Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Seeing the puzzled expression on Wang Fa-Yi's face and listening to his words, Gu Chen couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? Is there something off?"
Wang Fa-Yi nodded, pointing at the body still on the autopsy table, and said seriously, "That's right. I've already performed an autopsy on this body, but the problem is something that could be noticed even before the autopsy. I just didn't step out during the procedure, so I don't know if any of you noticed it."
At this point, Wang Fa-Yi looked at us. He was in his forties, about the same age as Chen Bo, and his observations were quite meticulous. After seeing the body, I had a question in my mind as well, but I hadn't expected Wang Fa-Yi to bring it up first.
I turned to Wang Fa-Yi and lightly cleared my throat, saying, "Are you referring to how clean the body is?"
Wang Fa-Yi pointed a finger at me, shaking his hand as he replied, "Exactly. As a forensic expert, I noticed it immediately upon seeing the body. However, I was in a hurry to perform the autopsy and didn’t think much of it then. Just like this brother here, the body is too clean."
"Isn't being clean a good thing?" Chen Bo seemed confused and covered his nose with his hand. "The smell of blood is still too strong."
Wang Fa-Yi waved his hand dismissively and said, "It's not about being good or bad; it's about something being off. You all saw that there are fifty-two wounds on the body; that's common knowledge. Some wounds won't bleed, such as abrasions or bruises, even burns and so on. But many of these wounds should definitely have bled; everyone should understand that."
"I understand," Chen Bo nodded.
Wang Fa-Yi continued, "Exactly. But with so many wounds that would bleed, when you took off the school uniform, did you see any bloodstains on the body? No? Not even a tiny bit?"
At this point, both of them understood. Gu Chen spoke up: "Yeah, that's true."
"So I don't quite understand!" Wang Fa-Yi looked at us again and then at the body. "Why would the murderer do this?"
I paused for a moment, tugging at my hair as I analyzed: "It's not just that; we didn't see any signs of violence on the school uniform either. The uniform was only stained with dirt. Given all these wounds on the body, it clearly indicates that the murderer stripped Li Jun of his clothes while torturing him."
"But," I shifted my tone and said seriously, "regardless of whether the murderer intentionally killed Li Jun or accidentally killed him during the torture process, after Li Jun died and once the blood had coagulated, the murderer washed the body and then dressed it in the school uniform."
Gu Chen nodded in agreement and continued from where I left off: "Afterward, the murderer carried the body to behind the school and threw it into a well before cleaning up any footprints and leaving."
“Murderer has certain Meal Investigation skills, unlike an ordinary person,” I said. “Using common sense to deduce, it is quite rare for someone to wash a body or even dress it after torturing them to death. We can draw a few conclusions.”
I raised one finger and continued, “First, by doing this, the Murderer can wash away any fingerprints or traces of themselves left on the body.”
I extended a second finger and added, “Second, the Murderer must have their own reasoning behind this action, which may align with what a normal person would think or could be entirely different.”
“What do you mean?” Chen Bo asked.
I replied, “I once encountered a case where we found a naked corpse, but the lower body was covered with some chives. At that time, we deduced the Murderer's motive from those chives, and later apprehended the Murderer based on that.”
“What happened?” Chen Bo inquired again.
I explained, “We eventually caught the Murderer, who turned out to be the Father-in-law. His son was working away from home, and the Father-in-law discovered that his daughter-in-law was having an affair with another man. In the dead of night, he killed her but didn’t realize she had a habit of sleeping naked. After disposing of the body, he thought she was too dirty and covered her lower body with chives.”
Looking at everyone, I continued, “The Murderer washing and dressing the body likely reflects some personal reasoning—whether it’s to cover up or something else, I don’t know. However, it seems the Murderer didn’t want us to see the wounds on the body directly; there’s definitely a sense of wanting to hide something.”
From the body, we could gather this information: it was confirmed that Li Jun had been tortured to death. However, from the time Li Jun went missing to when we found her body, too much time had passed for us to deduce where the Murderer had killed her.
Nevertheless, we could ascertain one thing: the Murderer must have had a car; otherwise, taking two eight-year-old children away wouldn’t have been easy. This suggests that the Murderer's family isn’t particularly poor and possesses a certain level of counter-surveillance awareness; their intelligence is also not low.
