Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

Wang Shuai handed over his ID. "Have you seen a male patient with a large area of ​​burns on his left waist who has undergone skin grafting surgery?"

Doctor Li frowned and thought for a while. "We perform several large-area burn skin grafting surgeries every year, but this one happened on the left waist, and it was a male patient." He shook his head. "I really can't remember it at the moment. Let me ask the doctors in the department to help you recall it."

After a while, several doctors from the burn department sat together and started discussing. "In 2020, there was a patient in a construction site accident with extensive burns, but it seemed to be on the chest and back." "Last year, there was a female patient who was in a kitchen explosion, but she also had upper body burns." Everyone talked about it, but no one met the criteria.

Wang Shuai was a little disappointed, but he still thanked them politely: "Thank you, doctors. If you think of any clues later, please contact us in time." After leaving the doctor's office, he saw a patient's family member wiping tears in the corridor, and suddenly felt uncomfortable. This case is like a fog, and I don't know how many people will have to wait for the truth in the dark.

Back in the archives room, the team members were still busy looking through the files. Xiao Lin rubbed his red eyes and walked over to Wang Shuai: "Captain Wang, I've checked over a thousand medical records and found no clues. My eyes hurt so much that I can't see anything clearly." He said with a wry smile.

Wang Shuai took out eye drops from his bag and handed them to Xiao Lin: "Put some eye drops in and take a break. Don't strain your eyes." He looked at the exhausted team members and said loudly: "Everyone stop for ten minutes, drink some water and eat something. We can't hold on like this. How can we investigate the case if our bodies collapse!"

The team members put down the medical records in their hands and walked to the rest area. Xiao Zhang said while chewing bread: "I don't understand, how can there be no corresponding records for such obvious burn scars on the deceased? Didn't he have the surgery in these big hospitals?"

"It's possible." Wang Shuai took a sip of water. "Small clinics, private hospitals, and even some underground black clinics are all possible. But the records in those places are more difficult to check, and they are not standardized. However, after checking these big hospitals, we have to try our luck there."

The break was over quickly, and everyone got back to their intense research work. Time passed by, and the sky gradually darkened. When Wang Shuai and his team finished their investigation at the Third People's Hospital of the city, it was already past nine in the evening. Everyone was exhausted, their eyelids were drooping, but their faces were filled with reluctance.

On the way back to the police station, the team members were silent. Wang Shuai broke the silence: "Everyone has worked hard today. Although we didn't find any clues, we have ruled out one hospital, which brings us one step closer to the truth. We will continue tomorrow, the next one is the First People's Hospital of the city! I don't believe that we can't find the identity of the deceased!"

In the dark car, the team members' eyes were full of fighting spirit. They knew that the road ahead was still long and difficult, but they would not give up. Because they were police officers, and pursuing the truth was their mission. No matter how much effort they had to make, they would let the dead rest in peace and bring the murderer to justice.

On the third day after the incident, Zhang Hui began to investigate the surrounding villages where the body was found.

The morning mist had not yet dissipated when Zhang Hui and five other team members drove into Qinggang Village in two police cars. The wheels rolled over the gravel road, startling a few sparrows in the grass by the roadside. Under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village, several villagers were sitting together chatting, with bamboo chairs and stools placed randomly, and unburned cigarette butts scattered on the ground.

"Fellow countryman, excuse me for bothering you." Zhang Hui showed his police badge and sat down on a stone pier. "We are from the criminal police team, and we want to ask you something." He took out a pack of cigarettes and passed them to everyone one by one, with flames dancing between them.

Uncle Liu, who was smoking, narrowed his eyes and said, "Comrade police, is it because of the incident in the cornfield? We were so scared that we don't dare to go there at night." "That's exactly what happened." Zhang Hui opened his notebook and said, "In the past month, have you seen any strange faces in the village? Or has anyone behaved strangely?"

There was a moment of silence in the crowd, with only the sound of cigarettes. After a while, Aunt Zhao, who was squatting in the corner, spoke: "As for strangers, there was a scrap collector who came here half a month ago. He rode a tricycle and spoke with an accent from another place. But he only came once and I haven't seen him since."

"What does that person look like? How tall? What is he wearing?" Zhang Hui's pen hovered above the notebook.

"He looked to be about 40 years old, of medium height, wearing a blue work suit and a tattered straw hat." Aunt Zhao recalled, "I sold him a bundle of waste paper boxes. He didn't say much at the time. He weighed the paper boxes, paid the money, and left."

Zhang Hui recorded the characteristics in detail and asked, "Besides this scrap collector, are there any others? For example, those who wander around the village at night, or those who have had conflicts with villagers?"

"There wasn't any conflict." Grandpa Liu tapped his pipe. "It was just a few days ago that the dog of the old Li family in the east of the village barked loudly in the middle of the night, disturbing people's sleep. But the old Li family said that they didn't see anyone."

Team member Xiao Chen added: "Uncle, please think carefully, has anyone gone out recently, or has a relative come to the house but rarely shows up?"

The villagers looked at each other and shook their heads. Zhang Hui stood up and thanked them, "Thank you for your help. If you think of anything, please feel free to contact us." He left a few police-civilian contact cards and passed them between his rough hands.

Leaving the old locust tree, Zhang Hui led his men to the west of the village. On the dirt road at the edge of the cornfield, several women were carrying bamboo baskets to dig wild vegetables. "Sister, excuse me for delaying you for a few minutes." Zhang Hui went to meet her. "You come here every day? Did you find anything unusual during the days when the crime happened?"

Sister Wang, who was digging wild vegetables, straightened up and patted the dirt on her hands: "I come here to dig wild vegetables every day, but that day I went to my daughter's house in the neighboring village and was not in the field. But my husband said that he seemed to hear the sound of a tractor that night, rumbling for a while."

"What time did you hear it? Which direction did you go?" Zhang Hui asked.

"He didn't check the time and heard it vaguely." Sister Wang pointed to the south, "The sound seemed to go in that direction, but it was normal for us to use the tractor at night, so we didn't take it seriously."

After a morning of wandering around the village, I visited about 20 households and filled two pages with notes, but there was very little useful information. Near noon, Zhang Hui and his team members had a bowl of noodles at a small restaurant at the entrance of the village. The noodles were steaming hot, but they couldn't dispel the fatigue on everyone's faces. (End of this chapter)