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墨書 Inktalez
In the afternoon, we arrived at Magic City, an international metropolis, by plane. The crime scene was located in a satellite town within the newly developed New District. After disembarking, we exchanged a few pleasantries with the local police and prepared to dive into the intense investigation. The previous Hypnosis case had left everyone feeling dazed; this tangible reality felt much more invigorating.
Juan Juan turned to the Detective Captain and said, "I need to conduct an autopsy immediately. There are many things that can't be seen in the video. Is the body still at the morgue? Let's go now."
As soon as Juan Juan finished speaking, I noticed the captain looking somewhat awkwardly at us. My heart sank; his expression clearly indicated that something was wrong with the body. Juan Juan picked up on it too and quickly asked, "Is there a problem with the body?"
The Detective Captain nodded and then called over someone. From his appearance, it was evident that he was a forensic doctor—dressed in a white coat and looking rather greasy. Even from a distance, a foul odor wafted toward us, the stench of decay. At that moment, he had a cigarette dangling from his mouth and instinctively reached out to shake hands when he saw us.
The Detective Captain slapped his hand away and said, "Look at your clothes! You want to shake hands? Aren't you embarrassed? Hurry up and tell Captain Shao about the body."
The Greasy Forensic Doctor didn't seem bothered by the reprimand; he took a deep drag from his cigarette, blew out a few smoke rings, and then began to speak. "The body has disappeared."
"Disappeared?" Juan Juan asked. "Stolen?"
"No!" The Greasy Forensic Doctor shook his head and continued, "It’s just gone—there aren’t even any bones left! On the night of the 24th, the morgue staff transported the body back to the morgue. I wasn't in town that night, so I scheduled the autopsy for the following morning."
He flicked his cigarette butt to the ground and stomped it out. "But when I went to the morgue early the next morning, there was no sign of any body—no trace whatsoever! I thought someone was messing with me, so I called the person in charge of the morgue, but they insisted that the body had indeed been returned. So we went to check the surveillance footage."
The Greasy Forensic Doctor wore a conflicted expression as he said, "I've been a forensic doctor for over ten years and have never encountered anything like this. The body seemed to have decomposed overnight..."
"What?" Juan Juan exclaimed, wide-eyed. "That's impossible! Even in summer, I've never heard of a body decomposing completely overnight—let alone having no bones left! Even under extreme temperatures, it would take at least ten days for decomposition to occur; bones would take even longer. Otherwise, how could we still find ancient animal bones?"
Juan Juan was particularly concerned about the cause of death in this case because it represented an unprecedented manner of dying. Her tone reflected her seriousness; she wouldn’t have stated such common knowledge otherwise. However, we were all curious about what had actually happened in that video.
The Greasy Forensic Doctor seemed unfazed by Juan Juan's scrutiny; he merely shrugged and said, "When I say 'decomposed,' I don't mean in the bacterial sense—it’s more like something out of a sci-fi movie where a person is completely shattered into particles. Honestly, you wouldn't understand what I'm saying; just go watch the surveillance footage."
We arrived at the Police Department where the surveillance footage had already been copied. Our group joined some officers from the department as we gathered around a large screen. On it, we could see a body covered by a thin white sheet; although we couldn't clearly see its condition, we could make out its outline.
The outline was divided into two parts: one part showed the torso of the body with its limbs together, while another raised section indicated where the head had separated from it—faintly revealing facial contours.
It appeared that the video captured precisely when the anomaly occurred because within just ten seconds, we saw the white sheet move inexplicably.
It was as if someone had tugged at the sheet, causing the Civilian Police Officers to gasp in surprise. We remained silent, our eyes glued to the screen, and soon we noticed that the white sheet began to move with increasing frequency. It was certain that all the doors and windows were tightly shut; it couldn't be the wind or air conditioning causing the sheet to flutter.
Gradually, we realized that the sheet had lifted off the ground, hovering a few centimeters above the corpse. Everyone was astonished; it was clear that this was not something that could be achieved by human effort. Although the sheet had risen from the body, from the angle of the surveillance camera, we could only vaguely see the feet, lower legs, and a small part of the left side of the waist—the rest remained obscured by the white sheet.
The sheet continued to float, and at that moment, we couldn't discern any clues. However, in the next instant, something bizarre occurred. We saw that what had once been visible—the feet—began to disappear at a speed visible to the naked eye. It was just as described by the Greasy Forensic Doctor; it resembled a scene from a science fiction movie where an object is shattered into molecules.
