Chapter 306 - 306 274 Jingling Community

Words : 2125 Updated : Oct 3rd, 2025

306: Chapter 274: Jingling Community 306: Chapter 274: Jingling Community Dawn’s rosy light began to spread. Jiang Yuan opened his eyes and climbed out of bed, took a brief rest, and then hurried to the Criminal Police Detachment. Upon entering the Cold Case Squad’s office, he saw, as expected, that quite a few people had arrived earlier. Wan Baoming had just come in from outside and, seeing Jiang Yuan, said, “Last night, everyone used the suspect information you provided to check through the missing persons. So far, no discoveries have been made, and today we’re planning to conduct door-to-door checks.” “Do you think it was someone familiar who committed the crime?” Jiang Yuan asked. Door-to-door checks, aside from inquiring about the situation, are most beneficial for observing family members’ facial expressions and movements; some first-time killers, who initially act normally, can reveal themselves after just a few words. Furthermore, if you visit a suspect’s home and there’s a smell of blood, or neighbors report that someone has been chopping meat all day, no one would believe the excuse that they bought a sheep yesterday to cook at home. As a whole, the shrewd methods of solving cases facing cunning murder plans are rarely seen in the police force. Generally speaking, one side tends to appear cruder. Wan Baoming naturally hoped the other party would be cruder and, thinking it over, felt it was unlikely, then said, “Mainly, we’re looking for a stove; it seems he dismembered the body before burning it, which requires quite a high level of environmental control.” “Yeah, those without staircases in their homes basically couldn’t pull this off,” Jiang Yuan nodded. “So, Jingling Community has always been under high suspicion, and this time is the same. Let’s see if we can find some clues,” Wan Baoming replied with uncertainty. Jiang Yuan looked around; more than half of the personnel had already arrived in the conference room, but when it came to leveraging staff advantages, it turned out that there wasn’t much for them to do. This was just how it was at the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment; everyone harbored aspirations for promotion and salary increases and would actively show off, even if it meant showing up for useless tasks. It was different at the county bureau, where people had started to value meaningful work. No one bothered with tasks that had no significance, especially since they couldn’t lead to promotions or pay raises. “Let’s go to the scene,” Jiang Yuan felt it would be a waste to have such a team focused on things like PPT presentations. Yu Wenshu probably wouldn’t appreciate him pulling people away given the newly established Cold Case Squad, but Jiang Yuan was getting restless without a case to work on. Wan Baoming was surprised and said, “Captain Yu is in command at the scene, but Chief Zhu is responsible for it. Shall I call him?” “Okay,” Jiang Yuan replied as he gathered his things, preparing to leave. Wang Chuanxing, who was standing close by and all ears, quickly volunteered, “Captain Jiang, let me carry your bag for you.” Eagerly holding Jiang Yuan’s belongings, he smiled and asked, “What are we looking for when we get there?” Wang Chuanxing was genuinely benefiting, with a third-class merit under his belt and emerging from a fierce competition among his peers. He was in high spirits as if he had won the lottery, now hoping to strike it lucky once more. After giving it some thought, Jiang Yuan said gravely, “I don’t know, but I feel there’s a high probability that the person who discarded the burnt bones either lives in that community or nearby.” Wang Chuanxing agreed, “Someone from out of town wouldn’t be able to find such a suitable community, especially one bordered by villas, and besides, whether they drove or took a taxi, it would be easy to leave a record.” Then Tang Jia joined the conversation, saying, “The collected bones are all so small; I think the culprit might have just discarded them casually into a trash bin, probably thinking they wouldn’t be found. If not for stray animals dragging them out and the remains being discovered, we probably wouldn’t even have this case.” “They should’ve thrown it into the river,” Wang Chuanxing suggested. “With just those ten or so pieces of bones, you wouldn’t be able to find them if they were thrown into the river.” “They could have been washed ashore by water. Or someone on the riverbank or the cameras there might have captured it. Li Changyu had a case where they dammed up the river and fished out bone fragments from it. The Hangzhou wife-murder case was similar, with human tissue fished out of a septic tank,” Wan Baoming added his input and left with Jiang Yuan. Once in the car, Wan Baoming continued, “Jingling Community, where the incident occurred, has the scale of over three thousand households. Among them, the villa area alone houses over a thousand, with more than five hundred currently occupied, while the apartment blocks account for about two thousand, with a seventy to eighty percent occupancy rate. This is one of Changyang City’s earliest villa communities, and because of its mountaintop location, the residents of nearby communities enjoy visiting Jingling Community, which poses the main problem we’re currently facing...” For someone disposing of a body from out of town, common locations are major traffic routes, highway exits, or places like bridges or under bridges. Imagine, a person traveling miles in a car, with a body or a basket of burned bones inside. Upon arriving in a foreign place, could they calmly find a remote villa community far from the city center and then discard it in a community garbage bin? It’s completely unnecessary. Especially for those unfamiliar with local traffic, many drivers are reluctant to navigate through residential streets on a regular basis, let alone carrying a basket of bones into a community to find a trash bin—it’s absurd to even consider. It would be easier to scatter them in the river. Upon arriving at Jingling Community and surveying the scene, one would find that the situation was even more complex. Jingling Community sits atop a hill, and below it, on the