Zhu Yufen left, and Xu Dayuan ca to the observation room next door to take a look at Zhou Ning and sighed.
"This is really tragic, the ones who ran away from ho did so, and those who died, died. It’s quite a clean break."
Liu Yongxin, with his arms folded, seed deep in thought. Seeing Xu Dayuan looking at him, he finally spoke up:
"In ’91, Zhu Yufen’s aunt’s son died of leukemia; on New Year’s Day ’92, she committed suicide. Not long after, Zhu Kelin brought back a son who was less than one year old. We should still confirm the birth date, though.
I have a feeling this son’s arrival was just too tily. Nine months of pregnancy, plus being less than a year old... wouldn’t that an that Zhu Kelin was having an affair at the ti his son was diagnosed with leukemia?"
Xu Dayuan nodded, pulled out his phone to make a call, but then an incoming call arrived. It was a number from Hushang City, and he quickly answered.
"Mr. Huang, you helped look into it?"
"You kiddo, always so impatient. Wait a second, I’ll send you the pictures. What I wanted to say is, the man you asked to look into, the doctors say his physical condition is very poor, they said liver cancer, but further examination found, also tumors in the lungs."
"Has it spread?"
"Hold on, I’ll read you the diagnosis. Patient Ai Qingsong, adenocarcinoma of the right lung, stage IV, multiple tastases throughout the body, pericardial effusion, superior vena cava syndro, pleural effusion, multiple liver occupancy changes, portal vein thrombus formation, consistent with liver Ca presentation, the probability of portal vein Ca emboli is high.
The doctor said that Ai Qingsong is very cooperative with the treatnt, and also hoped to undergo surgery, but after their analysis, there was insufficient indication for surgery, and it would be difficult to get him off the table. If conservative treatnt is provided, life expectancy is about 0.5-1 year.
Anyway, from what I’ve heard, the original plan was to operate on Ai Qingsong, but after a consultation, the surgery plan was canceled. They’re discussing with him personally, to proceed with chemotherapy and radiofrequency ablation to improve the quality of life in the remaining period; it’s basically a death sentence."
Xu Dayuan had the phone on speaker, and Zhou Ning and Liu Yongxin were listening on the side. When Zhou Ning had called earlier, he had heard Ai Qingsong’s voice: although weak, he seed very proactive about the treatnt.
"I got it. Are his fingers clubbed? Did you ask his attending doctor when you took the pictures?"
"Yeah, I asked. The doctor said except for the thumb, the remaining four fingers of Ai Qingsong’s right hand are typically clubbed; he asked why I needed to know so precisely, and I put him off, saying this guy isn’t a suspect, right?"
Xu Dayuan coughed.
"He really is a suspect, just that we haven’t investigated further. Mr. Huang, help have soone keep an eye on Ai Qingsong, undercover, get so of his blood from the doctor and send it for DNA testing, and send the results. I need soone to do a comparison.
When my people arrive, they’ll take over the task. But for this period of ti, don’t let him leave the hospital or have contact with the outside world. Give instructions to the doctor accordingly."
"Such a big fuss over a suspicion, you must be lacking evidence. What case is it, can you tell?"
"I’ll send you a request for assistance later. It’s a serial murder case over nineteen years old. We only found clubbed fingerprints on gloves at two of the scenes, the rest is still under investigation."
The person on the other end didn’t say anything else, understanding how difficult cases stretching over such long periods are to fellow professionals.
"Alright, I’ll have soone keep an eye on him and talk to the doctor. Lucky I didn’t leave after calling you, or I’d have to make a second trip."
"Stop complaining, when it’s your turn to assign tasks, don’t I do my best to help? Since you’re at the hospital and have talked to the doctor, did Ai Qingsong have any family mbers taking care of him? You should know this, right?"
The person on the other end said to wait a mont, followed by footsteps and a knock on the door as he directly approached the attending physician to ask Xu Dayuan’s question.
"He ca here for treatnt alone, without family accompanint, just a caregiver. His diagnosis and films, he explained them all very clearly, so we didn’t hide anything about his condition. Even conservative treatnt here is expensive.
He voluntarily ntioned not to save money on his account because he can afford it; otherwise, we didn’t ask. There’s a caregiver for him usually, and he has even requested a single room because he doesn’t sleep well."
After thanking him, Xu Dayuan hung up the phone and called Tao Zhenshan with instructions.
Just as he finished instructing, Zhou Ning’s phone rang.
"Hello, Mr. Zhao."
Zhao Xinli’s excited voice arose from the other end of the phone.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, we found the skull! We’re on our way back, around twenty minutes or so until we arrive. Wait for in the forensic room."
After speaking, the call was abruptly disconnected. Xu Dayuan chuckled and rubbed his nose.
"That kid, did a dog chase him or what? All hurried and abrupt, shouting out and hanging up without clarifying things."
Liu Yongxin glanced at Xu Dayuan, moved his lips as if to speak, then swallowed his words back down. Zhou Ning almost burst out laughing, quickly bowing his head, thinking about how it wasn’t just dogs that were chasing; it was his constant prodding too.
"Finding the skull that quick, there’s no need to think too hard -- it was definitely found in front of Cui Yushang’s grave. Seems like our earlier analysis wasn’t off; just that later we’ll have to scan the skull, compare it with the three deceased’s photos to confirm their identities."
Xu Dayuan humd in agreent, scratching his head.
