The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Discussion of Case Analysis in Chapter 1169

Xiao Zhou asked the technical department to retrieve Li Chengde's DNA file, which he had kept when he joined the company, for urgent comparison with the deceased's biological samples. Li Bing stared blankly at Li Chengde's water delivery route map: "On the evening of May 20th, he was walking back after delivering his last order. He must have had the accident when he passed by Dongshan Cemetery," he pointed to the red dot on the route map, "Dongshan Cemetery is a necessary route from Wangyue Community to the water delivery company." Xiao Zhou was already investigating Li Chengde's social connections, "He's been chasing someone for a debt recently. The other party is a building materials store owner named Zhang Qiang. The two of them had an argument at the company last week."

At exactly six o'clock in the morning, the sky outside the window was turning a pale white, and the first rays of dawn filtered through the gaps in the blinds, casting long, thin patches of light on the floor. Xiao Wang from the technical department pushed open the door, holding a freshly printed report, the edges of the pages still warm from the printer. "The comparison results are in," he said, handing the report to Xiao Zhou, his voice weary from staying up all night. "The probability of parentage is greater than 99.99%, the deceased is Li Chengde." Xiao Zhou slammed the report on the table with a "thud," startling him awake. The morning light fell directly on the three characters "Li Chengde," casting golden stripes, as if gilding the name with a halo.

Xiao Zhou rubbed his red, swollen eyes and smiled, tears still clinging to the corners of his eyes: "Over a thousand! We finally found them. My eyes are almost blind from looking so hard." Li Bing lit his first cigarette of the day, the smoke dissipating in the sunlight. He took a deep drag, the dizziness from the nicotine making him sway: "Don't be too happy yet. Zhang Qiang, who owes him money, is a prime suspect. We need to immediately investigate his whereabouts in the early morning of May 21st."

The computer screen in the analysis room was still lit, hundreds of excluded names lying silently in the gray list, like countless fates brushing past each other. Xiao Zhou gazed at the gradually brightening sky outside the window, the distant tower cranes outlining their black silhouettes in the morning light. Li Chengde's ID photo was still smiling on the screen, wearing a gray water delivery uniform, his left breast pocket bulging, as if silently recounting how, on the night of May 20th, an ordinary water deliveryman walked towards that desecrated grave in Dongshan Cemetery on his way home from get off work. Xiao Zhou yawned and stood up, the chair legs scraping against the floor. He stretched, his bones cracking: "Anyway, at least I recognized him; at least this night wasn't wasted."

Xiao Zhou picked up the DNA report, his fingertips lightly tracing the name "Li Chengde," the rough texture of the paper seeping through his skin. He knew this was just the beginning. Zhang Qiang's debt dispute, Li Chengde's last water delivery customer, the missing items from the gray jacket pocket… countless mysteries awaited unraveling, but at least, this soul hidden in the grave finally had a name. Sparrows hopped and chirped on the branches outside the window, their calls piercing the glass, as if cheering for this belated confirmation.

The blinds in the Criminal Investigation Division's conference room were only a third open, letting in the slanting morning light that cast interplay of light and shadow on the long conference table. Li Ming slammed his enamel mug down on the table, the tea stems swirling in the murky tea with a loud clatter that startled Xiao Zhou, who was sitting opposite him, into straightening up. The quartz clock on the wall pointed to exactly eight in the morning, the ticking of the second hand particularly clear in the silent room, like a countdown to the analysis meeting.

"Everyone's here, let's begin." Li Ming tapped his fingers lightly on the table, his gaze sweeping over everyone present—Xiao Yang's bruises were worse than yesterday, Zhang Lin's white coat cuffs had traces of iodine, Xiao Zhou's cigarette pack was half empty, and Xiao Wang's notebook was covered with sticky notes of CCTV screenshots. He pushed Li Chengde's ID photo to the center of the table; the water deliveryman in the photo was wearing a gray jacket, his left breast pocket bulging, and he smiled somewhat awkwardly at the camera.

Xiao Yang stood up first and projected the photos of the scene onto the screen one by one. The first photo was a panoramic view of Tomb No. 7, Row 3, Dongshan Cemetery. The bloodstains on the fresh soil of the grave looked like a poisonous flower blooming in the yellow earth under the high-definition lens. "The scope of the on-site investigation has been expanded to a radius of 100 meters," his voice was hoarse from staying up all night, and his finger traced an arc on the screen. "There are fresh signs of disturbance in the soil of the grave. The excavation tool is inferred to be a flat-headed shovel with a blade width of 20 centimeters and a shovel mark angle of 35 degrees." He switched to the next photo, where the edges of a size 43 leather shoe print in the soil gleamed with a damp sheen. "The suspect's footprints extended from the back mountain path to the tombstone, with a stride length of 72 centimeters, a stride angle of 5 degrees, and obvious outward splaying. His height is estimated to be 175-180 centimeters, and his weight is about 70 kilograms."

Suddenly, a black polyester fiber appeared on the screen, clearly visible under a microscope. "This fiber matches the composition of the deceased's jacket lining," Xiao Yang magnified the fiber details. "The cross-section is an irregular triangle, the linear density of a single fiber is 3.2 dtex, and the breaking strength is 4.5 cN/dtex. It was found at the broken part of the wall and under the cypress tree." He paused, then pulled up a photo of the chain. The scratches on the chain links were particularly clear under the light. "There are fresh metal residues inside the chain lock. Preliminary tests show it contains skin tissue components, and we are currently doing DNA comparison."

Zhang Lin opened the autopsy report, the rustling of the pages breaking the brief silence. "The deceased, Li Chengde, male, 38 years old, cause of death determined to be mechanical asphyxiation," he read, his fingertip touching the photograph of the choroid fossa on the neck, the dark red indentation still clearly visible amidst the decaying venous network. "There are circular finger marks on the neck, 0.8-1 cm in diameter, spaced 2-3 cm apart, extending from the left mandible to the right side of the neck, consistent with the force characteristics of strangulation. There is an incomplete fracture on the left side of the greater horn of the hyoid bone, with sharp ends and no callus." He switched to the lung photographs, scattered hemorrhages resembling scattered red millet grains. "Tardieu spots are present in both lungs, and the cardiac blood hemoglobin oxygen saturation is 62%, consistent with typical changes in death by asphyxiation."

"How precise can the time of death be?" Li Ming suddenly interjected, his pen twirling rapidly across his notebook. Zhang Lin pulled up a rectal temperature curve: "Rectal temperature 17.8°C, ambient temperature 18°C. Combining the degree of rigor mortis and the state of digestion of the stomach contents, the time of death is determined to be between 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM on May 21st. The person ate rice and vegetables 4-6 hours before death." He added, "The nail of the right index finger was freshly broken, with bleeding at the break point. A small amount of skin tissue and black fibers were extracted from the nail crevices, which preliminarily matches the residue on the iron chain."

Xiao Wang then reported on the surveillance investigation. Six split-screen surveillance images appeared on the screen, each marked with a timestamp. "The surveillance camera at the cemetery entrance captured a suspicious motorcycle at 2:05 a.m. on May 21," he said, zooming in on the blurry headlights in the image. "It was a red motorcycle with the turn signal positioned too high and the exhaust pipe showed signs of modification. Due to the limitations of the night vision mode, the license plate could not be identified."