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墨書 Inktalez
Jiang He handed his phone to Guan Deng, instructing him to take a look at the body in the refrigerator while he was responsible for pulling it out to see if he could find any useful clues. Since there were no details about the body attached to the outside of the freezer, and the old guard was utterly negligent in overseeing this matter, Jiang He had no choice but to open each drawer one by one, checking to see if it contained a body.
Yuan Jun cursed, "This old man is so irresponsible. The bodies are just carelessly left inside without any oversight. If one goes missing or another appears, who the hell would be able to sort it out?"
Xu Yiman stood nearby, watching Yuan Jun complain. "To put it bluntly, regardless of whether the people lying here were poor or wealthy, white-collar workers or laborers, good or bad, they all share one common identity: unclaimed corpses. Perhaps they were orphans with no relatives, or maybe their families are still searching for them, or their loved ones abandoned them."
"In any case, once they are placed here, it's likely that no one will prepare a tombstone for them, and no one will care about these nameless bodies." Xu Yiman waved her hand dismissively. "However, if they can become anatomical teachers for medical students, that could benefit humanity. The students trained from them might save many lives in the future."
Yuan Jun helped Jiang He pull open another drawer of the freezer, revealing a naked corpse before them. A blast of cold air rushed out, causing Yuan Jun to shiver. Although the lights outside were off, the freezer was still functioning normally.
It was an elderly man's body, appearing to be around sixty years old. Jiang He examined him and found no signs of violent injury; it seemed he had not been murdered but had died of natural causes due to aging or illness.
While looking at the corpse, Yuan Jun asked Xu Yiman, "What does 'anatomical teacher' mean?"
Xu Yiman replied, "In dissection, there are two types of specimens: those visible to the naked eye and those requiring a microscope. A body that can be dissected with the naked eye is called an anatomical specimen—like the one we have in front of us. They are referred to as teachers because every body used by medical students serves as a silent instructor."
Xu Yiman seemed somewhat emotional as she continued, "It is these bodies that teach us how to dissect and how to treat illnesses. Respecting life and respecting corpses is something every medical student should and must do."
"This body doesn't seem to have any signs of having been dissected," Jiang He said as he pushed the corpse back in and opened another drawer.
Inside was a young woman's body. Externally, her skull had a large indentation; it appeared to be her fatal injury. Jiang He noticed that there were stitches on her body, indicating she had undergone dissection. However, what puzzled him was a large hole in her abdomen—about the size of an adult fist.
The fat tissue and skin around this hole were missing as if someone had deliberately made an incision in her belly.
"Yuan Jun, shine your phone on this woman's abdomen," Jiang He instructed Yuan Jun.
Yuan Jun looked at the hole in the woman's abdomen and nodded, pulling out his phone to turn on the flashlight. The beam of light illuminated the inside of the woman's belly, startling both Yuan Jun and Jiang He.
Jiang He turned around and asked Xu Yiman, who was in the shadows, "Xu Yiman, what are the steps for an autopsy?"
"It's a very complex process. First, you conduct an external examination, starting from the mouth..."
"Just the general steps," Jiang He interrupted, shaking his head.
Xu Yiman didn't understand why Jiang He suddenly asked this question but replied, "The first step is to cut open the body; the second step is to remove the entrails; the third step is to examine everything; the fourth step is to put the entrails back; and the fifth step is to stitch up the body. That's basically it. Why? Is there a problem?"
"But what we see is that her abdomen is empty; there are no entrails, just a bunch of sponges," Yuan Jun interjected.
"What?" Xu Yiman was also taken aback. She stepped closer to look at the hole in the woman's abdomen.
Sure enough, when Xu Yiman looked inside, she saw that the woman's belly was completely devoid of entrails, replaced instead by square pieces of sponge. This was why the body still appeared swollen from the outside rather than collapsed.
"The entrails inside the body are gone, and someone has stuffed sponges in," Jiang He said. "This definitely isn't part of an autopsy."
Xu Yiman shook her head. "Of course not; that's never how an autopsy is performed."
"Could the stolen organs have been transplanted?" Yuan Jun speculated boldly.
Xu Yiman paused for a moment before responding, "That shouldn't be possible. Organ transplantation is a very complex procedure that requires prior matching tests, including assessments of the recipient's bodily functions. Not just anyone's organs can be used. Moreover, since she's already dead, her organs would quickly deteriorate. Even if someone had that capability, time wouldn't allow it."
