Chapter 402: Chapter 381: Temporary Transfer_1
November 5, 2012
Zhou Ning pushed the door open to enter the lab, wiped the water stains off his shoes on the doormat, and saw everyone crowded around Mr. Qu’s computer, wondering what they were looking at as he quickly stepped inside.
"What are you guys watching?"
Mr. Zhao turned around, saw Zhou Ning, and flashed a toothy smile before patting the person in front of him. Except for Liu Yongxin, everyone stood up to make room in front of the computer.
"Didn’t the department ask everyone to sign up for WeChat? Mr. Qu helped Mr. Liu get one too, and he added a whole bunch of friends right away, like a hundred and eighty people. There was a classmate of Mr. Liu’s training class, two years younger than our uncle, working in the forensic department of Dayao City Criminal Police in Ludong Province.
"We’ve long heard Mr. Liu was working at the Qin Da Research and Development Center. Finally, after some reaching out, he’s gotten in touch. He’s just sent Mr. Liu a video, from a very bizarre case they have over there with no leads yet, asking if our software could lend a hand."
Zhou Ning had already walked over, curiously glanced at the screen, and pulled out his phone.
"Sign me up for an account too."
Mr. Zhao was about to reach out when Xia Momo took the phone from him.
"No need for him, I’ll set it up. What nickname do you want?"
Zhou Ning was taken aback. Wasn’t this thing supposed to be real-name based?
"I don’t know, isn’t it real-name based? Just use my actual name, I guess?"
Liu Yongxin took off his reading glasses, turned his head to look at Zhou Ning with a look that screamed ’looking at an antique,’ and glanced at his prized disciple.
"How are you even more out of touch than me? I ask you, what’s your QQ nickname? Just pick something interesting. As for anyone who wants to add you, they’ll directly annotate who you are. Don’t think I can’t sign up; I’ve heard about it from my son. That’s generally how it works."
Zhao Xinli gave Liu Yongxin a thumbs up, impressed. Who would have thought the old guy was so trendy?
"Mr. Liu is a trendy old man. So, what’s your online name?"
"Peace Messenger!"
Sun Gaotie couldn’t hold back his laughter but got slapped by Mr. Zhao, quickly stifling his smile as he pulled two new interns and Mr. Wang back a few steps.
Liu Yongxin bristled, hands on hips, glaring at Zhao Xinli.
"What’s the problem? If it weren’t for this Peace Messenger, Qin University wouldn’t have this software center, let alone all the stuff that came after. What’s wrong with me calling myself that?"
Mr. Zhao raised both hands as if to surrender, quickly placating the old man.
"My apologies, Uncle, your accomplishments are immense!"
The apology caught Liu Yongxin off guard, who blinked and turned to Zhou Ning.
"This kid actually uses a four-character idiom; his cultural level has suddenly increased. But what does ’immense accomplishments’ mean, it’s not an insult, is it?"
Zhou Ning struggled to contain his laughter and quickly calmed Liu Yongxin down. This old man could match his grandfather, a man who never minced his words, considered cultured and knowledgeable, though limited in traditional cultural capacity, but at least he was open-minded.
"It’s definitely a compliment. Now, tell me about this video—what exactly is going on?"
Liu Yongxin cast a glare at Mr. Zhao and pointed to the computer:
"Mr. Cao said they’ve been busy with crackdowns lately and encountered a tricky case. He sent me a video to take a look. The details are too small to see on a phone, so I begged Mr. Qu to play it on the computer for me. When we watched it, it gave us quite a shock.
You’ll see the video yourself in a minute. Let me just tell you the content he sent me, or else you’d be looking in vain. They’ve got their own crackdown operations going on. Lately, public order’s been quite good. But suddenly on October 27th, they got a call about some bags found in the protective moat around Dayao City.
The sanitation department sent out boats to retrieve them, especially since they’re applying for the title of hygiene city and are under inspection. Everyone’s quite concerned. They opened the bags and everyone was shocked stiff—inside were pieces of a corpse, missing the head and limbs. The video is from the law enforcement recorder. Mr. Qu, play it once for my intern to see."
