Yan Qing said, “The victim is male. Height: 175 centimeters. Based on the pubic symphysis, the estimated age is around forty years old, with a margin of error of no more than one year.”

Male?

The moment the words landed, the conference room erupted in murmurs.

Xiao Bai said, “I thought it was the woman who rented the apartment — how can it be a man?”

“A man — now that’s interesting.”

Shi Ting gestured for everyone to quiet down, then gave Yan Qing a nod, indicating she should continue.

Yan Qing acknowledged this and went on, “We’ve reconstructed most of the victim’s skeleton and found that the right side of the victim’s thyroid cartilage has a longitudinal fracture. Preliminary assessment is that the cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation.”

“Was he strangled?”

“The victim’s remaining soft tissue is still being reassembled. But based on my experience, it is highly likely the victim was strangled.”

“A forty-year-old adult male was strangled?” Old Fan tapped a finger on the table. “The killer is either male, or caught him completely off guard.”

“Are there any other clues on the body that could help identify the victim?” Shi Ting asked.

In a dismemberment case like this, identifying the victim was the most critical task. The primary reason a killer chose to dismember the body was to conceal the victim’s identity — so finding the victim’s source would crack the case halfway open.

Yan Qing said, “The victim has a tattoo.”

She placed a photograph in front of Shi Ting. “The tattoo is in a very concealed location — it appears to be on the lower abdomen, near the groin area. Hulu and I did our best to reconstruct this section of skin, but there are still gaps.”

Shi Ting picked up the photo and studied it carefully. “It looks like a few characters.”

He passed the photo to Old Fan, who confirmed Shi Ting’s assessment. “Should be characters — people getting characters tattooed on themselves is trendy these days, isn’t it?”

“Maybe it’s a lover’s name.” An officer said, “My cousin had his girlfriend’s name tattooed on him — just last week he sent me a photo to show off.”

“What’s there to brag about? Go get yourself a girlfriend and tattoo the entire Xinhua Dictionary on your body.” Someone jeered.

Old Fan let out a laugh. “Stop goofing around — let’s talk about the case.”

Everyone in the Criminal Investigation Team knew it was basically a club for singles. Seeing someone with a partner, they’d all be practically drooling with envy.

“Send it to the technical department. Have them figure out what characters are tattooed there.” Shi Ting handed the photo to an officer beside him. “Also, the phone number and WeChat account provided by the landlord — those need to be traced immediately.”

After Shi Ting had finished assigning tasks, Yan Qing continued. “In terms of leads to identify the victim from the body itself, that’s all we have for now. The body is too severely damaged — it doesn’t offer much. Also, the bones were all severed at the joints, and the way the tissue was separated from the bone was clean and precise — which leads me to suspect the killer has some degree of medical knowledge and understands human anatomy, or may work in a field such as butchery.”

“Isn’t the sixth-floor couple in the business of selling meat?” Xiao Bai’s eyes lit up. “Captain Shi, should we bring those two in?”

Shi Ting nodded.

“Then we’ll get back to it. We still need to continue reassembling the body.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Teacher Yan.”

After Yan Qing returned to the forensic examination room, the conference room continued its discussion on tracking down the victim’s identity. Shortly after, Jian Zhigang walked in.

“Captain Shi, we found the owner of the phone number. The registered name is Zhai Xiaoqiu.”

National real-name registration for phone numbers had made it significantly easier for police to investigate cases.

“Were you able to find her identity information?”

“The registration shows only an ID number and address — both registered in Binzhou. I’ve already forwarded the information to the Binzhou team and asked them to help trace the registered owner. They’ve promised to find the information as quickly as possible.”

“What about the complex’s surveillance footage?”

“This is an older complex that’s also facing demolition, so the surveillance equipment isn’t complete — only two cameras: one at the main gate and one in the parking lot. However, there are four entrances and exits in the complex. Only the main gate has a camera; the other three don’t. We’re currently reviewing the main gate footage — it’ll take a few more hours.”

Old Fan said, “The killer cleared everything out of the apartment to hide both their own identity and the victim’s. Moving that many things out would be hard to miss. But if the killer was a resident here, they would know the main gate is monitored and would probably use one of the unmanned rear entrances. Expand the search — pull footage from surveillance cameras along the routes leading out from those three rear gates.”

“Yes, Captain Fan.”

“Also, have the technical department do a screening against the DNA database for missing persons — see if anything matches. And notify the precincts below us: any recent or real-time missing person reports are to be escalated to the main team immediately.”

Shi Ting added a few more instructions, and everyone went off with clear assignments to carry out the next stage of the investigation.

Night fell. The lights in the Criminal Investigation Team’s office blazed without dimming.

Yan Qing and Hulu were still at work on the puzzle. Reassembling these fragmented remains into a body required not just patience — more than anything, it required experience.

Human tissue varied in kind, and each type had its own distinct structure.

Knock, knock.

A knock at the door. Hulu called out, “Come in.”

He raised his head and immediately broke into a smile. “Captain Shi!”

Shi Ting walked in and found Yan Qing bent intently over her work under the bright examination light, its glow casting her face in an even clearer whiteness.

“I ordered some food delivery. Come eat something in a bit.”

