Chapter 212: South Korean Victim (1/2)

Officer Ma stood there speechless for a long time before he ventured, ”Is-isn’t this… a little too soon?”

”It’s not like we have a choice. We've already jumped the gun,” said Bingxin shyly.

Knowing that Bingxin was deliberately teasing Officer Ma, I didn’t expose her but quietly appreciated her acting skills.

”You mustn’t let your father find out. He suffers from high blood pressure and might get so angry that he’ll faint.”

”Haha, I tricked you!” Bingxin doubled over with laughter as she covered her stomach.

”You've been playing your little tricks since you were little,” sighed Officer Ma.

”That’s because it’s fun to trick you, Uncle Ma. You take everything so seriously!”

”But I still like to remind you two to always be careful with these things. Otherwise, you might really end up in that situation...” Officer Ma continued lecturing us on sex education for more than ten minutes. Covered in cold sweat, I could only repeatedly nod. What a serious man he was!

I invited Officer Ma to stay with me, but he insisted on doing otherwise. Fortunately, Bingxin had her methods. She told him we had to run home to grab something but quietly filled a basin with hot water and soaked his feet for him. Then, she tucked him into bed with the excuse of warming him up. Defenseless against her methods, the old man fell asleep.

I told my aunt the old man was a professor from my university who was here for work and entrusted her with his care. I also told her not to expect us for lunch.

As soon as we left, Bingxin grabbed my arm and asked, ”Song Yang-gege, where should we start?”

”Follow me,” I replied.

Upon arriving at the county’s logistics hub, I flashed my badge and asked if there had been any trucks transporting soil waste recently. Yesterday, I noticed some cement particles, laterite and quicklime in the soles of the dead man's shoes. The composition was rather varied, leading me to think it was soil waste from a construction site.

Since few trucks operated during the Lunar New Year, it was easy to narrow them down. The person in charge told us that a few trucks had transported some soil waste two days before and passed through a small village on the south side of the county.

The village was only three or four miles away from where the body had been found. I thought this was a reasonable lead.

When I went out to try and hail a cab, there were none because of the holiday. Seeing that it was almost noon, I said to Sun Bingxin, ”I'll order a cab from Didi. Let’s go have lunch first.”

We found a restaurant that served grilled fish. In the middle of lunch, Bingxin suddenly outside and exclaimed, ”Look!”

Officer Lu and his subordinates were asking questions from door to door. Much to my surprise, they had actually started their own investigation. While the effort was commendable, their methods were rather silly.

”Will they discover something first?” Bingxin nervously asked.

”No way. They must’ve taken a photo of the deceased and went around trying to confirm his identity. They can do that for a whole year and still come up with nothing.”

”What if they get lucky?”

”The dead man isn’t a local or even Chinese. They won’t find anything,” I chuckled.

Bingxin sounded shocked. ”How do you know he’s not Chinese?”

”The dead man is about twenty years old. The BCG vaccine has been widely administered in China since 1981. Almost every person born after 1981 has a crater-shaped vaccine scar on their arm. There are also a small number of people with a special constitution who aren’t left with a scar. However, for anyone with the scar, its shape and location doesn’t deviate from that. Yet this person's vaccine scar is located on his thigh so he’s unlikely to be Chinese. I’m leaning towards South Korean,” I explained.

”Wow, how do you even know that? Song Yang-gege, you’re amazing! You’re very good! Why don’t you suspect that he might be Japanese?”

”My judgment was based on the vaccine scar. If he were Japanese, the scar would be shaped like a plum blossom on his arm,” I surmised.

”Is it possible that he’s from some other country?” asked Bingxin.

”That possibility is very low because the Japanese and Koreans often sit on their knees or with their legs folded. After a long time, the bones of their knees and instep become deformed, which I’ve observed in the victim.”

Head tilted to the side, Bingxin mused, ”Is it possible that he was a Chinese who studied in Japan or Korea as a child and returned home after?”

”Think about it. This man climbed out of the coffin and escaped in a panic. Why didn't he knock on somebody’s door for help? Is it possible that he didn't speak the language so he chose to steal the car and run for his life?”

Bingxin applauded in admiration. ”Song Yang-gege, your analysis makes so much sense! A single conversation with you is worth more than four years of my education.”