Criminal Investigation: After Dawn - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

That man was the very picture of a nonexistent partner who nonetheless persisted in picking unreasonable fights with him.

Fang Xiting was speechless. Staring at him for a long while, he let out a cold laugh: “Heh…”

Neither of them had any kind of words for each other. When the new colleague finally finished using the restroom and rushed over, he buried his head and climbed into the car. Noticing that Xie Xuning was also there, he became so frightened that even the sound of his breathing instantly turned faint.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Fang Xiting drove away. He was not of a temperament to indulge mistakes, but neither was he as domineering as Xie Xuning, who would launch a public attack.

The man couldn’t idle around while riding in the car, using a pen to write and draw as if researching something unknown. Getting bored later on, he turned to tease the newcomer again: “Hey, rookie, what’s your name?”

Suddenly being called out, the young colleague shuddered: “I… my name is Yu Heng.”

“Yu Heng, that name is decent enough.” Xie Xuning held a cigarette between his teeth, unable to stay quiet for a single moment, determined to cause some trouble: “Being with your Deputy Chief Fang for so long, you probably haven’t learned anything useful, right?” He added: “If there’s anything you don’t understand in the future, you can just ask me directly.”

“Ah, this…” Yu Heng naturally held a heart of absolute loyalty toward Fang Xiting, swearing never to betray him. But he was also astounded that Xie Xuning dared to be this provocative right to his face—was he truly not afraid of Fang Xiting flipping out, or was their relationship simply too good, allowing them to joke around at will?

The young colleague had only arrived recently and couldn’t grasp the habits of how the two interacted, suffering from being caught in the middle. Fortunately, Fang Xiting’s phone rang, promptly interrupting the conversation and rescuing him from the fire.

“Tingting, the autopsy report from the forensics room is out.”

“The victim’s gender is female, the calculated bone age is between 16 and 25 years old, and the body was drained of blood after dissection. The time of death is less than 24 hours.”

“Meaning they killed her that exact day and dumped the body right away?” Xie Xuning took over the words in a calm tone.

Fang Xiting’s phone was in his hand, and the speakerphone had been smoothly turned on. The action of helping to pick it up was entirely too familiar, as if he were taking his own things.

Hiding in the back to sneak a look, Yu Heng perceived that the relationship between these two was far from superficial, so on the very last page of his notebook, he wrote down their names and silently added a plus sign.

Xie Xuning rubbed his chin: “Their guts are truly massive. Directly killing, dismembering right after the murder, and when it’s done, fearing the police won’t discover it, they even thoughtfully stuffed half a finger inside for you during the body-dumping.” He asked the other side of the phone: “Has the missing person registry at the police station been checked and verified?”

“It has been checked. Based on the age comparison, there aren’t many people who match the query criteria.”

“Particularly adding the time of death given by the forensics room, using 24 hours as a baseline, the number of missing persons who reported a case within this timeframe and match the age is zero.”

Zero? That’s quite interesting…

“I got it.” Xie Xuning hung up the phone.

When the phone was placed back in its original position, Fang Xiting had no expression. It seemed he also tacitly accepted the behavior of his personal belongings being used by the other party without feeling offended.

Taking things as he pleased, Xie Xuning called out without turning his head: “Rookie, let me test you on a few questions on behalf of your Deputy Chief Fang.”

At that time, Yu Heng was deeply immersed in analyzing the relationship between the two and didn’t react in time. Hearing someone call him out, he subconsciously responded: “Yes, I’m here.”

Perceiving that he was absent-minded, Fang Xiting’s gaze glanced backward slightly.

Xie Xuning also let out a chuckle, leaning his body sideways until he was nearly pressed against his ear: “Deputy Chief Fang, the rookie in your group doesn’t have very good focus. How about I test you instead?”

Yu Heng’s face instantly turned thoroughly red.

Without waiting for an answer, Xie Xuning went on by himself: “May I ask, based on the content of the phone call just now, what latest information can we deduce?”

