Chapter 356 - 356 323 Warmth

Words : 2344 Updated : Oct 9th, 2025

356: Chapter 323: Warmth 356: Chapter 323: Warmth A script murder game with over a dozen people, no, a meeting, usually took just three or four rounds, and an afternoon would have almost passed by then. Jiang Fuzhen and his chefs began their evening meal service again, and as per Jiang Yuan’s request, the first dish served was tripe soup. The hot and sour tripe soup was steaming, both appetizing and warming to the stomach, ideal for colleagues who had eaten a little too much at lunch. If any of the colleagues threw up as a result, it would be considered a cleansing of the gut. By that time, Jiang Yuan had also given everyone a tablet each, so that if anyone wanted to scrutinize a particular photo closely, they could do so at their leisure. Jiang Yuan did the same, poring over the charred corpse while sipping on the tripe soup. The other police officers also began discussing in small groups, and as the soup was finished, Meng Chengbiao, seeing a bit of laxness in everyone’s demeanor, suggested, “Captain Jiang, should we consider changing our mode of discussion?” “Oh, tell me,” replied Jiang Yuan. “Let’s change the order and pretend we are the murderers, contemplating arson or murder. Under what circumstances would we choose the scene we’ve witnessed?” With Meng Chengbiao’s age and experience, he would have been a junior leader, at least in charge of a team, if he were not in the Criminal Police Brigade, having his own set of management philosophy and methods for solving cases. Seeing no objection from Jiang Yuan, Shen Yaowei, who was most familiar with the case, immediately said, “If I were the murderer and my target was this female victim, then I would certainly need to pinpoint her location first or even stalk her before committing the murder and starting the fire. The male warehouse keeper was just unlucky enough to get burned to death as well. So, am I a perpetrator who is an acquaintance?” In fact, he was following the train of thought previously set out by his elder cousin, as it was already known that the male warehouse keeper was not the intended target. Meng Chengbiao was not entirely satisfied with Shen Yaowei’s answer, but still helped him refine it, “Whether it was an acquaintance who did it is still hard to say. However, it is certain that the female victim was killed before the arson. The male warehouse keeper was burned to death directly.” This sequence could actually be interpreted in any number of ways. According to the previous investigative direction by Shen Yaoguo and others, they believed the murderer was the warehouse keeper’s cousin, who in the process of breaking into the warehouse to steal, was caught by the female victim, and had no choice but to kill her. Subsequently, to cover up his crime, he set the warehouse on fire and accidentally, or semi-deliberately, burned the male warehouse keeper to death. The stories were plausible, so actually, the key lay in the direction of the evidence. Then it was Wang Chuanxing’s turn, who after some thought, said, “If it were up to me to commit the murder, I probably wouldn’t have set fire to the warehouse, because that just escalates the situation. The warehouse only had the female boss and the keeper, and since both were killed, there was no need to burn the bodies in such a big warehouse. I could have dismembered the bodies or taken them away to dispose of elsewhere without resorting to burning.” “Burning the bodies is simpler, and after incineration, the remains may be more effective in hindering the investigation than dismemberment or dumping,” replied Meng Chengbiao, playing along. Wang Chuanxing said, “The deaths occurred at night, right? The warehouse at night would certainly provide plenty of space, and I wouldn’t worry about using machinery, so I could dismember the bodies first, bag them, and make them easy to handle by one person before hauling them outside to dispose or bury. I could even use a gasoline drum and take my time burning the bodies in the warehouse. Isn’t that more efficient than a straightforward blaze?” Miao Liyuan said, “You’re thinking from the perspective of obstructing the investigation, which is after-the-fact reasoning. Moreover, burning two bodies, bagging them, or taking time to incinerate them would take quite a while, and during that time, the perpetrator would be unprotected and exposed. If discovered, all those preparations would be in vain.” Shen Yaowei added, “Besides, the warehouse area at night is actually quite busy with vehicles coming and going. Many units transport goods at night. That