Without waiting for Yan Qing to say anything, Hulu shot his hand up. “Sure, sure! Captain Shi is really so considerate.”

Shi Ting looked toward Yan Qing. “Teacher Yan, please join us.”

Yan Qing had no graceful way to decline, so she nodded. “Thank you, Captain Shi.”

Before long, everyone gathered in the conference room to eat. Old Fan flipped through a thick stack of materials with one hand as he ate, though it didn’t slow his pace of eating in the slightest.

“You don’t like spicy food?” Shi Ting noticed Yan Qing pushing all the chili peppers to the side of her meal box.

Hulu quickly cut in, “Reporting to Captain Shi — my master can’t eat spicy food, doesn’t like sour food, and has a sweet tooth. Her favorite dishes are char siu pork and steamed fish.”

Yan Qing shot him a glare. “Even eating doesn’t shut your mouth.”

The moment her words fell, the meal box in front of her was swapped out — and with it came Shi Ting’s calm voice. “You eat mine. There’s no spicy shredded pork with peppers in it. I’ll eat yours.”

Yan Qing said quickly, “But I’ve already started eating—”

“It’s fine.” Shi Ting picked up his chopsticks. “My portion hasn’t been touched. Go ahead and eat.”

Across the table, Hulu’s eyes spun in his sockets, wearing the look of someone who had seen right through everything but was saying nothing.

Hulu had always been wary of men who got close to his master — especially the rough-edged types from the station. In the grand design he had in his head, the man who ended up with his master would have to be handsome, refined, and, above all, clean. Someone who, like Old Fan, brushed his teeth once a day and bathed once a week? Absolutely out of the question.

He had looked around and concluded that nobody in the station was good enough for his master — and had proceeded to mentally disqualify everyone one by one.

But now along came Captain Shi. Captain Shi was different from those coarse fellows — at least on the surface, he looked like a celebrity, always clean and neat, and he didn’t smoke. His master had zero tolerance for cigarette smell, even if “zero tolerance” was perhaps a slight exaggeration.

Looking at it that way — Captain Shi really did seem like someone worthy of his master.

“Captain Shi.” Jian Zhigang walked briskly in. “The characters in the tattoo have been processed — enlarged and sharpened. It appears to be two characters and one symbol.”

Shi Ting took the image and examined it carefully. “The first character is Zhi. The second is Qiu. They’re connected by an arrow in the shape of a heart.”

Hulu craned his neck for a look. “Looks like the names of a couple — isn’t a heart the symbol for love?”

Shi Ting said, “And do you remember the name of the fourth-floor tenant? Zhai Xiaoqiu. Combined with the fact that the tattoo is in a concealed location, it’s safe to assume that the character Zhi represents the victim’s name, and Qiu refers to Zhai Xiaoqiu.”

“They were lovers?” Hulu’s eyes brightened. “Then as long as we find Zhai Xiaoqiu, we’ll know who the victim is!”

Shi Ting said, “Zhigang, make several copies of this image and have people go to every tattoo parlor in the Pujiang area — see if anyone can recall this design. I’ll give you a website link — it’s a community for tattoo enthusiasts. Post the information there as well. Someone might be able to give us useful leads.”

Tattoo parlors in Pujiang were as numerous as the hairs on an ox. This line of inquiry wasn’t exactly searching for a needle in a haystack, but it was still a massive undertaking. With so few leads to go on, this was the only approach available.

“Understood.” Jian Zhigang agreed without hesitation.

The design itself was fairly common. The artists who’d done it might not even remember it. But every lead — no matter how small — had to be followed. Sometimes the most insignificant detail could be the key that unlocked the whole puzzle.

For two straight days, the entire Criminal Investigation Team was a hive of activity. Aside from a few members of the technical staff, everyone else was out on the streets.

Photos of the tattoo were distributed to every police station in the area. The stations mobilized their own officers and auxiliary police to conduct door-to-door inquiries within their jurisdictions.

Yan Qing and Hulu worked as hard as they could to reconstruct the body, but with so many pieces missing, what they ultimately managed to piece together amounted to barely half a body.

On the afternoon of the 6th, several pieces of good news arrived in rapid succession.

First came word from Binzhou — through the identity registration, they had located Zhai Xiaoqiu’s family. Her family confirmed that six years ago, Zhai Xiaoqiu had been accepted to a university in City S to study clinical nursing. After graduating, she had joined Jiuhua Hospital in City S as a nurse.

“Captain Shi, this is the photo provided by Zhai Xiaoqiu’s family.”

Shi Ting took it and glanced at it. The young woman in the photo appeared to be in her mid-twenties, with shoulder-length hair and very delicate features.

“Her family said that on the 2nd, Zhai Xiaoqiu called her mother. She told them she’d sent them some money and asked them to take good care of themselves. She’s very filial — she often sends money home and calls regularly, so her family didn’t notice anything unusual. It was only when they couldn’t get through to her on her mobile phone a couple of days ago that they began to worry. Her parents are already on their way to City S.”

“Let’s go — pay a visit to Jiuhua Hospital.” Shi Ting got to his feet and glanced at Yan Qing. “Teacher Yan, if it’s convenient, come along. Medical matters — you’re the expert.”

Yan Qing agreed without hesitation.