100: Chapter 98 Embedding 100: Chapter 98 Embedding “We’re here.”

It was a little past five in the afternoon.

The two guides, dragging and hauling, managed to get Liu Jinghui onto a small plateau by the edge of a cliff.

He was getting on in years and could keep up with the first half of the mountain trail but was virtually collapsing like a dead dog for the latter half.

Of course, in Liu Jinghui’s own words, he was just “too tired from driving yesterday.”

Jiang Yuan was equally exhausted.

Taking advantage of the dying light of the sunset, he quickly snapped a series of photos and observed the surroundings carefully before the sky rapidly darkened.

Jiang Yuan then helped prepare for camping.

His Level 2 camping skills finally came into play.

Although not as at ease as the two guides, it still significantly sped up their overall progress.

The cliff here had been artificially cleared.

Although it was also covered with plants, they weren’t very tall and allowed some light to filter down.

Behind the platform made up of several large rocks was a cave extending three to four meters deep.

It too had been tidied up, with a fire pit and a small amount of wood, branches, and leaves prepared in advance.

The group quickly cleared a space on the small plateau.

Once they had established a foothold, they set up a small tent, fetched water from the mountain stream, and started a fire.

The cave behind the small plateau was the primary crime scene of the “Wu Long Wildman Case”, but none of the four people mentioned this.

They first busied themselves with organizing the place where they would stay.

An experienced guide sprayed a large amount of insect repellent on the ground of the small plateau.

Instantly, a variety of colored insects crawled out from underneath rotting branches and leaves, staggering into the nearby thickets.

Liu Jinghui’s face changed slightly at the sight, and he asked, “Does no one come here anymore?

Last time I was here, it was the same…”

The experienced guide replied, “We took the path previously used by the herbalists.

And the caves around here were also prepared by them for their own use.”

The other guide, somewhat nostalgic, said, “When people are out and about, if they encounter rainy weather or get sick or injured and can’t make it back in time, they stay in the caves for a night or two.

They light a fire, boil some water, and whenever someone comes by later and has some time, they add some wood to the fire…

There are places like this at the foot of the mountain too, but they’re rarer now.”

“What about now?

It couldn’t have been completely abandoned, right?” asked Liu Jinghui.

“At least you guys would still come here.”

“Right now, we only take jobs from guests like hikers or people who enjoy trekking…

Those trekking usually don’t take this route.

It’s too remote.

If it weren’t for this incident, I wouldn’t take this path in a few more years,” the guide explained while chopping down several saplings with a hatchet, seemingly to prevent future trouble.

But everyone knew that if they returned next year, this place would be covered with saplings again.

“What about the village?

The people in the village below the mountain still come up, don’t they?” Liu Jinghui had asked a similar question before, but this time he purposely brought a new young guide and wanted to ask again.

The young guide, about 20 years old, didn’t take it seriously and simply answered, “Villagers come up mostly because someone in their family is ill and they need to gather some herbs for treatment.

They don’t come as far as here.

We’ve walked eight or nine hours to get here, clearing paths along the way.

The village is now mostly older folks; they can’t afford to exert themselves like that.”

Liu Jinghui uttered a thoughtful “Hmm,” and then turned to Jiang Yuan, “Shall we then go into the cave and start the investigation?

It’s better to stay inside the cave tonight.

We should inspect all the larger areas by evening.”

He had been here before and knew that staying outside the cave would be troublesome.

The mountain environment, unlike outside, was cold, damp, and could make one sick.

There were also poisonous creatures and wild animals whose whereabouts were unknown.

However, he brought just Jiang Yuan and two guides this time, rather than the large team he had last time, in order to minimize the impact on the crime scene.

Jiang Yuan nodded; he was there to conduct crime scene investigation and had no reason to shirk his duties.

Liu Jinghui sent the two guides to fetch water and cook, then turned to Jiang and asked, “You’ve seen the previous photos, where shall we start?”

Jiang Yuan had viewed the photos on his iPad during the journey.

They were the most useful evidence preserved from before—though in Jiang Yuan’s view, they were not particularly helpful.

The first and second groups of police officers who ascended the mountain virtually found no valid evidence aside from the bodies.

