Chapter 59: A New Discovery

Station Chief Huang gazed at Lu Chengfeng in silence for a dozen seconds.

Ultimately, he made up his mind. "Let's investigate separately then, but Captain Lu, I want to make it clear upfront—don't say I'm not cooperating with your work, it's just that investigating separately is faster."

Lu Chengfeng replied, "Of course, we all share the goal of solving the case as quickly as possible."

Station Chief Huang asked, "Glad you see it that way. Do you still remember the way back to the village?"

Lu Chengfeng answered, "We have GPS navigation, Station Chief Huang doesn't need to worry about us."

"Alright, then I'll be off. I'm going to track down the whereabouts of the victim's mobile phone." With that, Station Chief Huang left eagerly.

Dazhuang leaned close to Lu Chengfeng's ear and whispered, "Chief, what should we do now?"

Lu Chengfeng instructed, "Head back to the village and question those who were chatting with Zhang Lanying at the village committee office."

Dazhuang nodded, "Understood."

When getting into the car, Lu Chengfeng deliberately checked the time.

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the intersection at the foot of the mountain where the crime had taken place.

Lu Chengfeng parked the car, opened the door, stepped out, and walked toward the intersection to look up at the mountain.

Dazhuang and another investigator followed him out of the vehicle.

"Chief, what are you looking at?" Dazhuang asked curiously.

After a moment, Lu Chengfeng replied, "The village chief left the market at around two o'clock. He was riding a motorcycle, so let's figure he rode for about twenty minutes. He should have arrived here at around 2:20."

"Yet he claimed he saw the victim at this intersection at around 3:00. Where did he spend the missing forty minutes?"

"Right, there's a time discrepancy here. I'll go back and question the village chief again later." Dazhuang inwardly admired Lu Chengfeng's meticulousness.

The other investigator chimed in, "Maybe he went somewhere else. Villagers usually like to wander around when they go to town. Besides, didn't the village chief just sell some bamboo shoots? With money in his hand, he probably went shopping."

Lu Chengfeng stated, "Then we'll find out exactly where he went and what he did."

"Yes, Captain," the investigator responded.

Just as Lu Chengfeng was about to get back into the car, he noticed a pool of water about ten meters away. It was roughly ten square meters in size, resembling a large puddle.

He temporarily changed his mind and walked toward the pond.

Dazhuang followed, but Lu Chengfeng stopped him. "Don't come over. Call the crime scene investigation team and have them send someone here."

"Got it, Chief. Fortunately, some members of the crime scene investigation team stayed behind in the village to assist us." Dazhuang hurriedly made the call.

Lu Chengfeng bent down and continued walking toward the pond, carefully examining the ground along the way.

Upon reaching the edge of the pond, he came to a halt, squatted down, and stared at the ground with a furrowed brow.

Dazhuang shouted from a distance, "Chief, Wang Qiang, the forensic intern, is on his way and will be here in a few minutes."

Lu Chengfeng stood up and called back to Dazhuang, "You two search along the path leading up the mountain and see if you can find any dripping bloodstains."

Dazhuang nodded, "Alright, Chief."

About five minutes later, Liu Xun drove up with Wang Qiang.

Lu Chengfeng called out to Liu Xun from afar, "Let Wang Qiang come over alone. Wang Qiang, watch your step."

Wang Qiang grew nervous. "Captain Lu, should I just call my mentor back?"

Lu Chengfeng replied, "Your mentor should be assisting Director Shu with the autopsy right now. If you call him back, aren't you afraid of getting yelled at? Walk over slowly. The focus is right where I am; you'll understand once you get here."

Liu Xun placed a hand on Wang Qiang's shoulder and encouraged him, "Wang Qiang, believe in yourself. You can handle this task."

Trembling slightly, Wang Qiang walked toward Lu Chengfeng.

He kept his eyes wide open the entire way to inspect the ground, but found nothing at all.

It wasn't until he reached Lu Chengfeng's side that his eyes suddenly lit up. "Captain Lu, is this blood?"

