At this mont, Liu Yongxin opened the remaining sorting box, which contained ears, fingers, toes, and scalp. One of the boxes held six teeth, with bloodstains and bits of flesh still clinging to the roots. Zhou Ning, holding a magnifying glass, examined each one in turn.
Finally, he sat down directly on the ground.
"Get soone to run an errand, have all this stuff transported back first, go to the kitchen to see if there are any foam boxes, and have Mrs. Cui personally extract the DNA from the surface of the wounds and the skin to see if there’s DNA from soone other than the victims. Also, check if there are any remnants in the cuts—I still need to test for alcohol and poison reactions."
Mr. Zhao went to arrange it, and Liu Yongxin pulled Zhou Ning up to his feet and hurriedly asked,
"Do you suspect that these female victims were force-fed a large amount of alcohol before they were killed, so they didn’t resist?"
Zhou Ning shook his head, and Liu Yongxin was taken aback.
"What do you an?"
"These victims were probably force-fed alcohol or had taken so kind of banned substance, similar to what was found in Zhang ng’s tobacco. Otherwise, the pain from struggling wouldn’t have allowed the cuts to remain smooth.
But they’re not all won. I took a careful look at the box with the ears, and I could see that the skin around the ears had been cut quite a bit, and so of that included sideburns with short hair, as well as so faint stubble."
Liu Yongxin was startled and took a close look through the magnifying glass, indeed discovering stubble on the skin in front of the ears.
"Male?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"As it stands, only this one appears to be male, the others are undetermined for now. We need to do DNA testing to know for sure, but based on the color of these tissues, the freezing ti, and the identifiers on the boxes, it belongs to at least six people, that is, five won and one man."
Mr. Zhao waved his finger thoughtfully and said,
"No, that’s not right, it’s six won and one man."
Zhou Ning realized his mistake, indeed having omitted Shen Shuyi from the count, which indeed ant there were at least seven people: six won and one man.
After Mr. Zhao spoke, his gaze continued to search the island counter’s stainless steel surface, even reaching into the investigation box to pull out the Luminol reagent.
"What did you find?"
Mr. Zhao tilted his chin down.
"This island counter is made of stainless steel. I knocked on it, and it’s a very thick steel plate. However, it has many cuts on it. So are from knives, and so seem to be from saw blades. These marks crisscross each other. I’m wondering if there were six victims here, could they have been dismbered and disposed of."
As he spoke, the freezer was closed with a lid, and the Luminol reagent had been evenly sprayed on the surface of the island counter. All over the island counter, as well as parts of the ground that were sprayed with the Luminol solution, began glowing with fluorescence—there were flowing patterns, drop-like patterns, and large mottled spots.
Seeing this, everyone understood sothing. Mr. Zhao handed a bottle to Mr. Wang, and the two of them sprayed all sorts of tools on the wall. Sure enough, the knives and saws showed varying degrees of fluorescence.
Everyone fell silent. This room had been cleaned so thoroughly. Liu Tiesong and Fang Shengping would not do such things, and their assistant, Ma Decai, wasn’t always coming along, so it seed likely that the two individuals who worked here as service staff were responsible for the cleaning. Therefore, they may also be aware of where the victims were buried.
Realizing this, Zhou Ning waved his hand.
"Let’s tidy up here, categorize and pack all the items, and send everything for inspection. I can’t tell where the power source of this freezer is; it seems it was designed to be installed like this from the beginning when the villa’s attic was constructed. Check when the villa was last renovated, especially whether it was before September 1, 2010."
Liu Yongxin pounded his lower back a couple of tis—after all, squatting like that had given him a bit of a sore back. Heeding Zhou Ning’s words, it dawned on him.
"Let’s quickly go and ask. The first box here is marked 100901MZY. If the villa was completed after this date, maybe the remains of this victim were not disposed of here. Of course, if it was before this date, there may be other victims we don’t know about in other locations."
Mr. Zhao was at a loss for words. Zhou Ning stepped out of the attic’s secret chamber, helping Liu Yongxin as they walked outside the villa. Sunlight spilled into the courtyard, seemingly dispelling so of the chill that had emanated from the attic. Mr. Qu was chatting with soone who was holding a joystick and staring at the sky.
Zhou Ning knew that this person must be the specialist in drone operation from so university of technology that was previously ntioned. They did not approach to disturb them.
Liu Yongxin rubbed his arms and walked up to Zhou Ning’s side.
"Apprentice, don’t be so stressed, the investigation has reached a significant breakthrough with this case. Let’s not even ntion the human tissue found in these six storage boxes that we discovered later, the evidence regarding Shen Shuyi we found earlier is already very complete. Even if Fang Shengping and Liu Tiesong refuse to confess, they can’t overturn the evidence we’ve already got.
So, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Searching for the bodies is like looking for a needle in the ocean. It’s not like searching for Shen Shuyi’s body, where we saw Ma Decai loading the car on surveillance and roughly estimated the spot where he dumped the body based on the car’s speed. That’s what you call a trail to follow.
Take a look at those six storage boxes in the freezer, each marked only with a date code in numbers and a na in pinyin or English, alongside a piece of incomplete tissue. There’s just too little useful information. We need to remain calm now; these have already been sent for testing, and we’ll first compare them with the DNA of missing people.
