novelSusiti 054: Steamed Bun Shop
054: Steamed Bun Shop
Su Wen and Xu Ge returned to the county government office and saw many people bringing meat to exchange for the reward money. Chen Xian rushed over to Su Wen and said, "Chief Su, not long after the notice was posted, people brought back the meat they had found. Some families have already cooked it. They brought it all after learning it was human flesh!"
"lead the way!"
The three men went to one side of the courtyard and looked at the table covered with pieces of meat of various sizes. They thought to themselves, "Go and prepare two buckets of yellow mud!"
Chen Xian responded and turned to leave.
Su Wen carefully examined the pieces of flesh. The surface of the corpse was unusually smooth, clearly indicating that the skin had been removed. Su Wen picked up a piece of flesh and smelled it; it had a faint floral scent. Su Wen frowned and said, "Xu Ge, take some men and ask around. Has any woman gone missing? Judging from the corpse, it should be a woman, and a woman who was extremely fond of beauty and often took baths, especially in brothels!"
Xu Ge responded and turned to leave.
In feudal society, people who bathed very frequently were either wealthy nobles or courtesans, since boiling water in ancient times was not an inexpensive thing!
Women from wealthy and noble families are always accompanied by guards and attendants when they go out, and most of them never leave their homes. It would be a disgrace to their family to show their faces in public, so it is generally not them. That is why Su Wen asked Xu Ge to inquire about brothels.
Just then, a thug rushed in from outside. Upon seeing Su Wen, he took a few deep breaths and said, "Chief Su, we've found the crime scene! The brothers have retrieved quite a few bones and mangled internal organs from the wild dogs!"
Su Wen hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Come on, take me there!"
"yes!"
Before long, Su Wen arrived at an abandoned house. There were many onlookers around the house, but he was stopped at the gate by two thugs.
Upon entering the courtyard, the ground was covered with dog and human footprints, so messy that it was impossible to tell them apart. Because it had rained lightly the night before, and the ground in the courtyard had not been paved with stones, it was muddy and slippery.
Led by the Bad Guys, Su Wen arrived at a well. There, a pile of bones was placed on a white cloth, along with a pile of broken internal organs and intestines.
The sight was nauseating. On the way here, Su Wen had already checked that there were no signs of any residents living around this abandoned house, so the murderer deliberately chose this place to commit the crime, and there was a well right next to it.
Therefore, it can be preliminarily concluded that this was a crime that had been planned for a long time.
At this moment, one of the thugs said, "The murderer and this person must have some deep-seated grudge, otherwise how could he be so cruel as to dismember the person into eight pieces and even let the dogs eat the corpse!"
Su Wen responded, "Yes, you guessed right. The fact that the killer chose this place to strike shows that they had been preparing for a long time. But where's the boss?"
The thugs looked at each other, shaking their heads, and said, "No head was found!"
Su Wen pondered for a moment. The head had five facial features and too little flesh, making it difficult to cut the flesh off. Moreover, the human skull was extremely hard, so dealing with it would not be an easy task!
Su Wen originally wanted to look for any important clues at the scene, but the muddy ground and the dogs fighting over food made the place extremely muddy. Even if there were clues, he couldn't find them. After all, this era didn't have the high technology of later generations.
Su Wen said, "Take all these things back first. Also, you few go and memorize the identification information of all the onlookers outside!"
Upon returning to the county government office, Chen Xian said, "Chief Administrator, the yellow clay you requested has been brought!"
Su Wendao: "Okay!"
After saying that, Su Wen took off his clothes and threw them aside, rolled up his sleeves, and started to knead the yellow mud on the ground.
In about two quarters of an hour, Su Wen sculpted the shape of a person. Then, Su Wen began to carefully distinguish the collected flesh and began to assemble it on the clay figure. Of course, in order to ensure that he would not make a mistake, Su Wen assembled the flesh while simultaneously assembling the collected bones.
This whole assembly took two or three hours; it's quite a technical job.
Su Wen is no ordinary forensic doctor. He is a disciple of Mr. Chen Shixian, one of the "Eight Tigers of Criminal Investigation". Mr. Chen solved tens of thousands of cases in his lifetime and came into contact with at least eight thousand corpses. His knowledge of human anatomy is already very advanced.
Although he is not as good as Elder Chen, he is still a formidable opponent. Elder Chen once managed to piece together the man's appearance from the shattered body parts. Now, these body parts are not small, so piecing them together is naturally much easier.
After Su Wen finished piecing it together, he turned to the group of thugs to the side and said, "Take a note!"
A scoundrel picked up a pen and paper.
Su Wendao: "The deceased is a woman, approximately six feet two to six feet three inches tall. She is headless and has been cut into hundreds of pieces of flesh. The skin on her body is missing, indicating that her skin was peeled off. Her skin is unusually smooth, suggesting that mercury was poured on her while a knife was used to slowly cut along the mercury. This process must have been very lengthy. Although the body has been severely damaged, it should be estimated that it took at least two days!"
At this point, Su Wen stood up, frowned, and looked at the Bad Guys, asking, "Has Xu Ge returned?"
Before the words were even finished, Xu Ge rushed in from outside and said, "Master, we searched all over Fei County and finally found out from the madam of a brothel called Wangyue Tower that their little Yue'er went home to visit her family three days ago and hasn't returned since!"
Su Wen asked, "Did you ask about height and such?"
Xu Ge replied, "I asked. The madam said that Xiao Yue'er is twenty-four years old this year, between six feet two inches and six feet three inches tall, and is skilled in calligraphy, painting, and playing the zither. She went home to visit her family three days ago, on the twelfth, and hasn't returned since!"
Su Wendao said, "Bring the madam to the county office for questioning!"
Xu Ge replied, "Yes!"
Su Wen looked at the ruffians and asked, "Have any of you been to Wangyue Tower?"
The thugs exchanged glances, then nodded. Su Wen asked, "Is the population at Wangyue Tower diverse?"
One of the thugs said, "It's quite complicated. Wangyue Tower is the cheapest among the surrounding counties, and most of the people there are very beautiful, so it's extremely popular. People from neighboring counties also frequently come, making it quite complex!"
After thinking for a moment, Su Wen said, "Chen Xian, take some men to the clinic and pharmacies and check the mercury that has been sold recently. Get an accurate list. Also, check if any wealthy people have visited Wangyue Tower recently. Secretly investigate those wealthy people and see if they have made any unusual moves. If they have moved or left Fei County, arrest them and bring them back to the county government. Mercury is very valuable; it's not something ordinary people can afford!"
"yes!"
The scoundrels responded in unison.