Chapter 698: A Corpse That Can Move
Translator: Azza
Editor: Conspiracing
"This guy has nothing but shit in his intestines." Half an hour later, the forensic officer responsible for the X-ray examination concluded.
"Pay attention to your words." Peng Sijue cautioned.
Xin Bai was lying on the X-ray inspection machine with a dazed expression laced with disappointment. He said, "Take another scan carefully. By the way, don’t I need to have a barium meal?"
"Barium meals are for the visualization of non-metallic objects. It has no other effect except to make the excrement in your intestines clearer." Chen Shi said. "Did that person really feed you magnets?"
"I ate it... As long as I eat something, my stomach hurts." Xin Bai said while touching his belly.
Lin Qiupu hooked his finger to gesture Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi outside. Lin Qiupu said, "Don't spend time with this nutter. Have you noticed that his injuries are all scratches and whip marks? If he was beaten, there would be traces of punches and kicks. Those injuries were caused by himself. This guy has a problem with his brain!"
"But the whip marks on his back..." Lin Dongxue said.
"Those whip marks are all concentrated on the sides of the back, and they’re scattered. Some people with masochistic torture tendencies will whip themselves and the wounds they leave are shaped in this manner." Chen Shi glanced at Lin Qiupu. "I don’t completely agree with your point of view. I’m just making inferences. These injuries are indeed suspicious, but I cannot arbitrarily think that the 'master' doesn’t exist."
"I see a lot of people pretending to be crazy and stupid. Not everyone who is arrested will honestly confess their crimes. Some people struggle a bit even right before going to court and sell out their so-called accomplices." Lin Qiupu said.
"Xin Bai doesn’t have sufficient motive to kill the UP host. From his life, he has a decent income, freedom in his work, and a stable life. There must be external issues that cause a person to go crazy. I think he’s been in a state of stress for a long period of time. Furthermore, I’m also one of his readers. Since the beginning of this year, his works have gone from bad to worse. The logic is chaotic and full of loopholes. He claims that his level of decline is caused by quitting smoking. I’ve also quit smoking, but it’s not that dramatic. I think something must have happened to him. The most likely reason is that an 'uninvited guest' broke in."
Lin Qiupu didn't believe it and stood firm. "Your reasoning isn’t convincing at all. Your habit is to overthink simple things, such as-"
"Come on, give me an example of where I was overthinking it!" Chen Shi raised his eyebrows with a defiant expression.
Lin Qiupu could only divert the subject. "That’s because you’re not a policeman. There are lots of dangerous cases that the police handle, but not all of them have twists and turns. It’s not as if it’s a novel. For example, a while ago I solved a murder case where a girl took a few hooligans to threaten her father for the gems he had, but the father refused to hand them over to her. The hooligans chopped off his head with a single strike. It was enraging, but the process of solving it wasn’t complicated at all. The blood dripping from the scene will directly lead us to find the murderer..." Lin Qiupu felt that saying this made him sound a bit ignorant, so he added, "Of course, simple cases also require effort."
Chen Shi pointed to himself. "My nose can smell the simplicity and complexity of a case. I think this case is by no means as simple as what you can see on the surface. There are many issues behind this."
"Okay, let's wait and see!" Lin Qiupu left on his own.
"Would you like to make a bet? Isn’t it more exciting to bet some money?" Chen Shi called out.
"Enough of that!" Lin Qiupu wouldn’t be fooled again.
"Captain Lin, Captain Lin!" A policeman ran over. "We found the place where the suspect’s notebook is sold."
Lin Qiupu turned his head and asked, "Shall we go then?"
The notebook brand Xin Bai used was only sold at one stationery store inside the supermarket in the city as they had sole retail rights. The police who visited the place before had already asked the owner. Of course, they didn’t remember who bought this book. The surveillance footage couldn’t be checked either. They could only look around the perimeters.
If you buy stationery by yourself, you generally wouldn’t go too far.
The police officer, Little Dou, was responsible for "studying" this book. He was almost crazy from reading it all morning. He recorded simple data from it. There were a total of 13 murders recorded in the book. It may be an occupational habit, but the writer used a lot of words to describe a single point. He always liked to describe the details specifically. He repeatedly mentioned details such as "bathroom with light golden-patterned tiles", "windows where you could see two willow trees", "dark brown curtains", and "dazzling glass chandeliers". From this, the police judged that Xin Bai had a murder studio.
Everyone inquired about the "bathroom with light golden-patterned tiles", "windows where you could see two willow trees", "dark brown curtains", "dazzling glass chandeliers" and other details in the surrounding communities. Suddenly, Lin Dongxue pointed in one direction and said, "Look, two willow trees!"
There was a window behind the willow trees that had dark brown curtains. Everyone was excited and immediately went upstairs.
When they got to the front of the apartment, Lin Qiupu was about to pick the lock, suddenly frowned, and put his ear to the door to listen. He said, "There’s someone inside!"
After listening carefully, there was a rhythmic pattering sound coming from the house. Everyone immediately took out their guns on guard, and Lin Qiupu knocked on the door. He shouted, "Open the door!"
However, there was no response.
The strange sounds continued and Lin Qiupu pried the door lock open, gently opened the door, and the police followed behind.
As soon as they walked into the house, they smelled something rotten. They followed the smell to the bathroom. The sliding door of the bathroom was closed and the light inside was on. A humanoid object could vaguely be seen through the frosted glass, which was even more strange. Yes, that sound was emitting from this "object".
Even Lin Qiupu felt very nervous. He opened the door and a large swarm of small flying insects rushed towards his face. The police subconsciously used their hands to block them. The bathroom was indeed covered with light golden-patterned tiles. It was very spacious. There was a fat man lying inside. His body kept moving constantly. The pitter patter noises were coming from him.
Judging from his pale skin and the large amount of livor mortis covering his skin towards the bottom, this person had been dead for a long time, and his body had already begun to swell. There had to be a wound on his chest and abdomen. The rotting gas in his body rushed out from there, lifting his body just like water vapor lifting the lid of a teapot. It created a rhythmic pattering noise.
After a person died, the bacteria in the body would start to erode the intestines and stomach from the inside and release rotten gas because it no longer has anything to feed on. The power of that gas was so strong that it could blow open the internal organs and even the body.
Seeing this scene, Lin Dongxue felt that her heart had missed a beat. Chen Shi said, "Hurry and turn the corpse over. I’m going to go crazy from the sound."
A policeman took the dishwashing gloves from the kitchen. The body was very heavy. When it was finally turned over after much struggle, a high-energy scene suddenly happened like an explosion. A clear and loud whistle was heard from the body, and then something exploded out of his abdomen and fell to the ground. That policeman withdrew his hand and pressed himself against the wall in fright.
Everyone at the scene looked pale as paper. When they looked down, it turned out to be a metal whistle, which had been severely corroded. The murderer deliberately stuffed it into the wound of the corpse to create this dramatic scene.
"Asshole!" Lin Qiupu couldn't help but swear.