Chapter 4

Chapter 4: 1. deep rising-03

Half an hour later, Liu Yi, fully dressed in his surgical attire, stood at the lead position by the dissection table. Jiang Xiaoyuan was on the opposite side acting as assistant, while Li Jin was responsible for taking photos and recording notes.

As the third-ranking member of the institute, Liu Yi’s pathology department had four senior forensic experts capable of working independently, along with several junior staff, forming multiple fully functioning teams. Therefore, he rarely needed to personally take the lead.

But by coincidence, the department had been very busy lately. Other staff members were fully scheduled, and today’s cadaver supposedly had family ties to the city bureau leadership. The higher-ups required a conclusion today, so Liu Yi decided to be the chief examiner himself.

“The deceased is Zhang Yu, male, 67 years old. The body was discovered on October 9th, which was yesterday.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan opened the folder and read the case details aloud to everyone present.

“The body was found in the manager’s office break room of the South City Supermarket. The person who found him was the deceased’s second son, Zhang Wenqiang…”

According to police interviews, Zhang Yu usually lived alone in his old house in South City, and the South City Supermarket where the body was found belonged to him. The supermarket was closed for repairs on October 8th and 9th.

Zhang Wenqiang, the first person to discover the body, said his father had mentioned checking the supermarket accounts during this time. As for the exact time he went or how long he stayed, Zhang Wenqiang claimed he did not know.

On the night of the 9th, Zhang Wenqiang could not reach his father by phone and found no one at home, so he went to the supermarket to search. Upon arrival, he saw the manager’s office light still on and found Zhang Yu lying on the sofa with no detectable heartbeat. Zhang Wenqiang immediately dialed 120 emergency services; the record shows the call was at 10:43 PM.

The duty doctor from South City District Hospital arrived approximately fifteen minutes later, confirmed Zhang Yu had stopped breathing and his pupils were fixed. The body temperature had dropped to room temperature, and he had been dead for some time.

Liu Yi lowered his head to examine the naked elderly man on the dissection table.

Bodies handed to forensic experts had not been sent to the mortuary and had not undergone any preparation by a mortician. Their appearance and posture were often far more disturbing than imagined.

This poor Zhang Yu appeared to have died uneasily. His eyes were tightly shut, lips unnaturally skewed, face twisted, resembling a grim, unsettling smile.

“What did the emergency doctor conclude?”

Liu Yi asked in a deep voice.

“Considering the deceased’s age and his history of hypertension, coronary heart disease, and angina, they concluded it was sudden cardiac death of cardiac origin. They deemed the death not suspicious and issued a death certificate.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan replied.

“However, the deceased’s eldest son, Zhang Wenying, arrived later, insisted his father was murdered, and requested a forensic autopsy, so the body was sent to us.”

Liu Yi’s fair, long fingers tapped lightly on the edge of a tray holding various instruments. “If this really were sudden cardiac death from coronary heart disease, the most common cause would be myocardial infarction. Determining the cause shouldn’t be difficult.”

He donned thin gloves and attached a blade to the scalpel. “All right, let’s handle this quickly and start immediately.”

This was Li Jin’s first time at a dissection led by Liu Yi, and the first time seeing him in surgical attire.

Liu Yi pinned his longer bangs to the top of his head with a hairpin and put on a cap, revealing a smooth forehead. His brows looked sharper, eyes more piercing—a stark contrast to his usually cold but elegant demeanor. Li Jin felt both unfamiliar and thrilled, heart racing.

No wonder they say a man is most attractive when focused at work.

Li Jin held his racing heart and stared at Liu Yi’s sharp profile, imagining an extended romantic drama in his mind.

In some sense, Li Jin was remarkably strong-minded; even in the cold dissection room, facing a twisted corpse, he couldn’t help but be distracted.

However, the flowing river was too busy to notice fallen flowers.

Liu Yi was completely unaware of the intern’s admiring gaze, already focused on the body.

Like most men his age, Zhang Yu’s skin was yellowish and dry, rough with wrinkles and pigment spots.

Having been dead for some time and kept in a freezer for several hours, his body had a pale bluish hue, but the livor mortis on his torso was vivid red, especially on the nose, earlobes, fingers, and toes, even slightly purplish in places.

