Chapter 220 - 218: The Door in the Old District Was Opened
Chapter 220: Chapter 218: The Door in the Old District Was Opened
Lu Zhishen and Su Miaoyi walked to the entrance of the autopsy room, then he turned back.
Su Miaoyi entered the autopsy room.
As soon as she stepped inside, she saw them laid out: the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, stomach, intestines...
The body was completely open.
She had mentally prepared herself, but the sudden sight still made her jump.
Su Miaoyi walked closer and looked at the organs. "Would this be considered a fatty liver?"
"Yes," Yan Cheng confirmed.
Su Miaoyi saw that slices had been taken from the organs and sent for testing.
The autopsy was more or less complete.
"Did he freeze to death?" Su Miaoyi asked.
"He did." Yan Cheng glanced at her. "Come over here."
Su Miaoyi moved to his side.
Yan Cheng pointed to the victim’s exposed scalp. "Here... he was struck before he died."
Su Miaoyi looked where he was pointing. "He was knocked unconscious and then put in the freezer?"
"Yes," Yan Cheng said. "There’s no hemorrhaging in the skull. The blow wasn’t fatal."
"Liu Shitang showed signs of struggling and removing his clothes inside the freezer. He must have woken up inside," Su Miaoyi said.
"After the frost in the freezer melted, his blood mixed with the icy water. We matched it to Liu Shitang’s. He has wounds on his hands, too." Yan Cheng then showed her Liu Shitang’s hands.
The nails on both hands were broken, and there were cuts on his fingertips.
"The blood under his fingernails... it looks like there’s something else in there," Su Miaoyi said, leaning in for a closer look.
"Yes," Yan Cheng said. "During the external examination, we collected what was in there and sent it for analysis."
Su Miaoyi nodded. "So he was knocked out and put in the freezer. Then he woke up, but he couldn’t open the lid because it was tied shut from the outside, so he froze to death inside."
"When a person’s body temperature drops below 33 degrees Celsius, they can start to hallucinate that they feel very hot," Yan Cheng explained, accounting for why Liu Shitang had removed his clothes. "To ensure the brain has a sufficient blood supply, the body reduces flow to the limbs and torso. Hormonal regulation then stimulates the heat-dissipation center in the hypothalamus, causing blood vessels around the head to dilate. This creates a sensation of heat that contradicts the actual environment."
Su Miaoyi listened intently.
Yan Cheng continued, "This sensation of heat also causes the face to flush. Combined with the expansion of his facial muscles, it makes his expression look like a smile."
Su Miaoyi had seen notes in his files about the phenomena that appear on the bodies of people who have frozen to death, but she never knew the reasons behind them.
’I guess I didn’t know before, either. My mind is blank on this topic.’
"This is the stomach’s contents." Yan Cheng walked over to the side.
Su Miaoyi followed him. Even through her mask, she could smell alcohol.
"What is all this? Chives? Enoki mushrooms?" Su Miaoyi asked.
"Lamb and beef," Yan Cheng said.
"Barbecue?" Su Miaoyi looked at him.
Yan Cheng nodded.
"Barbecue and alcohol," Su Miaoyi said. "Given the state of the stomach contents, he must have been killed shortly after his meal."
"Yes."
Su Miaoyi fell silent in thought. After a moment, finding the smell too overpowering, she quietly moved to one side.
"If Kang Hong is involved in this case, I believe he had an accomplice," Yan Cheng said.
This matched what the others thought as well.
As they were speaking, Yan Cheng’s assistant pushed the door open and came in. "Sir, the lab results for the material extracted from under the fingernails are back."
Yan Cheng was wearing gloves and couldn’t take the report.
The assistant held it up for him to see. "Besides Liu Shitang’s DNA, we found another set of DNA."
Su Miaoyi leaned in to look as well.
"It doesn’t match Kang Hong’s DNA, and there are no matches in the DNA database either," the assistant said.
Liu Shitang must have struggled before being knocked out, scratching the killer and collecting their DNA under his nails.
Yan Cheng and Su Miaoyi exchanged a look.
Just as they suspected, someone else was involved besides Kang Hong.
But they didn’t know who.
Su Miaoyi felt as if the case was branching off in multiple directions, but every path they followed led to a dead end.
After leaving the autopsy room, Su Miaoyi headed toward the office area.
As she neared the offices, she saw Chu Xingrou walking toward her. Just as she was about to raise a hand to greet her, the scene before her eyes suddenly changed.
Chu Xingrou had come out of the office area, planning to take a short walk to clear her groggy head. After a few steps, she saw Su Miaoyi standing not far away.
"Sister Miaomiao." Chu Xingrou walked closer.
Su Miaoyi stood frozen in place, one foot forward as if in mid-stride, her hands hanging at her sides and her eyes half-closed.
"Sister Miaomiao?" Chu Xingrou thought she was teasing her with some kind of performance art.
So, after watching for two seconds, she stood beside her and struck the exact same pose.
Still. Motionless.
One second, two seconds, three seconds... Thirty seconds passed.
Su Miaoyi didn’t move. Chu Xingrou didn’t move either, only darting her eyes to look at her.
Until... another ten-odd seconds had passed, and Su Miaoyi’s phone rang.
Chu Xingrou yelped in surprise and immediately stood up straight.
But Su Miaoyi still didn’t react. Chu Xingrou realized something wasn’t right. "Sister Miaomiao? Sister Miaomiao?"
The phone kept ringing, but Su Miaoyi remained completely unresponsive.
"Sister Miaomiao?" Chu Xingrou took her hand, looking at her with concern.
Just as she was about to let go to call for help, Su Miaoyi suddenly squeezed her hand.
"Sister Miaomiao!" Chu Xingrou immediately squeezed back, looking at her.
When Su Miaoyi pulled out of the vision, her sight was still pitch black, and she staggered back a step.
Chu Xingrou quickly steadied her. "Sister Miaomiao, what’s wrong?"
Su Miaoyi looked at her and blinked. "It’s nothing, I just lost my footing."
"But you were standing here for a while," Chu Xingrou said, confused. "Tripped on flat ground?"
"Uh..." Su Miaoyi patted her shoulder. "Don’t worry, I’m fine. I’ll explain when I have time. I have to go see Captain Zhuang about something first."
"Oh." Chu Xingrou followed her toward the office area. After a few steps, she said, "Sister Miaomiao, your phone was just ringing."
Su Miaoyi took out her phone and saw it was a call from Ge Yu.
She stopped and immediately called back.
Ge Yu answered right away. "Miaomiao."
"Auntie, what’s wrong?" Su Miaoyi could hear the anxiety in her voice.
"Miaomiao, Aunt Wang from the old district just called me. She said the door to our old house there is open," Ge Yu said. "Your uncle and I remember very clearly that we locked the door when we came downstairs."
Su Miaoyi remembered Aunt Wang. She lived upstairs from them and was a bit of a homebody, only going out every two or three days.
"Auntie, don’t worry. I’ll contact someone to go take a look," Su Miaoyi said.
"Okay, but you have to be careful. Don’t go check it out yourself if you don’t have to. It’s just an empty house with nothing and no one inside, so it’s not like there’d be any real loss." Ge Yu added, "Your uncle wondered if someone had come looking for you. He told me to let you know, to see if it might be a clue."
"Okay, I understand."
...