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The group decided to follow the route exactly as it was taken.
The distance of over a hundred kilometers would normally take about an hour to drive. Considering that Sun Yiyao might have driven cautiously in her state of panic, they arranged for two cars, one moving faster and the other slower.
On the way, they noticed several concealed hillsides, but none seemed suitable for a body dump. Besides, the group only knew that Sun Yiyao had passed through this area, her ultimate destination remained uncertain. To avoid aimless wandering, they exited the highway at the previous junction and looped back to City A, but their efforts yielded no useful results.
Sun Yiyao wasn’t a local. Apart from City A, she had barely visited other cities in the province. Her presence in such a remote area was puzzling.
He Chuan Zhou believed there had to be a reason, though it wasn’t yet clear to them. She decided that they should retrace the route again at around 10 p.m., aligning with the time Sun Yiyao likely reached the scene. Perhaps the dim light of night would help them uncover critical clues.
There were many details on the highway that couldn’t be verified. After returning, they searched for a relatively secluded area near the station, one with sparse pedestrian and vehicle traffic, to simulate the process of disposing of a body.
After a long afternoon, night was falling. The group went out for dinner, and once darkness had fully descended, they set up cameras to begin their experiment.
Xu Yu played the role of Sun Yiyao, while they recruited a female officer with a build similar to Zhu Shujun to help with the reenactment.
Xu Yu, who was already quite strong for a woman, struggled significantly to drag someone weighing over a hundred pounds out of the car trunk. Even with a convenient tool like a suitcase, the process still required considerable time and effort.
The group parked the car in an open area by the roadside and watched as Xu Yu, with uneven steps, dragged the limp “body” toward the edge. Halfway there, a blinding beam of white light suddenly swept across from a nearby lane as a vehicle roared past.
Startled, Xu Yu instinctively turned to look, squinting against the glare of the high beams and raising a hand to shield her eyes. She quickly jogged back to the car.
He Chuan Zhou asked, “Can you see the hillside below?”
Leaning against the car window with one hand, Xu Yu bent down and replied, “Definitely not. It’s too dark. I can’t even see the stones on the ground, just the shadows of trees.”
“In this pitch-black darkness, Sun Yiyao’s own visibility would have been poor too. Dumping a body right by the main road feels implausible, it would be too easy for patrolling traffic police to notice. If she were that reckless, Zhu Shujun’s body wouldn’t have been so hard to find,” Brother Huang, holding a phone and stopwatch, interjected. “And Sun Yiyao would still have needed to survey her surroundings. She wouldn’t have just thrown the body into some random overgrown spot and sped off, would she? You can’t stop and go like that on a highway, especially at night, it’s far too dangerous.”
He Chuan Zhou said, "Even though there are fewer cars on the highway at night, there are still plenty of truck drivers traveling overnight. Like just now, when a truck’s headlights briefly illuminated her, I don’t think Sun Yiyao would have dared to stop for long. She doesn’t have a strong mental constitution, after more than three years, she still reacts instinctively with fear to Zhu Shujun’s photo. She wouldn’t have had the guts to take that kind of risk.”
Xu Yu massaged her wrist and said, “When a person’s muscles are in a constant state of tension, they can’t generate much strength. Sun Yiyao had been driving for several hours, and driving takes a lot out of you physically. I don’t think she would have been very quick when disposing of the body.”
Shao Zhixin carefully took notes.
The car’s warm yellow interior light attracted a swarm of mosquitoes from the roadside, gathering in the air as if holding a convention. Shao Zhixin waved his hand to shoo them away but failed and had to reluctantly offer up his pale face as a sacrifice.
"Does this mean that it is unlikely that Sun Yiyao dumped the body on the highway?" Shao Zhixin asked, twisting his neck to look back and tapping his pen on his forehead. "But is it possible that she panicked and acted irrationally? After all, it was the first time she saw a dead body, and it was her former friend. She could have been so shaken that she acted without logic, just to get rid of it as quickly as possible."
He Chuan Zhou, already drowsy, leaned against the warm breeze of the night. On the day of the incident, however, City A had been at a freezing temperature of around zero degrees.
“You can say Sun Yiyao isn’t clever, but she’s definitely not stupid. She knew enough afterward to prepay her rent and keep the landlord from reporting anything, waiting for evidence to disappear over time. That shows she was deliberate and not entirely irrational. And considering Zhu Shujun’s body remained undiscovered for more than three years, plus the hints from Sun Yiyao’s demeanor when questioned, I believe she wasn’t worried about the police finding the body. That suggests the dumping site was carefully chosen, a concealed location, not some random spot.”
