The group parked their car and gathered by the riverbank, watching as an SUV slowly sank into the water, their hearts sinking along with it.

Liu Hong emerged from the whirlpool, desperately swimming to the shore. Reaching out his hand, he said, “Officer, give me a hand!”

A police officer pulled him up and immediately cuffed him. Dripping wet, Liu Hong complained, “It’s just drunk driving. Isn’t this a bit much? I admit it, isn’t that enough?”

Lin Dongxue approached and said, “Was there something in the car? You thought everything would be fine if it sank into the river?”

Liu Hong shrugged, “If it’s that important, why don’t you fish it out for me? Next time, I’ll take you for a drive, beauty!”

Lin Dongxue was so angry she wanted to hit him, but she immediately contacted someone to prepare for the salvage operation. Chen Shi interjected, “No, this is a diversion! If Liu Hong’s method of disposing of bodies was this sloppy, he would have been caught long ago!”

“Where’s Li Biao now?”

“Go to the kennel!”

The two rushed to the kennel, which was on the opposite side of Long’an City from where the car sank, taking three hours to get there.

Hearing the car, the dogs in the kennel barked wildly. The two got out and found the gate secured with a large iron lock. Chen Shi, grinding his teeth, went back to the car to fetch a crowbar. Lin Dongxue suggested, “Isn’t this too blatant? Maybe we should climb the wall.”

“The wall is topped with broken glass; you sure? You’ll get scars.”

“Then you should just pry it open!”

Chen Shi returned to the car, put down the crowbar, and instead took out two pieces of wire. After fiddling with the lock, it surprisingly opened.

Lin Dongxue was astonished, “I thought you couldn’t pick locks?”

“Can you keep a secret for me?”

“Fine!” Lin Dongxue wondered, why pretend he couldn’t pick locks?

With flashlights in hand, they entered the kennel to the loud barking of dogs. Lin Dongxue, her heart pounding, clung tightly to Chen Shi’s hand.

Chen Shi checked the duty room and glanced at the duty roster on the wall: “Someone should be on duty today. Why is no one here?”

They checked every accessible room but noticed nothing unusual. Chen Shi then inspected the dog pens, watching the dogs carefully before heading to a small room and knocking on the metal door.

“What are you looking for?” Lin Dongxue asked.

“Remember the ‘Snow Mastiff’ we saw last time?”

“Yes!”

“The dog is gone!”

“The dog is gone?” Lin Dongxue realized, “You said the other day, every time someone disappears, a dog is buried!”

“So Li Biao is still ‘missing’!”

Outside the kennel, Chen Shi carefully searched the ground, occasionally picking up soil to smell. In the quiet of the wild, creepy sounds came from the woods, making Lin Dongxue’s heart beat like a drum; she never let go of Chen Shi.

Suddenly, Chen Shi stared intently at a spot on the ground and squatted, tilting his head, “Look, drag marks!”

Following the trail, they discovered a patch of earth with a strong smell of blood, clearly disturbed recently.

Chen Shi began digging with his hands. As he dug, the mix of blood and earthy smells grew stronger until finally, a dead dog appeared in the soil, a Tibetan Mastiff stripped of its skin.

Lin Dongxue instinctively covered her mouth. With all its skin removed, the dog’s eyes and teeth protruded grotesquely in the silent midnight.

“A dog’s skin can make a person vanish!” Chen mused, “How is that done?”

“Tibetan Mastiffs are large, weighing as much as a person.”

“But there’s a difference in body shape unless the legs are sawed off and stuffed inside… Letting the corpse wear the dog’s skin turns a human corpse into a dog’s, but then what happens to the dog’s corpse?”

“Pet crematorium?” Lin Dongxue guessed.

“Exactly!” Chen Shi grabbed Lin Dongxue’s shoulders excitedly, “A pet crematorium! No paperwork or proof needed, just pay to cremate the body! Turned to ash, no one can recognize it!”

“Is there such a place in Long’an?”

Chen checked his phone, “There’s one, been open for ten years. Let’s go now!”

On the way, Chen called Peng Sizhen, asking him to bring his forensic equipment. Peng was not pleased and hung up without a word.

Arriving at the pet crematorium, which was simpler than human crematoriums, they found Peng Sizhen already there,waiting for them. The pet crematorium was modest, just a large house with a long metal chimney in the backyard.

Peng Sizhen checked his watch as they approached. “I’ve been waiting for ten minutes.”

“Let’s get to it quickly, maybe we can still find DNA!” Chen Shi hurried inside.

At this hour, the crematorium was closed, but after Chen pounded on the door for five minutes, someone finally opened it, protesting, “What’s all this? Come back tomorrow if you want to cremate a pet!”

“We’re police!” Chen announced.

Startled, the worker let them in. Chen immediately asked, “Did anyone come to cremate a Tibetan Mastiff today?”

“Yes,” the worker replied, “A really big one, white fur. Beautiful. I even said it was a shame to burn it, it would make a good specimen.”

“Who brought it in?”

“Some lady.”

“Where did it get cremated?”

“We’ve only got one furnace.”

Chen wanted to inspect the furnace but the worker warned, “You can’t, it’s still hot inside. You’d get burned.”

“What about the ashes?”

“They didn’t want them, dumped them all on the hill out back.”

Chen insisted on checking the hill, but all he found was a blanket of pet ashes and some unburned bone fragments. Picking one up, he hoped for a lead, but Peng was skeptical.

“It’s useless; you can’t get DNA from ashes,” Peng explained.

“Just test it!”

“Look, organic material burns off at the high temperatures used for cremation, leaving only inorganic minerals like calcium and phosphorus. What exactly do you expect to find?”

Frustrated, Chen punched the ground in vexation.

Lin Dongxue then asked, “Can’t we piece together something from these unburned bones?”

“Even if you reconstruct a complete skeleton, how can you prove whose it was unless you reassemble a whole skull? But the odds of that are nearly zero.”

Chen stood up, “This is the simplest yet most flawless method I’ve seen!”

Peng nodded, “It’s not entirely flawless. There’s bound to be some DNA left along the way, no matter how minimal. If we find that, it’s solid evidence. I’ll have this area sealed off and conduct a thorough investigation tomorrow.”

“Okay, get that organized.”

Chen told the worker that they needed to seal off the area for an investigation. The worker, puzzled, asked, “Why? Was that dog smuggled? All this for a dog?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just give me your boss’s contact.”

“Sure, here. You talk to him.”

Chen recognized the number, “Wait, who’s your boss?”

“Last name Liu.”

“The full name!”

“Liu Hong.”

Hearing that name, the three were stunned into silence for a full ten seconds!