National Forensic Doctor

The Garbage Dump.

Ni Cha stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the endless expanse of trash, his expression akin to Genghis Khan at the sight of poop beneath the gentle green grass. His tone carried an unusual unease for someone so knowledgeable: "Mr. Shen, you could actually go check the vehicles. I heard you’re really good at Image Investigation."

"I’m not that good." Shen Yaowei chuckled and said, "I’m just average. If you want to talk about something I’m particularly skilled at, rummaging through garbage dumps is truly where I excel. You go check the vehicles; I’ll stay here and scavenge."

Ni Cha’s heart skipped a beat at his words. Who could possibly be good at scavenging garbage dumps? He had to cough to cover his reaction before saying, "You go, it’s our Dama case anyway. I can’t bring myself to have you sift through garbage while I sit idly by."

Shen Yaowei waved his hand: "It’s Captain Jiang’s order. If I don’t stay with you, and a new order comes through, I wouldn’t know how to respond. Besides, honestly, I have somewhat of a knack for sifting through garbage; this skill alone has helped me crack several major cases!"

"I believe you." Ni Cha quickly said, then sighed, "We’ve been rummaging through these garbage piles for so long together, we’re like battle comrades on the same mountain. To tell you the truth, this garbage dump isn’t something anyone should sift through. I’m a Dama person, and the ones working here are my people; I can’t just go home and rest while you stay. It won’t affect anything if you go back."

"I won’t go back." Shen Yaowei said with determination, looking seriously at Ni Cha, "Sifting through the dump is not a bad thing. This is exactly where we can truly find evidence. Think about it, when those criminals think they’ve discarded evidence and then we find it here in the dump, what do you think their expressions would be like?"

Ni Cha looked at Shen Yaowei and said, "Probably similar to my expression now?"

"To find the evidence you want in a chaotic dump is truly the most important technology of the new era." Shen Yaowei straightened his back and said, "I wish there were another dump I could experiment with! But you do have a point; if you were to leave, your junior officers might indeed feel uncomfortable. So, let’s work together."

For a moment, Ni Cha didn’t know what to say. As he opened his mouth, he was hit by a wave of fetid air, full of a rich, layered stench, like a five-star foul temple.

"As long as the evidence is in the dump, we can find it!" Shen Yaowei began to encourage Ni Cha: "With this mentality, we can truly get what we want and fulfill our wishes..."

Two idioms, conveyed in broken Malay, together with the rising stench of garbage under the sun, assaulted Ni Cha’s senses.