CHAPTER XXXI

The man who digs up the corpse

It's a quiet night with no wind, only the silent drift of snowflakes. The sky and the earth are vast, and the snow on the roof tiles of the village has accumulated very thickly, and a line of footprints leads to the river. The sky was scattered with snowflakes, and then rolled in clusters, and the whole world was covered in snow. The weeping willows on the embankment resemble the jade trees, the white branches are shiny and fluffy, hanging down to the surface of the river that has not yet frozen, and a willow tree grows crookedly, and seven corpses are tied to the trunk close to the river.

Seven corpses, in various poses, were all soaking in the water, each with a rope tied to the trunk of a tree. The rope was stretched straight, dragging the corpse so that it wouldn't drift away with the waves. The river flows slowly, and as soon as it falls eastward, the snow in the sky seems to be dancing wildly.

A very small iron-hulled boat approached slowly, and when it reached the shore, the sound of the motor stopped.

Someone stood at the bow of the boat, bent down and tied a rope to a tree by the river, and at the other end of the rope was a woven bag, through which a corpse could be seen. The man tied up the eighth corpse, jumped out of the boat and went ashore, humming a song as his figure disappeared into the white snowy night.

The other man hid behind the haystack, watching the scene in horror, and he took out his mobile phone and called the police in fear.

The 110 command center fed back the information to the water police station in the jurisdiction, and Director Lu was furious, slapped the table and said angrily: "Who reported the case?" Why are we so ignorant, we are just a small police station, can we manage so many things? Do we have that much power? ”

A police officer said: "Locals will definitely not report the case, the person who reported the case is a foreigner." ”

The foreigner, Bartholdi, a reporter for National Geographic, and his colleagues had come to China to investigate the pollution of the Yellow River.

Director Lu explained to Bartholdi, who reported the crime, that the bodies had all floated from the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and that Pants Bay, also known as Dead Man's Bay, was where a large number of corpses piled up every year. Since the 60s of the 20th century, at least 10,000 floating corpses have floated in this water, and today, the number of them is increasing by more than 200 to 300 per year. Among the floating corpses, the proportion of suicides was the highest, followed by those who accidentally fell into the water, and there were few obvious injuries on the body.

Bartholdi, who speaks fluent Chinese, asked, "Who is that man who tied the body to a tree?" ”

Director Lu lit a cigarette and said, "The person who fished out the corpse is a nearby villager, relying on this to support his family and make money, do you understand?" ”

Bartholdi said: "I don't understand, how to make money? ”

Director Lu said: "Those who committed suicide by jumping into the Yellow River, as well as those who died by accident, the villagers fished out their bodies and tied them to the river, and when the families of the deceased came to claim them, they could ask for money." ”

"There was a body in a bag, and if it was a suicide, it was impossible for a dead person to put himself in a bag," Bartholdi said. ”

Director Lu said: "Even if it is a homicide, I can't control it, our police force is limited, and the body may have drifted through Qinghai."

It may also be Sichuan, how can we, the water police station, manage the affairs of other provinces. ”

Bartholdi said: "What are you going to do? ”

Director Lu said: "This is not easy to deal with, why don't you let the person who collects the corpse cut the rope and let the corpse drift downstream?" ”

Bartholdi said: "The lower reaches of the Yellow River, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong? Isn't the water polluted? ”

Director Lu said, "Then what do you want me to do?" Can you stop embarrassing me? Also, I don't understand, you are an American journalist, why are you running to China, I want to look at your credentials. ”

Bartholdi placed his passport and press card on his desk, along with a list of photographic equipment issued by customs.

Director Lu looked at the camera and asked vigilantly, "These photos ...... You also recorded videos, who did you send them to? ”

Bartholdi opened his hands and replied that he had wanted to upload it to Twitter (the world's leading social networking site) and You Tube (the world's largest video site), but he couldn't log in, so he had to give up.

Director Lu breathed a sigh of relief.

Bartholdi sighed when the police station deleted the photos and videos taken by the foreign reporter of the floating corpses of the Yellow River, which he felt were good news material, and that the photos of the floating corpses of the Yellow River under heavy snow were enough to win the Pulitzer Prize. After leaving the water police station, Bartholdi was reluctant, he went to the river where the body was tied, took a new photo, and then braved the heavy snow to go into the village, find the man who recovered the body, interview him and make a special report.

A few days later, the website of a well-known foreign news media published an interview with journalist Bartholdi about the corpses of the Yellow River. This incident had an international impact and attracted great attention from the local government, and the leaders severely criticized Director Lu.

