Chapter 25: Holy Crap! … It Can’t Be Human Flesh, Right!

Zhou Hui stood up. Meng Liansu walked over and said, “Not far from the river channel, in a trash bin, the Technical Team just discovered a few drops of dark red stains nearby. After testing, they confirmed it was blood. Sure enough, they found human limbs wrapped in burlap inside the trash bin. Once they’re done examining them, they’ll send them over for comparison with the deceased.”

Zhou Hui nodded. She scanned the riverbank surroundings before turning back to Meng Liansu. “Check the area again. Bring back anything that might be a clue and helpful to the case. Hey? Isn’t Little Sun still over by the trash bin?”

“Yeah, he hasn’t left yet.”

“Alright, tell him to stay put for now. Have him dig through that trash bin again—see if the killer left behind any tools or other clues… Deputy Han, let’s head over there too.”

Deputy Han jogged up to join her, sighing in resignation. “Fine! After half a month as a human excavator, now I’m stealing the Environmental Protection Bureau’s job.”

Zhou Hui added, “We haven’t had you digging dirt every day, have we? Weren’t you picking up trash? Maybe we’re poaching the sanitation workers’ gigs.”

Deputy Han said helplessly, “You’re not wrong. Yesterday, the deputy director sent a commendation banner to our City Bureau. It said ‘City Environmental Protection Model.’”

Zhou Hui: “…”

Deputy Han chuckled and shook his head. He stepped over two puddles on the riverbank and glanced back at her. “Once you get to the trash bin, Little Sun’s guaranteed to be wailing his heart out.”

“If he could just work quietly for a bit, I’d sooner believe pigs can climb trees.”

Zhou Hui was all too familiar with Sun Ye’s half-hearted attitude toward work, and she felt utterly helpless about it.

Deputy Han griped, “If it weren’t for putting food on the table, who’d want to be a detective? It’s dangerous, the hours suck, and they dock your bonuses… But what can you do when you’re broke!”

He even let out a couple of fake sniffles.

“Oscar-worthy performance,” Zhou Hui shot back with an eye roll.

Deputy Han grinned sheepishly, all bootlicker now. “As long as you don’t dock my bonus next month. I’m desperate for cash.”

Zhou Hui saw right through the scheme. “Planning to scam another girl? You were hot on Zhao Min’s trail just a couple days ago. Already switching targets? Can’t you give your mom a break?”

Deputy Han backpedaled. “Nah, it’s to honor my mom. I give her every penny of my salary after food. My Engel coefficient is at a hundred percent.”

Zhou Hui ignored him.

They hadn’t even reached the trash bin yet when Sun Ye’s wailing carried over—sounding like a ghost howling at wolves.

“So much garbage—how long is this gonna take?” Spotting Zhou Hui, Sun Ye bolted over like he was running a marathon. “Captain Zhou! Captain Zhou! Ugh—I’m gonna puke. This is a freaking garbage mountain! How does a dump like this have so much trash? It hasn’t been cleaned in centuries! I can’t do this anymore. I really can’t!”

Deputy Han caught a whiff of the god-knows-what stench on Sun Ye and nearly hurled himself.

Zhou Hui gave Sun Ye a sympathetic look. “You could quit, you know. Just forfeit this month’s bonus. Guess we’ll have to find a replacement.”

Sun Ye perked up for a split second before crashing back down. His face darkened as he grumbled, “Fine, I’ll do it. I’m always super proactive about work.”

Deputy Han: “…”

After Sun Ye sprinted back to the trash bin like it was a hundred-meter dash, Zhou Hui said, “Let’s go too. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

The group spent the whole morning rummaging through the trash bin. The nauseating stench nearly killed them on the spot, punctuated by Sun Ye’s periodic bouts of howling despair.

As noon approached, Deputy Han straightened up from the pile and shouted, “Captain Zhou! Look—a pair of gloves. The killer might’ve ditched them.”

Zhou Hui turned and saw dark red stains on them—probably blood.

“Bag it and send it for testing.” She kept digging. Spotting Sun Ye practically face-planted in the garbage, she called out, “Little Sun, take a page from your Deputy Han. That’s the spirit—tough it out…”

Deputy Han sidled up and nudged her with his elbow. “Captain Zhou, so about my bonus this month…”

Zhou Hui smiled. “We’ll see.”

His face fell. What good was learning endurance if there was no bonus? He thought bitterly.

Never piss off the boss, and definitely don’t play the traitor. Deputy Han sincerely regretted his earlier mistake and wished he could go back and slap that version of himself. Why fight the money?

Regrets, man. Tsk tsk.

Only after they’d emptied the entire trash bin did Zhou Hui and the others climb out. Sun Ye scrambled ten meters away, collapsing to the ground for a spell of dry heaving.

A member of the Technical Department stepped up behind Sun Ye, using tweezers to pluck a black unidentified object from his collar, and began examining it closely.

