traces of all things

There was already a circle of people eating melons at the place where the bones were, and they all pointed at the place in awe.

"Let Rang, Rang Rang, everyone else leave, the police are going to handle the case!" The small policeman struggled to disperse the crowd, and the onlookers were quite afraid when they saw the police coming, and obediently left the scene.

"Hey! Officer Xiaohu, who are these two people! Aren't they also idlers waiting for you!" A burly man with a cigarette in his mouth and looking a little careless yelled loudly while watching the excitement.

While speaking, he pointed at Lu Zheng and Tang Shaoyuan who were not wearing police uniforms.

Before Lu Zheng could react, Tang Shaoyuan took out his police officer's card from his pocket with a cold face, opened it with a "slap" and put it on the man's nose, then put it away neatly, turned around and walked away up.

He didn't say a word from the beginning to the end, it was so cool.

The big man with a cigarette was humiliated in public, and he looked a little embarrassed.

Upon seeing this, Police Officer Xiao Hu persuaded all the onlookers to go back while the iron was hot, and brought two foreign aids to his family by the way: "These two are experts from the Public Security Bureau of Province A, and they are here to support us in handling the case!"

Lu Zheng: ... What support... When did you say that?

However, although the incident happened suddenly, he suspected that the bones in front of him belonged to his mother and younger brother. Under such circumstances, it would be a good thing to investigate in person, so he did not refute, but walked towards Police Officer Xiaohu silently. He borrowed a scout box from there and put on gloves.

The area where the bones were found was very remote, just in the middle of a farmland, with no villages or shops in front of it.The location of this mechanical well is in a simple concrete hut. There is a hole in the ground without any protective measures. No wonder it was ordered to rectify it. When the light is dim, if someone stumbles into the well, it will be a big deal. Wonderful.

It’s just that the two sentences in front of you are definitely impossible to stuff yourself into a sack, tie the mouth shut, and then jump into the well.

If it was really a human corpse...he was undoubtedly killed.

The two bags of bones seemed to have been thrown into the well many years ago, so the police's workflow was slightly changed. Tang Shaoyuan went forward to collect and organize the remains.

Lu Zheng closely followed his steps, squatting down beside the two dirty sacks piled on the ground.

Tang Shaoyuan glanced at him worriedly, and stopped his fingers on the mouth of the sack: "Brother, don't you need to check the traces and evidence at the scene?"

Lu Zheng shook his head, looking resolute: "For such an old sack, the physical evidence at the scene has long been wiped out."

After he finished speaking, he paused, and his voice became softer: "I... want to see."

Tang Shaoyuan saw his eyes drooping, his expression gloomy, and his heart ached so much, he reached out his hand to touch his face, but suddenly found——

—with the gloves he had touched the body bag himself.

Sighing, he withdrew his hand, took a deep look at Lu Zheng's profile, and said softly, "Then... I opened it."

Lu Zheng took a deep breath, rallied himself, and nodded: "Keep the opening of the bag and take it apart from the side."

The old sacks were tightly tied with hemp rope, and the second half of one of the sacks had been cut open by the worker who had just handled the machine well. Tang Shaoyuan spread out a disposable mat and put the two sacks together. The bones were taken out separately.

The first thing that appeared was a skull.

"Ho-!"

Officer Xiao Hu, who was watching from behind, gasped loudly.

Seeing Lu Zheng and Tang Shaoyuan turned their heads together, with surprised expressions on their faces, Xiao Hu couldn't help but blush.

"I've only been working for two years." He justified: "This is the first time I've seen a dead body."

Lu Zheng turned his head back helplessly.

Tang Shaoyuan had already taken out all the bones in a bag, and put together a prototype of a skeleton at an astonishing speed.

Lu Zheng, who had seen his proficiency for a long time, was not surprised by his speed, but it was Police Officer Xiao Hu who stood behind him and yelled, admiring him very much.

"It's human remains." Tang Shaoyuan came to a conclusion after spelling it out.

"Can it be human?"

The one who spoke was the fussy police officer Xiao Hu. Lu Zheng and Tang Shaoyuan looked at each other with a smile, and felt as if they had returned to the provincial office for a moment.

Ah, Nobita.

You were never far from us.

"Sometimes, the villagers will bag the remains of slaughtered animals and discard them. It is also possible that some animal skeletons may be mistaken for human bones at first glance." Seeing that Tang Shaoyuan was silent, Lu Zheng couldn't bear to see Xiao Hu alone. The man sang a one-man show and kindly explained it for him.

Little Hu Mengmeng nodded.

Tang Shaoyuan on the other side had already completed a preliminary inspection of a corpse, and began to report when he opened his mouth. The little police officers in the police station were not used to their rapid progress, and they were a little flustered for a moment. Fortunately, Lu Zheng was squatting beside him. Have a pen and notebook ready.

"The deceased was a female. She was about 30 years old at the time of death. She had a childbearing history. Her height was between 1.6 meters zero and 1.6 meters five. There were many sharp scratches on the ribs of the torso. The cause of death may be caused by multiple stab wounds. Hemorrhagic shock. After death, the body was incinerated and then divided into five pieces. Clear marks of knife and ax cuts can be seen on the shoulders, thighs and neck. The time of death cannot be confirmed because the body was seriously damaged, but At least 15+ years."

