Chapter 62.1: Armed Clashes
“Grave robbers?”
“You mean a tomb raider, right?”
Chen Dong looked a little puzzled. “Don’t we usually call them ‘wandering Taoist’ around here? That jargon doesn’t sound like something people in our area would use. Jiang Xia, where did you hear it?”
Oh, no. Not again!
The moment she finished speaking, Jiang Xia realized she’d once again let some underworld slang slip out.
Why was it so hard to keep her mouth under control?
She was a little annoyed with herself, but this wasn’t something she could simply stop doing just because she wanted to.
After all, once certain knowledge or skills became deeply ingrained, they could turn into something like a conditioned reflex. The body would react before the brain had time to think, and when it happened, the response could feel perfectly natural.
It was like a designer who regularly used Photoshop trying to draw something on paper. If they made a mistake, their first instinct wouldn’t be to reach for an eraser and redraw it. Instead, their right hand might instinctively press Ctrl+Z, as if they could undo the mistake. Or consider asking anyone in China who had gone through the nine years of compulsory education, “How are you?” Chances were, they’d instantly give the same automatic reply without thinking.
Fortunately, she hadn’t said much. It should be easy enough to explain away.
Keeping her expression perfectly natural, Jiang Xia replied, “I heard it down south. A few days ago, I went to Quzhou to draw a portrait and happened to get caught up in a case related to feng shui. So I chatted with the spirit medium who came over, and that term came up in the conversation. I just happened to remember it.”
She briefly recounted the cannibalism case from beginning to end, hoping to divert his attention.
“Hiss—”
Chen Dong sucked in a sharp breath before she had even finished the story.
Over the years, Chen Dong had seen plenty of murder cases and dead bodies, so he wasn’t particularly squeamish. Even so, hearing about someone who had unhesitatingly murdered a child and then eaten the child’s flesh and bones just to cure his leg still horrified him.
Huang Xueling was even more appalled. She raised a hand to cover half her face, unable to believe what she was hearing.
“A six-year-old child! Can you even call the murderer human?”
Jiang Xia sighed. “Well, he at least looked human.”
“A case like this… Sigh.”
Everyone felt a pang of sorrow. Fortunately, all three children had been rescued, and the murderer had already been apprehended. There was no doubt he would receive a heavy sentence, which made them feel at least a little better.
However, it didn’t take long for Liao Zhongsheng to realize something else.
Jiang Xia hadn’t just drawn a portrait for the family annihilation case. She had also drawn one for this cannibalism case.
If she’d drawn a portrait for this one, what about the other cases?
She must have drawn portraits for those too!
Considering Jiang Xia wouldn’t be staying much longer, who knew how many cases these people would bring her to work on before she left?
A surge of indignation rose in Liao Zhongsheng’s heart.
The Quzhou police were far too ruthless! Given Jiang Xia’s circumstances, they should have let her rest for a few days. Even taking a stroll to clear her head would have been fine. How could they drag her into more work?
Was it really a case of not caring because she wasn’t one of their own?
If they’d been in a neighboring city, he might have been able to do something about it. But Quzhou was in another province, and there was nothing he could do to demand justice on her behalf.
The thought made his liver ache with anger.
Liao Zhongsheng couldn’t help resenting Lu Yixing.
Usually, that kid was pretty perceptive. Why hadn’t he stepped in to stop this, at least?
What a useless fellow!
“Let’s leave that aside for now.”
Jiang Xia deftly steered the conversation back on track.
“Brother Chen, how long ago was this grave-robbing tunnel discovered? If it’s been too long, there might not be much trace evidence left at the scene.”
“I was just about to ask the same thing.”
Trace Examiner Li was equally puzzled. “This doesn’t seem like a particularly major case. The local police station should be able to handle it. Why was it referred to us?”
“The tunnel is quite old, probably over a year old. There really aren’t many traces left.”
Chen Dong answered their questions one by one. “The case was initially reported to the local police station. They sent people out yesterday and spent the entire day searching. Then they found another six excavated graves in the surrounding area. That made things much more serious, and the station couldn’t handle it on its own, so they referred it to us.”
After a moment, he added, “Apparently, one of the six tunnels looks relatively new, as though it was dug within the past week or two. There’s a good chance we’ll be able to find the perpetrator’s footprints there.”
