Chapter 56: The Scene

Ten minutes later, Lin Feng led his team to rendezvous with Qin Qing on the road at the foot of the mountain where the farmhouse restaurant was located.

Cars came and went there, making it relatively safe. Qin Qing and her staff were waiting there.

Lin Feng arrived, wearing a pair of sunglasses. He bent down and tapped on the car window.

Qin Qing breathed a sigh of relief and only then dared to get out of the car.

Lin Feng took off his sunglasses and hooked them into the pocket of his dirty, wrinkled shirt.

The sun, already risen above the ridge, made him squint.

“To be honest, I now have a kind of phone phobia when it comes to your calls. I don’t want to answer, but I have to.”

Qin Qing saw that he had brought two cars, and besides the police officers, there was also a forensic team.

“I’m actually… not very sure.”

She hadn’t seen anything with her own eyes, and the System Panel only showed that the person wasn’t there. Her deductions were based on various pieces of information.

“It’s okay, it’s even better if nothing happened. They’d be happier to go back the way they came without working,” Lin Feng leaned against the car door. “Let’s go up and take a look. You…”

“I’m coming too,” Qin Qing said.

She had accepted the Bureau Chief’s invitation to be a consultant, so she was now considered a member of the sub-bureau. This was her first case since taking the position, and she had personally encountered it. Whether it was real or not, she had to go and see.

Lin Feng: “Alright, you ride in my car.”

Qin Qing arranged for her staff to go back first.

Lu Yang was eager: “Boss, I’ll go with you, how dangerous can it be?”

Qin Qing shoved him into the car: “Especially you, go home obediently.”

Jianxin Firewood Chicken specialized in farmhouse cuisine, and its decor resembled a traditional farmhouse courtyard.

The entrance of the restaurant was enclosed by a bamboo fence, with a dilapidated wooden gate, creating the visual effect of a rustic, humble dwelling.

The bamboo fence was estimated to be two meters high, making it impossible to see inside.

But even before entering, a strong, pungent smell of blood was already noticeable.

The head forensic doctor who came with the team was a middle-aged woman, introduced by Lin Feng as Kou Yuan.

At this moment, Kou Yuan’s expression was grave: “Teacher Qin was right, something did happen. It’s the smell of human blood. To achieve such a strong smell of blood, based on the amount of bleeding, it’s enough to be fatal, and there might be more than one victim.”

Lin Feng and the other police officers had already drawn their pistols and held them. He took out the pair of sunglasses clipped to his chest and handed them to Qin Qing without looking back: “Here, put these on.”

Kou Yuan took them for her: “Put them on. The scene inside should be quite impactful.”

She also pulled Qin Qing aside, making her stand to the side: “Let’s wait until they finish their sweep before we go in.”

Qin Qing wasn’t too worried. The System Panel alarm hadn’t sounded, so even if there was a killer, they weren’t nearby.

Lin Feng gently kicked open the courtyard gate and made a gesture. Some of the armed police officers followed him in, while two remained on standby.

A moment later, Xiao Song came out to call for them: “Director Kou, you can go in now.”

Kou Yuan and the forensic team had already put on gloves and masks, and they gave one to Qin Qing as well.

If Qin Qing were given another chance, she definitely wouldn’t be so rash as to follow the forensic and technical teams inside.

In fact, she hadn’t even entered yet, only standing at the courtyard entrance.

The scene that entered her vision was a severed leg lying in the center of the small courtyard.

A single, severed leg.

A human leg.

Even with sunglasses on, she could see the dark stains scattered throughout the courtyard.

She knew it was blood.

The leg was still wearing pants and a shoe, now completely stained with blood, making their original colors unrecognizable. The cross-section of the thigh showed shattered bone fragments and chaotic flesh, as if repeatedly cut by a blunt knife.

Qin Qing was mentally prepared; she wasn’t afraid.

But she underestimated the human body’s instinctive physiological reaction to such a visual impact.

She didn’t step into the courtyard.

The next moment, she retreated, feeling her stomach churn, and couldn’t help but kneel by the roadside, dry heaving.

That image lingered in her mind.

The urge to vomit grew stronger.

Qin Qing had come on an empty stomach, so there was nothing to throw up.

Stomach acid refluxed, burning her esophagus and throat.

Physiological tears streamed down her face, but they couldn’t wash away that image.

Qin Qing took off her sunglasses, but her vision remained blurry.

That leg kept flashing back in her mind.

No one here paid attention to her. Qin Qing slumped down in a spot where she couldn’t see the courtyard.

She herself hadn’t expected that in her first case as a consultant for the Wuning Sub-bureau, she would collapse before even entering the door.

She wondered if the Bureau Chief would regret his decision after learning about her performance today.

Some forensic personnel came out of the courtyard, carrying heavy body bags.

Only then did Qin Qing brace herself and re-enter the courtyard.

Kou Yuan was reporting the preliminary findings of the on-site investigation to Lin Feng.

“We have two victims, one male and one female. Based on preliminary analysis of rigor mortis and body temperature, their time of death was approximately between 2 AM and 3 AM today.

“The female victim has no other obvious external injuries. However, there is a cut wound approximately 10 cm long on the left side of her neck. The wound is spindle-shaped, with the left end higher than the right. The edges of the wound are irregular and wavy. Based on the amount of bleeding at the scene, it can be basically concluded that this was the fatal injury.”

Lin Feng asked, “What about the male?”

Kou Yuan: “The male victim has multiple impact injuries on his head and body, which may have occurred during his struggle. He has a 15 cm long wound on his abdomen, deep enough to reach the abdominal cavity, causing a ruptured spleen, which was also his direct cause of death.