warehouse was originally constructed for Jianyuan Pharmaceutical, so there could have been trucks coming to pick up goods that night.” Miao Liyuan said, “The key is the preparation. This indicates that the murderer’s preparations were perhaps not so thorough, so either the murderer didn’t have a particularly well-conceived plan, or the murder was committed in a fit of passion?” In the discussion among the detectives, some obvious premises went unmentioned. For example, if someone commits a premeditated murder in a warehouse, they would certainly need transportation. With transportation, one could carry more and more specialized equipment, such as gas drums for the arson, tools like saws, chainsaws, or wire saws for dismemberment, or shovels for burying bodies, etc. Generally speaking, a murderer with normal cognitive faculties who plans a murder in a place like a warehouse would actually have a variety of options. This was one of the reasons Meng Chengbiao organized the “I am the murderer” game. Meng Chengbiao was also controlling the pace of the “script murder” game, summarizing, “Let me summarize: Shen Yaowei proposes an acquaintance as the perpetrator, Wang Chuanxing suggests more effective ways of disrupting the investigation, and Miao Liyuan points out the risk involved in the perpetrator’s actions, suggesting that the premeditation may not have been extensive and that it may have been a crime of passion.” Meng Chengbiao paused and then continued, “Miao Liyuan’s method of murder actually conflicts with Shen Yaowei’s. Just as Shen Yaowei said, because it was a premeditated crime, we have to confirm the whereabouts of the female boss, therefore he leans more towards an acquaintance as the murderer. However, Miao Liyuan’s conclusion implies that the murderer’s motives are unreliable.” Everyone was somewhat silent; today’s script murder game, due to the lack of a given script, had evolved very quickly. On the other hand, everyone inevitably had to consider Jiang Yuan’s perceptions and had to play the “game” with utmost seriousness. In just a short ten minutes or so, 30 naïve brains had been metaphorically burned through at the scene. Tang Jia put her teasing aside and said, “I agree with Wang Chuanxing’s view, but his idea is purely that of a young male. I think the murderer could be someone like me, weaker in terms of physical strength, physical conditions, and mobility, such as a woman, a minor, or an elderly person.” A few people looked over. Tang Jia continued, “The murderer might have been more fearful of or resistant to conflict and may have exploited an acquaintance’s identity to murder the female boss. Afterward, they likely lacked the physical strength to carry out dismemberment or body disposal. They may not even have planned to kill the keeper. Thus, the idea that it’s convenient to dismember in the warehouse may not be applicable.” “Do you think the warehouse keeper was just collateral damage?” asked Meng Chengbiao. “It’s possible. The murderer might not have been able to rely on their physical strength to kill the warehouse keeper, dismember the body, and then discard it. Just for me to pick up an electric saw would already be difficult, let alone cut two bodies into pieces small enough for one person to carry...” Tang Jia gestured toward her arm and said, “I’d have to divide the bodies into bags weighing around 15 or 30 pounds each. For two people, that’s over 200 pounds; I’d need at least seven or eight bags at minimum.” As police, they actually had a certain understanding of dismemberment. The hardest part about dismembering a body is dealing with the four large limb bones. Cutting fresh bones with an ordinary electric saw is very difficult, prone to splattering bone fragments and such, which are then easily found at the scene. And if you can’t cut through the femoral head of the thigh bones, it becomes quite problematic to handle the bones with the attached flesh. For instance, if you use plastic bags, the sharp bone fragments can easily puncture them. What are you supposed to do when you run out of precisely counted bags? Actually, anyone who has experienced home renovations will have similar experiences. Carpenters buy various materials according to the design plan, including small nails and large screw caps. However, as work progresses, there’s always something missing, which forces you to make extra trips to buy more supplies. With murder and dismemberment or even cremation, it’s the same. But imagine if, while dismembering a body, the chainsaw blade breaks, are you expected to go out at night covered in blood-stained clothes to buy a new