Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

Jiang Ruolan lifted the safety tape and entered the workshop.

The temperature inside the workshop was even lower than outside. Cold winds rushed in through the broken windows, swirling and howling in the empty factory.

A thin layer of grayish-white dust covered the ground, mixed with thin ice formed from snowmelt leaking from the roof, making a crunching sound when stepped on.

Deep inside the workshop were several rusted textile machines, their iron frames covered in cobwebs and dust. On the walls remained a few faded production schedules, the writing on them now illegible.

The air was thick with rust, damp dust, and a deeper, instinctively unsettling sweet, fishy smell.

The body was placed in a small cubicle at the very back of the workshop.

This room used to be the workshop director's office; now only four mottled walls and a crooked wooden door remain.

The body lay on its back on the ground. It was a man of medium build and slightly thin, wearing an old dark brown cotton-padded jacket and gray trousers, his clothes covered in dust and a few dark bloodstains.

His face was visibly bruised and swollen, his eyes were half-open, his lips were cracked, and there was a dried bloodstain at the corner of his mouth.

What truly silenced everyone present were the burn marks on the deceased's body—the sleeves of his cotton-padded jacket were rolled up above his elbows, revealing several circular burn wounds on the inside of his forearm. The edges of the wounds showed an unnatural dark brown carbonization, the center was slightly sunken, and the surrounding skin was red and ulcerated due to infection.

The same burns were also found on the victim's chest and abdomen, with more wounds visible through the torn collar.

These wounds are widely distributed and vary in shape. Some are healed old scars, while others are new wounds from the past few days. The old and new wounds overlap and are densely covered on the deceased's skin, indicating that the deceased had suffered systematic torture for a long time before death, and this was not a one-time act of violence.

Forensic pathologist Lao Zheng was already squatting next to the body.

His gloves were covered in dust, and he was gently cleaning the dirt around a burned wound on the deceased's forearm with a soft brush in his hand.

Seeing Jiang Ruolan enter, he spoke without looking up, his voice carrying the calm that comes from witnessing too many horrific scenes, a quality unique to veteran forensic doctors:

"The deceased was between 45 and 55 years old and about 1.7 meters tall. He had multiple burns on his body, and the wounds were all the same in shape, caused by the same tool - a round metal object, about two centimeters in diameter, which was repeatedly in contact with the skin after being heated to a high temperature."

The high degree of carbonization around the wounds indicates that the weapon was at least 300 degrees Celsius. Some wounds had been healing for days or even weeks before death, while others were newly inflicted within the last 24 hours. In short, this person was confined somewhere and subjected to continuous torture for a considerable period of time.

The preliminary assessment of the cause of death is not burns, but mechanical asphyxiation—there was a ligature mark on the neck.

Old Zheng gently lifted the deceased's head, revealing a shocking ligature mark below the neck. "It was made with something like an electrical wire, with great force, and it was very deep, causing almost instantaneous suffocation. The time of death was approximately between 8 and 10 pm last night."

Furthermore, all of the deceased's fingernails had been removed. Ten fingers, not one left. The wounds showed slight signs of healing, indicating that the nail removal occurred before death, possibly a few days prior.

Jiang Ruolan held her breath, squatted down next to the corpse, and carefully examined the deceased's face, which had been distorted by beatings and torture.

Who is this person? Why was he locked up, burned, had his fingernails pulled out, and finally strangled to death with an electric wire?

This type of torture, which has obvious punitive characteristics and features of forced confession, usually points to two possibilities in criminal psychology: one is personal revenge—the murderer has a deep personal hatred for the victim and uses torture to gain psychological satisfaction; the other is gang execution—the murderer uses systematic torture to force the victim to reveal certain information, and then kills the victim to cover it up after obtaining the information.

Judging from the age of the scars, the second possibility is more likely.

The murderer was interrogating him, and this process lasted for quite some time.

Her gaze followed the body of the deceased downwards.

Old Zheng was carefully lifting the deceased's right hand from the side of his body.

The deceased's fingers were curled up, with large knuckles and rough palms, indicating that he had been engaged in manual labor for many years.

All ten fingernails had indeed been pulled out, and dried black scabs remained on the fingertips.

But amidst these shocking wounds, Jiang Ruolan noticed that the deceased's right hand was clenched exceptionally tightly, even after rigor mortis had partially subsided. The hand remained firmly gripped.

She gestured to Lao Zheng to help pry open that hand.

Old Zheng carefully used his fingers to pry open the deceased's palm, and those stiff fingers were unfolded one by one.

Something was revealed in his palm—a small piece of gray fabric, soaked with sweat and stained half red with blood, with neat edges, as if it had been forcefully torn from some clothing.

Jiang Ruolan didn't immediately reach for it, but instead turned and called out towards the door:

"Lu Zheng, evidence bag."

Lu Zheng walked over quickly, took a transparent evidence bag from the investigation kit, and handed it to her.

She carefully used tweezers to remove the piece of fabric from the deceased's palm, placed it in the evidence bag, and then held the bag up to examine it closely in the dim light.

The fragment was very small, about the size of a fingernail, made of gray cotton with a rough texture, the kind of fabric commonly used in work shirts.

The front of the fragment has several small characters printed on it, like part of some kind of printed text, but they are blurred by bloodstains, and only the last two letters can be barely made out as "ON".

The letters are white, printed on a gray background, and are a common logo style on certain work clothes or uniforms.

"ON".

Lu Zheng leaned closer to take a look, frowned, and said, "This might be the latter half of an English word, or an abbreviation of a company name. There are quite a few companies in Yi'an that need printed uniforms—construction sites, factories, mines, and logistics companies all have custom-made uniforms."

"It's not a construction site or factory."

Jiang Ruolan turned the evidence bag over and pointed to a detail on the back of the fabric. "Look, there's a small black coating residue on the back of the fabric. It feels sticky to the touch; it's a waterproof coating. Construction work clothes don't need waterproof coatings, and neither do factory or mine work clothes."

Workwear that uses waterproof fabric is generally for outdoor workers—outdoor sorting in the logistics industry, fieldwork in the transportation system, and outdoor operations in municipal engineering. Moreover, the quality of this fabric is not bad; it's not the kind of cheap workwear, but more like professional workwear procured through a centralized bidding process.

Check which companies in Yi An have customized gray-based white-lettered work uniforms, especially those with a waterproof coating.

Furthermore, the deceased's rough hands had indelible black grease between the fingers. This wasn't ordinary dust and dirt, but rather the kind formed from long-term contact with engine oil, diesel fuel, or certain industrial greases. This was a characteristic of their occupation.

He's a manual laborer, but not a typical construction worker, because a bricklayer's fingernails wouldn't be so clean they only have old grease and no cement. He could be a car mechanic, freight handler, or some kind of machinery operator.

...............