Free Web NovelChapter 50: Chapter 50 Information on the Tire_1
Xu Dayuan hummed in agreement for a while before finally saying thanks and hanging up the phone. Then, he received a text message on his mobile phone.
"From January 15th to 20th, the temperature was consistently high, with the lowest temperature in the early morning to evening staying above five degrees Celsius. On January 21st, at one in the morning, it started to snow and the temperature plummeted by seventeen degrees.
In our district, the lowest temperature was minus twelve degrees Celsius. As the temperature rose yesterday and the snow began to melt, that means the body was dumped before 1 AM on January 21st, right?"
This timing matched the condition of the body.
"Xu Da can have someone take the victim’s photo and check each hospital; if they’ve been missing from work since the 21st, that should be fairly easy to trace."
Xu Dayuan nodded.
"Hurry up and have Zhao Xinli send the photo to everyone; our team can spread out. Oh, and for this hospital, just go straight to the office to ask."
Zhao Xinli busied himself distributing the photo of the deceased and also stepped out with his phone, heading straight to the office building in front, as he was well-acquainted with the Eighth Hospital.
Zhou Ning tidied up the autopsy table and prepared the equipment for the post-mortem exam, then began to watch the countdown on the large transparent screen.
38:21 minutes left, and the seconds were still ticking down. He had done his best to search for characteristics on the body’s surface. He exhaled and just as the countdown reached 30:10, the door to the autopsy room was pushed open.
Zhou Ning quickly turned to look, seeing Zhao Xinli rush over with a man and a woman, all three of them gasping for breath.
Zhou Ning stepped aside from the autopsy table, allowing Zhao Xinli and the two others to come closer. Upon seeing the face of the deceased, they gasped sharply and immediately nodded at Zhao Xinli, stammering nervously.
"This... this is the operating room nurse, Zhang Jiahui, 24, unmarried."
On the transparent screen in front of Zhou Ning, the first countdown stopped at 29:12. Zhou Ning sighed in relief. Luckily, the person was from the Eighth Hospital; if it had been another hospital, even if people were sent over, it would have taken time and this countdown might not have been enough.
However, it had been one nursing school girl before, and now a nurse has again become a regular visitor on the autopsy table. When did this profession start to frequent it so?
Xu Dayuan waved his hand, instructing He Chunyang to notify all the spread-out team members that the victim’s identity had been confirmed; the case was starting to take shape, and the personnel naturally needed to retract swiftly.
"Notify the family that they need to come over for body identification and then sign the consent form for the autopsy. We haven’t found the cause of death yet, but there are injuries on the body."
The woman pulled out her phone and dialed a string of numbers. It rang seven or eight times before someone answered on the other line.
"Hello, are you the mother of Zhang Jiahui? I am Chen Xiaohong, the director of Nursing at the Eighth Hospital. Could you and your husband come to the Eighth Hospital as soon as possible?... Yes... Right... I’ll have someone meet you at the entrance. Please hurry over now."
She then made another detailed inquiry on the phone to her department. After hanging up, the autopsy room fell silent. Xu Dayuan gestured for everyone to walk toward the door, and as they did, he asked,
"Zhang Jiahui hasn’t been coming in these past few days, did she ask for leave from her department?"
"The head nurse of the operating room said when they closed on the 20th, Zhang Jiahui requested time off, saying that her boyfriend was coming from out of town. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
They needed to discuss marriage plans, and she asked for a week’s leave. She said she’d cover the shifts during the New Year period instead. The head nurse approved it. Today is only the 26th, and it’s not yet the time for her to report back, so the department was unaware that something had happened to her."
The director of nursing could relate the sequence of events fluently, clearly someone with strong mental resilience.
"Aside from Zhang Jiahui’s parents, does anyone in your hospital recognize her boyfriend or know other details about her private life? Of course, you could bring over someone who is aware."
Xu Dayuan tried to keep his tone soft, but even with his voice lowered, Zhou Ning could still hear every word clearly.
"Hold on, I’ll call over someone from the operating room who knows about this. I think it’s better to ask here than to go to the operating room—after all, that place is crowded and never rests; both patients and their families can get easily agitated."
