Chapter 51: Mystery at the Crematorium

The head’s acting a bit odd.

Just as Xiao Yu was about to thoroughly inspect the Crematorium, Li Xin put down his phone and said, “I have a friend in economic investigations who looked into the Crematorium Manager – and guess what? On the surface… everything appears perfectly clean!”

Xiao Yu knew he couldn’t handle the task on his own.

It had to start with someone seasoned in financial investigations.

His friend was incredible – in less than half an hour, he dug into the manager’s account, his family’s finances, and every bit of daily income and expense.

And yet, everything was spotless!

A leading Crematorium Manager, no less.

The entire family’s savings amounted to only 90,000 yuan!

Under normal circumstances, that would be entirely reasonable.

After all, the salary scale is set.

Ironically, having too much saved up would actually raise suspicions.

But this is a state-owned enterprise, after all.

There are always those extra personal favors and side earnings…

Only those in the know understand.

So even if this manager had hundreds of thousands in savings, it would have been normal – nothing too fishy.

But his financial records were as clean as a blank sheet. You’ve got to be kidding me!

That’s what Li Xin meant by ‘weird.’

One has to admit, some people are shockingly clever.

They even go to great lengths to cover their tracks.

Yet to veteran investigators, it’s downright laughable.

After listening to his team’s report, Xiao Yu couldn’t help but chuckle.

While God scattered wisdom among mankind, it seems you forgot your umbrella.

With a mind like that, how did you even become a Crematorium Manager?

Oh well, leading here doesn’t really require much brainpower.

So that settles that!

Now, where do we begin the investigation?

Ashes!

One must see things through to the very end.

When Xiao Yu took on this case, it was a corpse theft investigation.

It was suspected that bodies—or even their ashes—had been swapped.

The system had assigned him the same task: crack the corpse theft case.

With a seven-day deadline and already two days gone, time was running out.

If the case wasn’t solved, even a breakthrough later would be meaningless.

A failed system task meant no skill gain and the loss of one ability.

That was absolutely unacceptable!

Xiao Yu ordered his team to split up.

Guo Qiang was to look into the drivers transporting the bodies.

Li Xin would continue investigating the financial status of all Crematorium staff.

Liu Hongqiao was tasked with examining the ashes from other bodies.

The first two assignments made sense, but what was with the ash investigation?

The logic was simple.

If the Crematorium had indeed swapped bodies or ashes, they must have done it more than once.

A quick check of other ashes would reveal the truth.

Of course, this was the biggest hurdle.

Who in their right mind would allow anyone to tamper with a deceased’s ashes?

And that was precisely the loophole that let the Crematorium operate without detection.

How idle must one be to analyze ashes?

Then, four years ago, a bizarre case emerged.

Not only did someone analyze the ashes, they even reported it to the police!

For Liu Hongqiao to take on this case, he must have had his own methods…

With such veteran investigators on his team, Xiao Yu could afford to relax a little.

Staying behind at the Crematorium, he headed to the Corpse Refining Room for the third time and, standing before a cremation furnace, fell deep into thought.

An entire morning had passed.

Wasn’t the furnace broken? Why hadn’t anyone come to repair it yet?

Then another problem arose.

Many families had prearranged times for their loved ones.

Yet when the bodies arrived, someone claimed the cremation furnace was broken.

No wonder they decided not to proceed.

Though there wasn’t an uproar, many families were extremely dissatisfied.

What’s the big deal about that?

Xiao Yu scoffed.

According to the staff, the furnace had broken that very morning.

If they couldn’t cremate so many bodies, why didn’t the Crematorium give anyone a heads-up?

Why invite such unnecessary trouble?

Carelessness?

No!

Could it be they never expected the police to show up?

If not for the police,

they would have had a way to handle all these bodies.

It was yet another baffling mystery.

A Crematorium that can only cremate 24 bodies a day—how could it cope with a broken furnace?

Yet somehow, you still managed to process all 24 bodies.

And even deliver the ashes to the families.

How were you pulling that off?

Or rather, was the furnace ever really broken?

“Open the cremation furnace,” he ordered.

Xiao Yu withdrew his gaze from the furnace door and looked at a visibly flustered employee standing nearby.

“This…”

The employee hesitated briefly, but obediently opened the furnace.

Inside, it was empty!

That wasn’t supposed to be.

Xiao Yu frowned. Why was it empty?

If there were a fault, something should have been inside.

Like, for example… pig bones!

He suspected that the extra transport vehicles arriving daily were carrying pig bones.

They were burning the pig bones into ashes and handing them over to some families.

It was highly likely that the Crematorium never actually cremated those bodies.

Instead, they swapped them before the process even began.

Only then would everything make sense.

As for their motive behind the corpse theft…

It all boiled down to profit.

In police work, 70% of the cases revolve around money.

It all ultimately comes down to money.

Of course, that wasn’t the main issue.

The real question was, if the theory proved true,

where were the replaced pig bones and the switched bodies hidden?

Xiao Yu snickered.

Is this Crematorium like a nested doll?