Chapter 201

After saying that, he lowered his head and started writing the self-criticism. Honestly, how long had it been since he last wrote one? Why did he still have to write one at a time like this?

Old Song walked into the computer room, looked at the few people, and said, "Tsk tsk tsk, two days, and you still haven't finished?"

Old Liu simply took out a scalpel and placed it on the table. Old Song shut up on the spot.

"Ahem, let's get to business. There's a case."

Chen Fan said, "Have you no sense of public decency? Do you know how we've gotten by all these years? Do you?"

"Don't care how you've gotten by. This case is a bit ridiculous. Anyway, you'll know once you go look. Um, do you know what a sacrificial ritual is?"

Sacrificial ritual — everyone nodded. Of course they knew that.

Many regions still kept the custom of holding sacrificial rituals.

"Um, in shamanic culture, there's something called tiao da shen."

"What did you say?"

"Tiao da shen — you've never heard of it? I remember the entertainment industry over your way often makes low-budget movies like that, right? The kind about catching ghosts, tiao da shen, that sort of thing."

Chen Fan said contemptuously, "That's just assembly-line product, useless. They just find a few women, strip off their clothes, show a bit, stimulate everyone's senses, and make money. Anyway, I do enjoy watching it."

Pfft — hahahaha.

Chen Fan was the only celebrity to voluntarily admit he had no artistic talent.

"Fine, then that director I dealt with last time was right. Letting my daughter go shoot a movie like that is truly asking for death. Oh right, stop writing, that's about enough, come back and finish later. The case is a big one."

The few people here could only nod helplessly.

Chen Fan was even more helpless. He had originally planned to completely seal off this skill, yet now he had to use it.

【Ding. Congratulations, Host. You have obtained a new skill: Tiao Da Shen.】

【Tiao Da Shen: Believe in science, do not be superstitious. You are a forensic examiner. Do not expect this skill to bring you any fantastical things.】

Your skills are all rule-based systems now, and you still tell me they're not fantastical? Are you messing with me?

【Tiao Da Shen: A product extended from shamanic culture itself. For example, when a person loses their soul, or for prayer, or fortune-telling, and so on. Many people rely on this thing to make money. In itself, it can let you get rich quick.】

【When you perform tiao da shen, it is very easy to make people believe, and very easy to play a person's role convincingly.】

【Tiao Da Shen Extension: Come on, I'm super good at fighting. If I couldn't fight and I did tiao da shen, I'd get beaten up — what would I do then?】

Damn, this skill is truly ridiculous.

Chen Fan carefully mulled it over. No matter how he looked at it, this skill was bizarre to the extreme.

So Chen Fan simply chose to be too lazy to bother with this skill, but he hadn't expected that now he would actually have to use it.

Actually Chen Fan also understood — tiao da shen was also called inviting a god to possess one. To put it more simply, it meant acting, acting so convincingly that even you yourself believed you were that person.

When inviting the great god, most of the time they would find one's own relatives to communicate with.

The entertainment industry actually had this sort of thing too. Whether it was real or fake, everyone knew perfectly well in their hearts.

Whether it was changing one's name or anything else, what people were really after was the connections a certain master could bring — through the master, getting to know other people. Wasn't that just making money?

So whether it was metaphysics or science, no one knew.

It's just that Chen Fan is a forensic examiner, so what he believed in was science, not metaphysics.

The few people took a car and arrived at a remote mountain village. By the time they got here, the few of them smelled a very fragrant scent.

Old Song said, "How about it? Smells great, right?"

Xiang Qinqin said, "Mm, very fragrant, but this scent — there's the smell of pork, but there's also another smell."

Old Song said, "I called you all here. Do you really think it's just the smell of pork?"

The group didn't quite get it.

"Although the sacrificial offering is a pig, inside the pig we found a person. Now do you get it?"

Holy shit.

This is freaking terrifying.

"Have the people been brought under control?"

"All under control, but the person in charge of the ritual said he had no idea about any of this. Who would have thought these pigs would end up like this."