Mr. Qu promptly zoomed the video to full screen and hit the play button.
What appeared was a wide river with crowds on both banks, clearly making quite a scene and putting a lot of pressure on the police. The camera panned from the river surface to a nearby boat and finally rested on the stone bank.
Along the stone decorative stairs, there lay a row of bags, big red plastic ones tied tightly at the opening. They bulged with something that shone wetly under the light. Off-camera, retching sounds could be heard—not from just one person.
Then the camera focused on one opened bag with its side slit open, revealing a human elbow. The skin of the deceased was pale white, bloated, and in some parts, it had started to peel away.
Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes, instantly understanding. Those retching sounds were because opening the bags released gases from decomposition, and all the unopened bags bulging indicated that they were filled with such gases. The victim had been dismembered into several pieces, then stuffed into the bags.
The scene shifted to what looked like an autopsy room, with an old man facing the camera. He was wearing several layers of masks, and it was clear the facility was a bit outdated.
"Old classmate, I’ve hit a dead end. Seven plastic bags brought in from the scene have yielded an incomplete female body, assembled from ten pieces but missing the head and limbs, presumably to prevent identification.
Most shocking is that from the ribcage down, the abdomen, including all the organs, has been sliced out as one piece. We discovered the uterus, swollen, containing a fetus. Based on a head circumference of 30cm, we’ve estimated the fetus was in the 30-34 week range, about eight or nine months into term.
I’m totally at a loss. No skull, no fingerprints, no feet. I can’t even identify the victim. There’s no match with local missing persons reports. I’ve reached out to the provincial bureau for help, but since March this year, there’s been a backlog of cold case reviews, and now with this crackdown initiative.
The forensic center at the provincial bureau said they’d like to help, but they just can’t spare the personnel. They told me if I can wait, I’ll have to queue up, and it’ll be at least a month before I get my turn, considering the stack of pending cases. I thought about it, and realized waiting idly won’t do, especially with a half-month deadline looming."
So I went to the provincial office again, and Director Zou gave me an idea. He suggested I reach out to Qindao and see if they had no objections; he would help coordinate the transfer. That’s why I thought of you — after all, we’ve all heard about your prized apprentice’s situation. How about it, can you do me a favor?
Truth be told, I felt embarrassed to call you about this, so to address it formally, I decided to make a video instead. If it’s inconvenient for your apprentice, let it be, and don’t put yourself in a difficult position."
The video ended there, and Zhou Ning glanced at the chat window. There were many photos sent and some inspection reports, mostly poison detection. No lethal toxins or anesthetic drugs were found in the victim’s blood. After a brief look, he nodded towards Liu Yongxin.
Actually, if Liu Yongxin didn’t want to help, he wouldn’t have let Zhou Ning watch the video. It seemed that the case clean-up work in Qindao had concluded, but many cities in Ludong Province were not yet finished. It was crunch time towards year’s end, and indeed, resources were limited. However, Zhou Ning didn’t quite understand the transfer.
"How does this transfer work? Do we need to apply with Mr. Peng?"
Liu Yongxin laughed upon hearing this and waved his hands dismissively.
"This case is not like the one with the figure skater. Its nature is far more malicious. But as you see, the physical evidence doesn’t provide much valuable information. Out of camaraderie, I hope you can help him, but I don’t want it to affect you.
That’s what I’m struggling with. If you decide to go, he’ll discuss the transfer with the provincial office. Actually, this would help the provincial office’s forensic center with their difficulties, so naturally, they wouldn’t object."
Zhou Ning smiled and tilted his head toward Zhu Xingxing.
"Take a look. We don’t have any cases here, right?"
Zhu Xingxing browsed through his phone, looked up after a moment, and nodded to Zhou Ning.
