Chapter 51: Reanimated Corpse (1/2)

“It looks like bamboo splinters,” Luo Weiwei said, cold sweat dripping from her forehead.

I turned off the ultraviolet light, “Judging from the presence of these splinters, the victim must’ve forcefully pushed an object made of bamboo not long before his death. If you still don’t believe it, then you can check if the outer layer of the chopsticks peeled out.”

“So the husband really did kill his own mother!” Huang Xiaotao exclaimed in shock. “Oh my god, it’s horrible! What an appalling thing to do!”

“Even if you’re right about this,” argued Luo Weiwei indignantly, “the last one to die was still definitely the wife, because…”

“Because you think that people can't cut their heads off, right?” I interrupted.

I noticed that Luo Weiwei was somewhat hesitant in answering me. It seemed that she had begun to doubt her previous judgment.

At last, she stubbornly insisted on her own point of view.

“Of course it is impossible!” she said. “There are so many nerves and blood vessels in the neck. You’d die even before you’re decapitated. How can you cut off your own head, then? This is all just basic common sense!”

“Do you want to make a bet?” I asked with a sneer.

“What… What kind of a bet?” Luo Weiwei panicked.

She was a woman, after all, so I wouldn’t want to make her eat the contents of an ashtray or anything like that. So I finally settled on something more suitable for her.

“Can you drive a car?” I asked.

“Yes,” she nodded.

“If I can prove that the husband committed suicide,” I said, “then you will be our driver for free for the rest of the time we’re in Wuqu City.”

“What?” Luo Weiwei widened her eyes. “Why would I do that?”

“What’s wrong?” I teased. “Aren’t you confident in your own conviction?”

Luo Weiwei frowned, probably weighing the gains and losses.

“And what if you lose?” she asked. “I don't need you to be my driver!”

“Even if you did, I don’t have a driver’s license.” I laughed. “If I lose, then you can punish me however you like.”

“Okay,” she said after considering it for a while. “If you lose, I want all four of you to apologize to Bai Yidao!”

That wasn’t what I expected at all. I thought she would ask us not to work on the case again. I didn't think that Luo Weiwei would defend her boyfriend so openly. To her credit, it seemed that she had some self-awareness, and she knew that they could never solve the case themselves..

So, I readily agreed.

“Not only would we apologize to him,” I said, “we could even go down on our knees and admit our mistakes!”

Huang Xiaotao glared at me with her big, round eyes and yelled, “Hey!”

Luo Weiwei folded her arms proudly and said, “Good! Since you suggested it yourself, then—”

“You have my word as a gentleman!” I interrupted.

Huang Xiaotao then whispered to me, “Song Yang, this is between you and that woman! Why did you have to involve the rest of us? I’ll have you know that I’ll never kneel down in front of that bastard!”

“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “Do you really think that I’d make a mistake?”

“Oh, all right, I’ll trust you,” she relented. “You’d better not bring dishonor to the Nanjiang City police force!”

“Yes, madam!”

When Luo Weiwei saw that I hadn’t done anything yet, she impatiently urged, “Come on, why are you wasting your time chatting? We’re all waiting to see what you can do!”

“There’s no use hurrying me,” I said bluntly. “I have to wait for my assistant to come back.”

After waiting for more than 20 minutes, Dali finally came back. He carried a big bag and a small pot on his back. If we weren’t in such a serious situation, I would laugh at how ridiculous he looked.

“Geez, dude, the restaurants here are so hard to find!” he announced the moment he arrived. “Here you go!”

“Thanks!”

I asked Wang Yuanchao to help me glue the hooks in a row on the ceiling.