Director Lu was unconvinced and confronted the leader and said, "I still say that, I can't control this." ”

The leader said earnestly: "Xiao Lu, we have to study how to properly solve this matter. ”

Director Lu said: "Doesn't the Ministry of Public Security have a special case team? Let them take care of it, anyway, I don't have that much power. ”

The special case team received a request for assistance from the local government, and the four of them rushed to the Pants Bay Water Police Station, and the case was far more difficult than imagined. In this area of dozens of kilometers of Yellow River waters, more than 200 floating corpses are found every year, and the local public security, civil affairs and environmental protection departments pass the buck to each other, and no one is responsible. Every year, so many corpses are carried down the river, and the villagers along the river have become accustomed to this, and they move a stool to sit in front of their homes during the day to eat, and they can inadvertently catch a glimpse of the dead people down the river. Downstream of Pants Bay is a hydroelectric power station, where corpses from the upper reaches of the Yellow River have piled up due to the slowing of the water flow and the topography, so a new profession has emerged: corpse collectors. Director Lu stepped forward to shake hands and said to the special case team: "Thank you so much, nearly 300 corpses have been found this year, which one do you plan to investigate first, I will ask people to bring the case file over." ”

Su Mei said: "Mom, 300 corpses, we are too busy to be tired." ”

"We only take on homicides. ”

Bao Chu said: "How did these people die? ”

Director Lu said: "Most of them are suicides, those who have no money to see a doctor have jumped into the river, those who have fallen out of love have jumped into the river, those who have failed the college entrance examination have jumped into the river, the husband and wife have quarreled and have jumped into the river, and they have jumped into the river without finding a job. ”

Professor Liang said: "We read the report of the foreign media website, according to the reporter's description, one of the bodies was in a woven bag, this is likely to be a homicide case, we investigated this one, and where is the person who found the deceased now?" ”

Director Lu said: "We are planning to detain him for public security. ”

The people who retrieved the corpses were father and son, one was called Lao Wei and the other was Xiao Wei.

The task force found them and asked the father and son to lead the task force to the place where the bodies were found.

Before boarding the ship, the old guard hesitated and said, "Give me some gas money, okay?" ”

Hualong said: "You don't know how big Lou Zi you stabbed, Director Lu is trying to detain you, and you are still in the mood to ask us for oil money." ”

After boarding the boat, you will be greeted by a sea of garbage. Lao Wei said that he first fished in the Yellow River, but when the garbage accumulated upstream, the water was seriously polluted, and the fish were scarce, so Lao Wei and his son started to pick up garbage. He drove an iron-hulled boat, rummaging through plastic bottles, wood, and iron sheets in the "sea of garbage", and the most valuable thing was the corpse of a person. After the body was found, it was scooped up and searched first to see if there were any mobile phones, ID cards, phone books, etc.

Xiaowei said: "The mobile phone is generally broken, remove the card, wipe it clean and put it on my mobile phone, and contact the family to identify the body." ”

Su Mei said, "How much money can a corpse make?" ”

Lao Wei said: "If the conditions at home are good, give more, and if the conditions are poor, give less, it's really not okay to just give some and pull it away." We also look at people, and the day before yesterday only gave 500 yuan. There are still a lot of poor people, and if they had money, they wouldn't jump into the river. ”

Professor Liang said: "I can't find the nameless body of the family, how to deal with it? ”

Lao Wei said: "They are all tied to the trees by the river, and some family members will take the initiative to find us, and our grandfather is very famous." I took them to the river to see for themselves, and the family members could always recognize them based on their clothes and birthmarks. It's really an unclaimed corpse, so let's cut the rope and let it drift on. ”

The dragon said, "Do you have a good conscience when you make a fortune from the dead?" ”

Xiaowei said: "We are also serving the people, whoever dies is distressed, we helped find it, and we should ask for money." ”

The boat traveled for a while and stopped, and there was a hydroelectric power station in front of it, where a large amount of garbage was gathered, and the thickness was enough to 1 meter. There must be undiscovered floating corpses underneath the garbage, decomposing and falling apart year after year, and finally dissolving in the Yellow River. When the sluice gate was opened to release the water, some of the corpses were shattered by the water turbines, and the stumps and severed arms were mixed with garbage and floated downstream.

Xiaowei said: "The people downstream saw broken hands and feet floating in the river, and they didn't report the crime. ”

Lao Wei said: "There are too many corpses, and no one can take care of them. ”

Bao Chu said: "The Yellow River, this is our mother river!" ”