Jiuhua Hospital was a newly built general hospital in City S. Though relatively new, it had already made quite a name for itself in the Pujiang area — its facilities were top-of-the-line, its physicians highly skilled, and it enjoyed a strong reputation among the public.

The person who received Shi Ting was the head nurse of Jiuhua Hospital’s operating theater — the department where Zhai Xiaoqiu worked as a surgical nurse.

The head nurse looked at the photo and said with certainty, “Yes, that’s Zhai Xiaoqiu. But she hasn’t come to work for three days. We’ve tried calling her, but the calls won’t go through.”

“Has she often been absent from work without contact before?”

“Zhai Xiaoqiu is very dedicated. She would never miss work without reason. We assumed something urgent must have come up at home and that she hadn’t had time to notify us yet.”

“Was she married?”

The head nurse shook her head. “When she first came to work here, she had a boyfriend — but they broke up. I consoled her about it. Ever since then she’s been single. Not long ago I tried to set her up with someone, but she said she wasn’t ready for a relationship yet, and that was the end of it.”

“Were there any colleagues or close friends she was particularly close with?”

“Ma Lan — also a nurse here. She and Zhai Xiaoqiu were university classmates. They’re very close.”

When Shi Ting and Yan Qing found Ma Lan, she had just finished her shift handover.

She was petite, with short hair, and spoke in a soft and gentle manner.

“You’re also looking for Xiaoqiu?” Ma Lan asked anxiously. “I’ve been trying to reach her for days — no response on WeChat, phone calls go unanswered. I’ve been worried sick.”

Shi Ting asked, “Do you know where she lives?”

“She doesn’t own a place here. After graduating, she and I rented together for a while — but she moved out about half a year ago.”

Half a year ago — the timing lined up exactly with what the landlord had said.

“Why did she move out?”

“She said a relative was going to another city and needed someone to look after the apartment.”

“Have you ever been to that apartment?”

“No.” Ma Lan said. “Xiaoqiu said it was a relative’s place and it wasn’t entirely convenient. We’d get together at my place.”

“Does she have a boyfriend? Or any man she was close to?”

“Xiaoqiu is quite attractive — she had several admirers, but she didn’t take to any of them.” Ma Lan shrugged. “Xiaoqiu also has a younger brother in university. Her parents are both factory workers, so the tuition and living expenses for her brother all come from her. She doesn’t earn a lot — it’s pretty tough. So I understand why she thinks the way she does. She wants to find a boyfriend with money, someone who can ease the financial pressure a bit.”

“Think carefully — is there anyone that Zhai Xiaoqiu had been seeing a lot of recently?”

Ma Lan shook her head again. “Xiaoqiu has a strong mind of her own. If she deliberately hid something, she probably wouldn’t tell me either.”

Shi Ting then sought the head nurse’s permission and made his way to Zhai Xiaoqiu’s workplace.

Nurses didn’t have their own offices at the hospital. Their only private space was a personal locker, where they kept their daily necessities and clothing.

Shi Ting pried open Zhai Xiaoqiu’s locker. As expected, it contained only personal effects — nothing that offered any investigative leads.

“This Zhai Xiaoqiu is a careful person,” Shi Ting said. “Even her closest friend knows nothing about her recent life.”

“Given that the killer was familiar with human anatomy and the dismemberment was skillfully done — Zhai Xiaoqiu is indeed a strong suspect.”

“I’ve already issued a notice. Railway and aviation authorities have been asked to help trace Zhai Xiaoqiu’s information. If she hasn’t left the city, then she’s hiding somewhere within it.”

“But the victim’s identity still hasn’t been confirmed.”

Just as they were speaking, Shi Ting’s phone rang.

“There’s a lead on the tattoo.” Shi Ting hung up, his brow smoothing out. “Someone replied to Jian Zhigang’s post online — says they did that exact tattoo.”

Back at the station, a young man was seated across from Old Fan, talking.

The man was stylishly dressed, and both his exposed arms and neck were covered in various tattoo designs.

“I’m absolutely certain — I did that tattoo.” The young man was confident. “When those two came in, the man wanted that design. The woman wasn’t really on board with it, and they actually got into an argument about it. Nearly came to blows.”

“Is this the woman?” Old Fan held out a photo of Zhai Xiaoqiu.

The young man looked carefully and nodded right away. “That’s her. Quite good-looking. But quite a temper on her, too. The man had a temper as well. Not well-matched, those two — except the man clearly had money. She was probably in it for the money. I’ve seen plenty of that kind of thing.”

“Describe the man’s appearance for us.”

“I can’t really put it into words — he was on the short side, just over 1.7 meters, not great-looking. Didn’t suit her at all. But that type of man always has money. I remember the spot where he wanted the tattoo placed quite clearly.”

“Did the woman get one as well?”

