"Was it you who discovered the body?"
The man across from him remained silent, casting a sidelong glance at Xu Jiadong.
After leaving Xu Caizeng's house that evening, Meng Chao and Tong Hao made their way to Xu Jiadong's home.
Naturally, drinks flowed freely, and under Meng Chao's persistent coaxing, the thoroughly drunk Xu Jiadong thumped his chest with assurance, promising to handle the matter personally.
True to his word, early the next morning, he dragged the eyewitness from his bed, half-pulling and half-carrying him to stand before Meng Chao.
Now, the man nicknamed "Ma Zai" was seated on a stool, head hanging low, yawning incessantly.
"You were the first to discover Xu Qingli's body, correct?"
Meng Chao repeated the question.
Ma Zai rubbed his eyes, tilting his head to shoot Xu Jiadong a look.
"The officer's asking you questions, why you looking at me?" Xu Jiadong sat nearby, legs crossed, waving his cigarette carelessly. "Cooperate with their work, say what you know. What's there to fear? It's not like you killed anyone."
Ma Zai shifted on his seat, turning his face back, and nodded.
"Mmm."
"Do you remember the scene at the time?"
"It's been so long—"
"Quit pretending. Don't you brag to Mai Zai's girl every time you drink in town about seeing a dead body?" Xu Jiadong scoffed. "What, you want the officers to buy you drinks too?"
Ma Zai's dark face flushed as he scratched his head and chuckled along.
"Really was a long time ago. I just remember it was hot and stuffy that day, couldn't sleep tossing and turning. So damn irritable, uncomfortable, and uneasy in my heart, so I went out to relieve myself. It wasn't dawn yet, the moon still hanging by the mountain edge, when I saw smoke across the way. Looked closer, tsk, seemed like a fire."
"All we got here are thatched huts, and plenty of woods around. Fire's our worst fear," Xu Jiadong interjected. "So we're always on high alert, real careful about that."
"Right, I shouted for help right away and ran over myself."
Memories resurfaced, the raging flames reigniting in the man's eyes.
"But when I got there, it was an abandoned empty house on fire. Thought it was strange, no one's lived there for ages, how'd it catch fire? And then—"
He shuddered, his face contorting.
"And then, I saw it."
"What did it look like?" Tong Hao looked up from his notebook. "The body, do you remember?"
"Just lying there, stiff as a board. Ugh, scared the life outta me."
"Outstretched?" Meng Chao pressed. "Not curled up?"
He mimicked a protective posture, arms crossed over his chest.
"Sure it wasn't like this?"
"Nah," Ma Zai sprawled his limbs loosely. "Just lying flat like this, black as charcoal."
Meng Chao nodded, signaling Tong Hao to take note.
"I turned around and saw clothes and a watch, just lying on the dirt outside. But I don't read much, so I hurried back to get people."
"Where are those items now?"
"The watch is with me," Xu Jiadong grinned, extending his wrist toward Meng Chao while his gaze dropped to the ground. "It's my brother's keepsake after all. When I miss him, I just look at the time."
Meng Chao had no interest in verifying the truth of this statement and pressed on, "What about the suicide note? You have that too?"
"Why would I keep that?" Xu Jiadong leaned back as if evading something. "Buried it long ago."
"Buried it?"
"Yeah, buried it with him up in the mountains.""We're almost there, just up ahead."
The police officer leading the way was somewhat overweight, yet he navigated the mountain path more nimbly than either of them.
"Gentlemen, what made you suddenly decide to look into Xu Qingli's case?"
The speaker was Officer Jiang, responsible for public security in the surrounding villages. He had been involved in the Bao family incident from start to finish and was originally from a neighboring village. No one knew these mountain paths and burial customs better than him, making him the perfect guide for today.
After their morning conversation with Ma Zai, they had proposed exhuming the body for examination. But Xu Jiadong adamantly refused, first citing feng shui concerns, then fear of evil spirits. Despite Meng Chao's persistent persuasion, he wouldn't budge. Left with no choice, the two had turned to the local police for assistance.
"Watch your step," Officer Jiang used a stick to clear the bushes ahead. "Ah, Xu Qingli's case caused quite a stir back then. Hard to believe it's been over ten years now."
"Does the station have any photos?" Meng Chao asked from behind. "Archived records or anything we could look at?"
"We do, but well—how should I put it—" Officer Jiang bent down to pull Meng Chao up onto a rocky ledge. "The Bao family got to the scene first. They weren't satisfied with just his death and proceeded to beat the corpse, refusing to leave Xu Qingli's body intact. By the time we arrived, the primary scene had been compromised, and the body was beyond recognition."
Meng Chao didn't know how to respond and fell silent for a long moment.
Seeing his silence, Officer Jiang rambled on, effectively rescuing himself from the awkward pause.
"Those who haven't worked in grassroots policing wouldn't understand—some jobs are just difficult to handle. Facts are facts, and principles are principles, but you have to consider that these mountain villages are all interconnected. Everyone's related in some way, near or far. There are too many personal debts to settle—it's complicated.
"In the end, with one life for another, the two families reached an unspoken truce. Since then, no one from Bao Family Village has come to cause trouble. As for the Xu family, they gathered a few bones along with Xu Qingli's old clothes and buried them here. Over time, people stopped talking about it."
He stopped on the hillside, shielding his eyes with his hand as he scanned the area.
"Just over this ridge, and we'll be there. Nanling Village has buried their ancestors in this area for generations."
Tong Hao slowed his pace, deliberately falling behind Officer Jiang. Seizing the moment when the officer wasn't paying attention, he leaned in to whisper to Meng Chao.
"Boss, why do you think there's something off about this?"
