Chapter 759: A Strong Flavor

After another day of exhausting investigation, Captain Tang had diligently followed Jiang Yuan and the others around for the entire day.

In truth, once one moves past low-level interests, the experience of continuously solving cases is actually quite pleasant.

Although they were all minor cases, they were still cases solved in the end. Looking at these young guys who would have to spend four or five, seven or eight, or even over a dozen years in prison, his mood as a police officer gradually calmed down.

Of course, there was still a lot of follow-up work to be done: suspect confessions, victim statements, witness testimonies, crime scene investigation records, on-site identifications, price appraisals, fingerprint or DNA analysis, video data, and so on. But doing cases with Jiang Yuan was still relatively worry-free.

First, the evidence would be handled very solidly. Second, superiors clearly gave more weight to cases Jiang Yuan participated in; approvals, meetings, leadership signatures, and system processing were all simplified.

After shedding his resistance, Captain Tang felt quite cheerful. When it was time to get off work, he even specially handed a cigarette to Huang Qiangmin and said with a smile, "Actually, if there are no major cases, catching a few petty thieves day by day is also quite interesting."

"It depends on how you look at it. Take our Ningtai County, for instance: all the eight major cases within the last 30 years have been solved, new cases in our jurisdiction are very few, and even petty thieves are rare." Huang Qiangmin happily educated Captain Tang on the situation in Ningtai County.

Captain Tang listened, stunned, and subconsciously asked, "Then wouldn't the police have nothing to do?"

"How could there be nothing to do? Those who should call 110 will still call 110. Fights at beer stalls, cases of wives killing husbands or poisoning them—these are always inevitable." As Huang Qiangmin spoke, he pointed at himself, then at the surrounding Ningtai criminal police.

Seeing this, Captain Tang laughed: "Labor export, is it? You guys are actually quite comfortable. Alright, we'll drive back first. If there's a mission tomorrow, I'll continue to follow."

Just as he was speaking, Huang Qiangmin's phone rang.

Captain Tang hesitated for a moment and didn't leave immediately.

"It's a call from Captain Cui." Huang Qiangmin glanced at the number, answered it quickly, and asked, "What's the matter?"

"There's a homicide. Is Jiang Yuan there? We need to invite him over to take a look." Cui Qishan was not a very serious person on weekdays, but he often became serious.

Huang Qiangmin then became serious as well, reported their location, and said, "Jiang Yuan is currently organizing evidence; we can set off now. Is the case complicated?"

"It's not simple. The victim's body has been destroyed; you'll see once you arrive at the scene." Cui Qishan did not describe it in detail over the phone.

Huang Qiangmin immediately sought out Jiang Yuan, gathered the team, and then they headed to the scene together.

Cui Qishan's intention in calling Huang Qiangmin was also to request personnel support. The Zhengguang Bureau had gone through several major cases, and a large number of their staff were tied up with specific investigative work; furthermore, some cases could not be easily pulled away from, so it was precisely the time when reinforcements were needed.

Two minibuses, escorted by a fleet of police cars, quickly arrived at Xinjia Hutong.

Jiang Yuan observed the environment the entire way.

Xinjia Hutong was in a relatively remote location, with several factories and residential compounds for street workers nearby. The factories had long since closed down, but the former residential compounds for the factory workers still stood tall; having passed through several generations, the residents were not very familiar with each other, yet it still formed a residential environment with quite distinct characteristics.

From Jiang Yuan's perspective, there were quite a lot of illegal structures in this area. Of course, they were all legal buildings now; most of the illegal ones dated back thirty or forty years, and because they were recognized due to historical reasons, any attempt to move them now would require relying on demolition.

Cars were parked on one side of the hutong, and the minibuses couldn't get in, so Jiang Yuan switched to a police car to enter, while most of the others got out and walked, with some directly supporting the busy police officers from the local station at the entrance.

The police car Jiang Yuan was riding in drove all the way to the police cordon before letting Jiang Yuan, Huang Qiangmin, Liu Wenkai, and Mu Zhiyang out.

Upon getting out of the car, the air was filled with a faint scent of cooked meat.

Thinking of the reason why they and the others had come here, everyone's expression, including Jiang Yuan's, was not very good.

The expressions of the technical investigation team leader and members who came out in the next car were even worse; although they also appeared at scenes, such a blunt scene was not something they encountered often.

