103: Come, Xiao Peng, lie on Lao Zhou
One pit, two skeletons, one on top of the other.
This brought them back to the original question: why were there two people?
Ye Lin felt a headache coming on; he couldn't figure it out.
"What's wrong, Xiao Ye? You're here so early?" a voice came from behind him.
Guan Hongyuan walked in with a smile, patting Ye Lin on the shoulder.
Ye Lin smiled faintly, "Couldn't sleep, so I came over to look at thematerial."
"Figured anything out? If you keep up yesterday's progress, I bet we'll solve the case in three days," Guan Hongyuan said jokingly.
"Team Leader Guan, I just looked for a bit. What could I figure out? I'm not a god," Ye Lin replied.
"Alright, just keep looking. Sometimes, you just look at thematerial, and after looking at it enough, an idea suddenly pops up. This is experience, very practical experience."
Ye Lin smiled, indicating he understood.
"Alright, everyone's pretty much here. Let's start the meeting," Guan Hongyuan called out.
A group of people, yawning sporadically, sat up. Zhou Zhishen, Old Zhou, who had been pulling an all-nighter here, looked up and saw Ye Lin.
He mumbled, half-asleep, "You're here, huh? I'm going to take care of something."
With that, he swayed unsteadily and walked out.
Seeing Zhou Zhishen walk out, Guan Hongyuan, having worked with him for years and knowing each other's habits, quipped, "Old Zhou, is your faucet still working?"
"Tch, mine's gushing!" Old Zhou shouted triumphantly. Not paying attention, he tripped over a chair leg and fell flat on his face.
"Damn! So excited," Ye Lin said jokingly.
Old Zhou, a rough man, didn't mind. He lay on the ground and said lazily, "My old back's giving out. Come on, brother, give me a hand."
Looking at Old Zhou's greasy, lazy appearance, Ye Lin cursed with a smile, "Your image, where's your image? Did you feed it to the dogs?"
"We're criminal police; who needs an image?" Old Zhou complained, extending his hand, waiting for someone to pull him up.
Ye Lin walked over helplessly, intending to pull Old Zhou up as he reached him.
Suddenly, he stopped.
He looked at Old Zhou on the ground and suddenly remembered the old beggar from yesterday, not the part where An Yunxi gave him money, but the scene where the old beggar fell onto the streamer.
"What's wrong? Feeling weak?" Old Zhou, lying on the ground, saw Ye Lin's dazed expression and thought he had no strength in his hands.
Ye Lin silently looked at his own feet. Suddenly, he flung Old Zhou's hand away.
Just as everyone was surprised, Ye Lin turned around and lay on top of Old Zhou, using him as a human cushion.
"Hey, hey, there's someone, there's someone!" Old Zhou cried out in fright, pushing Ye Lin hard, trying to get him off.
But Ye Lin was exerting all his strength, and Old Zhou had just woken up, so he couldn't push him away immediately.
"What's wrong? Are you fighting?" Guan Hongyuan looked bewildered. Wasn't Old Zhou lying on the ground? Why was Ye Lin lying down too?
"What's wrong with you two?"
"Is Consultant Ye anemic?"
"Hurry up and pull him up! What are you waiting for?"
A chaotic group surrounded them, all trying to pull Ye Lin up with many hands.
"Wait!"
Suddenly, Ye Lin shouted loudly.
This startled everyone; they didn't understand what he was going to do.
Ye Lin flipped over and stood up, showing no symptoms of anemia whatsoever.
"Damn it, Xiao Ye, that's not cool. You just had to lie on an old man like me for no reason," Old Zhou complained.
Ye Lin didn't respond. He turned and called Xiao Peng over, pointing at Old Zhou on the ground, "Xiao Peng, you lie on him."
"Huh?" Xiao Peng's mouth dropped open, an expression of 'what is going on' on his face.
"It's important. Trust me."
"Team Leader Guan, I want to do an experiment," Ye Lin turned back to Guan Hongyuan and explained.
"Listen to Consultant Ye," Guan Hongyuan pointed at Xiao Peng.
Since the boss had spoken, Xiao Peng could only obediently say "Oh" and carefully began to lie on Old Zhou.
"Damn it, Xiao Peng, you need to lose weight!" Old Zhou, underneath, took a deep breath and said with difficulty.
Looking at Old Zhou struggling beneath, Guan Hongyuan suddenly became interested, "Xiao Ye, is that enough? Do you want another person to get on?"
"Damn it! Team Leader Guan, you can't use public office for private revenge! I only made you throw up a few times from drinking!" Old Zhou below grew anxious. If another person got on, his old back would be ruined.
However, Guan Hongyuan was already eager to try, but fortunately, Ye Lin quietly said, "No need."
Then he suddenly turned around excitedly, hugging Guan Hongyuan and shaking him vigorously, shouting, "I understand! I understand why the killer had to kill two people!"
Everyone looked at his frenzied appearance and couldn't help but laugh.
Only Team Leader Guan was shouting, "My bones are falling apart!"
...After everyone had settled down, Guan Hongyuan said, "Come, Xiao Ye, tell us about your discovery."
Ye Lin nodded and walked to the front of the screen, taking out the third set of photos of the burial site, which showed the skeletons of both victims cleared away.
Everyone looked at the empty pit, then at Ye Lin with confusion.
"Everyone look here. This is the pit where the two skeletons were buried. A total of two bodies were buried in this pit."
Everyone nodded.
Ye Lin continued, "Why were there two bodies? We've all been guessing what kind of person would kill two men at once."
"But I've discovered a very interesting problem."
"Depth!"
"The depth of the pit!"
Everyone looked thoughtful. What about the depth? Were there standards for burying bodies?
Seeing their perplexed expressions, Ye Lin smiled slightly and continued to explain, "Just now, I had Xiao Peng lie on Old Zhou. I was actually measuring a data point: how tall, or rather, how thick, two people stacked together are. I measured it with my foot, roughly at this position."
Ye Lin raised his right foot, pointing to a position around his knee.
Everyone began to estimate the measurement in centimeters.
"But!"
Ye Lin's eyes suddenly gleamed, and he said excitedly, "Yesterday, when Team Leader Guan and I went to the scene, I went down into the pit. At that time, I unconsciously measured the depth of the pit."
"Its position is here." Ye Lin pointed to a spot nearly ten centimeters lower than the previous position.
"This is where the problem lies. Why was it dug ten centimeters less?" Ye Lin asked, looking at everyone.
"Uh, too tired, perhaps? Ran out of strength?" a police officer casually replied.
"Someone who killed two such strong men, how could he possibly run out of strength to dig a few more times?" Ye Lin retorted.
"Then he was just too lazy!" Zhou Zhishen quipped.
Ye Lin smiled faintly, "This concerns whether he'll be caught, so no one should be lazy."
"Moreover, judging from the traces at the scene, the killer definitely cleaned up. Since he had time to clean, why didn't he have time to dig a little deeper?" Ye Lin posed the question again.