“She did. Identical design — just with the names in reverse order.” The young man said, “Most couples who come in to get tattoos together are all smiles. These two looked like they had a grudge against each other. One wrong word and they were at each other’s throats. That’s why I remembered them so well — and when I saw your post online, I replied.”

“Did he leave a phone number or anything like that?”

“No — he paid by scanning the QR code and left right after.”

While Old Fan was still taking the man’s account, Xiao Bai hurried in. “Captain Shi, good news — someone at a local precinct has filed a missing persons report.”

“Where’s the person who filed the report?”

“The precinct got our notice earlier about reporting any missing persons cases right away. Captain Gao dispatched someone to bring the reporting party directly here.”

Shi Ting said, “I’ll go take a look.”

The person who had filed the report was a middle-aged woman. The moment she saw Shi Ting, she said with urgency, “Officer, I haven’t been able to reach my husband for four days.”

“Four days without contact — why wait until now to file a report?”

“Ah, my husband travels for work often. Sometimes he goes completely off the grid. And I’ve been very busy with work lately — I didn’t pay close enough attention. If my daughter hadn’t kept pushing me, I wouldn’t have thought much of it.”

“Do you have a photo of your husband?”

“Yes, yes, of course.” The woman brought up a family photo on her phone. “This is my husband. His name is Chen Mingzhi. He’s the director of cardiovascular surgery at Jiuhua Hospital.”

Shi Ting and everyone around him perked up at once.

The name contained the character Zhi — and he was connected to Jiuhua Hospital.

Shi Ting passed the phone to Xiao Bai. “Take it inside and ask the tattoo artist — is this the person he saw?”

A moment later, Xiao Bai came running back out, visibly excited. “Captain Shi, it’s him! He said this is the exact person.”

“Have they found my husband?” The woman heard this and asked in excitement.

Shi Ting glanced at Yan Qing. Yan Qing gave him a small nod.

“Ma’am.” Yan Qing spoke in a calm, measured voice. “Please prepare yourself. Your husband may have been the victim of a homicide.”

“Homicide?” The woman’s body visibly shook. “That’s not possible. That can’t be. Just last week I saw him and he was perfectly fine.”

“Please come with us to identify the body.” Yan Qing said. “The body is somewhat incomplete — I’ll ask you to prepare yourself.”

When the woman heard that her husband was dead, and the body not even whole, her face went instantly white. Xiao Bai, who was standing to the side, quickly reached out to steady her.

“It can’t be him. It simply cannot.” Tears streamed down the woman’s face. “I want to see for myself. I have to prove that’s not him.”

The woman was brought to the forensic examination room. Hulu found the right freezer unit by reference number.

The cold room was bone-chillingly frigid, the kind that made you shudder involuntarily. But compared to the cold against the body, the feeling of despair could freeze a person to the marrow.

Looking at the body laid out before her — more than half of it missing, the remaining tissue pieced together through Yan Qing’s best efforts — the reconstructed corpse looked like a garment stitched together from countless ragged scraps of cloth. It was a harrowing sight.

“This — this is…” The woman, faced with what lay in front of her, was clearly unable to accept it.

“Ma’am, does your husband have any distinctive markings on his body? You could use those to help identify him.” Hulu reminded her from the side.

The woman half-covered her face, her expression seeming to be one of deep grief. After a long silence, her voice came out hoarse. “My husband has a mole on his right cheek, near the nose.”

Yan Qing and Hulu exchanged a glance. Hulu said, “The face of the body is too badly damaged to determine whether there’s a mole. Please try to think of anything else — any other distinguishing features.”

The woman thought for a long time, then shook her head. “I can’t think of anything. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly distinctive.”

“The victim has a tattoo on the lower abdomen area. Are you aware of that?”

“A tattoo?” The woman seemed to feel a flicker of hope at that. “My husband has no tattoos. Then it’s not him — of course it’s not him. Where would he have gotten a tattoo?”

“Ma’am.” Old Fan, standing just behind her, said, “How long has it been since you and your husband shared a bed?”

The question seemed pointed and ill-timed, but it struck directly at the heart of the matter.

The woman looked flustered — more embarrassed than anything — but in the end, she forced herself to answer. “We’ve been sleeping in separate rooms for over two years.”

“Why separate rooms?” Old Fan’s question was blunt.

“Is that relevant to my husband going missing?” the woman said angrily. “Is this how you police conduct an investigation? So relentlessly pushy?”

Old Fan nodded. “I apologize — but all of these questions are related to the case, which is why they must be asked. For example, the tattoo your husband has on his lower abdomen: because you haven’t shared a bed with him for two years, you wouldn’t know the tattoo existed. And do you think he might have had another woman on the outside?”

“How — how could that be?” The woman looked increasingly furious. “How dare you say something like that? I won’t allow you to slander my husband’s character.”

“All right.” Yan Qing stepped in to cut off the exchange. “Since there’s no clear distinguishing feature that can be used to identify the body, we’ll have to do a home visit to collect DNA for comparison.”