Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 7

Chapter 7: You’re So Lucky

The evening Shen Yiyi parted ways with Qin Luo after the table read, she was called out to a scene.

The intern assistant who had burned the human bone soup was driving.

The deputy director who had just scolded him this morning was now sitting in the passenger seat, which put the intern under a lot of pressure.

“Are you familiar with the case details?” Shen Yiyi, now in a tactical t-shirt and police trousers, asked with her arms crossed.

Although regulations required them to arrive at the scene within five minutes, since it was a homicide and the victim was confirmed deceased, there was no need for the forensic team to race against the clock. Besides, it was rush hour, and his superior was asking questions. He really couldn’t drive any faster.

“Yes, the criminal tech team relayed them.”

Shen Yiyi turned her head to the side, her silence a response to his non-answer.

Lin Puping immediately understood, but he was so nervous around his female superior that he stammered. “Uh… the deceased is a thirty-year-old housewife… The caller was a child. The grandmother dropped her grandson off downstairs after his summer class and left. When the child got home, he found—”

“Is that the key point? Don’t you have your own way of presenting this? Is your ability to interpret a case report this poor?” Shen Yiyi pinched the bridge of her nose.

Her intraocular pressure was high, and the space between her brows throbbed. “Did your mentor stick you here just to torture me?”

Lin Puping swallowed and started his report again. “The deceased is female. According to the responding officers, the victim was stabbed multiple times. It’s suspected to be a home invasion murder.”

Shen Yiyi’s voice was unusually cold. “Your examination plan.”

“Overall scene observation, enter after gearing up to observe blood spatter patterns, confirm the primary crime scene, examine open wounds…”

Shen Yiyi waved her hand. “So in the months you’ve been at the internship base, all you’ve done is memorize the practical procedures, is that it?”

The male intern pursed his lips. He had indeed spent the past few months observing in the lab, occasionally printing case acceptance forms, and had barely been to any homicide scenes. The last time he’d been out with the deputy director was for an old man who had jumped into a lake. The summer heat had made the body’s bloating exceptionally pronounced. He’d nearly scared himself to death while moving the corpse…

“Just being responsible for the body will be enough to keep you busy. The other tasks will be handled by the professional technical staff,” Shen Yiyi said.

He remained silent, hearing the impatience in his superior’s tone but not knowing what had made her so unhappy. Lin Puping drove the car into the victim’s residential complex, found the building entrance, and parked.

The two took the elevator upstairs. The police tape was already up, and the door was open.

Shen Yiyi glanced inside. An auxiliary officer was consoling a wailing child. The detective in charge of the case had also just arrived and was going over the case registration form with the local officer. Colleagues from the criminal tech team were already setting up markers.

Lin Puping placed the thirteen-jin heavy examination kit on the ground, shaking his sore arm. He thought to himself: Without me, how would this female director have carried this kit so far?

Shen Yiyi scanned the area. “Captain Li, we’re here.”

Then she ducked under the police tape and walked inside along the designated pathway. Lin Puping followed behind, pulling a mask from his pocket and putting it on.

The entryway, the living room, the kitchen.

Shen Yiyi’s eyes swept over everything as she walked, immediately assessing the victim’s social network. This was a normal family of three; the couple’s relationship seemed relatively harmonious.

“Dr. Shen.”

Li Siting, the lead investigator on the case, was busy writing. He looked up and greeted his colleague. “The deceased is in the bedroom.”

“Got it.” Shen Yiyi turned to look at the bloodstains on the floor but happened to meet the gaze of the male assistant, whose face was half-covered.

She frowned again. “Don’t wear a mask when you first enter a scene.”

“Ah? Oh.” Lin Puping obediently took it off.

“How can you smell the scene with a mask on? How can you smell the body?”

“I’m sorry, Director. I thought with today’s advanced technology, we wouldn’t need to do such primitive sniffing work,” Lin Puping tried to explain.

Shen Yiyi shot him a look. “Go fill out the examination acceptance form with Captain Lin.”

“Right away.” The assistant immediately went to do as he was told.

Shen Yiyi followed the markers toward the bedroom. The highest temperature today was thirty-nine degrees Celsius. The air conditioning in the victim’s home was off, and the windows were sealed. Before she even reached the bedroom door, she was hit by a foul, metallic stench, a thick and sharp smell of rust.

She glanced from a distance. Red had soaked through the white bedsheets, dripping onto the surrounding floor. The open wounds had begun to decompose slightly in the heat, the edges everting, looking like paste glued to the skin.

Is it familiar?

She asked the shadow in her heart.

She was indeed very familiar with this mixed stench of decay.

She had even seen worse homicide scenes than this, scenes where pure evil and depravity were intertwined. Chunks of flesh lay on the ground, dismembered body parts scattered in the corners of the room, fruit flies covering the entire ceiling in a dense pixelated blackness. She had once carelessly opened a refrigerator and come face-to-face with a twisted head. The next gruesome murder scene would overwrite the last. A woman stabbed multiple times like this was something Shen Yiyi had seen countless times in her decade-plus career.

For some reason, she suddenly thought of Qin Luo. She closed her eyes. The fresh scent from this morning suppressed the agitation of the moment.

