Chapter 97: What is a Perfect Work? The Victim’s Organs are Inside the Statue!

The police car, siren blaring, sped along the highway.

It was heading towards the suburban villa where Zhou Shiru’s studio was located.

Due to the urgency of the situation, Xu Changsheng, displaying his legendary driving skills honed from his time in the Huaihai Criminal Investigation Team, didn’t let up on the accelerator. Even when turning, he executed a drift.

He was in the lead.

He feared that if they were even half a minute late, Zhou Shiru might be dealt with by other members of the drug trafficking organization, causing the case to fall back into a deadlock.

…

At the case meeting room, only two people remained. Lin Tian squinted and thought for a few seconds before looking at Su Ming and speaking in a calm voice.

“Xiao Ming.”

“While we wait for the results from both sides.”

“Let’s go over the details of the 5.13 dismemberment case again and see if we missed anything.”

As Lin Tian spoke, he instinctively reached into his pocket for a cigarette. Just as he was about to light it, he suddenly remembered that this wasn’t his office. He stopped, thinking about relieving his cravings by sniffing his yellowed fingers.

“It’s fine, Director Lin, I don’t mind the smoke,” Su Ming smiled faintly, signaling for him to proceed.

“Besides, I also think…If you hold a cigarette, Director Lin, you’ll likely be able to think through the case more clearly.”

Hearing this, Lin Tian didn’t hesitate. He eagerly took out a cigarette, lit it, and placed it between his left hand’s index and middle fingers.

After taking a short drag, Lin Tian didn’t touch the cigarette again, letting it burn slowly between his fingers while he began to recall the details of the case from twenty years ago and connect them with the new clues.

His eyes slightly narrowed, and he spoke in a steady voice, organizing the case details.

“Firstly, the 5.13 dismemberment case occurred twenty years ago. The victim was a freshman at Magic City University, named Wu Jingqing, who had come from a small town to further her studies.”

“From the case files from twenty years ago and the current clues, it’s clear that…The victim, due to her poor family situation, had been doing various part-time jobs since she started school, which provided the perfect opportunity for the killer, Zhou Shiru.”

“Zhou Shiru, who was already well-known in his twenties, had struggled to advance his skills and creativity.”

“So, in this extreme state of desperation, he decided to use the most bloody and perverse methods to gain inspiration.”

“Or rather…In his eyes, committing murder was also a form of art, especially the way he handled the bodies.”

“To achieve his goal, Zhou Shiru somehow posted a high-paying part-time job advertisement looking for human models.”

“The victim, attracted by the high pay, immediately contacted Zhou Shiru. But since being a human model wasn’t a respectable job back then, she likely didn’t want anyone to know about it.”

“So, she never mentioned it to her family, friends, or classmates. She simply went to Zhou Shiru’s studio on her own, maybe even wearing a mask or hat to avoid being recognized.”

“This perfectly aligned with the details shared in the forum post about how to find victims.”

“Instead of going after victims, let the victims come to you, and help hide any trace that could expose you.”

Lin Tian paused for a moment, shook the ash from his cigarette, and continued with the case analysis.

“When the victim, thinking it was just a part-time job to help with family expenses, arrived at the isolated villa office, Zhou Shiru brutally murdered her.”

“And it wasn’t just a simple killing. Zhou Shiru, with his knowledge of human anatomy necessary for his sculptures, cruelly dissected and dismembered the victim’s body, filming the entire process.”

“Since Zhou Shiru’s studio was quite isolated with good soundproofing, no one in the neighborhood noticed the dismemberment.”

“The victim’s body was boiled, chopped into pieces, and due to Zhou Shiru’s obsession, the sizes and shapes of the pieces were nearly identical.”

“In the end, these hundreds of pieces of the victim’s body were placed in five bags and thrown all around Magic City.”

“The distance between where the body parts were disposed of was vast, too far to be covered by just walking. Bicycles or motorcycles would be too conspicuous, so the killer likely used a car.”

“From twenty years ago, we know the killer filmed the dismemberment process and was able to drive the car to dump the body parts, indicating the killer’s good economic situation at the time, ruling out the common motive of money.”

“After dismembering the victim, Zhou Shiru also used the cut lines from her body to create the special sculpture—‘The Girl Wrapped in Bandages,’ which won the Luban Award.”

“After comparing the cut lines from the body parts, we found they matched nearly perfectly with the sculpted bandage marks on the statue, further confirming the case.”

“At the same time, in the video recording, Zhou Shiru referred to the dismembered body as a perfect work of art.”

“However, based on the assembled body parts and the limited video evidence, there were no internal organs present.”

“At this point, we hypothesize that Zhou Shiru specifically kept the organs as a memento for his perfect work of art.”

At this moment, Su Ming, who had been listening carefully to Lin Tian’s recount of the case, suddenly thought of something extremely insane and perverse.

The key elements—perfect work, internal organs, the bandaged girl statue, the Luban Award sculpture—kept repeating in his mind.

Without hesitation, he immediately picked up the case file on the table and examined the image of the victim’s assembled body.

Su Ming clearly saw a very distinct incision on the lower back of the victim’s body.

The incision was made after death, and the process of opening the abdomen to remove organs was vastly different from the cooking and cutting of the body. The wound was much sharper.

Next, Su Ming turned to his laptop and searched for high-definition images of Zhou Shiru’s sculpture “The Girl Wrapped in Bandages.”

He enlarged the image and carefully examined the statue’s lower back.

There, he found…A very noticeable repair mark at the same location where the victim’s organs had been removed.

The depth of this carving was even more profound than the other incision marks.

Then, Su Ming checked the weight of the statue. After calculating the mass, he discovered…The plaster statue “The Girl Wrapped in Bandages” was several kilograms lighter than expected.

This meant that a part of the statue was likely hollowed out and replaced with something lighter.

Thinking about this, Su Ming turned to Lin Tian, who had just finished recounting the case process. He spoke seriously and solemnly.

“Director Lin.”

“I think I might know where Zhou Shiru hid the victim’s organs.”

Su Ming paused briefly, turned his laptop screen towards Lin Tian, and pointed at the statue’s abdomen as he continued.

“If I’m not mistaken, the victim’s internal organs…They’re all inside the stomach of this statue!”