Chapter 92: Not Necessarily

“Is this… an Octagonal Hammer¹?”

Song Changfeng brought the item up. After everyone carefully peeled off the tightly wrapped black insulating tape—likely to preserve any fingerprints—they uncovered a blocky chunk of iron with squared-off ends.

“An Octagonal Hammer?”

“Yeah, an Octagonal Hammer!” The first to recognize it was Old Zhao from the Criminal Investigation team. He was actually not even thirty yet, but everyone called him Old Zhao because he looked at least ten years older than his peers. His brother-in-law was a construction foreman with a bunch of tools at home, so Old Zhao recognized it right away. But why was the handle missing from this hammer?

Earlier, the insulating tape had blocked the scent, so Aofeng hadn’t picked up on anything. Now that it was removed, Aofeng moved closer and immediately caught the strong scent of blood.

“Woof woof woof!” Aofeng barked loudly at the Octagonal Hammer, startling everyone.

“What’s gotten into him?” Guo Zile stared at Aofeng. The dog hadn’t made a sound since it arrived—he’d almost thought it was mute!

Song Changfeng said, “Aofeng is giving a warning. He’s extremely sensitive to the smell of blood. He must have picked something up from this.”

Everyone turned their attention to the Octagonal Hammer. It was the kind used for smashing walls, and it looked like it had seen years of use. There were no visible bloodstains on the surface, of course—anyone would know to wash it clean if it had blood on it. But for the police dog to still smell blood after such a thorough cleaning… was that even possible?

Naturally, everyone kept their doubts to themselves. To find out for sure, they just needed to run a benzidine test. The forensics techs pulled out various reagents from their kit and carefully dripped them onto the hammer in the correct proportions. In just a few moments, the surface of the hammer turned a vivid blue-green—clear evidence that blood had once been present on this chunk of iron.

“Have the forensic examiner check the victim’s head wound. See if it matches this weapon.”

Fortunately, Old Lady Huang hadn’t been taken away yet. Otherwise, they would’ve had to go to the funeral home for the comparison.

After getting the family’s consent, the young forensic examiner pushed back the victim’s hair with a cold, professional expression. She used a small razor to shave the area around the wound, exposing the injury. Then she carefully compared the shape of the wound with every part of the Octagonal Hammer. In the end, she concluded that this chunk of iron could very likely be the murder weapon.

Lei Liming and the others immediately perked up. Now that they had the weapon, could the killer be far behind? He turned to Song Changfeng and asked, “Changfeng, tell us again—how did you find this thing?”

Song Changfeng recounted the events. After hearing the story, Lei Liming swept a disapproving look over the group who had gone down earlier, his expression full of frustration. He deliberately said, “Good thing he was sharp. If it were you guys, the murder weapon probably would’ve been quietly taken away without anyone noticing.” He had to shame them a bit—otherwise, they’d think they’d done a great job.

Song Changfeng quickly added, “Actually, it was all thanks to Aofeng. When we left, he must’ve heard something and went back to investigate. Captain, this shows that the killer has been watching our every move. He probably guessed we’d go down there to search, so he waited until we were all leaving before sneaking back to toss the weapon.”

Lei Liming nodded, his expression turning grim. “You’re right. For some reason, the killer is still inside the building. Looks like we’ll have to keep checking every unit, one by one.”

Guo Zile kept staring at the Octagonal Hammer and the insulating tape next to it. After examination, they hadn’t found a single fingerprint on the tape, but they did find some coarse white fibers. The killer seemed to know what he was doing—he probably wore some kind of gloves.

“Hey, Guo Zi, what are you staring at?” Old Zhao leaned over, glancing between the hammer and Guo Zile.

“Old Zhao, where would you usually find an Octagonal Hammer, insulating tape, and work gloves?”

Old Zhao knew this one. He answered right away, “That’s easy—on a construction site. Renovation workers all carry hammers and wear work gloves. And you definitely need insulating tape when installing electrical wiring.”

“But there’s no construction site nearby, and this neighborhood is known for being old and run-down. Who’s still renovating here?”

Old Zhao chuckled. “People can’t do renovations now? Some folks buy secondhand apartments in these old buildings but don’t like the original layout, so they tear everything out and remodel it to their liking. You didn’t know that?”

“Why not just buy a new place?” Guo Zile blurted out. His family was well-off, so secondhand homes were never even a consideration. The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them. No matter how you said it, it sounded a bit like asking why people didn’t just eat meat porridge instead of rice gruel².

But it was too late for regrets. Old Zhao immediately teased him, “So you’re saying you’re not the Criminal Investigation captain because you don’t want to be?”

The back-and-forth between the two was like a comedic dialogue skit, and Aofeng, sitting nearby, couldn’t stop grinning. He had to admit, these two were pretty quick-witted. It seemed the Criminal Investigation Division really was full of talent.

