Chapter 72

Chapter 72 6. The Silence of the Lambs-0

“That’s true. Until we have further evidence, it’s better not to jump to conclusions… wait!”

Liu Yi had been staring at the body on the floor when suddenly his eyes widened. He stopped mid-sentence, took two steps forward, knelt on one knee very close to the victim’s head, and held out his hand toward Feng Ling. “Give me the flashlight.”

Although Feng Ling didn’t know what Liu Yi had discovered, she immediately pulled a flashlight and a small pair of tweezers from her front pocket and handed them to her boss.

Liu Yi carefully used the tweezers to unbutton the first button of the shirt aligned with the victim’s collarbone, then clamped the left collar and slowly pulled it outward.

The victim’s face had been slashed all over, hands on the chest had all ten fingers severed, and a large amount of blood had flowed from the wounds. Not only was the head soaked as if it had been scooped out of a pool of blood, but the neck and collar were drenched as well. Over time, the blood dried, stiffening the shirt, and when he pulled the collar open, dark red flakes fell off.

“Look here, the collar.”

Liu Yi directed the flashlight at maximum brightness onto the collar. “Notice the color of the blood.”

Feng Ling, another forensic officer from her team, and her student all leaned in from the left, right, and above Liu Yi’s head, effectively blocking every angle.

Qi Shanyu, unable to squeeze in, stood aside and waited for the forensic officers to finish observing.

Liu Yi drew attention to a section of blood on the victim’s collar, diffused and with blurred edges. After more than ten hours, the blood had dried; the initial area was reddish-brown and uniform, fading to a darker red at the edges.

However, under the flashlight, they clearly saw a semicircular area about one centimeter in diameter at the collar where the blood was lighter than the surrounding areas.

“This…”

Feng Ling pondered. “Could it be that some other liquid got on the shirt first, and then the blood seeped over it, leaving this mark?”

Liu Yi nodded and grabbed a cotton swab, rubbing the slightly lighter semicircle several times and bringing it to his nose to smell.

“The smell of blood is too strong; I can’t detect anything. We’ll have to test it in the lab.”

At that moment, there were rhythmic “knock knock knock” sounds from the door. They turned and saw Qi Shanyu’s partner An Pingdong standing outside, accompanied by Liu Yi’s graduate student Jiang Xiaoyuan.

“What are you guys squatting there for?”

An Pingdong quickly changed into shoe covers and walked over to the group around the body. “Did you find something?”

“Not sure yet, might not be useful.”

Liu Yi stood, nodded at An Pingdong, and glanced at his student who had arrived a full twenty minutes late.

Jiang Xiaoyuan shivered at Liu Yi’s cold stare, instinctively stepping behind An Pingdong’s tall frame.

“Why did you just come up? And you brought my irresponsible student along too.”

Liu Yi asked politely.

“I was downstairs questioning the first person who found the body.”

An Pingdong said with a sigh.

“The young man was scared half to death, trembling like a drenched quail. I had him sit downstairs to calm down, better than risking him fainting.”

“By the way, I haven’t asked—how was the body discovered?”

Liu Yi suddenly realized he had forgotten to ask.

“Heh, this is quite interesting.”

An Pingdong emphasized “interesting” with a hint of grit in his tone.

“The body was found by a delivery guy…”

According to An Pingdong’s questioning, the first discoverer was a delivery rider for a city seafood barbecue platform.

The order’s printed time was April 16, 11:32 PM. The order included four large dishes totaling over 400 yuan, with delivery scheduled for 11:30 AM to 12:00 PM today.

The delivery guy arrived about ten minutes early, rang the doorbell for a long time, no one answered. He called the phone number on the order, hearing the ringtone from inside very close to the door.

Annoyed, he pulled on the front door and found it ajar. He opened it, twisted the inner door handle, and it opened.

He immediately saw the half-naked, blood-soaked male body in the living room, screamed, dropped the food, and ran down the stairs, only remembering to call the police later.

