“Master, all done.” Hulu had finished organizing the evidence bags in sequence and looked up — only to find his master and Captain Shi standing together, with a rather meaningful look in Captain Shi’s eyes.

Hulu’s gaze flicked sideways, and he called out, “Captain Shi, are we needed over at the septic tank as well?”

Shi Ting heard Hulu’s voice and immediately composed himself. He glanced at Yan Qing, then thought of the wretched conditions at the septic tank, and said, “You two head back to the station. Once the body parts are retrieved, I’ll have someone send them over.”

“Then we gratefully accept Captain Shi’s consideration.” Hulu grinned. “Master, let’s go.”

On the way back, Yan Qing squinted and glared sideways at Hulu. “You’re dodging work again.”

Hulu raised both hands in protest. “Master, I did this for your sake! Look at you — you’re a girl. If you ended up reeking to high heaven, that would really put a dent in your gentle and lovely image.”

“You’re the one who can’t stand the smell.” Yan Qing shook her head with a resigned sigh. “Working as a forensic examiner means adapting to all kinds of odors. Is there anything worse than the smell of a bloater in summer?”

“Oh, Master.” Hulu quickly made a hushing gesture. “Please don’t go around mentioning bloaters with that loose mouth of yours. Last time you said it, the very next day we found one — the smell was so bad it put me off food for days.”

Yan Qing smiled. “That’s exactly why you have to slowly adapt. A forensic examiner who can’t handle bad smells isn’t a good forensic examiner.”

When it came to bad smells, Old Fan had the most authority of anyone. Even with multiple layers of masks on, he still couldn’t block out the stench from the septic tank. The worst of it fell to the two officers who had to don protective suits and wade through the reeking waste to fish out the body parts — and even with those suits sealed tight, the smell seeped in through every crack.

“Captain Shi.” Old Fan saw Shi Ting approach and held his nose as he spoke. “We’ve found something.”

Shi Ting crouched down and watched several officers sort through what had been sifted from the tank. “Just tissue fragments — no skeletal remains.”

“Bone is too hard. Without specialized equipment there’s no way to grind it up, so my guess is the bones were either left at the crime scene or have already been disposed of somewhere. But no one has reported finding anything resembling bones recently — they were probably thrown somewhere like a large river or a place that’s hard to discover.”

Shi Ting said, “Hurry up and get everything retrieved. First focus on finding the victim’s identity. Also, have someone watch the fourth-floor unit — the moment anyone returns, take them into custody.”

“Got it. I’ll have it arranged right away.”

Old Fan was still overseeing the retrieval of body parts when Shi Ting made his way back down to the entrance of the building. An old man with white hair was reclining in a chair in the sun.

“Excuse me, sir.” Shi Ting crouched down beside him. “Can I ask you something?”

The old man heard his voice and sat up, squinting to look at Shi Ting. “What is it?”

“Sir, do you live in this building?”

“I do — been here over forty years.” The old man adjusted his reading glasses and studied Shi Ting carefully. “Young man, what do you want to ask?”

“Do you know the tenant in Unit 2 on the fourth floor?”

“Unit 2, fourth floor?” The old man thought for a moment. “A woman lives there.”

“Does she live alone? What does she do for work?”

“Seems like she lives alone. She’s renting — the actual owner of the unit isn’t her. As for what she does, I really couldn’t say. She seems to leave early and come back late. I’ve only seen her a handful of times. But she’s quite polite — she’d nod at me when she passed.”

“Is she no longer living here?”

The old man tilted his head to think. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her for several days.”

“Sir, would you be able to reach the unit’s owner?”

“My son has his number. He helped out when the man was renting the place out.”

With the old man’s help, Shi Ting quickly obtained the landlord’s phone number. He called the landlord, identified himself, and the landlord agreed to cooperate.

After waiting half an hour downstairs, the landlord arrived, hurrying over in a rush.

He was a man in his mid-forties with a kind-looking face, the kind of face that always seemed to be smiling.

“Officer, hello, hello.” The landlord shook Shi Ting’s hand. “Is there something I can help with?”

Shi Ting said, “Sorry to make you come all the way here. We received a report from a resident, and there’s a matter we need your cooperation on.”

“Of course, of course, I’ll fully cooperate.”

“Is Unit 2, fourth floor your property?”

“Yes, yes, it is — I’ve rented it out.” The landlord said, “I bought that unit a long time ago. I was going to have my mother live there, but she wouldn’t come up from the countryside — so I rented it out instead.”

“Who is currently living there?”

“A woman. She’s rented it for about six months.” The landlord thought for a moment. “I have her phone number here.”

The landlord pulled up the number from his phone. Shi Ting took a glance at it and nodded. “What else do you know about her?”

“That’s about all I know.” The landlord scratched his head. “When I was looking for a tenant, I put up a few notices on the utility poles nearby. She called me, then came to view the place, and after seeing it she just paid the deposit on the spot. She wasn’t much of a talker, but she seemed pleasant enough. Looked to be in her mid-twenties.”

