National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 500 - 500 459 Carnivore

500: Chapter 459: Carnivore 500: Chapter 459: Carnivore Hou Tianlong, with a chicken in his left hand and a soft-shelled turtle in his right, also carrying a piece of streaky pork, hummed a tune as he rode his little motorbike back to his own small courtyard.

The courtyard was fenced in, the ground partly paved with bricks while some parts still maintained their earthen look.

Around the perimeter, pavilions and ponds had been built, and together with the dry-hanging stone structures of the houses, made the courtyard look delicate and beautiful.

Since his divorce, Hou Tianlong had moved back to his old family house.

With the substantial income from his oil distribution business and the cash split from the divorce, he spent all of it on renovations.

He would fix up a bit every month, doing much of the work himself, not to save money but for the fun of it.

Day by day, a brick at a time, the old house he renovated had a trendy design yet retained some symbols from his memory and the convenience of modernity.

Ever since the house was renovated, his son and daughter also loved coming back to the ancestral home to play.

With no other option, his ex-wife begrudgingly brought the kids over, and in the two years since their divorce, had visited the Hou family home more often than she had throughout the decade of their marriage.

“Old Hou’s back,” a neighbor greeted with a smile.

“I’m back, got a turtle.

Come over for dinner later,” Hou Tianlong called out.

“I’ll come by later,” the neighbor waved and headed home, thinking to herself that nobody could eat as well as his family did.

Hou Tianlong didn’t mind, cleaning the old turtle in the yard, handing it a green onion, and as it stretched its neck in search of a pancake, he chopped down with a knife.

Chop, chop, chop, chop…

He chopped up the old turtle and the pork.

When he remembered the live chicken next to him, it was already scared stiff.

Chop it up, too!

Then, Hou Tianlong skillfully threw the streaky pork into the hot oil pan to start frying.

In the courtyard, the stove was a traditional rural one, large enough for a whole sheep.

Hou Tianlong, half-sticking his body out, continued to fry while humming a tune.

When he lived at home in the past, he was the one who cooked.

Cooking wasn’t really a big deal; he had helped with it since middle school.

However, compared to sweating in the mechanic’s workshop, it seemed difficult to earn respect while sweating in one’s own kitchen.

And to sweat in the workshop and then again in the kitchen felt doubly unfair, especially after the admiration of the younger apprentice sister was lost and the grace of the master had turned into duty…

Hou Tianlong was now thankful for his decisiveness, having pulled out all the stops to keep his Qu’an County Lifepai oil distributorship.

It was a “project” he had championed, whose value was proven later, as for the price…

Hou Tianlong’s hands paused…

“Dad—Daddy!”

Joyous, somewhat noisy voices carried into the yard from outside.

Hou Tianlong couldn’t help but smile as his gaze swept over and saw his son and daughter getting out of the car and rushing in.

Following behind the children was the expressionless silhouette of his ex-wife.

Hou Tianlong didn’t mind.

From his point of view, his ex-wife was now much easier to get along with than when they were married.

Hou Tianlong, with a face full of smiles, waved and called out, “Dad’s cooking.

Be careful not to get splashed by the oil.”

“Got it,” the two kids responded, but they had already begun climbing onto the chairs to peek.

Hou Tianlong chuckled and didn’t fuss about it, waiting for the oil from the streaky pork to overshadow the meat before adding the turtle chunks for a raw stir-fry.

Once the turtle chunks were golden, it would be time to fry the chicken.

In the end, if desired, some vegetables could be added to stew.

This way the turtle and chicken, infused with each other’s flavors, were fragrant and tender, but that particular aroma could only come from a rural stove.

Or rather, it had to be cooked in a vessel that had a lot of stored heat and could maintain high temperatures steadily to be delicious.

Unable to stand the sight anymore, his ex-wife had no choice but to come in, saying, “You don’t look after the kids, letting them climb so high…”

“It’s fine, the ground is earth, it won’t hurt if they fall,” Hou Tianlong calmly replied.

“It’s not yours to hurt, huh…” the ex-wife muttered, seeing Hou Tianlong ignore her, she shut up resentfully.

Her ex-husband, because of his successful distributorship, had made more money than she and her father’s mechanic shop ever did.

Over the years, she had lost any advantage in spirit.

Moreover, her ex-husband was very generous with the kids’ expenses.

With this extra financial support, the ex-wife often couldn’t muster her former assertiveness.

Always having to ask for money, she often found herself short of breath.

She kind of missed the days when the card was in her hands.

“You finally decided to clean up these plants,” the ex-wife stood by the greenery on one side of the courtyard, looking down at the messy potted plants with disdain and carelessly fiddling with them.

Her ex-husband wasn’t really good with plants; they tended to attract insects, but he wouldn’t listen.

His occasional tidying now was somewhat pleasing to her.

Hou Tianlong was taken aback and walked over instinctively.

He saw that the two flower pots in front of his ex-wife had clearly been moved, the color underneath vastly different from the color of the wooden rack.

Hou Tianlong’s brow furrowed and he asked, “Did you move these?”

“I didn’t move anything, Hou…

Watch your tone, I’m telling you…” The ex-wife’s feisty nature flared up instantly.

Without a word, Hou Tianlong stared for a few seconds, then turned around to continue frying chicken, his mood inexplicably downcast.

After spending the weekend in the old family courtyard, with the children laughing and playing as they left for the city, Hou Tianlong couldn’t stay put either and simply rode his motorbike back to the city.

His main business was now the Lifepai oil distributorship.

