Prologue (1/2)
Prologue: b.l.o.o.d.y trigram[1] disk, Part 1 of 3
Tonight the moon is exceptionally bright, it is covered with a layer of b.l.o.o.d.y red clouds, originally it should make the moonlight elegant, tonight it unusually causes the moon to look grim and eerie, even the air also seems to smell faintly of blood, two o’clock in the evening it’s unusually quiet, only the gentle sound of rustling leaves can be heard, no one cares about the night sky’s strange appearance.
A Honda off-road police car roared and arrived, with a beautiful fling of its tail, the car stopped in front of the law enforcement building. The car door opened, a pair of slender legs casually got off, the person who arrived is a young woman, tall, lean figure of not less than 175 cm, fine short hair, cool and composed, clad in plain, somewhat wrinkled white s.h.i.+rt. For most of the night, her mood seemed exceptionally good, her eyes showed determination and strength.
Gu Yun slightly squinting looked up, amidst the darkness of the building, there is a room with the lights on, thirteenth floor autopsy room! The corners of her mouth gently lifted, Zhuo Qing did not answer her phone, in all likelihood she’s still performing autopsy!
She walked into the building, the gate guard uncle walked out immediately, came out to check who arrived, uncle casually laughed: “Team Leader Gu, you came for Forensic Investigator Zhuo, ah?” Gu Yun nodded and replied: “Hmm.”
“Just now I went on night patrol, saw the autopsy room lights are on, she should still be busy. You all are really toiling ah!” Already two o’clock in the morning, and still dissecting corpses, this pressure to deliver information fast, criminal investigation – this line of profession is really a tough one.
Gu Yun smiled and shoved open the door leading to the staircase, started to walk up towards floor thirteen. Even under normal circ.u.mstances, she’s unlikely to take the elevator, although she is not claustrophobic, she’s simply too disinclined to ride it, that’s all.
Watching her back disappeared in the stairwell, guard uncle laughed and shook his head, “two workaholics.” He has worked for over ten years in the building as a doorman, saw many workaholic young people, to be able to endure hards.h.i.+ps is a good deed. These two kids, work hard a few years, they’ll surely be able to get a promotion!
Entering the thirteenth floor, the light in the hallway is also on, but all office doors were locked already, Gu Yun did not go to the autopsy room, but leaned on Zhuo Qing’s office door, she was thinking deeply about the series of murder cases which recently occurred.
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, behind her also wearing a tired face, was her secretary, Xing Lan, holding a box of exhibits on her arms closely following her.
“How are things? Is the autopsy report ready to come out?” Just now approaching the office, they immediately stopped! Seeing the energetic Gu Yun leaning against the doorframe, Xing Lan wailed! “Team Leader Gu, you are too much! It’s middle of the night, now is only 3:00 o’clock in the morning!”
Gu Yun lightly arched her eyebrow, smiled and said: “And so?”
Defeated, Xing Lan dropped her shoulders, reluctantly replied: “So you wait for a moment, 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 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 exclusive 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
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.
Prologue: b.l.o.o.d.y trigram disk, Part 2 of 3
The heavy pouring rain was accompanied by rumbling thunderclaps, the strong wind blew the rickety, broken windows lurching unsteadily from side to side creating such a racket!
Inside a room in the side of a fairly ruined temple, three young women were huddled together, all wearing a red bridal dress, in this dark, gloomy place the stale air of the temple can be breathed everywhere, the scene looked particularly eerie.
The place had no lights, the occasional flashes of lightning illuminated the ruined temple, these sword-like lightning flashes, each lightning flash seemed to strike into the ground, giving off a glaring white light, the startling, deafening sound of accompanying thunderclaps, seemingly made the youngest girl cower in fear.
Tugging her elder sister’s arm, Qing Mo, her head bowed, sobbingly asked: “Elder sister, what do we do now? I’m so scared!”
Lightning flashed one after another, eventually the faces of the women could be seen, the three are blooming beauties, each is elegant, absolutely their left faces are stunning which can make other women jealous, and men adore. Unfortunately, on their right cheeks, were slashed two deep knife marks, nearly destroying the entire right side of their faces, amidst the thunder and lightning in the night, the cuts looked quite grim.
Gently patting her little sister’s shoulders, Qing Ling’s face, looking extremely dejected, mumbled softly: “After crossing over this mountain, as soon as we’re out of the Hao Yue[1] kingdom, do we really have no way to free ourselves from this fate of becoming gifts?”
“I am not willing!” Her stubborn eyes stared unwaveringly at the ruined temple, outside thunder and lightning are accompanying each other, canopy of rain falling, Qing Feng tensely bit her lower lip the broken skin is almost bleeding.
Slowly lifting her head to lean on Qing Feng’s shoulder, Qing Mo wisely comforted her sister, whispered: “Second elder sister, do not be afraid, I heard that you’ll marry that Prime Minister Lou, he’s a rare, modest n.o.bleman, both his political and military achievements, everything’s outstanding, he should not treat you unfairly.” Eldest sister is the most pitiful, to be sent to the emperor’s palace, it is said that the ruler of Qiong Yue[2] is temperamental, bloodthirsty and tyrannical, how will gentle, quiet and refined eldest sister bear it!