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

Chapter 1115 The Rotting Corpse in the Rented Room

“He was actually… quite pitiful,” his voice carried a hint of barely perceptible regret. “He faked his death for eight years, and didn’t even dare to acknowledge his own father. The day he came to me, he had blood pressure medication he bought for his father in his pocket.” This sentence was circled in red in Xiao Wang’s notebook, echoing Zhao Hongwei’s medication purchase record from July 15th—he ultimately failed to deliver the medication to his father.

As the police car drove away from the steel mill, the sunlight had already risen above the chimneys, turning everything a pale white. The 17 details identified by Chen Youcai perfectly matched the results of the on-site investigation, autopsy, and physical evidence analysis, forming a complete chain of evidence. Xiao Wang watched the steel mill shrink in the rearview mirror; every inch of rust there recorded the truth. Chen Youcai's heavy sigh finally dissipated in the summer breeze.

Three days after the Chen Youcai case was closed, the Criminal Investigation Division received another report.

A resident in the community noticed a foul odor coming from their neighbor's house. After contacting the landlord, they opened the door and discovered a highly decomposed corpse.

When the landlord opened the security door with a spare key, a stench of decay and mold wafted down the hallway. Li Ming covered his mouth and nose as he walked in, his rubber boots making a sticky sound as they waded through the puddles in the entryway. Ms. Wang, a resident on the third floor, was squatting outside the security tape, her mop still dripping wet. Seeing Li Ming approach, she suddenly covered her mouth and gagged: "It's been smelling since yesterday. I thought it was just the garbage that hadn't been taken out. This morning when I opened the door, I almost fainted from the stench. I immediately called the landlord."

Xiao Yang had already set up multi-band light sources in the living room. The blue-violet beams swept across the dusty floor, casting blurry drag marks in front of the sofa. "Xiao Sun, test the pH of this liquid," he said, dipping a glass pipette into the brownish liquid beside the coffee table. Fine bubbles clung to the pipette. "The smell is like the byproducts of protein putrefaction. Combined with the 78% reading on the hygrometer, the putrefaction should have lasted more than 72 hours." The portable testing device displayed a pH of 8.2. Xiao Yang noted it down in his notebook: "Strongly alkaline environment, consistent with the characteristics of putrefactive fluid."

Xiao Sun stopped at the bedroom door with the 3D scanner, the instrument's laser beam projecting a red grid onto the door frame. "There are no signs of forced entry on the lock," he said, wedging a probe into the lock cylinder. "The pins are neatly arranged, and the lubricant in the keyhole shows no fresh scratches, suggesting it was either an inside job or the deceased opened the door himself." He suddenly pointed to the shoe cabinet behind the door, where the heels of the men's leather shoes on the top shelf were covered in damp mud. "The soles have a serrated pattern, size 42, which matches some of the shoe prints from the living room, but the mud composition needs to be compared back in the lab."

Xiao Wang's notebook already contained a floor plan of the house, and the landlord, Lao Li's, finger trembled as he traced the words "Master Bedroom." "This house is rented to a man named Zhang Lei," he said, pulling a crumpled lease agreement from his pocket. The man in the tenant's photo had a buzz cut and a mole on his left eyebrow. "He said he was in the building materials business, and the rent was due on the 5th of each month, but he hasn't paid this month, and his phone is switched off." He suddenly remembered something. "Last Saturday, when I came to fix the water pipes, I saw him bring a woman back. She was wearing a red dress and spoke quite aggressively."

Xiao Yang's light swept across the bedroom floor, stopping at the carpet in front of the wardrobe. "There's a dark stain here, about 20x30 centimeters," he said, lifting the edge of the carpet to reveal a noticeably darker wooden floor underneath. "Multispectral imaging shows a clear hemoglobin absorption peak at 630nm. Although it was wiped with cleaning agent, the residual iron ion concentration is eight times that of normal flooring, so it must be blood." He instructed the technicians to spray it with luminol. The carpet fibers emitted a pale blue fluorescence in the dark, outlining irregular droplet patterns.

Xiao Sun made a discovery in the washing machine on the balcony. The black T-shirt inside the drum hadn't been washed yet, and there were what looked like skin tissue fragments stuck to the cuffs. "Raman spectroscopy detected a keratin characteristic peak, wavenumber 1650 cm⁻¹," he announced, and a green confirmation box popped up on the instrument's display. "There were several long hairs, about 40 centimeters long, wrapped around the zipper at the collar, with hair follicles at the roots, from which DNA could be extracted." He noticed that the washing machine's drain was clogged with a wad of paper towels, and when he unfolded them, he found blurry writing on them, resembling the date "July 5th."

“The living room air conditioner is still running,” Xiao Wang suddenly pointed to the thermometer on the wall, where the displayed temperature of 24°C contrasted sharply with the outdoor temperature of 32°C. “The landlord says Zhang Lei is afraid of the heat and keeps the air conditioner on all year round. Doesn’t that slow down his 'decay'?” Old Li nodded vigorously, his keychain jingling in his hand. “The last time he argued with me was because I said the air conditioner was a waste of electricity. He said, ‘Is it your money?’”

Xiao Yang pointed his laser pointer at the kitchen trash can. A half-moldy takeout box bore the words "Sichuan-style stir-fry," and the order receipt was dated July 3rd. "The rice isn't completely rotten yet," he said, picking up a grain with tweezers. "The starch granules are about 30% broken, indicating death within 12-24 hours of ingestion, which matches the July 3rd order date." The plastic bag on the edge of the trash can showed signs of tearing; fiber samples revealed it to be made of polyethylene, consistent with the debris on the bedroom floor.

Xiao Sun discovered a new clue on the balcony railing: a fresh friction mark on the inside of the railing, damaging the oxide layer on the metal surface. "The extracted skin tissue fragments belong to the same person as the T-shirt in the washing machine," he said, measuring the friction width with calipers. "It's 4 centimeters, which is consistent with the width of an adult's hand, and it was probably left when it was dragged." On the air conditioner unit below the railing, there was a piece of red fabric fiber, matching the material spectrum of the "red dress" described by the landlord.

Xiao Wang helped Lao Li to a well-ventilated area in the stairwell, where the stench was somewhat diluted by the wind. "Who does Zhang Lei usually associate with?" He marked several suspicious points on the floor plan. "Does he owe anyone money, or have he been in any arguments?" Lao Li slapped his thigh: "A while ago, a man came knocking on the door, saying that Zhang Lei owed him 7 yuan for goods. He made a scene that the whole building could hear, and even said, 'If you don't pay me back, I'll break your leg!'" He pointed to the surveillance camera at the corner of the stairs. "That was July 1st. The camera should have captured it."

Xiao Yang had completed the 3D scan of the living room area. The point cloud model rotated on the tablet, and the blank area between the sofa and coffee table caught his attention. "The dust distribution here is uneven," he said, zooming in on the abnormal area on the model. "There's a rectangular blank space of 180x60 cm with indentations from furniture legs along the edges. It seems the low cabinet that was originally there was moved. The scratches on the floor indicate it was moved towards the door, which matches drag marks." He instructed Xiao Sun to focus on examining this area. "The wood fibers from the low cabinet may still be stuck in the floorboards."