When police arrived, he refused to go upstairs to identify the scene. Even when An Pingdong later questioned him, he cowered at the stairwell like a terrified rabbit, trembling as he recounted the ordeal.

“See, the phone is over there. When we came in, it was still plugged in.”

An Pingdong gestured to the shoe cabinet by the entrance.

“We checked; the order number and payment account belong to the homeowner, Huang Zixiang.”

Following his gesture, they saw a chalk mark on the narrow shoe cabinet top—likely where the phone had been placed.

“I asked Forensic Officer Feng. She said the death occurred around 8–9 PM, but the delivery platform received the order after 11 PM. So, I think the person who placed the order was the killer still in the apartment.”

He added: “I suspect he did this so that the body would be discovered by the delivery guy at noon the next day.”

“No wonder Officer Qi told me you believe the victim is likely Huang Zixiang himself.”

Modern smartphones can unlock and pay via fingerprints, which work whether the owner is alive or dead. For city dwellers, phones are almost always within reach.

This implies that although the victim’s face was destroyed, the body’s height, build, and hair color matched Huang Zixiang, and the phone belonged to him, likely unlocked with his fingerprints.

“I initially suspected the killer destroyed the face and severed the fingers to impersonate Huang Zixiang, but that seems too unreliable now.”

An Pingdong said.

Liu Yi nodded.

It’s common in crimes for killers to hide the victim’s identity. Methods include destroying the face, burning fingerprints, incinerating the body, stripping clothes, or taking phones and IDs.

But in such cases, bodies are usually abandoned in remote outdoor areas or unregulated lodging—not left in a well-known person’s residence like here.

With modern forensic technology, skull and facial reconstruction from a recent photo can confirm identity with 64 indicators.

“Right, we also think this isn’t about hiding identity.”

An Pingdong ran a hand through messy hair. “If it’s not hiding identity, then it’s venting rage.”

He clicked his tongue. “The killer must have had immense hatred for the victim to kill, sexually assault, and mutilate the body like this…”

…

After some time, they completed the scene investigation: photographing, sampling, and packing the body to send back to the forensic institute.

Liu Yi’s car was still at X University’s north gate parking lot.

But with such a brutal crime, the autopsy couldn’t be delayed. He didn’t have time to retrieve the car, so he hitched a ride in An Pingdong’s police car.

“You brat, didn’t you say you’d be writing your thesis at the institute today? Why were you so late just now?”

Once in the car, Liu Yi reached to grab Jiang Xiaoyuan’s ear.

“Ah! Boss, mercy!”

Jiang Xiaoyuan pressed against the door, begging and glancing at his boss pitifully. “Li Jin blocked me when I left. He wanted your phone number!”

“Ah?”

Liu Yi found the name “Li Jin” vaguely familiar but couldn’t recall who he was.

Qi Shanyu in the front passenger seat glanced in the rearview mirror at the back seat.

“The intern who was with our department just over six months ago!”

Jiang Xiaoyuan quickly explained:

“He said you hadn’t helped him with the department evaluation, asking when you’d be in. I told him I didn’t know your schedule. He insisted on getting your phone. I thought it was inappropriate to give out my boss’s number!”

Hearing this, Liu Yi remembered who Li Jin was and realized he might be Qi Shanyu’s ex-boyfriend, then glanced at the front seat.

From his angle, he could only see Qi Shanyu’s upright back, expression unreadable.

“You idiot!”

Liu Yi scolded his student. “Evaluation form? When do I personally need to write it? Just write a few lines and stamp it!”

“I told him the same!”

Jiang Xiaoyuan clarified. “I said leave the internship handbook and pick it up later, but he insisted you sign it yourself!”

—Overly persistent!

Liu Yi didn’t bother arguing further and waved his hand.

“Forget him. Next time, just sign it and say it’s from me.”