The Song Family Magic, Ink Shine

Baiye had a special physique that required him to ingest nutrients through blood. After the nuns who believed in God discovered his 'misdeeds', they saw him as a child of the devil!

In order for Baiye to continue staying here, the dean seemed to have reached some tacit understanding with him - as long as Baiye obediently did not bite people, the dean would continue to secretly feed him animal blood. Although not as delicious as human blood, at least it kept him from starving to death.

After Baiye grew up, he escaped from the orphanage and went into hiding for several years before starting his revenge on prostitutes! I guessed he did not have much gratitude towards the dean in his heart, but rather harbored resentment, resenting that he was born into this world and the miserable childhood the dean had caused him. However, the dean felt a deep sense of guilt towards his own son...

This guilt made him Baiye's accomplice, helping him cover his tracks, with the goal of preventing Baiye from being arrested by the police.

These were just my speculations, but I believed the truth was probably eight or nine out of ten the same. After hearing me out, Huang Xiaotao angrily said, "No matter what reasons this father and son had, we must arrest them and bring them to justice!"

Soon, Wang Yuanchao bought back what I had asked for. I found a basin, used scissors to cut open the octopus' ink sac, dripped the ink into it, then poured in linseed oil and stirred to fully mix the two.

Wang Dali curiously asked, "Isn't there ink on the table already? Why go through the trouble of buying an octopus just for its ink?"

I said, "You wouldn't understand this. Octopus ink is an ancient Chinese medicine called abdominal ink, recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica. It has two properties - first, it's light and won't damage the shape of ashes; second, it contains phosphorus and can glow!"

"Glow?" Wang Dali's eyes widened.

I borrowed a straw from Xiao Zhou and sucked up a little of the mixed octopus ink, then told him to prepare a camera and turn the exposure rate to maximum. Finally, I ordered the police to turn off all the lights in the room.

After the lights were off, there was still some faint light coming in through the window. I had people draw the curtains as well, and the whole room suddenly went pitch black like a darkroom.

"It's so dark, do you need me to shine a flashlight for you?" Huang Xiaotao asked.

"No need, I can see!" I activated my Abyssal Eyes, able to see everything in the room clearly.

Xiao Zhou said, "But I can't see anything!"

I pulled Xiao Zhou to a spot and told him to hold up the camera. I would tell him when to take the photo.

Then I dripped the octopus ink from the straw onto the ashes. After about ten seconds, some glowing markings slowly emerged from the ashes, and everyone exclaimed in surprise. I said, "Quick, take the photo! It will only last a short while!"

After Xiao Zhou took the photo, I had people turn on the lights again.

Xiao Zhou was using a digital camera. He checked the photo - the effect was great. So he called the tech team to transfer it to a computer and piece together the fragments using Photoshop. Under everyone's eager gaze, the fragments were finally restored into a line of words - an address: '48 South Qiang Road'!

Huang Xiaotao excitedly said, "This is likely the scene of their crime tonight. Xiao Xu, you stay here with a few others to keep watch. Everyone else come with me!"

We rushed to 48 South Qiang Road. It was a residential building. Huang Xiaotao was prepared to go door-to-door asking questions, but I said that wouldn't work - it would alarm the murderer. So I told Xiao Zhou to take out the UV lamp.

I handed the UV lamp to Wang Dali and taught him how to use it, then had him hold it up high. As for me, I took out a red umbrella from my bag, opened it up, and slowly rotated it to an angle. Through the light penetrating the oiled paper, a mess of footprints were projected onto the ground.

"I thought this umbrella could only be used for autopsy?" Huang Xiaotao curiously asked.

"It's not just for autopsy. It has many functions!" I answered.

"So convenient. It'd be great if our tech team could be equipped with one each," Xiao Zhou said enviously.

I thought to myself this probably wouldn't work. Crafting this umbrella was time-consuming, and some of the formulas were Song family secrets that I couldn't divulge.

