Chapter 1: Strange Phenomena in the Underworld

  Chen Zhenhua discovered a small hole on Zhang Yuan's head, and he suddenly believed that this must be man-made. If this judgment is correct, then Zhang Yuan's death must be suspicious.

  "What's going on here?" Chen Zhenhua pondered in her heart.

  He called the civil police and told them about his discovery. The civil police were also very surprised, but they couldn't figure out what to do with it. However, he was not a criminal police officer, his responsibility was only to mediate civil disputes. Moreover, the woman had just embarrassed him in public, so he was still angry about that and didn't care about Zhang Yuan's cause of death at all. If it weren't for his respect for his colleagues, he wouldn't even bother to pretend to be interested, so he turned his head away and ignored Chen Zhenhua's major discovery.

  "Miss," unable to think of a solution, Chen Zhenhua had no choice but to turn around and ask the still sniffling woman, "May I ask what relation you are to the deceased?"

  The woman wiped away a tear and sobbed, "I'm his wife. We just got married not long ago, but he left soon after. He's a university graduate and works as the manager of a gold shop in Haizhou City. Because of work, he hasn't come back until recently. A few days ago, he suddenly returned, and when I saw him, his expression seemed a bit unusual. We thought it was just because of work pressure or being fired by his boss, so we told him to take a walk around the village to clear his mind. But who would have thought that this time he came back, he would lose his life here?" The woman finished speaking and continued to lie on the corpse, overcome with grief.

  "How is your relationship with him?" Chen Zhenhua asked, sizing up the girl from head to toe. Although she wasn't a beauty, her appearance was still quite good, with big eyes, high nose bridge, thin lips and white teeth.

  Slender figure with long legs, eyebrows like the moon and a face as smooth as frost.

  A gentle laugh, a drunken goose and fish, a delicate and charming shadow bewilders the romantic hero.

  However, although the woman's face was not bad, she dressed plainly and compared to Zhang Yuan's gentle elegance, it seemed a bit mismatched, so Chen Zhenhua thought that Zhang Yuan and his wife didn't have a good relationship.

  "He loved me so much!" the woman said, "He worked for such a long time, every time he got paid, he would buy things for me, and give me all the remaining money. He was also very filial to his mother." After finishing speaking, the woman thought of her husband's goodness in daily life, and burst into loud crying again on top of her husband's body.

  "Don't bother crying now, I heard that there will be a funeral in a few days, you have plenty of time to cry," the police officer said to the woman who had pushed him to the ground. He was still resentful and didn't say it kindly, "We found a small hole on his head, we suspect he was murdered, you..."

  "Don't suspect ghosts and gods!" The woman suddenly stopped crying, stood up and interrupted the police officer's words, "He drowned to death in the lake, several people have already drowned in this lake."

  "But what about the small hole on top of his head?" Chen Zhenhua really wanted to share her thoughts with the woman, hoping that she would tell them something valuable after hearing it.

  "It's all because the villagers often throw things into the lake, like wine bottles and scrap iron bars and wires. Maybe he fell in and was pierced by the wire in the lake, it was the villagers who killed him!" The woman muttered to herself.

  If it were true as the woman said, this coincidence might also be acceptable. Perhaps Zhangyuan was extremely frightened after killing someone and became absent-minded, then escaped back to the village and accidentally fell into the lake while strolling by the lake, and it was - his feet were up and his head was down when he fell into the lake, and then he got stuck in the mud with his head down.

  It's normal for people to get hurt or killed by the abandoned objects in the lake, Chen Zhenhua was satisfied with what he said to the woman. Before his death, when he was still in junior high school, he once sneaked into the river ditch in their village to take a bath, and he was also injured by the rape stalks thrown into the river by villagers when he jumped from the shore.

  However, if it was indeed the ironware in the lake that caused the injury, then one would expect to see discarded waste everywhere. Given that the wound is on top of the head, the body should have been scratched or stabbed by these objects as well.

  Chen Zhenhua listened to the woman's words and lowered his head in contemplation. He hastily removed the clothes from the deceased and took a look, only to find that the deceased had fair and delicate skin, which was intact and unscathed.

