Decayed Vulgarian chapter 71
Fool
Warm lights, the patter of the shower, water sounds.
Shen Xun had to admit that Meng Yuan Cen’s method was very effective for him. He was passing time taking a shower, his movements slow and meticulous, deliberately reducing the water flow, as if by doing so, time would pass faster.
After lingering for a while, he finally emerged from the bathroom, towel-dried his hair, and took the hairdryer. He used to be impatient and never fully dried his hair, but this time, he repeated the process several times, leaving his hair slightly warm to the touch. He glanced at the clock—it was only half-past eleven.
Meng Yuan Cen hadn’t returned yet.
He wandered back into the bedroom, aimlessly flipping through his phone for a few minutes but finding it hard to focus.
Suddenly struck by an idea, he opened the closet, retrieved the couple’s outfit, despite knowing it fit well, he tried it on again.
Moving to the full-length mirror outside the living room, he scrutinized himself. Unexpectedly, the royal blue color seemed less vibrant, even the English letters on the back didn’t look too flashy. The more he looked, the more he found it appealing.
Remembering the interrupted lovemaking session when they last tried on these clothes, Shen Xun felt regretful. Wearing a padded jacket, he sat on the edge of the bed and prodded Meng Yuan Cen, inquiring how long until he got home. But there was no response for about fifteen minutes, maybe because he was busy or almost home and couldn’t bother to reply.
Shen Xun snorted—no response, huh?
Feeling antsy, as the reunion drew near, the prolonged wait slowly eroded his sense of embarrassment. In a moment of spontaneity, he peeled off the padded jacket and discarded his pajamas. Using the garment to cover his thighs, he snapped a picture of himself sitting on the bed, teasingly asking Meng Yuan Cen: Do I look good?”
Surely this would elicit a reply.
Ping!
Shen Xun was surprised—it actually received a response.
[I like it, any more?”]Gazing at the message, his ears gradually reddened. He wanted to flirt with Meng Yuan Cen, but it ended up being more embarrassing for himself.
Meng Yuan Cen sent another text: [I’m already in the community parking lot, estimated to be home in five minutes]
This message was followed by a clinking glasses emoji.
Shen Xun replied with the same clinking glasses emoji and moved from the bedside to the living room. His heart was racing inexplicably. Although his eyes were on the phone screen, he couldn’t absorb any of the messages.
He kept swiping, refreshing the page, checking the time repeatedly. Just as he was repeating this action for the third time, the phone suddenly rang—
But it was a call from his superior.
This was followed by a text message and work-related group chats.
Shen Xun was taken aback and hurriedly answered the call.
In a few brief words, his superior spoke, and the more he listened, the more serious his expression became. Finally, he ended the call, returned to the bedroom, tossed the couple’s outfit onto the bed, and swiftly dressed without hesitation.
Grabbing his phone, keys, and ID, quickly changing shoes at the entrance, Shen Xun swiftly opened and closed the door. He turned on his phone’s flashlight and rushed down the stairs.
The light from the flashlight flickered with his pace, leaving fleeting traces of brightness in the black corridor, akin to a spark igniting a wildfire.
He paid no attention to the passersby, but the light in his hand, for a moment, passed over the face of Meng Yuan Cen coming up the stairs.
The light delineated the straight line of Meng Yuan Cen’s nose bridge, the contour of his brow and cheekbones. Tilting his head, he caught the light shining from Shen Xun.
“Shen Xun, where are you going?”
“Meng Yuan Cen?”
Shen Xun’s steps halted for an instant, then, carrying that flicker of light, he brushed past Meng Yuan Cen, and the shadow cast by Meng Yuan Cen on the stairs changed direction.
“We have a case, I won’t be back tonight, sorry.”
Meng Yuan Cen turned back, looking at Shen Xun’s receding figure. “It’s okay. Take care.”
Shen Xun didn’t respond further, his steps didn’t pause, he just swiftly and resolutely vanished from the corridor entrance.
But Meng Yuan Cen knew that Shen Xun heard him.
Returning to the apartment, Meng Yuan Cen found the crumpled navy blue T-shirt on the bed. He chuckled, then turned the T-shirt over, folded it neatly, and put it back in Shen Xun’s wardrobe.
The misty heat in the bathroom was silent evidence of a shower taken.
In the police car, six forensic experts from the Sub-Bureau were present, except for one who was absent. Shen Xun inquired about his absence, and Old Zhang told him that he had already gone ahead to the scene.
“Alas,” Old Zhang massaged his temples, speaking less formally without the leadership in the car. “I’ve barely rested my head on the pillow, and my eyes haven’t even closed when I got the call from the leaders. They said there’s a criminal case.”