"To determine whether someone was burned alive or postmortem, we usually check for soot and carbon particles in the nose and mouth. But since we missed the primary scene, we can't verify that now," Meng Chao replied in a hushed tone. "Do you remember how that villager described the body? Stretched out—"
Tong Hao nodded. "Not in the pugilistic stance."
When a person dies in a fire, their muscles contract and deform due to the intense heat. Since flexor muscles are stronger than extensors, the limbs curl inward, resulting in a posture resembling a boxer's defensive stance—hence the term "pugilistic stance."
Some bodies may exhibit this posture even when burned postmortem, so it can't be the sole criterion for determination. But—
"If Ma Zai saw the charred body in a spread-eagle position, that would strongly suggest the person was already dead when the fire started."Tong Hao seemed lost in thought. "Boss, do you think he might have committed suicide first, then set the fire?"
Meng Chao staggered slightly, giving him an astonished look.
"Tong Hao, are you okay?" He smacked him on the head. "Snap out of it! Listen to yourself—does that even make sense?"
"No, what I mean is, could he have started the fire first, then completed the suicide before the flames reached him?"
"Tsk, that's unnecessary," Meng Chao pondered. "If the locals are resistant to cremation, choosing self-immolation is already strange. Besides, if it was just to appease the Bao family's grievances, he was already dead—adding fire to it feels redundant, don't you think?"
"Unless... he had a reason that made burning absolutely necessary."
As they spoke, the three of them arrived at the burial grounds of Nanling Village.
Contrary to expectations, there were no tombstones or any traces of offerings. The area was lush with trees, overgrown with tumbleweeds, and littered with exposed stone coffins.
"It's a local burial custom—no graves dug, no mounds built. They just place them on the ground like this," Old Jiang explained as he led the way.
"Look at these coffins. They might seem rough, but the stonework is actually quite meticulous. After all, they'll be sleeping here for eternity. While alive, people go up the mountain to pick their own stone. The wealthy hire craftsmen to carve it, while the poor do it themselves during the farming off-season. As for the coffin lids, there are specialists who make them, and hauling them up the mountain is no easy task."
Tong Hao noticed some coffin lids were bare, while others were piled with layers of small stones.
"Lids covered with stones and dirt mean there's someone buried inside. See, the bare ones without stones? Those mean the owner is still alive."
Walking single file, the three ventured deeper into the cemetery.
"We're here," Old Jiang stopped before a narrow, elongated stone coffin. "This coffin was originally meant for Xu Caizeng himself. Never thought his son would use it first."
"Boss, are we really opening this?"
Meng Chao paused while rolling up his sleeves.
"What, you waiting for the victim to solve the case for you in a dream?"
"No, I mean, shouldn't we prepare something first? Just yanking it open like this feels too sudden—"
"Are you worried about startling whoever's inside, or them startling you?" Meng Chao planted his hands on his hips. "Let me tell you, whoever's in this coffin wants to see the light of day more than anyone else."
"Yeah, a wrongful death isn't a peaceful end," Old Jiang bowed slightly toward the coffin. "We're just helping him find justice—doing a good deed."
"You'll get used to it after a few more crime scenes," Meng Chao tossed Tong Hao a pair of gloves. "Less talk, more work. Each of us takes an end."
The three gripped the lid and tried lifting it, but it wouldn't budge. They found branches to use as levers for prying.
After several attempts, sweating profusely, the lid finally loosened slightly.
"Again. One, two, three."
With a combined effort, the stone coffin cracked open, releasing the wronged soul buried in darkness back into the world of the living.
Meng Chao peeked inside. The flesh and fabric had long rotted away, leaving only fragmented, disarrayed bones.
"An autopsy won't mean much," Old Jiang clicked his tongue beside him. "It's all in pieces like this."Meng Chao picked up one piece, shook his head, and set it down before picking up another. The situation was worse than he had imagined. Just as he was stewing in frustration, Tong Hao nudged him with his elbow.
"What?"
"Your phone."
Only then did he realize his phone had been ringing incessantly in his pocket.
Forensic specialist Xia Jie.
"Hey, Xia."
"Captain Meng, when are you coming back?"
"Wrapping things up here. Should be back in a couple of days."
"Alright. Just wanted to give you a heads-up—I did what you asked."
He glanced at the others and quietly stepped aside.
"And?"
"Cao Tianbao and Ni Xiangdong share the same blood type, but they aren’t biologically related. So, Ni Xiangdong isn’t Cao Tianbao’s father."
He had already suspected as much. Xia Jie’s call merely confirmed his earlier deductions.
"Got it." Meng Chao was about to hang up when his eyes flicked to the stone coffin. "Xia, I need your expert opinion on something."
"Skip the flattery. Just ask."
"Say... if a body was burned, then smashed to pieces, and buried in a stone coffin for over a decade—could you still identify it?"
"Well, to put it simply, death is like a lamp going out. The same goes for DNA."
"Meaning?"
"DNA has an expiration date. Once cells die, enzymes break it down. Oxygen, sunlight, moisture, microorganisms—all kinds of factors speed up the process."
"So... is it possible or not?"
"I can’t guarantee anything. Success rates vary by body part. For instance, ribs work better than nails, nails better than muscle, muscle better than scalp."
"Ribs..." Meng Chao motioned for Tong Hao to check. "Uh, might not have those. The bones here aren’t exactly complete."
"Teeth could work."
"There are a few teeth left." Meng Chao turned away, lowering his voice. "If it’s just shattered bones from over a decade ago... could you still determine the cause of death?"
"Hard to say without seeing how badly they’re damaged."
"I see." Meng Chao clicked his tongue. "Xia, I’m gonna mail you something—"
A noticeable pause on the other end.
"Wait, Meng Chao," Xia Jie sighed. "You’re not planning to mail me a corpse, are you?"
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