“As you just saw, his leg suffered multiple hacking blows, leading to dismemberment. However, the wound edges are clean and show no signs of vital reaction, indicating that these injuries were inflicted post-mortem.”

Lin Feng: “Inflicted post-mortem? To vent anger?”

“That’s your job, Captain Lin. Our Forensic Team is only responsible for presenting the objective information we’ve investigated,” Kou Yuan spread her hands. “My personal speculation is that they might have intended to dismember the body, but the killer underestimated the hardness of the human leg bone, so they gave up after chopping off one leg.”

Kou Yuan pointed to a chipped knife in the evidence bag held by her assistant: “This Bone Cleaver was found next to the male victim’s body. The bloodstains and bone fragments on the knife match the characteristics of the wounds on both victims. We can preliminarily conclude that this is the murder weapon.”

Lin Feng, wearing gloves, took the knife from the forensic assistant to examine it, and said in surprise, “The murder weapon wasn’t taken away.”

Kou Yuan nodded: “From the current situation, the killer’s method was very simple and brutal. But also quite vicious.”

Lin Feng asked the technical team, “Were any fingerprints found on the murder weapon?”

A female officer in bell-bottom jeans came over with a record: “Report, Captain Lin, no fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, but numerous fingerprints and hairs were found elsewhere at the scene. However, given that this is a restaurant with people coming and going, the situation at the scene is complex, so these extracted features may not be helpful.”

Kou Yuan also added: “The fingernails of both victims were very clean, with no cellular tissue or clothing fiber residue found. The killer may have cleaned the scene after the crime.”

“Additionally, a large amount of dog hair was found in a blood clot collected near the courtyard gate. That bloodstain was quite far from the male victim’s leg parts, and if it were human blood, it would be rather out of place. However, further analysis is needed to determine if it’s human blood or dog blood. Perhaps, besides the two human victims, there was also a dog among the deceased creatures in this courtyard. The Forensic Team currently only has this information; more will require further autopsy and laboratory analysis.”

Lin Feng: “No dog’s body?”

“No.”

A police officer interjected, “Boss, this family did keep a dog. There’s a doghouse and a dog bowl behind the house.”

“Killing someone and leaving the weapon, but killing a dog and taking the body away? What does this perverted grandson want to do?” Lin Feng scratched his head and directly instructed the police officer, “Go around and investigate the victim’s social circle. See if anyone nearby heard anything last night.”

“Yes.”

Lin Feng asked again, “Any other findings from the technical team?”

The female officer in jeans: “The identities of the two deceased have been confirmed. Shen Jianxin, male, 45 years old, was also the owner of this shop. The female deceased was his wife, Wei Xiang, 40 years old. The couple also had a son, Shen Wei, 20 years old, who is studying at a university out of town. According to the high-speed rail ticket booking records, he left Shanyu for school yesterday morning. We’ve already notified him.

“Also, the mobile phones of the two deceased were not found at the scene.”

Lin Feng: “Usually, shops have surveillance cameras installed.”

“We’ve checked; the equipment was removed, and so were the hard drives from the computers.” The female officer in jeans flipped through her notebook. “Currently, another valuable piece of information is that there’s a shoe print in the pool of blood at the scene, approximately size 42, a common tourist shoe.”

Kou Yuan said, “Shen Jianxin’s foot size is also 42. Trace evidence analysis is needed for elimination.”

“Okay, thank you, Forensic Doctor Kou.”

Lin Feng: “Check if there are other surveillance cameras nearby, and where the nearest surveillance range is.”

“Okay, Team Lin, the technical team has already started the investigation.”

Qin Qing listened silently. She only walked up when their information exchange concluded.

Lin Feng: “How are you doing? Can you still manage?”

Qin Qing’s face was still pale. She raised her hand and made an OK gesture.

Although the bodies had been removed, the bloodstains remained, and the stench of blood lingered.

The courtyard was covered with sand, and the blood had seeped into the ground. Qin Qing stood in the courtyard, and through the open door, she could see a thick layer of congealed blood on the cement floor inside the house, with a vaguely human-shaped outline still visible in the pool of blood.

How could one person bleed so much?

Kou Yuan saw her expression, smiled, and came over to pat her back: “You’ll get used to it later. Everyone is like this the first time. Lin Feng threw up terribly the first time he was at a crime scene.”

“Hey, hey, hey, that’s ancient history. Is it interesting to bring it up now?”

Kou Yuan crossed her arms and pouted: “Very interesting. Who told you to act like a moody tyrant in the team? Everyone loves to see you make a fool of yourself.”

“Alright, alright… Director Kou, please, whatever makes you happy.” Lin Feng admitted defeat. “In a scene like that, with incomplete, fragmented bodies and severe decomposition, who wouldn’t lose their composure?”

“Luo Lü,” Kou Yuan said matter-of-factly, “He remained unfazed by even the most complex body conditions. He hadn’t even specialized in Forensic Medicine back then.”

“Is Old Luo an ordinary person? Who wants to compare themselves to him?” Lin Feng stopped discussing the topic.

He told Qin Qing, “The Old Luo we’re talking about is another consultant in our team. He’s been abroad recently, so you haven’t met him. But he’ll be back soon, and I’ll introduce you then.”

Qin Qing didn’t take it to heart.

“Are there any other living creatures here? Let me see if I can help.”

Lin Feng knew the principle behind Qin Qing’s “fortune-telling” and had already paid attention.

“There’s a flock of chickens behind, alive.”

“…”