The forensic doctors involved had a hard time proving the identities and made little progress in the field of forensic pathology.

Because the bodies were incomplete, the current speculation was that the fatal injuries were to the abdomen, and unfortunately, the soft abdomen was most appealing to wild animals.

Before the bodies could decompose, the visiting animals had hollowed out the abdomen, which contained the death information, into a large hole…

Of course, that wasn’t surprising.

Given the current situation, any footprint left on the ground could be obliterated by insects, fungi, or other strange things.

The types of evidence that detectives commonly relied on had no reason to exist in such an environment.

Jiang Yuan waved his flashlight around, hesitated, and said slowly, “Fingerprints are unlikely, DNA is hopeless, the most probable would be physical evidence, like plastic packaging, or metal objects.

I’ll start by searching the ashes of the burnt fire.

Don’t touch anything.”

Video, cell phones, and DNA—the three treasures of the detectives.

Jiang Yuan felt that the cell phone had the best chance of being found.

For example, if while rummaging, he happened to pull a cell phone out from underneath the cave, that would be ideal.

Dreams unfulfilled.

Jiang Yuan sat next to the fire pit, put on his gloves directly, and slowly sifted through the ash inside.

To be honest, the black ash and such had been mostly eradicated by nature, but branches or some food that had been smoked and roasted actually lasted a little longer.

However, considering that the police had also made a fire and barbecued here last time, what Jiang Yuan found was difficult to attribute to anyone specific.

Despite that, he first sifted through this area, then went around looking for clues and evidence.

The search lasted half the night.

Barely resting overnight, as soon as the sun rose the next morning, Jiang Yuan hurriedly took the time to review the evidence he found yesterday.

It was all rather uninspiring.

Jiang Yuan sat by the fire pit, poking the fire with a stick, frowning in thought.

This place was not like a residential building where one could wipe everything clean; even if someone tried to clean the cave, they probably wouldn’t be able to scrub anything significant.

The diverse varieties of microorganisms could easily obliterate all biological evidence.

Extracting some soil to perform a chemical analysis back at the lab might yield some results, but I’m afraid it would be of little help to the case.

Liu Jinghui also woke up, washed up with cold water, then turned back and spoke in a gentle voice, “Find whatever you can.

Calling you here was a long shot anyway.

Not to mention the previous groups of detectives, even I came here last time with several technicians, and we found nothing.”

Jiang Yuan didn’t need Liu Jinghui’s reassurance; he simply rubbed his shoulders and stood up, saying, “There’s nothing to see in the cave, I’ll go have a look around.”

“Let Xiao Yang accompany you.” Liu Jinghui called the more experienced guide to follow Jiang Yuan to inspect the nearby area.

Of course, the main focus was the ravine where the body had been found.

Looking around until noon, Jiang Yuan returned to the fire pit, found the fire dwindling, so he gathered more firewood and rebuilt the fire structure.

While doing so, his gaze fell on one side of the wall.

The color of the wall here had changed slightly, which most people would subconsciously attribute to the fire pit’s effect.

But with a Level 2 camping skill on record, Jiang Yuan could easily judge: that wasn’t the case.

If the fire from the fire pit had affected the growth of organic matter on the wall, it should have been the part closest to the fire pit and flames to be affected first.

However, the area on the wall where the color change was most pronounced was positioned further inside.

Upon this realization, Jiang Yuan immediately went forward to closely examine the cave’s wall surface.

With the crime scene skills he had, the wall must have been contaminated to some degree, as for what…

Jiang Yuan’s gloved fingers gently touched it, and his attention was quickly diverted.

What contamination.

What color.

Jiang Yuan pried apart a section of vine and clearly saw a half-black object embedded in the wall.

Peeling away the soil next to the half-black object, a not-so-common word flashed in Jiang Yuan’s mind: bullet.

Jiang Yuan immediately took pictures with his camera, set up a tripod, switched to photo mode, then brought over the crime scene investigation box to carefully strip the soil, plants, and stone chips around the half-black object.

A fragmented bullet was firmly lodged about 30 centimeters up from the bottom of the cave wall.