Liu Yi gently touched the red earlobes with gloved fingers, a trace of puzzlement in his eyes, but said nothing.

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“Some scattered pinpoint bleeding is visible under the epicardium. The right atrium and ventricle are dilated, but no ruptures or obvious myocardial necrosis. There are blood clots in the coronary arteries, but the blockage is not severe.”

The elderly man’s heart, no longer beating, was removed, separated from the lungs, and carefully dissected in front of the three of them.

Liu Yi concluded: “The cause of death is not myocardial infarction.”

“Oh!”

Hearing this, Jiang Xiaoyuan let out a nervous, awkward laugh. “Well, that complicates things; we can’t resolve this quickly anymore.”

Indeed, since the cause of death wasn’t the most common myocardial infarction from coronary disease, an elderly man approaching seventy could have many possible causes of death. They would have to check every organ thoroughly. Just considering underlying illnesses would be enough work, let alone determining if it was natural or homicide.

Liu Yi looked up, glaring at Jiang Xiaoyuan, signaling him to focus.

Jiang Xiaoyuan stuck out his tongue, immediately fell silent, and continued assisting properly.

The dissection process was meticulous and demanding, testing both the forensic examiner’s skill and patience.

When Liu Yi cut into the stomach, he paused, squinting, deep in thought.

Upon seeing Zhang Yu’s body, the suspicion that had once flickered in his mind now emerged clearly, like the loose end of a tangled ball of yarn.

“Did the deceased have a history of gastritis?”

Liu Yi asked Jiang Xiaoyuan.

Wearing dirty gloves, Jiang Xiaoyuan hesitated and could not recall the details, quickly instructing Li Jin to check the records.

Li Jin, distracted by Liu Yi’s handsome features and professional aura, had not been paying attention and missed the question entirely. Only after being shouted at did he scramble to retrieve the recent medical records from the folder.

“No… I didn’t… see any gastritis diagnosis.”

He flipped through the records hastily, voice stammering from nerves.

“That’s strange…” Liu Yi murmured to himself.

He examined the opened stomach, brushing aside the partially digested contents to reveal the gastric mucosa. “What’s going on with these erosions, pinpoint hemorrhages, and scattered shallow ulcers of varying sizes? And the color of these hemorrhages is quite dark…”

He raised his chin and asked the two students: “What do you think could cause this?”

“Huh?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan gawked, like a goldfish pulled from water, finally stammering: “S-some kind of stress ulcer?”

Li Jin, compared to Jiang Xiaoyuan, froze completely, unable even to nod or shake his head.

“Hmm, it could indeed be a type of stress ulcer.”

Liu Yi’s eyes narrowed slightly, looking at the two students with the deep pity of a top scholar toward struggling pupils, though he didn’t fully dismiss Jiang Xiaoyuan’s guess.

His gaze returned to the dissection table, lingering over the elderly man’s twisted face and the reddish-purple bruising on his nose, earlobes, fingers, and toes.

“Do we have the photos of the scene when the body was found?”

Liu Yi put down the scalpel and gestured to his graduate student.

“Yes, we do!”

Jiang Xiaoyuan nodded while instructing Li Jin to bring the photos.

Li Jin reacted quickly, flipping out the scene photos.

Liu Yi’s blood-stained gloves prevented him from touching the photos, so Li Jin held them up one by one.

This was the closest Li Jin had been to Liu Yi.

Liu Yi was seven centimeters taller, standing close, creating a subtle sense of pressure.

Li Jin’s heart raced, imagining how Liu Yi’s downward gaze could fall on his long eyelashes and neat nose—the features he liked most about himself. Since Liu Yi was also gay, would he feel attracted?

Unfortunately, he was overthinking.

Liu Yi didn’t notice Li Jin’s features; he was focused on Zhang Yu’s clothing when found.

In the photos, Zhang Yu wore a dark gray men’s knit cardigan over a light gray cotton shirt, both ordinary in style and material. The buttons on the cardigan and shirt were mostly undone, messy on the chest, revealing a white undershirt.

“Also, bring me the record sheets from the scene evidence collection.”

Li Jin nodded repeatedly, fumbling to find them.

Liu Yi’s eyes quickly scanned the top of the sheet; upon seeing a number