989 The Jellyfish Evil Maggo (1/2)
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
It did not take Lingling long to arrive.
When Bobby saw a little girl coming into the house, he quickly rose to his feet and said, ”Little girl, don't come in here, it's too scary!”
Lingling continued on her way, her eyes displaying intelligence unfitting her age, staring right at the gory scene.
She went closer and felt the blood in the pot with her fingertips, before lifting Norke's head to inspect it closely.
Bobby was stunned. He stared at Lingling with a blank face, and it took him quite a while to recover.
”Don't tell the cops or the Magic Association yet, we won't be able to find what we want if they come,” Lingling said.
”I've used the Space Element to quarantine this place, it will stop the smell from leaking out too,” Mo Fan complied.
”What's this?” Lingling pointed at some strange-looking thing stuck to the pot and asked curiously.
”No idea, it looks like dander,” Mo Fan said.
Lingling cautiously collected the dander stuck to the pot into a vacuum bag so she could experiment on it.
”Find a skilled pathologist and let him dissect the body,” said Lingling.
”Di...dissect?” Bobby immediately began to reject.
This was his younger brother. How could he let them dissect his corpse? He had to give him a proper burial!
”If you think a proper burial is more meaningful than finding the true cause of his death, or the real culprit behind it, you can ask the Magic Association to send someone over now. Those bunch of idiots will only tell you that it's safer to cremate him,” Lingling said firmly.
Bobby did not expect to hear such words from a little girl. He looked at Lingling with a blank face.
”If you want to know what killed your brothers, just like we do, then just do as she said,” Mo Fan patted Bobby's shoulder and told him earnestly.
Bobby was a rational person. He nodded to give his consent, and let Lingling take care of the body.
---
While Lingling and the pathologist were dissecting the body inside the house, Mo Fan and Bobby sat in the garden, each holding an iced bottle of stout beer, taking sips at times. They did not look like they had just gotten into a fight not long ago.
”How did you take care of your elder brother's corpse? Did you burn it?” Mo Fan asked.
”Mmm, on the same day. An old pharmacist from the Magic Association said it might be some kind of contagious disease, so they had to burn it. I tried to stop them, but they insisted on burning it anyway,” Bobby confirmed.
”Your brother Norke, when did he... turn...”
”Lose his mind?”
”Yeah, when did you realize he wasn't himself?” Mo Fan asked.
”Around a week ago, his temper suddenly worsened. I thought he was only behaving like that because of what happened to my elder brother,” Bobby said.
”Did he show any peculiar behavior?”
”Nothing in particular… he seemed pretty normal, although he did have a better appetite recently,” Bobby said.
”Better appetite?” Mo Fan immediately recalled the families of the victims he visited. He remembered them mentioning the same thing.
Lubi was picky when it comes to food, but he's been eating everything lately. I thought he was finally going to grow a lot stronger. His feeble body was going to improve too, but to think that he would die all of a sudden...
Mo Fan remembered one of the victims' mum saying the same thing!
”Xue Xue, can you go pay the families a visit again and ask them in particular about the appetites of the victims?” Mo Fan asked Mu Ningxue.
Mu Ningxue nodded and immediately headed out.
---
It did not take long for Mu Ningxue to revisit the families with the speed of her Wind Element. She soon returned to Bobby's house.
Mo Fan already knew the answer when he saw the look on her face.
”Every victim had a better appetite prior to their deaths. The amount of food they ate was around two to three times their usual amount, with not a single exception,” Mu Ningxue said seriously.
”It's likely that the cops and the Hunters would disregard a tiny detail like this. They won't assume there's any problem with it, but it might actually be the clue we're looking for,” Mo Fan opened Lingling's database and searched it using the keyword 'appetite'.
Even though not every record of the victims of the Drowning Curse had taken note of their appetite, he did find some other information about sudden changes to a person's appetite!
”Appetite? What does that have anything to do with the curse?” Bobby asked in confusion.
”An increase in appetite isn't necessarily a good thing, especially when each victim did not seem to gain weight despite eating a lot more than they usually do,” Mo Fan replied.