Netherworld Investigator

The Thrice Steaming Bone Test took a considerable amount of time so I told Xiaotao to finish her work first. After she left, Dali looked around the room and said, "This place is really nice–quiet and spacious. Dude, have you ever thought of doing something more interesting with Xiaotao-jiejie here?"

Making love in the Necropsy Workshop? This was only the biggest taboo for a Traditional Coroner!

Right then, Xiaotao entered the room, having forgotten her notebook. Dali jumped up in fear. "What did you just say?” Xiaotao quipped. “Why don’t you come out and have a chat with me?"

"I-I didn't mean that…” Dali mumbled incoherently “Dude, say something!"

"How am I supposed to help you if you’re caught in the act?" I arched an eyebrow.

"Watch what you say!" Xiaotao snorted.

And with that, Xiaotao turned around and left. I set out to prepare the Thrice Steaming Bone Test, observing the same process as before so I didn't need to go into detail. The cement trench on the floor made it convenient for the test.

Purple marks appeared on the bones on the second test. I grabbed a blank notebook and a pen from the shelf and handed them to Dali. "We’re considered professionals now, and as my assistant, you should be jotting down my observations."

"Sure thing, boss!” answered Dali. “Don’t speak too fast!"

I put the skeletal remains on the autopsy table and began vocalizing my observations and conclusions. The victim’s hyoid bone was fractured, showing traces of being heavily trampled on.

There were several traces of blunt force trauma on her torso and ribs, but none of them were serious enough to cause a fracture, suggesting the victim might have been beaten before death.

The slight misalignment of the joint connecting the shoulder and the spine was caused by a strong pull, and chafing on the calcaneus all pointed to the victim being dragged by the arm with her body facing upwards over a long distance.

Additionally, there are signs of insect bites.

Aside from examining the victim’s skeleton, I also looked at the skeletal remains of the three hamsters in her abdomen. The skulls of the hamsters appeared to have been clamped by some sort of tool and judging from the shape of the indentation, I suspected it was similar to tweezers.

Ding Xu mentioned that the murderer cut open her uterus and stuffed hamsters inside, but there were no knife marks on her pelvis!

The victim’s pelvis wasn’t fully opened and showed no signs of pregnancy. Even if Ding Xu’s statement were true, then the pregnancy was three months along at most. A woman's uterus was about the size of an uninflated balloon before or in the beginning stages of pregnancy.

How could a man without professional knowledge and equipment accurately dissect the uterus and stuff hamsters within?

So I came to the conclusion that the murderer hadn’t in fact cut open her stomach, but stuffed the hamsters into her vagina with tweezers. After receiving injuries to the head from the tweezer and being forced into a narrow canal, the hamsters eventually died of suffocation due to the lack of air within the vagina.

Ding Xu's depiction of the hamsters burrowing through her uterus was merely a product of her imagination.

As Dali listened to my detailed description, he frowned, "Is there any difference? Anyway, the hamsters were stuffed into her uterus. This isn’t something just any old pervert could come up with!"

"There’s a big difference!” I retorted. “If the victim hadn’t had her abdomen dissected, she wouldn’t have shed blood or been infected. Stuffing a few hamsters into her vagina is disgusting but not fatal."

"So what does that mean?" asked Dali.

"Although the victim was beaten and tortured, these wounds were not enough to kill her,” I summarized. “What really killed her was the heavy stomp on her neck. The murderer literally crushed her throat to death. This is perhaps the biggest contradiction in the case. The murderer could have buried her alive. Why did he fly off the handle and trample her to death?"

"Perhaps the victim said some unpleasant things,” voiced Dali. “Just think about it. At that point, anyone would say some really nasty things."

I wasn’t convinced by his argument but the contradiction would certainly be solved as we continued on with our investigation. Through the autopsy, I realized one thing–we couldn’t believe everything Ding Xu said because his narrative was subjective.

I took out some yellow joss paper and burned it before the victim’s body, reading a passage from the "Pure Land Rebirth Mantra." Dali interjected, "You should be burning the joss paper in front of Ding Xu."

"That’s nonsense!" I rolled my eyes.

We left the Necropsy Workshop and headed over to Xiaotao's office. Upon hearing my findings, Xiaotao said, "Alright then. I'm going to investigate the origins of the gold ring. Are you coming along?"

"Yes!" I nodded.

On the way there, I asked Xiaotao how Ding Xu was doing, to which she replied that he spent the day shopping. A stocky man like Ding Xu, wearing makeup and a dress, strolling about the shopping mall and having tea in the cafes must have been comical. Several passer-bys even filmed Ding Xu and shared the videos on the internet while the more concerned citizens called the mental hospital.

"I’d like to see that!” laughed Dali. “When this whole thing is over, Fatty Ding will be so embarrassed he probably wouldn’t leave the house!"

"You never know. He might become famous after this!" I said.

"Song Yang, with your fair skin and slender figure, you would look good dressing up as a girl!" Xiaotao giggled.

"You’re right!” Dali exclaimed. “I’d like to see that too. Crossdressing is very popular now."

I waved my hand repeatedly, "No thank you! That'll be too detrimental to my dashing image! If you like women's wear, you can try it yourself!"

A thought suddenly crossed my mind. "By the way, remind the plainclothes officer keeping tabs on Ding Xu to snap a picture of his handwriting when he signs for a transaction."

"No problem,” she replied. “Why do you want that?"

"I’m planning on exorcizing his demons! After all, he can’t stay like this forever!"

The ring was sold by the Zhou Taifu Jewelry Store. There were a total of three outlets in Nanjiang City. We didn’t find any clues in the first two outlets so we proceeded to the last one which looked grander than the previous two.

We informed the manager of our purpose and asked for a list of customers who purchased this model. The manager checked the store’s system and made us a list.

There were a total of six transactions involving this ring, the earliest being in March 2016. "Were there no sales in 2015 for this model?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, our store was bought over two years ago due to poor management,” the manager said apologetically. “And all the previous data was deleted."

Xiaotao wrinkled her eyebrows, "How could such a coincidence exist?"

"Who’s the current owner?" I asked.

"Mr. Xu!" replied the manager.

"CEO Xu? Mr. Xu?" I repeated. Could this person be the man Ding Xu was referring to? But that would mean Mr. Xu went all out to destroy the evidence, even purchasing the jewelry store! His over-the-top actions only made him seem more conspicuous.

Right then, a black Rolls Royce pulled up outside the store and down came a middle-aged man with a big belly. The manager quickly went out to greet him while the employees in the store bowed and said, "Welcome, sir!"

Xiaotao and I exchanged a meaningful look. Speak of the devil and he doth appear!