Chapter 7

The Nanjing Dismemberment Case, also known as the "1/19" Dismemberment Case in Nanjing or the Diao Aiqing Case, occurred on January 19, 1996, in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. The victim was Diao Aiqing, a first-year female student at the Nanjing University College of Continuing Education.

Nine days after her disappearance, on the morning of January 19, a cleaner found fragments of the victim's body on Huazhao Road in Nanjing. The murderer, to eliminate evidence, heated the body until it was cooked and then dismembered it into over 2,000 pieces. After the incident, the Nanjing Public Security Department conducted a large-scale search, but the murderer has not been found to this day.

2016 was the year when the statute of limitations for the Nanjing Dismemberment Case expired.

"If it really is a copy of the Nanjing Dismemberment Case, does that mean we might find two thousand pieces of flesh in the school?" Chu Zhao made a face as if he was about to vomit. "I once looked at some internal documents out of curiosity, and they were much more disgusting than what's on the internet. A whole basket of flesh, it's just a nightmare."

Su Bai patted Chu Zhao's shoulder. "Someone who keeps saying they don't want to be a police officer is actually reading internal case files. Tsk, tsk, such a hypocrite."

"Is it wrong to have a hobby?" Chu Zhao shook his head indifferently. At this moment, his phone rang again.

This time, Chu Zhao's brother-in-law, Captain Sun, didn't start by scolding him but instead lowered his voice and asked, "Have you found something? Otherwise, you wouldn't have the guts to hang up on me!"

"Hehe, brother-in-law, I found something."

"Flesh? We've already collected over three hundred pieces here. There's flesh everywhere. Just move a table, shift a chair, flip through the grass, open a toilet, and you'll find flesh."

"What I found isn't flesh."

Captain Sun's breathing clearly paused. "Then what is it?"

"A human head." Chu Zhao took a cigarette and put it in his mouth but found his lighter was missing. He looked at Su Bai, who was squatting on the ground in pain, and asked, "What's wrong, feeling unwell?"

"Where are you, bring the head to the office classroom quickly!"

"Okay, sure." Chu Zhao hung up the phone, picked up the head, and brought it to Su Bai. "What's wrong, feeling unwell?"

Su Bai's face was pale, and his body was convulsing. He suddenly felt a sense of suffocation. Then, he heard a voice from the radio in his ear:

"Listeners, the story for the next radio program is currently being recorded. Please stay tuned, and we will meet again in the next episode."

After the voice disappeared, Su Bai felt the pressure and pain in his body vanish. He then heard Chu Zhao's voice.

Su Bai waved his hand dazedly and staggered to his feet. "It's fine, nothing. Let's go and deliver the head so we can confirm the identity sooner."

Chu Zhao nodded. "What about you? Not coming with me?"

"I need to go back to the dorm to rest. I'm not part of the student council."

"Damn, so unbrotherly. You love killing, don't you?"

Su Bai coughed and turned to Chu Zhao, putting his arm around his shoulder. "I do love killing, you're right, but I'm not so twisted that I enjoy cooking a dead person and cutting them into thousands of pieces. You understand?"

"So..."

"So, I'm going to sleep, and you keep looking for the flesh. If you want, I can bring you some salt and cumin."

"You..." Chu Zhao.

After saying this, Su Bai walked away unbrotherly, crossed the sports field, and headed towards his dormitory building. At the sports field, many people were still searching, and there were frequent discoveries, even pieces of flesh under the basketball hoop.

For Su Bai, killing wasn't scary; he had already killed seven people and was somewhat numb to dead bodies. However, what was terrifying was the cold-heartedness required to kill someone, cook their body parts, and then dismember and hide them over such a large area.

Pulling down his sleeve, Su Bai quickened his pace back to the dormitory. The dormitory manager, who usually went to bed early, was still awake because many school leaders and police had come by, and many students from the student council had been called to assist in the search. With such a big incident, it was impossible for the manager to continue her usual lazy routine.

Seeing Su Bai walk back, the manager immediately called out, "Student, what happened? I heard many people died?"

Su Bai frowned but still answered, "Just one person died."

"Why are so many people searching? Did someone die on campus, so they're looking for the body?" The manager, once into gossip, was fearless.

"It's one person who was dismembered into many pieces. They're collecting them now, and there might be some in our dormitory."

"How could that be? There's no way there could be any in our dormitory. I watch it every day."

Su Bai didn't bother to mention that he could always enter the dormitory without registration. He simply avoided further questions from the manager, entered the dormitory building, and went up to the third floor. Su Bai first went to the toilet to wash his hands, which had touched the flesh and the human head. He wasn't particularly squeamish about such things.

While washing, Su Bai noticed a bottle of shower gel by the sink and squeezed some onto his hand. Students often came to the toilet to shower, so it wasn't strange to find shower gel and shampoo here. The school's living facilities were terrible; there were no private bathrooms in the dormitories, and the school's bathhouse was in another student area. Students had to walk a long distance, around the sports field and a teaching area, to get to the bathhouse. In the summer, they would be sweating again by the time they returned from the bathhouse, making the bath almost useless.

After washing his hands, Su Bai returned to his dormitory. The dormitory had four beds, but only two people usually lived there. One was on an internship off-campus, and the other was living with his girlfriend off-campus.

Bed 1 was occupied by a pale-skinned student named Liu He, a local from the mathematics department.

"Is something happening outside?"

"Yeah, someone died." Su Bai didn't want to sit and chat, so he changed his shoes and headed to his bed. Only by pulling the curtain around his bed did Su Bai feel he was in a private space, which gave him a sense of security.

Liu He, as his name suggested, was always polite and friendly. Seeing that Su Bai didn't want to talk, he didn't press further and continued reading in bed with the lamp on.

Before going to bed, Su Bai suddenly thought of something. The image of the human head under the flashlight on his phone flashed in his mind.

He climbed down from the ladder and walked to the bed of his roommate who was living with his girlfriend off-campus.

"Hey, hasn't Chen Chu been back for two days?"

Liu He thought for a moment and nodded. "It's been three days, including tonight."

"I didn't see him in class either." Su Bai said, then started searching Chen Chu's bed.

"What are you doing?" Liu He asked, surprised.

"Do you remember if Chen Chu had a photo frame with a picture of him and his girlfriend? I remember he showed it off when he first brought it to the dorm." Su Bai asked.

"Yes, I remember, but I don't know where he put it."

Su Bai nodded and continued searching. He flipped the bed and found loose change, a lighter, magazines, and even underwear and socks, but no photo frame.

Su Bai then went to Chen Chu's desk. The drawer was locked, so Su Bai kicked it open, which startled Liu He, who didn't understand what had gotten into Su Bai.

Opening the drawer, Su Bai moved a few books and a box of condoms and found a photo frame.

"Phew..."

Blowing on it and wiping it with his hand, the two people in the photo became clear.

Seeing the woman's face, Su Bai's mind flashed back to the face of the human head, especially the mole on her chin, which matched perfectly.

Su Bai immediately called Chu Zhao.

"Hey, I don't want cumin and salt. If you have a heart, bring me a cup of milk tea."

"Go to hell, have you identified the female victim yet?"

"They're checking the records, it should be out soon."

"No need to check. I know who it is, but the victim might not be just one person."

After saying this, Su Bai looked at the empty bed. He knew what kind of person his classmate and roommate was. Could someone like him kill his girlfriend, cook her, dismember her, and dispose of the body?

Absolutely not!

Considering he hadn't been to class for a few days,

the result,

was almost clear.

——————

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