Chapter 1785 - The Investigation

Li Ziyu couldn't tell whether Old Gao's "hit the jackpot" was sincere congratulation or mockery, so he kept his mouth shut. Zhao Gui, however, chuckled foolishly a few times.

Since it was confirmed there had indeed been a corpse, they naturally had to determine whether this was the crime scene. Both Gao Chongjiu and Li Zhenguo concluded it was not. Their reasoning derived from the bloodstains.

Li Zhenguo based his assessment on the area and depth of blood penetration. Chief Mu had taught him: the human neck contains arteries and veins. Once decapitated, there is massive blood loss. The blood soaking into the soil here was far too little. Gao Chongjiu, having witnessed countless executions over the years, reasoned similarly: the head is the chief of the "Six Yangs," full of blood and qi. Chopping it off causes an instant spray. But there were no spray traces on the surrounding walls or ground.

The deceased had been beheaded elsewhere and then transported here. The question was: why go to such trouble?

Gao Chongjiu found this easy enough to explain. The branch alley—East Branch Alley 7—ended at a river channel. Dumping a corpse into the water was a simple method of disposal. Even if the body surfaced a few days later, who could say where it had drifted from? Even if police wanted to locate the original scene, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Moreover, most urban river channels connected to the Six Pulse Map—the city's sewage network. If the corpse drifted into a hidden drain and rotted there, truly not even the gods would know.

Smoothing out the logic, the matter was straightforward: the murderer, hiding nearby after spotting Li Ziyu and the others turn back, had quickly returned to the scene, moved the corpse to the river pier at the alley's end, and dumped it directly into the channel.

That was why, when Li Ziyu and the watchman returned, the corpse had vanished. It must still be in the river.

"Not only is the corpse still in the river," Li Zhenguo said with a touch of regret, "but the corpse-dumping murderer is also still on this street." He paused. "Pity we don't have dogs here."

He had heard Wu Xiang and other naturalized police from Lingao speak of Australian police stations with dogs that could identify people by scent, specifically trained to catch criminals. Simply bring the dog to a scene to sniff, and it could track down the fugitive. Remarkable.

But such dogs weren't available at the station. The Australians had indeed brought many unusual dog breeds to Guangzhou, but these mostly accompanied public order patrol teams in alleys and surrounding villages, baring teeth and growling at passersby. Li Zhenguo had heard rumors of a "Police Dog Team," but even Mu Min didn't know when it might materialize.

Though they lacked legendary Australian police dogs, they still had the street gate system.

Scissors Lane stretched nearly five li long. For easier management, the government had historically divided it into South Scissors Lane, Middle Scissors Lane, and North Scissors Lane, separated by two major east-west roads. Each section had north and south street gates, with watchmen responsible for opening and closing them.

The crime scene lay near the southern end of South Scissors Lane. Earlier, when Gao Chongjiu arrived, he had thought ahead, instructing the watchman not to open the street gate at dawn as usual. Now the entire South Scissors Lane remained sealed; outsiders couldn't enter, and those inside couldn't leave. Unless the corpse-dumping murderer was some cat burglar who could fly over eaves and walk on walls, he must still be hiding somewhere on this street. And the murder scene must also be nearby.

Gao Chongjiu's certainty had solid logic behind it. The street gate system was essentially a revival of the old "Li-Fang" ward system. Since the city was no longer a perfect grid, street gates had been adopted instead. After gates closed at night, except for doctors and midwives, commoners couldn't pass. Even powerful households wouldn't casually request gates be opened without reason.

Though somewhat inconvenient for citizens, this was genuinely useful for public order. Ordinary petty thieves found operating at night nearly impossible; only high-flying cat burglars had a chance. During Gao Chongjiu's yamen days, whenever he encountered a major case with pressure from above, the Fast Band chief would simply order the street gates closed if he had a rough idea which street the criminal was on. Then runners, led by the baojia head, would search house by house. Unless the intelligence was wrong, capturing the criminal was practically guaranteed.

The method never failed, though it caused considerable disturbance to residents. But for runners, it presented an excellent opportunity for profit: whether questioning door-to-door or searching, shops and households had to cough up "respect money." Anyone lacking the foresight to pay could expect their home or shop turned upside down, items stolen, or worse—being labeled with "suspicion of colluding with thieves" and dragged to the cells for a few days of "hospitality." That couldn't be resolved with merely a few hundred copper cash.