The man’s sudden, anytime-anyplace tests. The ease of a top student made one wish they could instantly pinch him till he burst, crumple him up, and bite him to shreds…

Rolling his eyes, Fang Xiting clearly didn’t want to pay him any mind: “The age range given by the forensics room is 16 to 25 years old, but based on the point that the police station failed to receive any timely missing person reports, we can safely raise the age by two years, setting it between 18 and 25 years old.” He seemed to explain it specifically for Yu Heng’s benefit: “Because if it were 16 to 17 years old, there’s a high probability they would still be a student. Under the condition of having a guardian, it’s impossible for someone to be missing for 24 hours without the family reporting it to the police.”

“In addition, based on this point, we can also determine that the other party is highly likely an out-of-towner who came to Yunjing City alone to work. Factory recruitment requires ages above 18, which fits the condition of living alone with no relatives or friends around, hence being murdered within 24 hours without being discovered in time.”

Xie Xuning shrugged indifferently, wearing a face that read “not bad at all” as he carelessly clapped for him. Right after, he turned his head to ask Yu Heng: “Did you hear clearly?”

The notebook in Yu Heng’s hand hastily dropped to the floor, and he picked it up to clutch it against his chest: “I… I heard clearly.”

Xie Xuning: “Call the detachment back and tell them these two pieces of vital information.”

The victim, female, age should be 18 to 25. Came from out of town to work in Yunjing, living alone.

The vehicle drove into the Lanhu Landfill, and the familiar, sour, rotten odor continuously assailed their nostrils.

Xie Xuning questioned the person in charge of the plant area, showing his badge to request the extraction of surveillance footage, and learned that every garbage truck would undergo a body weight measurement when passing through the plant gates upon returning.

This was an unexpected harvest, and Fang Xiting seriously noted it down. If the variable of the vehicle’s body weight could become a constant, then by obtaining the weight of the garbage loaded by the vehicle and the dumping order, combined with the operation of the surveillance footage as well as the hourly processing progress of manual sorting on the conveyor belt, they should be able to obtain a general scope of suspected vehicles.

Just as he was thinking, he happened to hear the sorting workers passing behind him discussing something else.

“We’ve said it long ago, machines cannot replace manual labor.”

“Tell me, if they changed to that automated sorting machine they spent tens of millions to introduce, with those stiff fellows, would they be able to discover these severed fingers and dismembered remains in a timely manner?”

“If it weren’t for our manual labor yesterday, being quick-eyed and deft-handed, a person would have died in vain.”

It was lunch break, and the aunties were about to go wash up in the cafeteria to eat.

Fang Xiting stood with Yu Heng below the sorting room building, waiting for Xie Xuning, who was extracting the surveillance video, to return. Suddenly hearing someone discussing yesterday’s dismembered body case, he promptly stopped them: “Hello, an active criminal police officer from the Yunjing Municipal Public Security Bureau.”

He had questions to ask, up until Xie Xuning hurriedly returned.

Seeing Fang Xiting leaning against the windowsill, seriously recording something in his notebook, because he completely understood the other’s behavior and manners, he knew at a single glance: “Have a new clue?”

Before Yu Heng could answer, Fang Xiting caught sight of him coming and squeezed forward: “Xie Xuning, look at this statement.”

Amid the sour, rotten odor, the sudden whiff of sweet camellia fragrance pressing close to his side made the man lose his focus for a brief moment.

The finger Fang Xiting lowered his head to look for information with landed upon those rows of beautiful, vigorous handwriting, reminding him to look. The case information was recorded cleanly and tidily, the handwriting not difficult to recognize.

Yet Xie Xuning’s gaze fell somewhat uncontrollably upon the hair on his forehead, his curled eyelashes, his delicate and slender nose tip, and the slightly opening and closing corners of his lips…

Because of the subtle height difference, Fang Xiting lowered his head slightly. The soft hair on the top of his head just happened to lightly press against Xie Xuning’s chin, brushing against him until his heart itched.

