Early in the morning, Chen Shi brought a bulging plastic bag to the forensic department. Everyone was very happy and asked, "Wow, is Brother Chen treating us to breakfast again?"

"Excuse me..." Chen Shi opened the bag, which turned out to be a bag of household garbage. "Help me do some tests! I’ll treat you guys to a meal later on."

Everyone was speechless for a while. Peng Sijue furrowed his brows. "You didn’t go through any procedures, picked up a bag of rubbish and want us to run some tests? Do you think this is your home?"

Chen Shi clasped his palms together and smiled. "Old Peng, please help me!"

Looking at his dark eye-circles, Peng Sijue knew that he might have stayed up all night again. He sighed helplessly and instructed his subordinates to screen the garbage and run the appropriate tests.

Chen Shi looked at them from the side. An unusual thing had actually appeared in the trash. It was a New Year decoration and it was still new. He took out this decoration thoughtfully and gave it to Peng Sijue, "Old Peng, check this."

"It’s difficult to extract fingerprints from this kind of material."

"It's difficult, but it's not impossible."

"I find that you, like many police officers, feel that the forensics department has an omnipotent button. As long as you press it, there will be results immediately or something. You never consider the process and the hard work we have to do."

"Don't complain. I’ll treat you to some food. What do you want to eat?"

Peng Sijue sighed helplessly and took the decoration from him. "Nothing too greasy."

"Roger that!"

Chen Shi went out and bought a large bag of breakfast food. Some results had already come out. Two sets of fingerprints were extracted from some smooth objects. One of them matched the fingerprints left on the teacup[1] at the scene of the murder.

The fingerprint was most probably left by Ms. Song. Her suspiciousness rose a little, but the fingerprints on the teacup[2] were not decisive evidence.

It would take a while before the appraisal results came out. Chen Shi went to look for Lin Dongxue first. Lin Dongxue looked at Chen Shi who had a haggard expression and said, "Did you stay up all night again?"

"This is normal for me. Anyway, I'm still young and can withstand the suffering." Chen Shi smiled indifferently.

"I can’t believe you. I don't want to be widowed in the future!"

"Okay, I promise you that this will be the only time. I'll go to bed after we’re finished in the morning."

Everyone arrived one after another and reported their findings. First was Ms. Song’s family’s financial expenditure. Around April and May last year, their family spent a large amount of their savings. The recipient was a cancer hospital. The expenditure amounted to about 400,000 yuan. It was verified by the hospital that it was used to pay for an operation fee, but Mr. Shi's follow-up treatments cost over a hundred thousand as well. The money had been borrowed by Ms. Song from her relatives and friends.

Hearing this, everyone in the room was a little surprised. Lin Dongxue said, "This family looks very poor, but they still had 400,000 in savings. How unbelievable!"

Xu Xiaodong said, "They’re probably pretending to be poor!"

Chen Shi said, "They shouldn’t be pretending to be poor. After all, this money wasn’t enough to cure his sickness. I think the money was originally meant for other purposes."

Others also successively spoke about what they found out about the family. Old Zhang found that in the communication records of Ms. Song and Mr. Shi, there wasn't much contact with their daughter’s mobile phone. It could even be said that there wasn’t any. On the other hand, the deceased and his family had more communication records with Shi Wanjun.

The situation had become a little weird. Everyone looked at Chen Shi with astonished eyes, hoping to hear some brilliant deductions from him, but Chen Shi just yawned. "I understand. Let’s stop here for the day. I’m too tired today. Tomorrow is the funeral of the deceased. His relatives and friends will all go. So will we.”

"Are we arresting them on the spot?" Lin Dongxue asked.

"No, there are some things that I want to clarify when the two families are present. Let me keep you in suspense, I’ll talk about what I think when the time comes.”

"So you already have an answer in your heart?! You’re not being very kind!"

Chen Shi yawned again. "It’s no good. I’m very sleepy. I'll go back to sleep for a while."

Old Zhang said, "It’s too dangerous to drive after staying up all night. Why not go to the police dormitory and get some rest first? I’ll let my disciple know."

"In that case, thank you." Chen Shi was so sleepy that he was about to collapse on the spot.

After taking a nap in the police dormitory, he was able to regain some energy. It was just that a place where a bunch of young guys lived stunk quite a bit. Chen Shi had just woken up in the afternoon and was thinking about what to eat when Peng Sijue called him. “Are the results out?”

"No, it's a new discovery. Dongxue and the rest have already gone over. Would you like to go with me in my car?"

"What's the new discovery?"

"We found the gun!"

Chen Shi's eyes widened in surprise. It turned out that after investigating Shi Wanjun's ID card, they found that she had rented a house somewhere. The police went to the house and naturally, she wasn’t there. However, they found a gun with a silencer on the table.

This news was very important. Even Lin Qiupu had gone over. Everyone squeezed into the house of less than 20 square meters. Lin Qiupu held the gun with both hands and said with excitement. "Yes, it’s a Russian-made Makarov pistol. This is the missing sixteenth gun."

Chen Shi said, "But it was also the murder weapon in this case. We can’t give it to you for the time being."

"I know. I'm just here to confirm it. You keep it for now, I’ll go back and report to the bureau chief."

The room was very messy and there was a lot of dust inside. The forensics squad found a lot of skin flakes and hair on the bed and on the floor. On the way back, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue visited Ms. Song’s family again and asked them for their fingerprints and DNA. The husband and wife were quite cooperative.

Fearing that he would say something wrong the more they conversed, Chen Shi didn’t say much before they left.

Back at the bureau, it was verified that the DNA found in that room did have a direct blood relationship with the couple. Chen Shi was slightly surprised when he saw the report and asked, "What about the fingerprints?"

"There were no fingerprints in the house."

"In a house full of skin flakes and hair, there weren’t fingerprints?"

"Yes, the gun was also wiped clean... In addition, some blood was found around the silencer. It was the deceased’s. This gun is confirmed to be the murder weapon, but it’s not yet certain who had fired it."

"Some people want us to think that the owner of this house fired the gun."

"Want us to think..."

"Let’s not talk about this yet. What about the results of the tests this morning?"

Peng Sijue handed another report to Chen Shi. There were three sets of fingerprints on the “Fu”[3] character on the decoration. Although they hadn’t been compared yet, experience told him that two of the sets belonged to the couple.

Hearing this result, Chen Shi smiled instead. "Covering things up makes it even more obvious. Thinking of remedying things, they’ve actually revealed more instead… Everything will be exposed tomorrow."

"I can't go to the funeral, so tell me the truth!"

"No, I have to wait until tomorrow, so that it's more dramatic." Chen Shi winked at him.

"A face like that of a dishonest businessman." Peng Sijue sneered at this kind of behavior.

Chen Shi patted him on the shoulder. "Don't furrow your brows. I’ll do a live broadcast of everything over my mobile phone tomorrow to let you know the truth.”

1. It was mentioned that the teacup had fingerprints wiped clean, but that the doorbell had a small fingerprint left behind. Although I’ve left this as is, I believe the author may have made a mistake.

2. See note above.

3. “Fu” means “blessing”, “good fortune” and the like.