Xiao Bai said, “A full third of their bathroom is taken up by the hand basin and washing machine. The remaining two-thirds is almost entirely filled by those large water buckets. I could see the woman doing her laundry in a space so cramped she could barely move her legs.”

“For someone who keeps fish, the water supply can never be interrupted — so those buckets wouldn’t be moved. Completing a dismemberment in such a confined space would be nearly impossible. And look at the sediment at the base of the buckets: they haven’t been moved for at least three days. The water is also quite clear, which means the bathroom hasn’t been thoroughly cleaned during that time.”

Xiao Bai listened and nodded repeatedly.

“Let’s go. Check the sixth floor.”

Xiao Bai knocked on the sixth floor door for a while, but again there was no response.

Shi Ting said, “The couple here sells meat at the market — it’s perfectly normal for them not to be home at this hour. Let’s head back down.”

Just as the two were about to go downstairs, a somewhat stocky woman was making her way up. Spotting them, she couldn’t help but look them over a few extra times.

“Are you the resident of this unit?” Shi Ting asked suddenly.

The woman paused for a moment, then nodded. “I am. Who are you looking for?”

“We’re police officers. We’d appreciate your cooperation with an inquiry.”

Xiao Bai had barely started reaching for his badge when the woman turned and bolted downstairs. Xiao Bai immediately shouted, “Stop right there!”

Shi Ting’s reflexes were sharp — he lunged down two steps and caught the woman by the arm.

The woman was big-boned and broad-shouldered. She swung a slap back at Shi Ting; he dodged it, twisted her arm behind her back, spun her around, and pressed her face firmly against the wall.

“Don’t move.” Shi Ting warned in a low, firm voice. “Assaulting a police officer is enough to put you away for a stretch.”

Hearing that, the woman suddenly burst into tears and begged, “Officer, I know it was wrong to inject water into the pork — please have mercy, it’s my first offense, please don’t arrest me! I promise I’ll run an honest business from now on and never cut corners again.”

Xiao Bai listened to this and couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth. He had thought he’d caught a break in the case — but what had actually come out of it was a pork-water-injection scandal.

Shi Ting also hadn’t expected the woman to run because of something like that. He released his grip on her. “We’re from Criminal Investigation. Something like injecting water into pork is not our department — that falls under the Market Supervision Bureau.”

“You’re… you’re from Criminal Investigation?” The woman looked a little sheepish, but quickly figured out what that meant. “Then why is Criminal Investigation looking for me? I haven’t broken any laws.”

“We just need you to cooperate with an inquiry. We’d like to take a look inside your home.”

The woman seemed to let out a sigh of relief. “Alright, alright, alright — as long as you’re not here about the pork water thing.”

The woman took out her key and opened the door. “The place is a bit of a mess — no need to change your shoes, just come in as you are.”

Shi Ting walked around the apartment. True to what the woman had said, the place was dirty and disorganized — the coffee table was buried under a heap of uncollected trash, the dishes in the kitchen were stacked high, and dirty laundry was strewn all over the bathroom floor, seemingly waiting to be washed.

Shi Ting went over and examined the clothing items one by one.

“Officer, I haven’t done anything wrong — I swear on my conscience,” the woman pledged earnestly.

Xiao Bai peered into the toilet and immediately covered his nose. “Ma’am, how many days has it been since you last scrubbed this toilet?”

The woman looked a bit embarrassed. “We work at the market selling meat. We’re up by two or three in the morning to pick up stock, and then we’re selling until the market closes. By the time we get home at ten at night, we just want to eat something and go straight to sleep — there’s no time to tidy up. Sorry to let you see us like this. The place really is too messy.”

This time, without Shi Ting needing to say anything, Xiao Bai already knew this apartment didn’t fit the profile of a crime scene. Generally, after a murder and dismemberment, the whole room would be cleaned spotlessly — some people even go so far as to renovate completely to erase any trace of the crime.

“Do you know the tenant on the fourth floor?”

The woman thought carefully and then shook her head. “No.”

“What about the fifth floor?”

“Haven’t met them either. Even if I have, I wouldn’t know which floor they live on.” The woman said, “Even though I’ve lived in this building for quite a few years, the neighbors and I almost never interact. The only one I have any rapport with is the old man on the first floor — he’s always sitting at the entrance to pass the time.”

Cities are nothing like villages. Beneath these tightly-fitted concrete walls, people can live in the same building and be complete strangers — there are countless people who have lived next door for over a decade without ever knowing what their neighbor looks like.

“Ma’am, if you work at the market selling meat, why did you come home in the middle of the day?” Xiao Bai asked curiously.

“Ran out of change — came back to get some. Bad timing, really, running straight into you two.” The woman gave a dry laugh. “It was all a misunderstanding just now. A complete misunderstanding.”

“Then we won’t keep you any longer.” Xiao Bai said. “If you don’t mind, please leave us your phone number.”

The woman pulled a greasy name card from her pocket and handed it over. “Both numbers on here are mine.”

“Thank you for your cooperation.” Xiao Bai took it, then added, “Ma’am, even though injecting water into pork isn’t our department — if you’re ever caught, the fine won’t be a small amount.”

