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.
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