“According to the plant auntie, the news about introducing high-precision instruments in July did indeed produce a relatively large impact on them.”

“Currently, the Lanhu Landfill has a total of three sorting workshops, four conveyor belts in each workshop, and three shifts for each conveyor belt, which means there are 36 jobs in total.”

“Once the high-precision instruments are introduced to replace manual labor, each workshop will be directly cut from 12 jobs down to 1.”

“The labor intensity will be greatly reduced, with no need for manual work. They only need to check whether the machines are operating normally on time in the morning and evening.”

“In other words, except for the 4 people kept behind, the other 32 people will all lose their existing jobs.”

“This issue caused strong opposition from old employees the exact moment the news was released, but the high-level management gave no response, and the introduction project is still advancing.”

“And just yesterday, after the dismembered body case occurred, the workshop workers suddenly petitioned collectively to boycott the introduction of high-precision instruments.”

“They expressed that machines cannot replace manual labor and are unable to analyze the source of filth in a diversified manner. If it weren’t for relying on manual sorting yesterday, there would be one more wronged soul in this world.”

Xie Xuning: “…”

Such a reason naturally couldn’t stop the landfill from abandoning the arrangement to introduce automated machinery. But for the corpse to appear at this exact juncture, and so coincidentally become a reason for a massive batch of employees about to lose their jobs to use as opposition against new technology entering the plant, the matter became a sliver nuanced.

Could it truly be a deliberate act by a worker in the plant area?

Fang Xiting gave rise to such a suspicion, and equally couldn’t change his mood of wanting to share everything with Xie Xuning. When the man didn’t respond for a long while, he abruptly came to his senses, raising his head to look, only to see him smiling yet not smiling, his gaze fixed tightly upon his own eyes…

With a snap, Fang Xiting closed his notebook, his face darkening as he immediately distanced himself eight feet away with a face that read “why is it you.” The contrast before and after him was too large, but the subconscious bodily habit couldn’t deceive anyone. The gene of liking to be close to Xie Xuning was engraved in his bones.

The man was amused into a laugh, the corners of his lips slightly pursing as he approached him: “I agree.”

The other’s deliberately softened tone seemed like he was coaxing, a tone for teasing a child, making Fang Xiting increasingly exasperated. He was truly crazy to squeeze right in front of Xie Xuning’s eyes to tell him these things.

Fang Xiting: “Taking a surveillance video took this long?”

Attempting to cover up his body language, he didn’t forget to accuse that man of having far too low working efficiency while taking the opportunity to shift the topic. Fortunately, Xie Xuning was in a good mood and didn’t mind. He only fished out a folded piece of paper from his pocket: “Of course it wasn’t just that.”

Fang Xiting took the object and opened it to look, only to hear Xie Xuning say: “On the day of the case, the weight measurement of each vehicle when returning to the plant, the return time, and which route they circled—your brother inquired about them all perfectly clearly.”

“Also, based on the vehicles setting off at 20:00 in the evening and the dismembered pieces being discovered on the conveyor belt to report the case at 22:00, the time interval is a mere two hours.”

“And the first car didn’t return until 21:03. In the interim, one after another, there were a total of 8 returning cars before the time of the case.”

“This portion of city-circling vehicles set off simultaneously with the other vehicles, yet returned to the plant earliest, illustrating that the routes they circled lie precisely within the scope of this Lanhu West City area.”

Xie Xuning was like a magician. During the process of explaining, he fished out a map of Yunjing City from somewhere. Using a red marker pen, based on the circling routes of these 8 garbage trucks he had statistically gathered in the early stage, he carved out a body-dumping area that wasn’t large in size.

“The location where the suspect committed the crime can basically be locked within this area.”

“Just now, I also obtained the net weight of the vehicle bodies. According to the calculations, the garbage weights loaded by the first eight vehicles are 530 jin, 472 jin, 604 jin, etc., respectively.”

