National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 780 - 723: Serving Whom

Chapter 780: Chapter 723: Serving Whom

"You, come here, what are you running for? What’s your name?"

Cui Qishan, panting heavily, caught the teenager and dragged him over by the collar.

As he restrained the youth, Cui Qishan also took deep, forceful breaths, a broken bellows-like sound emanating from his lungs, as if he were a person deflating.

The teen looked at Cui Qishan fearfully and whispered, "I didn’t stab you."

"I... you..." Cui Qishan opened his mouth, moistened his throat, and then said, "Why did you run?"

"I... just wanted to run," the teen replied.

Cui Qishan: "I told you to stop, did you hear me?"

"I heard."

"Then why did you keep running?"

"Mm."

"Why did you run?"

"I was scared."

"Scared of what?"

"Just scared."

The exchange between the boy and Cui Qishan was dry and repetitive, and yet Cui was at a loss for what to do.

This wasn’t his first encounter with this kind of situation. When he first came to Zhanggang Village, Cui Qishan was quite reserved, often adhering to the philosophy of not resorting to force unless necessary. But then he realized it was futile, as the villagers would bolt at any minor issue. Just like last time, he had to run until he was out of breath. It was also last time that a 16-year-old youth tried to outrun him.

Compared to this boy, that youth was simply an I-person, and an E-person, making a pair of nuts.

"When a policeman tells you to stop, you need to stop, understand?" Cui Qishan lectured the boy briefly before letting him go. There was no choice; the boy just wanted to run, that’s all.

Just a few short days, and the lifestyle of the village had cured two of Cui Qishan’s three "highs"

Dragging one leg after the other, he returned to the village’s little store, where he saw two technicians in white coats taking throat swabs from the villagers with white sticks, while Xiao Si and others stood idly by, finally looking like they were doing some office work.

"How’s it going?" Cui Qishan asked as he walked over.

"The sampling’s going quite fast; we just have to see if there are any fish that slipped the net," replied the technician casually. He was dispatched from the local county bureau and wasn’t worried about the case, just going through the motions.

Cui Qishan grunted, then looked around at the emptiness and said with resignation, "Do the best you can."

The latest task they had received was to collect DNA from all the villagers of Zhanggang Village and then compare it with the DNA found in Qingling Mountain. With current technology, even if it wasn’t the individual’s own DNA, they could identify relationships through relatives’ DNA.

The crime scene on Qingling Mountain had yielded a wealth of fingerprints as well as numerous DNA samples. Comparing the two, they could find more participants or informants.

However, the bigwigs back in Jingji would never understand the challenging conditions of Zhanggang Village, nor would they comprehend the hardships faced by Cui Qishan and his team.

Cui Qishan shook his head and turned to make another phone call.

He needed to report back to Tao thoroughly to request to return to Zhengguang.

Tao Lu was quite satisfied with Cui Qishan’s work. Upon the call, first, there were words of comfort, and then with a laugh, he said, "Cui, the work you’re doing is very important. We spoke about it before, remember?"

"I remember, you told me to ’eat shit’," Cui Qishan said crudely on purpose, hoping to provoke a smile or even a hint of sympathy from Tao.

But Tao Lu didn’t take the bait and just laughed, saying, "That wasn’t quite what I meant... Anyway, Zhanggang Village and its villagers have an inseparable connection with the case. You need to stay on guard and take good care of yourself."

"Yes." With the deputy chief’s orders, Cui Qishan could only comply.

Xiao Si, watching him hang up, asked concernedly, "Cui Da, can we go back now?"

"Go back my ass," Cui Qishan scowled. "Tao says to continue protecting the villagers. And to take good care of ourselves too."

Hearing this, Xiao Si shook his head and muttered, "Cui Da, Tao doesn’t love you anymore. He used to say take care of yourself first."

Cui Qishan couldn’t be bothered to respond.

Li Jiang stood behind Cui Qishan and said, "Cui Da, have you seen those undercover movies? At this rate, we might as well all join the village committee."

