Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Bizarre, a Corpse Without Wounds
This world is full of people who can’t make heads or tails of things. They often lament the fickleness of fate and are frequently left so speechless by events that all they can do is laugh.
Wang Hu was one of those people.
He had gutted fish his entire life and thought his heart had grown as cold as his knife, but who would have known...
In the blink of an eye, he was brought in by the police.
"Uncle, oh, my dear uncle, Uncle, how could you..."
Outside the police station, a man was sobbing, muttering under his breath. Passersby who heard him offered looks of sympathy, assuming one of his relatives had passed away.
Just as he finished cooperating with the police and walked out of the precinct, Wang Hu saw Wang Chao. Hearing his words, Wang Hu’s face darkened.
"Get lost!"
"You’re crying like I’m the one who died!"
Wang Chao heard the familiar voice and froze. Then, he jolted in pleasant surprise. "Uncle, you’re out!?"
"Of course I’m out! I didn’t commit any crime, and I’m not the one who killed anyone. Why wouldn’t I be out!?"
Wang Hu was almost moved to laughter by his own anger.
"I thought..." Wang Chao breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing his uncle raise a hand to strike him, he quickly ducked his head and fell silent.
Wang Hu grabbed him by the ear and dragged him away, muttering curses.
He felt he had the wrong name. He was Wang Hu, which meant "Tiger," but his nephew was the one acting wild.
As for the police...
When Wang Hu returned home, he found his doorway cordoned off with yellow police tape. Countless men in blue uniforms were moving about.
This was a small, seaside fishing village on the East Outer Ring of Jiangdong District in Jiangsan City.
It was Wang Hu’s home.
And it was also a crime scene!
About twenty meters from his door was a clothes-drying rack made of steel pipes, and hanging from it was a corpse.
It was the body of a woman. Her external appearance was well-preserved, with no visible injuries anywhere on her body. Her face was deathly pale and expressionless, her lips slightly parted. Her vacant, numb, and lifeless eyes stared off into the unknown.
The body was unclothed, completely bare.
She was like a piece of pork.
Like a piece of pork suspended from an iron hook, left to hang. Her abdomen rested against the pole, her arms and legs dangled limply, and her hair cascaded down.
Seeing this scene, Li Jianye’s brow furrowed.
On the evening of September 4th, the detachment, which had been preparing to hold a celebration banquet, received an emergency call.
The call was from Chu Xi!
And with it, a murder case came to light.
A murder. Although the detachment only investigated a single-digit number of such cases all year, it wasn’t unheard of for two to occur in quick succession.
So, Li Jianye expertly commanded his men to rush to the scene overnight.
They immediately secured and investigated the crime scene, working from the evening of the 4th until eight in the morning on the 5th!
They had even thoroughly interrogated Wang Hu, Wang Chao, Xu Huo, and the others, but unfortunately...
"What the hell is this!?"
Staring at the body, Li Jianye wore an expression that questioned his very existence. Even Zhao Shui and the others around him were completely baffled.
What was wrong with the body?
As everyone knows, a murder case is called a murder case because a life has been taken.
And if someone is dead, there must be an injury that caused the death. Whether they were stabbed or suffocated, there should be a discernible cause of death.
But this corpse...
Had no external injuries!
The police had gone over every inch of the body’s surface with a magnifying glass, even checking her hair, but they couldn’t find a single scratch!
Poison? Asphyxiation?
The body showed none of the signs typical of asphyxiation!
And the hospital couldn’t find any evidence of poison!
Then how did she die?
Internal injuries?
’How could someone be killed with internal injuries? Even for something like a rib piercing the heart, there would have to be external trauma to break the rib in the first place!’
In short...
The police could find no signs of homicide on the body!
Suicide? Or Murder?
’Suicide has to be ruled out. No one can kill themselves with sheer willpower. But if it was Murder, there are no wounds...’
Li Jianye frowned in thought for a long while.