Brother Huang, who had been energetic at the start, now looked glum. Though not particularly old, his deeply etched wrinkles made him appear burdened beyond his years, as though worrying about the next lifetime.
“She probably couldn’t find a suitable place, which is why she drove over a hundred kilometers without stopping. Right now, we have no way of knowing where exactly she stopped or why she went that far. Honestly, the guesses you’ve made so far are fairly optimistic. My bigger concern is… what if the body is gone?”
Shao Zhixin looked horrified. “What do you mean, ‘gone’?”
Brother Huang replied nonchalantly, “I mean, burned. Cremated into bones, scattered in the mountains or buried underground. If that’s the case, it’ll be nearly impossible to find.”
“It’s not easy to burn a body. You’d need an accelerant,” Xu Yu interjected. “But it’s true that evidence can be heavily destroyed if a body is burned.” She sighed, then turned to Shao Zhixin with a serious expression, deliberately trying to scare him. “It reminds me of a case I worked on when I first joined the precinct. The body was half-burned. It was horrifying. You’ve probably never seen anything like it, that face, that skin…”
She was just getting to the key part of her story when He Chuan Zhou’s phone rang abruptly, cutting into her increasingly eerie tale. In the desolate and chilling wilderness, the sudden sound startled everyone, making them all jump.
He Chuan Zhou glanced at the screen and saw it was Director Feng calling. She gestured for everyone to lower their voices and answered the call.
At first, no one paid much attention, assuming it was a routine update on their progress. But after just one sentence from the caller, a flicker of surprise crossed He Chuan Zhou's usually calm and stern face. Her eyebrows furrowed and her expression became heavy. After a few short answers, she ended the call with a grim look.
“Don’t scare me,” Brother Huang, sitting next to her, leaned closer and asked, “What’s going on?”
He Chuan Zhou took a moment to compose herself, rubbing her forehead as some of the tension in her eyes eased slightly. “It’s nothing. Shen Wenzheng is coming to our precinct.”
“What’s he doing here?” Xu Yu froze for a moment before angrily exclaiming, “He’s got the nerve to show up?!”
Half-closing her eyes, He Chuan Zhou’s gaze darkened. Her tone was flat, but those familiar with her could detect a subtle edge beneath her words. “His situation hasn’t been great recently. Things haven’t gone well for him in City E, and his company’s stock has been in the red for over a week. He’s been forced to step back from management temporarily. Now he’s insisting that Tao Siyue is framing him, demanding an apology. He’s probably coming to City A to show his determination… and to visit me.”
Shao Zhixin blurted out, “What’s there to see about you?”
Realizing how it sounded, he quickly corrected himself, “Why would Shen Wenzheng care about you? What gives him the right?”
The group fell silent, the fire of indignation in their chests doused by Shao’s awkward phrasing. They all turned to glare at him with dark, brooding expressions.
Shao Zhixin: “...” Why do I even open my mouth?
Xu Yu moved to the front, leaned in through the window, and gently patted his head as if comforting a child. Then, with a playful tap akin to knocking on a watermelon, she said, “Be good, little mute brother.”
“This is such a headache,” Brother Huang muttered, clicking his tongue. “We really don’t have the energy to deal with his drama right now. And yet, he just walks right into it. Is he picking a fight? His guts must be huge.”
He Chuan Zhou snapped her fingers a few times, the sound sharp in the quiet air. A cold smile curved her lips. “Tao Siyue went to great lengths to set him up, but there’s still no one who can step forward to expose him. He’s probably waited a few days and realized his tracks are clean enough. That’s why he’s boldly showing up to ‘prove his innocence.’ If not even a billion yuan can unearth evidence against him, then Shen, the great businessman, might just come out of this squeaky clean.”
Just hearing Shen Wenzheng’s name was enough to sour the mood. The group, already weighed down by the bleak turn of events, felt the pent-up frustration they had tried to suppress swelling again, choking them with the bitterness they couldn’t release.
Brother Huang opened his mouth to speak but hesitated. After letting a string of curses swirl unspoken in his head, he decided to hold his tongue, afraid his words might worsen everyone’s mood. Instead, he silently cursed Shen Wenzheng in every way he could imagine.
