Chapter 596: Chapter 566: The Body in the Freezer_1
Zhou Ning opened his eyes and found that his arm had gone numb. He got up to shake his arm, noticing Xia Momo was still working on her drawing. Zhou Ning walked over and stood behind her, yawning.
On the computer screen in front of Xia Momo, the portrait of a woman had appeared, but according to Zhou Ning’s aesthetic, the girl was more heroic than delicate.
"Have you been doing this all night? Why not take a break?"
Yawning seemed contagious, as Xia Momo covered her mouth and yawned too.
"Indeed, I’m tired. I’ve been trying to blend Shi Mingchen’s features with those of the woman in the photograph to come up with this result. If we could find a photo of her mother, I think the resemblance would be more accurate, given that from the photograph of Shi Yun, her facial bone structure isn’t very similar to Shi Mingchen’s."
"So, you mean she resembles Doctor Yun?"
Xia Momo nodded, and Zhou Ning, looking at her bloodshot eyes, felt a pang of pain.
"Alright, stop thinking about this. Go take a nap on the sofa while I fix us something to eat, then take a rest. We’ll discuss Doctor Yun’s photograph when it arrives."
Xia Momo rolled her eyes at Zhou Ning and said with a laugh:
"Don’t exaggerate. Since when have I been so delicate?"
Before Zhou Ning could say anything, there was a knock at the door. Zhou Ning handed Xia Momo a cup of water before going to answer it. Mr. Zhao entered swiftly, carrying two bags. He placed them on the coffee table, leaving Zhou Ning puzzled.
"I have to say, when did you learn to knock? Don’t you usually barge into my office without asking?"
Mr. Zhao grinned.
"Spare me the lecture. I only show manners because Mr. Xia is here. Let’s eat, I’ve bought fried cakes, stuffed buns, soup dumplings, black rice porridge, pumpkin porridge, and millet porridge. Here’s some salted duck eggs and spicy pickled vegetables too."
Zhou Ning quickly opened the bags and found several varieties of soup dumplings. He rushed to get his toiletry bag and handed it to Xia Momo as he was about to start using it himself.
"Here, you go wash up first. There’s a new toothbrush in the side compartment."
Xia Momo smiled. For someone with a cleaning obsession to share their personal hygiene items was the greatest form of acceptance. After a short while, Xia Momo came back, clearly refreshed from washing, and Zhou Ning went to wash up as well. The three of them sat down to eat, with Mr. Zhao laying out the food.
"Eat up, who knows if Zhujing will have breakfast."
Xia Momo went to grab a soup dumpling but paused in the process, prompting Zhou Ning to glare at him.
"Come on, are you letting us eat or not? Zhu Xingxing and the others went on a trip without you, did that sour your mood, or do you want to join them now?"
Mr. Zhao grinned.
"Look at you, getting all worked up. I was just reflecting on the fact that nobody’s fighting me for the tofu pudding now."
That’s when Zhou Ning noticed Mr. Zhao had already placed a bowl of tofu pudding in front of himself, with plenty of vinegar, cilantro, sesame oil, and dried shrimp sprinkled on top. As soon as he lifted the lid, the aroma hit their noses.
"Just one tofu pudding? Momo, do you want some?"
Mr. Zhao, holding the savory tofu pudding, quickly stirred it a few times and hurriedly brought it to his mouth. His lips pressed against the edge of the bowl as he rotated it, fiercely sipping around in a circle, causing Zhou Ning to pause his own movements. To hog it all to himself, this guy truly had no shame.
Mr. Zhao chuckled contentedly and pushed the remaining porridges toward them. He also opened the boxes of buns, which to Zhou Ning’s surprise included two large meat buns with braised pork.
"See, I treat you well, don’t I? Eat up before they get cold and greasy."
The three of them didn’t speak much as they ate quickly. Xia Momo even had seconds. After rinsing his mouth, Zhou Ning called Xiao Mi.
"Director Zhou, why are you calling me so early?"
"Guess why I’m calling you. Is it to remind you to eat, or what?"
Xiao Mi was a bit embarrassed, while Xia Momo, on the side, couldn’t stop laughing. Zhou Ning could be downright stifling when he was angry.
"Don’t get upset, Director Zhou. I’m right here at Qifeng Municipal Hospital. Quite a few of them stayed late last night, going through all the files."
"Did you find it?"
Xiao Mi paused, realizing that his previous words were useless, but he didn’t dare to retaliate. Just then, someone beside him shouted.
"We found it! We found Doctor Yun’s photograph!"
Xiao Mi quickly looked over and said excitedly on the phone:
"Doctor Yun’s name is Yun Yi, what an impressive name! We found the photograph. Director Zhou, do you want me to send you the picture, or should I bring the photograph to you?"
"Take a photo first, then bring the actual photograph over as quickly as possible."
Zhou Ning hung up the phone, and shortly after, he received a photo, which he forwarded to Xia Momo. Xia Momo glanced at it and shook her head slightly.
"I’ll wait for the photos; the ones taken by Mr. Bai are very dirty. When I get them back, I’ll need to process them before I can restore the previous images."
"Alright, rest your eyes for a bit."
Zhou Ning called out for Mr. Zhao and the others to come to the laboratory. Mr. Qu and Peng Shinian were both there. Seeing Zhou Ning and his team enter, they quickly stood up, but Zhou Ning gestured for them to continue their work.
"Carry on with your tasks."
Just as Zhou Ning was about to speak to Mr. Zhao, his phone rang. Checking the caller ID, Zhou Ning’s expression paused, and Mr. Zhao leaned over to see the name Zhu Xingxing on the screen and his eyes bulged in surprise.
"Zhujing calling this early, could it be a discovery?"
Liu Yongxin slapped Mr. Zhao on the back of his head.