Shen Yiyi took a deep breath and stepped into the bedroom.

It was as if she had observed this scene thousands of times, or perhaps she had caught hundreds of criminals with the same motive. In any case, from the moment she entered, she moved with an practiced ease. Li Siting hadn’t even briefed her on the basic situation, but she had already grasped the general outline of the case.

No signs of forced entry on the main door, no signs of a struggle in the entryway. The perpetrator was an acquaintance.

Without even looking at the primary crime scene marked by the criminal tech team, she knew the victim had not entered the bedroom voluntarily. She had likely been struck and dazed, or gone into shock, and then dragged into the bedroom.

Shen Yiyi walked to the bedside, put on her gloves, and first examined the head.

As expected, she found two small lacerations on the top of the head. She examined the wound edges and the wound itself, then waved over a criminal tech colleague.

“Come take a picture for me.”

Click, click.

The torn scalp, revealing the yellowish-white fatty tissue, was stored in the camera’s memory.

The human scalp has five layers, with the skull just beneath. The scalp is full of capillaries, very soft and thin, with each layer tightly connected, forming a tough membrane. She took out a pair of scissors and cleaned the area around the wound, revealing the brain tissue exposed by the fractured skull within the wound cavity.

It could almost be determined that the cause of death was a skull fracture and intracranial hemorrhage. So she had been placed on the bed after she was dead.

She stood up and glanced at the multiple open wounds all over the body, stabbed with no discernible pattern.

Venting anger on the body—retaliatory.
Displaying sexuality—exhibitionist.
Artistic processing—enjoyment.

Shen Yiyi couldn’t determine which it was. She stood before the victim, lost in thought for a long while, until her assistant came to her side and called her name.

She raised her arm and pointed to the corpse’s head. “Observe the wound.”

Lin Puping had already been sickened by the smell of blood before he even came in. He swallowed the acrid taste in his throat, put on his gloves, and approached the body’s head.

“There are tissue bridges, villous fibers connecting them. It’s a blunt force injury.”

“Mm.”

Shen Yiyi lifted the victim’s nightgown.

No fingernail scratches on the legs, underwear intact. She was placed in the bedroom and then stabbed multiple times, but there was no sexual assault on the body. As for whether there was digital penetration, she would need to take the body back to determine that.

She pointed to the body again and said to her assistant, “Look at the open wounds.”

Lin Puping bent down and began to examine them. “No coagulation, the damage pattern is a superficial wound… Hmm, a sharp force injury… The location of the wounds…”

He tilted his head, looking from side to side. “There’s no pattern.”

“If you hadn’t seen the fatal skull injury, how would you determine if these wounds were inflicted post-mortem or ante-mortem?”

Shen Yiyi stripped all the clothes off the body.

Once dead, she lost her gender before the forensic pathologist, as if she were just a plaster model. All symbols, like the blood that flowed out, dissolved within the body.

Lin Puping answered mechanically, “Purely liquid with no coagulation, small amount of bleeding, no spatter, the wounds are dry with no bruising, and a dark grayish color.”

“Turn the body over,” Shen Yiyi commanded, feeling drained of energy.

There were sharp force injuries on the back, buttocks, and the nape of the neck, but compared to the front, the wounds on the back were not deep, the incisions were not clear, and the movements seemed hesitant. Shen Yiyi could sense a tentative quality to his actions.

He didn’t dare to strike when facing the body, so he made light cuts.

But once he started, his excitement level unconsciously rose, and so he calmly turned the body over and viciously slashed at the thighs, abdomen, and arms.

The retaliatory motive was very strong.

Shen Yiyi turned and walked toward the master bathroom, toward the primary crime scene.

“You can take the lead on writing the external examination report for the scene.”

“Ah…”

Lin Puping hadn’t expected the deputy director to hand him such a gruesome criminal case.

If it were Director Hong, he would definitely have taken charge of any difficult cases himself.

He looked up from the wounds and met Deputy Director Shen’s tired expression. She looked like she hadn’t eaten, listless.

Indeed, Dr. Shen had gone straight to the lab after the table read, and then came here as soon as the call came in. People were made of iron, but food was steel; skipping a meal could easily lead to a loss of emotional control.

“When you’re done, go with the criminal tech team to collect hair and subungual material from the bedsheets. You can also participate in the case analysis meeting later.”

Shen Yiyi walked into the bathroom.

“Thank you, Director.” Lin Puping grinned, bowing slightly at her retreating back.

Li Siting, the lead investigator for the case, leaned against the bathroom doorframe, gloves on, and asked in a relaxed tone, “How’s it looking, Dr. Shen?”

Shen Yiyi was crouching on the floor. She stood up when she heard his voice.

Her gloves were covered in blood from examining the body. She held them up in front of her chest. “Congratulations. This case will be closed quickly. You won’t have to pull any all-nighters.”

Then she saw the smile on Li Siting’s face and knew that he had a good idea about the case as well.

True, this case was too simple for current investigative techniques.

Acquaintance crime, clear motive, surveillance in the elevator, footprints left at the scene, evidence left on the body, the murder weapon not disposed of—the chain of evidence was nearly complete.