Xu Dayuan nodded, and Chen Xiaohong hurried to make contact. Another man, with a smile on his face, stepped up close to Xu Dayuan.
"Xu Da, you know our two units have been cooperating for many years, and nobody wants to see such a thing happen.
However, regarding this matter, could we wait until after the New Year for you to finish the investigation before we do the case briefing? Otherwise, let alone celebrating the New Year, even the hospital’s normal operations might be compromised."
Xu Dayuan placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, feeling the familiarity between them from before. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
"Mr. Zeng, rest assured we won’t mention your unit. Even if there’s a case briefing, we’ll only say that the victim was a nurse named Zhang. But you have to understand, after the county was restructured into a district, all procedures must follow the city’s regulations. After the New Year, we must work with transparency."
The man nodded with a smile, murmuring something too softly for Zhou Ning to hear. Zhao Xinli nudged Zhou Ning’s shoulder and raised his eyebrows in the direction of the flat cart with the tires.
"I’ve figured out the tire."
As he spoke, he handed his phone to Zhou Ning. Zhao Xinli’s hobby really enhanced his professional skills significantly, as could be seen with just a glance at the detailed information on the screen.
Written on the side of the tire were the words OPEN COUNTRY TOYO H/T, alongside a string of numbers 265/70R16, and a date at the end which seemed to make sense to Zhou Ning—it was the tire brand and wheel identification.
Zhao Xinli flipped through a few more pages, pointing and explaining:
"This is a Toyo tire, specifically manufactured for SUVs. With the tire number, production date, and tread pattern in mind, I’m certain that this tire belongs to a 2010 Toyota Prado 4000. Moreover, it is not a spare tire but the original factory tire. Here, and here as well, there are embedded screws."
Zhou Ning didn’t know much about cars, but he knew of this brand. He recalled a news story from his college days about a poor county in the west that, upon receiving financial aid, purchased five vehicles of this model all at once—clearly an incredibly pricey car.
"Very expensive?"
"Based on this tire model, the lowest configuration costs over 800,000 yuan, and that’s just the price for the bare car."
Zhou Ning finally noticed the two black screws on the tire, thanks to where Zhao Xinli was pointing. The screws were lodged directly in the tire’s grooves, their heads much larger than normal, hexagonal in design, hard to spot without close inspection.
"These screws are unusual. I’ve never seen hex-head screws like these with such big heads. Take them out and have a look."
Zhao Xinli searched around and found a set of hex keys in a box left by Liu Yongxin. After two attempts, he found the right size—after all, the screws were now flush with the tire and not sticking out, something Zhao Xinli, with his love of cars, couldn’t bear to cut.
After much fiddling and prying, they finally removed the two screws. The sight of the finger-thick screws left both of them dumbfounded.
Right, their shape and color were unusual; they had never seen anything like it before.
"Take pictures quickly, let someone in the hardware business take a look. If this screw is very special, it could be a clue."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Xinli immediately stood up, took several photos with his phone, and sent them as MMS to two people. Then, after a barrage of questions over the phone, his eyes lit up when he hung up.
"Hex-head screws are widely used, but this one, you can see, is a high-strength, anti-corrosion hex-head screw, often used in ships, cars, and even some delicate machinery and instruments."
Zhou Ning paused, thinking that this statement wasn’t very helpful—it just expanded the scope to include the several industrial parks in Qidong District, such as the Mechanical Industrial Park, Aviation Industrial Park, and High-Tech Industrial Park, all potentially related to the industries Zhao Xinli mentioned. It seemed relying on the screw to find clues was unreliable.
Just then, the door to the autopsy room opened, and Chen Xiaohong walked in with a man and a woman, both needing support. It seemed Chen Xiaohong had already informed them that they were here to identify a body. Given the speed and efficiency of her work, she was indeed commendable.
The couple approached the autopsy table, and Xu Dayuan, looking at the two grief-stricken faces, asked:
"Please take a look, is this your daughter, Zhang Jiahui?"
The woman glanced over, fainting immediately with just that one look. Chen Xiaohong reacted swiftly, catching her in a timely manner. A staff member from the office hurried over and helped take the woman out, while the man clung to the autopsy table, crying out loud in agony.
"Ah, how could my daughter have died? Was she attacked in the hospital?"