Xu Yiman added, "I know there are many jokes online about waking up in a bathtub after getting drunk, only to find that one of your kidneys is missing, presumably stolen. In reality, this scenario is unlikely because a stranger who has only seen you once wouldn't know what type of kidney matches yours. Even if they took it, it would be pointless."
After a pause, Xu Yiman continued, "Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that these people have been watching you for a long time and planned to take your kidney. However, the odds of that happening are extremely low. Those who dare to take such risks and have the ability to do so are likely wealthy enough to go to a hospital instead of resorting to such terrifying methods."
"Then where do all these organs go?" Yuan Jun asked, scratching his head.
Jiang He closed the drawer and proceeded to examine one corpse after another.
Once all the bodies had been inspected, Jiang He fell into deep thought.
In the Old Town District morgue, there were twelve bodies in total: three were elderly, one was a child, and the remaining eight were young adults aged between twenty and forty. Among these eight young bodies, five were female and three were male.
Jiang He noticed something strange: all the young women's abdomens had holes about the size of an adult fist. Looking inside these holes revealed that their entrails were missing, replaced instead by chunks of sponge.
The same situation was found with the child's body; it also had a hole in its abdomen filled with sponge.
"Was the entrails taken before or after the autopsy?" Xu Yiman asked Jiang He slowly.
Jiang He analyzed, "After the autopsy. I noticed that the sutures on the abdomen showed signs of being stretched open. It seems that the murderer extracted the entrails through that hole, causing tearing as they passed through."
The hole was not large—only about the size of an adult fist—but many entrails are much larger than that hole. Therefore, it could not have been the coroner who removed them during the autopsy. Jiang He speculated that after completing the autopsy, someone sneaked into the morgue and made an incision in the female corpses' abdomens to remove those entrails.
"I observed that the edges of the holes on the female corpses were smooth and round. The murderer must have prepared tools; otherwise, making such a perfectly round hole in a corpse's abdomen would not be easy," Jiang He stated.
"That's right," Xu Yiman said. "I noticed that too, and the tool used by the murderer was very sharp, comparable to the knives we use for dissecting bodies."
"But why would the murderer do this?" Jiang He scratched his head.
A voice suddenly emerged from the darkness: "This is a premeditated body snatching case."
Everyone jumped in surprise and turned to see Old Shao standing at the door, though they didn't know when he had arrived.
"Old Shao?" Xu Yiman exclaimed, a bit pleased. "What brings you here?"
Old Shao replied, "Why can you all come but I can't? If it weren't for Guan Deng sending me a text, I would still be in the dark."
Jiang He said, "I was worried about you handling Wei Demian's case, so I didn't notify you."
Old Shao waved his hand dismissively. "Wei Demian is already dead; his body will be cremated once we return. He had no children or relatives, and his apprentice has taken over all his legacy. Now that the title of Criminal Consultant has been passed on, our task from now on is to capture this young Criminal Consultant."
"Not this one," Old Shao said to Captain Liu, who was following him. "Send a forensic expert over; we need to re-examine these bodies."
"What do you think the murderer is trying to accomplish?" Jiang He asked.
Old Shao replied slowly, "The Criminal Consultant has already exploited our psychological tendencies to kill Wang Chao. This time, he cannot use the same methods. Looking at this case itself, the murderer must be someone with psychological issues."
"Guan Deng texted me; is it only women and children who have holes in their stomachs?" Old Shao inquired.
Jiang He nodded.
Old Shao continued, "He believes that the entrails of children and women are clean, while those of men and the elderly are dirty. Therefore, he only targets women and children. What do you think is strange about the bodies here?"
The others shook their heads.
Jiang He suddenly said, "Time."
Old Shao nodded and smiled, "That's right. Jiang He's observation skills are as sharp as ever. If I'm not mistaken, the time of death for those female bodies should not exceed a month; otherwise, the organs inside the female corpses would show signs of decay. Although a freezer can extend this time, if they are not processed into specimens quickly, the bodies will still rot and deteriorate."
Xu Yiman added, "That's correct. Bodies cannot be used directly as cadavers; they need to undergo a period of processing first to ensure that they can be preserved for a longer time."
"If there are no bodies," Shao the Elder said, "he will create new ones."
"Are you saying he would kill to obtain entrails?" Yuan Jun asked.
Old Shao nodded.
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