SFTD -Chapter 79 Who’s Next? (Final)

Xu Biao shrank his neck in fear and quickly pulled his hand back. They always say curiosity kills the cat—and he was exactly that kind of person. He could suffer a hundred losses and still not learn.

Zhou Hai walked closer. The four green-painted boxes were old iron trunks.

When placed together, their size was almost identical to a standard double bed, just slightly taller. That was what had made the “bed” they saw earlier feel so strange.

Zhou Hai grabbed the recessed handle shaped like an anchor on one of the boxes and twisted hard. With a sharp click, the lock released. He lifted the lid, and the entire box opened.

Inside were various rolling pins and knives—many already rusted.

Wang Man opened another adjacent box. Inside were only old women’s clothes.

The clothes were moldy, wrinkled, and stuffed tightly inside.

Xu Biao swallowed and pointed at the two boxes in front of him.

“Th-these two… should I open them?”

Zhou Hai ignored him and walked over to open the box in front of Xu Biao himself.

A collective gasp filled the entire garage.

Inside the box was a skeleton.

Around the bones were pebbles and sand of various sizes, carefully arranged to reconstruct a human form. However, two talismans were stuck on the sternum and skull. Although the paper was extremely aged, the symbols were still clearly visible—identical to those found on Victim C’s skeleton.

“Another one?”

“What the—this looks so… formal?”

“Zhou Hai, just how many people did Wang Shuli kill?”

Zhou Hai did not respond. He opened the next box.

Everyone had begun to grow numb, but when they saw the scattered white bones inside, their eyes still widened.

A rough estimate suggested at least three skeletons. Some bones bore severe chop marks, others were broken into multiple pieces.

“These remains have been white for a long time—at least eight to ten years,” Zhou Hai said. “Have Wang Man send the boxes back. We need to examine everything and identify the four victims.”

“Also, send someone to East South University and find Wang Shuli’s daughter. I suspect this single skeleton belongs to Wang Shuli’s missing wife.”

“Additionally, send the six bags of meat from Wang Shuli’s freezer for testing. Every single piece must undergo DNA analysis. There may be human tissue mixed in…”

Zhou Hai didn’t finish.

Xu Biao immediately forced himself not to think further. If that meat was human flesh, then the meat-filled buns they had eaten that day—

Everyone began working immediately.

Chu Menghan personally went to the university to look for Wang Shuli’s daughter. Wang Man organized transport of all the boxes back to the forensic center.

That night, Team Two did not leave. They performed autopsies overnight on all recovered remains. Although their methods were not yet fully refined, the conclusion was consistent: all victims had died from a single fatal chop to the head.

At the same time, all collected evidence was sent for testing. The sheer volume of forensic work made everyone dizzy. Sister Zeng led the entire lab team into overnight overtime.

It was a sleepless night.

The next morning, Chu Menghan arrived early at Zhou Hai’s office, even bringing breakfast for all four of them.

Zhou Hai had already organized all the evidence and was reviewing it on his computer. Chu Menghan sat beside him, both of them staring at the screen.

“We’ll start with Victims A, B, and C. There are still several victims not found in the missing persons database.”

“First, Victim A, Zhu Manli. She was killed in her rented apartment. The weapon was taken from the scene—a kitchen knife from her own home. No useful evidence was left behind.”

“However, Zhu Manli’s DNA was found on the knife and cutting board in Wang Shuli’s garage. A blood fingerprint on the door contained Zhu Manli’s blood, and the fingerprint itself belonged to Wang Shuli.”

“This confirms it was a secondary dismemberment site. Zhu Manli’s body was processed there.”

“Processed?” Xu Biao asked.

“Don’t interrupt,” someone nudged him. “You’ll understand later.”

“Victims B and C, Liu Wen and Wang Hong, were both killed in the garage. Their blood was found on the walls, cutting boards, and knives. Muscle tissue from all three victims was found in Wang Shuli’s freezer.”

“Through analysis of the four skeletons in the garage, the separately stored skeleton belongs to Wang Shuli’s wife, Peng Meizhen.”

“She was about thirty years old at death.”

“Based on household records and clothing found in another box, her time of death is estimated between December 2004 and March 2005.”

“The other three skeletons: one has been identified as Zhu Li, a prostitute who went missing four years ago. The remaining two have no database matches. Their estimated ages are between 25 and 28.”

“It is certain all four were killed in the garage. The painted walls and floor had been cleaned, but all remaining traces match their DNA.”

“Over ten years, he gradually killed seven people. Everything points back to Peng Meizhen.”

“Even though not all identities are confirmed, four of the seven victims were prostitutes.”

