Chapter 262

Under a generous reward, there will surely be brave men!

Lin Dongfan deeply agreed with Zhang Yong's view; even if there were no brave men, there would certainly be ordinary men—just throw enough money at it, and hauling a sack out of the cesspit is a matter of minutes.

Lin Dongfan retreated to the outside of the pigpen, reeking horribly.

He lit a cigarette.

Afterwards, he gave Zhang Yong a definite answer: 'The 400,000 matter is approved. I don't expect you to thank my ancestors. I simply want to play the fool once—I have money and I'm being willful.'

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Yong immediately perked up.

He turned around and summoned the five officers who took turns hauling the big cesspit: 'Brothers, the welfare subsidy has already been secured for you—what are you hesitating for? Go down now and haul the sacks! With five people dividing the work, each can get 80,000 yuan—not bad. Remember to silently thank the ancestors of the Lin Bureau, got it?'

Understood!

The five responded in unison, standing at attention and giving Lin Dongfan a military salute.

Lin Dongfan narrowed his eyes, smiling so wide he could barely close his mouth; the joy of throwing money around whenever he pleased was just this simple, unadorned and crude.

The five officers divided the work and cooperated.

He specially went to the fish pond owner's house to borrow two sets of full-body waterproof suits; two officers wearing the suits went down into the cesspit to lift the sacks, while the others stood by above to assist.

The sewage in the cesspit was deeper than everyone had expected.

As soon as the two officers stepped in, the sewage reached their knees. The Bai family must have dug the cesspit this deep for pig farming, since pig waste is also dumped here.

Fishing for something in such deep sewage really feels like fishing in sewage.

It seemed that a corner of the huge, stinky sack was exposed.

One officer grabbed the exposed corner of the sack and gave it a hard pull, immediately abandoning the idea of lifting it with one hand: 'It's heavy; we need two people to carry it.'

"The sewage is really deep; wait a moment."

The other officer bent down, plunged his hand into the sewage to grab the sack's other corner, but the nauseating stench that hit him made him grit his teeth and hold his breath—stuffing cotton in his nostrils wouldn't help.

At that moment, Lin Dongfan and Zhang Yong, standing at the doorway, were equally tense, holding their breath.

The two stared unblinkingly at the sack.

Thanks to the joint effort of the five officers, the heavy sack in the cesspit was finally hauled ashore, its mouth bound with wire.

When the officer slit the sack open with a knife.

Whether it was the investigators on scene or the villagers gathered outside the cordon, everyone's heart raced with tension as they guessed that the sack most likely contained the missing Bai Yuzhen.

However…

When the sack was opened, everyone was dumbfounded—inside lay a dog.

A heavily rotting dog.

Zhang Yong stared at Lin Dongfan, bewildered: 'What the hell is going on? Why would someone throw a dog into the cesspit?'

……!!!

Lin Dongfan also wanted to ask, 'What the hell does this mean?'

The dog had been placed inside the sack, indicating it hadn't fallen into the cesspit by accident but had been thrown in by someone.

Then the question arises.

In rural areas, people generally keep dogs to guard their homes; even if they no longer need a dog, they would usually kill it for meat—so why throw a dog into the cesspit?

When things go awry, there must be something suspicious.

Lin Dongfan turned and questioned Bai Jianping: 'Bai Jianping, whose dog is this?'

"Who do I ask? I don't keep dogs!" Bai Jianping's hands were cuffed to the kitchen door handle, and he put on an arrogant, rude demeanor.

Just then.

The village chief, over fifty years old, crossed the cordon accompanied by Jian Sining.

The village chief eyed the dead dog lying on the sack curiously; when he saw the leather collar around its neck, he widened his eyes in anger: 'This is my dog!'

"Yours?"

Lin Dongfan and the others all turned their gazes toward the village chief in unison.

The village chief, face flushed with anger: 'This is my big wolfdog I raised; it disappeared three months ago, and I thought it had been stolen by dog thieves—I never imagined it would die here.'

He said.

The village chief then turned his angry gaze to Bai Jianping: 'Boss Bai, did you kill it?!'

"Which of your eyes saw me kill your dog?" Bai Jianping shot back, self-righteous: 'Watch your words—don't spread baseless rumors!'

"Your outhouse is locked—if it wasn't you who threw it in, then who was?" The village chief cursed: 'You beast, you've never done anything decent since you were little! Surely my wolfdog barked at you twice, and you took the chance while I was away to sack it, beat it to death with a stick, and then toss it into the cesspit!'

"Bullshit!" Bai Jianping angrily retorted: 'If I had killed it, would I have thrown it away? I'm not some idiot who doesn't know how to eat dog meat!'

The village chief angrily rebutted: 'Don't go on like this…'

"Don't argue!"

Lin Dongfan suddenly interrupted the village chief's words, turned his gaze to Bai Jianping, gave a light smile, and said nothing.

That enigmatic smile left Bai Jianping bewildered: 'What are you smiling at?'

"You're smiling because you acted smart and let something slip."

Lin Dongfan calmly solved the mystery: 'In Bai Gou, besides you, Bai Jianping, no one would dare kill the village chief's dog. But why didn't you eat the dog meat and instead throw it away? As you just said, you're no idiot. Since you're not an idiot, that means you have another motive.'

……!!!

Bai Jianping's face flickered with surprise, and his arrogant aura vanished in an instant.

This sudden change in expression.

This made Lin Dongfan further realize his judgment was correct—damn, he's awesome, seeing through the truth at a glance.

Lin Dongfan, smiling, reconstructed Bai Jianping's crime:

"There should still be a corpse in the cesspit."

"Let's push the time forward a bit, calculating from when the village chief said the dog was thrown in—about three or so months ago, that corpse would have been giving off a foul stench."

You're too lazy to go dredge.

Because once you dredge it up, you'll face the problem of where to bury this corpse—burying a corpse means avoiding everyone's gaze nearby, which is risky.

Compared to that, sinking the corpse in a latrine and using the feces smell to mask the corpse odor is actually safer.

But this safety isn't absolute.

Some people with a keen sense of smell, when passing by your pigpen, can still detect that odd odor; you worry someone will meddle and call the police.

So you simply killed the village chief's dog, threw it into the latrine, trying to cover up the smell.

That way.

Even if someone called the police and they came to dredge, you'd have nothing to fear, figuring that once the police fished out this dog, you could reasonably explain the rotting smell and they wouldn't dredge further.

But man's plans cannot match heaven's.

Your IQ could never figure it out—I, Lin Dongfan, am the contemporary detective god Di Renjie! This young master only needs to glance at you to know you're no good!

Lin Dongfan's speculation was like a blade word by word, winning over the surrounding onlookers heart and soul.

Outside the police line, a youth gave a thumbs-up and shouted loudly: "Section Chief Lin, awesome!" Someone also muttered quietly: "This Bai Jianping really isn't anything good; he couldn't have really killed his own sister, could he?"

This question tugged at the nerves of everyone present.

At this moment, Bai Jianping's face turned deathly pale; he gritted his teeth and glared at Lin Dongfan: "I didn't kill anyone, you bastard, quit slandering me!"

"Did I say you killed someone? That makes no sense."

Lin Dongfan gave a faint smile.

He turned and ordered the five working detectives: "Go on, keep dredging! I want to see how long these bastards can stay tight-lipped!"