You're supposed to be a security officer, what case are you solving?

Chapter 2: The Dismembered Corpse!

Yang Jinwen's words stunned everyone present; his knowledge of judging the reaction of a severed hand in a living body was truly remarkable.

If this torrential rain continues indefinitely and floods this entire reed marshland...

He Jinbo raised his head and looked at the low-hanging sky, where dark clouds were rolling and lightning flashed in the distance.

It's a little past eight in the morning now. Normally, it would be sunny and the sun would be blazing high in the sky.

But now the sky is getting darker and the air pressure is very low, so the heavy rain may indeed continue.

He Jinbo wiped the rain off his face and shouted to his apprentice Maozi, "Call back to the team and get everyone from our team here. Also, notify the local police station and ask them for backup."

"Okay, Master!" Cat quickly ran ashore.

He Jinbo looked at Yang Jinwen and beckoned him over: "Come here."

Yang Jinwen nodded: "Captain He, what's the matter?"

"Two questions!"

He Jinbo grabbed an umbrella from his subordinate, held it over his head, and took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and lit it with a lighter.

"Captain He, smoke less." Yang Jinwen waved the smoke in front of his eyes.

He Jinbo ignored him, took a deep drag on his cigarette to relieve his suppressed emotions, and then continued with the previous question.

"First of all, how come you just happened to be fishing by this river and just happened to find the severed hand? If you dare to lie to me, I'll lock you up in a detention center."

Yang Jinwen retorted, "You don't actually think I killed him, do you?"

He Jinbo sneered, "I'm telling you, kid... let's not talk about whether you're innocent or not, anyway, you can't escape."

Now answer my second question, why aren't you afraid?

Yang Jinwen remained calm, sighed, and explained, "Captain He, bloodshed happens every month at the steel plant."

Three months ago, in the factory dormitory, Zhang killed a coworker in the bathhouse with a kitchen knife because the coworker stole a bar of soap.

"Recognize my face. I was the one who received your criminal investigation team back then."

Yang Jinwen took off his hat, revealing his face: "Do you remember me?"

He Jinbo frowned as he looked at the face. He did remember that a tall, thin young man had been following him and was very curious about the police profession, asking him all sorts of questions.

In his memory, the young man had very regular features, somewhat like a movie star.

"Oh, it was you." He Jinbo scratched the back of his head. "If you hadn't said so, I would have almost forgotten."

Yang Jinwen nodded: "You encounter so many things every day, it's normal to forget some things."

Even so, He Jinbo's doubts about the young man in front of him had not been dispelled: "Go to the shore and stay there. Don't go anywhere. I will arrange for a police officer to take your statement in a while."

"Okay." Yang Jinwen replied, put his hat back on, ran to the shore, and packed up his fishing rod and an iron bucket.

Just as he was about to get ashore, He Jinbo came over and glanced into the bucket. Two large crucian carp were swimming around in the bucket.

"You actually caught a fish!"

Yang Jinwen smiled and said, "It's just right to have an extra meal."

Back on shore, he wiped the rain from his face, his expression somber. He sighed inwardly, finally having time to clear the jumbled thoughts from his mind. Early this morning, he had suddenly woken up in bed, thinking it was daylight, but the sight of the room left him dumbfounded.

The old wardrobe, the creaking wooden bed, and the familiar desk made him suddenly realize that he might have been reborn!

The first thing to do after being reborn is, of course, to look in the mirror.

He ran to the restroom and confirmed that it was his own face from when he was young, a face that felt both strange and familiar.

Then, time came. To make sure he wasn't dreaming, he ran out of his bedroom and went to the opposite room to wake his father.

"Dad? What year is it again? What's the date?"

"Are you out of your mind? What's wrong with you in the middle of the night?"

Seeing that Deputy Factory Director Yang Dachuan still had a fairly strong physique, Yang Jinwen was certain that he had been reborn.

Then he remembered the major criminal case that haunted him like a nightmare in the future.

The serial murders that occurred in 1997 are referred to in the case files as the "5*30 Murders".

Within a month, three young women were murdered. The killer was extremely cruel, not only killing them but also dismembering their bodies!
That year, Yang Jinwen was still a security officer at the steel plant. At that time, the entire An'nan City Public Security Bureau and its three major branches conducted a joint investigation for a whole year, but ultimately found no useful clues.

After the third girl was murdered, the people of Anan City were in a state of panic. Young women rushed home after get off work and dared not linger outside.

Even by 2024, when Yang Jinwen had become a senior police sergeant in the provincial department, the case remained unsolved.

The thick cardboard boxes containing case files and physical evidence were covered with a thick layer of dust.

After getting the specific time from his father, Yang Jinwen realized that this might be God's way of helping him catch the murderer from back then and clear the names of the three female victims.

Yang Jinwen stood in the living room, as if he were in a vortex of time. He looked at the dark night sky outside, put on his raincoat without hesitation, and ran towards the Yanzi River.

Because he clearly remembered that a torrential rain would come in the early morning, and the dismembered body buried in the reeds would be washed downstream by the rising river.

In other words, under normal circumstances, the dismembered body would not have been discovered until three days later, on June 4th.

Back then, newspapers reported that the first people to discover human tissue were residents downstream who wanted to catch fish in the water. When they cast their nets, they pulled up a human thigh.

When Yang Jinwen arrived at Yanzi River, he was fortunate that a section of the red plastic bag containing the severed hand was sticking out of the soil, which allowed him to find the severed hand.

Before calling the police, to avoid arousing their suspicion, Yang Jinwen ran home, grabbed his father's fishing rod, and found a bucket in the kitchen, which contained two large crucian carp.

Yang Jinwen stared blankly at the churning dark clouds, then heard a panicked shout coming from the reeds.

"Here, here we've found something!"

Yang Jinwen saw He Jinbo rushing towards the place where he had shouted, his figure weaving through the reeds.

Then, another officer shouted from another location, "Captain Ho, I've found something here too."

"And here I am, I've found a head, I've found a head!"

Yang Jinwen looked at the police officers running through the reeds, recalling the contents of case files from his previous life, and then muttered to himself:

"In the 5*30 major murder case, Huang Cuicui's body was found three days in advance. The second victim was named Jiang Yan, 19 years old, a saleswoman at a department store."

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, she was murdered between 6 PM and midnight on June 3rd.

(End of this chapter)