one? Or if the bone fragments that splatter wound your face, and the blood that drips stains the floor, do you have towels or bandages on hand? Did you bring any cleaning supplies? “Tang Jia’s analysis makes sense,” Meng Chengbiao affirmed, asking, “Then from your own perspective, how would you commit a murder?” Tang Jia took a sip of water and said, “I’d start by buying some cosmetics I don’t usually use, take a bath, do my makeup, then wrap my hair in a quick-dry towel. I’d buy new clothes that are easy to move in, a pair of reliable gloves, a scarf, or maybe a hat that could cover distinctive features of my head.” Meng Chengbiao listened in astonishment. Had the crime channel turned into a home shopping network? Tang Jia continued, “My first concern would be how to smoothly kill the female boss. Assuming the murderer has relatively weak physical strength and power, the first choice should probably be poisoning. If poisoning doesn’t work, then killing should probably be done through taking advantage of a personal relationship.” “After killing, my biggest problem would be solved. Next, for incineration, I might need a lighter, or perhaps prepare more matches, maybe needing some kind of accelerant as well. Avoiding cameras, there comes a point where I’d have to walk a long distance and carry heavy loads away from where I parked my car.” What Tang Jia said next was rather ordinary. Meng Chengbiao again gave Tang Jia a high appraisal and continued to urge the others on. After a round of ‘how I’d murder,’ Meng Chengbiao turned to Jiang Yuan and asked, “Captain Jiang, would you also like to share a few words?” “Sure.” Jiang Yuan set down his skewered meat, wiped his mouth, and smiled, “This case is quite perplexing, an accumulated case at that. Many things we might never understand, never figure out. However, there are still some clues that we can follow.” Jiang Yuan didn’t continue with the ‘how I’d murder’ approach, but rather said directly, “I’m more inclined to look straight at the evidence, the stable evidence we can find so far is here...” What he displayed was the chemical analysis of the male warehouse keeper’s blood, with a carbon monoxide content of 54.6%. Jiang Yuan explained, “This percentage matches the lethal amount necessary to cause death by carbon monoxide inhalation before dying. But considering that this warehouse keeper was actually a long-term smoker, a smoker’s CO level is normally between 5% and 15%. So, this figure of 54.6% is actually below the lethal level.” Jiang Yuan then displayed photos of the warehouse keeper’s body and continued, “The male victim had a contusion on his head, which is consistent with injuries sustained from hitting something while trying to escape from a fire. However, this indicates that the male victim was mobile at the time of his death.” “So you also believe that the warehouse keeper didn’t escape and was burned to death?” asked Shen Yaowei. Jiang Yuan nodded and replied, “So we can put the warehouse keeper aside for now. Regarding the female victim, the autopsy photos suggest that she was stabbed in the heart from the front with a sharp blade and died very quickly. The murderer was very decisive, not something that can be explained by a mere crime of passion or premeditated murder.” “Then...” thought Meng Chengbiao, “there has to be one explanation.” “What I am trying to describe here is that the murderer’s thrust into the heart was clean and efficient, most likely by a trained professional, and one with significant strength, at least that of an ordinary adult male,” Jiang Yuan drew this description from thinking about the fourth daughter of Jianyuan Pharmaceutical. Tang Jia instantly noticed, asking, “You think a strong woman, a trained professional showing signs of training, killed the female boss with a single strike?” “It could have been a woman or a man,” Jiang Yuan didn’t fixate on gender and replied, “The task force on this current case must have had a similar consideration, but the main focus was on the male warehouse keeper’s connections. Let’s start by following up on the female boss’s side.” This investigative direction was different from before, and it was highly likely. Everybody’s spirits were lifted, and they began picking up roast mutton and cooked steaks to eat while discussing the charred bodies. Meng Chengbiao suddenly felt the scene was very warm, just like when he had first joined the Criminal Police force. The whole team was full of vigor, living each day passionately discussing cases and arresting suspects.

Chapter 356 - 356 323 Warmth

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