dongxue asked, "Why are there so many newspapers in the living room? I haven't found any blood stains even after looking for ages."

Chen Shi reasoned, "From the tools left at the scene, the murderer didn’t spontaneously develop killing intent. The living room may have been set up with the intent to kill people. However, it was unexpectedly left unused, or it was prepared to kill the next person. This is a standard murder area... By the way, are there any patterns in these newspapers?"

"I just glanced at them. The latest newspapers were from two years ago and the earliest were from five years ago. It’s mostly made up of The Long’an Evening News and these newspapers are very wrinkled and somewhat oily."

"Newspapers may have been obtained from scrap buying stations. You can follow this clue to investigate."

Lin Dongxue immediately wrote it down. When Lin Qiupu saw this, he could deeply feel that his sister's investigative ability was increasing. You indeed take after those you surround yourself with!