Some people had advised him to diversify his business, but he had refused them all.

Instead, this earned praise from Lifepai’s side and garnered him quite a few resources.

Plus, as he became more familiar with the business, the time he needed to work kept decreasing.

He only needed to stop by once a week to check in.

He arrived at the office earlier today to find his employees still laughing and joking around.

Hou Tianlong just grunted and entered his office, where he stared at the photo of himself with his children on the desk.

Time passed without him knowing how long…

Rapid footsteps approached the office (door).

Hou Tianlong looked up attentively, only to see several police officers entering.

“Hou Tianlong?” the police asked, already at Hou Tianlong’s side by the time the question was voiced.

Hou Tianlong felt as if he were dreaming, last night’s dream, it seemed, was about this…

He wanted to speak but couldn’t, just like in a dream.

“We are from Qu’an County Criminal Police Squad.

Here is my badge…” the detectives spoke as they brought Hou Tianlong’s hands together.

Hou Tianlong shuddered violently, in his dream he had struggled just as hard, and then he would wake up.

But this time, the dream did not break.

Reality was brutal and cold, just like his own marriage!

“Let’s go,” the leading detective said with a gentle smile.

In Hou Tianlong’s eyes, that smile was sharper than the edge of a turtle’s tooth.

Regret suddenly set in, along with a sense of injustice—his reckless behavior in his youth, his unscrupulous means to achieve goals, that they backfired at the most satisfying time of his life was too upsetting.

…

Qu’an County Criminal Police Squad.

The conference room.

Jiang Yuan was still comparing footprints, while good news had already come out of the interrogation room.

Captain Han came to the conference room as soon as possible, and after three hearty laughs, he exclaimed, “Ningtai Jiangyuan, the reputation is indeed well deserved, truly well deserved!”

Qiu Yue, who had been playing wallflower in the corner of the conference room these past few days, tensed up and couldn’t hold back the emotions he had been suppressing for several days, eagerly asking, “He confessed?

Is it really him?”

“He confessed.

The modus operandi, the source of the explosives, including the details of the explosive devices, everything checks out,” Captain Han took a deep breath, confirming, “It’s him!”

Qiu Yue was stunned on the spot, muttering to himself, “So it was actually this guy…”

Honestly, when Qiu Yue provided the list of beneficiaries, he merely hoped that Liu Jinghui and the others could quickly eliminate the suspects from the list and move on.

Solving a case is a process of trial and error; the task force finds the right path by trudging through countless wrong leads.

In his heart, Qiu Yue still preferred to think that the bombing was aimed at the general public, an act akin to a terrorist attack and antisocial behavior.

Murder—this line of thought had been discarded by Qiu Yue when he directed the task force.

If Liu Jinghui and the others were to start over, Qiu Yue would not object.

But what Qiu Yue never expected was that the case would be broken like this.

“Is there another inducement?

It can’t be just for the distribution rights of motor oil,” Qiu Yue pressed.

Captain Han sighed, “What you mentioned, it really was just for a distribution right.”

“That distribution right wasn’t worth much back then!” Qiu Yue emphasized, “Even eight years ago, Hou Tianlong’s family owned a car repair shop, making two or three hundred thousand, even three or four hundred thousand a year was not an issue.

Selling motor oil was incidental; any brand of oil would do…”

“But the dealership for the Gift brand motor oil was negotiated by Hou Tianlong, and the repair shop belonged to his wife’s family,” Captain Han spread his hands, “It really wasn’t worth much, but Hou Tianlong just wanted it.”

Qiu Yue paused, then asked, “Where did the black gunpowder come from?”

“It was taken out of a type of firecracker (Note 1),” replied Captain Han.

Qiu Yue sighed deeply, his gaze fixed on Jiang Yuan for a long while before he said, “I can’t believe you managed to crack the case like this.”

“I didn’t expect it either,” Jiang Yuan smiled, “I’m still comparing footprints here.”

“That’s how solving cases works; there is not just one way to crack a case.

When you’re close enough, naturally a gap will present itself for you to break through,” said Qiu Yue, recalling the wisdom his master had taught him years ago, feeling as if it belonged to another life.

“Multiple footprints analysis is a bit tricky,” Jiang Yuan chuckled.

If it wasn’t for discovering those few footprints from someone standing for a long time, he might have needed much longer to come back around to Hou Tianlong.

However, with enough resources invested in the case, it would be just a matter of time for Jiang Yuan, perhaps three or four months, just like with the former task force.

Sooner or later, Hou Tianlong would have appeared within the police’s sight again.

Just like Hou Tianlong had appeared on the list of beneficiaries before.

A suspect would keep surfacing, just like a fish in a pond that might slip the hook countless times, but always faced the risk of being caught.

“Want to go see the suspect?” Captain Han asked Jiang Yuan.

“No need, I’m not interested.

Oh, take a footprint sample later; I’ll compare it again,” said Jiang Yuan, sounding quite relaxed.

He had dealt with many cases before,

Captain Han responded with a beaming smile as well.

Jiang Yuan shifted his gaze away, took out his phone, and said with a smile, “I’ll give Director Huang a call.”

Captain Han’s smile, which had just brightened up, collapsed in an instant.

Qiu Yue looked at him curiously and asked, “Who is Director Huang?”

“A carnivore,” Captain Han suddenly felt pained all over, his eyes glistening.

Note 1: The case in the novel has a real-life prototype, but because the report on the explosives was somewhat too detailed, I feel it should be restrained here, and so some specific details are omitted from the description.