"Wait for news from Jiang Yuan’s side," Cui Qishan gestured with his hand.

...

Zhengguang Bureau.

Jiang Yuan looked at the computer screen and slowly said, "Let’s wait for news from Cui Da’s side."

The fingerprints had indeed locked onto some individuals, but what was unsettling was that after the criminal police conducted their search, they hadn’t found any of these people.

Considering the disappearance of the initial victim Zhang Lizhen, a case of "hiding in plain sight," Jiang Yuan and his team had to consider the possibility that the number of victims might increase.

Huang Qiangmin had made two trips back and forth and had even taken Tao to dinner.

Tao Lu had become numb to the expenditure. Frankly speaking, up to now, the number of homicide cases solved by the criminal police brigade of Zhengguang Bureau exceeded the total of the past two years combined.

With the same budget structure, Tao Lu was satisfied as long as he could solve cases.

However, the complexity and mystery of this case never allowed Tao Lu to rest easy.

"So many people, it’s possible they acted collectively, otherwise their identities couldn’t all be concealed. Somebody should have eventually made a phone call, reported their safety or something," Tao Lu mused to himself, growing increasingly uneasy with his own analysis.

In the current domestic environment, once an ID card or mobile phone number was used, it could be traced. In other words, at least a dozen people had been to Qingling Mountain.

Yet these people hadn’t used their ID cards or mobile phone numbers for over a year, which was even more extreme than the restrictions placed on debt defaulters.

Beyond that, in the current large cities, and even on highways, there are facial recognition and vehicle checkpoints. The flashing lights that capture facial photos are all used for facial recognition.

In other words, these people not only had never taken planes or high-speed trains, but they might have never even used the highways, and especially might have never passed through bustling areas or key routes...

This unavoidably led to some disturbing speculations.

"We still need to analyze their motives." Liu Jinghui, holding a teacup, wandered around the room. He only approached after Jiang Yuan and Tao Lu’s conversation had ended and whispered.

This indicated that he too wasn’t very confident and was still in the phase of discussing privately.

Jiang Yuan’s trust in Liu Jinghui went without saying. He nodded and asked, "What do you think their motive is?"

"I’ve looked at the lab report, and narcotics have been ruled out," Liu Jinghui paused before continuing, "With sex, gambling, and drugs often linked, could it be a casino they’ve set up?"

Jiang Yuan had previously handled cases involving village casinos, but in a desolate wilderness...

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment and said, "If it’s a casino, it must be a very new one; otherwise, there would be wear and tear on the floor, the walls, and the appearance of the accounts room would have changed."

"A simple clubhouse doesn’t seem likely either."

"Right, too far and too secluded."

"Recruiting prostitutes, who might not be especially attractive, just for the purpose of killing, wouldn’t be sustainable," Liu Jinghui pointed out the issue of many people coming from the same place – without profit, such a chain of events would be hard to maintain.

"Pyramid schemes?" Mu Zhiyang had been standing guard all along.

Liu Jinghui shook his head: "They wouldn’t be qualified to live in such houses."

Mu Zhiyang was taken aback: "That’s true."

Nowadays, those involved in pyramid schemes are generally in poor economic conditions, surviving on rotten vegetables. Those capable of constructing a three-story building wouldn’t engage in such business.

Liu Jinghui continued, "From a motive perspective, the purpose of recruiting prostitutes is primarily to serve people, or to use them as clients. If we consider that, the businesses that could generate this amount of capital, apart from sex, gambling, and drugs, are really not many."

"Which one do you think it is?" Mu Zhiyang asked.

Liu Jinghui licked his lips and blurted out two words: "No people to serve, they can serve the gods."

Jiang Yuan sat up straight: "Cults?"

"Organized, lucrative, secluded from the world, secret congregations," Liu Jinghui counted on his fingers, "If that’s really the case, we just need to find one person, and it might lead us to everyone else."