Bai Jin had the woman wrapped around his leg and looked thoroughly helpless, doing his best to soothe her. “Auntie, please let go first — come, tell us what happened once we’re both standing up.”

The woman’s face was streaked with tears, and she shook her head forcefully. “You have to find my daughter — my precious daughter! If anything happens to you, how am I supposed to go on living?”

“Auntie.” A soft, gentle voice reached her ear. “Please get up first. If you want to find your daughter, you need to explain the situation clearly. If you keep holding onto his leg like this, where are we supposed to go to look for her? If time is wasted, your daughter could be in danger.”

At those words, the woman finally wiped her tears and climbed up off the floor.

The now-liberated Bai Jin shot Yan Qing a look of profound gratitude. The woman’s grip had been truly fierce — there were bound to be marks on his leg.

Yan Qing handed the woman a cup of water, and seeing Yan Qing’s expression kind and her smile warm, the woman at last began to speak. “My daughter is a second-year student at Shun Cheng University — her name is Cai Ling, and she’s seventeen years old. On the morning of the 10th, she left home for school and left me a note saying she was going to stay at a classmate’s house for a few days. But three days have now passed, and she still hasn’t come home. I went to her school to look for her, and her classmates said she didn’t go to school at all on the 10th, nor did she go to her best friend’s house. I searched every place she might possibly be, but I can’t find her anywhere.”

The woman grabbed Yan Qing’s hand frantically. “Young lady, you’re so beautiful — surely your heart is kind too. Please, I beg you — help me find Cai Ling. Without her, I truly cannot go on.”

Yan Qing looked toward Shi Ting. She was not a member of the Military Police Division and had no authority to make decisions on its behalf.

Shi Ting said, “Don’t worry. I’ll deploy people right now and do everything in our power to find your daughter.”

The woman’s eyes reddened and she moved to kneel and bow her head to the ground, but Shi Ting caught her quickly. “This is what the Military Police Division is here for.”

After the woman registered and signed the paperwork, Bai Jin escorted her out.

Shi Ting gave Yan Qing an apologetic look. “I was going to treat you to a meal in the canteen, but now I’m afraid you’ll have to go on your own.”

“It’s all right — finding the person comes first. I’m in no rush.” Without mobile phones, without cameras, finding a person was like searching for a needle in the sea. But as long as there was even one thread of a clue, no one would give up — because waiting another moment, Cai Ling might be in danger.

There was no time to lose. Shi Ting immediately called a meeting to coordinate the search. But the meeting had only just gotten underway when an officer came hurrying in. “Someone has reported a case — a body has been discovered near the West Mountain Reservoir, suspected to be a homicide.”

Bai Jin pinched his chin. “Could this body be Cai Ling?”

Shi Ting made a swift decision. “Zheng Yun, stay here and continue organizing the search. Bai Jin and E’ Yuan, come with me to the scene.”

“Let me come too.” Yan Qing said. “I have nothing going on this afternoon.”

Shi Ting gave a nod. “All right.”

The West Mountain Reservoir was located in the western district of Shun Cheng — a natural reservoir encircled by mountain ranges, with large stretches of rice paddies planted on the land near the water’s edge.

The rice had not yet ripened, and as far as the eye could see, everything was lush and green. If not for the body discovered here, the endless expanse of green would have been a lovely sight indeed.

The one who had filed the report was a rice farmer. His two sons had gone to play by the reservoir that morning, and in their idleness had made a game of skipping stones.

The elder said, that strange thing by the water over there — whoever hits it wins.

The younger said, I’ll definitely hit it first.

The two of them hurled stones at the large, motionless shape by the water’s edge, shouting out a cry with every throw.

When their father came to find them, the elder said, Pa, there’s a strange creature by the water — looks like a dead pig, not moving at all.

The younger said, that thing stinks, and I saw crows landing on it.

Their father walked closer for a look, and was so frightened he sank straight to the ground. The thing lying half-submerged in the water was no creature at all — it was a dead person.

He took his two boys and fled the scene in a panic, reported it to the local Public Security Office, which then passed it up to the Military Police Division.

The area around the reservoir was nothing but vast rice paddies — no residents nearby. The nearest households were all at the foot of the mountain.

Because there was only a narrow, winding dirt path, vehicles could not reach the waterside. And this path had been worn into existence by the footsteps of the local farmers themselves.

The path was rutted and uneven and difficult to walk. Bai Jin and E’ Yuan went ahead to clear the way, while Shi Ting pushed Yan Qing along behind.

The path cut through a stretch of rice paddies, where a scattering of white ducks was foraging for food.

The rice paddies were home to ducks, crucian carp, and river crabs all raised together — a self-sustaining, mutually beneficial system.

“Seventh Brother, there’s a slope here — be careful.” Bai Jin called back. “Once you’re down this slope, we’ll be at the scene the reporting party described.”

After descending the slope, they could already make out the body slumped at the water’s edge. Half of it was submerged, with black fabric floating and sinking in the water.

“That’s a fat one, I’d say,” Bai Jin squinted. “Looks round and large.”

Yan Qing shook her head. “That’s not a fat person — that’s bloating from decomposition.”

At the words “bloating from decomposition,” Bai Jin’s stomach lurched. He remembered the first time he had seen a body in such a state — he’d held onto a tree and retched for half an hour.