"Don’t keep saying ’Zhujing.’ What kind of nickname is that? Call him that again, and I’ll hit you."
Mr. Zhao shut his mouth, and Zhou Ning answered the call.
"Boss, I’ve made a discovery, but I’m on the basement level and the signal is bad, otherwise, I would have made a video call."
Mr. Qu came over and Zhou Ning said wait a moment, then handed the phone to Mr. Qu.
"Doctor Zhu, take that thing I gave you with the antenna, plug it into the first floor of the hotel, and then restart the phone. That should amplify their first floor’s WiFi signal. Try it again after that."
Zhu Xingxing ended the call, and everyone gathered around Zhou Ning, waiting. After a short while, Zhu Xingxing’s video call came through, and Zhou Ning tapped to answer. Zhu Xingxing held up his phone and waved.
"Hello boss, I’m currently on the first sub-level of Blue Sea Hotel. I’ve sent you the hotel’s layout diagram. This level isn’t a garage but rather a kitchen and some utility rooms. After inspection, there are a few surveillance probes, but none of them are connected, so they’re completely unusable.
Last night Mr. Dui led a team to search all the rooms at the north entrance and this basement. In the early hours, we found that a storeroom next to the kitchen’s cold storage was locked. We asked the head chef, and it turns out it’s a seldom-used storage room for spare supplies. After breaking in, we discovered six or seven freezers.
The freezers on the outside contained various dried ingredients and herbs. After spraying Luminol reagent on the ground, we revealed some drag marks, and the blood traces all lead to the innermost freezer.
We cleared the items in the freezer and found a female corpse underneath. I collected evidence from the outside of the freezer, and I only took a look inside without disturbing anything. The victim’s face was severely damaged, and I wanted you to take a look. Additionally, could you video scan the victim’s skull?"
Mr. Qu came closer, slightly shook his head, and said:
"Don’t even think about it; it’s impossible to do through the video. However, Qifeng City has purchased our software and equipment, and you can transport the freezer there and perform the scan. Gao Tie knows how to operate this set of equipment. Then send me all the data, and I’ll do the facial reconstruction on this end."
Zhu Xingxing nodded and waved to someone off to the side. Zou Jialong hurried to open the freezer, jumped onto the edge, and Pang Tianhang held it steady from one side. Taking the phone, he adjusted the camera to the rear and then pointed it inside the freezer.
Upon seeing the inside scene, Zhou Ning drew in a sharp breath.
Inside the freezer, a corpse was slightly propped on its side with both arms raised, fingers dug into the thick frost on the edge of the freezer, nails were flipped out, and you could see numerous scratch marks on the frosty edge, some with blood.
What this implied was self-evident, the victim was alive when she was put into the freezer.
The victim’s face was twisted, covered in terrifying wounds. However, Zhou Ning leaned closer to the screen and carefully observed that while many of the wounds bled profusely, one of them cut along the left eyebrow bone, slicing across the upper and lower eyelids and eye to the bridge of the nose. However, there was a clear interruption near the eyelid. If a person was unconscious, they wouldn’t blink or dodge, but many wounds showed no signs of evasion, indicating they were inflicted while the person was unconscious.
Clearly, the victim had a fainting period, woke up due to the pain from the facial cuts and destruction of her appearance, and perhaps at that moment, the freezer was closed. Asphyxiation, blood loss, and hypothermia all took effect rapidly, and the victim quickly died.
Underneath the victim’s head was a pool of blood, indicating a significant amount of blood loss, suggesting wounds on the back of the head or neck. Judging from the size of the pool, the blood loss was about 1500 ml.
As the camera moved downward, you could see the frosted dress the victim wore—a black dress with no discernible bloodstains, but there were strangulation marks on the neck.
Zhou Ning raised his hand and mimed the position of the strangulation marks, connecting it with the pool of blood under the victim’s head, and said urgently:
"Spray Luminol reagent around this room, on all the corners of the freezers, or the corners of any protruding objects."
Sun Gaotie and the others were obviously busy. Soon they reported that there was a fluorescent reaction at the corner of a freezer behind the door, with columnar and splattered fluorescent marks.
Zhou Ning nodded to signal Zhu Xingxing to continue.
As the phone angle was adjusted, a puzzling scene in the freezer appeared. Below the victim’s waist, there were no signs of struggle, the skirt was lifted at the corner, legs stretched out straight, shoes discarded to the side of the legs, and there were two wounds over 20 centimeters long below the victim’s pubic symphysis, forming an inverted V shape.
Seeing this, Zhu Xingxing appeared to climb onto the edge of the freezer.
"Boss, can you see clearly? The victim is frozen solid. I checked the temperature setting on the outside of the freezer—set at 7, which the chef said can keep the freezer at -18 degrees Celsius.
Mr. Dui has questioned all the kitchen staff, and they said this storeroom for spare supplies isn’t for anything valuable. It’s just for items that might go bad, and since they’re infrequently used, they’re kept frozen. After all, the basement is very damp, and dry goods tend to spoil easily there.
As for the keys, they hang on the display board outside the kitchen, readily available. They’ve been hanging there since the hotel started operating two years ago, and it’s unclear why they suddenly stopped working.
I want to lift the body to see the back, but it’s frozen very hard, and it’s stuck to the frost inside the freezer. We’ll have to thaw it first. I’ve found over a dozen fingerprints on the outside of the freezer. Naturally, the freshest ones are those with latex glove prints. I think the perpetrator must have a strong anti-surveillance awareness.
However, for such a storeroom, it’s unlikely that outsiders would know about it. And how did the killer know Liu Meiling’s whereabouts? Boss, why don’t you come over and have a look? I can do the dissection no problem, but I’m afraid I might destroy some evidence, and then you won’t have anything to inspect later."
"Alright, I’m on my way!"