“What the hell is that?” Sun Ye asked.

The man replied with dead seriousness, “Hmm… it looks like a piece of meat.”

Sun Ye’s butt hit the ground hard. “Fuck! … You’re not saying it’s human meat, are you?”

After holding it right up to his face for a closer look, the man grinned. “It’s… beef. Haha.” He gave it a sniff for the final verdict. “Tsk, beef from Old Altar Pickled Cabbage Beef Noodles.”

Sun Ye looked like he was about to cry. “You can even smell that shit?”

“Of course! Just look at this meat—such a tempting aroma. Here, you smell it.” With that, he dangled the chunk of beef right under Sun Ye’s nose on the tweezers.

Sun Ye whipped his head away, on the verge of hurling. From now on, he never wanted to lay eyes on Old Altar Pickled Cabbage Beef Noodles again.

As Officer Zhou slipped on her gloves, she said, “All right, Little Liu, quit scaring him. Hang onto that beef for the Technical Department to analyze at your leisure. When you’re done, bag up the trash and give it back to him, or we’ll have to send that ‘City Environmental Protection Model’ commendation banner back to the donor.”

Little Liu from the Technical Department perked up at that and chuckled. “You got it, Captain Zhou. The Technical Department has always been big on protecting the environment. It’s just this jackass here.” He jabbed a finger at Sun Ye. “Remember that time on the riverbank when he was chowing down on a sausage and littered the casing all over the place?”

“Hey, how do you know it was me?” Sun Ye shot back. “Could’ve been one of your Technical Department clowns…”

Little Liu shook his head and cut him off. “Nah! I picked it up and sniffed it—reeked of your stinky breath.”

“Fuck you…” Sun Ye snatched up the glove he’d just taken off and chucked it at him. “Beat it!”

Little Liu scampered off, howling with laughter.

Deputy Han gave Sun Ye a sympathetic look. “Sun Ye, when did you go and piss off the Technical Department crew?”

Captain Zhou clapped a hand on Han Wei’s shoulder, shaking her head in dismay. “Couple days back, while you were tailing Yan Mingchang, this moron snuck over to Little Liu’s spot in the Technical Department for some pilfered snacks. Got himself caught red-handed on surveillance. What a disgrace.”

Han Wei pressed a hand to his forehead and said gravely, “Sun Ye, I never figured you’d stoop to something like that. Is that what the Party taught you?”

He tsked twice, shook his head alongside Captain Zhou, and the two of them walked off.

Sun Ye: “???”

They hadn’t gone far on the way back when they spotted Xu Zhixin and the Criminal Investigation Team still combing the area for clues. The body had already been carted off to the Police Bureau.

“Look, Captain Xu’s still at it!” Han Wei said.

Captain Zhou caught the edge in his voice and frowned. “You got a problem with him?”

“I’ve got a problem with the whole damn Narcotics Squad,” Han Wei grumbled.

Captain Zhou scoffed in disdain. “Hah! Can’t blame him. Captain Xu saw right through your smooth-talking bullshit—you’re all honeyed words and no backbone.”

Han Wei: “…”

After a long silence, Han Wei muttered, “He treats us City Bureau folks like criminals, won’t even let me talk to the Little Princess. What am I supposed to do? Hell, maybe I should just shave my head and join the monks at Shaolin Temple.”

Captain Zhou pursed her lips. “…”

“With an attitude like yours, Captain Xu’d be a fool not to watch you like a hawk. I’d do the same.”

She delivered the line without so much as a glance at Han Wei, then strode straight over to Xu Zhixin. “Captain Xu.”

“Officer Zhou? You all wrapped up over there?” Xu Zhixin’s lips were chapped, sweat beading across his forehead, the back of his shirt soaked through. He’d clearly been at it all morning without pausing for so much as a sip of water.

His tireless dedication put the younger officers to shame.

“Yeah.” The sun was harsh in her eyes, and with Xu Zhixin facing away from it, she couldn’t make out his expression clearly. She lifted a hand to shade her face and frowned. “Still no murder weapon, but judging from the dent in the victim’s skull, it was probably something like an iron rake.”

Xu Zhixin nodded; he’d reached the same conclusion.

“Han Wei found a pair of gloves in the trash bin. We suspect the dark red stains are blood—it’s off for testing now, results any minute. Anything on your end, Captain Xu?”

“Nothing solid yet.” Xu Zhixin shook his head, brow furrowed in clear frustration. “Dumping site’s gotta be right here. Killer pitched the limbs in the trash, then chucked the torso in the river. We’ve got blood spots trailing from the bin to the bank.”

Captain Zhou eyed the riverbank, mentally gauging the distance to where the elderly couple had found the body. “What’s Forensic Doctor Meng’s preliminary time of death?”

“Between one-thirty and three-thirty a.m.,” Xu Zhixin replied. “Doesn’t line up with the earlier cases at all. Probably a copycat.”

