Chapter 64

Chapter 64 6. The Silence of the Lambs-0

By April, the weather in Xinhai City had quietly warmed up. The beautiful girls on the streets had all taken off their heavy winter clothes and put on brightly colored, fresh spring outfits.

In the heart garden on Qingyun Road in the south of the city, a wisteria vine climbed all over the trellis, hanging clusters of rose-purple swollen buds that were about to bloom.

At 10 a.m. on April 3, although it was the weekend and the streets were bustling with people, several police cars were parked next to the wisteria trellis. Two uniformed officers stood coldly in front of the fluorescent police tape, keeping the curious onlookers, who were peeking at the building where the incident occurred, outside the crime scene.

As usual on his day off, Liu Yi slept until he naturally woke up.

However, before he could leisurely enjoy a delicate breakfast, he received a call from the station. A body had been found in an apartment at No. 8 Qingyun Road. The attending forensic doctor was inexperienced and found the scene very strange, so he contacted Liu Yi, the head of the pathology department, to take a look as well.

Liu Yi quickly washed up, didn’t bother dressing too carefully, threw on a jacket, and drove to the scene.

The apartment where the body was found was called Xiangxue Pavilion, a newly built high-rise only five years old. It followed the popular duplex small-apartment design for singles, mostly consisting of two bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom, and a small balcony. The tenants were mostly well-off, young, educated singles who had established themselves in Xinhai City.

The surrounding area catered to these young residents, full of convenience stores, small milk tea shops, fast food restaurants, and even gyms. It was a convenient and secure community with a good reputation among tenants.

When Liu Yi passed through the police line, he showed his work ID and followed the guiding officer to the 21st floor by elevator.

The moment the elevator doors opened, a strong stench of rot hit him, filling the corridor. He then saw the young forensic doctor Xiao Miao from his department, along with his graduate student Jiang Xiaoyuan, standing in the hallway, craning their necks like meerkats, eagerly waiting for him.

“How long has he been dead?”

Liu Yi frowned, took the lab coat and gloves Jiang Xiaoyuan handed him, and put them on while asking in a low voice.

Even for an experienced forensic doctor who had trained to remain unfazed by the smell of corpses, it didn’t mean they didn’t feel disgusted. And when entering a scene where a body had been found, wearing a mask was generally not allowed.

Over twenty years ago, viewers watching American crime dramas would often see forensic doctors apply menthol under their noses to mask odors before entering a scene or performing an autopsy.

In reality, many poisons have distinct odors, so forensic doctors often needed to detect clues from the smells at the scene. Even facing a completely decayed corpse, they usually had to endure the stench without a mask.

“About five or six days…”

Jiang Xiaoyuan swallowed hard, suppressing the nausea churning in his chest. “The bloating is already showing…”

Liu Yi nodded and pushed open the door.

The stench hit him even stronger, almost enough to make one stagger.

Flies swarmed wildly in the room, disturbed by human voices, buzzing frantically and flying to higher places.

The officers lagging behind instinctively took a step back, covering their noses, their faces showing near-disgust.

According to police records, although the body was severely decomposed, the deceased was indeed the tenant of this apartment, 28-year-old investment banker Xiao Bin.

Neighbors said they hadn’t seen Xiao Bin for several days, and during this time, a stench like a dead rat wafted through the hallway, growing stronger each day.

This morning, the young girlfriend of the tenant next door noticed the unusual smell while visiting. Her boyfriend, bold and careful, went door to door confirming, alerting all the residents on the floor. Eventually, everyone gathered in front of Xiao Bin’s apartment 2107, determined the source of the stench, and called the building manager, who pried open the locked door.

Upon opening it, the overpowering rot and swarming flies made everyone pale. No one dared enter; they called the police immediately.

The duplex apartment’s living space was small, and Liu Yi immediately saw the body lying on the living room sofa.

“We’ve confirmed repeatedly with the apartment manager. The room was indeed locked from the inside; there were no signs of anyone else entering.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan waved away a fly buzzing at his forehead. “The police counted six unopened newspapers in Xiao Bin’s mailbox, consistent with the estimated time of death.”

“The window was cracked open; the flies must have come in through there.”

Liu Yi glanced at the balcony window and approached the body. “So, this should be a suicide?”

“Well… it does look like a suicide…”

The forensic doctor Xiao Miao, who had called Liu Yi, scratched his head. “But this… strange method… I just feel… really, really unbelievable…”

Seeing the body on the sofa, Liu Yi immediately understood what Xiao Miao meant by “strange.”

The corpse had been destroyed by both decay and insects for several days, unrecognizable in appearance.

He lay neatly, legs straight, hands by his sides. Only his upper body was bare, the soft tissue bloated from decomposition gases, covered in maggots, face swollen and deformed. Only external features indicated it was a man.

The strangest part was the heavy wooden board pressing down on his bare upper body.

The board was rectangular, about half a meter wide, long enough to cover the area from below the collarbone to above the navel.

Over twenty nail heads were scattered across the board, all new, with no rust, freshly hammered. A ring nail in the center had a magenta plastic cord threaded through it, extending over three meters.

Because of the body’s bloating, the board had sunk into the flesh, almost as if embedded in him.

Liu Yi lifted one corner of the board and saw long nails piercing it, protruding from the side against the corpse, piercing the chest and abdomen.

“What happened here?”

He didn’t immediately remove the board, instead standing and signaling Jiang Xiaoyuan to photograph it for records.

Looking around, Liu Yi quickly found the key evidence.

A bottle of tranquilizers on the coffee table was empty, with a cup of water next to it, barely covering the bottom.

The living room floor had drag marks from a heavy object. Clearly, the sofa had been dragged about a meter from the middle of the living room to below the staircase railing.

In a corner near the sofa was a burned mosquito coil with a few bricks tied with the magenta cord, the cord’s end about ten centimeters long, melted and cone-shaped, with a tiny charred tip.

“The other end of the cord attached to the wooden board is also burned through.”

Liu Yi sighed. “This suicide method… is… quite creative.”

It seemed Xiao Bin had taken sleeping pills, lain on the sofa, suspended a nail-covered wooden board above his head with a heat-sensitive plastic cord, and used bricks next to a mosquito coil to hold it. When the coil burned down, the cord would melt, dropping the board, and the nails would pierce his chest and abdomen while he slept.

He shook his head and muttered, “Lately, it seems like these bizarre suicides are increasing…”

A week later, Liu Yi arranged to visit Qi Shanyu to see the baby they had rescued from the greenery before New Year.

Two months ago, the baby had found his adoptive parents and had a new name and home.

His adoptive father and mother were a middle-aged couple in their forties. The husband was a university physics professor, and the wife was a psychologist specializing in childhood trauma.

They had been married for over ten years, financially secure, but had no children and were eager to adopt.

Upon learning of the baby’s situation, they applied for adoption. The welfare agency, considering the baby’s unique background and the wife’s expertise, approved it, and the baby was sent to his new home before Lunar New Year.

Liu Yi and Qi Shanyu had known the adoption details but waited until the baby was settled before contacting the adoptive parents to arrange a visit.

The couple was friendly and hospitable, immediately agreeing to meet them that weekend.

Author’s note: Regarding updates: At least five updates per week, more if possible.