This kind of result made everyone present find it a bit hard to accept. To be precise, these things left people speechless.

No, wait — what kind of operation is this?

A few officers cordoned off the scene. Chen Fan, for his part, put on heat-insulating gloves and began examining the bodies.

The pork and human flesh had actually already mixed together. Because it was discovered relatively early, they had directly adopted the method of pouring water to save the person.

That would mean the village here actually wasn't that superstitious?

The ritual officiant said, "We come here almost every year to burn a pig like this, offering it to the mountain god to bless us with safety. But actually, it's just a custom. After the burning, the pork is taken out, and everyone eats it — that's fine, nothing's wasted."

Chen Fan cupped his head and said, "Is this what you've been eating?"

The ritual staff were scared stiff on the spot, then started vomiting by the roadside.

Old Liu said, "Cut it out. Hurry up and process the bodies, bring them back."

Everyone got busy. The journey was quite far, so they could only find a nearby forensic office to perform the autopsy.

There were five bodies in total.

From the size, one could tell they were mostly young people.

But the exact ages still needed to be investigated to find out.

Chen Fan took a knife and cut open a piece of shredded meat. Mm.

Not bad — the fragrance was already wafting out.

A few people forced themselves to hold back the nausea. Old Liu was quite calm, but a few newcomers were seeing charred bodies for the first time.

In the observation room, Qin Ming said, "Generally speaking, charred cases are considered the most headache-inducing among forensic cases. The traces we can find are actually very few. Rain and fire — two things that exist in the natural world — will destroy all secrets."

The lawyer said, "Yes, and besides, sitting among the eight major crimes, the charge of arson is very serious."

Hu Ge said, "The sacrifice — why pork? And wouldn't they have inspected it beforehand?"

Qin Ming said, "Probably no inspection. And the pigs they buy are already slaughtered. If they didn't kill them first and one ran off, that would cause trouble. They burn some pork and then eat it. Even though it's a sacrifice, it's more like a village gathering for a meal."

Everyone nodded.

That much had been heard before.

"Only five people — this definitely isn't a small case."

Hu Ge's words made everyone look at Qin Ming. Qin Ming said, "Yes, something like this is definitely not a small case. This kind of case involves a lot of things. And you can't trust a single word anyone in the village says. Until the forensic results come out, no one can make a judgment."

Chen Fan's side — he opened up a corpse, carefully comparing the wounds on the body.

It was a young person, but this young person had no obvious wounds on them.

That meant the young person wasn't beaten to death — most likely died of poisoning or something, but it could also be excessive blood loss or whatever. In any case, the burning here was too severe; the clues were basically zero.

Standing outside the door was the person in charge of this forensic office, bringing some new recruits to observe and learn.

"Look — this Chen Fan, how old is he even? And look at you lot, one by one, stepping up to the dissection table like it's asking for your lives."

Chen Fan, on his end, picked up a piece of meat with tweezers, held it up to his nose, and said, "Mm, smells really good, really fragrant."

????

The person in charge said, "Don't you learn from Chen Fan — treat what I just said as a fart. This kid's head isn't right."

Pfft — hahahahaha.

The onlookers burst out laughing. This guy Chen Fan could never be normal. They simply couldn't understand a single thing Chen Fan did.

"You guys said, since it's meant to be eaten, why not sprinkle some spices on it?"

What kind of devilish question is that?

Several people stared at Chen Fan.

Saying something like that — is that polite?

Old Liu here finished handling the remaining corpses, looked at the reports, and compared them with a few people.

Soon, all five reports came out, and he placed a call to Old Song.

Old Song consolidated the contents of the reports and said, "Mm, got it. Have Chen Fan come over. Oh, and bring a few more people with Zhang Tianxiong."

Well, once the reports came out, the answer was getting close.

Chen Fan and Zhang Tianxiong returned to the village.

"We've already made the arrests. Go in and look for things."

Chen Fan nodded.

The reports were written very simply — these people most likely did not suffer injuries caused by external wounds, and most of them were young.

So then, where exactly did these young people come from?