Chapter 32: The Undiscovered Remains from Twenty Years Ago, A Global Sensation!

Chapter 32: Remains undiscovered for twenty years, a global sensation!

Late at night, on the Jinling Bridge, vehicles roared past. Qin Ming, Bai Su, and their team clicked on their flashlights and crawled into the hollow space beneath the bridge deck. Beneath the bridge, beside the first concrete pillar, the ground was overgrown with weeds. The beams of their flashlights swept back and forth through the darkness.

Qin Ming unfolded a map covered in markings and compared it carefully with the terrain. "This is the place." He nodded to the officers behind him, signaling them to begin. Several forensic investigators, also acting as frontline police, immediately began digging into the ground with shovels. In less than five minutes, they had dug half a meter deep.

"Be careful, don't damage the evidence," Qin Ming cautioned.

Bai Su stood to the side, staring intently at the bottom of the pit they were excavating. When they reached a depth of less than a meter, the investigators traded their shovels for small evidence-gathering scoops. Suddenly, Bai Su’s eyes narrowed. A corner of something had emerged from the bottom of the pit!

"Officer Qin, there’s something here!" Bai Su called out.

Qin Ming took one look at the corner exposed in the pit, his expression shifting instantly to one of shock. He pulled the digging officers away. "Stop! Don't move anything. These are human remains. Based on my estimation, the time of death was over ten years ago."

Qin Ming nervously held back the forensic officers and whispered to one of them, "Remains buried this long are extremely fragile. They will oxidize and lose vital information the moment they hit the air. Go to the forensic van and bring back the vacuum-sealed oxygen-isolation box."

The officer nodded and hurried out from under the bridge. Before long, four people returned, carrying a large, sophisticated glass container. This case employed state-of-the-art sealing technology and featured an integrated vacuum generator designed to protect evidence in the shortest time possible.

Qin Ming used a slender soil sampler to determine the location and scale of the remains buried underground. Then, using a white marker, he drew a circle on the ground. "Transfer the soil within this area as a whole block," he instructed. "We will extract the remains once they are inside the vacuum box."

At this moment, both Qin Ming and Bai Su realized something was wrong. They had previously speculated that the puzzle Su Chen left behind pointed to the final location of the pork he had hidden. However, after that first glance, Qin Ming had already deduced that these remains had been buried for at least a decade.

Moreover, given the thick growth of wild grass and no signs of disturbance, it was clear that these were definitely not buried by Su Chen recently. A chilling suspicion began to rise in their hearts, one so profound that even Qin Ming and Bai Su dared not believe it.

Soon, the remains were placed inside the vacuum box and extracted from the earth.

"Officer Qin, is this pig bone?" one of the frontline investigators asked. He was not a forensic expert and could not tell the difference.

Qin Ming, however, had gone still the moment the bones were separated from the soil, staring at the evidence in disbelief. After a long silence, he shook his head with stiff, mechanical movements.

"The bones are too thin, and the curvature is wrong. These are not pig bones. They are... human bones, and they belong to a female."

Boom!

For the officers, these words felt like a thunderclap on a clear day. Even though they were young, strong-willed detectives, the realization that they hadn't dug up a prank clue from Su Chen, but rather human remains from years ago, sent a shiver through them in the cold night air. Because of that infamous case, the people of Jinling had a deep, inexplicable aversion to such discoveries.

"Then hurry!" Bai Su, realizing the severity of the situation, shouted at the stunned group: "Send this evidence to the Jinling Public Security Bureau headquarters! This piece of evidence is linked to a real, unsolved dismemberment case!"

...

That night, at the Jinling Public Security Bureau headquarters, every frontline criminal investigator had been called in. A circle of forensic experts surrounded the vacuum box—not just those from Jinling, but also from several neighboring cities, having heard the news and dispatched their own teams overnight. They operated countless instruments, analyzing the newly discovered remains.

"Based on the level of decay, the time of death is estimated to be... twenty years ago!"

"Calcium content analysis indicates the victim was a female, approximately twenty years old."

"The bone incisions are smooth; the dismemberment tool used by the killer is consistent with the Jinling University dismemberment case from twenty years ago."

"The remains discovered are a portion of the left arm, which matches the missing body parts from that cold case."

"Reconstruction of the bone and muscle suggests the living weight of these remains was approximately... five kilograms..."

In the expert group's office, forensic expert Qin Ming, Bureau Chief Guo, and several others slumped into their chairs, their jaws practically hitting the floor.

It matched. Every single detail matched. All the evidence indicated that the remains they had discovered were the missing evidence from the Jinling University dismemberment case!

Evidence that had not been found for twenty years... had resurfaced during this "Manhunt" variety show!

Bang!

The door to the office was kicked open. Veteran investigator Cui Liwan walked in, his hands trembling. His eyes, sharp and piercing, went straight to the remains. He stared, unblinking. Of everyone present, only he and Bureau Chief Guo had personal experience with that cold case. Chief Guo had just been transferred from another province at the time and wasn't directly involved, but Cui Liwan had been at the heart of the investigation.

He had lived through those long, rainy, overcast days! The entire city had been shrouded in the gloom of that case. The feeling of despair was so vivid that, even now, the memory still brought a sharp pang of pain to his heart.

"Heaven has eyes..." Cui Liwan’s eyes reddened as the details of the investigation flooded back.

He remembered the foreign expert invited by the Dragon Kingdom, the famous Russian criminologist Sugovov. When the case was officially declared cold and he was preparing to leave, he had said one thing to Cui Liwan:

"If one can truly meet God after death, I will not ask Him what the end of the universe is. I will ask Him: who was the killer in the Jinling University dismemberment case?"

"Issue the announcement," Bureau Chief Guo said, wiping his face with a wet towel as he turned to his assistant.

The assistant asked cautiously, "How should we phrase it?"

"Exactly as it is!" Bureau Chief Guo's voice rose with rare, suppressed anger. "State that the physical evidence for the Jinling University dismemberment case has been completed, and the police will reopen the investigation in these final days!"

"Also," he added, "give the perpetrator role-player in this 'Manhunt' show a commendation as a 'mysterious individual.' It was he who gave us this clue..."

"Understood," the assistant nodded hurriedly and rushed out.

...

That night, an emergency news alert bombed the entire internet of the Dragon Kingdom. Not just in the Dragon Kingdom, but across the globe, anyone following cold cases and criminal investigations was left trembling.