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墨書 Inktalez
"Can it really work?" Guan Zengbin asked, puzzled.
"Do it!" I shouted.
With my command, a red figure shot up from the yard with a whoosh, leaping over the roof and disappearing in an instant, leaving only a dent in the ground. What we saw that night in the yard was not a ghost, nor was it a person; it was an effigy.
That night, the model was dressed in a red dress and had long hair, making it difficult to distinguish its authenticity in the darkness. A long spring was tied behind the effigy and secured into the hole in the ground using rivets, positioned at just the right angle. With a fishing line attached, all it took was a gentle pull for the spring's elasticity to launch the effigy into the air.
"I'll go. There are no ghosts in this world," Guan Zengbin said, watching the flying effigy.
"What are you all doing?" Liu walked in from outside the yard.
Seeing Liu drenched in sweat, Gu Chen chuckled and said, "What have you been doing? You look like you've run a marathon."
Liu glanced at the three of us and said, "I have some unfortunate news to share. Gao Rui just committed suicide."
Hearing this news made my heart skip a beat.
"Gao Rui committed suicide?" I couldn't help but ask.
"The police are handling it now. Let's go check out the scene," Liu said.
"Let's go!"
The location of the suicide was at Zhang Mingliang's house.
When we arrived at the scene, local police officers were already taking statements. Since Liu had informed them not to conduct an autopsy yet, the body had not been disturbed. The forensic team was already at work, primarily focused on collecting evidence from the scene to determine if there were any signs of a third party's presence.
In fact, when a body is discovered, the first thing police need to do is confirm the identity of the deceased and ascertain the nature of their death.
There was no doubt that the deceased was Gao Rui; now our task was to figure out how Gao Rui had died.
From a forensic perspective, death is generally classified into four categories: Suicide, Homicide, Natural Death, and Accidental Death.
Among these four types of death, Homicide is often disguised by the murderer as Suicide, Natural Death, or Accidental Death.
The body of Gao Rui lay before us.
This was Zhang Mingliang's bedroom, and Gao Rui was quietly lying on the bed. He was dressed in a formal suit, his expression serene. Upon closer inspection, Gao Rui's lips and earlobes were a vivid red, as if they had been painted with rouge. The bed appeared to have been carefully arranged, with red rose petals scattered across it.
On the bedside table stood a bottle of red wine, one-third empty. Beside it was a goblet containing some leftover wine. Under the table was an old-fashioned radio, still playing a song, suggesting that no one had touched it.
“Even if tomorrow brings countless songs, drifting far away on my journey. Even if tomorrow brings countless evening stars, brighter than tonight's moon. Nothing compares to this night’s beauty; nothing can cleanse my thoughts tonight, for I do not know when I will sing with you again…”
This was a Cantonese ballad that stirred a sense of parting sadness in the listener's heart.
It seemed that Gao Rui had deliberately chosen the date and method for his death. He had reasons for suicide; apart from Zhang Mingliang, there was no one else who could enter his life. With Zhang Mingliang gone, there was little left for Gao Rui to cling to in this world.
At that moment, Guan Zengbin had already put on her gloves and booties. She approached Gao Rui's body and leaned closer to his mouth to sniff.
“Hmm? There’s no scent of bitter almonds,” Guan Zengbin muttered to herself.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Guan Zengbin pointed to Gao Rui's earlobes and mouth: “Look at his lips and earlobes; they are bright red and contrast sharply with the surrounding skin. This is a common sign of poisoning, which usually has a bitter almond smell, but I don’t detect any.”
“There’s a letter here!” Gu Chen exclaimed as he picked up a letter from beside the pillow.
I quickly put on gloves and went to examine the letter.
After a brief glance, I grasped the general content within.
The contents of the letter can be broadly divided into two categories: one expresses that one's death is unrelated to others, which is a suicide note. The other contains the bank account password, instructing the police to donate the money to the Hope Project.
"Take it for handwriting analysis," I said to the Trace Examiner beside me.
Guan Zengbin remarked, "Currently, we preliminarily suspect poisoning. Looking at the Corpse Stiffness and livor mortis, the time of death isn't very long—probably just one or two hours. For now, this is all we can determine; we'll see what more clues the Autopsy can provide."
"Mm." I nodded and then said, "Take the body to the morgue. We'll head to the Autopsy after we've finished investigating the scene."
"Is there anything else?" I asked the trace examiners.
Everyone shook their heads and then said, "Only Gao Rui's Life Traces. We did find another person's fingerprints, but those belong to the deceased Zhang Mingliang, so I believe it should be a suicide."
From the arrangement of the scene, it indeed looked like a suicide.