Li Zhenguo knew this method too. Frankly, it was currently the simplest and fastest approach. Finding the criminal naturally meant finding the corpse. He agreed immediately. The two hurried back to the police station and explained the situation to the chief. The chief dispatched men to seal all street gates connecting South Scissors Lane to other areas, preventing anyone from slipping through, while simultaneously summoning the baojia heads and team leaders of this precinct to the station for a meeting to identify any recent suspicious persons.

As for Li Ziyu and Zhao Gui, since they were patrolmen of this precinct, they were expected to assist. The chief originally wanted to post them at the street gates, but Li Zhenguo said they were the first discoverers and should remain at the station for immediate questioning if anything came to mind. Someone was also dispatched to the Municipal Bureau to request corpse-handlers to fish for the body in the river channel.

The station's duty police fanned out. Dawn had just broken; households hadn't yet emerged. With a single summons from the station, every baojia head from South Scissors Lane arrived within moments—all except one who was bedridden with illness.

Li Zhenguo first asked whether there were any suspicious outsiders in the area recently, or any unusual events.

According to the new household registration system, any outsider staying in a precinct residence or shop for more than twenty-four hours had to report for a temporary residence permit at the police station. This wasn't a modern invention; Wang Shouren had implemented similar regulations under the Baojia system. But the registration procedures back then weren't clearly institutionalized, and efficiency varied with the diligence of bureaucrats and Baojia heads.

The household registration system the Senatorial Council implemented in Guangzhou was naturally far more effective. The Baojia heads now had a dedicated superior—the Household Registration Police. Efficiency improved significantly. Especially since current household registration police in each station were naturalized cadres sent from Lingao with their own methods; the system had been established quickly.

But the Baojia heads couldn't offer anything specific. Everyone claimed there were no suspicious characters recently. New arrivals had been few: due to the Senatorial Council army's Northern Expedition, ordinary people avoided travel if they could—journeying during troop movements was risky. Only about a dozen outsiders had reported temporary residence in the past three days. Gao Chongjiu knew that men who served as Baojia heads weren't ordinary commoners; at minimum, they had seen some of the world, could speak articulately, and knew how to manage people. Their judgment was "sharper" than average. If they said no suspicious characters existed, then none did. This disappointed him slightly.

As for suspicious events, the Baojia heads racked their brains and mentioned a few things, but most were trivial matters. Superficially, none seemed connected to a murder case.

Li Zhenguo concluded that since there were no usable leads, he would ask the Baojia heads to guide them door-to-door alongside stations police for canvassing.

Li Ziyu and Zhao Gui naturally tagged along.

Just as they began the house-to-house questioning, two corpse-handlers arrived, rowing a small boat. They were specifically responsible for salvaging bodies from the city's river channels. Corpse-handlers held low status and received no salary, relying entirely on rewards from bereaved families and the government. The water was bone-chilling in winter and reeked in summer; except for beggars, no one willingly did this work.

Two burly men in a small boat: one stayed at the bow calling softly, while the other sat at the stern, lowering giant rolling hooks tied with coarse hemp rope to the river bottom. They searched back and forth, section by section, in the fifty meters upstream and downstream of the river pier.

The channels hadn't been dredged in years, and considerable debris cluttered the riverbed. Searching methodically, the rolling hooks snagged many heavy objects, but pulling them up revealed only garbage. The two fished in the channel for half the morning without catching anything remotely resembling a headless corpse.

Word reached the two detectives conducting interviews. Now Gao Chongjiu and Li Zhenguo grew uneasy. No corpse meant their earlier deductions couldn't stand. Besides instructing the corpse-handlers to expand their search range, they decided to split up. Gao Chongjiu would continue questioning residents while Li Zhenguo returned to the scene to search for additional clues.

Since they were revisiting the scene, Li Ziyu and Zhao Gui naturally accompanied them again. Li Zhenguo returned to find the area cordoned off by police. Although there was nothing visible, news of a murder on the street had spread. The street gates at both ends were tightly locked, and team leaders busily knocking on doors to question people confirmed the rumors weren't false. As soon as Li Zhenguo arrived, idle onlookers began gathering nearby.

Li Zhenguo first went to West Branch Alley 11. This alley was quite long; walking through it led to another north-south street. The street gate here was also locked. Clearly, after dark, the criminal could neither enter nor exit from this direction. Either he had simply hidden in the alley while dumping the corpse, or the crime scene was right here.

Li Zhenguo strained to recall what he had learned while on missions with Wu Xiang. A corpse is heavy. A person carrying one couldn't travel far. Therefore, the crime scene wouldn't be very distant from the dump site.

(End of Chapter)