Prologue: b.l.o.o.d.y trigram[1] disk, Part 1 of 3
The moon was exceptionally bright tonight. It was covered with a layer of b.l.o.o.d.y-red clouds causing the originally elegant moonlight to appear unusually grim and eerie, even the air also seemed to smell faintly of blood. At two o’clock in the early morning, it was really quiet, only the gentle sound of rustling leaves can be heard. No one noticed how odd the night sky’s appearance was.
A roaring Honda off-road police car arrived. With a beautiful fling of its tail, the car stopped in front of the law enforcement building. When the car door opened, a pair of slender legs casually got off. The person who arrived was a young, tall woman whose lean figure was not less than 175 cm. She had fine short hair, looked cool and composed, and was clad in plain, somewhat wrinkled white shirt. For most of the night, her mood seemed exceptionally good, her eyes showed determination and strength.
Slightly squinting Gu Yun looked up. Amidst the darkness of the building, there was a room with the lights on, the autopsy room on the thirteenth floor! The corners of her mouth gently lifted. Zhuo Qing did not answer her phone, in all likelihood she must still be performing autopsy!
She walked into the building. The gate guard uncle walked out immediately to check who arrived, then he casually laughed and greeted: “Team Leader Gu, you came for Forensic Investigator Zhuo, right?” Gu Yun nodded and replied: “Hmm.”
“Just now I went around on night patrol. I saw the lights are still on in the autopsy room, she must still be busy working. You all really toil ah!” It was already two o’clock in the morning, yet still dissecting corpses under pressure to deliver information fast. Criminal investigation is indeed a tough occupation.
Gu Yun just smiled, shoved open the door leading to the staircase and started to walk up towards the thirteenth floor. Even under normal circ.u.mstances, she was disinclined to take the elevator. Although she was not claustrophobic, it was just that she was simply too lazy to wait for it.
Watching her back disappeared in the stairwell, the guard uncle laughed, muttering while shaking his head, “two workaholics.” He has worked for over ten years in the building as a guard and seen many workaholic young people. To be able to endure hardships is a good deed. These two kids, if they work hard a few more years, they’ll surely be able to get a promotion!
Entering the thirteenth floor, the light in the hallway was also still on, but all office doors were locked already. Gu Yun did not go to the autopsy room, instead she leaned on Zhuo Qing’s office door waiting while thinking deeply about the series of murder cases recently occurring.
Half an hour later, light footsteps from afar were heard nearing. Gu Yun narrowed her eyes to look. Zhuo Qing looking exhausted went out of the autopsy room. Closely following behind her and wearing a tired face as well, was her secretary, Xing Lan. She was holding a box of exhibits on her arms.
“How are things? Is the autopsy report ready to come out?” Approaching the office just now, they immediately stopped! Seeing the energetic Gu Yun leaning against the doorframe, Xing Lan wailed! “Team Leader Gu, you’re too much! It’s middle of the night, it’s 3:00 o’clock in the morning!”
Gu Yun lightly arched her eyebrow, smiled and said: “And so?”
Feeling defeated, Xing Lan dropped her shoulders and reluctantly replied: “So you wait for a while, I’ll go and finish it. The report will certainly be out before dawn!” No wonder Team Leader Gu and Doctor Zhuo can become good friends, these two people are both workaholics!
Looking at Xing Lan’s drooping head as she entered her office, Gu Yun laughed, raised her voice said: “Thank you very much!”
Zhuo Qing opened her private office on the opposite side, Gu Yun immediately followed her inside, before she could open her mouth, Zhuo Qing with her unique low voice unhurriedly said: “What, on this long night you’re not in the mood to sleep ah?”
“Screw you!” Giving her a sideways glance, Gu Yun denounced: “Since this month’s frequent homicide cases of women, Department Li’s both eyes are almost shooting flames, at the moment criminal investigation department has two teams a.s.signed to work day and night!”
Zhuo Qing casually pulled out the fountain pen which she used to fix her hair, immediately her waist-long hair dangled down, she tiredly sat on the couch, half-squinted her eyes as if she had something in mind, idly asked: “Yesterday, was there any thrill in the results of the provincial level martial arts compet.i.tion?”
“No!” To bring up this subject she right away got angry, so many cases, yet department leader wanted her also to partic.i.p.ate in the provincial compet.i.tion, every year she’s women’s team number one, no one can be a match to her! Zhuo Qing looked comfortable and appeared to be falling asleep, Gu Yun lightly pat her shoulder, chuckled low: “May I say Miss High and Mighty, I’m here and you have a case to explain to me!”