With the large flow of residents in and out, the footprints on the ground were a jumbled mess. Huang Xiaotao worriedly looked at them and said, "Which ones belong to the murderer?"

I looked them over and pointed to one, saying, "This one. The left foot is heavier than the right, clearly left behind by the dean!"

We followed this trail of footprints all the way to the fourth floor, where they disappeared in front of a door. Just as I was about to pick the lock, Huang Xiaotao actually kicked the door open, pulled out her gun, and charged in first with everyone else following closely behind!

After searching the room thoroughly, Huang Xiaotao's scream suddenly rang out from inside, followed by a swooshing sound. I saw countless black bats flying out of the room, giving me and Wang Dali a huge fright.

"We're too late, Song Yang!" Huang Xiaotao's voice came from the room.

I went into the bedroom and found a female corpse lying on the bed, dressed in a floral print dress. Her skin was deathly pale like paper, with two fang marks on her neck - her condition of death identical to the previous victim.

Hanging from the ceiling were many bats. Although many had been startled away by the police's intrusion, the remaining number was still considerable.

Those bats were like messengers from hell, gathered in a huge black mass, writhing around occasionally with eerie green lights glittering in their eyes. Anyone with a phobia of crowds would surely be scared witless by this sight, legs turning to jelly.

I was somewhat disheartened then, thinking we could have saved this girl if we had discovered earlier that the dean was an accomplice.

But the corpse still needed examining. I told Huang Xiaotao, "Wang Dali and I will stay here and perform the autopsy. Take everyone else and search the vicinity."

"Will you two be okay here alone?" Huang Xiaotao asked worriedly.

"It'll be fine, the murderer won't come back." I replied.

"But what about these bats..." Huang Xiaotao glanced up at the ceiling.

"They're just ordinary bats, harmless to humans." I dismissively said.

"Alright then, I'll have Wang Yuanchao stay behind to protect you."

With that, Huang Xiaotao left with the other officers. The forensics team began collecting evidence. I rolled up my sleeves, put on gloves, checked the corpse's pupils, listened for bone sounds, and estimated time of death to be around two hours ago.

Although I knew there probably wouldn't be any major clues this time, examinations still had to be performed. I told Wang Dali to take out some xuan paper and tung oil from the bag, and we would use the 'oil paper overlay method' to extract fingerprints again.

Wang Dali said, "Why not just directly use your magic umbrella?"

"Examinations and evidence collection must be adapted to circumstances. It's not like one method will work every time." I explained.

To my surprise, this examination actually yielded some clues - the fingerprints on the xuan paper this time were vaguely visible.

Xiao Zhou quickly came over to take photos. "These must be from two different people!"

"No!" I compared the prints and said, "They really were left by Baiye. Over the past period he has consumed an excessive amount of blood protein, so his skin has started secreting oil again. He probably wasn't even aware of this himself."

Wang Dali said, "Is it possible that the murderer's blood-sucking is actually to cure his own strange illness?"

I considered it for a moment: "There's a possibility of that too. But now that he can secrete oil, we can just use a simpler method."

I had Wang Dali turn on the UV lamp, then slowly rotated the red umbrella to cast its light. I was using the UV lamp to simulate sunlight.

Disturbed by the ultraviolet rays, the bats on the ceiling started flapping their wings and flew out of the open window, causing the people in the room to shriek.

I went to the living room. Wherever the red umbrella's eerie blood-red glow reached - the door frames, table, and a drinking glass - faint fingerprints emerged.

Xiao Zhou was about to follow me, but I told him, "You stay here and examine the remaining water in the glass for DNA!"

"Oh...got it!" Xiao Zhou nodded.

I kept walking outward, and found identical prints on the stair railings, leading upstairs. Wang Dali gaped and said, "The murderer didn't go downstairs, he...he's still in this building!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Yuanchao, who was smoking by the door, immediately put out his cigarette and gripped the 92-style pistol at his waist, looking at me expectantly waiting for orders.

I seized the opportunity and immediately made a decision: "The three of us will go up and catch him!"