“Ha, I know, I know. Pork prices are so high these days, ordinary people can barely afford it. Way fewer customers than before. I was just trying to scrape by and got a little greedy. Don’t worry — I’ll never do it again.”

With the woman’s repeated assurances, Shi Ting and Xiao Bai returned once more to the fourth floor.

Xiao Bai knocked on the door again — still no response from inside.

“The person might not be home. Let’s try again tonight.” Xiao Bai said, then asked curiously, “Captain Shi, how did you know that woman was the sixth-floor resident? There are three units on the sixth floor.”

Shi Ting said, “Look at her hands. Her skin is red and very greasy, and there’s blood residue in the cracks of her fingernails. Those hands clearly belong to someone who handles raw meat regularly. Combined with what the couple said, it wasn’t hard to figure out she was the sixth-floor resident.”

“I see — Captain Shi, your observation really is meticulous.”

Shi Ting glanced at him. “A simple inference like that — I’d hope next time it’s you who tells me, not the other way around.”

Xiao Bai rubbed his nose with some embarrassment. “Yes, sir.”

The two returned to the third floor. By now, the drainpipes in the young couple’s bathroom had been entirely dismantled, leaving the bathroom in disarray.

Yan Qing was crouching on the floor, using a pair of tweezers to carefully examine a bloodied piece of tissue.

Shi Ting watched her focused expression and suddenly felt a twinge of curiosity.

Since joining the police force, the female forensic examiners he’d encountered could be counted on one hand — they were a rare breed in the industry.

Compared to becoming a forensic examiner who spent every day in contact with corpses, most people would choose to become a doctor instead. Doctors earned more, and the work was cleaner.

She was striking in appearance and exceptionally capable, yet she was single. Before a blind date, her second aunt must surely have reminded her a thousand times not to reveal her profession to the other party.

At this thought, Shi Ting couldn’t help but let the corner of his mouth curve upward.

“How’s it looking?”

Yan Qing heard the voice coming from above her and deftly placed the tissue fragments into an evidence bag.

“Based on a preliminary assessment, all of these fragments belong to the human body. See here — there are two severed fingers. They’re quite small, but you can still make out a small segment of finger joint.”

Old Fan held his nose and said, “The killer really is ruthless — chopped the person into pieces this small.”

“This is all we found.” The officer in charge wiped sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. “The rest must have been washed down the drain pipes.”

Old Fan heard this and his head immediately ached. Flushed down the drain — that meant they had ended up in the building’s septic tank. Which also meant they would have to go filter through the entire septic tank.

This was the task Old Fan dreaded most. The workload was enormous, but the hardest thing to bear was the overpowering stench that clung to you afterward — and didn’t go away for days.

“Sigh, looks like I’ll be sleeping at the station for the next few days.” Old Fan shrugged. “Last time we dug through a septic tank, my wife banished me to the living room to sleep — and after one night of that, she stopped even letting me sleep in the living room, told me to pitch a tent on the balcony.”

There was some humor in Old Fan’s words, but everyone knew how terrible this kind of work was.

“All right, terrible or not, it still has to be done.” Old Fan waved a hand. “Move, move, move — let’s get to it.”

Shi Ting said, “We can’t do this alone. Pull some officers from the nearby precinct to help, and contact the sanitation department — they have professional equipment.”

“Yes, sir.” Old Fan’s eyes brightened. “Captain Shi always has a plan.”

With that, the workload was cut in half.

After Old Fan left, Yan Qing finally stood up from the floor. She handed the collected tissue fragments to Hulu, who was busy sticking labels on each evidence bag.

“Hey, what happened to your face?” Yan Qing had sharp eyes and immediately spotted the scratch marks on Shi Ting’s face.

Shi Ting hadn’t even noticed himself. He reflexively reached up to touch it. “What is it?”

“The wound is rough and uneven — not from a sharp object. Hmm, looking at the shape… it looks like fingernail marks.”

Only then did Shi Ting recall, “Just now, when we ran into the sixth-floor resident — she thought we were there to arrest her and resisted when she tried to run.”

It had to be said that the woman’s strength was considerable. Combined with the fact that Shi Ting had deliberately held back his force, she had managed to scratch him. But the wound was so fine and small that he hadn’t even noticed it.

“She tried to run? Is she a suspect?”

“She was injecting water into her pork — she thought we’d come about that.”

Yan Qing let out a laugh. After laughing, she reached into a nearby toolbox and pulled out a bandage and a small ball of alcohol-soaked cotton.

“Let me take care of that.”

A wound like this would have been entirely beneath Shi Ting’s notice, but hearing Yan Qing offer to treat it, he didn’t refuse — and dutifully tilted his face toward her.

To accommodate her height, he lowered himself slightly, which brought his gaze level with her face. Her serene and graceful features struck him full on.

Yan Qing wasn’t aware of his gaze. She was focused on disinfecting his wound, and when she finished, she applied the bandage neatly.

The whole sequence of movements was done with practiced ease — it took less than half a minute. But her face was so close to his, her breath falling softly on his face, and for just a moment, his thoughts drifted.