Lu Zheng shook his hands and wrote down everything stroke by stroke, his face turned blue, and the pen he was holding made a dangerous "click" sound.

"Oh my god, this is too tragic!" Police officer Xiao Hu bluffed, then noticed Lu Zheng's expression, a trace of annoyance flashed in his eyes, and kindly persuaded: "Don't be nervous, this corpse may not be Your mother..."

Lu Zheng's already bad face became even more cloudy.

Seeing this, Tang Shaoyuan quickly opened another sack, which was also tied with a tight hemp rope. Lu Zheng took a rough look and found that the shapes of the two knots were quite special, and he secretly had some thoughts. .

"what?"

The one who made the sound was Tang Shaoyuan, who was fighting for the skeleton. Lu Zheng turned his head away when he heard the sound, and instantly felt that something was wrong.

The color of this skeleton is much lighter than the one just now, and the contrast is more obvious when the two are placed side by side.

And the size... is quite different from what he expected.

If it was Ah Zhi, it should be the skeleton of a boy.

"This one..." Tang Shaoyuan opened his mouth to help him verify his suspicions: "It was a male. He was about 55 years old when he died, and his height was between 1.6 meters and 1.7 to [-] meters. The cause of death was severe trauma to the head. The craniocerebral injury caused by the blow, the body has not undergone other special treatment, and there are no traces of fire or knife cuts, the time of death is relatively clear, it can be determined that it was between the past three to five years."

There was an uproar.

Could it be a coincidence that the two bodies died at least a decade apart?Or...is this the same murderer who committed the crime again after many years?

Lu Zheng looked at the black female skeleton, and he didn't know whether he was relieved or hung up again.

**

The DNA laboratory of the Public Security Bureau of Dashui Township.

A little forensic doctor came out wiping his sweat, saw that Lu Zheng was still waiting outside the door, and nodded politely: "Hello, expert."

"Just call me Lu Zheng, I'm not an expert." Lu Zheng was a little embarrassed when he heard this address. Seeing that the little forensic doctor had already taken off his gloves, he quickly asked, "How is it? Have you got any results?"

The little forensic doctor looked dejected: "No, the bones have been re-examined by instruments, and they should have existed for at least 20 years. Moreover, they were burned first, and the preservation environment is not good. They are neither dry nor wet, and DNA can hardly be extracted."

Hearing this, Lu Zheng sighed inwardly, and pulled himself together again: "Thank you for your hard work, where is Forensic Doctor Tang?"

"Forensic doctor Tang is still doing experiments in there, and he won't give up until he finds out." The little forensic doctor was full of emotion, with a look of worship: "Is he an iron man? It's been a day, and I don't think he has even drank a sip of water."

Lu Zheng paused when he heard this, said hello, and opened the door to enter the DNA testing room.

Tang Shaoyuan was wearing a white coat, and was sitting in front of the window, frowning with a pile of test papers in his hand. He looked a bit distressed, and even his hair, which was always meticulous, was a little disheveled, and there were a few tufts of mischievous hair. Rolling the scroll, it sticks out from the top of the head.

Lu Zheng walked over from behind, and reached out to touch those few tufts of restless curly hair.

"Brother."

Tang Shaoyuan snorted without returning, turned around and rubbed his head on Lu Zheng's waist.

While rubbing against each other, his movements suddenly stopped, and his whole body froze in place.

Oops……

I didn't make DNA all day today, I was so depressed, I lost my mind for a while, and I couldn't help making childish and sticky movements like rubbing people...

Lu Zheng lowered his head and saw that Tang Shaoyuan's face turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye. The bright red color was particularly conspicuous on the fair skin and spread all the way to his neck.

"Hehehe." Lu Zheng couldn't help but let out a chuckle, stretched out his hand and snored on Tang Shaoyuan's head for a while like smoothing the fur of a puppy.

Tang Shaoyuan buried his face in Lu Zheng's shirt, feeling the warm skin under his cheeks, motionless, his heart beating chaotically with Lu Zheng's fingers in his hair.

"Take a break." Lu Zheng said softly, "Haste makes waste."

"I'm sorry, brother."

Tang Shaoyuan said suddenly.

Trace DNA has always been the research field he has been studying. Now when he encounters a case that is likely to be closely related to the person he cares about most, his strengths can't play a role. Tang Shaoyuan suddenly feels that he is very, very useless.

"Skeletons that have lasted so long and are in such a bad condition, it's normal that they can't be extracted." Lu Zheng's voice was slow and steady: "I'm mentally prepared—it's been 25 years."

Tang Shaoyuan understood his subtext. There was indeed no period for prosecution in the Huaguo murder case, but there was a prerequisite for all of this, and that was to file a case.It has been 25 years since the crime happened. With no body and no case filed, even if the body being examined is Lu Zheng's mother, the prosecution period has passed five years ago.

Tang Shaoyuan knew that Lu Zheng was comforting him, but he still couldn't get over this hurdle in his heart.

Do you mean just give up like this?What about the senior brother?Is this how he has been struggling with uncertainty?

He is the nicest guy in the world.

Should have been smiling.

His brain was running fast, and Tang Shaoyuan suddenly remembered the first case they handled together when Lu Zheng came to the provincial office.

"Senior brother!" He suddenly raised his head in surprise: "Do you... still remember your mother's appearance?"