Aside from Aofeng, Lei Liming was also listening to their exchange. He chuckled and said, “Work hard and prove yourself. When the time comes, the position of Criminal Investigation captain will be yours.”

Guo Zile’s face turned bright red with embarrassment.

Lei Liming didn’t press the topic further. Instead, he said, “Since this involves a house renovation, contact the property management immediately and have them identify which units have been under renovation recently.”

Old Zhao went outside to call the property office, while the others inside continued reviewing surveillance footage. It was grueling work. Even though they were sitting, their eyes had to stay glued to the screen, scrutinizing every frame for possible clues. Over time, everyone had trained themselves to watch at double speed without missing a thing.

Several monitors were playing footage at high speed. Xiao Li, seated in the center, didn’t dare blink. He was watching intently when suddenly, a slender hand reached over and tapped the spacebar, pausing the video.

Xiao Li frowned and was about to curse whoever did it, but when he turned around and saw it was the newly arrived dog-handling police officer, he swallowed his words.

“Sorry,” said Song Changfeng. “Can you zoom in on this person? Thanks.”

Xiao Li followed the direction of his finger and spotted a man in the footage. The man was wearing a gray work uniform, looked to be around forty years old, with a somewhat honest face and a slightly awkward demeanor as he walked through the crowd. He was carrying a grayish-white cloth bag, and from the bulge in the bag, it looked like it might contain a hammer.

Xiao Li immediately selected the man and used the mouse to zoom in on his face. The surveillance cameras in this neighborhood weren’t high resolution, so the image became a bit distorted when enlarged, but it was enough for Song Changfeng to get a good look at his features.

He glanced at the timestamp on the video. It was from five days ago in the morning. Song Changfeng hit the spacebar again to resume playback. Now that he had a target, double speed wasn’t fast enough, so he switched to four times speed.

Xiao Li stared at the screen for a while before his eyes started to blur. Claiming he was thirsty, he got up to get some water. As soon as he stood, he saw Song Changfeng take his seat, his police dog sitting beside him, both of them staring at the screen with serious focus.

Not long after, Old Zhao returned from his call and said, “Boss, I got the details. The property office said that someone on the third floor recently sold their unit. The new owner wanted to renovate, so they hired a worker to tear up the floors and walls. But something happened, and the work stopped a few days ago. The place should be empty now.”

“Why did the renovations stop?” Lei Liming asked.

Naturally, Old Zhao had asked about that too. “According to the property office, someone reported them for disturbing the peace. They said if the renovations didn’t stop, they’d keep calling in complaints.”

“Renovating during workdays within the allowed hours isn’t considered a disturbance.” Renovation noise could be annoying, but if it was done during permitted times, others didn’t really have grounds to complain.

“Exactly. That’s what the Environmental Protection Bureau said too, but the person wouldn’t listen. She insisted the noise was making her nerves fray and claimed she had high blood pressure. Said if her health got worse from the noise, she’d hold them responsible. The Environmental Protection Bureau had no choice but to contact the homeowner to see if they could pause the work. The owner was agreeable and said they weren’t in a rush to move in, so it was fine to delay. That’s how it got resolved.” Old Zhao added that it was lucky the homeowner was easygoing. If they’d been stubborn, it would’ve been a nightmare.

“The one who filed the complaint was the victim in this case, wasn’t it?” Lei Liming said confidently. Otherwise, Old Zhao wouldn’t have gone into so much detail.

Old Zhao gave him a thumbs-up. “You really are the boss. Nailed it in one guess. That old lady sure knew how to stir things up. If the owner hadn’t agreed, who knows, maybe she’d have thrown feces again.” He lowered his voice for that last part.

Lei Liming shot him a glare, warning him to watch his mouth. If the victim’s family heard that, who knew how they’d react.

Old Zhao shrugged sheepishly and zipped his lips.

“The work has been halted for days, so the place should be empty. That means someone’s deliberately trying to mislead us, pointing us in this direction?” Lei Liming rested his chin on his hand, brows furrowed in thought.

“Not necessarily.”

“Not necessarily what?” Lei Liming responded instinctively when he heard the voice.

“There might be someone inside.”

---

Translator’s Notes

---

1. Octagonal Hammer: A heavy sledgehammer (bajianchui) with an eight-sided head, commonly used in Chinese construction for heavy demolition work, such as breaking down walls or stone. ↩
2. meat porridge instead of rice gruel: An allusion to the idiom ‘Why not eat meat?’ (何不食肉糜), attributed to Emperor Hui of Jin. It is used to criticize someone’s lack of empathy or ignorance regarding the financial struggles of others, similar to the phrase ‘Let them eat cake.’ ↩