"Collect it first and take it back for testing," Lu Chengfeng instructed.

Wang Qiang nodded. First, he took a series of photographs, then used a pair of tweezers to pick up a clod of earth stained with blood and placed it into an evidence bag.

Following that, he inspected the edge of the pond and made a new discovery: two sets of footprints.

Excitedly, Wang Qiang took photos to document them, then pulled out his measuring tools and reported to Lu Chengfeng that they were the tracks of one man and one woman.

After contemplating the small pond for a moment, Lu Chengfeng turned and walked toward Liu Xun.

He instructed Liu Xun, "Go quickly and get two water pumps to drain this pond."

Liu Xun looked troubled. "Boss, where am I supposed to get water pumps?"

Lu Chengfeng pulled out his phone and transferred one thousand yuan to Liu Xun. "Ask around among the villagers; you'll find out who has water pumps. One thousand yuan should be enough to rent two, right?"

Looking at the money on his screen, Liu Xun said, "Boss, we definitely can't get an official receipt for this money, so it can't be reimbursed."

Lu Chengfeng snapped, "Just go do it. Why all the nonsense?"

"Alright, I'll go right now." Liu Xun turned, got back into the car, and drove toward the village.

Dazhuang came running down the mountain, panting heavily as he reported, "Chief, we checked carefully and found nothing."

Lu Chengfeng waved his hand. "No need to look anymore. Once the water pumps arrive and we drain the pond, what we're looking for should be right inside. Call people over to set up the cordon tape."

Dazhuang answered, "Yes, Chief."

A few minutes later, a vehicle arrived, and four investigators jumped out.

They retrieved the caution tape from the trunk and cordoned off the area according to Lu Chengfeng's instructions.

Roughly ten more minutes passed before Liu Xun drove back, followed by two agricultural tricycles.

Each vehicle was loaded with a water pump.

Lu Chengfeng directed them to bypass the cordoned-off perimeter and go around to the other side of the pond to start pumping.

Before long, the village chief hurried over with several people.

Upon seeing the two operating water pumps, his face instantly turned pale.

Stammering, he pointed at the pumps and asked, "Captain Lu, what are you doing? Why are you pumping the water out of this pond?"

Lu Chengfeng glanced at the village chief. "Sorry, Village Chief, it's inconvenient for me to disclose that."

The village chief sheepishly shut his mouth.

After about ten minutes of pumping, a yellow pig feed bag emerged from the small pond.

Lu Chengfeng had Dazhuang haul the bag up. Once Wang Qiang finished taking photographs, Lu Chengfeng put on gloves and untied the rope fastened around the bag.

A large quantity of bamboo shoots spilled out from inside.

As Lu Chengfeng emptied the bag completely, a machete was revealed, mixed in with the bamboo shoots.

Standing on the sidelines, the village chief was already sweating profusely.

Liu Xun smiled and said, "This must be the murder weapon."

After taking photos, Wang Qiang squatted down to examine the machete and suddenly exclaimed:

"Captain Lu, there is an identification number on the blade. This must be a machete forged in a private workshop. Look, it says 'Old Liang's Cutlery Shop', and the serial number is 7718."

Lu Chengfeng turned his head toward Liu Xun. "Go investigate immediately and see if you can trace the buyer."

Liu Xun replied, "I'll get on it right away."

Looking at the bamboo shoots, Lu Chengfeng recalled, "I remember no harvested bamboo shoots were found at the crime scene, right?"

Wang Qiang paused for a moment and replied, "That's right, none. I was actually puzzled at the time because the victim's knife bore traces of having cut bamboo shoots, yet not a single cut shoot was found at the scene."

He paused briefly before continuing, "It seems the perpetrator took all the shoots away. They probably knew about the pond in advance and intentionally took the shoots so they could sink them into the pond along with the knife to add weight."

"The knife is heavy to begin with. Even without the shoots, it would have sunk straight to the bottom if thrown into the pond," Lu Chengfeng countered.

Wang Qiang gave a sheepish laugh. "True, there doesn't seem to have been any need to add those shoots."