“It’s a shame, can’t we agree to disagree during the holidays? Why resort to drastic measures, huh?”
He sighed, “But a criminal case is a criminal case, plus, it’s not just any case, it’s a dismemberment case. A dismemberment case, ah.”
Speaking of dismemberment cases, they were always more complicated than regular homicide cases. Firstly, finding all the body parts required a lot of time and effort.
Shen Xun sighed along with him.
Down at Songming Community, Block Six, Unit One, inside the trash cans, they found a black plastic bag containing human remains. The rancid stench permeated the area, and a police barrier had been set up.
The body parts had already been inspected; none were clothed or accessorized, and there were no identifying features such as scars, birthmarks, etc. The black plastic bag resembled the common plastic bags used to store fish meat in the market.
Back at the Forensic Appraisal Center, the forensic team immediately conducted DNA analysis on all the body parts.
Captain Liu had arranged for a truck and had all fifty trash bins from Songming Community transferred to the Huafeng City Funeral Home.
Later, the order came, and at midnight, the forensic team delved into the trash heap, systematically combing through the debris.
Shen Xun skillfully plunged his hand into the garbage, diligently searching through various forms of indiscernible matter, including leftover food, beverages, and even toilet paper—a nuisance he had to bear. To make matters worse, he got gum stuck to his gloves, which he couldn’t shake off. He had to switch to a new pair of gloves. Accidentally, he touched a craft knife blade. It barely scraped his gloves, fortunately not cutting through the skin. So, he replaced the gloves again…
Over there, Old Zhang rummaged and felt something soft. “What is this!”
Xiao Ruan and Shen Xun curiously leaned in.
Old Zhang raised his hand, inspecting the soft object under the light but was disappointed, “It’s nothing, just rotten pork.”
He sifted through the trash in his hand, then walked over to Shen Xun, “Did you find anything?”
Shen Xun shook his head and looked at Xiao Ruan.
Xiao Ruan also shook his head. Even before he glanced at detective Zhu, who was already shaking his head.
Lao Wang and another forensic expert were responsible for piecing the body parts together and extracting samples for identification.
Having searched through all fifty trash cans without any luck felt rather disheartening. Old Zhang was tired and yawning, “It’ll be quite a busy few days.”
Xiao Ruan curiously asked, “How busy?”
Old Zhang rubbed his temples, “Today, we search the trash cans, and tomorrow, we’ll go to the garbage transfer station.”
Xiao Ruan was surprised, “Just… looking for it?”
“Yeah, just looking for it,” Old Zhang explained, “To prevent any unnoticed body parts from being transported to the garbage transfer station. It’s just my guess.”
Shen Xun added, “It’s not entirely just searching.”
Xiao Ruan asked, “What do you mean?”
Shen Xun seriously replied, “We have police dogs.”
The next day, Captain Liu organized a meeting to review the case and inquired about the Forensic Science and Technology Division’s progress.
Shen Xun, representing the forensic team, summarized the findings, “We haven’t found the head and torso, so currently, we can only confirm the victim’s injury, not their death. The plastic bag and body parts revealed no fingerprints, making it impossible for fingerprint comparison. DNA tests show that the body parts belong to the same person, a male victim. However, searches in DNA databases, missing persons databases, unidentified bodies databases, and crime scene databases failed to identify the victim.”
After the meeting, Shen Xun and others were taken to the garbage transfer station.
Xiao Ruan was astonished, “Old Zhang, are you the mind-reader of Captain Liu?”
Old Zhang held the police dog, speaking with the air of someone experienced, “Once you’ve worked for a long time, you can guess Captain Liu’s usual investigative direction. Believe it or not, in the future, we might also look for body parts in septic tanks and sewers if the clues remain unclear and the suspects aren’t caught.”
Seeing staff approaching from a distance, Shen Xun patted Old Zhang’s shoulder, “Let’s get to work.”
The police dog wagged its tail, “Woof, woof.”
In front of them was a mountain of garbage.
On the other side, ongoing investigations were in progress, but not many useful clues were found as the victim’s head was missing, and identification of the body was not possible. The criminal investigation team could only conduct a thorough investigation of the city’s missing population in the past six months. It was necessary but also a test of patience.
There were leads from surveillance footage. The man who threw the black plastic bag wore all black clothing, his face entirely covered. He eventually disappeared into the crowd at the night market. Detectives replayed the surveillance footage many times, retracing all possible movements of the man based on the gathered footage, but screening these tracks would still take a lot of time.