They plugged the USB flash drive into the computer, calling up that segment of the crime surveillance footage. Within the originally dull, oppressive, and narrow sorting room, the workers sat in their respective workstations, burying their heads in labor. It wasn’t until those three bags of black plastic bags appeared in the surveillance frame that everyone’s hearts suddenly wrenched.

Fang Xiting watched the sorting worker deftly tear open the first bag, and after confirming it was shredded meat, smoothly tear open the second bag. As a result, suddenly, that bag of shredded meat flew out from the person’s hand, and the dismembered body chunks mixed with severed fingers and fat scattered all over the floor. The auntie was also frightened into falling to the ground, alarming the other coworkers beside her to step forward and check.

Xie Xuning pressed pause: “The severed finger was placed on the very top layer of the shredded meat. It cannot possibly be an accidental mix-in; the culprit did it intentionally.”

“We now assume that if his purpose was exactly to let this dismembered body case be discovered in the sorting yard, then first of all, this person must certainly be well-acquainted with the process where the workers sort and will definitely tear open the pockets to confirm the contents.”

So his identity could be… a coworker? Or a worker’s relative?

Xie Xuning: “Secondly, if his evil deed must be discovered at the sorting yard, then his body-dumping time…”

To avoid the fresh shredded meat being picked up by an elderly scavenger, it was necessary to accurately grasp the arrival time of the garbage trucks. At 20:00, the vehicles set off punctually from the plant area, so the body-dumping time should be after 20:00 and before the vehicles arrived at a certain garbage storage point.

The search scope narrowed down instantly.

Fang Xiting suddenly reacted: “If it is in the West City district, then can we verify the residential addresses of this portion of employees?” That meant those 36 people. Even under the condition that the plant area provided lodging, everyone was not young, and during normal holidays and rest days, the probability of frequently coming and going across districts was not large.

After confirming the direction of subsequent screening, they also needed to confirm the sorting progress distributed to each hour within the conveyor belt. Because the aunties’ efficiencies were inconsistent, the time for resting, drinking water, and going to the restroom in the middle was very difficult to control. Thus, Fang Xiting proposed an independent test, requesting a sorting belt to carry out labor.

After understanding some basic requirements for dry and wet garbage classification, he was fully armed and personally took the field. After making speed records continuously for five hours, he obtained an average value, using this as the calculation baseline.

On the return trip road at that time, the sky had completely darkened, and the two in the front row were still excitedly discussing the fine details of the case. Every single point they narrated was critical, and Yu Heng, merely sitting in the back row responsible for recording, was somewhat unable to keep up with the busyness. Heaven knew how these two people managed to deduce so many minor clues from such a scarce amount of case information.

Yu Heng was just marvelling when he suddenly perceived that the discussion in front of him had stopped. He raised his head, seeing that both people in the front row were staring at himself sitting in the back row with faces full of astonishment.

Yu Heng was terrified, his notebook falling to the floor again: “Deputy Chief Fang, Deputy Chief Xie, may I ask…” Had he done something wrong again? Did he fail to hear the two Deputy Chiefs’ questions? Or some other work arrangement? Please don’t, he had already lost enough face today.

The new colleague was just drowning in the mortification and panic of a social death when, who would have thought, he heard those two say in unison.

Fang Xiting: “It’s been nearly half an hour since we arrived at your doorstep.”

Xie Xuning: “Why haven’t you gotten out of the car yet?”

“…Ah?” Yu Heng glanced out the window at that time, returning to his senses in a scramble: “Sor… sorry, I listened to the case too intently, I’m going home right away.” That person left in a flurry, tripping over himself the moment he went out the door.

Xie Xuning let out a light laugh, turning back to look at Fang Xiting, who was driving seriously. The man leaned back lazily: “Pick me up for work tomorrow morning.”

Fang Xiting just knew that that fellow would absolutely not let go of every single minute and second to torment him: “Wake up punctually at 7:00 AM.”

“7:00?” Xie Xuning was surprised: “We don’t start work until 8:30, what are you doing waking up that early at 7:00?”

