Zhu Yan showed little interest in these matters. With a new murder case, there was a body, and she was eager to perform the autopsy.
Upon arriving at the morgue, she found Pan Chi already there.
Seeing Pan Chi had beaten her to it, Zhu Yan quickly approached and asked, “How’s it going? Have you found anything?”
As she spoke, Zhu Yan bent down, retrieving tools from her bag, and began examining the corpse.
Pan Chi shook his head slightly. “I just arrived and haven’t discovered any clues yet. It’s good you’re here; we can investigate together and discuss our findings.”
“Mm.” Zhu Yan nodded, unusually pleased. Performing an autopsy with a handsome man was something she’d never dared dream of.
What neither of them noticed was Shen Du’s exceptionally gloomy expression nearby.
Pan Chi seemed to be everywhere, like a persistent ghost. Zhu Yan was his woman; didn’t this man have any sense?
Watching the two examine the body and analyze the case in a harmonious atmosphere, Shen Du felt extremely irritated.
He couldn’t even find an opportunity to tell Zhu Yan about last night’s investigation of Mo Qianzi’s room. His mood was at its lowest point.
Just then, Shen Du’s eyes darted to the headless corpse nearby, and an idea formed in his mind. He snorted coldly,
“Weren’t you entrusted to investigate the headless corpse case? Why are you suddenly interested in this one? And you call yourself a master detective? How irresponsible.”
Shen Du’s mockery didn’t faze Pan Chi. He straightened up calmly and explained with a mysterious smile, “See the empty eye sockets of this corpse? I suspect these two cases are related, similar to the recent ‘Half-Face Ghost’ man-eating case in Gannan Circuit.”
Zhu Yan and the others had heard of the Half-Face Ghost case.
Legend had it that the Half-Face Ghost would eat only one body part at a time, committing the crime while the victim was unconscious. The victim would wake up missing an arm or a leg.
Such cases were difficult to investigate. Since they didn’t result in death and people feared the supernatural, most were eventually abandoned.
Thus, the legend of the “Half-Face Ghost” was born.
Constable Mo quickly added, “There are indeed such rumors, and those missing limbs are still alive. But legends are just legends, and with all the mysticism involved, these cases were eventually dropped.”
Hearing Constable Mo’s words, Shen Du let out a cold laugh, looking at Pan Chi with disdain.
“It’s just a folk tale. It’s one thing for common people to believe in it, but you, a top scholar in both civil and military affairs, how can you believe in such supernatural nonsense?”
Pan Chi explained with a meaningful expression, “I don’t believe in the supernatural. It’s just that some people can’t distinguish between humans and ghosts. Whether human or ghost, they’ve committed murder, and such individuals should be punished.”
Hearing this, Zhu Yan became interested and quickly agreed with Pan Chi’s words.
“Young Master Pan is truly an upright person, and I wholeheartedly agree with his statement. I’ve always thought the same – whether human or ghost if they’ve taken a life, they should pay the price. Even if they’re an evil spirit, we should act as judges in place of the King of Hell.”
Receiving Zhu Yan’s approval, Pan Chi seemed gratified. He raised an eyebrow, looking at Shen Du as if in a challenge.
Shen Du clenched his fist, his narrowed eyes flashing with murderous intent, wishing he could flay Pan Chi alive.
This man was truly detestable, always contradicting him in front of Zhu Yan, making him lose face. Did he have a death wish?
Seeing Shen Du’s narrowed eyes, Pan Chi felt a chill run down his spine. This man was not to be trifled with; he’d better quit while he was ahead.
As Zhu Yan continued examining the body and Pan Chi was about to approach her, Shen Du suddenly extended his hand in front of him, glancing sideways to indicate he should step aside.
Pan Chi looked perplexed. Though extremely displeased with Shen Du’s action, he didn’t want to disturb Zhu Yan, who was carefully examining the corpse.
If he couldn’t get close, neither could Shen Du.
The two men stood there, frozen, as if they had left the entire autopsy to Zhu Yan.
Meanwhile, Zhu Yan was engrossed in carefully cutting open the corpse’s skin with a thin knife to examine the inside, completely unaware of the change between the two men.
“There are impact injuries on the body, likely from falling into the well. No internal injuries. The cause of death was an instantaneous cardiac rupture,” Zhu Yan said as she cut open the abdomen. “Specifically, there’s purple swelling on the body, and some signs of decay.”
After saying this, Zhu Yan pressed on the corpse’s abdomen. The texture felt off, and the sound was muffled and turbid.
“The cardiac rupture accelerated the decomposition process. The abdominal cavity is probably a mess of fluids now.”
Zhu Yan turned her attention to the victim’s empty eye sockets. This time, the wound marks were different from those on the headless corpse. They weren’t like the curved blade marks Pan Chi had mentioned, but they were made by an extremely sharp instrument. Moreover, looking at the wounds, it seemed like a tool specifically designed for gouging out small objects.
Zhu Yan frowned deeply. She had never seen such a tool and wasn’t sure how to describe it.
Noticing Zhu Yan’s serious expression, Shen Du sensed something unusual and quickly asked, “Have you discovered something?”
Zhu Yan’s frown deepened as she carefully examined the victim’s eye sockets. “I can’t quite describe what kind of tool this is, but it’s not the foreign curved blade Young Master Pan mentioned earlier. What’s strange is that based on the layers of the wound, I think this tool might have been specially made. It’s very peculiar.”
Pan Chi lowered his eyes slightly, pondering for a moment before suddenly saying, “You mean a weapon specifically for gouging out eyes?”
Zhu Yan didn’t answer his question. Instead, after thinking for a while, she quickly took out a notebook from her pocket and drew what she thought the possible weapon might look like.
“It’s something like this, though I’m not sure if such a thing exists in the world.”
Zhu Yan showed her drawing to the two men, and surprisingly, Shen Du and Pan Chi simultaneously named the weapon.
“Tiger claws!”
“Such a weapon exists?” Zhu Yan was somewhat surprised by their reactions.
She had originally thought it might be a small knife or a new type of weapon developed specifically by the killer to achieve his purpose.
She hadn’t expected that such a weapon existed in the world.
Shen Du nodded and explained, “It’s a weapon worn on the fingers, much sharper than swords or knives. But this weapon is too vicious; it’s generally used by those practicing evil arts. It was originally used for tomb raiding. Why it would be used on a living person now is worth considering.”
Zhu Yan nodded meaningfully, stroking her chin with one hand as she shared her deduction, “In that case, the killer might be a tomb raider or someone related to that profession.”
Now another clue became clearer. She didn’t know if this case was related to the Half-Face Ghost, but it seemed to have no direct connection to the previous headless corpse case. However, the killer had murdered someone and taken their eyeballs, and she couldn’t fathom the purpose.
Pan Chi also fell into deep thought. His intuition couldn’t be wrong.
The two cases were connected, but according to Zhu Yan’s recent statements, his intuition had been overturned, which was quite suspicious.
Could he have been overthinking it?