novellhall Chapter 105 The Corpse Under the Woods
Chapter 105 The Corpse Under the Woods
The driver slammed on the brakes, and everyone lurched forward.
Joan opened the car door and jumped out.
Jiang Yushun and several others followed closely behind.
This is a wild forest east of Lizhuang Village. In the dead of winter, the trees are bare, presenting a desolate scene.
"Qiao An, this place can't hide anyone." Jiang Yushun looked around.
Joan didn't speak, but just stared intently at a certain spot.
"Why can't I hide it?" she murmured.
"what?"
In Joan's eyes, the end of the red line was on the ground next to a crooked tree.
She already knew where Qin Lili was.
Joan slowly walked to the end of the red line, squatted down, and gently brushed away the clods of dirt on the ground.
"Chief Jiang, send someone to dig it up."
Jiang Yushun understood instantly, staring incredulously at the yellow earth in front of Qiao An.
"You...you mean, Qin Lili...she's buried here?"
Joan turned around and nodded firmly.
Jiang Yushun dared not be careless and quickly asked the police to find a few young men at the entrance of Lizhuang Village.
Together with them, we used iron shovels to dig the area that Qiao An pointed out.
After only a few shovelfuls, Jiang Yushun realized something was wrong.
The ground is hard in winter; a shovel can only leave a mark.
However, the soil in this place was exceptionally soft, and the iron shovel went down effortlessly.
His expression grew increasingly serious, indicating that Joan's guess was true.
A short while later, someone suddenly shouted, "Chief Jiang, there's something down there!"
Jiang Yushun peeked out and saw a piece of gray cloth with patches on it.
"Don't use the shovel anymore, dig with your hands."
Several young villagers stood aside, watching curiously as the police knelt on the ground and carefully dug out the soil, occasionally muttering to themselves.
"What are you digging for? Why are you digging so carefully?"
"Could it be some kind of treasure?"
"Tch, what kind of treasure would be stored in that rag?"
"Yeah, it can't be a dead person, can it?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the man looked down and saw a clump of gray hair in the pit.
"A dead man!! That's a dead man!!"
A scream rang out, startling several people nearby.
After regaining his senses, he couldn't help but lean forward again, wanting to see what was going on.
Because of the dry and cold weather, the bodies buried in the ground did not decompose.
Jiang Yushun and the other three men moved quickly, and the situation in the pit gradually became clear.
A woman lay curled up inside, quietly.
After they carried the person out, the hair covering the woman's face was spread to one side.
The villagers from Lizhuang standing nearby immediately recognized her.
"Isn't this... isn't this Li Erbiao's wife?"
Jiang Yushun could see it too. His expression was serious, and the muscles in his jaw were tense. He was obviously thinking about the next direction for solving the case.
"Take the body back first, and ask the doctor from the health center to come over."
On the way back, the entire carriage fell into a deathly silence; no one spoke.
Qin Lili's body was lying behind them, and Qiao An couldn't help but turn around and take a look.
Her face was covered with large and small bruises.
Her clothes were tattered and worn; even the beggars in town were probably dressed better.
Jiang Yushun had a somber face the whole way.
He had handled many murder cases in Jinshui Town over the years, but this was the first time he had encountered one so bizarre.
Back at the police station, Qin Lili's body was temporarily placed in the morgue of the health center.
With only ten days until the Lunar New Year, the autopsy must be performed as soon as possible.
Jiang Yushun called the doctors from the health center and asked them for help.
However, none of these young doctors knew how to perform autopsies, and if they wanted to hire a professional forensic doctor, they would have to report to the provincial capital.
By the time the paperwork is approved, it'll be too late.
Having no other choice, Jiang Yushun had to ask Liu Shijie, who had already retired and was living a leisurely life in Jinshui Town, for help.
He used to be the head of surgery at the county hospital and had performed many autopsies for the county public security bureau.
Liu Shijie was over fifty years old. Upon hearing that an autopsy was to be performed, he dressed and followed Jiang Yushun to the health center.
While the autopsy was being conducted, Qiao An was cooking in the police station's canteen.
But her mind was hardly on the food today; she even unusually mistook sugar for salt.
Finally, in the afternoon, Qiao An heard the autopsy results from He Hua.
"What a terrible thing! I don't know which beast did this! He should be arrested and shot!" He Hua said indignantly.
"Xiao Qiao, you have no idea how pitiful Qin Lili is."
"She was covered in injuries, with two broken ribs, and that's not all, she..."
At this point, He Hua's eyes reddened.
"She was also... she was... done to."
He Hua didn't need to explain it clearly; Qiao An understood what it meant.
Qin Lili was assaulted before she died.
This result would upset anyone.
Joanne had seen too many women with tragic fates in the apocalypse, and had long since become numb to it.
But after transmigrating into this novel world and just beginning to experience the vibrant life there, I was slapped in the face.
Not every woman can have a husband like Huo Jiyun; for some women, even survival becomes a luxury.
Joanne's mood persisted until evening.
She arrived at Feng Sanqiang's house and saw Da Bao.
After much hesitation, she finally told him about Qin Lili's death.
Da Bao lay on the table and cried uncontrollably; his cries carried far.
Feng Sanqiang and Xiao Lei were also very sad.
"Big sister, you don't know, Da Bao only has this one relative left. Her cousin is a good person," Feng Sanqiang said, bowing his head.
"The police will definitely catch the murderer who killed her, right?" Xiao Lei clenched his fists.
Joanne nodded. "It definitely will."
The room fell silent. After a while, Qiao An asked Feng Sanqiang to unload all the goods from the tricycle.
Feng Sanqiang has already rented the empty house next door for ten yuan a month.
To make it easier to transport goods, he, along with Da Bao and Xiao Lei, demolished part of the courtyard wall so that they wouldn't have to go out to transport goods and it would be safer for them.
The neighbor's yard had been cleaned up, and the room was empty except for a few pieces of old furniture.
Feng Sanqiang and Xiao Lei brought the goods in and began to count them.
Vegetables and fruits were piled up to one side.
The remaining stack of things made them shake.
"Big sister, is this...is this sulfur soap?" Xiao Lei asked, holding up a piece of sulfur soap with retro packaging.
"And wool coats too, wow, they don't look cheap!" Feng Sanqiang picked up a coat and examined it from all angles.
"Not only these, but also mung bean cakes, dried shiitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots, cloth shoes..."
"Anyway, all the vendors who don't pay the entrance fee are selling their stuff here."
Feng Sanqiang couldn't help but click his tongue, "It's a pity that such a good product is being sold at the same price as theirs."
"It's nothing. They'll have to pay an entrance fee after a few days, and then we'll stop selling."
"Big sister, can we take these things to the county town to sell?" Xiao Lei asked.
"Not now, let's talk about it after May next year."
Feng Sanqiang and Xiao Lei didn't ask why; they just did whatever their older sister told them to do.
When they returned to Feng Sanqiang's courtyard, Da Bao was wiping away tears and sobbing.
"Big sister, I...I want to buy my cousin a new dress. She...she's been married to Lizhuang for so many years...and has never...never worn a new dress."
Joan patted his shoulder, "You don't need to worry about the clothes, I'll take care of them for her, don't worry."