Twenty minutes later, the two arrived at the Civil Affairs Bureau.
They took their photos, filled out the paperwork, had everything reviewed, signed the documents, and recited their vows. The entire process flowed smoothly from start to finish.
Before long, each of them was holding a small red marriage certificate.
Warm Qingli’s mind was still spinning. Everything felt surreal.
Yet when she opened the certificate, the photograph inside unmistakably showed her and Lu Zheng.
Although he wore his usual stern, intimidating expression, without the slightest hint of a smile.
Even the staff member taking the wedding photo had asked him three separate times, “Are you sure you’re here to get married?”
Even so, Warm Qingli couldn’t suppress the joy and excitement bubbling inside her.
“Where do you live? I’ll drive you home,” Lu Zheng said.
Warm Qingli quickly waved her hand. “There’s no need. I can just take a taxi.” After a brief pause, she couldn’t help asking, “Are you in Lincheng on a business trip?”
Although he had been born and raised in Lincheng, after graduating from the police academy in Jingbei, he had been assigned to another city as a criminal investigator.
Over the years, she had quietly kept up with the criminal investigation community.
He had spent years on the front lines, solving one major case after another, earning repeated commendations, and had become something of a legend in criminal investigations.
“I’ve been transferred back to the Lincheng Criminal Investigation Unit.”
Almost as soon as he finished speaking, his phone rang.
“Boss, a highly decomposed female body has been discovered in Qingluan Mountain on the outskirts of the city…”
Lu Zheng’s sharp brows knitted together.
“Send me the location. I’ll be there immediately.”
After hanging up, he glanced at Warm Qingli and said hurriedly, “A homicide just came in. I have to get to the scene right away. I’ll contact you later. Goodbye.”
He strode toward the off-road vehicle parked by the roadside, pulled open the door, started the engine, and within seconds the SUV sped away.
Warm Qingli watched the vehicle disappear from sight. Before she could fully process what had just happened, her own phone rang.
“Xiao Wen, we’ve got a murder case. Come to the station.”
Warm Qingli was an art instructor at Lincheng University and also served as a police department’s specially appointed forensic sketch artist.
Whenever the bureau encountered particularly difficult cases, they would call her in.
Taking a deep breath, she carefully tucked her marriage certificate into the innermost compartment of her handbag before hailing a taxi to the police station.
…
Qingluan Mountain.
By the time Lu Zheng arrived, the body had already been recovered and placed on a waterproof forensic examination mat.
The people who had reported the case were several college students exploring the mountains together. One of them had slipped on the steep slope and tumbled into the ravine below, where he had the misfortune of landing face-to-face with the decomposing corpse. Terrified, they immediately called the police.
The medical examiner conducted a preliminary examination.
“Captain Lu, the victim is female. Judging from the skeleton and body structure, she was approximately twenty-three to twenty-six years old.”
The deep mountain’s cool, damp environment, combined with damage caused by scavenging animals, indicated that she had been dead for at least half a month.
“The cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation due to manual strangulation. It’s definitely a homicide, and the body was dumped here.”
After personally taking statements from the college students and confirming there were no inconsistencies, Lu Zheng gave his orders in a deep voice.
“Xu Yan, check all missing persons reports involving women between the ages of twenty-three and twenty-six filed in Lincheng and the surrounding areas over the past twenty days. Also canvass the villages around these mountains and regular hiking groups. Find out whether any unfamiliar vehicles or suspicious individuals entered the area recently.”
“Zhou Kai, expand the search perimeter. Use the location where the body was found as the center and thoroughly search the entire ravine, the surrounding woods, and every path leading down the slope.”
Then he turned to the medical examiner.
“How soon can we get the DNA results?”
The examiner replied, “With standard database comparison, the fastest would be twenty-four hours. But we won’t necessarily have to wait. Our department has an outstanding forensic facial reconstruction artist—one of the best in the industry. I’ll organize the victim’s skull contours, skeletal measurements, remaining hair, basic facial features, and all the high-resolution photographs taken at the scene, then send them back to the Criminal Investigation Technical Division.”
“With her skills, she’ll be able to reconstruct the victim’s appearance within an hour.”
Zhou Kai looked incredulous.
“The body’s decomposed this badly, and she can still recreate what the victim looked like? She must be some veteran expert with decades of experience.”
The medical examiner shook his head.
“She’s only twenty-six—a young woman.”
Zhou Kai clearly didn’t believe him.
“Come on, Brother He. You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I didn’t believe it either at first,” the examiner admitted. “But after seeing her work, I was completely convinced. Once you get back to headquarters, you’ll understand.”
…
Lincheng Criminal Investigation Unit.
The high-definition crime scene photographs of the victim were transmitted back to headquarters.
Several young female officers had barely glanced at the images before instinctively turning away, their faces turning pale.
The corpse in the photographs was in an advanced state of decomposition. The face had been badly destroyed and bore clear signs of animal scavenging. The visual impact was so overwhelming that it was almost impossible to look at directly.
“My God… she’s completely unrecognizable.”
“I got goosebumps after looking for just a couple of seconds. I can’t imagine trying to reconstruct her face.”
Warm Qingli walked into the office and took her seat before the drawing board.
Her slender, fair fingers wrapped around a stylus as she fixed her gaze on the projected images.
Her clear almond-shaped eyes were calm and focused, reflecting the concentration she always displayed while working.
She employed the craniofacial landmark reconstruction method, first identifying the four principal skeletal reference points—the brow ridge, cheekbones, mandibular angles, and nasal base—before using forensic anatomical reconstruction techniques to infer the victim’s original facial structure from the skull.
The young female officers standing behind her watched as the victim’s appearance gradually emerged stroke by stroke. They were utterly awestruck.
In less than an hour, Warm Qingli had completed the portrait of the victim as she had looked in life.
The image was entered into the system.
Match found.
The victim was—