“He clearly harbored intense hatred toward sex workers. Peng Meizhen may have been one herself. You can interrogate him from that angle—that seems to be his deepest wound.”

“This is great. We finally have solid evidence. I’m going back to interrogate him now.”

“Seven lives… I never expected Wang Shuli, who looked so honest, to be such a vicious criminal!”

Chu Menghan left with all the reports and photos.

The four of them were exhausted. Director Pang, unusually considerate this time, ordered them to rest immediately and report any developments later.

October 13, Monday

As soon as Zhou Hai entered the office, he saw Chu Menghan sitting in his seat.

Legs crossed, she had regained her usual commanding presence.

There was no need to guess—Wang Shuli had confessed.

Zhou Hai simply nodded at her. Xu Biao and the others walked in humming, immediately brightening when they saw her.

“Beauty Chu is here!”

Chu Menghan glanced at Zhou Hai, then sighed.

“I know. If I don’t speak, you won’t ask.”

“Exactly!” Xu Biao nodded. “That’s just how our Zhou Hai is. You’ll have to tolerate it.”

“Did Wang Shuli confess?”

“Yes. Fully.”

With that opening, Chu Menghan began.

The story began fifteen years ago.

Wang Shuli grew up poor and was sent to a Taoist temple as a child, only returning home as an adult.

Peng Meizhen was a wife obtained through an arranged “wife exchange.” His sister died not long after marrying into the Peng family, and Wang Shuli harbored resentment, often beating Peng Meizhen.

After one severe beating, Peng Meizhen returned to her parents’ home, but her family, guilty and afraid, refused to take her in and sent her back. With nowhere to go, she ran away.

Wang Shuli searched for her for months but found nothing. Eventually, with elderly parents and a child to care for, he returned home.

But upon reaching the village entrance, he saw funeral banners hanging at his house—his parents had both died two days earlier, leaving only his daughter.

After handling the funerals, a relative who dabbled in superstition told him everything was caused by his “disastrous wife.” Wang Shuli, who had spent years in a Taoist temple, performed a divination himself—and believed it.

He left his daughter with relatives and went out alone, working odd jobs while searching for Peng Meizhen.

In 2004, he arrived in East South City. His small business improved, and he saved enough to buy a garage instead of renting a home.

Soon after, he heard Peng Meizhen was also in the city.

He began searching again, recognizing the distinct accent from Xianyang.

Eventually, in early 2005, he entered a bathhouse and saw her name on a service board.

He called for her. When they met, there was no violent confrontation. Instead, he embraced her and brought her back to his small garage.

But Peng Meizhen had already seen another world. She no longer wanted to live in that cramped life.

Before the New Year, she asked to break up. Wang Shuli agreed—but asked her to spend the New Year with him.

She agreed.

On New Year’s Eve, he killed her.

To prevent suspicion, he stripped her flesh, boiled her remains in a large pot for fifteen days, then used talismans to seal them and placed her skeleton in a box under his bed—as if she were still with him.

From then on, Wang Shuli descended into madness. Within a year, he killed three more prostitutes, storing their bones in another box.

Because these women lived in the shadows, no one paid much attention when they disappeared.

Later, when his daughter came to study in the city, his life briefly stabilized. But after she went to university, he drifted back into the nightlife scene.

In the women he met, he saw traces of Peng Meizhen.

On the night of September 1st, he went to Zhu Manli’s home. She was drunk. While answering a call outside, he saw a kitchen knife in the room.

Something inside him snapped.

He put on gloves, picked up the knife, and walked into the bedroom.

What followed—killing, dismembering, packing, transporting—felt like something he had rehearsed countless times.

He later dumped remains near a sewer by a pedestrian street.

When no one discovered it after twenty days, he grew emboldened and targeted Liu Wen and Wang Hong next. Same method, this time inside his garage.

He was careful and intelligent. He had heard that modern forensic methods could identify people through hands and feet, so he discarded severed limbs near damaged manhole covers, planning to seal them with cement later.

He never expected to be caught.

When the knives from his garage were slammed onto the interrogation table, his final façade collapsed.

Chu Menghan finished speaking and left.

Xu Biao looked puzzled.

“What’s wrong with Chu Beauty?”

Zhou Hai let out a long breath.

“She’s feeling sorry for Wang Shuli’s daughter.”

“A father who grew up with her, suddenly becomes her mother’s killer. How will she face that life?”

“Her future—employment, marriage, everything—will be overshadowed.”

“She will carry a label forever.”

“The daughter of a murderer.”

The office fell silent.

All eyes turned to the photo of the father and daughter on the whiteboard.

The girl in it was smiling so brightly.