Chapter 128: The Time Bomb (1/2)

Sun Tiger glanced at the wounds that I marked and pointed out, “The assailant would have to use their right hand to produce these wounds, which means that we don’t have the proof of Xiaotao’s innocence yet.”

“No,” I shook my head. “At first glance, it might indeed seem like the murderer used their right hand to produce such stab wounds. But there is an anomaly to these wounds, namely their angle. These wounds are angled upwards, and to produce these wounds using the right hand, the murderer would have to hold the knife like this…”

I demonstrated using a scalpel, holding the handle in the palm of my hand with the blade facing up.

“Don’t you think it’s an awkward position?” I asked.

Sun Tiger nodded and groaned.

“What the hell was going on then, kiddo?”

I thought for a long time before replying, “The murderer must’ve entered the door and stabbed the victim in the belly. Then she turned her around and held her head between the legs before stabbing the chest.”

“So the murderer was on top of her?”

“Yes,” I replied. “This created the illusion of a right-handed murderer, throwing further suspicion on Xiaotao.”

At that moment, Xiaozhou pushed open the door and announced that the test result was ready. The fibrous strand found on the crime scene was from a wig.

That justified my reasoning. The person in the video must’ve been Li Wenjia. She put on Xiaotao’s clothes, a mask, and a wig to impersonate her. I had heard of a site where you could order a customized mask that could be made to look very realistic.

Xiaotao breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank God,” she cried. “She didn’t hypnotize me after all!”

“I’m done with the autopsy here,” I said. “Let’s go see if Lao Yao discovered anything through the video.”

Just as we went out, several policemen arrived with a few people in tow. These people were part of Li Wenjia’s ‘zombie army’ that had broken into Xiaotao’s house earlier. I quickly told Xiaotao to go into a room and hide before these people could see her.

According to the policemen, they were able to capture these people without meeting any resistance at all. In fact, when they got to Xiaotao’s house, they found the door wide open and these people were standing inside completely motionless like statues. They tried waving their hands in front of their eyes, but received no reactions. It was just as if they’d walked into a wax museum.

I warned Sun Tiger not to mistake these people as harmless. The moment they saw Xiaotao, they’d immediately turn into killing machines, stopping at nothing to attack Xiaotao.

“This is ridiculous!” spat Sun Tiger. “How dare they attack a police officer!”

“But these people are innocent, Uncle Sun!” I quickly reminded him, mostly because I was afraid that he’d regard Dali and Shiwen as murderers. “They’re all under Li Wenjia’s complete control. They have no knowledge of their actions!”

“Don’t worry, kiddo,” Sun Tiger replied. “I know all that. When everything’s settled, I’ll arrange for them to be treated by psychiatrists.”

Once those people had been herded into another room, we headed into the conference room where Lao Yao had been busy working. When I pushed the door open, I found Lao Yao’s computer was still on, but the man himself was gone. Suddenly, a figure emerged from behind and choked Xiaotao’s neck with a belt. It was Lao Yao.

Xiaotao was completely caught off guard. All she could do was frantically claw at the belt around her neck with her hands.

Lao Yao’s eyes were completely vacant. His grip around Xiaotao’s neck kept tightening. Xiaotao’s face was starting to turn blue. Sun Tiger rushed in to help her, but no matter what he did, he just couldn’t get Lao Yao to let go of Xiaotao.

“Stop it right now or I’ll shoot!” roared Sun Tiger.

“Don’t shoot!” I yelled. “He’s been hypnotized!”

I grabbed a chair and smashed it on Lao Yao’s back. It hit squarely on him, but he didn’t budge. So I repeated it again until the chair itself was bent out of shape.

Meanwhile, Sun Tiger grabbed an ashtray and knocked it on Lao Yao’s head. It was a heavy ashtray. I could hear a dull thud as it hit Lao Yao’s skull. The attack proved to be effective as Lao Yao’s eyes rolled back and he collapsed immediately.

Xiaotao was pinned underneath the unconscious Lao Yao when he fell to the floor, so Sun Tiger and I had to carry Lao Yao off of her. She got up to her knees and coughed up a storm, then spat out a stream of saliva.

“I’ve got the shittiest luck tonight!” she cried.