Chapter 2

"Captain Gu!" shouted Luo Fei, who had just been assigned to the criminal police team.

Gu Changzheng, with his hands behind his back, was clutching a small handbag; he swayed and walked into Room 301 with a strange gait, nodding at Luo Fei, who was maintaining order at the door.

"Let them watch, you come in too!" The "them" in Gu Changzheng's mouth were several auxiliary police officers from the local station.

Luo Fei responded with a face full of joy: "Yes!" He had long heard of this captain in his early forties; the mass murder case that occurred in Zizhen City seven years ago was solved by him. His current strange, swaying walking posture was also a sequela left after being hit in the waist by the opponent with a five-shot (a type of privately made homemade gun that can hold five lead bullets, commonly known as a five-shot!) while capturing the murderer.

Gu Changzheng pulled down the corners of his mouth and sneered: "What's there to be happy about! It might just be an accidental death!" Luo Fei was just about to respond, but heard someone shout "Captain Gu!" The voice came from the bathroom; it was the bureau's forensic doctor, Zheng Guoqiang. The two walked over together.

The deceased's body was discovered in her own bathtub, which was naturally inside the bathroom.

This bathroom was estimated to be 6 square meters, still emitting a faint scent of jasmine; a pink ceramic bathtub was placed upright behind a frosted glass partition. Gu Changzheng looked at this bathtub somewhat strangely.

The bathtub was now still full of delicate foam; on a small white European-style side table next to it were a mobile phone and a glass of red wine, with a clear red lipstick mark left on the glass. There was also a bottle of Olay body wash on the side table. Irregular water stains appeared on the floor around the bathtub; looking closely, there was some foam that had not completely dissipated in the water stains, which should have splashed out from the bathtub. At this time, the body had been moved out of the bathtub by the forensic doctor and packed into a body bag, ready to be transported back for autopsy.

Seeing Gu Changzheng enter, Zheng Guoqiang said: "Captain Gu, according to preliminary investigation, there is a 1.5*2 cm bruise on the deceased's left elbow and abrasions on both heels. There are no other injury marks on the rest of the torso or head, and no signs of being violated. There is mushroom-shaped foam around the deceased's mouth and nose, hands clenched tightly, anal body temperature 28 degrees Celsius, obvious alcohol smell in the mouth, and no livor mortis on the body surface yet. The estimated time of death is between one and a half to two hours." He glanced at the watch on his wrist and continued: "The time of death is approximately between 3:30 and 4:00 in the afternoon."

"The identity of the deceased has been confirmed; it is the hostess of this house, Ge Manli from the city song and dance troupe!"

"What about the reporter?" Gu Changzheng asked while stooping and observing the bathtub with his hands behind his back.

"Oh! She has already returned to the bureau with Sister Yan to record her statement!" Luo Fei, seeing that besides the old forensic doctor Zheng and his assistant Xiao Lin, it was just himself, replied hurriedly.

"Has the deceased's family been notified?"

"Oh, this, this, I'll go ask." Luo Fei replied in a low voice.

"Hmph!" Gu Changzheng was looking down at the area around the bathtub, and at this moment, he was standing up with some difficulty while supporting his lower back. Seeing this, Luo Fei hurriedly went to support him, but was gently pushed away by him!

Seeing Luo Fei's embarrassed face, Old Zheng laughed: "Little Luo, don't mind him, your Captain Gu is still agile!"

Gu Changzheng laughed nonchalantly: "Old Zheng, from your professional perspective, could this be an accident?"

Old Zheng put away his smile and said seriously: "This is not my responsibility as a forensic doctor; I only provide the facts shown by the body. Solving the case is your business as the criminal police captain!"

"Hehe! You old slippery fox!" Gu Changzheng knew Old Zheng's temper; he said so, but his subordinates would not be sloppy at all. When his master, Lu Haoxuan, solved the series of dismemberment cases, the fledgling Old Zheng (oh, he was Little Zheng then) had made no small contribution! (This case will be explained in detail in Volume 2, and I ask the readers to go and enlighten me!)

At this time, criminal police Liu Han and the technical department's police officers were taking photos and collecting evidence of the deceased's clothing on the ground. One of the police officers suddenly said: "Eh, why is there one piece of clothing missing?"

"What piece of clothing is missing?" Gu Changzheng asked immediately upon hearing this.

The police officer who spoke replied: "There are only the female deceased's dress, underwear, and high heels at the scene, but the bra is missing. This dress is so thin, it's impossible for her not to wear a bra, right?"

Gu Changzheng walked over to check carefully; indeed, the dress was somewhat transparent, and under normal circumstances, it was impossible for a woman not to wear a bra. "Search carefully, focus on finding the black lace-edged bra! Check the hallway and the trash cans downstairs, hurry up!" He ordered.