Fang Xiting didn’t argue with him, and was too lazy to mention the matter of the only two times he was late during his school years being caused by the dawdling Xie Xuning. That bastard was indeed used to being wild, and because his grades were good, the teachers simply put him out to pasture in the very last row, not caring at all. But Fang Xiting had followed the rules since childhood, a school-wide model. Because being late set a bad example, he was even punished by the teacher to go to the flag-raising platform to write a self-criticism.

At that time, suspecting that Xie Xuning still wanted to harm him into being late for work, his ears closed directly, not listening to whatever the opponent argued. In short, when he said seven o’clock, it was seven o’clock; if he was late by a single minute, don’t blame him for turning over his face ruthlessly and driving away without him. Fang Xiting reserved time for traffic jams on the road, then subtracted waking up, washing up, eating breakfast, and so on. He eliminated all possibilities of being late or leaving early.

As a result, on the second day, the alarm clock had just rung, and he was fuzzily pressing “close,” still sitting in a daze amidst his bedsheets, when he suddenly heard a burst of urgent knocking on the door ring out.

Xie Xuning lived exactly across the door from his house. The dorm was picked out with the help of his parents when he had just graduated. Fang Xiting had consistently not moved houses precisely because his parents would occasionally come over and could keep company with the family of the one opposite. Their road wouldn’t be boring, and it was a bit safer too.

Accompanied by the knocking on the door growing louder, Fang Xiting’s drowsiness woke up by more than half. He truly didn’t expect that it would be Xie Xuning coming. At that time, he had still thought it was some property maintenance, or the downstairs neighbor disliking that he used the washing machine in the middle of the night and making too much noise. To the extent that when the door pulled open, both sides failed to react, looking at each other face-to-face.

Xie Xuning stared at Fang Xiting whose head hair was exploded: “Why are you only waking up now?”

Fang Xiting stared at Xie Xuning who was neatly groomed and washed: “Why did you come so early?”

Xie Xuning was irritable: “Wasn’t it you who told me to wake up at 7 o’clock?”

But…

Fang Xiting took a glance at his wristwatch: “It’s only 7:05 right now.” He could go out the door five minutes after waking up? No, changing his clothes took more than five minutes for himself. And didn’t he wash his face? The weather was this dry, wouldn’t he rub on some moisturizing cream? Nor did he make breakfast? These matters would consume half an hour no matter what, right? He…

Fang Xiting was blocking the door at that time, and Xie Xuning also cleared up from the irritable morning temper of waking up. The man saw him wearing a loose T-shirt pajama, stepping barefoot on the wooden floor, his eyes misty and not yet clear. Thus using force with his arm, he pushed the door a bit wider: “Oh… were you worried that me waking up too late would cause you to be late?”

Xie Xuning laughed, and seriously solved the unsolved childhood mystery of why they clearly woke up at the same time, yet he himself wasn’t late while Fang Xiting was bound to be late: “Then I’m truly embarrassed, your brother only needs five minutes from waking up to going out the door.”

With the Fang Xiting that Xie Xuning understood, this fellow possessed extremely high requirements for quality of life as well as living environments. He disliked the hygiene of the outside for breakfast and would always make it personally; at this time, it just happened to be a coincidence, as he hadn’t had a chance to come to his room yet.

Xie Xuning entered in a grand manner, tossing his keys onto the dining table. Inside this two-story loft apartment of about 50 square meters, he sat straight down.

“Just right, because of your mistaken pre-judgment, it caused me to wake up this early, so let’s just make breakfast together.”

“Your brother doesn’t eat hot dogs, doesn’t eat toast, doesn’t eat salad.”

“It’s this cold today, so just make a bowl of hot noodle soup. Remember to put more green vegetables and less chili.”

He was like the male master of this room, his arms spread wantonly across the sofa armrests. When speaking, the tails of his brows lifted slightly, adding with a light laugh: “Your brother’s stomach and intestines are not good, his diet has to be light… this is what the doctor said.”

Support