Seeing the crime scene flashbacks made me the darling of the police station.

Chapter 99: I don't know, but it feels familiar.
It was quite late when I got back to the municipal bureau.

New Year's Day.

The municipal bureau was much quieter than usual.

Only police officers on duty.

And these are the people who work here.

Su Miaoyi and Yan Cheng went to the dissection room and arranged the bones according to their positions.

The skull, tibia, and pelvis are all easy to access.

For the smaller ones, you need to identify where they are and where they should be placed.

Zhuang Yanzheng retrieved the case files from five years ago.

I took a look, and then I went to the dissection room.

There's only so much he can do to help; he can only lend a hand.

"This." Zhuang Yanzheng picked up a piece, gently brushed off the surface dirt with a brush, and handed it to them.

Su Miaoyi took it, examined it for a moment, and then put it down.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at the two of them and said, "No wonder Yan Cheng was so eager to have you."

“That’s how outstanding I am,” Su Miaoyi said.

“You’ve learned a lot of things, you learn everything,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Hearing his words, Yan Cheng glanced at Su Miaoyi, then lowered his gaze and continued working.

One or two similarities could be a coincidence, but so many similarities are rather strange.

“I’ve learned everything and mastered everything,” Su Miaoyi said, pausing for a moment.

She hadn't learned any of them.
Her brain is only capable of handling the college entrance exam; if she were to learn so much more, she probably wouldn't be able to.

After all the bones were arranged, Yan Cheng took a picture first, and then conducted a more careful examination.

Su Miaoyi helped from the side.

The neck bone is broken, and some of the ribs are also broken.

These injuries are consistent with those caused by a fall from a height.

For example, being pushed into a cellar after death.

I was busy until the early hours of the morning.

She did not see the scene of the crime through the skeleton.

The work here is almost finished.

Su Miaoyi followed Zhuang Yanzheng to the office area to learn about the case from five years ago.

As the two emerged from the forensic center, Su Miaoyi said, "I wonder if we can find out their identities."

Zhuang Yanzheng remained silent.

Su Miaoyi continued, "In the other three cases, the three corpses were a family of three. Could this one also be related to them? Perhaps relatives or something?"

Zhuang Yanzheng walked ahead and said, "The same modus operandi, four different locations, they are very likely related. The question is whether we can still extract DNA."

After he finished speaking, Su Miaoyi suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Hearing that there was no more movement behind him, Zhuang Yanzheng stopped and turned to look at her.

Su Miaoyi stared at him in shock, paused for two seconds, and asked, "Are the other three corpses really from the same family?"

Seeing that her reaction was strange, Zhuang Yanzheng took two steps closer to her and asked, "A family of three, wasn't that what Yan Cheng told you?"

“He didn’t seem to tell me,” Su Miaoyi said.

Yan Cheng didn't tell her, but how would she know?

Therefore, what was certain has become uncertain.

When it came to my lips, it became "seems like".

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her, then strode back to find Yan Cheng for confirmation.

Su Miaoyi stood still.

Zhuang Yanzheng went to the dissection room, opened the door, but did not go inside.

Yan Cheng looked up at him: "What's wrong?"

"Did you tell Su Miaoyi that the three bodies in the other three cases were from the same family?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Yan Cheng didn't know why he rushed back to ask this. It wasn't like he couldn't tell Su Miaoyi, so why was he in such a hurry? However, he didn't mention it to her.

“No,” Yan Cheng said. “You were present the whole time I was with her today, and you didn’t mention the previous cases much.”

Zhuang Yanzheng remained silent.

Yan Cheng asked, "Did she know?"

"It's nothing." Zhuang Yanzheng shook his head. "You go ahead and do your work."

He finished speaking and closed the door to the dissection room.

Yan Cheng glanced at the doorway for a moment, then lowered his head and continued working.

Su Miaoyi remained standing in the same spot.

Watching Zhuang Yanzheng leave in a hurry, then rush back and stand before her, Su Miaoyi looked at him and asked, "Did Yan Cheng say anything?"

"No." Zhuang Yanzheng paced back and forth, quickly calming himself down. "So how did you know?"

"Can I say I don't know?" Su Miaoyi asked. "It just slipped out suddenly, but..."

"What?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

“I do feel a sense of familiarity with this case.” Su Miaoyi frowned. “I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it’s like I’m somewhat familiar with the method of nailing corpses together.”

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her.

Su Miaoyi thought for a moment and said, "I should still have memories from five years ago and three years ago. The case has nothing to do with me."

Five years ago, when Qin Leyan was still working at the Municipal Public Security Bureau, this was a case she handled.

Zhuang Yanzheng's focus was on how she knew, wanting to confirm his suspicions, even if those suspicions were extremely far-fetched.

But Su Miaoyi's point is that I am not the murderer.

Seeing that she genuinely didn't know what was going on, Zhuang Yanzheng didn't ask any further questions: "Let's go."

The two continued walking towards the office area.

Then he went to the conference room with Qi Feng and several other police officers.

First, we discussed the skeletons we found today.

Then I talked about the cases from five years ago and three years ago.

Five years ago, a body was first discovered in the woods west of Jinghai. The body was male, 52 years old, and named Ma Yan.

It had just snowed heavily, and some families went into the woods to collect branches to take home for firewood.

The body was buried, but not very deep.

Similarly, the skull and hands were nailed to the ground.

When they were discovered, they had been dead for more than a week.

The cause of death was strangulation.

The body was nailed after death.

Then, two months later, another body was found on the mountain east of Jinghai.

It was still buried, but the dogs dug it up.

The woman, 55 years old, named Zhu He, is married to Ma Yan.

The skull and hands were nailed together.

The cause of death was a severe blow to the head, resulting in intracranial hemorrhage.

The body was nailed after death.

The time of death was more than two months, which is basically the same as the time of death of Ma Yan.

The case occurred three years ago, involving a body found in the mountains north of Jinghai.

A landslide occurred during the rainy season, and the body was found.

It had already been completely skeletalized.

The skull and hands were also nailed.

Because of the landslide, the bones were scattered, and it took a long time to find them.

DNA testing confirmed that he is the son of the deceased Ma Yan and Zhu He.

He died at the age of fourteen.

Therefore, the estimated time of death is two years ago, which is about the same as the time of death of Ma Yan and Zhu He.

Because the body was completely reduced to skeletons, the cause of death could not be determined from the skeleton.

A family of three was killed at the same time.

It was buried in three locations.

They were discovered at different times.

After discovering Ma Yan's body and confirming his identity, the police found that Zhu He and her son were missing.

No signs of a struggle, bloodstains, or other evidence of a crime were found in his home.

The search yielded no results until the body was found again.

“Ma Yan and his family of three ran a chicken farm outside the village. There were no neighbors around, so it wasn’t until Ma Yan’s body was found and we went to investigate that the villagers found out what had happened to his family.”

“There were no surveillance cameras in the village, and his house wasn’t the primary crime scene, so no fingerprints or footprints were found. There had been heavy snowfall around that time, and no traces were found in the surrounding area, including drag marks and tire tracks. We couldn’t identify the murderer, but we deduced the method of the crime and concluded that it was someone we knew, a woman.”

"We investigated everyone who knew Ma Yan's family, whether they were villagers or relatives, and they were all ruled out."

"Do Ma Yan and Zhu He have another daughter?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Qi Feng quietly watched the three previous cases from the side.

He hadn't arrived yet at that time.

“Yes,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. “He died of an illness when he was sixteen.”

Su Miaoyi frowned.

That whole family was gone.
(End of this chapter)