Starting from the feet, then moving to the lower legs, and finally to the waist, everything vanished before our eyes at an alarming rate! Some of the more timid female officers gasped in shock, and we were all filled with terror. After so many years on the force, this was truly a first for us!
Half an hour passed before we saw the sheet suddenly drop down, landing directly on the cold Autopsy Table. The corpse that had been on the Autopsy Table had completely vanished without a trace. The area beneath the White Sheet was flat—nothing was there.
The Detective Captain spoke to us: "The surveillance footage from the elevator shows this. The mortuary is experiencing something similar. How can we expect the deceased's family to accept this? We've investigated the scene thoroughly; there are no signs of human entry, and it's obvious this isn't something that can be done by human means!"
The Detective Captain's expression was one of anxiety mixed with helplessness. He said, "This is the first time I've felt utterly powerless; I have no idea where to start investigating. I have no leads at all; it's incredibly difficult."
I patted his shoulder and said, "I've encountered your kind of thinking many times before. However, if we start from the smallest details and peel back layers like an onion, we'll eventually uncover the truth. Let's first check out the mortuary and then look around the neighborhood carefully; we should be able to find some clues."
The Detective Captain nodded in agreement as we made our way to the mortuary. The White Sheet from the video still lay quietly on the Autopsy Table. When everyone saw that same sheet appear before them as it did in the footage, they felt a chill run down their spines. This feeling is understandable; fear stems from uncertainty. Even if someone were pointing a gun at their head right now, it would likely not instill as much fear as this unknown danger.
I put on gloves and pulled down the sheet quickly, fearing something might leap out from underneath it. Of course, there was nothing beneath it—just a clean Autopsy Table without a speck of dust. The cleanliness surpassed even that of Greasy Forensic Doctor's face by several times; after all, a bloody corpse had previously lain here.
There were no traces of muscle, bone, hair, or even blood left behind.
"When you transported the body here," I asked the mortuary director, "was she dressed?"
The director shook his head and replied, "Since an autopsy was scheduled for the next day, we removed her clothes. Then we placed her body along with her head on this table, thinking it would only be for one night. Who could have imagined such an event would occur?"
The director's face turned pale as he said, "I've been in this line of work since my twenties; I used to cremate bodies. I've seen all sorts of bizarre occurrences—dead people making sounds or inexplicably sitting up—but I've never encountered anything like this! After watching that video, both of my workers quit!"
"This is so eerie that I don't even dare come here at night!" he exclaimed. "It's just too unnatural! No one in this profession believes in ghosts or spirits; otherwise, they wouldn't dare continue working here. But after something like this happens, how can anyone not believe? My mentor once said that it's a restless spirit trying to reclaim its body! I never believed him before! I've brought my keys to the mortuary; if you need to investigate anything further, feel free to do so!"
As the person in charge looked around suspiciously, he placed the key in my hand and let out a sigh of relief before quickly leaving.
I pressed my fingers against my temples, carefully observing the surroundings. Juan Juan opened her large suitcase and began examining for traces inside the funeral home. Detective Captain asked me, "Is it important whether the corpse was wearing clothes?"
I shook my head and replied, "Not really, I'm just curious. There's an interesting paradox that suddenly came to mind."
Everyone turned to look at me as I continued, "Is there really such a thing as ghosts in this world? We don't know, but the fascinating aspect of logic is that we can use the unknown to infer the known. If it were indeed a ghost committing the crime, would the ghost be wearing clothes or not? And what about the body it took—was it clothed or unclothed?"
"If the ghosts described are all wearing clothes, does that mean those clothes have also become ghosts?" I said. "Clothes can't turn into ghosts, so are all ghosts...?"
Juan Juan shot me a glare and said, "Focus on investigating your scene. If you knew these things, you'd have become a ghost yourself."
I shrugged in frustration and continued to observe. The final outcome was disappointingly predictable; we found nothing at all. Juan Juan closed her suitcase and said, "There's nothing here. Besides the staff's fingerprints, we didn't find any foreign traces that shouldn't belong."
"This case," I said slowly, "looks like we're going to need some time to investigate since we haven't found any clues here. Let's head to the neighborhood and see if we can discover anything there."
A young man went hunting with his grandfather in the mountains and unexpectedly encountered Mouse Burning Incense and Wild Cat Worships at the Temple—statues made from human corpses. When he returned home late at night, his biological mother was chasing him with 'people,' because of his grandfather's misdeeds towards her!
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