“I see. That explains it. Let’s go, then.”
Trace examiner Li nodded in understanding and stood up. He turned to Huang Xueling. “Xueling, you’re coming too.”
Chen Dong then looked toward Photographer Zhao. “You should come along as well, Photographer Zhao. If we find any footprints, we’ll need you to photograph them and preserve the evidence.”
Photographer Zhao nodded. “All right. I’ll go get my camera.”
“I’ll come take a look too.”
The case didn’t sound particularly difficult, and since it involved grave robbing, Jiang Xia wanted to get some practice in. She volunteered, “The countryside covers a huge area. It’ll take Trace Examiner Li a long time to search by himself. I’m pretty good at tracking footprints, so we’ll find things faster if I help.”
I almost forgot about that!
Chen Dong slapped his thigh.
Over the past few months, Jiang Xia had spent so much time drawing suspect portraits that he’d forgotten how, the first time they’d met, she’d already shown herself to be just as good at examining footprints as Trace Examiner Li.
He immediately agreed. “That’s excellent! Maybe we’ll be able to get there and back sooner than expected.”
Trace Examiner Li and Photographer Zhao gathered their respective equipment. Jiang Xia also took her portrait case along, just in case it came in handy.
The group hurried downstairs.
Compared with the local police station, the municipal public security bureau had much better transportation. Its officers had a fleet of motorcycles, many equipped with sidecars that turned them into three-wheeled motorcycles. Each driver could carry two passengers.
The only problem was that these vehicles were difficult to handle. They were hard to turn and prone to tipping over. Once cars became more widespread, they were gradually phased out.
For now, though, they remained a primary means of transportation for many public security bureaus, and plenty of police officers knew how to ride them.
The case didn’t seem particularly complicated, so Captain Tan hadn’t assigned many people. He’d simply sent Deputy Captain Zeng Jun and Chen Dong to take the technical personnel to inspect the scene. Two motorcycles with sidecars were just enough to accommodate everyone.
Chen Dong was driving Jiang Xia’s group’s motorcycle, with Photographer Zhao riding behind him. Jiang Xia sat in the more spacious sidecar.
On the way, Chen Dong struck up another conversation. “I heard the local police are still counting the graves. I reckon they’ll find that more than seven have been dug up. Given how long this has been going on and how many graves there are, there’s a ninety percent chance the culprits are local farmers. What a bunch of shameless bastards! Aren’t they afraid they might dig up their own relatives?”
“Come to think of it, they might have started with their own ancestral graves.”
Jiang Xia chuckled and replied casually, “When people are desperate for money, what won’t they do? Digging up graves to borrow money from the dead isn’t unheard of. Back in the Republican era, plenty of descendants of the Qing imperial family used the excuse of relocating their ancestors’ remains to have people dig up their family tombs and take the valuables. Even princes weren’t spared!”
Of course, this was all knowledge from her tomb-raiding skills. She’d even seen actual footage of it. She’d watched it like a documentary on the train, and it had made for pretty entertaining viewing.
Come to think of it, digging a grave robbers’ tunnel was nowhere near as satisfying as having descendants lead the way. Just imagine being able to dig openly in broad daylight…
Stop right there! She didn’t want to break the law, nor did she want to change careers and become an archaeologist.
“Good grief! People actually did that?”
Chen Dong had never heard of anything like it. He looked rather surprised. “Where do you get all this stuff?”
“Various miscellaneous books, old newspapers and magazines, that sort of thing. I’ve read so much random stuff that I can’t remember where I came across it all. Yesterday, I even bought a copy of the Book of Burial and the Book of Changes to read.”
Jiang Xia continued building up her new persona. “As criminal investigators, we need to learn about all sorts of things from all over the country. You never know when that knowledge might come in handy.”
“That’s true.”
Chen Dong wholeheartedly agreed.
After all, crime victims and perpetrators came from all walks of life, and their occupations often left distinctive traces. If investigators knew what to look for, they could quickly narrow down the pool of suspects.
“Actually, we should also read more about forensic techniques. Those are even more useful.”
Listening to their conversation, Photographer Zhao suddenly chimed in. “I read in a journal that there’s a new reagent called luminol. Even if there’s only a tiny trace of blood, you can spray it on the area, draw the curtains, and turn off the lights. In the dark, it’ll glow blue.”
