This is the unique silence of a snowy night. There is no wind, only snowflakes are falling silently. The sky and the earth are vast, and the snow on the roof tiles of the village has accumulated very thickly. A line of footprints leads to the river. The snowflakes in the sky are scattered, and then
Rolling in and out, the whole world is covered with white snow. The weeping willows on the embankment are like eucalyptus trees. The white branches are shiny and hairy, hanging down to the unfrozen river. A willow tree grows crookedly, and seven strings of seven trees are tied to the trunk close to the river.
A corpse.
Seven corpses, in different postures, were all soaking in the water. Each corpse was tied to a tree trunk with a rope. The rope was stretched straight, pulling the corpse to prevent it from floating away with the waves. The river flowed slowly, and poured down the east.
, the heavy snow in the sky is like a mess of feathers and thousands of flowers dancing wildly.
A small iron-hulled boat approached slowly. When it reached the shore, the sound of its motor stopped.
Someone stood on the bow of the boat, bent down and tied a rope to a tree by the river. A woven bag was tied to the other end of the rope. Through the gap in the woven bag, you could see a body inside. The man tied the rope to a tree by the river.
The eighth corpse jumped off the boat and landed on the shore. He hummed a song and disappeared into the white snowy night.
Another person hid behind the haystacks and watched the scene in front of him in horror. He took out his mobile phone and fearfully called the police.
The 110 command center fed back the information to the Shuishui Police Station in the jurisdiction. Director Lu became furious and slammed the table: "Who reported the case? Why are you so ignorant? We are just a small police station, can we take care of so many things? We have so much
Are you very capable?"
A policeman said: "Local people will definitely not report the crime. The one who reported the crime was a foreigner."
The foreigner's name was Bartholdi, a reporter from National Geographic magazine. He and his colleagues came to China to investigate the pollution situation of the Yellow River. They inspected all the way from Lanzhou to the lower reaches. When they passed the Pangowan Hydropower Station on the Yellow River, they happened to see a tree on the riverside.
He tied the body and immediately reported the crime.
Director Lu explained to Bartholdi, who reported the case, that these corpses floated from the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Pant Bay is also called the Bay of the Dead, and a large number of corpses accumulate here every year. Since the 1960s, this stretch of water has
There are at least 10,000 floating corpses floating there, and to this day, the number is still increasing by more than 200 to 300 every year. Among the floating corpses, the highest proportion are those who committed suicide, followed by those who accidentally fell into the water, and few have obvious injuries on their bodies.
Bartholdi, who spoke fluent Chinese, asked: "Who is that man who tied the body to the tree?"
Director Lu lit a cigarette and said: "The people who retrieved the corpses are nearby villagers, who rely on this to support their families and make money. Do you understand?"
Bartholdi said: "I don't understand, how to make money?"
Director Lu said: "For those who committed suicide by jumping into the Yellow River, and those who accidentally fell into the water and died, the villagers fished out their bodies and tied them by the river. When the family members of the deceased come to claim them, they can ask for money.
"
Bartholdi said: "There is a corpse in a bag. If it is suicide, the dead person cannot put himself in the bag."
Director Lu said: "Even if it is a murder, I can't control it. Our police force is limited and the body may have drifted across Qinghai."
It could be Sichuan. How can our Shuishang police station take care of matters in other provinces?"
Bartholdi said: "What are you going to do about it?"
Director Lu said: "This is difficult to deal with. Why don't we ask the person who retrieved the body to cut the rope and let the body float downstream?"
Bartholdi said: "The lower reaches of the Yellow River, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong? Isn't the water quality polluted?"
Director Lu said: "Then what do you want me to do? Can you please stop embarrassing me? Also, I don't understand. You are an American journalist. Why are you coming to China? I want to see your ID."
Bartholdi placed his passport and press credentials on the table, as well as a list of photographic equipment issued by customs.
Director Lu looked at the camera and asked warily: "These photos...you also recorded videos, who did you send them to?"
Bartholdi spread his hands and answered that he originally wanted to upload it to Twitter (a world-famous social networking site) and You Tube (the world's largest video site), but he couldn't log in and had to give up.
Director Lu breathed a sigh of relief.
The Shuishui Police Station deleted the photos and images of corpses floating in the Yellow River taken by this foreign reporter. Bartholdi sighed sadly. He felt that this was good news material, and those photos of corpses floating in the Yellow River under the heavy snow were enough to win the Pulitzer Prize.
After Bartholdi left the Shuishui Police Station, he felt unwilling to go to the river where the body was tied and took another photo. Then he walked into the village in the heavy snow, found the man who salvaged the body, interviewed him and made a
A special report.