  The cause of death is inconclusive!

  Then Chen Zhenhua also stopped thinking about the small hole on top of Zhang Yuan's head. He straightened up, sighed, and just waited for Huang Aiguo's news. He hoped that Huang Aiguo could find something in Zhang Yuan's room, even if it was just a clue, it would not be a wasted trip.

  After anxious waiting, Huang Aiguo finally came out. Chen Zhenhua looked at him with expectant eyes. Huang Aiguo didn't say a word, but Chen Zhenhua could tell from his disappointed expression that he also got nothing.

  Three people think that staying here is also futile, so they decide to leave Zhang's house. As for Zhang Yuan's body, it will only be known after the forensic doctor has examined the body.

  The three of them returned by the same route, Chen Zhenhua suggested going to the lake to take a look, this suggestion was approved by Huang Aiguo, in fact Huang Aiguo also had this intention, so the three of them walked towards the lake.

  They walked to the place where Zhang Yuan drowned, as told by the villagers. At this time, the wide lake surface was very calm, and the lotus flowers on the lake surface were listlessly facing the sky. The withered lotus leaves were quietly spread on the water surface, and a green frog was squatting on the lotus leaf at the shore, spitting out water.

  The shore is full of footprints, which must have been left by villagers when they were salvaging corpses.

  "Come on!" Huang Aiguo urged, "Even if there are any clues, they've been destroyed. I don't want to waste time staying here."

  "I get it! I finally understand!" Just as Huang Aiguo was urging him, Chen Zhenhua suddenly shouted out loud. He excitedly told Huang Aiguo, "Let's go back! When I saw those old men putting the longevity clothes on the corpse earlier, I felt something was off, but I couldn't think of what it was. Now I understand."

  "What do you understand?" He shouted loudly, scaring Huang Aiguo next to him, who trembled all over and glared at Chen Zhenhua, saying, "You're making a big fuss over nothing! If you scare someone with heart problems to death, it's not impossible!"

  "I understand, I finally understand!" Chen Zhenhua ignored Huang Aiguo's rebuke and kept shouting like a madman by the lake, his emotions so excited that he was gesticulating wildly. After taking a deep breath, he pulled Huang Aiguo up and ran towards the village as if there was a treasure hidden there that would be taken away if they were late.

  Huang Aiguo and Na Minjing were puzzled by Chen Zhenhua's sudden excitement, the two furrowed their brows, exchanged a glance, and then followed Chen Zhenhua as he ran towards the village.

  Back at Zhang's house, the onlookers had already dispersed, leaving only a few people helping the Zhang family prepare things for the funeral.

  The people saw Chen Zhenhua and his two companions return, and the old woman came up to them, asking in a bad temper: "What's wrong again?"

  Chen Zhenhua said: "Old man, I think your son's death is not what you call drowning."

  "It's obvious that he was pulled out of the water, and everyone in the village went to see him. If it wasn't drowning, what else could it be? You'd better not make blind guesses here," said the old man.

  "Right, indeed!" The young woman also walked up and gave Huang Aiguo a glance.

  Chen Zhenhua still looked calm and collected, smiling as he said: "Old man, listen to me. If Zhang Yuan fell into the lake and drowned, then before he died, he would have definitely inhaled a lot of water into his stomach, and his nostrils would have sucked in some muddy sediment. Because of his struggles, there will be mud and sand under his fingernails. Let's go take a look now. If everything I said exists, then we can confirm that his death was indeed due to drowning. I think you also don't want your son to die without a clear cause, do you?"

  The old woman hesitated and lowered her head to make way.

  Huang Aiguo also stared at Chen Zhenhua, and after listening to Chen Zhenhua's few words, he began to look at Chen Zhenhua in a different light. What Chen Zhenhua said was all common phenomena, but why didn't he think about it that way?

