I Play Dungeons in the Police Station-Chapter 114 - 106: Drizzling Rain During Qingming Festival
Holding the machete, Li Xiang and his father went to the riverbank and, finding the willow, climbed up.
Now, the lower branches were already chopped off by others, so they had to climb higher to find suitable ones.
The willow branches shouldn’t be too thin or too thick; finger-width is just right.
"Li Xiang, be careful, don’t fall down."
"Don’t worry. This height is nothing to me."
With his current skills, if he fell while climbing a willow tree, it would be quite surprising.
"That’s enough, six branches are sufficient."
With a series of swift chops, Li Xiang cut down six fine-looking willow branches and carried them home.
His mother had also finished cutting the five-colored paper by then and tied the paper to the willow branches with string.
Though the store had ready-made five-colored paper that could just be tied on the willow branches, his mother felt it wasn’t sincere that way.
Handmade ones were more satisfactory.
With everything ready, Li Xiang and the others took the willow branches and paper money to the graveyard.
In the countryside, the graves are usually clustered together like a cemetery but are different because these graves have owners.
Some descendants pay respect to their ancestors during the Qingming Festival by hanging willow branches covered with five-colored paper on the graves.
Some families also tidy up the grave, adding some soil to make it look fresh.
"This rain has caused the grave to collapse."
While Li Xiang and the others were at the grave, they heard someone nearby complaining.
It turned out that rain had caused part of their grave to collapse, vaguely exposing the coffin.
"Dad, are you giving me a hint because you’re out of money?"
The man was from the Huarong family at the end of the village. His father was buried three years ago, and now they were visiting the grave for the third time.
Upon seeing this, Li Huarong borrowed a shovel from another family repairing a grave to fix his father’s grave.
"Don’t worry, Dad, this time I’ll burn more money for you. Please bless us with good health and wealth so we can burn more money for you."
It was rare for a grave to collapse, and this situation attracted some onlookers.
Li Xiang, out of curiosity, also went over to take a look.
They saw a large hole about one and a half meters deep and half a meter wide on one side of the grave, arousing curiosity.
Usually, graves are well compacted, even trampled by several people, so for a grave to collapse this deep, some said it was because it wasn’t compacted well, or the soil added was insufficient.
It was at this moment, after digging a few shovels of soil, that Li Huarong suddenly exclaimed, "What is this? Did I dig up my dad’s head?"
Seeing a skull suddenly appear under the shovel, Li Huarong was so frightened he threw the shovel away.
But on second thought, his father had already been cremated, with ashes kept in the coffin, so how could there be a skull? And outside the coffin at that.
"Something happened. I dug up a skull in my dad’s grave."
Li Huarong’s cry attracted everyone visiting the grave, adding more mystery to the already strange collapsed grave.
It seemed there must be a reason for the grave’s collapse.
Seeing this, Li Xiang was intrigued and quickly walked forward.
"Li Xiang is here. He’s a detective now; let him take a look and see what’s going on."
The neighbors, seeing Li Xiang, knew his profession and made way for him to observe.
Just then, the deep pit, initially half a meter wide, was expanded further, and a skull covered in mud rolled into the pit.
"Uncle Li, wasn’t Grandpa Li cremated three years ago? Why is there a skull? Is someone else buried with him?"
"What are you talking about? This is my dad’s grave. If anyone were buried, it would be my mom..."
Bam~
The elderly woman next to Li Huarong immediately slapped him on the head, "You little brat, are you cursing me?"
"No, Mom, I was just making an analogy. How could anyone else be buried in Dad’s grave?"
Hearing this, Li Xiang’s mind shifted, considering from a detective’s perspective that this might be a murder case.
And the perpetrator buried the body directly in someone else’s grave.
This method of disposing of a body certainly challenged everyone’s perspectives.
"Better call the police. This could be a murder case."
On hearing Li Xiang, Li Huarong immediately called the police.
And upon hearing it might be a murder, the call center quickly redirected the call to the criminal investigation team.
The first squad responsible for murder cases, all on vacation, received notification of the incident on their phones.
With a murder case, those with a day off had it canceled.
Looking at the mobile notification, Li Xiang felt somewhat fortunate compared to others; at least he didn’t have to rush to the scene since he was already there.
So he edited a message about the situation and sent it to the group, which instantly stirred everyone up.
"Li Xiang, you’re something else; you just had to bring high drama over the Qingming Festival break. Stashing a body in a grave? The criminal’s method sure is innovative."
"Hey, the bitter fate couldn’t be blamed on the government, better to blame choosing this profession. I just finished burning the paper money; I’m headed over now."
Closing the group chat, Li Xiang waited for the technical team from the criminal investigation unit to arrive at the scene. Meanwhile, the forensic team would have to come too, to excavate the remaining skeleton and take it for an autopsy.
At this time, a task also popped up in the system:
[Task Name: Investigate the Grave Stash Case]
[Task Description: During Qingming, a strange case was discovered while visiting a grave. The stashed body in the grave makes you suspect a criminal case; as the detective first on the scene, you must secure the site, await the investigative team’s support, and assist in investigating the case’s truth.]
[Task Requirement: Unravel all mysteries, ascertain the case truth]
[Task Reward: Experience +500, Diamonds +2500]
It seemed even the system recognized this as a criminal case, so there was no doubt about it.
Hence, Li Xiang persuaded the curious onlookers to leave.
But how could the village folks, with life as bland as water, resist the allure of gossip?
Their excitement matched that of intelligence agents.
In no time, the news about Li Huarong’s family discovering a corpse in their grave spread throughout the village.
Many curious people came to watch the commotion, and soon the area was crowded with people.
If not for Li Xiang maintaining order, the curious citizens would have jumped into the pit to see clearly.
Woo woo~ doo doo~
The police siren sounded as the nearest police station was the first to arrive at the scene, setting up a cordon to push the people to the periphery.
The Yangshan Police Station, in charge of security in Li Family Village, responded to the incident with the director personally leading the team to the scene.
"You, stop watching and move outside the cordon."
Seeing Li Xiang, a police station officer was about to disperse him when Chief Li stopped him, saying, "Xiao Liu, he’s one of us. This is Li Xiang from the city bureau’s criminal investigation team."
Li Xiang’s reputation in supervisory units is quite well-known due to an outstanding appearance during the commendation ceremony, making him familiar to station chiefs.
Director Wu Xuerong of Yangshan Police Station was no exception.
After all, Li Xiang was from their Li Family Village. Seeing one of their own achieving such a promising career, the director felt proud and shared their success story.
"Hello, Director Wu."
Director Wu, as their village’s parent official, had once considered going to Yangshan Police Station as an auxiliary police officer, though the pay was less, leading him to develop in the big city.
Indeed, the city brought opportunities with a higher chance of being favored by fortune than in a small county.
"What is the situation here?"
Curious, Director Wu listened as Li Xiang reported the scenario, estimating a high probability of it being a murder case.
"The city bureau’s criminal investigation team is here too."
Just then, Cao Gang and others arrived.