He had originally planned to look for clues on the body first, photograph it, and then send it for an autopsy.
But seeing the state of the body’s surface, he hesitated to act rashly. With such a bizarre death, a single wrong move could destroy any hidden clues...
"Where’s Xiao Xu?"
The thought suddenly occurred to Li Jianye, and he voiced the question.
"Advisor Xu..."
Zhao Shui subconsciously started to say that he was at the precinct awaiting news from the city bureau, but the words died on his lips as he saw something, and he quickly corrected himself.
"He’s here!"
Li Jianye followed his gaze and saw Xu Huo, dressed in casual clothes, strolling over leisurely.
"Soy milk?"
Xu Huo held up a plastic bag, gesturing to Li Jianye, Zhao Shui, and the others. "Chu Xi bought it. It’s pretty good."
The detachment had to file a request for a non-staff member to get involved in the case. That, plus providing some of his own leads, was why Xu Huo had been delayed until now in arriving at the crime scene.
Li Jianye and the others didn’t stand on ceremony, taking the drinks and starting to sip.
"What’s the status on the body?"
Xu Huo slurped on his straw, tilting his head down to look up at the corpse’s face.
"No external injuries. Not asphyxiation or drowning. No poison. For now, it’s hard to tell if it’s suicide or Murder."
Li Jianye said in a grave voice.
Someone died, and the body mysteriously appeared in another location. It was obvious someone else was involved.
But third-party involvement didn’t necessarily mean it was a homicide. There could be other motives.
"What about her identity?"
Xu Huo’s brow furrowed. He scanned the body from different angles, but he didn’t see any wounds either.
"Nothing on that, either."
Li Jianye said grimly, "The police couldn’t find any information. After canvassing the area, we found that none of the local villagers recognize her."
No cause of death, no records...
’Where in the world did this body come from!?’
Xu Huo’s brow knitted as he carefully studied the corpse’s face.
Her features were pretty. She was young, around twenty years old, with a slender and slim figure. There were no signs of bloating.
Xu Huo put on a pair of gloves and picked up one of her hands.
The palms were free of calluses, the fingers slender.
’A person like this... It’s impossible that no one in her usual circle would recognize her!’
’In other words, the crime scene wasn’t a place the victim frequented in life.’
’Why did she die here?’
’And why was she hung up there?’
Xu Huo’s brow furrowed. After a moment of thought, he turned to Li Jianye.
"What information did Wang Hu provide?"
"This is where he dries his salted fish and clothes. According to his testimony, the body was hung up sometime between the afternoon of the 4th and when Chu Xi called the police."
Li Jianye said after a moment of consideration.
Wang Hu didn’t see the body when he went out to set up his stall in the morning.
And there were no signs of sun exposure on the body’s surface, which ruled out the morning and noon periods after the rain had cleared.
"Most likely between two in the afternoon and eight at night."
Li Jianye stated.
’That means...’
’The killer isn’t far from here?’
Xu Huo mused quietly.
’In mathematics, there’s a formula: Distance = Speed x Time.’
’Applied to criminal investigation, the distance the killer could have traveled from the scene is roughly their mode of transport multiplied by the time they had to travel.’
’There are no tire tracks at the scene, nor are there signs that any were covered up.’
’It was either on foot, or by a light vehicle that wouldn’t leave tracks, like a common tricycle.’
’As for a bicycle...’
’A person’s weight before and after death are two different concepts. That’s the logic behind the saying "dead weight." It would be very difficult to transport an uninjured body on a bicycle, electric scooter, or motorcycle without tying it down.’
’So... even if he fled, he couldn’t have gotten very far!’
With that thought, an idea formed in Xu Huo’s mind. He looked up at the body and recited silently.
’Wang Die’s Scent!’
The next second, Xu Huo felt a slight itch at the tip of his nose.
Immediately after, a faint, almost imperceptible scent wafted into his nostrils. It was...
Xu Huo paused, his brows knitting together.
’The scent of heather?’
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