National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 881 - 819: Rest and Leisure

Barbecue yard.

The sleek, faintly stinky smell wafted out from the courtyard, spiraled outside, forming a helix, ascending to the heights.

The familiar smell of cow dung from the grasslands had already ignited, a warm stench gently enveloping each guest, making them want to stop talking, yet unable to cease.

"Hurry up and give me a bite," Huang Qiangmin, who was late, barged in, grabbed some barbeque, and ostentatiously took two skewers.

Those who came with him did pretty much the same thing.

After showing off, Huang Qiangmin then sniffed and sighed deeply, "I must say, it doesn’t smell that bad."

"The first time I smelled durian, I truly thought they were selling poop," Liu Jinghui laughed and said, "After you try it, it’s okay. Now that I’m smelling it, I even think it smells pretty good."

"Now when I smell durian, I can start to salivate," Tang Jia commented as she also took a skewer of barbecue and showed off. The cow dung barbecue from last time had left her conflicted for a long time, but this time she had no hesitation.

As police officers, let alone the smell of stench their noses have endured, no one would dare say that they’ve only ever breathed fresh air when opening their mouths. Tang Jia, being a female officer, had been to as many crime scenes as any ordinary detective, even more so due to needing to deal with female suspects, which potentially increased her frequency of onsite visits.

Wang Chuanxing waved his hand, shouting, "Boss, do you have durians here? Open two."

"Ah... I had actually been considering it," said the boss, Chen Daqian, rising from beside the barbecue furnace with a smile: "Sure, I was worried that some people might not like the smell of durian. Should I have someone go to the fruit store and buy a couple? Whatever the price, that’s what we’ll pay."

"That’ll work," Wang Chuanxing replied, "then buy a few more, there’re so many of us here, let’s get 10."

"Afraid we might not finish them."

"No problem, we’ll open as many as we eat, and the leftovers can be taken to the canteen. Tomorrow, we’ll offer them to colleagues who haven’t eaten ’shit’." Besides handling daily accounting for the Cold Case Squad, Wang Chuanxing also managed some of their minor finances.

The boss agreed and quickly dispatched a waiter to go buy them.

Tang Jia laughed and said, "You guys are lucky to be able to go on a trip to Dama tomorrow, you can eat all the durian you want! I heard that the local durians there are a bit more mature and there are some special varieties like ’Black Thorn’ and stuff."

"Didn’t get a chance to try it last time; hopefully, the local police can be more accommodating this time!" Mu Zhiyang laughed, then added, "It’s a pity durians aren’t allowed on flights, otherwise I’d bring a basket back for you."

"You could still request it for the return trip," suddenly piped in Huang Qiangmin.

Mu Zhiyang hesitated before replying, "Customs wouldn’t allow it, would they..."

"They could find a way, or, alternatively, they could mail it. Or even find a large trader to bring over a batch of highly mature durians..." Huang Qiangmin calmly looked at Mu Zhiyang and said, "Sometimes by making a slightly excessive request, you can find out if the other side is worth continuing to help."

Mu Zhiyang quickly nodded.

Since Liu Jinghui wasn’t from Ningtai County, he took the opportunity to get up and grab some lamb skewers. Once Huang Qiangmin and the others finished speaking, he came back, distributed some to everyone, then bit into his lamb skewer, satisfied, "Chen’s lamb is really tender. Perfectly grilled, chewy with juice, it’s really good."

"Glad you like it," Chen Daqian smiled, then added, "I was worried that not everyone would like this smell, but I didn’t expect to have so many returning customers."

Liu Jinghui: "Chen, you have to think of it this way, the first time eating ’shit’... pah pah pah, the first time smelling this stench is the hardest. Everyone has already come here and smelled it once, if we don’t come a second time, isn’t that a high sunken cost?"

Chen Daqian was stunned, "That’s... quite a unique perspective."

Liu Jinghui held the pearls of wisdom, "That’s why stench is actually like a stabilizer, and it naturally promotes itself. Not only will people who have eaten here once return, but they’ll bring companions next time, and eventually, with more people coming, even those who didn’t want to come would feel compelled to give it a try. It’s like stinky tofu, stinky mandarin fish, and snail rice noodle; they’re much easier to promote than items without a stench."

"That’s actually true," Chen Daqian, who spent his days head down as the ’Shit Fairy Master’, had never thought of that - his product had a theoretical depth.

Tang Jia laughed from the side, "I can attest. Initially, in our dorm, only one girl ate durian, the others all disliked it when they smelled it. Then three people started eating durian, and the remaining one who didn’t was looked down upon and ended up being tempted into trying durian..."

"Speaking of which, I actually have some good stuff in the kitchen," said the boss, Chen Daqian, with a twinkle in his eye.

"What good stuff?" Liu Jinghui showed a wary expression.

"Do you like stinky tofu?" Chen Daqian asked, "I specifically had someone make a few bottles. They’ve been soaked in sesame oil for a month now, just right for eating."

"Stinky tofu... If my memory serves me right, it’s also stinky, isn’t it?"

"You remember correctly," Chen Daqian said, "it smells stinky and tastes stinky, and when fried in oil, it’s soft and fluffy inside, with a crispy outside. Not bad, right? Just a moment, I’ll get some."

With that, Chen Daqian left excitedly.

Liu Jinghui stood frozen for a moment before letting out a long sigh and offering a wry smile to those around him.

