When I thought about it, there wasn't anything unspeakable about the cause of death. Could it really be unidentifiable?
Thinking of this, I suddenly became excited. Could it be that the "Jiangbei Mutilator" had appeared again!
"Take me there quickly!" I said.
"Alright, follow me," Huang Xiaotao nodded.
We took the elevator to the fourth floor of the hotel. There were several policemen standing in the hallway. Squatting there was a fat black guy wearing shorts, hotel slippers on his feet, bare chested, with a long thick gold chain around his neck. Next to him squatted a girl wrapped in a blanket, hands holding her head down, long hair draped over her chest.
If you added a reporter carrying a camera, the scene would look just like a vice raid captured live on the news.
The police were questioning them. The fat black guy said worriedly, "Officers, I already told you, she and I truly love each other, just like the Butterfly Lovers, not what you're imagining.
"Just talking is useless, take out your ID and driver's license for us to see!" the cop said.
"I told you I didn't bring them!"
"Who are you kidding? How could you stay at a hotel without ID?" The cop sneered repeatedly.
Wang Dali pulled me in shock, "Damn, Yangzi, did we come to the wrong place, a vice raid scene?"
Huang Xiaotao said they were the ones who discovered the corpse. They got a room at the hotel to have sex, and when they were in the middle of it, the mattress suddenly shook violently. When they lifted it up, there was a dead woman's body underneath! Scared them half to death, they immediately called the police.
When the police arrived, they found this pair looked like a john and prostitute, and refused to show their ID no matter what, so they had been at a standstill. The vice squad had already been called to take over.
I laughed, "This fat guy is really unlucky, coming out to fool around and running into this. I bet it left psychological trauma and he won't be able to get it up for months."
Huang Xiaotao couldn't help laughing, "Who isn't? What are the odds of running into this at home?"
Hearing what Huang Xiaotao said, I was certain the killer wasn't the "Jiangbei Mutilator." That shameless killer didn't even have the word "hide" in his dictionary. He not only didn't hide the bodies, but brazenly displayed them to taunt the police!
The fat black guy was still arguing with the police. We passed him and entered the room where the body was discovered.
Several officers were busy at the scene. Huang Xiaotao said they had collected over a dozen fingerprint samples from the furniture and walls, but it didn't mean much since different people stayed in the room daily.
I glanced at the bed. The whole mattress had been flipped open, the female corpse hidden underneath.
The dead woman had a slender figure and fashionable long hair. She only wore a bra and panties. Her skin was ghastly pale, not a natural pale, but a white like paper.
She had died a horrible death. Eyes bulging wide, hands stiff like chicken feet, all signs indicating the agony she endured before death.
Seeing this, Wang Dali immediately hid behind me. Huang Xiaotao scornfully said, "Why did you bring this fraidy cat? Here to lighten the mood by tying his shoelaces?"
Clearly Wang Dali's move of stopping to tie his shoelaces while catching the criminal last time had left a deep impression on Huang Xiaotao.
Wang Dali explained, "I'm Yangzi's indispensable assistant, he can't do without me!"
"Right, right!" I nodded helplessly. Then I asked Huang Xiaotao, "Has the corpse been moved?"
"Xiao Zhou from the tech team scanned it with a UV light just now to look for prints. Nothing else touched."
"Did you find any prints?" I asked.
Just as Huang Xiaotao was about to answer, a young cop with glasses and an oiled hairdo walked over. He looked scholarly, but his brows betrayed arrogance. "There are no prints on the corpse, not even skin cells under the nails."
Huang Xiaotao introduced him, "This is Xiao Zhou, a whiz kid from the tech team who has cracked many homicide cases."
Xiao Zhou nodded smugly, then turned to me, "So you're Song Yang. I heard Group Leader Huang say you use some unheard of ancient forensic techniques. I'm dying to see them in action!"
"You flatter me."
Xiao Zhou suddenly sneered, "But I dare bet you won't detect anything, because this clearly wasn't done by a person."
His provocation irritated me. Cops were human too, and came in all types. Xiao Zhou was clearly the competitive sort. I raised my eyebrows, "You're so sure?"
"Take a look yourself and you'll know. Hey, gloves for them!" Xiao Zhou waved contemptuously.
An officer brought two pairs of rubber gloves. Wang Dali and I put them on. I went to the corpse. Huang Xiaotao prepared to shine a flashlight for me, but I said it wasn't necessary.
The corpse's neck had a terrifying bite mark, two large bloody holes visible in the teeth imprints.
I pried it open to discover the holes were very deep, meaning the teeth that bit the victim were extremely long, piercing right through the neck.
"Flip her over!" I ordered.
When the corpse was turned on its side, I discovered there were no lividity patterns on the chest or abdomen. Lividity patterns were what ancient coroners called blood pooling after death. In modern terms it was livor mortis.
Since there were none, it meant all the blood had been drained from the victim's body. No wonder the face was so pale!
Wang Dali was so frightened he covered his mouth, "Good lord, this wasn't done by a person, but a vampire!" He then retched repeatedly.
"Don't jump to conclusions before an examination." I said.
At this time Xiao Zhou walked over and said, "Well, great detective Song, I just scanned it with a UV light and laser spectrometer. Not a single print on the skin or clothes. I think you're just wasting your energy..."
I found his barbed words irritating. "That just means you didn't find any. Doesn't mean they don't exist."
"Then detect something for me to see!" Xiao Zhou said defiantly.
"What if I do? Want to make a bet?" I sneered.
"You're on!" Xiao Zhou readily agreed. He looked around and suddenly pointed at the ashtray on the bedside table, "If you detect something, I'll eat what's in there. If you don't..."
"If I don't, I'll eat the whole ashtray!" I shouted.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
