When You lose, You Eat the Ashtray.

Song Yang suddenly raised his voice and said, "Listen up, everyone! This great detective Song just said that if he can't find any traces on the corpse, he will eat this entire ashtray in front of everyone - glass and all!"

The police officers who were busy working the scene immediately came over to watch the commotion. Wang Dali spoke up for me, "Don't just pick on Yangzi - what if you lose?"

Xiao Zhou looked around at everyone and said, "If I lose, I'll eat the cigarette ashes and butts too. You all heard that, right?"

The crowd jeered, clearly supporting Xiao Zhou, after all he was their team leader.

Of course I was completely confident in my autopsy skills, but I was still annoyed by the unprovoked challenge. I thought to myself, don't be arrogant, you'll get what's coming to you soon enough.

"Alright, let me examine the corpse first. We'll talk about testing it later," I said.

"Sounds good!" Xiao Zhou laughed, "Just don't try to pass off your own fingerprints as evidence, okay?"

"Don't worry, I'm not that stupid to disregard my reputation like that..." I sneered coldly again.

Xiao Zhou heard the mocking tone in my words and snorted angrily, "I'll be back later to watch your tricks!"

After he left, Huang Xiaotao sighed repeatedly, "Song Yang, I'm so sorry."

"What happened exactly?" I asked.

Huang Xiaotao explained that Xiao Zhou was a overseas returnee at the police station and quite arrogant. After examining the corpse earlier, he had reported the results to Huang Xiaotao. She had casually remarked "Don't worry, we'll have Song Yang take a look when he gets here." She didn't realize this offhand comment would completely hurt Xiao Zhou's pride!

Xiao Zhou had asked Huang Xiaotao what I did, and when she said I was a coroner, he immediately felt insulted. That was why he challenged me as soon as I arrived, wanting to show off his superiority.

Huang Xiaotao spread her hands helplessly, "It's my fault as the team leader for not smoothing things over between everyone."

"You did nothing wrong. I think there's something wrong with that forensics team leader's character," I replied.

"Little Peach, between you and Officer Zhou, who has more seniority?" Wang Dali asked.

"We're equals in rank, but I worked my way up through hard work while he joined the criminal investigation team straight as a captain. His time on the force is much shorter than mine," Huang Xiaotao said bitterly.

"On what basis?" Wang Dali exclaimed.

"On the basis that he has a higher education - a PhD in criminal investigation from overseas. How can I compare when I only graduated from the police academy?" Huang Xiaotao said self-deprecatingly.

Wang Dali remarked in surprise, "Damn, so even the police care about your education? But he said he was Li Changyu's disciple, sounded quite impressive."

I explained, "You misheard. He only attended some of Li Changyu's lectures. If he was really the disciple of the famous Chinese detective Li Changyu, with his personality he'd be even more arrogant!"

I had also read books by Li Changyu. In university I had practically read every forensic medicine text in the library, cross-referencing the knowledge with what I learned from the The Injustice Collector's Record of Washing Away Wrongs. I gained a lot of new insights.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle!

Huang Xiaotao said worriedly, "Song Yang, I heard Xiao Zhou tell his team members earlier that there's some abnormal aspects about this corpse. The killer may have tampered with the fingerprints afterwards. That's why he was so confident to bet with you. If you're not sure, let me help you get out of it."

I waved my hand dismissively. "Unless the killer was a ghost, there will definitely be clues!"

I took out a forearm-length black wooden stick from my bag. Wang Dali asked what it was for, and I explained, "This is called a 'bone listening stick', made from cypress wood. It's used for percussive auscultation. Cypress is dense so it transmits sound very well. Last time I didn't have it prepared, so I had to listen by pressing my ear directly to the corpse. Gross."

Later it turned out my preparation was spot on. I pressed the bone listening stick to the chest cavity, abdominal cavity and back of the corpse, tapping the limbs to listen to the sounds. I discovered the corpse had been dead for seven days already. Pressing my ear directly on it would have been disgusting.