Cases involving dismemberment were inherently severe in nature, and even with media coverage slightly exaggerating the case, there would always be some angry netizens on the internet. They were constantly monitoring the progress of the case. If the police department slowed down a bit, conspiracy theories emerged. Public opinion could turn into an uncontrollable force.
With the victim’s identity unknown and the cause of death undetermined, the higher-ups attached great importance to this case. The Municipal Bureau of Criminal Investigation drew police resources and, together with the local police station’s criminal investigation team, formed a specialized task force. Pressure increased from the top down, and everyone was prepared psychologically. During these few days, nobody could hope to get a good night’s sleep; they were to work hard and fight against criminal forces.
Therefore, for these few days, Shen Xun hadn’t been home. He was constantly on the move with the police car, searching for body parts in various places, as if finding a needle in a haystack. He would answer Meng Yuan Cen’s phone calls only during meal breaks. “Yes, I won’t be coming back today.”
This was the third time Meng Yuan Cen had received the same message, “Is the case that challenging? You haven’t been home for several days now.”
Shen Xun mumbled while gobbling down his food, “It’s challenging, and it has some online attention. So, we can’t afford to slow down; it would affect the credibility of the police department.”
He swallowed the last bite, “You must have seen the news reports related to the dismemberment case. The available information has already been made public by the local police station on the internet. The rest involves confidential case information, which I can’t discuss with you. I’m busy; I have to go; bye.”
Before Meng Yuan Cen could say goodbye, Shen Xun’s words were cut off by a busy tone.
On the fifth evening, while searching for missing persons, the police encountered an elderly man in his sixties who claimed his son was missing. The police took the old man for DNA identification.
To tell the truth, before the DNA identification, Shen Xun didn’t hold much hope, considering he had been disappointed countless times over the past few days. But the moment they got the DNA identification results, Shen Xun, unlike his usual composed self, was visibly excited, “This old man is the biological father of the unidentified male corpse.”
Instantly, the entire forensic team cheered.
“Thanks to the great DNA technology,” Old Zhang said, touched, “Once the identity is confirmed, checking his address, his connections, and relationships should yield some useful clues. Then we follow the clues to catch the suspect, and based on the suspect’s confession, we piece together the evidence chain. Victory is on the horizon!”
After expressing his feelings, he looked down to see that Shen Xun and Xiao Ruan had already started packing up the investigative equipment, displaying self-awareness.
A few minutes later, the leader called them, asking them to rush to the victim’s home; there was no time to waste.
In these ten-plus days, whenever the police found a suspicious clue, the forensic team had to visit the scene. Forensic experts were an indispensable force in the investigative team. After inspecting the scene, they had to rush to the Judicial Appraisal Center. Each time they found a piece of body part, they had to conduct a DNA test to confirm it belonged to the same person.
Multiple leads, combined with the suspect’s confession, finally allowed the forensic team to bring all the body parts back to the Judicial Appraisal Center. The fragmented pieces could be pieced together to reconstruct the complete body, which would help determine the cause of death.
After continuously working for quite some time, they realized they had been investigating this case for several days. Although Shen Xun had occasionally gone back home after catching a suspect, it was always late at night. By the time Meng Yuan Cen had gone to bed, and the next morning, Shen Xun had returned to work. They barely exchanged a few words.
Occasionally taking a break in their busy schedule, he reviewed the few chat records, each line echoing the words ‘going home’.
—Are you coming home tonight?
—I won’t be coming back.
—Are you coming home tonight? I bought the spicy crayfish you like.
—Sorry, I won’t be coming back.
—You probably won’t be coming home tonight. Don’t overexert yourself.
—Mm.
Shen Xun looked at the messages with a strange feeling, feeling a pang of sorrow. Before he could digest the emotions surging within him, the leader called him again, keeping him occupied for several more hours.
When he had the chance to check his personal messages, it was already 11:30 at night when the world was silent. He saw that three hours ago, Meng Yuan Cen had messaged again: “Are you coming home tonight?”
Shen Xun replied in a voice message: “I won’t be coming back. I also want to finish up early and come back to be with you.”
Half a minute later, Meng Yuan Cen sent a long voice message, “I actually guessed that you wouldn’t be back today, but I couldn’t help waiting for you for so long, and I still haven’t slept. I thought maybe you were intentionally not saying anything to surprise me, so I wanted to give you a surprise. But now it seems I might have expected too much.”
Finally, he said, “Shen Xun, did you forget what day it is today?”
Shen Xun stared blankly, “What day is it?”
With less than fifteen minutes before midnight and the arrival of a new day, Meng Yuan Cen, through his phone screen, wished Shen Xun, “Happy Birthday, you fool.”