“When did you last see her?”

“We only met the once, when she rented the place. Every three months she’d transfer the rent directly.”

“How did she pay you?”

“WeChat.” The landlord said. “WeChat transfers.”

The landlord opened WeChat on his phone. “Officer, take a look — this is her account… Hm? She deleted me from her friends list. Well, that’s certainly…”

The WeChat account showed that this person was no longer on the landlord’s friends list, and no information about her could be found.

“Do you have a key for the fourth-floor unit?”

“She changed the locks. She was quite cautious about that — the very day she moved in, she had the locks replaced. I’m the one who helped her find the locksmith.”

As the landlord said this, he seemed to realize something was off. “Officer, has something happened?”

“The downstairs unit’s drain was clogged by a foreign object. Tests have confirmed the object to be human tissue fragments. We suspect these fragments were flushed down from the toilet of the fourth-floor unit.”

The landlord nearly collapsed when he heard this, and then his face filled with urgent distress. “Then — then let’s go up and take a look right now!”

“We’ll need to force the door open — is that all right?”

“Force it, force it!” The landlord was close to tears. “If this turns out to be true, how am I ever going to rent this place again?”

Shi Ting had Xiao Bai force the lock open. The moment the door swung open, Shi Ting caught the unmistakable smell of decomposition.

His nose was sensitive to the scent of death — in that instant, he was already certain this was the primary crime scene.

“This place is incredibly clean,” Xiao Bai said, scanning the room. “Not a single speck of dust.”

Compared to the disorder on the fifth and sixth floors, this room was impeccably tidy — furniture neatly arranged, glass surfaces spotless.

Shi Ting pushed open the bathroom door. A wave of stench hit him head-on. Beneath the foul smell, he faintly detected the scent of air freshener — the two odors intertwined, making it particularly pungent.

The bathroom itself was immaculate. Even the mirror had been wiped clean without a smear. On the floor, the residual smell of disinfectant still lingered.

“Captain Shi, this must be the place.” Xiao Bai said with a grave expression. “Cleaned this thoroughly, and with disinfectant on top of it.”

“Look around carefully. The rest of the body might still be hidden somewhere.”

The landlord watched as several officers rummaged through the apartment, and muttered to himself with a pained look: How am I ever going to rent this place out? Who would ever dare rent it?

“Found something!” Xiao Bai’s excited voice came from inside. “Captain Shi, there’s something under the bed!”

Xiao Bai dragged out a suitcase from under the bed. When it was opened, the contents were wrapped in plastic sheeting — and before it was even fully unwrapped, a suffocating stench had already billowed out.

“Good grief.” Xiao Bai let out an exclamation and nearly heaved.

What was wrapped inside was nothing other than a complete human skeleton.

Shi Ting crouched down and examined it with gloved hands. “The skull is here too — but only bones remain. There’s no way to make out the original face.”

“Captain Shi, is the victim the woman who rented this place?”

“That’s for the forensic examiner to determine.” Shi Ting stood. “Take the landlord back to the station for a statement, and seal the crime scene.”

“Yes, sir.”

Shi Ting thoroughly searched the room but found nothing of investigative value.

The room had been meticulously cleaned. All traces of the occupant had been erased — aside from the original furniture, even the towels and bedsheets had vanished without a trace.

“Have Jian Zhigang pull the surveillance footage from around the complex. Moving this much stuff out would be hard to miss.”

“Yes, sir.”

~

Yan Qing looked at the over a hundred pieces of human tissue and bone stacked on the examination table and deftly put on her gloves.

“Hulu, come help me put the puzzle together.”

In forensics, reassembling a dismembered body was called “doing the puzzle.” Some puzzles had only a few pieces and were easy to reconstruct — but some were a true headache, like the one in front of them now.

“Good heavens, it’s been chopped into this many pieces?” Hulu muttered miserably. “It’s like the ancient punishment of death by a thousand cuts — slicing a person into piece after piece.”

“Let’s start with the main parts first.” Yan Qing was also struggling with the task. Even with her experience, it was difficult to place every fragment correctly. “Let’s get the basic information together for Captain Shi first — his team can use what we give them to move the investigation forward.”

“All right.” Hulu put on his gloves. “The bones are the largest pieces. Let’s start with the skeleton.”

The two of them laid the bones out methodically and assembled them according to the characteristics of each piece. The skeletal sections were relatively few in number, and compared to the soft tissue, they were easier to work with.

It wasn’t until eight o’clock in the evening that Yan Qing had a preliminary report ready for Shi Ting. Shi Ting was in the conference room holding a meeting with Old Fan and the rest of the team.

“Teacher Yan, are the results in?” Old Fan asked eagerly.

“The body was too severely fragmented — a complete reconstruction is still several hours away.” Yan Qing said, “We’ve compiled the victim’s basic data for now, so you can start investigating the victim’s identity.”

Everyone leaned in and listened closely.