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

The terrain of the demolition area was extremely complex. The crooked walls blocked most of the light, and the air was filled with dust, mold, and a faint stench of decay. Yang Sen turned on his survey light and drew a circle with a diameter of five meters around the area where the body was located: "With the body as the center, the area within five meters is the core survey area. First, clear away the surface soil and look for footprints, fibers, and suspicious items." As he spoke, he skillfully and precisely placed the measuring tape, tweezers, evidence bags, and other tools on the makeshift folding table.

Lu Chuan stood outside the core investigation area, his gaze sweeping over the surrounding ruins: "Wang Shuai, take two people and question the workers on site. Focus on finding out who was the first to discover the body, whether the excavator encountered any unusual objects during operation, and whether any strangers have been active in the demolition area recently." He then looked at the team member in charge of technical support, "Immediately contact the meteorological bureau to confirm the rainfall situation over the past month and assess the environmental changes after the body was buried; notify the demolition office to retrieve the demolition schedule and construction records for this area."

Within the core investigation area, Yang Lin had already outlined the corpse's silhouette with chalk. The body was lying on its side, mostly covered in mud, with only the right arm and part of the back exposed. The clothing was a dark gray long-sleeved jacket, the fabric rough, resembling cheap work clothes, with obvious wear marks at the cuffs. "Yang Sen, look here." Yang Lin used tweezers to pick up a fiber from the jacket. "Dark blue, tough in texture, doesn't seem like it's from the victim's clothing; it might have been left by the murderer."

Yang Sen immediately came over and examined it carefully with a magnifying glass: "This is nylon fiber, commonly found in work gloves or woven bags." He took out an ultraviolet lamp from the investigation kit and shone it on the soil around the body. "There is a depression about 30 centimeters to the west of the body, with very regular edges, as if it was pressed down by some square object. It may be an item left behind by the murderer."

The two carefully cleared away the loose dirt from the dent, and soon, a corner of a rusty tin cigarette box was revealed. The cigarette box was deformed and covered with a thick layer of dirt, but the words "Double Happiness" were still faintly discernible. "Take care when extracting it, don't damage the fingerprints," Yang Lin reminded them, gently brushing away the dust from the cigarette box with a soft brush before placing it in a sealed evidence bag. "The cigarette box is empty, but there might be some saliva or skin flakes left inside; we'll do DNA testing when we get back."

At this moment, a fine drizzle began to fall from the sky. Lu Chuan immediately ordered his men to set up rainproof tents to completely cover the core survey area. "Hurry up, the rain is getting heavier and will damage the evidence at the scene," he shouted, while taking an umbrella from a team member and continuing to observe the site.

Yang Lin and Yang Sen quickened their investigation. They found a key to the right of the body. The key handle was made of plastic with a blurry "福" (fortune) character printed on it. The key teeth were intact, and it appeared to be an ordinary house key. "This key could very well belong to the deceased, or it could have been dropped by the murderer," Yang Sen said. He measured the key's length with a ruler. "It's 5.2 centimeters long, probably a key for an old-fashioned wooden door, commonly found in rental houses in urban villages."

In the soil beneath the body, Yang Lin also found several pieces of broken glass, with sharp edges and a small amount of dark red substance on them. "It looks like fragments of a beer bottle." He picked up a piece of glass with tweezers and examined it against the light. "There are impact marks on the edges, so it was probably broken during the crime." Yang Lin immediately used a test strip to test the dark red substance and quickly got the results: "It's blood. We need to go back and do blood type and DNA comparisons."

Outside the core investigation area, Wang Shuai was questioning Mr. Li, the worker who first discovered the body. "I was operating the excavator to dig the third pile of garbage. I had just dug a bit when I felt the bucket get caught on something. I thought it was a steel bar, so I lowered it a little. But when I swung the bucket, it threw out a woven bag, and an arm was sticking out. I was so scared that I jumped off on the spot." Mr. Li's hands were still trembling. "We've been clearing this area for three days. We didn't find anything unusual in the first few days. Today is the first time we've dug up this spot."

"Have any strangers come here recently? Like those acting suspiciously, or asking about something?" Wang Shuai pressed, his pen moving quickly across the notebook.

“There were a few strangers,” Mr. Li recalled. “Last week, a man in a black jacket came here and walked around, asking us when we would clean up Area 3. He even took out his phone and took a few pictures. We thought he was from the demolition office, so we didn’t pay any attention. There was also a woman, probably in her thirties, who came here crying a couple of days ago. She said her husband had gone missing in the area and asked us to help her look for him. We advised her to call the police, and then she left.”

"Could you describe the physical characteristics of that man and woman in more detail?" Wang Shuai immediately asked.

"The man was about 1.75 meters tall, on the heavier side, and had a very noticeable scar on his left cheek," Mr. Li gestured. "The woman was of medium height, with her hair in a ponytail, wearing a red coat, and spoke with a slight accent from out of town."

Wang Shuai immediately recorded this information and asked his team to retrieve the surveillance footage from the entrance of the demolition area—although it was a temporary setup, it might capture the two people. At this moment, the team member responsible for retrieving the surrounding surveillance footage ran over, looking rather grim: "Team Leader Lu, the temporary surveillance cameras in the demolition area broke down three days ago, and there are very few civilian surveillance cameras nearby. Only one camera at the village entrance is usable, but its angle is limited, and it can only capture people entering and leaving the village."

“It’s a surveillance problem again.” Lu Chuan frowned. The low surveillance coverage in urban villages has always been a challenge for criminal investigation. “Immediately copy the surveillance footage from the village entrance and check each suspicious person who has entered or left the village in the past month. Focus on the man with the scar on his face and the woman in the red coat that Mr. Li mentioned.”

Within the core investigation area, Yang Lin and Yang Sen had completed the initial investigation around the body and began a surface examination. Due to severe decomposition, facial features were unrecognizable; they could only determine it was male based on build, approximately 1.7 meters tall, and estimated to be between 35 and 45 years old. "The deceased's left hand was clenched into a fist, as if clutching something." Yang Lin carefully pried open the deceased's fingers, finding a few brown hairs and a small amount of dirt between them. "The hair isn't the deceased's; it's soft, possibly female."

Yang Sen photographed the deceased's hands from different angles: "There are skin flakes under the fingernails, indicating a possible fight before death. We'll collect DNA for comparison. Also, there's a blurry ligature mark around the deceased's wrist, and the skin is broken, suggesting they may have been bound with rope or similar objects." (End of Chapter)