Seven days?

That was precisely the folk belief of the ghost festival period after death.

The fat black man who discovered the corpse said the mattress had shook once. Was that related?

Of course I didn't look further into it. A coroner's duty is only to find evidence and catch the killer. Ghosts were outside my professional purview.

Although the victim had been dead for seven days, and lost a lot of blood, being in an enclosed environment slowed decomposition and there was only mild rotting.

She hadn't been completely drained of blood, as I could hear some remaining blood clots in her chest cavity. When a person loses 30% of their blood volume they go into shock, and death occurs immediately upon 50% blood loss.

From the victim's condition, blood loss exceeded 70%. That much blood could easily fill several large soda bottles. I glanced at the fang marks on the victim's neck.

Could the killer really have been a vampire that drank all her blood?

I asked Wang Dali to fetch scissors and cut off the victim's bra and underwear. Wang Dali gawked in shock, "Damn, watch yourself! Sister Peach is right here!"

"Stop wasting time!" I snapped.

Huang Xiaotao just stood there with her arms crossed, her expression calm. She was used to these scenes and didn't react too strongly, unlike Wang Dali's gaping.

Autopsies don't care about gender, otherwise it'd be a joke. To me, a corpse was just an object.

Huang Xiaotao asked, "Song Yang, how are you going to examine it? Will you steam it with vinegar again like last time?"

I shook my head. Forget not having the right conditions, I was worried vinegar steaming wouldn't produce results this time. Also it was the middle of the night, so I didn't have my red umbrella either.

Autopsies must adapt to the situation. This time I planned to use a new method!

I had Wang Dali bring my shoulder bag over. I took out a roll of high quality xuan paper and a bottle of camellia oil. Wang Dali asked what they were for. I explained, "To lift prints of course."

I said prints, not fingerprints, because I suspected there really might not be usable fingerprints on this corpse.

Xiao Zhou had overheard and walked over, saying "Oh? The great detective Song is starting his examination? Let me observe."

I replied, "Then open your eyes wide and watch closely!"

I had Wang Dali flip the corpse over. Based on the fang marks on her neck, the killer had clung to her back to drink blood. So there would definitely be clear handprints on her back.

Additionally, xuan paper and camellia oil were both extremely expensive. I couldn't examine the whole body. One sheet of clean xuan paper, four chi square, cost 20 yuan. Camellia oil was 100 yuan per catty. This 'oil paper overlay' was possibly the most extravagant autopsy method passed down from Song dynasty coroner Song Ci!

I laid two sheets of xuan paper over the victim's back, carefully dripping on a few drops of oil until the paper was thoroughly absorbed. The oil-soaked xuan paper visibly turned transparent before my eyes, allowing me to see through to the skin below! Then I layered another sheet of paper over it until the second sheet was also soaked through.

"Hey, rubbing oil on a corpse, how are you going to wash it off later..." Xiao Zhou said, his words trailing off as his gaze suddenly fixed straight on the corpse.

"Look, something seems to be appearing!" Huang Xiaotao exclaimed.

"I can't make it out," Wang Dali said, squinting. His vision was over 100 degrees of myopia. Trying to spot faint traces was extremely difficult for him.

The outlines of two handprints were starting to appear on the oil-soaked xuan paper, though very indistinct - to ordinary eyes just slightly darker shadows compared to the surrounding area. But to my eyes they stood out clearly!

What's more, the position of the prints was precisely as I had guessed.

I continued overlaying layers of xuan paper, until the third, then fourth layer were also soaked through by oil.

Finally the camellia oil stopped wicking up into the topmost layer of paper, which retained its original color except for a few places where oil prints had slowly emerged, leaving imprints of two palm prints on the sheet.

"Holy crap, that's amazing!" Wang Dali yelled in surprise.

"Song Yang, how did you do that?" Huang Xiaotao asked wonderingly.

"No...that's impossible!" Xiao Zhou stared wide-eyed and said, "I get it now, you're a fraud! You must have tampered with the paper!"