The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 154 The Unable to Lie Flat
"In the 1983 'Magic Mirror Case', including Old Ye, the number of known victims has risen to 9." Qi Fei looked at the densely packed list in Wu Shanqiu's hand, drank the last sip of the cold coffee, and sighed slightly.

Under the cold light of the autopsy room, the remains of three women glowed bluish-gray on the metal table.

"Snap!" Qi Fei tightened the rubber gloves on his wrists and looked at the female corpse with a mask on. The nylon ropes were tangled in a tangle of knots on the shrunken flesh, locking the joints in a twisted kneeling position. However, the hair on each person's head that had just been excavated was finally confirmed to be a wig and had been removed for testing. The female corpse's head was bald, and the soul-calming talisman that only Zhong Kui could understand could be vaguely seen.

"Logically, after 42 years, these bodies should have turned to bones, but they're still in the same death positions. It's hard not to say it's weird." Wu Shanqiu said, looking at Zhong Kui, "Is there really such a thing as soul-calming in this world?"

"If you ask me whether the soul-calming spirit works or not, I will tell you that it does. But maybe you have all seen the rune on their heads." Zhong Kui said slowly.

After hearing what Zhong Kui said, Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but exclaim, "Huh?" "She really looks familiar."

"Don't believe her psychological hints." Qi Fei said vigilantly from the side.

Zhong Kui glanced at Qi Fei and said unhappily, "Don't doubt me just because you have a bad memory. I, an outsider, know this place better than you, a native of Nancheng."

"Is this rune in Nancheng?" Qi Fei asked doubtfully.

"Aren't you going to the glazed pagoda at the Great Baoen Temple? If you pay close attention, you'll see that the orb atop the pagoda projects a spiritual inscription every new moon at the hour of Yin. The old Nancheng people call this 'Heavenly Talismans to Suppress the Night.' Legend has it that during the Hongwu reign, ghosts frequently cried from deep within the Nancheng earth veins. A divine hexagram from the Heavenly Master showed the star Tanlang invading Taiwei Palace, pointing directly to an unnamed, desolate tomb at the southern foot of Mount Zizai. Digging three feet underground revealed a half-broken stele, the site of what is now Nanling. Legend has it that the unjustly murdered prince's wrath was too strong, leading to the construction of this glazed pagoda. Soul-suppressing inscriptions were engraved within the orb, the patterns matching the divisions of the twenty-eight constellations, and each talisman contained the seven true taboo characters of the Big Dipper. This is how the ghosts' cries were silenced..."

In the cold autopsy room, Zhong Kui told this true and false legend, which made Wu Shanqiu's hair stand on end.

Instead, Qi Fei walked over to Zhong Kui and waved his rubber-gloved hand in front of him: "Wake up, this is just your personality. We have to believe in science."

Zhong Kui's eyes, however, were as clear as crystal as she stared at him intently. "I'm quite clear-headed. Humanity needs to reconstruct its perception of reality through symbolic systems. Legend has it that the uncontrollable threats to survival are personified as demons that can be dispelled. This is a profound wisdom of the ancients. Of course, this is also what I'm doing now."

"A thousand years dry, ten thousand years wet, and only half a year when neither dry nor wet. These bodies are buried in the mud, which just isolates them from the air. Let alone 42 years, if they are not excavated, 420 years will be fine. However, they cannot be dissected like this." Xiao Tao's words interrupted their mysterious conversation. The young forensic doctor's focus was obviously different from that of the others. His fingertips in latex gloves hovered above the corpses and suddenly stopped at the lumbar vertebrae of one of the bodies.

"Forty-two years of muscle contracture," he whispered to himself, and the tip of the tweezers entered the gap between the vertebrae. There was a slight "click" sound, and the skeleton leaned back.

"Wow! Awesome!" This operation really amazed Wu Shanqiu.

Following several similar light sounds, the corpse, which had been kneeling for 42 years, finally lay straight on the dissection table with its back facing upwards.

"She finally lay down." Wu Shanqiu blurted out.

Qi Fei looked at her with a strange look: "You sound envious?"

Wu Shanqiu quickly waved her hands: "Literally 'lie down', hehe."

Xiao Tao glanced at the name tag hanging from the corpse's toes and said indifferently, "Li Yulan is lying flat." It wasn't clear if he was being matter-of-fact or just joking with Wu Shanqiu. The surgical light clearly illuminated the annular depression at the tenth thoracic vertebra of Li Yulan's body. Xiao Tao examined it closely and said, "The bone indentation caused by the long-term compression of the rope is consistent with the kneeling position in the 1983 case."

Then, Xiao Tao moved the surgical light upwards, and the dazzling shadowless light focused on the face of Li Yulan's skeleton.

His latex-gloved fingers gently touched the upper edge of the deceased's skull orbit. "The periorbital bone wall shows an irregular, jagged defect. Radiating bone fractures can be seen at the wound edge extending toward the zygomatic arch, consistent with a leverage injury pattern caused by repeated prying with a blunt instrument."

"Um...so in human terms..." Qi Fei couldn't help but make this request.

"Her eye sockets are empty, not because her eyeballs are rotten, but because someone dug out her eyes with a blunt object." Xiao Tao said without raising his head.

Qi Fei, who was familiar with the "Demon Mirror Case," blurted out, "It's the same situation as the five deaths in Dongji Town."

Xiao Tao hunched over, his fingers still probing deep into the eye socket as he continued, "Although the retrobulbar fat body has been completely saponified, the stress callus remaining on the medial side of the greater wing of the sphenoid bone confirms that the injury occurred while the deceased's cardiovascular system was still maintaining perfusion pressure." This time, without waiting for Qi Fei to speak, he took the initiative to explain, "In other words, the deceased's eyes were gouged out while he was still alive."

Qi Fei was not surprised by such a horrifying conclusion, because it was consistent with the conclusion of the autopsy report of the victim in the "Magic Mirror Case".

This proves that Ye Ming did find the murderer who killed so many women. Unfortunately...

His eyes unconsciously glanced at Ye Ming's remains placed a little further away.

His bound body was still kneeling with his head bowed.

If the autopsy results are consistent, Lao Ye also suffered the same inhumane torture as the other deceased.

The weathered and cracked metacarpal bones curled up, and that hand once tightly grasped that button...

At this moment, a muffled sound mixed with the crisp sound of dislocated bones and joints interrupted his thoughts. When he came to his senses, he saw Xiao Tao using almost all his strength to "compete" with the second female corpse.

"Is he arm wrestling with a corpse?" Qi Fei asked in confusion.

Sweat beads appeared on Xiao Tao's forehead, and the dissecting table creaked under the heavy weight.

The second female corpse's right arm was bent behind her back at a strange angle, with her shoulder blade stuck on the edge of the metal table.

"It's not arm wrestling." He adjusted the angle of the tweezers. "There are pathological calluses on the third and fourth ribs on the right side of the deceased, indicating that he suffered a blunt force trauma leading to old fractures, etc..." Xiao Tao carefully inserted the tweezers into the gap between the ribs. "It seems that something else is stuck in the bones." He tried several times and finally pulled out the object...

(End of this chapter)