Xu Yu glanced at her watch and reminded, “It’s 9:45, Captain He.”
He Chuan Zhou nodded. “Let’s head back to the precinct, gather our things, and then we’ll run through the highway route again.”
The group remained silent on the way back. Upon arriving at the precinct, they stopped briefly, each going to their offices to retrieve a few items.
As He Chuan Zhou entered the main hall, a sudden commotion echoed from upstairs, piercing through the quiet of the night. The most distinct sound was the shrill, anguished cries of Zhu’s mother.
He Chuan Zhou’s heart sank. Something’s wrong, she thought, quickening her pace up the stairs. She reached the lounge and was greeted by a chaotic scene: people shouting and grappling with each other.
The precinct didn’t have many officers on night duty. Two officers were holding back Zhu’s mother, another two restrained Shen Wenzheng, and one stood in the middle, glasses askew, face darkened with frustration, repeatedly shouting for everyone to calm down.
Although the situation was technically under control, both sides were still furious. Zhu’s mother had already lost one shoe, completely ignoring the officers trying to mediate. She screamed at Shen Wenzheng with increasing volume and sharper tones, her voice hysterical:
“I’ll kill you! You beast! You’re worse than a dog!”
She jabbed her finger in his direction repeatedly. Her nails, though trimmed, dug the air in accusation. Following her line of motion, He Chuan Zhou noticed three bright red scratches trailing from Shen Wenzheng’s jaw to his right ear, a testament to her ferocious attack.
Shen Wenzheng, in stark contrast, had arrived in an expensive gray suit, dressed sharply despite the warmer temperatures of late spring. He had likely aimed to maintain a dignified appearance.
Now, however, one of his jacket buttons had been ripped off by an officer trying to restrain him, leaving a dusty shoe print on his chest. His meticulously styled hair had been torn into a disheveled mess resembling a bird's nest. He was more than disheveled, he was downright humiliated.
Enraged, Shen Wenzheng had lost all concern for appearances. His reddened eyes glared with fury as he lunged forward, but the officers on either side held him fast. His frustration boiled over, and he roared:
“She hit me! What the hell are you cops doing holding me back? Let me go! Damn it, do you know your daughter was just a whore? You raised her!”
The shouting was deafening, as if the air itself trembled. Both sides unleashed their full strength, turning the precinct into a battleground. Despite the officers’ best efforts to separate them, Zhu’s mother and Shen Wenzheng kept lunging toward each other, incited further by their mutual provocations. The officers, their voices hoarse from shouting, were barely managing to hold them apart.
Brother Huang, stunned by the chaos, hurried forward to help break it up.
With more people joining, the cacophony of insults and accusations became an indistinguishable roar, a swirling mess of noise and movement. The pushing and shoving turned the space into an uncontrollable storm of bodies, obstructing everyone’s view.
“Calm down, everyone! Calm down! Stop yelling!”
“Are you even human? Do you know how young my daughter was?”
“You dare hit me today? I swear, you’re finished! You’ll be begging me on your knees!”
"Are you expecting me to visit your grave when you die? Huh? I’ll piss on it instead!"
“Back off! Nobody move!”
“It was consensual! She wanted money, and I gave her money! Do you understand what that means?”
“Everyone calm down! Assault is a crime, you know that? And this is a police station!”
Zhu’s mother was pushed to her limit. Hearing Shen Wenzheng repeatedly insult Zhu Shujun, her eyes burned red with fury, her face twisted with rage. She seemed to lose all sense of reason, thrashing like a trapped animal. Kicking off her remaining shoe, she sent it flying, striking Brother Huang squarely in the back.
Shen Wenzheng, seeing the chaos, lunged against the officers restraining him, determined to force his way forward.
He Chuan Zhou had had enough. Her voice thundered through the room:
“Enough!”
She pointed sharply at Zhu’s mother.
“If you still care about finding out what happened to your daughter, then stay quiet right now!”
Zhu’s mother froze, her voice abruptly silenced.
Shen Wenzheng opened his mouth to retort, but He Chuan Zhou turned on him, her eyes blazing:
“If you say one more word, I will personally charge you with disturbing the peace and throw you in a cell!”
She slammed her notebook onto the floor with a loud thud.
“Coming into the police station to brawl, do you all think the law doesn’t apply to you anymore?!”