The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 272 Premature Corruption
A white sheet was slowly covered Sheng Tianbao's face. Standing next to Qi Fei, Xiao Lu sighed, "Thanks to the medical staff's best efforts, Sheng Dazhi and Zhang Yingdi survived, but their son Sheng Tianbao didn't make it. Sheng Tianbao was their only son. Sheng Dazhi hasn't woken up yet. I wonder how he'll feel if he finds out this terrible news? His mother and only son have both died in such a short time."

“The question should be, what will happen when Sheng Tianbao meets his grandmother Luo Yongmei in the underworld?” Zhong Kui said from the side, the fortune teller attribute that Zhong Xiaoyu had given her was coming into play again.

"Well, besides the devastating news of losing their son, the couple also have to undergo an investigation for covering up the crime." Qi Fei felt a mix of emotions. He turned his head and saw Li Jin standing not far away, seemingly having been there for some time.

Qi Fei walked over upon seeing this.

“I heard from my colleagues that Sheng Tianbao couldn’t be saved, so I came to see him…” Li Jin’s complexion wasn’t much better than last time. “Don’t misunderstand, I’m not here to gloat. As a doctor, I’m just very disappointed. This is not what I wanted to see.”

Li Jin spoke sincerely, and Qi Fei was willing to believe her emotionally. However, based on the suspicious points discovered at the waste recycling station and the motive for the crime, Li Jin was undoubtedly the prime suspect.

"Dr. Li, where were you yesterday morning?" Qi Fei asked.

Dr. Li seemed to have anticipated his question and replied, "It's alright. I was at the hospital outpatient clinic as usual yesterday. Although the hospital told me to rest, not working made me overthink, so I insisted on coming."

"That means many people can testify that you were in the hospital." Qi Fei seemed relieved.

Dr. Li said, "I heard from my colleagues who participated in the emergency that the cause of the Sheng family's collapse has not yet been found, but it can be confirmed that it was not caused by heatstroke. This matter is a bit strange. I can understand that you, as a police officer, have doubts about me. If I am honest with myself, when the news of their accident came, although I was not happy, on the other hand, I was sure that I would not commit suicide. Alas, I seem to be not as noble as I thought I was."

"You're too hard on yourself."

“These past two days, I’ve often had this illusion, as if I jumped off the roof that day and only woke up to find you all here. As a doctor, I should believe in science, but after what happened that day, I keep feeling that there are parallel worlds, and in another world, it was me who died, not Sheng Tianbao,” Li Jin said.

“People with a high degree of internalized morality are prone to excessive sense of responsibility, using the mistakes of others as evidence of their own dereliction of duty and punishing themselves.” Accompanied by the sound of high heels, Zhong Kui walked towards them. “Dr. Li, neither Luo Yongmei’s death nor Sheng Tianbao’s death has anything to do with you. You don’t need to have such thoughts.”

The three chatted for a while, then Dr. Li left to go back to work.

Watching her departing figure, Qi Fei asked Zhong Kui in confusion, "Luo Yongmei's death is indeed unrelated to Dr. Li, but there are too many suspicious points in Sheng Tianbao's case. How can you be so sure that Dr. Li is innocent?"

"Because I can read faces, isn't that right?" Zhong Kui started to sound mysterious again.

Qi Fei smiled helplessly: "Tell me the truth."

Zhong Kui smiled and said, "Judging from her micro-expressions, what she said just now was all true. Also, she wore shoe covers and gloves when she went to the rooftop that day. I specifically looked at her hands just now, and there was obvious peeling and cracks, which is generally caused by excessive cleaning. Of course, she is a doctor, so it may also be due to professional requirements. However, I asked the people in her department, and she did not have any surgeries scheduled on the day we met her jumping off the building. These precautions are likely because she has severe mysophobia."

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychological disorder that cannot be overcome simply by wanting to, even if it involves suicide or murder.” Qi Fei listened attentively and said, “You mean, because Dr. Li has OCD, she couldn’t bring herself to go to the recycling center to commit the murder?”

“If you’re going to be any less kind, you could take her to the scene to test her. I bet she can’t concentrate on anything in a garbage dump. And while you were talking just now, you probably already got her an alibi, right?” Zhong Kui saw right through him.

Qi Fei nodded: "Yes, indeed. I asked about her schedule yesterday morning, and she was seeing patients. Even without any traffic, it takes half an hour one way from Nancheng Hospital to the waste recycling station. Adding the time it took to commit the crime, it would take at least two hours round trip. If she wasn't there, it would be easy to be discovered. Also, when we arrived at the scene yesterday, the air conditioning had just been turned off. The murderer couldn't have left for more than an hour, which is between 10 and 11 a.m. We can find that out by checking Dr. Li's medical records."

“However, in this way, our prime suspect has been eliminated from the very beginning. Officer Qi, you only wanted to stop a medical dispute, but it turned into a murder case.” Zhong Kui joked.

Not far away, Sheng Tianbao's body was being pushed to the morgue. Qi Fei said to Zhong Kui in a serious tone, "No matter who dies, you're not allowed to joke like that next time."

"What a boring, straight man." Zhong Kui tossed her hair and walked towards one end of the corridor.
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Even though it's unbearably hot outside, the chilly atmosphere inside the dissection room doesn't feel refreshing.

It was a kind of coldness tinged with the stickiness of corpses, making one think of a slaughterhouse.

As always, Xiao Tao was very professional, rotating the stainless steel instruments as he worked on Sheng Tianbao's corpse.

Sheng Tianbao, the once dark-skinned and strong young man, has now become a body with a bluish-gray tinge.

"There are signs of edema and congestion in the throat and lungs, similar to the symptoms of drowning," Xiao Tao said.

“Drowning? That can’t be right. They collapsed at the recycling center. I touched their skin at the scene, and it was very dry.”

Xiao Tao continued examining the patient: "Hmm? Drowning on dry land? These symptoms look familiar; I think I just saw them a while ago."

Reminded by Xiao Tao, Qi Fei remembered: "You mean Chen Hao who died at the zoo? But that was an accident. I remember it was chlorine gas produced by the reaction between cleaning agents and bird droppings that poisoned him, right?"

"Oh, right, it's that man." Behind the goggles, Xiao Tao frowned. "Did he just die?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"So the body was preserved very unprofessionally? The internal organs already showed signs of decay." Xiao Tao was slightly disappointed. "This would cover up a lot of pathological traces."

"No way, Nancheng Hospital isn't some small hospital. There shouldn't be any problems with such a simple procedure." Qi Fei said incredulously, but following the direction that Xiao Tao's tweezers pointed, he saw that white putrefaction spots had already appeared in Sheng Tianbao's lungs.