Ryan Foster pushed open the door and got out of the car, stepping onto the muddy ground. He was nearly 1.9 meters tall, with a handsome but sharply defined face, and his tightly knit sword-like eyebrows exuded a chilling pressure. More than a dozen capable criminal police officers followed closely behind him, while the local police officers instinctively stepped aside, making way for this group to access the scene.

“Extend the police cordon five hundred meters along the riverbank, take photos and collect evidence along the way, collect a soil sample every two meters, notify the Hydrology Bureau, the Procuratorate, and the Water Police Station. Brian Hughes!”

“Here!”

“Call the municipal bureau and prepare to request the frogman team!”

Brian Hughes snapped to attention: “Yes!” Then turned and hurried off.

Ryan Foster was a well-known figure in the Jin Hai City Public Security system. None of the local officers present dared to speak; all kept their heads down, wishing they could disappear. Only Captain Reed braced himself and jogged after him, panting: “Deputy... Deputy Chief Bu, the preliminary autopsy notes and the situation at the scene are all here, and this is the witness statement. The technical team has done an initial sweep of the area—no blood, no murder weapon, no footprints for analysis. The torrential rain that lasted all night on the day of the crime caused devastating damage to the scene. So far, we haven’t found any valuable clues...”

As Ryan Foster listened, he put on shoe covers and gloves. Captain Reed hurried forward, trying to lift the police tape for him, but Ryan Foster simply ducked under it himself without looking back and asked, “Can you confirm this is the primary crime scene?”

“Well... the likelihood is high, but we can’t be a hundred percent sure. Although there are no signs of dragging or binding on the body so far, the rain that night was really heavy, and this area is all mud and water. Maybe we should wait for the autopsy results...”

Captain Reed desperately signaled to the forensic doctor for help, but Ryan Foster cut him off: “Have you pulled all the surveillance footage?”

“Huh?” Captain Reed was stunned.

“The bus stop 1.8 kilometers north of the scene, the toll station 2.5 kilometers southeast, the speed cameras on the Panpo Road and within a ten-kilometer radius, and also, within a two-kilometer diameter centered on where the body was found: a private warehouse, two chain convenience stores, and that illegal clinic that’s been shut down four times but never actually closed—have you retrieved surveillance footage from all these places?”

The air suddenly became very quiet.

“Well... um,” Captain Reed stammered, “the bus stop and the toll station have been checked, but the convenience stores... the illegal clinic...”

For places in the jurisdiction where residents might have installed private cameras, let alone retrieving footage, their police station didn’t even know about them. How did Ryan Foster keep such a clear mental account?

Ryan Foster closed the autopsy notebook, handed it back to the forensic doctor, and simply said, “Go get them.”

“Yes, yes!” Captain Reed immediately jumped up and ran off in a hurry.

The wilderness was desolate and overgrown with weeds. The riverbank was covered in dense reeds, and the sound of rushing water came from below the embankment. Not far away, a small human-shaped mound was covered by black plastic sheeting on the muddy ground, and a gust of wind brought the stench of decay.

It had once been a young girl in the prime of her youth.

Ryan Foster ignored everyone else. He walked through the weed-choked mud, squatted beside the body, and gently lifted the black plastic. A pair of wide-open, clouded, gray-white eyes suddenly popped into view, staring straight at him.

With a soft rustle, Ryan Foster turned at the sound and saw Logan Clark suddenly freeze in his tracks.

“What’s wrong with you?” Ryan Foster narrowed his eyes. “You can’t handle this level of decomposition?”

Logan Clark’s face was already pale, perhaps due to the overcast light, making his cheeks look even colder and his hair and eyes even darker. He lowered his gaze unnaturally. “Oh, it’s nothing.”

Ryan Foster didn’t let it go: “I heard from Director Xu that you used to be in the Major Crimes Unit. What, you’ve never been to a homicide scene?”

Many of the local officers were watching. Logan Clark couldn’t avoid it and had to mumble, “...I’m not really used to seeing these things.”

“No one likes to see them. But if everyone refuses to look, who will seek justice for ‘these things’?”

Ryan Foster had a naturally sharp and intimidating presence. With so many eyes on him, Logan Clark really couldn’t make any more excuses. He closed his eyes, took a breath, and reluctantly shifted his gaze back.

The young girl on the grass had a bluish-gray face, her mouth open, faintly revealing white teeth. Maggots crawled in and out of her nostrils and ear holes. The terror in her eyes at the moment of death had turned into deep resentment, mixed with oozing yellow fluid and blood, crashing hideously into Logan Clark’s mind.

In an instant, it was as if this scene was split and overlapped into countless images—countless pairs of eyes, equally unable to rest in peace, stared from all directions. Piles of corpses with gaping mouths, bodies engulfed in spreading flames, all reached out with rotting hands toward him.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—the machine gun was firing again. In the distance, rows of figures in camouflage exploded into severed limbs, and with a boom, the trenches and villages were reduced to dust.

“Help—!” Someone cried out in despair through the smoke.

“Save us—!” The corpses on the ground clutched at his clothes, wailing in unison.

Suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder from behind: “Logan Clark? What’s wrong?”