Chapter 632: Chapter 602: Intracranial Mercury_1
"Damn, aren’t these the corpses of a boy and a girl?"
That remark silenced everyone. Zhou Ning took another careful look at the two films, constantly adjusting the direction and rotation, and finally let out a long breath.
"Two mummies. From the details in the skull and ribs, it can be inferred that they suffered from varying degrees of malnutrition. Therefore, the exact age still needs further testing. Additionally, there are traces of injuries on the humerus, wrist joint, and the distal end of the radius, which seem to be caused by prolonged suspension with their hands bound."
Fang Dongsheng gave a lonely look and somewhat awkwardly smiled at Zhou Ning.
"I’m a layman here, I can’t understand these things."
Mr. Zhao leaned over, smiling, and said:
"I also couldn’t read these things at first, to me they all just seemed like black and white films, but after looking at many, one can start to spot the issues."
While speaking, Mr. Zhao found a normal skeletal film for Fang Dongsheng to compare with, and upon comparing, the differences became apparent. Fang Dongsheng nodded in realization.
"Got it. What’s our next move?"
"The mummy wrapped in a silk cocoon will be soaked; this one is prepared for dissection. Of course, if the old man Mr. Fang mentioned before comes, we’ll stop and listen to what he has to say at any time. I believe it will definitely help with our next steps."
Fang Dongsheng quickly nodded, then arranged things via WeChat. He followed Zhou Ning to the autopsy table, where Zhu Xingxing had already made preparations, and someone dressed Fang Dongsheng in a surgical gown.
After everyone bowed, Mr. Zhao started by taking photos, then turned on the recording equipment. Zhu Xingxing gave a paperless explanation, a lengthy introduction that left Fang Dongsheng constantly amazed, given Zhu’s astounding memory.
Zhou Ning did not say anything and had already begun the external examination of the body.
The deceased was a young boy, whose expression could be described as extremely peaceful, as if he were asleep, with long eyelashes and eyes tightly shut. Around the edges of the eye sockets were two incisions, and at that, Zhou Ning’s hand paused.
It appeared that, in line with Zhou Ning’s earlier analysis, before mercury was injected into the boy, his eyes and probably other organs had been removed as offerings placed before the statues of deities.
Perhaps due to the mercury injection, even after rehydration, the mummy’s skin still appeared dark brown in color.
The mummy’s wrists and ankles bore bracelets, which had turned black and were stuck to the skin, appearing to be made of silver, naturally turning black upon contact with mercury.
On the mummy’s body was knit fabric, though it did not look like clothing. Rather, it was a piece of cloth attached to a rope around the waist, draped front and back, covering only the sexual organs.
As for the fingers and toes, these extremities seemed to be exposed due to the mummy’s posture, so the rehydration of these parts was very successful. Although fingerprints could not be distinguished, one could still see minor abrasions and scabs on the fingers.
"Destroy the joints in the mummy’s legs and arms, Zhu Xingxing and Gao Tie will collect samples from the deceased’s oral cavity."
Zhou Ning stepped back, and they quickly moved forward. The curled-up joints were extended, though not exactly smooth. The fingernails were cut off, ensuring that the sampling was as comprehensive as possible.
Sun Gaotie held a swab, pinching the mandible of the mummy, struggling to pry it open. However, as the shadowless lamp shone down, Sun Gaotie shuddered, almost dropping the swab. Seeing Zhou Ning looking over, Sun hastily completed the sampling, then said:
"Oral cavity sample collection of the deceased is complete. The oral cavity has missing teeth, and there is no tongue."
Zhou Ning showed no excess of emotion, but all that could be heard in the vast autopsy room was the sound of people gasping.
Raising his eyes and scanning the room, everyone quickly closed their mouths, and then Zhou Ning signaled Zou Jialong with a wave. The shadowless lamp’s direction was adjusted, lowered to focus on the mummy’s oral cavity, and Zhou Ning tilted his head slightly.
Although the mummy had been rehydrated, it was, after all, not a fresh corpse, and the motility of the mouth was very limited. Feeling inside, there truly was no tongue, but the stump could not be felt.
Zhou Ning lifted his head, and before he could speak, Zhu Xingxing handed him an endoscope. Zhou Ning manually inserted it, and the image on the screen showed the stump’s reason for being unseen—it had dried into a thin sheet curled up in the throat.
About the teeth, Zhou Ning felt a chill run through his body. On the gums, the eight teeth that would be visible in a smile had all been pulled out, and the clear indentations of the missing spots indicated that the extraction of the teeth, cutting of the tongue, and even enucleating of the eyes were all carried out simultaneously, perhaps as part of the sacrifice ritual.
Zhou Ning steadied his nerves, handed the endoscope back to Zhu Xingxing, and while everyone was still focusing on the still image on the screen, Zhou Ning moved to inspect the lateral incisions on the eyelids. The incisions were so smooth they could almost be overlooked.
This led Zhou Ning to think of the stitched wound on top of the head, an expert suturing technique using a figure-eight stitch. It suggested that the incision was also made with a professional surgical scalpel, considering that here, even a slightly larger blade could leave cuts on the nose bridge or other areas.
Zhou Ning took a deep breath, wondering if he was overthinking, or whether he should indeed see if his judgment was correct—that the boy’s eyes were also among the offerings in those tall porcelain bowls.
