The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1156 Group Discussion and Analysis

While discussing the arduousness of the investigation, Zhou Jianguo rolled a cigarette. The flame of the lighter flickered in the darkness, illuminating the wrinkles around his eyes like a dense net. "In my thirty years as a criminal investigator, I've never seen anything this difficult," he said, his smoke rings spreading in the blue light of the screen. "Twenty suspected leads, either the scar location is wrong, the DNA doesn't match, or there's an alibi." He suddenly pointed to "Zhao Wei's" file. The man in the photo was grinning, the scar on his right eyebrow squeezed into a straight line by the smile. "The most outrageous one is this one. Every feature matches, but he's a wanted criminal. He was stealing an electric bike in Hainan on May 14th. He couldn't possibly be in two places at Beishan Park, could he?"

Xiao Zhao rubbed his sore eyes, the eye drops drawing a cool arc on the whites of his eyes: "Brother Hui, my eyes are almost blind, everything is double-looking. I just mistook 'unmatched' for 'matched' on the screen and almost shouted it out." Xiao Zhou tossed him his eye drops, the bottle rolling twice on the table before stopping next to "Sun Zhiqiang's" file—in 2019, a man named "Sun Zhiqiang" reported the loss of standard handcuffs, stating that they were "lost while on duty."

"Check this person's current situation," Xiao Zhou's fingers flew across the keyboard. "Male, 40 years old, former prison guard, imprisoned for bribery, released last year, 176cm tall, scar on his right eyebrow!" The file photo of Sun Zhiqiang, wearing prison clothes, showed a scar on his right eyebrow that perfectly matched the deceased's. More importantly, his DNA matched the skin tissue under the deceased's fingernails at five different sites. "There's a chance!" Zhou Jianguo sat up abruptly, cigarette ash falling onto his police uniform. "After his release, he opened a grocery store near Beishan Park. On the evening of May 14th, someone saw him arguing with a strange man in front of the store. That man's physical characteristics are highly similar to the deceased's!"

But when Xiao Zhou contacted the local police station, the reply was chilling—Sun Zhiqiang died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage in the early hours of May 15th. DNA samples taken during his hospital treatment showed a complete mismatch with the skin tissue found under his fingernails; the previous five matches were merely coincidences. "Is God playing a cruel joke on us?" Xiao Zhao slammed the file on the table, tears welling in his eyes. "We haven't slept for over 48 hours. The system log shows we've checked 1003 pieces of information, averaging 1.7 pieces per minute. Is this work for a human being?"

As dawn broke, the 998th piece of information was marked "excluded." Xiao Zhou stacked the files of the 20 suspected cases together, more than 5 centimeters thick, each name marked with a different colored cross—red for DNA mismatch, blue for physical differences, and black for alibis. "Brother Hui, why don't we take a break?" Xiao Zhao's voice was choked with tears, his eyes bloodshot, like a rubbed rabbit. "The system says 17 new missing persons reports were added today. We can wait for the technical department's toxicology report before investigating further."

Xiao Zhou gazed at the gradually brightening sky outside the window, his haggard face reflected in the glass—stubble covered his chin, bloodshot eyes like spiderwebs, and dark sweat stains seeped under his shirt armpits. "Check the last 10," he said, taking a sip of cold tea, the brown liquid churning in his stomach with a burnt taste. "Focus on those with military or police backgrounds, those who were active near Beishan Park on the evening of May 14th, especially those with traffic violations; maybe we can get a clear picture of their faces."

But as the morning sun rose above the office building, its golden rays streaming through the windows and casting long patches of light on the screen, the "Unmatched" message remained glaringly obvious. Zhou Jianguo put the file into the metal cabinet; the sound of the lock turning was particularly clear in the silent analysis room, like an incomplete period at the end of this long investigation. "This deceased person seems to have appeared out of thin air," he said wearily, pulling open a drawer to find his blood pressure medication. "No criminal record, no social security, no family, didn't even bring a cell phone. Did he spring from a crack in the rock?"

Xiao Zhou suddenly remembered the forensic doctor's words: the lining of the deceased's gray jacket contained trace amounts of titanium alloy powder—common in the case materials of high-end watches, especially Rolex's 904L steel, which contains up to 2% titanium. "Check the city's luxury watch repair records for the past three months," he grabbed the walkie-talkie, his voice hoarse with excitement, the signal crackling with static. "Focus on male customers who have had Rolex or Omega watches repaired, especially those with a scar on their right eyebrow!"

The fluorescent lights in the analysis room gradually went out in the morning light, and the ballast emitted its final, mournful "zzzz." The investigation of 1003 pieces of information had finally come to nothing. The skull reconstruction on the whiteboard gleamed coldly in the sunlight, the scar on his right eyebrow and the mole behind his left ear like two mocking punctuation marks. "He must have left traces somewhere," Xiao Zhou murmured to himself, his fingertips lightly tapping the words "Unidentified Male Corpse," leaving a faint fingerprint on the dented page. "We just haven't found him yet."

As the first rays of sunlight streamed into the analysis room, Xiao Zhao discovered a report he'd missed the night before in the printer—the deceased's dental fillings contained a special ceramic component; only three dental clinics in the city used this material, one of which was near Beishan Park. Xiao Zhou grabbed the report and ran out, his leather shoes clicking rapidly in the corridor. The morning light cast a long shadow behind him, like a thread pointing to the truth, winding its way forward through the Criminal Investigation Division's corridor.

The blinds in the Criminal Investigation Division's meeting room sliced ​​the morning light into diamond-shaped patches. Li Ming's enamel mug spun halfway around the table, the tea stains spreading across the bottom like an abstract map. "Everyone's here, let's begin." His gaze swept over the officers present. At the top of each officer's open file was a photograph of the unidentified male corpse in Beishan Park, its surface gleaming bluish-gray in the morning light, the tear in his gray jacket resembling an unhealed wound.

Xiao Yang stood up first, and a 3D model of Beishan Park immediately appeared on the projector screen, with the size 43 sneaker print highlighted in red. "There are three types of core traces extracted from the scene," he said, drawing an arc on the model with his laser pointer. "First, there are the back-and-forth footprints extending from the west gate to the bushes. The size 43 rubber-soled shoe print shows 20% greater pressure on the forefoot than the heel, a stride length of 78 centimeters, a stride width of 14 centimeters, and an outward gait, suggesting a height of 175-180 centimeters and a weight of around 75 kilograms. Second, there are three dripping bloodstains, with DNA matching the deceased's. The dripping height was 1.2 meters, consistent with the suspect dragging the body. Third, there are restraint marks. The standard Type 99 handcuffs were worn after death, and the scratches on the keychain match the wear on the lock cylinder, indicating that the murderer attempted to open the handcuffs but failed."

Xiao Yang paused for a moment, then pulled up the fiber test report.