mid-slope and foothill, are five or six other small communities, among which the Anji Community at the foot of the hill has even constructed an artificial lake. Just as Wan Baoming said, Jingling Community is open, with a policy that controls vehicles but not pedestrians, allowing residents from other communities to enter for walks and to enjoy the cooler air. Similarly, Anji Community has nearly the same policy, also allowing residents of other communities to come and enjoy the cool breeze by their artificial lake. “Why didn’t the killer throw the bone fragments into the artificial lake?” Jiang Yuan stood on the hill, looking down at the glittering artificial lake, and found it strange. “Because the artificial lake is dredged regularly every year.” This time, it was Yu Wenshu, who had received the news and had come to the scene personally, who spoke. Yu Wenshu’s style wasn’t as meticulous and hands-on as that of Xu Taining, it seemed rather lax as he said, “I had a chat with the property manager down the hill. They dredged last year and even caught a lot of fish, they charge for dredging and are very active about it.” “Captain Yu,” Jiang Yuan greeted first. The others also greeted him one after another. After everyone had finished their greetings, Yu Wenshu waved his hand with a smile and said, “Just talk about the case, no need for all this formality.” Jiang Yuan then said, “So, throwing bone fragments into the artificial lake here wouldn’t have solved the problem once and for all.” Yu Wenshu made a sound of agreement and added, “The perpetrator must have taken this into account. The trash here is disposed of by garbage trucks automatically, without manual handling, it’s the best disposal channel.” “That being said, the culprit is likely a resident here, or at least someone with considerable knowledge of the area?” Jiang Yuan easily came to this conclusion. Yu Wenshu nodded gravely. Reaching the same deduction wasn’t difficult. For a normal person driving to an unfamiliar community to dispose of human bone remains, why not throw them into the artificial lake seen at the foot of the hill but instead drive up to a residential area on the hill to throw it in someone else’s trash bin? Was it necessary? If the person didn’t know about the garbage collection rules and the dredging schedule of the artificial lake, the right choice would be to dump the remains into the artificial lake. And a slightly more correct method would be disposing them into a river. Choosing a more cumbersome method over simpler, more covert ones is best explained by the culprit being a local resident. However, there’s one problem, which is the latter part of what Jiang Yuan had just mentioned. A person “with considerable knowledge of the community” could also make the same choice. For example, a past resident or tenant from one or two years ago, or a relative who had visited this place. Based on the current clues, Yu Wenshu was not too keen to discuss this issue. If the truth was indeed so, then the method of screening residents would be practically useless, and this case might not even be solvable. At this moment, Jiang Yuan was also thinking and said, “Actually, if they wanted to leave no trace, they should have burned the bones more, then smashed them and ground them down...” Jiang Yuan thought, “They were a bit rushed.” The bones were burned to the point of calcination, frankly speaking, a few smashes would have turned them into very fine pieces. Of course, the current bone fragments were already very crushed, with the largest bones being only as big as the palm of a hand, and the most numerous vertebrae only about the size of a small rib fragment. At this stage, it’s highly likely they had already been smashed, perhaps the killer didn’t want to continue smashing them, or maybe the work was too laborious, reaching this point might have caused backaches and sore waists... Or perhaps, they didn’t dare to make noise for too long? Jiang Yuan, recalling the bone fragments he had seen, turned his head and asked, “Have you inquired with the residents about any noise complaints? Even very short durations should be recorded.” “We have asked, mainly in Jingling Community, but we haven’t systematically asked other communities yet,” Yu Wenshu understood what Jiang Yuan meant and inquired, “Do all the bones have marks of being hit and smashed?” “I think that must be the case. They were burned first, which made them more brittle, then smashed, and burned again, which wore away some edges. A casual smash would result in their current state.” Jiang Yuan explained before saying, “The scene must have been chaotic, they needed a fairly large area to do this, and there would inevitably have been knocking noises, it must have taken at least half an hour.” “I’ll tell them to include inquiries about noise,” Yu Wenshu said, without suggesting a comprehensive search. Thirty minutes of noise was just an estimate, perhaps the smashing was done in intervals, or maybe there were sound-absorbing preparations? In any case, from Yu Wenshu’s perspective, this lead was not reliable. And he couldn’t, like Xu Taining, throw resources at every single lead they came across. In terms of the operational capacity of the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment, carrying out a screening of tens of thousands of people would max out resources in one case, and if used twice, it had to yield results, or else someone would have to take the blame. Jiang Yuan had his fair share of experience with cases and could understand Yu Wenshu’s caution. Leaders just have to give an order, while the foot soldiers run around breaking their legs. If the leader is considered spineless for being considerate of manpower, that’s just a double standard. Moreover, the strength of the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment was quite substantial. In Ningtai County, screening a few thousand people would be the limit. After chatting a bit more, Yu Wenshu went off to take care of other things. Jiang Yuan strolled leisurely around the community, especially near the trash bin where the burned bone fragments had been found, walking and observing at the same time.

Chapter 306 - 306 274 Jingling Community

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