  I was wrong about him! Huang Aiguo listened seriously to Chen Zhenhua's words, he was very surprised, he did not expect that Chen Zhenhua would be so meticulous and have some understanding of autopsy. With this thought, he finally had a new understanding of Chen Zhenhua. He went forward and pulled up Zhang Yuan's body for a look, Zhang Yuan's fingernails were quite clean, and when he checked Zhang Yuan's nostrils, there was nothing inside either.

  Chen Zhenhua saw that Huang Aiguo had already acted, so he also stepped forward to press the corpse's belly. The belly was a bit hard due to the coldness of the corpse, but it could still be pressed down. However, nothing came out of its mouth.

  After struggling for half a day, Chen Zhenhua and Huang Aiguo both stopped their hands, and the two of them exchanged a glance, with a strong thought arising in their minds: death by homicide!

  "How is it?" Zhang Yuan's wife asked.

  "Take a look yourself!" Chen Zhenhua sighed and said.

  The woman had already gotten the answer from Chen Zhenhua's expression, but she still couldn't quite believe it. She wanted to see for herself, and when she did, she suddenly let out a loud wail and burst into tears, shouting at the top of her lungs: "Who is this son of a bitch who wants to kill my husband like this?" Afterwards, she turned back to Chen Zhenhua and the others and said, "Police uncle, you must find the killer and avenge my husband!"

  "Are you calling us police uncles now?" The policeman "hmmphed", like an angry woman, turned his face away and stood still. He wouldn't forget the embarrassment this woman brought him, nor would he forget what he had said before: "You'll be sorry if you fall into my hands".

  Huang Aiguo and Chen Zhenhua began to realize that Ran Jiaolü's case was becoming more complicated due to Zhang Yuan's bizarre death, and solving this murder case wouldn't be so easy.

  With heavy hearts, the three of them consoled Zhang Yuan's family for a few words before bidding farewell and leaving.

  Back in town at the police station, Huang Aiguo and Chen Zhenhua drove back to Haizhou City.

  "How did you think of the suspicious point on Zhang Yuan's body?" Huang Aiguo asked with a smile as soon as he got in the car, because this clue was too important. If they were late, the real murderer would get away scot-free.

  "I saw a frog spitting water on the lotus leaf by the lake, which reminded me of the old men dressing Zhangyuan in his funeral clothes. I thought that if Zhangyuan had drowned to death, he must have swallowed a lot of lake water before dying, and with all the tossing and turning of his body by those people, how come there was no water overflowing from his mouth? At that time, I felt it wasn't right, but for a moment, I couldn't think of this aspect."

  "Ah-ha!" Huang Aiguo smiled slightly. He thought Chen Zhenhua was truly meticulous in her observation, and at that time, even he hadn't noticed those details amidst the chaos.

  The two of them hadn't forgotten about this case either. They fell silent for a moment, then began discussing Zhang Yuan's murder again. This time, it was Huang Aiguo who took the initiative to discuss the case with Chen Zhenhua.

  "Zhang Yuan is dead," Chen Zhenhua said, "doesn't that break off the lead?"

  "That's not entirely true," Huang Aiguo said with a smile. "I found Zhang Yuan's cell phone in his bedroom before he died, and there were several text messages on it. He seemed to have been in contact with someone before his death, but the phone number wasn't registered under anyone's name, so we don't know who it was. However, judging from the content of the messages, it's highly likely that Zhang Yuan killed Ruan Jiaolü. If Captain finds that ironworker Luo De, and if he admits that the dagger was custom-made by Zhang Yuan, then it would be confirmed that Zhang Yuan was indeed the one who killed Ruan Jiaolü."

  "That's right!" Chen Zhenhua said, "But you just mentioned that Zhang Yuan contacted someone by text message before he died. Do you remember the content of this text message?"

  "What's the point of remembering that message!" Huang Aiguo hummed.

  "How can we analyze the case if you don't remember the content of the message?" Chen Zhenhua seemed a bit anxious. He couldn't understand why Huang Aiguo didn't even take seriously such major discoveries, at least remembering a few pieces of information to bring back to the police station would be something to go on.

  "I don't remember because my phone is here." Huang Aiguo took out an Apple mobile phone from his pocket and handed it to Chen Zhenhua with a laugh.