Narrowing her eyes lightly, Zhuo Qing with her sluggish voice, yet always clear and cold, said: “This dead person and the first three murder cases indeed had things in common, they were all strangled in the trachea and died of suffocation. Moreover, all the ten fingernails were removed. The murders were committed using the same technique, if indeed this is a serial murder case, according to the degree of decay of the corpses, this is the first female victim.”
Listening to the a.n.a.lysis of Zhuo Qing, Gu Yun was also walking back and forth in the office, pondering over the case, suddenly she noticed near the office door a faint gleam of light from an object, went over, picked up and examined it, indeed it is a small golden disk inlaid on one side with a trigram map, encased in an evidence bag, it must be part of the exhibits.
Walking over to Zhuo Qing, Gu Yun asked: “What’s this?”
Slowly opening her eyes to look at the object in the hands of Gu Yun, Zhuo Qing cursed, Xing Lan, this girl, always works so carelessly, to lose such an important exhibit!
Zhuo Qing sat up straight, replied: “It was found in the victim’s pocket, after waiting for colleagues in the laboratory department to examine it, it will be submitted to you.”
A trigram (bagua) map; photo from take5moment.com
A trigram (bagua) map; photo from take5moment.com
Hearing that the object was part of the exhibits of the case at hand, Gu Yun immediately became animated, since the office was only lit with a small table lamp, Gu Yun just opened the blinds, taking advantage of the unusually bright moonlight tonight, she carefully scrutinized it. Eyes glued to the object in her hands, Gu Yun was completely oblivious to the dark night sky, when she put out the trigram disk at that moment the moon was gradually shrouded with scarlet clouds.
Strange, just a moment ago the color was clearly golden, how come it looks red now?! Is the opposide side the golden one? Turning it over for a closer look, the other side has the same blood red trigram map, the entire small disk seems to glow a faint trace of red light, how is this possible?!
“Hiss -” While wondering, she suddenly felt pain in her hand.
Zhuo Qing got up, walked up behind her and asked: “What’s wrong?”
Lowering her head to examine her finger, she saw a deep bloodstain on her index finger, a few drops of red blood fell on the evidence bag, Gu Yun smiled indifferently, “Nothing, I don’t know what thing I’ve scratched.”
The cut on the finger was deep, blood still steadily dripping, Gu Yun’s indifferent look made Zhuo Qing frown, bringing absorbent cotton from the nearby shelf to cover the wound, Zhuo Qing coldly snorted: “Press the wound!” Gu Yun rolled her eyes, it’s just a little scratch!
Pressing the wound with cotton, it was quickly soaked with blood, Zhuo Qing’s keen eyes glinted, what is so sharp that could cut this way, even the bleeding is difficult to stop?! She took the object in Gu Yun’s hand, looked at it, Zhuo Qing with great alarm: “how could this be?!”
What made the always cold and arrogant Forensic Investigator Zhuo to be shocked ah! Gu Yun also curiously leaned her head, took a glance below, she was also startled and softly cried out: “Blood … soaked in.”
Blood drops originally outside the transparent exhibit bag disappeared, the blood appeared unexpectedly above the blood red trigram map! How is there such a thing, the blood able to penetrate the exhibit bag … !
“Oh, no!” After staring speechless at each other, both cried out in unison: “This time it will be difficult to write the report.”
The two looked at each other and grinned, it’s going to be a headache how to explain why Gu Yun’s blood appeared on the crime’s material evidence, in the meantime no one has noticed that the blood which dripped into the trigram disk seeped along the curved grooves, flowing into the yin and yang elements intersecting in the center …
When the blood fell into the center of the disk, at that exact moment, a strong red light suddenly radiated from the trigram disk, Zhuo Qing and Gu Yun were both shocked, before their own eyes they just saw darkness and fell gently to the ground.
Brilliant rays of light flashed in the chief forensic investigator’s room, lit with only a small table lamp, two figures were lying unconscious on the floor.
The bleeding wound in Gu Yun’s finger instantly healed, leaving no trace of a scar. The golden trigram disk fell lightly beside their bodies, showing nothing of its strange appearance before. Outside the window, on the horizon the moonlight was clear and bright, everything was so tranquil.
[1] The trigram (bagua) (Chinese: 八卦; literally: “eight symbols”) are 8 trigrams used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of 8 interrelated concepts. Each consists of 3 lines, each line either “broken” or “unbroken,” representing yin or yang, respectively. Due to their tripart.i.te structure, they are often referred to as “trigrams” in English. The trigrams have correspondences in astronomy, astrology, geography, geomancy, anatomy, the family, and elsewhere. Learn more about bagua maps here. (Source: Wikipedia)