"Nope, none. Only Doctor Zhao’s team has a case winding down; they are just waiting for the final lab result. Our team hasn’t had work in ten days, and these two interns and Mr. Wang have been idling away their time, either reading books or watching our previous dissection videos."
Zhou Ning glanced over, and Mr. Zhao, feeling his gaze, simply spread his hands.
"Don’t look at me. A trip to Dayao City as a vacation isn’t too bad, considering we don’t have any backlog cases and nothing much is happening at the end of the year. But are we all going?"
Zhou Ning shook his head and pondered for a moment, then looked at Liu Yongxin.
"The lab will take Mr. Qu, and master will make the effort this time. As for our team, we’ll take Mr. Zhao and Zhu Xingxing, and the others will stay behind."
Before Mr. Yang and Sun Gaotie could react, the two interns objected.
"Director Zhou, you can’t leave us behind. We won’t learn anything if we stay here. We joined this team to observe autopsies. How would going there work?"
Zhou Ning didn’t respond, seeing that their eagerness wasn’t practical. Someone had to stay behind; there must be staff on hand in case anything cropped up, and they couldn’t play a waiting game. Mr. Yang raised his hand.
"I’ll stay behind to keep watch. If there’s an issue, I can examine the scene first, and you can come back in time. After all, Dayao City is just over a two-hour drive from us."
Zhu Xingxing looked at Mr. Zhao and then stood up.
"Boss, perhaps I should stay too. If a case does come up, I can handle it here, which will give you peace of mind while you’re away."
Mr. Zhao glared and raised his hand to pat Zhu Xingxing on the back lightly.
"Pah, pah, pah, all the best for us. What do you mean by ’peace of mind while we’re away’? Are you trying to ship us off as martyrs? Or do you want to find someone else and send me away alone?"
In an instant, everyone realized the ambiguity in Zhu Xingxing’s words, which indeed didn’t sound very pleasant. Mr. Zhao’s comment left Zhu Xingxing feeling a bit embarrassed.
"I didn’t mean that. Just that Mr. Yang, Mr. Sun and I can keep watch here, and you all can rest easy."
Liu Yongxin raised his hand towards Mr. Zhao but didn’t let it fall.
"Don’t bully little Zhu. Alright, I’ll send him a reply now. Mr. Qu, you come help me with this. How does this thing work, can we send voice messages or something?"
Mr. Qu dragged Liu Yongxin aside and started to show off to Doctor Cao, naturally without any objections from the other party. Mr. Zhao pulled at Zhou Ning’s sleeve, nodding in Momo’s direction.
"What’s going on? If we go, who knows how long we’ll be away. Why aren’t you taking Mr. Xia with you? Have you two had a falling out?"
Zhou Ning shook his head and smiled at Mr. Zhao, who was quite perceptive; he probably sensed Momo’s low spirits.
"It’s nothing. Momo’s mother has some heart issues. I asked Mr. He for a consultation a few days ago. They performed a 24-hour monitoring. She’s worried, but she just needs to rest and take care now. So, I’d rather not take her with us, especially with the tiresome travel and her concerns about her mother."
Mr. Zhao had an epiphany.
"You had me worried for a second there. As long as you two don’t have any issues, it’s fine. But the problem isn’t serious, right? Is it okay for you to leave at this time?"
Zhou Ning shook his head, and before he could speak, Xia Momo approached.
"It’s fine. My mom was just too tired before and didn’t get enough rest, which made her uncomfortable. After the doctor’s examination, she’s been feeling less pressured. She’s been recovering well these past two days. Zhou Ning should go if he needs to, especially since it’s a classmate of Mr. Liu’s that we definitely need to help out."
Before she finished speaking, Zhou Ning’s phone rang. It was Xu Dayuan calling. Seeing the number, Zhou Ning paused for a moment. Could it be a new case was coming just as they were about to leave?
"Hello, Director Xu, is there a case?"
"Case, my foot. I’m asking you, we just got a call from Mr. Peng. He mentioned a transfer request from the provincial office asking for your entire team. What’s going on?"
