I Play Dungeons in the Police Station-Chapter 332 - 211: The Only Clue

The level of expertise is somewhat more professional than those so-called agricultural expert professors online.

The old man mixed the pesticide and continued with his work. Li Xiang and Sun Zhidong prepared to return without further disturbance.

"When did you get interested in farming? What? Thinking about retiring to the countryside and living under the eastern fence, picking chrysanthemums?"

"I might consider it after retirement," Li Xiang said earnestly.

The reason he chatted with the old man was a coincidence, he just happened to see him and exchanged a couple of casual words.

"You’re in your twenties and already thinking about retirement? Let me tell you, by the time we retire, it might be at 70, not sure if we’ll even live that long."

"Then you have to strive to live well, go to bed early, get up early, eat regularly, and exercise more."

"Staying up late? Impossible, absolutely impossible. Only the early morning hours are my own time."

"Damn, you’re a second-generation rich, do you need to grind so hard?"

The two of them chatted leisurely in the car, and soon returned to the municipal bureau.

Once at work, they stopped chit-chatting.

"Xiang, what’s next?"

"To the forensic lab, I want to see those body parts."

As soon as Sun Zhidong heard that Li Xiang was going to the forensic lab to see the body parts, he felt a wave of nausea: "Well, you know the forensic pathologist, I’ll leave you to it then, I’m going back for a drink of water, cough."

After speaking, without waiting for Li Xiang to reply, he scurried off.

He really didn’t want to go to the forensic lab, the stench of corpses is not only overwhelming but also hard to wash off.

That smell seems to linger in your nostrils endlessly, offering an unforgettable aftertaste.

Xiaomei also said that if he continued to "play" with those body parts, she wouldn’t "play" with him anymore, leaving him to spend his life with the body parts.

This is also why it’s hard for forensic pathologists to find partners, who truly doesn’t mind it?

Those who say they don’t mind just haven’t experienced it themselves.

After Sun Zhidong left, Li Xiang had to go by himself.

The forensic pathologist is named Ning Hua, Li Xiang had met him plenty of times and they were quite familiar with each other.

Upon seeing Li Xiang, Ning Hua was surprised, then said, "Captain Li is back?"

"Yeah, just got back, just in time for the case."

"That’s urgent business for your return, this case is quite tricky, but with you back, it shouldn’t be a big problem."

Li Xiang was well-known, having risen from a minor auxiliary police officer to a detective squad captain within a few months, a capability considered unmatched.

His fame was built on actual ability.

"Whether or not it’s a big problem, we’ll only know after looking into it, is the body still inside?"

"Yes, I’ve cleaned up the body parts, come and take a look."

Li Xiang followed Ning Hua into the forensic lab, where dozens of pieces of meat and bones were assembled to form a human torso on the operating table.

Except where the head should be, there was no head.

As Li Xiang approached, Ning Hua handed him protective gear, and after putting it on, he proceeded to the operating table.

Even though Ning Hua had cleaned the body parts, the rotting smell was overpowering.

Li Xiang, who hadn’t encountered this smell in a while, had to adjust before he felt normal breathing.

The body parts were extensively decayed, with most of the flesh already separated from the bones, they felt as though they could easily fall apart.

Handling them gently, Li Xiang carefully observed the body parts, trying to find a breakthrough.

"Captain Li, do you know about autopsies too?"

Ning Hua, standing next to Li Xiang, was curious when he saw how professional and skilled his actions were.

From what he knew, their Captain Li was a versatile talent, able to crack cases, and fight, having won the city-wide versatile gun champion, also adept at criminal sketching, each of these skills would make anyone else a top-tier talent.

Now, with Li Xiang’s set of actions, it felt like he might take over Ning Hua’s job.

"I’ve done a bit of research."

Li Xiang didn’t even look up, he was engrossed with the body parts, his concentration, if you ignored the rotting limbs in his hands, might make others think he was appreciating something indescribable.

"The body was chopped into 18 pieces, the cuts on the bones are neat, the muscle tissues are severely decayed, exposing main skeletal structures like the sternum, pelvis, and leg bones. In addition, I couldn’t find any open wounds other than from dismemberment on the decayed skin, the exact cause of death is currently undetermined."

While listening to Ning Hua’s explanation, Li Xiang asked his own question, "What do you think was used by the perpetrator to dismember the body?"

"Looking at the cross-sections, I suspect the perpetrator used a Bone Chopper. Household knives generally can’t achieve such results, so I suspect the perpetrator might be a butcher, or related to one."

"Indeed, the cross-sections resemble those made by a Bone Chopper, but the perpetrator is not a butcher."

Hearing Li Xiang’s denial of his speculation, Ning Hua instinctively asked, "Why?"

"Because the perpetrator shows no slaughtering experience, look at their dismemberment technique, over half of the cuts were made at the hardest part of the bones, if it were a butcher, they would definitely cut through the soft cartilage between bones, which would save a lot of effort."

"I see, Captain Li, I didn’t know you also understood butchering."

"It doesn’t hurt to know a bit about every trade, since the perpetrators we face could come from any profession."

Hearing Li Xiang’s words, Ning Hua gave him a thumbs-up, rising to the captain position in a short time, his abilities are indeed remarkable, he didn’t immediately rule out the butcher profession.

"Since it’s not a butcher, who could it be?"

"If I knew who the perpetrator was, I would have apprehended them by now."

Ning Hua awkwardly scratched his head, realizing he had asked a silly question without thinking.

After examining the body in the forensic department, Li Xiang went to the last place, the evidence department.

When the body parts were fished out, there were no clothes inside, just a fertilizer bag.

In other words, the fertilizer bag is the only evidence the police presently have.

Taking the fertilizer bag from the evidence department, Li Xiang began his analysis.

Just as Sun Zhidong said, the fertilizer bag indeed was an old brand’s compound fertilizer bag widely known within the province, with a significant market share.

Li Xiang took out his phone and looked at the fertilizer bags he photographed in the old man’s tricycle earlier that morning.

He found that the sack used for the body was from the same company.

That’s why Mao Ji said this fertilizer bag is commonly found in rural areas to store compound fertilizer, it’s truly ubiquitous there.

Could it be that there’s really no clue at all?

At this moment, Li Xiang suddenly noticed that on both the bag in the photos and the one used for the body, in the same area, some letter symbols appeared different, he quickly enlarged the photo on his phone to verify if he was mistaken.

It turned out that on the ingredient list of the old man’s fertilizer, there were the letters N, P, K, but on the bag used for the body, there were other letters like B, Ca.

He knew N, P, K represented nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium respectively on a fertilizer ingredient list.

These are the three essential nutrients for plant growth.

This was something covered in junior high chemistry, so it was easy to understand.

However, on the other bag, there were letters representing trace elements like B, Mn, that was the difference between the two.

"Could this be a breakthrough?"

Thinking of this, Li Xiang was glad, he quickly took out his phone and began looking up information online to see what the differences were.

Soon, he found what he was looking for.

The roles of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium for plants are common knowledge from high school chemistry, so it’s unnecessary to elaborate. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

B stands for boron, a trace element fertilizer that can promote pollen germination, facilitate fertilization, and increase the fruit-setting rate.