Chapter 391
The next morning, I woke up and started sneezing. Perhaps I was too hasty after my shower and forgot to properly dry myself last night, hence, the slight cold.
Grabbing some tissues from the coffee table, I blew my nose and checked the time. It was only 5:30 in the morning. I might as well make Xiaotao breakfast!
Since I didn"t know anything about cooking, I decided to go to the kitchen and have a look first. Xiaotao didn’t usually cook at home so all she had were some eggs and instant noodles which was perfect for an amateur like me who only knew how to make eggs sunny-side up.
I began by heating some oil on the pan and cracked some eggs, poured soy sauce and carefully flipped them. When they were ready, I placed them on a plate, rather satisfied with the final product. This was perhaps one of my better attempts.
Then, I boiled some water in a pot and was just about to cook the instant noodles when I heard the bedroom door creak open.
Despite waking up, Xiaotao didn’t say anything. I went out to the living room, only to find her bent over and staring at the paper wads I had used to blow my nose.
She smiled wickedly, "Hot-blooded young man, do you have nowhere to vent all that energy?"
"It"s not what you think!" I quickly explained.
"Were you thinking of me last night, or was it a childhood sweetheart?" Xiaotao narrowed her eyes.
It was still early in the morning and here Xiaotao was, already teasing and stoking the flames. But it seemed she had recovered from the gloominess.
"Do you need to think of someone when you sneeze? Did this weird practice originate from some other country?" I retorted.
"Nevermind then,” Xiaotao smirked. “I’ll just pretend you sneezed!"
"What do you mean? I really didn"t do anything wrong!" I wanted to cry tears of indignation!
"You’re young. It’s completely normal. I can understand," Huang Xiaotao nodded her head meaningfully.
Right then, the sound of water boiling came from the kitchen. I quickly returned to cook the noodles. Xiaotao followed me to the kitchen door and stuck her head in, "Are you making breakfast?"
"I only know how to make noodles and fried eggs," I shamefully admitted.
Noticing the eggs on the plate, she praised, "Wow, it looks good. Your culinary skills are much better than mine. Can I try one first?"
"Hold on,” I stopped her. “Breakfast will be ready in a minute."
"Then I’ll wait for you in the living room!" grinned Xiaotao.
In the end, Xiaotao was rather satisfied with my eggs and enjoyed her breakfast. After that, we drove down to the station. Just as we were entering the station, Bingxin happened to b.u.mp into Xiaotao and I walking in together. Surprised, Bingxin asked, "Did Song Yang-gege..."
"Yes,” Xiaotao puffed with pride. “He spent the night at my place."
"You insatiable woman!" Bingxin disdained.
"Children like you don’t understand the world of adults," Xiaotao smiled triumphantly.
Bingxin made a face and started walking towards the forensic laboratory.
"Hey, there are two bodies we need you to dissect," called Xiaotao.
"I’ll get to it at once!" nodded Bingxin.
A while later, the three of us met at the Necropsy Workshop. Before Bingxin began the dissection, I restored the footprints and handprints on the corpses with seaweed ash, took several photos and marked the evidence one by one. Only then did Bingxin dissect the body.
Conventional internal autopsies usually started from the chest but this time we only needed to look at the contents of the stomach. Bingxin"s technique had undergone much improvement from before. She easily removed the first victim’s stomach and placed it in a metal dish.
Sure enough, there were several huge blood clots. Grabbing a bottle of my own concoction, I poured it over the stomach contents and waited for the blood clots to slowly melt away.
"What magic potion is this?" gasped Bingxin.
"It’s leech fluid, Black Nightshade juice and some alcohol. When combined, this concoction can decompose hemoglobin. We call it Blood Dissolving Wine," I explained.
In fact, it could also be used as medicine to treat internal injuries, which was actually practiced by the martial Songs. But because of its easy formula and convenience in autopsies, the civil Songs started applying it in their work.
After the blood clot melted, whatever food consumed by the victim was revealed–small grains. I picked one up with the tweezers and sniffed it. Upon catching a whiff, Bingxin cried, "There’s a fishy odor. It’s dog food!"
"Yes, the murderers obviously had a dog."
There was quite a lot of dog food in the victim’s stomach. It seemed these murderers didn"t consider the victim a human being at all. Judging from the degree of digestion, the victim’s last meal should have been about ten hours before his death.
When Bingxin asked us about the case, I dismissed it as an ordinary murder, to which she replied, "How can Song Yang-gege handle an ordinary case? The ones I deal with in the forensic laboratory–gang fights, car accidents, and jumping off buildings–those are ordinary cases."
"It’s just an ordinary hate killing,” echoed Xiaotao. “I only called Song Yang in due to some doubtful areas."
Though Bingxin didn"t believe us, I refused to say more because the case was looking more and more dangerous! Sun Tiger was still unaware of Bingxin’s near-miss the last time. If he were to find out, he would bite our heads off! Thus, I planned for Bingxin to stay away from the investigation in the future.
Bingxin asked if we wanted to dissect the second victim. "Hold on!” I said. “This is the food the victim recently consumed. Open up the intestines and see what he ate before."
"Is that important?" asked Bingxin.
"Do you think the victim also ate dog food at home?" I smiled.
Realization finally dawned upon Bingxin. Though the murderers fed the victim dog food, he must have consumed something else before. That way, we could judge when our victim was kidnapped.
Food in the intestines, especially the large intestine, were revolting and had a heavy odor but Bingxin didn"t utter a word of complaint. Just as she was about to get started, I interrupted, "Wait a minute!"
I grabbed the Mind Clearing Pills, wanting to hand one to Bingxin. But due to her gloves and a face mask, I would have to feed her the pill.
With Xiaotao nearby, I wondered if the move was a bit too intimate. I thought of asking Xiaotao to do it instead, but then it would only seem as if I had impure motives to begin with.
Biting the bullet, I threw caution to the wind and fed a pill to Bingxin’s lips. She whispered thanks.
Then, I handed another to Xiaotao. Her hand remained motionless and she opened her mouth instead, waiting for similar treatment. I smiled, fed the pill to her, and swallowed one myself.
"Why don"t you light incense instead?" asked Bingxin.
"We can’t use it during the autopsy since I’ll be sniffing with my nose!" I replied.
Bingxin s.h.i.+vered, "Ugh, you’re going to be smelling that?!"
She was still oblivious to the fact that Traditional Coroners even tasted with their tongue. I found that completely unacceptable so I never used that method.
Bingxin deftly separated the intestines. The Mind Clearing Pill successfully blocked out all repulsive odors. Keeping my gaze fixed on the intestines, I said nothing until she cut into the third section. "That’s enough!"
I noticed an almost fully digested capsule which Bingxin removed and placed in a test tube.
I stared at the intestine and pointed, "There’s something white in there."
"Is it a tapeworm?" Bingxin exclaimed.
"No, it"s enoki mushrooms!" I said, picking it up with the tweezers.
The mushrooms were stained with some yellowish substance that disgusted Xiaotao. "Well, you have successfully stopped me from ever eating enoki mushrooms again."
In contrast, Bingxin seemed more resilient in the face of repugnance. Or perhaps she was deliberately displaying her bravado. "Enoki mushrooms are difficult to digest,” she remarked. “I just ate them two days ago."
I smiled wryly, "Not easy to digest? This mushroom has a thick fibrous texture so what you eat is what you excrete. That’s why some people call it ‘see you tomorrow"!"