Chapter 372: Opening the Package

Jiang Yuan arrived after driving for over ten minutes and found two layers of people gathered at the scene; dogs were barking, and a small truck had delivered salt water and mineral water for on-site distribution.

Jiang Yuan parked his car directly by the roadside, jumped out with a serious expression, ran over, and saw the body bag was over ten meters away from the crowd, with only one person standing beside it—he relaxed slightly but still shouted, "Keep searching for other bodies, don't gather here."

"We just want to see how the killer buried the body and check the depth," muttered a detective from Luyang City; they had come to solve the case and naturally resented being treated like civilians.

Jiang Yuan simply said, "The killer's habits may have changed."

He said no more, then began putting on his protective suit and triple-layered mask; Liu Jinghui behind him followed suit and donned his own protective gear.

"How was it discovered?" Jiang Yuan called out to the officer beside the body bag.

"The dog barked," replied the officer, also from Luyang City, his expression both excited and puzzled; the police dog had been pulled far away to avoid accidental contamination of the scene.

The police dog was just an ordinary Labrador, a common breed with decent scenting ability; Luyang City had used similar dogs in previous searches but never found anything.

If this body bag had been found earlier, Luyang City might not have stumbled so badly in Case 805. Jiang Yuan first observed the surroundings and took several photos with his phone.

Liu Jinghui also pulled out his phone, but immediately started recording video, deliberately and casually pointing the lens toward the surrounding crowd; they were now thirty to forty meters from the national highway, with utility poles and shrubs blocking the view—anyone driving past could only see people doing something here, but not clearly what they were doing.

Compared to the location of Discovery One, this site was much farther away; Discovery One was only about twenty meters from the highway, on relatively open, flat ground.

Only after Xu Taining was brought in and expanded the search radius to fifty meters around the highway did this location become possible for the police dog to detect.

Still, this plot of land lies exactly between Discovery One and Discovery Two, roughly ten kilometers from Discovery One; by car, it's extremely close—even suspiciously close.

Because what Jiang Yuan faced was only one body bag containing only part of a corpse—in other words, the killer still had at least two more large bags of remains to bury; if evenly distributed, that meant burying every ten kilometers or so.

Xu Taining also walked over. He had been sitting in his car nearby, air-conditioning on, and only got out when he saw Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui arrive; he didn't approach, instead standing over ten meters away, watching.

Liu Jinghui greeted him: "Director Xu, you're so calm—I'd be pacing if I found a body."

"I just went back to my car and took some quick-acting heart pills," Xu Taining adjusted his coat hem and said, "Besides, solving the case is your job; this is still Luyang City's case. Multiple commands aren't a good thing."

Like Liu Jinghui, he was a senior police chief who spent years constantly on the road; naturally, because Xu Taining required heavy investment to deploy, the cases he joined were higher-level and more complex—he instantly recognized the next move.

Liu Jinghui had no interest in joking; he pulled out his phone again, took photos, and thought.

Soon, a technician with a professional camera arrived and snapped pictures rapidly, as if catching a celebrity's affair.

Jiang Yuan, standing several meters away, opened his forensic investigation kit; he didn't rush to open the body bag but first had someone set up a sunshade and place wind barriers around.

Normally, cases didn't require such fuss—but now conditions allowed, and these items could be brought in within minutes, so he operated to the highest standard.

By the time they opened the body bag, Mei Fang and the leadership of the Luyang City Bureau had all arrived; Mei Fang immediately stepped forward to help.

Handling a corpse alone is troublesome; two people make it much easier.

Seeing Mei Fang arrive, Jiang Yuan said bluntly, "Comrade Mei, there's an insect toolkit in my car."

"Got it." Mei Fang took the car keys and turned to retrieve it.

A moment later, Mei Fang returned running, accompanied by another officer.

Several meters away, Mei Fang donned his protective suit, then took a net from the toolkit and handed it to the nearby officer, followed by poison vials, beakers, insect-rearing boxes, and finally passed tweezers to Jiang Yuan.

All prepared, Jiang Yuan and Mei Fang stood on either side of the snake-skin bag and slowly pulled it open.

The snake-skin bag had already been opened once—by the detective who discovered the body. It was half-buried in soil, only thirty to fifty centimeters below ground, not deeply buried.

Jiang Yuan waited until the technicians had taken photos, then fully opened the bag.

A foul odor hit them.

If the earlier smell had been a faint stench, this was like someone squatting on your face and defecating while letting out loud, wet farts—though in reality, the smell was even worse.

Human revulsion toward the odor of decaying human flesh is written into our genes, innate.

Inside the bag, the corpse was unrecognizable as human; maggots were abundant—eggs, larvae, molted skins, pupae, pupal cases, and adult flies were all visible.

In addition, insect limbs, feces, pupation holes, and emergence holes could also be seen.

The detectives standing behind began waving their nets; Mei Fang specifically reminded them, "Prioritize catching newly emerged adults—they're gray-white, cleaner-looking, lighter in color."

As he spoke, Mei Fang and Jiang Yuan began using tweezers and bare hands to capture various insects, flies, eggs, and pupae.

Adult flies were all stuffed into poison vials to kill them; eggs were placed in beakers containing 80% ethanol; lucky eggs went into insect-rearing boxes; larvae were first poured into beakers of boiling water, then transferred to ethanol beakers.

The boiling water came from a thermos—over ninety degrees, steaming, giving a warm sensation.

Soon, insects on the corpse were mostly dealt with; they would later dig up the surrounding soil to collect any remaining insects.

But now, Jiang Yuan's attention shifted to the corpse.

One right leg, most of a pelvis, and some likely abdominal tissue formed a perfect combination—indicating the killer was not a forensic expert; otherwise, he wouldn't have so easily left the pelvis intact.

Mei Fang and Jiang Yuan fished bones out of the mushy flesh.

The Luyang City Bureau leadership strained their necks, muttering: "How is it? New body or Number Two?" "It's definitely a new body," Mei Fang easily concluded.

"Good, good… Wait, too bad…" the leader quickly corrected himself. Zhou Yuanqiang leaned close to Liu Jinghui and whispered, "Director Liu, what do you think?"

"The location where the body was found reveals a lot," Liu Jinghui, eager to speak, said while studying the corpse: "First, burying bodies so densely—even without knowing why—means the killer is familiar with the area, either living or working here. That alone drastically narrows the suspect pool; ordinary highway travelers should no longer be considered suspects."

Liu Jinghui continued: "Even frequent highway drivers have greatly reduced suspicion, because there's no reason to bury bodies this close together."

"Third, we still don't know where Discovery Two was buried. But comparing Discovery One and Discovery Three, distance from the highway matters. Discovery One was a whole body, twenty meters from the highway; Discovery Three was dismembered, over forty meters away—likely because a whole body is too heavy to move easily. It also confirms the killer started dumping bodies from the highway. We just don't know which was buried first, One or Three."

Liu Jinghui's few sentences hit every key point—no wasted words. The Luyang City Bureau officers nodded repeatedly.

They were all detectives deeply familiar with Case 805; Liu Jinghui's judgments either matched their own or aligned with their understanding. Seeing the details, rumors about Liu Jinghui immediately surged through their minds.