*Ugh. *

By the trash can, a police officer was vomiting, indirectly confirming the group's suspicions.

The group looked at each other and continued to walk forward in silence.

Cui Qishan was waiting at the entrance of a large courtyard. When Jiang Yuan arrived, he handed him a pair of gloves, sighed, and said, "The case was reported this morning. The footprints on the ground are very messy, and there are fingerprints and such. I originally thought it was a simple case, but neither the fingerprints nor the footprints matched anything. There is no surveillance in front of the house, and there are actually many routes leading out, extending in all directions. We are already retrieving surveillance footage; I don't know if the image investigation team can find anything."

Jiang Yuan nodded; Cui Qishan had essentially explained why he had only called him now.

In fact, for the newly reported homicides, those that are relatively easy to solve can have results within a few hours, and often it's a multi-pronged success—perhaps the image investigation team has a breakthrough, perhaps the trace examination team also has a breakthrough, or perhaps the technical investigation team also has an answer.

It can be understood that current investigative methods are comprehensive and advanced, just like an all-encompassing exam paper; criminals not only cannot score high, but they might not even be able to do any of the questions well.

However, if there are no results after several hours, it means that a high-scoring criminal has appeared.

This is a very dangerous situation, and whether due to coincidence or the criminal's formidable counter-investigation capabilities, such cases have the risk of sliding into cold cases.

Cui Qishan calling Jiang Yuan was a timely stop-loss.

Inside the large courtyard, various things were piled up in a mess, the most numerous being broken furniture, some of which had been smashed on the spot; looking at the fractures, it seemed to have been done in the last few days.

"This courtyard was sold to the current landlord just over a year ago. The landlord left it vacant after buying it. As it turns out, neighbors heard noises here yesterday and thought the landlord had returned. Later, when they knocked on the door, no one answered, and then someone reported it to the police." Cui Qishan paused, then led Jiang Yuan through the courtyard to the kitchen area and said, "After the police arrived, they discovered it was a homicide scene. Someone killed, dismembered, and steamed the body parts."

While speaking, the group saw the large stove in the center of the kitchen.

There were two large iron pots on the stove. One large iron pot was filled with water, boiling body parts. On the other large iron pot, a full three large steamer baskets were stacked, and at this moment, they were still slightly steaming.

That smell of steamed meat they had smelled at the entrance came from this.

Even for Jiang Yuan, seeing this scene was a bit hard to accept.

Cui Qishan had looked at it several times already and still found it hard to accept; he turned his gaze away and said, "This stove was built by the current landlord who hired someone; it's an old-fashioned rural stove. The furnace below burns coal and firewood. The landlord brought friends over to play twice, but they were approached by people from the neighborhood committee who forbade them from using this kind of stove, so they didn't come again later. The neighbors reporting it to the police also had to do with this."

Cui Qishan continued, "The fire in the furnace has already gone out. The fuel includes coal left by the landlord, and there is also wood obtained from chopping up furniture in the back. There is a large pot of water in the steamer on the right; the insulation effect is too good, so there is still temperature in the steamer baskets."

Cui Qishan: "The body hasn't been completely cooked; a portion remains, but we haven't been able to confirm the source of the body."

"It shows this is the first time committing a crime like this. They have the idea, but no experience." Jiang Yuan gave a simple conclusion.

Cooking a body to destroy the DNA within it so that the police find it difficult to identify the source of the body should count as an effective strategy, and it would indeed create obstacles for the investigation.

But there are two points here. First, one must abandon the body, so the police cannot find the primary scene. Otherwise, the DNA left at the primary scene could potentially help the police identify the source of the body, and it could also lead to finding the criminal's DNA, getting them caught all at once.

Secondly, a piece of trivia about steaming is that cooking a human body requires a massive amount of time and many pots to finish.

The criminal knowing to use steamer baskets to steam it can already be considered an improvement in detail.

However, for a body starting at over 100 jin, even using steamer baskets, it is impossible to steam it thoroughly at once.

To use a not-so-appropriate analogy, when killing a pig for the New Year, if one wants to cook all the freshly slaughtered pork, it also requires a significant amount of energy and physical strength.

"Let me take a look first." Jiang Yuan didn't speak rashly; he just began his own survey.