“That means we won’t have to worry so much about crime scenes that have been thoroughly cleaned. Blood seeps into the flooring, so even if someone scrubs everything until it looks spotless, the blood only disappears to the naked eye. Residual traces will still remain, and the reagent can reveal them. I heard it won’t be long before our municipal bureau receives a batch!”
Jiang Xia looked at Photographer Zhao in surprise.
Well, well! She’d assumed Photographer Zhao was just a lazy fellow who spent his days reading newspapers. Who would’ve thought he was secretly working so hard behind the scenes?
If he already knew enough to bring it up, he might even have figured out the reagent’s formula and how to use it.
No wonder he could get away with openly slacking off. It turned out he had the core technology in his hands!
“Is it really that useful?”
Chen Dong perked up, too. “When will we get the reagent?”
“Soon.”
Zhao thought for a moment before giving a more conservative estimate. “Maybe in another half a month or so.”
“That’s wonderful, then!”
A hint of delight appeared on Chen Dong’s face. “We won’t have to worry so much about cases where the crime scene has been cleaned up!”
“That’s a problem for the future.”
Jiang Xia steered the conversation back to the case. “By the way, Brother Chen, with ordinary people’s graves, the only valuable thing is usually the corpse itself. Unless the body was taken for a ghost marriage, after four years it would have decomposed quite a bit. I imagine only the bones are left. Medical schools and health sciences colleges have a real need for those. Is it possible the bones were sold to one of them?”
“Captain Tan had the same thought.”
They were approaching an intersection. Chen Dong slowed down and carefully steered around the corner as he replied, “That’s why he sent Little Lu and Old Guo to investigate.”
Once they’d picked up speed again, Chen Dong continued, “Schools do need human skeleton specimens, but the source has to be legal. So there’s probably an intermediary involved. Someone might even forge donation documents. That wouldn’t be quick to investigate, either, so we’re pursuing both leads at the same time.”
Jiang Xia nodded slightly.
After all, the demand for human remains in China was relatively straightforward. They were either used in ghost marriages or needed for teaching at schools. There weren’t all sorts of bizarre uses, such as collecting bones, making ornaments out of them, consuming them as medicine, or using them in occult rituals.
With such a limited range of possibilities, the investigation should be relatively easy. If things went smoothly, they might even solve the case in just a few days.
The only question was what condition the bones were in, and how many they could recover.
As Jiang Xia pondered this, the motorcycle with its sidecar left the city.
After following the highway for a while, Zeng Jun and Chen Dong turned onto a dirt road, one after the other. Both instinctively slowed down.
Even so, the uneven road made the vehicle bounce and jolt incessantly. They had to grip the handlebars tightly to keep it from veering sharply to either side.
Jiang Xia could no longer sit as casually as before, either.
She grabbed both sides of the sidecar and braced her legs against the wooden box in front of her, pinning it firmly against the side so it wouldn’t keep rocking back and forth and banging into her.
At that moment, she decided that the policy of connecting every village with roads was the greatest policy in the world. No contest!
The two motorcycles with sidecars continued rattling and bouncing along the dirt road.
They were heading toward the farmland of Xiaobei Village. The most recently robbed grave was in that village. However, Captain Zeng didn’t know its exact location, so he had to stop every now and then to ask for directions.
After more than forty minutes of bouncing along the rough road, a village gradually came into view.
“That should be Matun Village,” Zeng Jun shouted. “Xiaobei Village is just a little farther ahead. We’re almost there!”
Jiang Xia let out a long sigh of relief.
They were finally almost there.
The motorcycle and sidecar continued forward at a steady pace. As the sun climbed higher, the heat began to build. Farmers working in the surrounding fields put away their tools, walked barefoot to the field edges, slipped on their straw sandals, hoisted their tools onto their shoulders, and headed home in twos and threes.
The roar of the motorcycle was impossible to miss. Before the vehicles had even passed them, the farmers were already looking over. Most wore envious expressions, while others looked surprised.
They envied the motorcycles. Riding in one looked so impressive. Those who were surprised, meanwhile, couldn’t figure out why so many public security officers had suddenly shown up.
Had someone died somewhere again?
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