It had rained the previous day, and the scene had been further disturbed by many footprints, leaving it with little forensic value. Still, Bai Jin put up the police cordon.

Nearby onlookers, hearing there was a dead body, had made the journey on foot just to watch. They stood around the scene, pointing and murmuring among themselves.

E’ Yuan crouched before the body and, fighting the acrid stench, turned it over. The deceased was wearing a teal-blue mandarin-collar short-sleeved top, while the lower body was bare. The corpse was severely decomposed and presented the characteristic signs of “giant” bloating.

“The body is wrapped in a bedsheet, with both ends tied off with rope, and a large stone knotted to the rope — something the victim couldn’t have done herself.”

The white bedsheet had been washed by the water and was now bunched together, revealing the damp rope beneath.

Bai Jin asked, “Can you tell if this is Cai Ling? Her mother said she’s 170 centimeters tall, a long-haired beauty.”

E’ Yuan shot him a look. “In this condition, how am I supposed to tell?”

A body in this state of bloating was beyond recognition. No matter how beautiful or handsome you had been in life, what you saw now was a dark greenish creature.

E’ Yuan and Bai Jin worked together to drag the body up from the water’s edge. As the corpse was disturbed, a nauseating wave of putrid stench hit them full in the face, and from the body fell a mass of writhing maggots that continued squirming where they landed.

Bai Jin barely managed not to vomit. Even E’ Yuan had his brow furrowed tight, holding himself together by sheer force of will.

The kind of body forensic examiners least wanted to encounter was one in this state of bloating. The smell clung to you for a month after contact.

“What a mess,” Bai Jin said. “If I’d known, I would’ve brought more people.”

Knowing they still had to load the body into the vehicle, Bai Jin felt his stomach churning again. The onlookers nearby had almost all started retching without exception.

“Strange.” Yan Qing bent forward to examine the body. “Why is the lower half decomposed so much more severely than the upper half?”

“Is there a difference?” E’ Yuan asked.

Yan Qing said, “After a person dies, flies will lay their eggs first in places like the corners of the eyes and the nostrils, then on other parts of the body. So damage to the soft tissue of the face is generally more severe. But look at this body — the facial features are almost entirely preserved, the lips and the nose are basically intact. It’s the lower half that is far more severely damaged, with even parts missing, leaving a large cavity.”

E’ Yuan and Shi Ting examined it carefully — it did indeed appear to be so.

“Maybe these flies just have unusual tastes,” Bai Jin quipped from the side.

“You’re right — flies do have preferences.” Yan Qing explained. “Flies are drawn to blood. If there are wounds and bloodstains on the body, they will lay their eggs there first.”

“Could it be that the fatal wound was on the lower half of the body?”

Yan Qing shook her head. “The damage is too severe — even if there were a wound, it would be impossible to determine now.”

“The bedsheet is white,” Shi Ting suddenly said. “Who among you uses a white bedsheet?”

Everyone shook their heads. Bai Jin said, “Mine is blue plaid — suits my temperament perfectly. White bedsheets, though — while not unheard of, they can’t really prove anything, can they?”

“As far as I know, ordinary households rarely use white bedsheets. For one thing, they’re not attractive; for another, they show dirt easily. White bedsheets are typically found in places like school dormitories and hospitals.”

Shi Ting, wearing gloves, examined the sheet that had wrapped the body. In the lower left corner, he found a row of red printed characters arranged in a slight arc — but due to heavy wear, only three were still legible: “Cheng,” “Er,” and “Bu.”

“This sheet may have belonged to the victim, but I’m more inclined to think it was the killer’s.” Shi Ting said. “Take the body back first and do the autopsy.”

As the group prepared to leave, Shi Ting noticed a man standing among the onlookers who, upon catching his gaze, showed a visible flicker of guilt and quickly looked away.

After returning to the roadside, Shi Ting did not rush off. Instead, he had the local security office bring that man over.

It turned out this man was the very rice farmer who had first discovered the body — his nickname was Iron Bull.

Faced with Shi Ting’s penetrating stare, Iron Bull didn’t even wait to be questioned before he confessed on his own.

“Officer, I’ll come clean — I’ll tell you everything.” Iron Bull was on the verge of tears. “I took a gold necklace from around that person’s neck.”

When Iron Bull had discovered what his children were calling a “strange creature” and realized it was a dead person, he had started to flee in fright. But as his eye happened to catch a glimmer of something shining wrapped around the person’s neck, he had told his two boys to wait on the slope and then steeled himself to approach the body and pull the necklace free.

It was a very thin gold necklace — not particularly expensive, but in Iron Bull’s eyes, it was a treasure.

He had gone home in high spirits with the necklace, his fear of discovering the body all but forgotten.

“Are you certain you only took the necklace?”

“Absolutely certain.” Iron Bull wrung his hands, breaking out in a cold sweat. “I’ll return the necklace to you right now — just don’t arrest me. I’ve got over ten acres of rice to tend, I can’t leave it unattended.”

“So he only took a necklace.” Bai Jin was disappointed. “I thought he was going to confess to the murder. What a letdown.”

“No — this discovery is very important.” Shi Ting’s gaze shifted. “At the very least, it gives us a clearer direction to investigate.”