1993, Pengcheng Police Affairs

Chapter 57 Scene

Yangpeng Highway, near the direction of Guancheng.

Several police cars sped along the highway, their sirens blaring.

Gu Huai sat in the passenger seat, his right hand gripping the armrest tightly. "Chief Wang, slow down, a few more minutes won't make a difference."

Wang Weiguo ignored Gu Huai and instead pressed the accelerator even harder.

What used to be a 40-minute run, Wang Weiguo completed in less than 30 minutes.

After parking the car, Wang Weiguo got out with a normal expression.

Gu Huai, with a bitter expression, covered his mouth and stumbled as he got out of the car.

It's not that Gu Huai can't drive fast; in fact, he drives faster than Wang Weiguo when he drives.

The main reason is that the dirt road after coming off Yangpeng Highway is extremely bumpy, especially when you get close to the orchard, the bumpiness is even worse.

The thought that Wang Weiguo could still drive without slowing down on such roads made Gu Huai wonder about Wang Weiguo's identity when he was a soldier.

After the two got out of the car, a middle-aged man in a police uniform quickly came to greet them.

Gu Huai had seen this person before at the scene where Zhang Zhenhua's body was found; he was Li Xiao, the captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Bao'an Branch.

"Wang Zhi, why did you come in person?" The man extended his hand as he spoke.

Wang Weiguo reached out and shook his hand. "A-Xiao, tell me about the situation."

Li Xiao led the way, explaining as they walked, "Around eight o'clock this morning, when fruit farmer Lao Cheng came to work in the field, he smelled a foul odor. He followed the smell and found a body in the drainage ditch, so he called the police."

"gutter?"

"Yes, there is an irrigation ditch next to the lychee grove. It had been dry for more than half a year. The ditch was full of rotten leaves, which blocked the drainage. A few days ago, it rained continuously and the ditch was full of water. Old Cheng originally wanted to take advantage of the sunny weather today to clear the drainage. If it weren't for this, the body would not have been found."

Wang Weiguo nodded, without stopping.

Seeing that Wang Weiguo did not speak, Li Xiao continued, "At first we thought it was a normal murder case, until we checked the information and found that the deceased looked somewhat similar to the missing persons that Shouyi had asked me to investigate, so we contacted the Municipal Bureau."

Gu Huai followed behind and found that the dirt road under his feet was getting softer and softer. The continuous rain had soaked the ground and made it damp.

The further you go in, the stronger the stench of the corpses becomes.

Moreover, this stench wasn't just the simple stench of decay, but a foul stench mixed with a cloying sweetness, which made it seem as if something had fermented.

Feeling increasingly nauseous, Gu Huai covered his mouth and nose with his hand and forced himself to walk inside.

"We're here." Li Xiao pointed ahead.

Gu Huai looked in the direction the finger was pointing and saw two people standing beside a ditch that was half a meter wide, taking pictures of a corpse that was still wet on the ground.

Wang Weiguo did not stop and walked straight toward the corpse.

It wasn't until he got close enough that Gu Huai could see the corpse clearly.

The body lay face up beside the ditch as the forensic doctor moved things. He was wearing a dark blue jacket over a gray sweater, which had become somewhat swollen from being soaked for so long.

At this point, his face was completely unrecognizable.

It wasn't because his face was disfigured, but because after being soaked for a long time, his face was completely swollen and somewhat black, and his lips were swollen and turned outward like two sausages.

Furthermore, his neck was swollen thicker than his head, and his skin was so tight it was almost shiny, making him look like an inflated balloon that would burst at the slightest touch.

Thinking of this, Gu Huai felt a chill run down his spine.

"It's already a colossus," Li Xiao said from the side. "It's been dead for at least a week."

The formation of gigantism is generally due to the large-scale proliferation of putrefactive bacteria in a corpse, which produces a large amount of gas, causing the body's tissues to swell and enlarge.

The sight of the giant was already disgusting enough, but the fact that the corpse was soaked in water made it even more unbearable for Gu Huai.

Of course, despite feeling nauseous, Gu Huai forced himself to squat down and carefully examine the corpse.

Upon observation, he discovered that the corpse's fingers had become as thick as radishes, and the nails were noticeably blackened.

Furthermore, there was a clear ligature mark on his wrist, so deep that it caused the surrounding skin and flesh to be noticeably everted.

"What did you find?" Wang Weiguo also squatted down.

"There are marks on your wrists." Gu Huai pointed to them. "Both hands have them. They don't look like they were tied with rope. The marks are too fine. It could be wire or electrical wire. We're not sure yet whether they were caused by strangulation or binding."

"They were tied up." The forensic doctor who was taking pictures put away his camera. "There are ligature marks on the deceased's neck, which are different from the marks on his wrists. The ones on the neck are wider, about one centimeter, and look like they were tied with a strip of cloth or a belt."

He nodded to Gu Huai and said, "We meet again, Comrade Gu."

When the other person greeted him, Gu Huai nodded in response.

"Bingyi, what's the situation now?" Wang Weiguo asked.

"It's hard to say," Chen Bingyi said, taking out a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it to air out the scene. "The body is too badly decomposed; many features are no longer visible. My initial assessment is that the time of death was seven to ten days ago."

Wang Weiguo frowned and asked, "Does he have any other injuries?"

"Yes!" Chen Bingyi put a cigarette in his mouth, opened the notebook in his hand, "He has blunt force trauma to his chest and abdomen, and his ribs should be broken, but it is not yet clear how many are broken. The preliminary judgment is that the blows occurred after death. A detailed report can only be issued after a thorough autopsy. Also..."

Chen Bingyi looked up at Gu Huai and said, "The deceased's genitals were also cut off."

"What?!"

Everyone immediately looked toward the deceased's genitals.

"No need to look anymore, the murderer shouldn't be Luo Zhenbang," Chen Bingyi said. "The edges of the wound on the victim's genitals are not smooth, and it was cut several times. It's completely different from the previous corpse. That one was cut while the victim was alive, and the technique was very professional. This one was cut after death, and it was done hastily and unprofessionally."

Wang Weiguo turned to look at Gu Huai, wanting Gu Huai to say something.

Gu Huai was also thinking about this situation at this moment.

In the case he remembered, the murderer lured the victim away using several women, and the method of luring was sexual seduction.

According to his speculation, the reason why the deceased suffered this injury was most likely because something unexpected happened during the seduction process.

The current situation arose from venting anger afterward.

After all, Luo Zhenbang's case had not yet occurred when the perpetrator committed the crime, so there was no possibility of copycat crime.

"It's not Luo Zhenbang." Gu Huai shook his head and said, "We have found all of Luo Zhenbang's collections, but not this one, and Luo Zhenbang has no motive for committing the crime."

"So what's your assessment?"

Gu Huai stood up, patted the mud off his knees, and said, "This person should be one of the taxi drivers who went missing before. The killer isn't a pervert; he probably did this to vent his anger."

"You're being too hasty."