“Let’s go,” I said. “We should check in with Teacher Sun Qingqing.”
Before I could finish my sentence, my stomach growled loudly.
Chen Bo glanced at his watch and said, “It’s already past four in the afternoon. None of us had lunch. How about we eat first and then continue our investigation?”
In the afternoon, after grabbing a quick bite at a restaurant in town, we arrived back at the school around five o’clock. We met with Sun Qingqing again; she informed us that she had spoken with her classmates and would take a little time after class for us to give them a talk about what police do.
There was still more than half an hour left before the students would finish their classes. Taking advantage of this time, I decided to ask Sun Qingqing about Li Jun and Hu Ningning's basic situation.
I began, "Teacher Sun, let's start with Hu Ningning. I've heard a bit about her from you before. What kind of child is she? Is there any chance she might be involved in early romance?"
Sun Qingqing frowned slightly and replied, "As I mentioned before, Hu Ningning is a very obedient child with good academic performance; she consistently ranks among the top in her class. However, she can be quite stubborn. I remember once when she came in second place, she looked so upset that she spent the break studying."
I nodded; it seemed that Hu Ningning had a rather strong-willed personality.
Sun Qingqing continued, "As for early romance, I don't think that's likely. She's very obedient and considerate of others. But at seven or eight years old, we can't really call it early romance—it's more like a vague crush. We generally don't interfere too much; otherwise, the children might rebel."
I nodded again and said, "So Hu Ningning is the kind of good child who wouldn't do anything out of line, right?"
Sun Qingqing affirmed, "Pretty much. I think Hu Ningning leaving may have been instigated by Li Jun."
I furrowed my brow and asked, "So you're suggesting that Li Jun isn't a good influence? Is he a bit mischievous?"
"Li Jun is quite a troublemaker in our class," Sun Qingqing said, her eyes reflecting a complex emotion as she mentioned his name. She paused before continuing, "As a teacher, I'm also saddened by Li Jun's death. It's not that he was some irredeemably bad kid."
When you hear such statements, you understand that the speaker is eager to deny something they secretly believe.
I said, "Don't hold back too much; just say what you think. We're trying to find the murderer as quickly as possible and figure out where Li Jun and Hu Ningning went."
Upon hearing my words, Sun Qingqing finally spoke up again: "Li Jun can be quite annoying at times. He's the type who loves to go against the grain—like someone who insists on arguing with you during class. Many teachers have brought this issue to my attention, but all we can do is give him verbal warnings; we can't hit or punish him."
At this point, Sun Qingqing sighed helplessly and added, "Parents often tell us to discipline their children freely when they misbehave, but if you actually dare to hit them, just wait for the parents to come and cause a scene."
Shaking her head, Sun Qingqing continued, "Anyway, Li Jun is just that kind of mischievous kid. When he's bored, he likes to pull girls' braids or put caterpillars in their pencil cases. He even spits in other people's water bottles. In short, he can do just about anything. Plus, he has formed cliques in class and started some sort of 'Azure Dragon Gang' to bully other kids."
"Still bullying your friends?" I asked.
Sun Qingqing nodded and said, "I report it every time and have talked to the parents, but others just say it's typical kids' roughhousing and that I shouldn't worry too much. What can an eight-year-old really do? After that, I changed the Qinglong Gang to the Qinglong Study Group, but they still act the same way."
From Sun Qingqing's description, it seemed that Li Jun was quite the troublemaker.
"Does Li Jun know that Hu Ningning would be alone in the classroom?" I asked.
Sun Qingqing replied, "Yes, basically all the classmates know this because of the rain. Hu Ningning has been staying at school for a long time, so the other students are aware that she wouldn't go home. Usually, Hu Ningning is very quiet, but she left this time, and it was with Li Jun."
"I think Li Jun must have convinced Hu Ningning to follow him. As for what they went to do, I'm not sure," Sun Qingqing said.
At that moment, the bell rang for class to end.
Sun Qingqing said to me, "Class is over; let's go ask in the classroom."
I nodded and stood up, preparing to head out.
Just then, Sun Qingqing added, "But Officer Wu, you should really keep the fact that Li Jun is dead to yourself. I'm afraid these kids might get scared... The police uncles and I need to teach them some knowledge, so please be careful."
"Okay..."
Comment 0 Comment Count