Chapter Sixty-One: Capturing the Director!

I nodded. “Yes, the exact cause of death is unknown. I suspect poisoning. Hurry and help me bring the body down.”

Xiao Li quickly agreed and helped me lower the body. He had probably never handled a corpse before, as his hands trembled the entire time and his movements were exaggerated and clumsy. Exasperated, I asked, “Have you really never touched a corpse before?” Xiao Li replied that he hadn’t; there were rarely any homicides in this town.

“You handled the body of that boy in red last time, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but that was just a child’s body—felt like a ragdoll, I wasn’t scared. It’s this man’s body that freaks me out.”

I asked him to help me move the body to the forensic room.

The previous victim, young Wang Dalong, had already been sent to the morgue. I told Xiao Li to immediately notify the chief and Elder Lin, and ask them to come at once.

A death is a serious matter; without Elder Lin’s permission, I couldn’t perform an autopsy.

Elder Lin and the chief arrived quickly. The chief looked drowsy, so I asked where he’d been. He cursed, “What rotten luck—someone filed a false report early this morning and I had to run out for nothing.”

When Elder Lin heard Lai San had died, he was shocked and quickly asked me how Lai San had died.

I promptly recounted what I’d found at the willow tree. Elder Lin listened and immediately said, “It could be poisoning!”

“I suspect the same,” I replied, “but I didn’t smell anything unusual at the scene. It might be food poisoning.”

Elder Lin asked if I had performed an autopsy. I said not yet. He told me to go ahead and see how Lai San died.

The whole time, I watched the chief’s expression. He looked terrified and uneasy. Earlier that day, Lai San had said the chief would kill him, and now Lai San was dead that very night. Even if the chief had nothing to do with it, unless he could prove his innocence, it would be hard to clear his name.

If it was poisoning, an autopsy wasn’t strictly necessary. I had a simple and effective method to quickly determine if Lai San had been poisoned.

“Ladies, please wait outside,” I said. “Li Hong, come help me!”

Tang Jingjing snapped, “What, are you being sexist?”

I quickly replied, “Of course not. It’s just that the method I’m about to use is rather special, and it’s inconvenient for women to be present.”

Tang Jingjing snorted. “You’re just sexist. Now I’m determined to go in.”

I shrugged helplessly. “If you must, suit yourself. But if you start feeling unwell, you’ll have to leave on your own—don’t blame me.”

She glared at me but said nothing.

When we entered, Lai San’s body was already stiff, his face blackened. I propped him up into a half-sitting position and removed his trousers, including his filthy underwear.

A wave of stench hit me, and I instantly regretted not wearing a mask.

Tang Jingjing cursed me for being a pervert and stormed out. I smiled awkwardly.

The chief looked at me, baffled. “Comrade Yu… what are you doing?”

“Chief, do we have any salt at the station?” I asked.

“Yes, of course.”

“Could you get me some coarse salt? I need it,” I said.

He nodded and went to find some. Xiao Li asked if I needed his help.

“Help me prop up the body. I need you to press on the bladder—we need the urine,” I instructed.

“What?” Xiao Li was stunned. “You want me to massage him?”

“That’s right,” I said seriously. “Everyone’s busy. If you don’t want to help, you can leave.”

He had no choice but to steel himself and start pressing on Lai San’s abdomen. Soon, urine came out, and Xiao Li was dumbfounded. “Good grief, that’s amazing!”

“It’s nothing special,” I said. “The sphincter relaxes, so it just comes out.”

Just then, the director arrived and witnessed this scene. He clicked his tongue in amazement. “Impressive. You can even get urine out of a corpse.”

The chief brought the coarse salt, and I poured it all over Lai San’s urine.

Everyone watched, puzzled.

I explained calmly, “When someone dies from poisoning, the toxins are concentrated in the urine. Covering it with salt will precipitate the poison.”

This was a clever method recorded by Song Ci, the founding father of forensic medicine, in the “Collected Records of Washing Away Injustice.” Poison in a corpse’s urine will combine with salt and precipitate out.

Sure enough, before long, the yellow urine turned cloudy white, and dark sediments settled to the bottom.

“Silver poisoning,” I announced. “Lai San definitely ingested a large amount of silver nitrate before his death.”

Elder Lin asked, “Can you get silver nitrate in this town?”

The chief’s face turned pale. “A friend of mine runs a chemical factory out in the suburbs. They produce silver nitrate.”

“Who do they supply? Has anyone in the village bought any?” Elder Lin pressed.

The chief shook his head. “Not that I’ve heard.”

At that moment, a dog barked at the door. The chief said, “That must be the beast back. Someone let the police dog loose last night—I couldn’t find it anywhere.”

We rushed to the door.

But when we got outside, the police dog startled us. It had a piece of clothing in its mouth, covered in mottled bloodstains and obvious bite marks. It looked like a little girl’s pajamas.

The chief was stunned and hurried over, shouting, “Beast! Where did you get that?”

Elder Lin mused, “Chief, can you have it lead us to where it found the clothing?”

The chief nodded. “Yes, let’s go.”

He took the bloodstained garment, let the police dog sniff it, and pointed to the door. The dog immediately turned and ran off, and we followed in our car.

We didn’t expect the dog to lead us to the river behind the willow grove.

My mind reeled. The police dog had found the bloody clothing there. Thinking back to the splash we’d heard the night before—was it not the dog falling in, but someone jumping into the river?

My head throbbed. I quickly told Elder Lin about hearing the splash while on surveillance the previous night.

Elder Lin calculated the time and sighed, “It’s been two hours. Whoever it was must have drowned by now.”

I asked, “If the police dog found the body, why didn’t it drag it out?”

The chief thought for a moment. “The body must be tied to a heavy stone, so the dog couldn’t bring it out.”

I immediately began to undress. “Let’s go—let’s get the body out!”

Li Hong quickly took off his shirt and stopped me. He said he’d go instead, and before I could object, he dove into the river. Soon, he surfaced, his expression heavy. “I found the body. Looks like a little girl. She’s tied to a big rock—I can’t get her up.”

Elder Lin nearly fainted. “Another child…”

Worried that the scene would upset Elder Lin, I asked Tang Jingjing to help him back. She seemed reluctant, but Xiao Li said, “Comrade Tang, you don’t know how to drive, do you? I’ll take Elder Lin back.”

The chief immediately barked, “Xiao Li, don’t try to run off. Stay here. Elder Lin, I’ll take you.”

But Elder Lin suddenly sighed, “Li Hong, detain the chief.”