"Captain Gu! There's a discovery here!" shouted police officer Fang Lei, who was searching for traces on the bedroom balcony.

Gu Changzheng quickly arrived at the balcony. Fang Lei pointed to the floor of the open balcony and said: "Captain Gu, look, there are some traces here, which should have been left by wearing wet shoe covers."

Gu Changzheng observed carefully for a while, smacked his lips and said: "Check everything carefully! Everyone has to work overtime tonight, no rest allowed!"

At 9:00 PM, three hours had passed since the police report. Inside the criminal police brigade office of the Jiangdong Public Security Bureau, a case analysis meeting was launched under the chairmanship of Deputy Director Gao of the bureau.

At the beginning of the meeting, Deputy Director Gao had a solemn expression and said in a deep voice: "Gentlemen, this afternoon, an abnormal death event occurred in Room 301, Unit 2, Building 3 of the Fenglin Garden complex within our bureau's jurisdiction.

The deceased is our city's renowned young dancer, Ge Manli. As a public figure with a certain influence, her sudden passing will inevitably attract widespread attention from all walks of life.

Especially in this era where the internet is so developed, no one knows what netizens will speculate about this matter.

Therefore, the top priority is to quickly ascertain the cause of the deceased's death and characterize this event to put the people of Jiangdong and even all of Zizhen City at ease. Now, please have Captain Gu report the results of the on-site investigation to everyone."

After Gao Jianjun finished speaking, Gu Changzheng stood up, pointed to the photos displayed by the projector, and said in a deep voice: "The deceased is a female, an employee of our city's song and dance troupe, the renowned young dancer Ge Manli, only 28 years old.

After preliminary examination by Teacher Zheng, the deceased was suspected of drinking before death. Apart from a bruise on the left elbow and abrasions on both heels, there were no other external injuries on the body surface, and no signs of being violated.

There is mushroom-shaped foam around the deceased's mouth and nose, hands clenched tightly. From the existing phenomena, the deceased should have drowned, and the time of death is approximately between 3:30 and 4:00 PM on June 21st. Apart from the deceased's own living traces and the footprints of the reporter Yang Liu, as well as fingerprints on the main door and bathroom door lock, no traces of other people have been found so far.

In addition, some traces suspected to have been left by wet shoe covers were found on the balcony, as well as a bra that may have been lost."

"The deceased's husband, Ren Jiahe, went to Yiling City on a business trip today. According to telephone communication, he took the 6:10 AM fast train to Yiling Station. By checking the surveillance video at the entrance of the complex, we found that Ren Jiahe left home at 5:30 AM.

In the inquiries with Ge Manli's colleagues and leaders at her unit, we learned that Ge Manli attended a luncheon with the troupe leader, Fu Haijun, to receive provincial delegation leaders at noon, at the Hyatt Hotel in the city. This information has been confirmed.

At the banquet, Ge Manli drank three to four taels of white liquor and then improvised a dance. Afterward, citing sweating as an excuse, she had the troupe's driver take her home, which is Room 301, Unit 2, Building 3 of the Fenglin Garden complex, to take a bath. We learned that Ge Manli indeed has mysophobia and is particularly fond of cleanliness. According to the driver, Liu Hui, he returned to the hotel to wait for the leaders after sending Ge Manli home, a situation also confirmed by the hotel's surveillance and security."

He paused for a moment and continued: "The reporter is the deceased's female friend, city TV station reporter Yang Liu. According to the inquiry, the deceased called Yang Liu with her own mobile phone at 2:50 PM, making an appointment to meet her at Ginza Plaza, 500 meters away from the deceased's home, at 5:00 PM.

Because she had nothing to do in the afternoon, Yang Liu agreed to the deceased's invitation. At 5:00 sharp, Yang Liu arrived at the agreed place at Ginza Plaza as promised, but did not see Ge Manli.

Given that Ge Manli often procrastinated, Yang Liu didn't pay much attention at first. After waiting for 15 minutes, she began to feel a little anxious, so she called to urge her, but the call went unanswered. Yang Liu felt worried and walked to the deceased's home.

The deceased's home is about 500 meters away from Ginza Plaza. Yang Liu arrived around 5:25 PM. After finding no response at the door, she used the key under the doormat at the deceased's door to open the door and enter, only to find that the deceased had drowned in the bathtub."

Gu Changzheng scanned the police officers filling the meeting room, took a sip of tea, and continued: "Everyone knows what happened afterward; Yang Liu called the police at the scene. Because she was still in shock, she didn't have time to close the door and hurriedly ran downstairs to wait for the police to arrive."

"Now, let everyone talk about their own views!" Gu Changzheng said loudly.