When they examined the body, they reached the same conclusion: it was a copycat killing. And imitating a murder case this vicious would have an enormous impact on society.

Not only did it make identifying the killer even more difficult, but if it had no connection at all to the ongoing investigation, the police would be placed in a thoroughly reactive position.

Han Wei irritably raked a hand through his hair. “What’s the deal with people these days? Don’t they think the cops are busy enough already? So does that mean this case has nothing to do with the River Channel Murder Case either?”

Xu Zhixin let out a sigh. “You young folks just can’t keep your cool. Impatience has no place in police work. Getting worked up won’t do you any good. The killer isn’t going to pop out of hiding just because you’re in a hurry—in fact, they’ll be chuckling to themselves from the shadows. These cases don’t solve themselves. We have to proceed one step at a time.”

Han Wei asked, “Has Captain Xu ever run into a case that just wouldn’t crack?”

“How could I not?” Xu Zhixin had spent decades in narcotics control, handling more cases than Han Wei had years on the force, and talking about it now brought a note of reflection to his voice. “Anything tied to drugs turns into a major case. Back in the day, we’d know there were dozens, even hundreds of kilos of narcotics right here in the city. We’d have all the evidence, the smugglers in custody, but the drugs themselves? Nowhere to be found. What do you do in a situation like that? You play guerrilla warfare with the traffickers, grinding them down bit by bit. Panic? That just delights them. They love seeing us cops lose our formation first. Ah, never mind. Enough of that.”

It was already midday by the time they wrapped up at the City Bureau. The team headed back to the station for lunch, and Captain Zhou gave Han Wei a couple of quick instructions before driving to the hospital.

Yu Bai and Zhao Min had been at the hospital all morning. Captain Zhou wondered if Zhao Min had managed to learn anything about Yan Mingchang.

Downstairs, she fired off a text to Yu Bai asking if she’d eaten yet. No reply. Figured she must have already had lunch and dozed off.

Captain Zhou parked in the garage and headed straight up to the third floor of the inpatient wing.

Assuming Yu Bai was asleep, she didn’t knock—just walked right in.

“?”

Neither Zhao Min nor Yu Bai was sleeping, but they weren’t discussing Yan Mingchang either. They sat on their respective beds, staring at each other with wide eyes, the atmosphere carrying a subtle awkwardness.

Yu Bai spotted Captain Zhou first. But her gaze only lingered for less than half a second—Zhou wasn’t even sure she’d registered her presence.

Then Yu Bai turned to Zhao Min with composed ease. “Officer Zhao, that’s everything I know about Yan Mingchang. Does any of it help your investigation?”

Zhao Min had her back to Captain Zhou, so Zhou couldn’t see the rapid shift in her expression. But her voice rang out clearly. “The information you’ve provided is very helpful. Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Yu.”

With that, she stood and shook Yu Bai’s hand.

Yu Bai replied politely, “If there’s anything else you need, don’t hesitate to reach out anytime. I’ll cooperate fully with the police.”

For some reason, those polite formalities from Yu Bai struck Captain Zhou as oddly off-putting.

Zhao Min turned around then and finally noticed Captain Zhou. “Officer Zhou’s back. In that case, I’ll be going. I’ve got everything I came for.”

She glanced at Yu Bai one more time. Unable to move around easily, Yu Bai just sat on the bed and smiled, making a gracious “after you” gesture.

Once Zhao Min had gathered her things and left, Captain Zhou closed the door and followed her out into the corridor.

“Any new leads?” Captain Zhou asked.

Zhao Min seemed in low spirits. She shook her head, brow furrowed. “Nothing. It’s all the same information we already had. Not much use to us at the moment.”

Just as she’d suspected—they’d been exchanging nothing but pleasantries. Captain Zhou said, “Ah well. Aren’t you still digging into Yan Mingchang’s company? Turn up anything?”

“His company’s accounts do have some issues. They’ve spotted two more irregularities, but figuring out exactly what the money was used for and where it went will take more time.”

Captain Zhou nodded. “Got it. Head back for now. You put in a good morning’s work.”

Something about those words left Zhao Min feeling unexpectedly uneasy. She mumbled a quick reply and headed downstairs.

When Captain Zhou returned to the ward, Yu Bai was sitting on the edge of her bed, staring out the window, lost in thought.

“What’re you thinking about?” Captain Zhou walked over and asked.

Yu Bai came back to herself and looked at Captain Zhou with a small smile. “Nothing. Oh, right—how’s that case from the morning paper? Any progress?”

Captain Zhou shook her head, nursing a slight headache. “It’s not like the others.”

“A copycat crime?”

Captain Zhou started, hesitating for a moment but not denying it.

Seeing the look on her face, Yu Bai smiled. “Don’t get the wrong idea, Officer Zhou. I studied criminology back in the day, so I’m attuned to terms like that.”