Chapter 93: The Terrible Truth (1/2)

When we returned to the police station, Dali had heard about what just happened. He rushed up and asked with concern, “Are you guys hurt? I told you I should’ve gone with you!”

“Why?” sneered Xiaotao. “So you can help the murderer tie his shoelaces?”

“Oh, come on, Xiaotao-jiejie!” Dali lamented. “That happened ages ago!”

I got ready for a bit and went straight into the morgue to examine the body found in the basement. When I opened the bag, everyone was stunned to see the condition that the body was in. The victim was covered in purple bruises. It looked as if he must’ve gone through a lot of pain. Most of his muscles and fat tissues had been cut away too. I could hardly imagine what harrowing experience he must’ve gone through before his death.

“It’s awful…” Xiaotao frowned.

I started to do some routine examinations. I found the victim to be about twenty-five years old, he was male, his body was medium-sized, and he was a healthy individual before his death. The time of death was about ten days ago. However, because the environment his body was kept in was relatively cold, there was no serious decay.

His internal organs and bones were almost all intact. The cause of death was a heart attack caused by shock. It seemed that he was hit by a staff-like object all over his body. Not an inch was spared. There was no damage on the skin’s surface, but a lot of blood had accumulated under the skin.

It was these wounds that caused the traumatic shock that led to a heart attack. In other words, the victim died because of extreme pain.

After listening to my explanations, everyone was silent. There was a long pause before Xiaotao asked me, “Why did the murderer do this?”

“The same reason he did those things to the first two victims—to make the meat delicious! I have read about people in ancient times who would kill the pigs without using a knife—they would beat them to death instead. This works to accumulate all the blood from the body out of the flesh to underneath the skin. It makes the meat delicious.”

I looked at the victim on the bed. “To think that someone used this method on a living person is just unspeakable!”

“I really want to go to the hospital now and pull out all the tubes that’s keeping him alive!” yelled Xiaotao. “Was the flesh on the victim’s body cut off after his death?”

“Yes!” I replied.

Although the murderer had been caught, I still extracted the fingerprints from the body and the bag as evidence.

Once the autopsy was complete, I said to Huang Xiaotao, “It seems that nothing else will be happening today. I’ll go back first and wait until Shopkeeper Tang wakes up. Call me when you’re ready to question him.”

“Do you intend to personally interrogate him?” Xiaotao asked.

“No, that’s not my expertise at all. I just want to hear what he says about some things that I haven’t figured out, that’s all.”

“Okay!”

Xiaotao sent us to the door and said, “Song Yang, thank you for what you did today!”

“You're welcome. I want to thank you too.”

“Right, by the way…”

“What is it?”

Xiaotao’s face was red. It was already late, and the golden light of the sunset was scattered on her face, highlighting her soft beauty. She smiled and mumbled, “Nothing!”

Dali rushed me to hurry up as we were about to miss the bus. “Come on, dude! Hurry up! You’re as slow as a grandma!”

I hastened my pace, but when I looked back, I saw Xiaotao still standing there and watching us. Perhaps I had seen too many ugly things in the past few days, but I thought the smile on her face at that moment was just so beautiful that my heart probably skipped a beat.

I returned to normal life in the next few days, though I had some difficulty readjusting to the mundane daily activities.

A long period of time after the human meat bun case, I found that I had lost the appetite for meat. I especially couldn’t eat any more steamed buns.