"We're here."

It was after 5 pm. Two guides dragged Liu Jinghui up to a small platform at the edge of a cliff.

He was getting old. He could manage the first half of the mountain road, but the second half was almost impossible for him.

Of course, according to Liu Jinghui himself, he was just "too tired from driving yesterday."

Jiang Yuan was also exhausted. Taking advantage of the sunset, he quickly took a group of photos and carefully observed the surrounding environment. The sky quickly turned dark.

Jiang Yuan helped prepare for camping. His level 2 camping skills finally came in handy, although not as calm as the two guides, it still accelerated the overall progress.

The cliff here had been artificially cleared, and although the ground was covered with plants, they were small enough to let some light through. Behind the platform made up of several large rocks was a cave that was three or four meters deep. It had been cleaned up in advance and had a prepared fire pit, a small amount of firewood, twigs, and leaves.

The few people quickly cleared a space on the small platform, set up a small tent, collected water from the mountain stream, and started a fire.

The cave behind the small platform was the first scene of the "Wu Long Wild Man" case, but none of the four people mentioned it. They first sorted out their own living area.

An experienced guide sprayed a large amount of insect repellent on the ground of the small platform, and various colored bugs crawled out from under the decaying branches and leaves, staggering to the nearby grass.

Find the original at "pawread dot com".

Liu Jinghui's face changed slightly as he asked, "No one comes here now? I remember it was like this last time I came..."

The experienced guide said, "We're taking the route that the herb pickers used to take. The caves here were also prepared by the herb pickers themselves."

Another guide recalled, "When we go out and encounter rainy days or injuries and illnesses that can't be returned for a while, we stay in the cave for a night or two, light a fire, boil water, and those who come afterwards can add some firewood... There are also some caves at the foot of the mountain, but there are fewer of them now."

Liu Jinghui asked, "What about now? It can't be completely abandoned, right? At least you still come here."

"We're now taking orders from some customers, including hikers and backpackers... Backpackers usually don't take this route. It's too remote. If it weren't for this job, I wouldn't take this route in a few years." The guide said while using a machete to chop down several small saplings, feeling a bit of precaution."But everyone knows that next year when we come back, this place will be filled with small saplings again.

"What about the village? Will people from the village at the foot of the mountain come up here too?" Liu Jinghui had asked a similar question before, but this time he had deliberately hired a new young guide and wanted to ask again.

The guide looked about 20 years old and didn't take it seriously. He said, "Most of the people from the village come up here because someone in their family has some illness and they come to pick some herbs for their own use. They can't get here. We've been walking for eight or nine hours and have been changing mountains. The village is now full of old people who can't afford to do this."

Liu Jinghui made a sound of agreement, thought for a moment, and then said to Jiang Yuan, "Let's go into the cave and investigate first. It's best to stay in the cave tonight and investigate all the big places."

He had been here before and knew that it was troublesome to stay outside the cave. The environment in the mountains was not like outside, and the cold and dampness could make people sick. Poisonous insects and wild beasts also hid somewhere.

However, in order to minimize the impact on the crime scene, he had invited Jiang Yuan and two guides this time instead of coming out with a large team like last time.

Jiang Yuan nodded. He came here to do on-site investigation and had no reason to be lazy.

Liu Jinghui asked the two guides to fetch water and cook, and then said, "You've seen all the previous photos. Where should we start?"

The photos were taken by Jiang Yuan on the way here using an iPad. They were also the most useful evidence that had been preserved, but as far as Jiang Yuan was concerned, they were not very useful.

The first and second waves of police officers who went up the mountain almost didn't find any evidence other than the corpse. The forensic experts who participated in the investigation also made little progress in forensic pathology after proving the identity of the body.

Because the bodies were incomplete, the current speculation was that the fatal injury was in the abdomen, which was the softest part of the body and most susceptible to the attention of wild animals. Before the body decayed, the visiting animals had dug a big hole in the abdomen containing the information of death...

Of course, there was nothing strange about it. In the current situation, any footprints on the ground could be destroyed by insects, fungi, or other strange things. The evidence commonly used by detectives had no reason to exist in this environment.

Jiang Yuan waved his flashlight twice and said slowly, "Fingerprints are unlikely, DNA is also hopeless, the most likely evidence is physical evidence, such as plastic packaging, iron tools, and so on. I'll look for it in the ashes of the bonfire first. Don't touch anything."The three treasures of criminal investigation are video, mobile phones, and DNA. Jiang Yuan felt that the most hopeful one was the mobile phone. For example, if they could dig out a phone from the bottom of the cave, that would be the best.

But his dream did not come true.

Jiang Yuan sat by the fire and put on gloves to sift through the ash. Although most of the black ash and other things had been eliminated by nature, tree branches or some food could be preserved longer after being smoked. However, considering that the police officers had also grilled meat here last time, it was hard to say who made the things Jiang Yuan found.

Nevertheless, Jiang Yuan searched around for clues and evidence.

It took him half the night.

After barely resting for half a night, Jiang Yuan searched through the evidence he had found the day before as soon as the sun rose the next morning.

But there was nothing useful.

Jiang Yuan sat by the fire, frowning and thinking. This place was not like a residential building. Even if they cleaned the cave, they probably wouldn't find anything. A variety of microorganisms could easily destroy all biological evidence.

Extracting some soil for chemical analysis might yield some results, but it probably wouldn't help much.

Liu Jinghui also got up. He washed his face with cold water and said, "Find whatever you can find. I asked you to come here as a last resort. The previous two groups of detectives and the technicians I brought last time found nothing."

Jiang Yuan didn't need Liu Jinghui to comfort him. He just rubbed his shoulders and stood up, saying, "I'll look around the area first."

"Let Xiao Yang accompany you," Liu Jinghui said, calling the experienced guide to go with Jiang Yuan to explore the area.

Of course, the main focus was to find the body by the mountain stream.

By noon, Jiang Yuan returned to the fire, which had dwindled. He found some firewood and rebuilt the fire.

As he worked, his eyes fell on a side of the wall. The color of the wall had changed slightly. Most people probably thought it was caused by the fire, but with his LV2 camping skill, Jiang Yuan could easily judge that it was not. The fire only affected the growth of organic matter on the wall, and that should have been the part closest to the fire and flames.As a result, the area where the wall color changed the most was actually further inside.

Upon realizing this, Jiang Yuan immediately walked up and carefully examined the cave wall.

With his crime scene investigation skills, he deduced that the wall had been contaminated to some extent, but by what...

Jiang Yuan gently touched the wall with his gloved fingers, and his attention was quickly diverted.

What contamination.

What color.

Jiang Yuan pulled apart a section of vines and clearly saw a half-black object embedded in the wall behind them.

Peeling away the soil next to the half-black object, an uncommon word flashed through Jiang Yuan's mind: bullet.

Jiang Yuan immediately took out his camera to take photos, then set up a tripod, switched to photography mode, and brought over the crime scene investigation box. He carefully removed the soil, plants, and stone chips surrounding the half-black object.

A shattered bullet was firmly lodged in the cave wall, 30 centimeters from the bottom up.

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