Once we identify them, we can then determine when they went missing. After all, there’s a cliff and the sea below. If the bodies were thrown into the ocean, the earliest ones would have been over two years ago, and by this ti, their bodies would have decayed, their skeletons covered with barnacles."
Zhou Ning nodded; he knew that Liu Yongxin was trying to console him and coax him out of dwelling on a single aspect, especially since there were no surveillance caras around this remote mountainous, cliffside, and coastal area – an ideal place for disposing of bodies.
"I think those two villa service staff we caught yesterday might know so inside information. They’re more likely to have been responsible for cleaning and dealing with the bodies. I’ll go and ask Director Xu; we took those two in for questioning yesterday, too.
As for here, let Mr. Qu and his team give it a try. I’ve seen their research, and if the bodies are buried in the south slope of the Mashan Scenic Area, maybe we’ll be able to find them. If they were thrown into the sea, though, then we’ll have to apply for divers. By the way, where is Zhang Ping?"
As Zhou Ning expressed his doubt, Mr. Wang’s voice sounded from behind; he was already coming downstairs carrying two huge bags.
"Mr. Zhang has gone to interrogate the security guard who watches the mountain, the one who operates the gate at the entrance to the villa area. He lives up on the mountain and had gone to the back mountain to pick mushrooms yesterday when we arrived, so he had no idea what had happened here."
Following the direction pointed by Mr. Wang, Zhou Ning indeed saw an elderly man with thinning hair, standing opposite Zhang Ping, looking bewildered, with a fishing rod and a basket in his hand, barefoot in a pair of slippers.
Zhou Ning curiously walked over because the man’s get-up was a stark contrast to what one would expect from a security guard.
"...I’m not lying; I’ve been brought here to work as a security guard since after the Spring Festival. I was with Huajin Real Estate before, in charge of supervising construction site materials. But I injured my leg, and not as strong as before, so at the end of last year, they transferred to work here.
As for the job, it’s to watch over the pigeon house at the back and to keep this lift gate operational. When I go to the back mountain or to the seaside to fish, I just raise the gate. When there are guests coming to the villa, the lad over there would tell in advance, so I’d put on my security uniform and stand by.
Normally, not many people co here, just a few tis a month at most. They usually stay one night and then leave. When I have nothing to do, I go fishing below the cliff or go to Beishan to pick mushrooms. There are so unique fungi here that are a specialty of Qindao, like the ones in Tongshan Scenic Area; they’re quite expensive when dried. I can pick up about a hundred and eighty pounds each ti."
Zhang Ping, hands on hips, had cald down his breathing by then, likely having worn himself out chasing the old man.
At that point, Zhou Ning put away his phone, having ssaged Director Xu on WeChat. The two service staff were questioned, and they cried, claiming innocence and that they had no idea what was going on. They said their ID cards were confiscated, so they dared not quit or leave. They did as they were told, unaware of the dead body, only that Liu Tiesong had asked them to bury a suitcase a few days before.
Seeing this, Zhou Ning’s brow furrowed deeply; it seed these two were trying to play dumb, confident that the others wouldn’t find the attic or discover the villa’s secret.
Zhang Ping’s voice brought Zhou Ning back to reality.
"Why did you run when I chased you? Take a look at these two photos, do you recognize any of them?"
Zhang Ping held up his phone, displaying pictures of Liu Tiesong, Fang Shengping, Li Mubai, Ma Decai, and Fang Jinquan. The security guard looked and pointed at Fang Shengping, saying:
"This one’s the boss. He’s the one who wanted the pigeons. Every ti he cos, he demands to eat pigeon blood. As for the rest, they look familiar, but I don’t know if I’ve seen them before. Oh, the one with the large stomach, he ca with the boss."
The security guard then pointed at Liu Tiesong, adding another comnt.
Zhang Ping’s eyes lit up, looking at Zhou Ning with an expression that pleaded for help. Zhou Ning didn’t shy away but gestured to the officers nearby to release the old man’s hands.
"Uncle, when exactly did you start working here last year? Do you live in this little hut? There doesn’t seem to be anything to start a fire with, and the winters can get pretty cold here in the mountains."
The security guard smiled, seemingly feeling Zhou Ning’s goodwill, and waved his hand slightly.
"I ca here around the beginning of November. Not long after I started, it snowed once. This glasshouse is where I stand guard during the day when they co over. I live in that stone house next to the pigeon house, where I can make a fire.
We’ve got plenty of firewood here, and I can burn as much as I want, so the temperature is alright. I just don’t have much to eat. Usually, after the boss and others visit, those two lads would give so leftover food, and they also deliver rice, flour, and vegetables to . Ultimately, it’s up to to cook for myself."
Zhou Ning uttered an "Oh," and glanced over to see the stone house next to the pigeon house. It was indeed not easy to notice unless the old man had ntioned it. Having arrived last November, at the very least, the disposal of Luo Chenying’s body, who disappeared on February 14th this year, happened while he was here.
"Uncle, what exactly do those two lads in the villa do? Are they cooks, or are they responsible for cleaning? Do they work hard?"
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