"My mind’s a bit of a ss right now. According to what you said about the clubbed fingers, Ai Qingsong is the pri suspect; we need to see who he has been in contact with. But the investigation into Li Hua and Zhu Yufen is limited to their statents so far. Looks like we need to check who among these two has intersections with Ai Qingsong?"
Liu Yongxin didn’t speak, just folded his arms and looked at Xu Dayuan.
"This is your matter, my apprentice and I will just wait for the skull to co back."
Zhou Ning sighed.
"I’ll lend you Mr. Qu to assist with your investigation. As for the hos of Li Hua and Zhu Yufen, is it possible to apply for a search warrant?"
...
17:44
Inside the forensic office of Hai’an City Criminal Police Team.
Mr. Zhao was busy arranging for several storage boxes to be placed on the dissection table. Yang Xuetong opened the first box, then held up the cara to display the photos above, saying,
"When we got to the scene, the local investigators called soone from the village committee, and after identification, we found Cui Yushang’s grave, with a very simple tombstone that just reads ’the grave of eldest son Cui Yushang, October 27, 1979’."
Zhu Xingxing searched the date on Baidu on the side.
"October 27, 1979, was a Saturday, which matches what Ai Qingsong had said before."
"Where was the skull found?"
Mr. Zhao had already walked over to Zhou Ning’s side, pointing at Yang Xuetong’s cara; they had taken a panoramic shot and gestured around the tombstone.
"We dug around the mound of the grave and found three skulls neatly aligned behind the tombstone. They weren’t buried very deep; each skull was housed in a wooden box. The size, style, and degree of wear of the boxes varied—they were buried over three separate occasions."
Zhou Ning nodded, looking up at the several storage boxes, which contained the wooden boxes, but there was still a lot of soil around them, causing so confusion for Zhou Ning.
"Spill it all at once if you find sothing. There’s sothing else in the soil, right?"
Mr. Zhao grinned, bumping into Yang Xuetong with a chuckle.
"Didn’t I tell you? Zhou Xiaozhou is getting impatient now, influenced by Director Xu. Don’t worry, I’m getting to it. We found the three wooden boxes and decided to expand the digging area. Deeper down under the boxes, we found sothing—three axes.
However, it was getting dark, and I was afraid of missing sothing, so I quickly had the soil around the axes dug out, thinking we’d sieve it carefully back here. As for the axes, each being placed individually in this box, I don’t quite understand. The people were already murdered, and their heads were used for sacrificial purposes, so why keep the axes?"
Liu Yongxin ca over and remarked,
"In a case I took over once, the murderer also buried the murder weapon with the deceased at his father’s grave. The murdered person had been responsible for his father’s death years before; it’s a kind of special psychological act of revenge."
Zhou Ning followed with a nod, having seen similar cases in books written by Li Chengbin, where part of the victim’s remains and the murder weapon were placed in a cetery needing ceremonial offerings.
"Alright, no use overanalyzing now. Let’s first take out the three wooden boxes and collect any fingerprints or residues on their surfaces. Lastly, let’s get the DNA from the skulls. Mr. Qu has gone to assist Director Xu with the investigation. Zhu Xingxing will conduct the scanning; can you handle that?"
Zhu Xingxing nodded.
"I can do it without a problem, Gao Tie and I have gone over it many tis."
With that, everyone started to move into action.
Mr. Zhao and Yang Xuetong began to sift through the soil. The three axes were laid aside, and small stones and so strands of rope were sifted out from the remaining soil.
anwhile, Zhu Xingxing and Sun Gaotie carried out the wooden boxes from the three storage trays, placing them on the dissecting table. Then they began taking photos and samples. Once the boxes were opened and the scanning completed, Zhou Ning stepped forward.
The skulls inside the three wooden boxes had fractures and missing parts at the crown, temporal area, and occipital region; the cut and blunt trauma patterns were very clear, perfectly matching the shape of an axe blade and the squared impact surface.
Zhou Ning and Liu Yongxin examined them once more. The thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone of the three skulls were intact, and hairs were also found at the bottom of the wooden boxes. The more Zhou Ning looked, the more puzzled he beca; he had always suspected that Zheng Chuguang died from asphyxiation, and he had no objections regarding the causes of death for the other two.
Yu Guangyao had drowned in a bathtub, and Zhang Qiujiang was likely to have died from chanical asphyxia caused by a down jacket. However, as to whether the injuries to the head were postmortem acts of spite or if they were to incapacitate the victims before preparing to kill them, Zhou Ning was unsure.
In the mont, Zhou Ning was puzzled. When he looked up, he saw Mr. Qu had returned at so point and had already started the software matching. He turned his head towards the big screen.
Displayed were photos of the three victims, all taken close to the ti of death. As the matching fra flickered, within monts, reconstructed images of several skulls were aligned next to the photos of the victims.
Mr. Zhao quickly attached labels under the wooden trays that held the skulls.
"Done, we’ve finally matched who’s who."
Zhou Ning walked over to Zheng Chuguang’s skull, carefully picked it up, and closely examined the bottom. The hyoid bone was fractured, but the thyroid cartilage was not found, which wasn’t surprising given that the victim had been deceased for nineteen years.
With this, Zhou Ning closed his eyes. The victim seed to stand before him: first standing as the murderer hit him on the temple with an axe, then falling and striking the back of his head hard against the ground. Zhou Ning shook his head.
It wasn’t right.
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