Suicide is an act that requires intelligence; it is not as simple as ordinary people might think.
Based on Gao Rui's situation before preparing for suicide, he must have hoped to maintain dignity even in death.
I had seen many people who committed suicide; after death, due to muscle relaxation, they often left a mess behind or bled profusely. Even those who died from poisoning frequently vomited their last meal due to physiological reactions.
It was rare to find someone who died as peacefully and gracefully as Gao Rui.
"There’s a syringe in the drawer," Gu Chen continued searching around.
"Be careful," Guan Zengbin said. "I didn't smell any poison near his mouth earlier; it's very likely he used intravenous injection."
I looked at the syringe; it bore the emblem of Yucai High School. Gao Rui was a teacher at Yucai High School, and after that incident, he naturally could not continue teaching. But before that, was it possible that he had already found a syringe and poison from the Yucai High School laboratory?
Gao Rui was a biology teacher and often conducted experiments in class; the laboratory was accessible to him.
"Who found the body first?" I asked.
A woman outside answered, "I did! I'm his neighbor."
I stepped outside and examined the woman; she appeared to be in her fifties.
"How did you discover the body?" I inquired.
The woman, looking troubled, replied, "It's truly unfortunate. I should have gone in earlier. I have a habit of taking a nap after lunch, so I was just waiting to sleep after eating. But the music from across the street kept playing, and being older, I have a bit of insomnia; I couldn't fall asleep with all that noise."
"About an hour later, I knocked on the door to ask him to turn it down. He didn't respond, so I let it go. But after about half an hour, he still showed no signs of stopping. I got a bit annoyed and went to knock on his door. I knocked for several minutes but got no answer."
"Then I complained to the property management, and they came over. They also had trouble getting him to open the door, so they used a spare key. That’s when we found him lying on the bed. At first, I thought he was just asleep and didn’t hear us. I went over to shake him, but there was no response. When I checked for breath, he was gone! We called 911."
If she knocked for the first time about an hour ago, that meant it had been over two hours since then.
"Seal off this area," I instructed everyone.
The autopsy process was lengthy but not dull. With Guan Zengbin present, I had never understood myself so well; it felt as if the knife were cutting into me.
We observed that Gao Rui's body had large patches of bright red livor mortis.
Guan Zengbin stated, "The time of death was around 1:10 PM, with a margin of error of no more than two minutes. His blood is still bright red and hasn't coagulated; through the Prussian blue reaction test, he indeed died from an overdose. There are needle marks on his wrist indicating intravenous injection."
As the autopsy progressed, Guan Zengbin continued, "Gao Rui was indeed a biology teacher; he understood human anatomy very well."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
Guan Zengbin explained, "His stomach contained no food, and there were no feces in his intestines. Looking at his anus, he must have... prepared himself before death to avoid defecation afterward. By choosing intravenous injection, he wouldn't vomit due to toxic reactions. So when we see Gao Rui's body, it's quite clean and presentable."
After a pause, Guan Zengbin continued, "Moreover, he drank some red wine before he died. Red wine has a strong aftereffect; on one hand, it can enhance blood circulation, allowing the poison to spread rapidly to the heart. On the other hand, it can numb the nerves, alleviating the pain of death. In fact, I estimate that about a minute after the injection, Gao Rui passed away peacefully."
It seemed that Gao Rui truly committed suicide. The farewell song, the act of cleansing himself, the beautifully arranged bed, the elegant suit he wore, and the leaving of a suicide note all pointed to this conclusion.
Perhaps it was clear that Gao Rui had come prepared and was determined to end his life.
I often heard detectives in crime dramas say, "If he really committed suicide, what else would he do? Therefore, I conclude it must be homicide."
But in reality, someone who wishes to completely bid farewell to this world often hopes to sever their last ties here. Such individuals tend to quietly finish what they need to do, repay their debts of gratitude, and then quietly leave this world.
So they might accomplish many things before committing suicide.
"The forensic team has sent over the results," Liu said as he walked in. "The handwriting matches Gao Rui's previous samples, and the bank account and password check out. There are hundreds of thousands of Renminbi inside."
"Where did he get so much money?" I asked in confusion.
Liu Dao replied, "They investigated and found that Zhang Mingliang sold his house before he died. After Zhang Mingliang's death, that money was left to Gao Rui. Now that Gao Rui is also dead..."
"Check all of Gao Rui's recent bank records," I instructed.
Gu Chen quickly interjected upon hearing my words, "Check? Are you suggesting that Gao Rui's death is suspicious?"
"There’s a point of doubt. I believe there should not have been just Gao Rui in that room at the time," I stated firmly.
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