Chapter 235: Songhai Police, Specializing in Cold Cases

That's right, the victim named Wei Cheng wasn't any good either.

What he did was even more heinous.

He murdered someone, buried the body, and framed an innocent teenager, sending that boy to prison.

If the child hadn't been only fifteen when the crime occurred, he would likely have been executed already.

"Exhume the body?"

Ma Jian looked at Yu Dazhang in confusion, not understanding why he'd suddenly said that.

So you didn't hear a word of the conversation inside the room… Yu Dazhang had forgotten he had superhuman hearing.

He could only awkwardly smile:

"I just barely heard someone inside say something about burying a body."

"You must've misheard," Ma Jian said, eyeing him skeptically:

"I didn't hear anything at all."

As he spoke, the hospital room door opened and Ye Zhiyu walked out.

He looked tired, his complexion poor, but his eyes remained bright and clear.

"It's the same person. The symptoms are identical to the previous case—his subconscious is a complete mess, irrecoverable."

Here, he grew despondent:

"I wanted to cure him, then let him face proper punishment. Now, this outcome is too lenient."

For the first time, a cynical, almost grotesque expression crossed his face.

Yu Dazhang slapped his arm gently and said:

"Going through the Three Things That Drive You Mad is more painful for him than death."

Finger amputation, humiliation, mental imprisonment…

Strictly speaking, these three combined are indeed more cruel than execution.

So far, everyone who's experienced them has gone insane.

Ye Zhiyu nodded after hearing this:

"Let's talk somewhere else."

"Should we call a doctor for him?" Yu Dazhang said, glancing into the room.

Inside, Wei Cheng sat hunched on the bed, motionless, his injuries impossible to tell.

"No need. I just poked a few pins into his amputated fingers. He'll be fine," Ye Zhiyu said casually.

They stepped outside.

The three got into the car.

Ye Zhiyu recounted the conversation from the hospital room.

It matched exactly what Yu Dazhang had heard outside.

He was quite satisfied—Ye Zhiyu never cut corners on serious matters.

Not only was he skilled, but his memory was excellent.

And when recounting events, he never embellished or added anything.

After hearing Ye Zhiyu's account, Ma Jian's mouth hung open in shock as he stared at Yu Dazhang.

There really was a body-burying detail!

How did he hear that?

Ma Jian instinctively dug at his ear, doubting his own hearing.

And what was this "Three Things That Drive You Mad" he mentioned earlier?

He'd been a detective for years—he'd never heard of such a thing.

Seeing Yu Dazhang lost in thought, Ma Jian forced his questions down.

"Oral testimony means nothing," Yu Dazhang snapped back to attention, his gaze firm:

"Submit the case for review and request an excavation."

That afternoon.

In a forest on the city's outskirts.

Yu Dazhang and the others first marked the area, then technical personnel conducted a survey.

Even in 2014, criminal investigation techniques were sufficient to detect whether a body lay underground.

Remote sensing, shallow subsurface detectors, ground-penetrating radar…

These technologies could penetrate soil and identify possible underground objects, improving search efficiency.

Within just one hour, anomalies were flagged, and excavation began.

When a human skeleton emerged from the earth, everyone froze.

How long after death does a body fully decompose?

There's no exact answer—too many variables.

Temperature, soil moisture, and other factors all affect how long it takes for a body to skeletonize.

On average, it takes ten years to fully decompose, leaving only bones.

This skeleton before them, judging by its surface integrity, had been buried for at least ten years.

A human life is at stake!

This was irrefutable evidence.

Afterwards, Yu Dazhang and the others went to prison and met the teenager from that case. Thankfully, he was still alive.

From his condition, he had not given up hope for life.

Next came the reinvestigation of the cases, still handled through the cross-jurisdictional trial method.

In just two days, two long-buried cases were dug up again.

Such a thing had never happened in Xicheng before.

And this was only the beginning…

The following few days.

Yu Dazhang, along with Ma Jian and Ye Zhiyu, traveled to various cities across Province S, launching investigations into the other seven victims.

Ye Zhiyu did not disappoint Yu Dazhang either — every time they met a victim, she could extract the final memory fragments from their subconscious.

As more and more victims were met, one old case after another was dug up in succession.

Not a single one wrong — every word, every detail, all in one read!

If one or two old cases being reopened for investigation wasn't enough to draw serious attention,

what about three or four?

What about five or six?

When Yu Dazhang investigated the seventh victim, the entire Provincial police force of Province S was shaken.

At the same time, word spread like wildfire.

#Songhai Criminal Police Conduct Cross-Jurisdictional Investigation, Coming to Province S to Specialize in Old Cases#

Such a topic drew attention not only within the system, but even the general public began buzzing with discussion.

What people most loved to talk about was that the criminal police from Songhai had an extremely high case-solving success rate.

Every single case they reopened for investigation was, without exception, confirmed to have problems.

During this period, personnel involved in the cases had already been taken away for investigation one after another.

There were even people so scared they fled in advance.

Regarding this matter, leaders from both places communicated multiple times.

The main suspicion on the Province S side was that Yu Dazhang and his group's motives were impure.

Who investigates cases like this?!

We just sent three people over to investigate the severed-finger serial case, and you sent three people to raid our base.

And the speed was extremely fast.

Almost one tower raided per day.

At this rate, it wouldn't be long before the crystal exploded.

Do you know how big the impact of a single wrongful, false, or mishandled case is on the system?

Even if you have to investigate, could you at least give us a heads-up first?

Faced with the questioning from Province S, Songhai expressed understanding and promised to clarify the matter as soon as possible.

Actually…

The Songhai Municipal Bureau was also completely baffled.

Who the hell has that kind of guts?!

Crossing provinces to dig up their local old cases — how much nerve does it take to dare do something like this!

The way this case is being handled.

The entire Province S has turned into a complete mess, yet our own Municipal Bureau has no idea what's going on.

This kind of thing is easy to look into.

Soon, Li Jun was called to the Municipal Bureau.

Inside the Director's office.

"Why wasn't such a major matter reported?!" Director Liu stared at Li Jun and questioned him.

"When the Provincial Department sent people to investigate, you knew about it." Li Jun actually looked quite aggrieved:

"We dispatched the cold-case team also in order to cooperate with their investigation."

Logical and well-grounded — there was really no flaw to pick in such an answer.

After hearing this, Director Liu was, for a moment, actually at a loss for words.

After a pause, he finally caught on:

"Cooperating with the investigation — so why did they go over to Province S?"

"That was also arranged by the Provincial Department personnel." Li Jun spoke truthfully:

"It was they who had Yu Dazhang go investigate the victims, and as the investigation went on, it just led to the other side."

Li Jun then gave a detailed account of the whole affair.

Nothing wrong with that… Director Liu immediately pieced together the entire process in his head.

Tracing from the victim and following the leads to pull out another case — this was commonplace in past criminal investigation cases.

Director Liu tapped the desk lightly with his finger, deliberated for a long while, and a chubby figure surfaced in his mind.

"You, you're always able to come up with some new trick for me."

(End of chapter)