Chapter 32: If You Lose, Eat the Whole Ashtray! (2/2)

I had no authority on this subject, of course. A Traditional Coroner’s job was to collect evidence and catch the murderer. As for spirits and ghosts and the like — well those things weren’t my specialty.

Back to the dead body. The victim lost a huge volume of blood, which significantly decreased the moisture content of the body. Plus, the dead body had been in an almost sealed compartment where the exposure was minimal. All that contributed to the fact that it had barely decomposed, despite being a seven-day-old corpse.

In truth, the dead body wasn’t drained of all its blood, because I could hear residual blood clots in her chest cavity through Organ Echolocation. When the human body lost thirty percent of its total blood volume, the body would reach a state of shock. Once it lost about fifty percent of blood, the circulatory system would shut down immediately and the person would experience paralysis, before dying shortly.

Judging by various symptoms on the dead body, the total blood loss was at least seventy percent — more than enough blood to fill a couple of large Coke bottles! When I thought of that, my eyes subconsciously turned to the two huge puncture wounds on the victim’s neck.

Did she really die because a vampire had sucked her blood?

I asked for a pair of scissors from Dali, then I cut up her bra and panties. Dali’s jaw dropped.

“Dude!” he said. “Can’t you do that later? Xiaotao-jiejie is still here!”

“Shut up!” I spat.

Huang Xiaotao herself was only observing with her arms folded, completely unperturbed. She was probably used to this kind of thing, and she showed no reaction at all. The idiot Dali was the only one making a big fuss over it.

It was absurd to me to still be concerned about a dead body’s gender. In my eyes, they were merely inanimate objects.

“How do you plan to examine the body, Song Yang?” Huang Xiaotao asked. “Are you going to use vinegar steam like last time?”

I shook my head. I did think of it, but I felt that the method wouldn’t yield any results. As for Autopsy Umbrella, well, it was past midnight by now, so it was out of the question.

Autopsy methods should always be used and adapted according to the time and conditions of the immediate environment — so I decided to use a new approach this time!

I asked Dali to get me my bag. From the bag, I took a roll of good Xuan paper and a bottle of Camellia oil. Dali was curious and asked me what they were for.

“To check for handprints, of course,” I said.

I didn’t use the word fingerprints, because I had a suspicion that it might be impossible to detect fingerprints on this body after all.

Xiaozhou heard us and immediately marched across the room towards us.

“Yo! Great Detective Song is beginning his autopsy! This will be a good spectacle!”

“Keep your eyes peeled then!” I said.

I asked Dali to turn the body over. Judging from the puncture wounds, it was evident that the murderer held the victim face down as he sucked her blood. This meant that if there were any handprints to be found, it would be on her back.

Besides, Xuan paper and Camellia oil were both ridiculously expensive, so there was no way I was going to test for handprints on the whole body. A four-square-inch Xuan paper cost 20 yuan per piece, while Camellia oil cost 100 yuan per gram, making this Oil Paper Test the most expensive method of autopsy passed down by Song Ci!

I placed a sheet of Xuan paper on the victim’s back, then very carefully dropped the oil onto it, making sure that the paper completely absorbed it. The oil-soaked paper gradually became transparent, and now the skin below it was visible. I then placed a second piece of Xuan paper onto the first, repeating the same process.

“Hey! You shouldn’t use oil on the dead body! Now we’ll have to clean it u—” Xiaozhou stopped mid-sentence, his widened eyes were fixed on the dead body.

“Look!” cried Huang Xiaotao. “Something’s appeared!”

“Why can’t I see anything?” asked Dali, squinting his eyes. The idiot was chronically short-sighted but hated wearing glasses, so he needed a lot of effort to see anything that was not blatantly in front of his eyes every single time.

Outlines of handprints gradually appeared on the oil-soaked Xuan paper, but they were still indistinct, and to the average person they were only slightly darker than the color of the surrounding skin. But to my eyes, they were as clear as day!

In fact, the positions of the handprints were exactly where I expected them to be.

I then layered a third piece of Xuan paper on the first two, then gradually soaked it with more Camellia oil. Then, I repeated the process with the fourth layer of Xuan paper, and then the fifth…

At one point, the oil wouldn’t turn the paper transparent anymore, and the color of the top layer of Xuan paper remained the same except in a few spots. Gradually, a distinct shape emerged — the ‘dry’ patch of the paper that didn’t turn transparent formed the outline of two clear handprints!

“Holy shit, that’s awesome!” cried Dali.

“How did you do that, Song Yang?” asked Huang Xiaotao.

“Th-that’s… That’s impossible!” exclaimed Xiaozhou. “I got it! You’re a fraud! It must be some kind of trick! You must’ve done something to the paper!” Previous ChapterNext Chapte