A few days later, the website of a well-known foreign news media published an interview report by journalist Bartholdi on the people who fished out corpses from the Yellow River. This incident had an international impact and attracted great attention from the local government. The leaders paid great attention to Director Lu
were severely criticized.
Director Lu contradicted the leader unconvinced and said, "I still say what I said, I can't control this."
The leader said earnestly: "Xiao Lu, we need to study how to properly resolve this matter."
Director Lu said: "Don't the Ministry of Public Security have a special case team? Let them take care of it. Anyway, I'm not that capable."
The special case team received a request for assistance from the local government, and four people rushed to the Pant Bay Water Police Station. The case was far more difficult than imagined. In this stretch of dozens of kilometers of Yellow River water, more than 200 floating corpses are discovered every year. The local public security, civil affairs, and environmental protection departments
There is blame-shifting and no one is responsible. Every year, so many corpses flow down the river. Villagers along the river have long been accustomed to this. During the day, they move a stool and sit in front of their homes to eat, and they can inadvertently catch a glimpse of the dead people flowing down the river.
The downstream of Pant Bay is a hydropower station. Due to the slowdown of the water flow and the topography, corpses in the upper reaches of the Yellow River are piled up in this water area. Therefore, a new profession has been created: corpse fishermen. Director Lu came forward to shake hands and said to
The special case team said: "Thank you very much. Nearly 300 corpses have been found this year. Which one do you plan to investigate first? I will have someone bring the case file over."
Su Mei said: "Oh my God, there are 300 corpses, we are exhausted and we can't even handle them."
Hualong said: "We only take over homicide cases."
Bao Zhan said: "How did these people die?"
Director Lu said: "Most of them committed suicide. Those who had no money for medical treatment jumped into the river, those who were heartbroken jumped into the river, those who failed the college entrance examination jumped into the river, those who had a quarrel between couples jumped into the river, and those who couldn't find a job jumped into the river. There are all kinds of situations.
There is no lid on the Yellow River anyway, so anyone who wants to jump can jump."
Professor Liang said: "We read the reports on foreign media websites. According to the reporter's description, one of the corpses was packed in a woven bag. This was probably a homicide. We investigated this case and found the body of the deceased.
Where are people now?”
Director Lu said: "We are planning to detain him under public security."
The people who retrieved the body were a father and son, one named Lao Wei and the other named Xiao Wei.
The special case team found them and asked the father and son to lead the special case team to the location where the body was found.
Before boarding the ship, Lao Wei hesitated and said, "Can I give you some gas money?"
Hua Long said: "You don't know how much trouble you have made. Director Lu is just trying to detain you. You are still in the mood to ask us for gas money."
After boarding the boat, we walked slowly and what we saw was a sea of garbage. Lao Wei said that he first fished in the Yellow River. However, the garbage in the upper reaches accumulated here, the water quality was seriously polluted, and the fish stocks were scarce. Lao Wei said
He and his son started to pick up garbage. He drove an iron-hulled boat and rummaged through the "sea of garbage" to pick up plastic bottles, wood, and iron sheets. The most valuable thing was human corpses. After discovering the corpse, he picked it up and searched it first.
, check to see if you have a mobile phone, ID card, phone book, etc. on you.
Xiaowei said: "Generally mobile phones are broken. Remove the card, wipe it clean and put it on my mobile phone. Then contact the family to identify the body."
Su Mei said: "How much money can you make from a corpse?"
Lao Wei said: "If the family is in good condition, give more, and if the condition is poor, give less. If it's not possible, just give it away. We also look at the people. The person the day before yesterday only gave 500 yuan. There are still many poor people. If you have money,
I won’t jump into the river anymore.”
Professor Liang said: “How to deal with the unknown bodies whose family members cannot be found?”
Lao Wei said: "They were all tied to the trees by the river. Some family members would take the initiative to look for us. We are very famous. I took them to the river to see for myself. The family members looked at them based on their clothes and the birthmarks on their bodies.
It can be identified. If the body is really unclaimed, let’s cut the rope and let it continue to float.”
Hua Long said: "You are making money from dead people, is it okay with your conscience?"
Xiaowei said: "We also serve the people. Everyone feels sad when someone dies. We helped find him and we should ask for money."
The boat drove for a while and then stopped. There was a hydropower station in front of it. A large amount of garbage gathered here, with a thickness of 1 meter. There must be undiscovered floating corpses under the garbage, which rotted and fell apart year after year, and finally dissolved in the Yellow River.
When the gate was opened to release water, some of the corpses were broken into pieces by the turbines, and the broken limbs and internal organs were mixed with garbage and floated downstream.
Xiaowei said: "People downstream saw the severed hands and feet floating in the river, but they didn't report it."
Lao Wei said: "There are too many corpses and no one can take care of them."
Bao Zhan said: "The Yellow River, this is our mother river!"