Unlike a random homicide, with no pattern of intrusion, no traceable motive, and no exchange of material at the scene.

Li Siting wouldn’t even need to check the hotel industry information system, the security monitoring system, or the shoe print database.

Shen Yiyi smiled at him. “You’re so lucky.”

With that, she held up her hands and walked out of the scene. The forensic assistant was still busy. She and Li Siting walked toward the door. “He might even turn himself in out of fear before we finish our investigative analysis meeting.”

Li Siting waved his hand. “Hey, don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

Shen Yiyi took off her gloves at the door, and a wave of nausea slowly rose in her throat. Her police uniform was soaked with sweat and odor, the smell clinging to her nose, so sour it made her want to cry.

She suppressed the discomfort in her stomach. “But it’s fine. It’s the death penalty either way.”

Li Siting saw her red-rimmed eyes and couldn’t help but frown. “Did your department pull another all-nighter last night?”

“It was work for the Institute of Criminal Science. I was working overtime on the top floor, worked half the night, then went back to the dorm to sleep.” Shen Yiyi threw her gloves into the contamination bin and pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer from her bag.

“I heard from Little Lu that you went to the set to see a big star?” Li Siting blinked. “How was it? Was the big star pretty?”

She stood by the trash can, rubbing her hands with alcohol twice. “She was alright.”

But she still didn’t feel clean, as if the dark red had seeped into her body, the stench clinging to her hair, impossible to erase.

So she pulled a small bunch of cilantro from her bag.

Li Siting was used to it. These criminal tech officers all had their quirks. Little Lu had to drink a 7-Up to calm his nerves after a scene, Little Wang had to chain-smoke two Liqun cigarettes, and this Dr. Shen, she just loved to rub cilantro.

The overwhelming smell of stink bugs assaulted Li Siting’s senses. He had a natural aversion to the smell of cilantro and frowned at Dr. Shen with an expression of utter incomprehension.

How could she rub it with such satisfaction, as if a great weight had been lifted?

Li Siting hadn’t forgotten the gossip. “Did you see that Sun Jingyi? Is she pretty?”

“What Sun Jingyi? I don’t know her.”

Shen Yiyi rubbed her palms and the backs of her hands, feeling the juice squeezed from the cilantro, like a shot of fabric softener to her heart. Her anxiety temporarily subsided.

“You know, the female lead from Sealing the Demon. The one who looks like a fox, with that really, really exotic look.”

Shen Yiyi threw the cilantro in the trash and took out the hand sanitizer again, repeating the hand-washing process. “Do you know who Claude Lévi-Strauss is?”

“Who’s that?”

“Exactly. It’s the same principle as you asking me about that Yi-whatever.” Shen Yiyi rolled her eyes. “Who is she? How would I know who she is?”

…

…

Li Siting blinked. “Alright, then. I’ll see you at the analysis meeting later. There are boxed meals downstairs. Go grab something to eat.”

For a sudden, gruesome homicide, the case analysis meeting would not be postponed until the next day. Shen Yiyi ate her boxed meal in the car downstairs, waiting for the forensic assistant to finish collecting evidence from the body.

Lin Puping drove the police car, and the two returned to the station.

The strong smell of chicken cutlet rice lingered in the car. When she got out and was hit by the stuffy night breeze, Shen Yiyi’s stomach churned. She rushed into the bathroom on her office floor and threw up.

When she came out, she took off her police uniform and went to the locker room.

The forensic locker room had a special disinfection room. She took off her uniform shirt and trousers, threw them into the washing machine, poured in half a cap of 84 disinfectant, and started the machine.

She changed into a clean but slightly faded police uniform, one that had also been disinfected with 84 and high heat, and sat on the locker room bench, dazed.

Qin Luo.

Shen Yiyi thought of their chance encounter that morning again. Qin Luo, piercing through her shadow, flashed intermittently before her eyes.

She took out her phone, intending to look up what that Yi-whatever looked like, but for some reason, she typed in Qin Luo’s name instead.

Qin Luo, contracted writer and screenwriter for “W-Logos,” film critic…

Just as Shen Yiyi was carefully scanning the suffixes, a WeChat message popped up on her screen.

[Shen Yiyi, your uncle is coming to Shanghai in a couple of days. Did your aunt tell you?]

Annoyed, she opened WeChat and replied in the family group chat:

[She did. I’ll take time off to pick you guys up.]

She closed the family group chat and saw two messages sent by the production assistant from the Her Kill set that afternoon.

13:12
[Director Shen, if you have any feedback on the script, could you please add the screenwriter’s WeChat? Is it okay to connect directly with Teacher Qin?]

14:33
[Director Shen?]

15:45
[Director Shen, could you please add the screenwriter’s WeChat? Because of your privacy settings, our screenwriter can’t add you~~]

Shen Yiyi glanced at the time. It was eleven at night.

She still hadn’t figured out what to say to Qin Luo. So she stood up, stuffed her phone into her pocket, pretended nothing had happened in her WeChat, and went downstairs with her materials for the analysis meeting.

She needed some time. Time to think.