Mu Zhiyang consoled him, "Director Liu, it’s okay. We’ve come to ’Shit Fairy Master’ already, what’s the difference if we grill one more item or one less?"

"You’re so comforting," Liu Jinghui glared at him sideways, then added, "I’m not sighing over stinky tofu. I’m sighing over that case, with Fang Defu, and Fang Deshou - those two brothers, neither taking the lead nor the fall. One’s a death sentence and the other a life sentence, with one more victim, and the Fang family is practically wiped out."

"Without considering the victims, the extermination of a murderer’s whole family sounds like a good thing," Mu Zhiyang said.

Liu Jinghui: "It’s just a bit melancholic that from now on, when people mention Jiang Yuan, they can call him ’Jiang Yuan of the annihilated family!"

"It sounds pretty cool," Tang Jia chimed in beside them, trying the phrase out a few times until it really did sound cool.

Jiang Yuan said indifferently, "The two brothers conspired to kill their own sibling over money. It was they who embarked on the path to family annihilation."

"They really had the guts to do it," Mu Zhiyang handed over a skewer of meat to Jiang Yuan.

Lei Xin said somberly, "Once there’s conflict between brothers, sometimes they can be worse than enemies."

"The issues accumulated over days and months, suddenly erupting. Now, the motives behind the cases are converging," Liu Jinghui spoke, with more than a slight dissatisfaction in his tone.

Nowadays, the most common murder cases are crimes of passion, accidental killings, and murders among acquaintances. True stranger-on-stranger killings motivated by robbery or sexual violence are actually rare.

It can be said that the people who die in mystery novels outnumber those who die in a real region by far.

"Ah, the stinky tofu is coming," Old Chen shouted, leading several of his workers, carrying a bunch of bottles, an iron pot, and soybean oil, over.

Liu Jinghui and the others thus stopped discussing the case and curiously watched.

"This stinky tofu has already been mixed with chili salt and other things, and afterward, it can be eaten after sitting in sesame oil for a few days. The freshly made stinky tofu is covered in white mold, which you can’t really see now... I think the best way to eat it is to deep-fry it..."

Chen Daqian enthusiastically introduced the eating methods for stinky tofu while setting up the large iron pot and clangingly pouring in two buckets of soybean oil.

"It’s only good if you use plenty of oil." While waiting, Chen Daqian opened a bottle and carefully took out the stinky tofu inside, asking, "Do you want to have a smell?"

Mu Zhiyang bravely stepped forward to try.

"How is it?" The others were quite curious.

Mu Zhiyang savored it for a moment before responding, "It’s not like cow dung; stinky tofu has a pure stench. By the way, what’s the difference between this and regular stinky tofu? It seems like regular stinky tofu is fried the same way."

Chen Daqian thought for a moment while frying the tofu, then promptly said, "Regular stinky tofu tastes better."

"It’s also not as smelly," added the worker responsible for grilling beef dung.

Once the stinky tofu was fried, Chen Daqian added seasoning to it all at once, then distributed a piece to everyone.

Liu Jinghui ate his share cautiously, and after some time, he commented, "It really is tender and flavorfully mushy."

"It is indeed mushy."

"It’s got a flavor."

"It’s pretty similar to regular stinky tofu, not necessarily worse in taste!"

...

The following day.

After a good rest, Jiang Yuan, Mu Zhiyang, Wang Chuanxing, and others first drove to Changyang City, then took a connecting flight to Hu City, and finally arrived in Dama. They met up with Cui Xiaohu and Li Haochen from the Ministry and, under the guidance of Chu Guanliang, the liaison officer at the embassy, they went to Marunpo Police Station.

The two local police chiefs, Zhong Renlong and Ni Cha, had been waiting for them and warmly welcomed the group.

After going through the formalities, Jiang Yuan began communicating with the two about the case in his Level 2 proficiency in the Indonesian language.

The agreement to participate in the investigation had been arranged in advance, but which specific case they would be involved in had not been discussed.

Soon, Ni Cha brought out a long list.

"These are all recent homicide cases," Chu Guanliang said, assuming the role of interpreter.

Looking at the long list, Mu Zhiyang couldn’t help but say, "That’s a bit outrageous."

"If this place claims a 40% case closure rate, the other 60% are not only unsolved, but they also include cases that no one is working on," Chu Guanliang paused before adding, "So, they all hope that Captain Jiang can get involved in several cases."

"We might also get stuck on a particular case," Jiang Yuan said, then spoke to Ni Cha and Zhong Renlong in Indonesian, "Let’s mark the ones with the bodies still intact. Having the body will likely increase the chances of solving the case."

"Okay. God," Zhong Renlong swiftly marked one-third of the list, totaling at least a dozen cases.

After marking them, Zhong Renlong placed a five-star mark next to one case and said, "God, if you have no specific preferences, could you please take a look at this case?"

"Oh? What’s the situation? Let’s hear it."

"Okay. The victim in this case is a billionaire, and there’s controversy over the cause of death. Our local forensic experts have raised some issues... The victim died two days ago, and the family has already requested cremation. From the police perspective, we also need some solid evidence..." Zhong Renlong kept it brief, but he managed to convey the basic stakes involved.

Jiang Yuan glanced at Chu Guanliang, waiting for his nod before responding, "Then let’s go examine the body. We can talk as we look."