Two pairs of tweezers pinched the upper and lower eyelids, tugging gently. They hadn’t been stitched up, and with some force, the eyelids were gradually pulled apart. Then, something popped out.
Zhu Xingxing was startled, but his hands reacted very swiftly, grabbing the object Zhou Ning had flipped out and holding it up to the light for a closer look. Recognizing what it was, Zhu Xingxing shuddered.
"Boss, this isn’t an eyeball, it’s cotton, rolled into a ball—sort of a makeshift stuffing."
Zhou Ning nodded.
"It seems we already know that there are three types of offerings inside those four porcelain bowls: eyes, tongues, teeth. But wait, removing teeth shouldn’t be for offerings; all four items felt like human tissue, not anything solid."
Mr. Zhao thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
"I think it was some sort of organ, not teeth. Mr. Qu, check out the pictures I uploaded."
Fang Dongsheng still had his hand over his mouth, initially to prevent a scream, but now it was out of real fear. The sight of the dry corpse alone wasn’t this scary; however, examining each part in such detail was a huge mental challenge.
He swallowed, trying to ease his throat, which was tight and itchy from tension, before asking:
"Four bowls: one eye, one tongue, but if one of them isn’t teeth, then what is it?"
At that moment, images of the four porcelain bowls appeared on the large screen. After looking over them again, they appeared pitch-black, and it was impossible to make out any details.
Zhu Xingxing narrowed his eyes, picked up a laser pointer, and pointed at two of the bowls, saying:
"Actually, if you look at these two pictures, don’t they seem a bit alike? One looks like a deflated semi-circular ball, and the other’s a bit more filled out than a deflated ball, as if it had been partially deflated and then dried into a puckered sphere."
Mr. Zhao squinted and quickly zoomed in on the images.
"You’re talking about balls?"
Zhou Ning paused. In the human body, the only part that could be considered ball-shaped and about the size of an eyeball was one in particular. He hurried to the dry corpse’s groin, cut the rope tied there, and carefully lifted the modesty cloth that draped front and back.
The space between the legs was empty apart from one part still there, though tied with a rope that connected to the waist. The intent behind this was somewhat puzzling. Below that part, the cut was sprinkled with some red powder and showed no signs of healing.
The powder was likely used to stop bleeding, indicating that all the missing tissues on the dry corpse had been removed while he was alive. Not to mention the agony of castration, the pain of tooth extraction, tongue cutting, and eye gouging while alive—each of these could have been fatally excruciating.
Not to forget the scalping—breaking open the skull and pouring in mercury. With that thought, Zhou Ning quickly walked over to the dry corpse’s head, and the shadowless lamp was promptly adjusted in that direction.
"The dry corpse was alive when these organ and tissue excisions were forced. Such pain cannot be controlled by sheer willpower. I believe the corpse was anesthetized before the ritualistic dissection, although this is just a suspicion."
Mr. Zhao took photos, Gao Tie prepared the cranial opening tools, Zhu Xingxing handed me the scalpel, and I needed a curved dish to collect the contents after opening the skull—it had to be a large one."
After giving instructions, Zhou Ning was crouching over the dry corpse’s skull. This time Fang Dongsheng didn’t dare to approach. The term "craniotomy" in a hospital meant a lifesaving procedure. What would be inside this time?
After all, Zhou Ning had already said that the victim’s skull had been opened and mercury poured in to preserve the body without decay, one of the methods of making a dry corpse.
As Fang Dongsheng was lost in thought, the craniotomy was already complete on the other side. Zhu Xingxing, quick and alert, held the curved dish to catch what flowed out. It wasn’t the expected surge of mercury, just less than fifty milliliters of mercury liquid mingled with some debris.
Zhou Ning looked up at Sun Gaotie and raised his hand, circling it toward the exhaust vent. Sun Gaotie hurried over to turn it on full blast, and Mr. Pang and the others quickly opened the windows.
After Zhu Xingxing finished cleaning, they covered the curved dish and everyone could finally breathe again, well aware of mercury’s potent volatility.
"Record this: the incision on the victim’s head was linear, with hook marks in the center. Four circular holes, each 10.4 millimeters in diameter, were drilled on the skull, hidden on either side of the scalp incision. I believe these were not solely for making it easier to pour mercury but to facilitate the mashing and suction of brain tissue."
Zhu Xingxing shuddered and hastily spoke.
"Are these holes left by an electric drill? If this place is a sacrificial site and involved cutting tissue and trepanning to extract brain matter, and even pouring in mercury, everything else aside, these holes are very smooth and regular, not manually polished—they need an electric drill. But there’s no power source here, right?
Moreover, judging from the scene, there are eight cocoons altogether, which according to our analysis, contain eight children, four boys and four girls. To make dry corpses, you would need to wash the digestive tract, then proceed with anesthesia, organ cutting, drilling, mercury pouring, suturing, posing, wrapping, and hanging.
Regardless of cruelty, even if three or four professionals were involved, completing this process for one victim would take over an hour, right? Eight would take a whole day, and as for drilling holes with an electric drill and the high suspension, those would require a ladder. How was all this accomplished in here, considering that battery-powered drills have only been around for a couple of years?"
