119: Chapter 117: Work Hard 119: Chapter 117: Work Hard Changyang City.

Policemen from various places continued to gather.

Including the four bandits who were captured alive, the half-dead gang leader had also been transferred to Changyang.

The conditions here were better, allowing for more thorough interrogation and treatment.

Liu Jinghui, based on the testimonies of these individuals, divided the special case team into three temporary task forces: a major crimes task force, a poaching task force, and an economic crime task force.

Yet, it was the latter economic crime task force that ended up using the most manpower.

Decades of poaching had enabled the group of five to nearly monopolize the output of Mount Wulong, hence developing a distorted industrial chain.

Contrary to initial assumptions, the adoption of a killing spree by the gang of five was actually a result of competition among various poaching squads.

During the initial phase of the poaching ban, squads that had once helped each other gradually started confronting each other over game, territory, money, and even methods of poaching, resulting in constant friction and eventually adopting a dark forest strategy—shoot on sight.

After relentless competition, within the Mount Wulong region, especially the elite protected areas and nearby, only the gang led by Hu remained.

However, more people became attached to the industry chain.

They helped with processing and selling fur and bone products, later began selling meat, and then opened exotic dining restaurants and conducted pseudo-rituals and worship activities…

Smugglers, medicine sellers, art traders—industries that could make money were bound to infiltrate.

After more than a decade of development, some who engaged in illegal business had grown large and strong enough to become legitimate, making the work required for investigation and prosecution even more substantial.

As the economic task force expanded, detectives from the major crimes task force gradually brought back some evidence.

There were several bones, some clothing, primarily the tools and items the victims had carried, such as lighters, mosquito repellent, Liquid Borneol, and so on.

The group of five typically stored these useful supplies in safehouses or transit houses nearby.

They were accustomed to stashing unused supplies during short-term poaching trips, in order to resupply on longer expeditions later on.

Such long-term planning was only possible because their poaching operations had been too smooth, allowing them to become increasingly reckless.

When the number of murder cases revealed through interrogation increased to 11, with 26 lives taken, the ministry was shocked and sent personnel to supervise the case.

Liu Jinghui, who was usually responsible for overseeing cases around the country, finally experienced being supervised himself.

Jiang Yuan went to the forensic office of the Changyang Municipal Criminal Police Team to examine the evidence retrieved by the major crimes task force, one by one.

There were thirteen bones in total, including vertebrae, tibia, phalanges, and metatarsals, unevenly distributed.

They were of little help to the case, but through DNA comparison, six victims were identified.

Six hikers.

And those everyday items essentially belonged to the hikers as well.

Herb gatherers accustomed to the mountains and even ordinary people living nearby had heard some mountain legends and would not touch the belongings of the group of five, reducing the frequency of their presence on their routes.

Most importantly, the equipment and supplies carried by the locals were not of high quality.

Apart from some perishable food items, the group of five did not care for their belongings.

The hikers were different, however, with their lighters being Zippo, their lamps Petromax, their textures spiked, and their cups from Snowpeak.

The group of five did not like hikers who came to the mountain, but they quite liked their belongings, cleaning and using them.

Just by looking at their possessions, these five…

were truly reckless and brutally vicious.

Jiang Yuan came to the forensic office of the Changyang Municipal Criminal Police Team.

The evidence had already been wiped down, and DNA reports had come out.

There was a limited amount of evidence left containing victims’ DNA, but considering that some items had been used often over several years and still retained DNA, it indicated the offenders didn’t take it seriously.

It wasn’t that they didn’t understand DNA, but they simply weren’t afraid.

Otherwise, disposing of the items would have been the safest option.

Ye Tianhe, a forensic doctor with the Changyang criminal police, stood filling out forms and said casually, “Without a body, all these pieces of evidence are circumstantial.

They could simply say they found them, and you’d have no way to proceed.”

“Right, they didn’t even properly dispose of the bodies.”

“The disposal was already adequate, they even knew how to scatter misleading substances.

If they wanted to hide it even more, they’d raise a few pigs.” As Ye Tianhe spoke, he shook his head, “That wouldn’t work either, it would create more flaws.”

Hearing Doctor Ye mention raising pigs, Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but stiffen up for a moment.

Pigs were too commonplace, but as omnivores, they could chew up bones, causing a human body to disappear without leaving any trace of evidence, which was always unsettling to hear.

To say it was flawless would be far from the truth for the group of five, but their level of secrecy was actually quite high.

It could only be said that most serial killers were pragmatists, selected by time and environment.

Jiang Yuan felt somewhat exhausted after completing the autopsy of the bones with Doctor Ye from Changyang City.

The experiences during this business trip had indeed exposed Jiang Yuan, a new forensic doctor, to too many dark aspects of society.

His job also seemed to become heavier.

Normal people would feel uncomfortable at the sight of human bones.

Yet at that moment, Jiang Yuan actually felt that these bones provided him with a sense of security.

Even though as a forensic doctor he dealt with those who had already passed away, his work was still meaningful—to swiftly identify the perpetrators, bring them to justice, and let the victims rest in peace.

So that they could find their proper resting place.

So that they could return home.

…

That afternoon, the police station was visited by an elderly couple.

Both had sunspots on their faces and seemed to be around seventy.

They were dressed in hemp clothes, supporting each other as they came along, wailing mournfully.

“Child, come home, child, come home.”

Their voices were so hoarse that it made people tremble inside.

Doctor Ye spoke up, “These are the parents of Li Sanqiu.

They lost their only child, are a bit superstitious, and have caused a few disturbances at the police station before, claiming that without finding the murderer, their child couldn’t reincarnate.”

Jiang Yuan couldn’t bear to see the old couple’s condition.

He had a father and couldn’t fathom the image of his father wailing alone at the police station if anything happened to him.

So he resolved to live well, work diligently, and meticulously perform autopsies.

…