Chapter 119: Reporting the Corpse
As soon as Tu Lanxun said this, everyone fell silent.
If the brown man could be a ghost, then going a step further, why couldn't he be a resurrected corpse?
"A ghost cannot enter a body that does not belong to it," Tu Lanxun said. "That corpse and that ghost were one in life."
Wen Chong nodded and continued, "Yes, and it was a dried corpse. However, after entering Lucheng, it was immersed in the humid air for nearly 20 hours, so the skin softened and decayed slightly."
"What do you mean by 'mummy'? Does it mean he died of unnatural causes? Or even had his body dumped?" Xiao Zhang raised an eyebrow. "Even bodies buried in the ground by farmers can't become mummies. They'll just turn into bones as usual."
This suddenly reminded Tu Lanxun, and her confused expression suddenly brightened up as if a fog had been pierced through. "Bada Panshan?"
Wen Chong: "What?"
Tu Lanxun said, "When we went to Badapan Mountain to search for corpses, apart from Teacher Nie and the ghosts of other victims of the Heavenly Kingdom Group who came on their own, we always felt like we were being secretly watched. At first, we thought they were creatures like monkeys and baboons. Now I think..."
"If it was him, then the time it took the mummy to walk from Badapan Mountain to Lucheng would perfectly match the time it appeared." Wen Chong calculated immediately.
But what is the mummy doing in Lucheng?
Just to capture the soul of the fifth victim?
"Are the mummy and the black mist really the same person?" Tu Lanxun questioned. "If he died in Badapan Mountain and made the trek to Lucheng, then he's most likely a victim of the Tianguo Group. Why would a victim harm others?"
Xiao Zhang shrugged. "That being said, the victims of the Tian Guo Group aren't necessarily without personal moral flaws."
The investigation now has a new direction. Whether the skin tissue left by the mummy can be used for DNA comparison still needs to be verified, but the video evidence collection from street surveillance cameras is more targeted.
"This is the identity information of the five victims who were stalked." Li Ao handed down a stack of information. "While we can't rule out the possibility that the mummy was stalking randomly and indiscriminately, we should pay special attention to the fifth victim. She had physical contact with the mummy and her soul was subsequently taken away. She may have a special meaning to the mummy."
Tu Lanxun quickly browsed through the information. The social relationships of these victims were completely unrelated. The information of the fifth victim had been read several times, but apart from her younger brother and mother, she had few relatives from other places. From elementary school to university to work, she had lived in Lucheng.
Especially the inferred year of death of the mummies. At that time, the fifth victim was still in college or even high school, and it was impossible for him to have any connection with Bada Panshan or the Tianguo Group.
"If we separate the relationship between the mummy and the black fog and then establish a binary opposition, Captain Li, what role do you think the mummy played in the incident where the black fog was chasing the soul of the fifth victim?" Tu Lanxun asked cautiously.
Li Ao pondered for a moment and said, "That depends on what would have happened if the fifth victim's soul hadn't been forced to leave his body."
Wen Chong tapped away on his computer keyboard and quickly responded, "The ghost in that black mist is quite aggressive, and it's probably in a disguised state. In experiments simulating the flow of power, a person's soul has different properties before and after leaving their body. Xiao Lu?"
Lu Lianbing was distracted while twirling his pen. When Wen Chong pointed him in the face, he quickly replied, "Oh, that's right. After a living person's soul leaves the body, it exhibits a dual nature: a more fragile and autonomous nature."
"What do you mean?" Xiao Zhang asked confusedly.
Lu Lianbing narrated, "That sounds a bit contradictory, doesn't it? The concept of 'living' itself is more vulnerable. When the soul leaves the body for a long time, the body can easily fall into a vegetative state or become demented. Furthermore, the soul's perception of the world can become hazy and blurred, manifesting as melancholy, confusion, and even a lack of self-interest and confidence."
Tu Lanxun thought of two cases, one was Nan Shaochen, and the other was Liu Maosheng's friend named Yang who was in a vegetative state in the hospital.
Lu Lianbing continued to explain, "As for autonomy, let me put it this way: who do you all think you are? What defines you?"
Everyone looked puzzled. Lu Lianbing smiled and continued, "Every day, you walk with your own legs and see with your own eyes. What defines you is actually your body. But please note that the body and the soul are not the same thing. When I speak to you now, do you think it is the 'self' framed by the body that is listening, or the soul itself?"
Xiao Zhang continued to raise his hand: "What's the difference? Can't I listen with my body and soul?"
Lu Lianbing retorted, "The human body will eventually perish, and only after leaving the body can the soul fly freely. This isn't to affirm religion, but the philosophical difference between body and soul is probably like that between an apricot and an almond. The soul state allows 'you' to realize that 'you' are now an 'almond' rather than an 'apricot.' That's the difference."
"I understand." Tu Lanxun suddenly raised his head. "You mean that when the fifth victim's soul was in the body, she was a soul that was dependent on the mortal body as a whole. What she saw, heard, thought, and moved were all in accordance with the needs of the body and the living person. And the soul was unconscious in the body, just like an almond sleeping for a long time in the hard kernel of the apricot."
Wen Chong's eyes flashed with admiration. "That's right. Souls can sense dangers that mortals can't perceive or resist. Just like when we saw the fifth victim's soul fleeing at low altitude, the black fog didn't catch her so easily. If she hadn't left her body, remaining in her own body, her soul might not have had time to awaken and respond to the attack, and would have been captured or killed."
Xiao Zhang understood and was a little incredulous: "Director Wen, you're talking about... the fifth victim's soul leaving his body. Could it be the result of being 'protected' by the corpse?"
Wen Chong nodded slightly. Another police officer frowned slightly and said, "But there's still one thing I can't figure out. The mummy ran all the way from Badapan Mountain to Lucheng, causing such a commotion. What on earth was he trying to do?"
DNA testing would take time, so another wave of officers were dispatched to conduct searches. Tu Lanxun and the others watched the surveillance footage with tears in their eyes. Just as she was about to go out and sense the location of the black fog, she saw Li Ao answer a phone call, and his expression suddenly changed.
He looked up at the others and said hurriedly, "We found the mummy!"
Xiao Zhang quickly asked: "Ah, where is it?"
Li Ao's expression became even more bizarre, and he said, "The police station... the mummy walked in to report the crime himself."
#
Throughout the afternoon, criminal police from nearly half of Lucheng were searching for the dried corpse. The buildings in the courtyards were sparsely populated for fear of causing worse consequences.
But no one expected that the Nanjiao Police Station, which was so empty that only two people were on duty, welcomed a person who reported a case on this tense and confused afternoon.
The man didn't look like one of the local residents. He was wearing a brown coat and walking unsteadily along the wall. His clothes and shoes were very dirty. I don't know where he came from. He was a performance artist.
He looks like this, could he have been robbed or kidnapped?
Xiao Guo, the police officer on duty, stood up and was about to record the case, but he heard Lao Cui scream while getting water next to him. A paper cup of mineral water was poured all over the surface of his shoes. Lao Cui's face turned frighteningly pale, as if he had seen a ghost.
It was like seeing a ghost. Xiao Guo turned his head and saw that the person who reported the case had just taken off his hat and torn mask, revealing a bald head with few hairs attached. The scalp was stuck to the skull like dried and wet brown paper. Where the ears used to be, there were only two pieces of dark flesh that almost merged with the scalp.
Is this a human?
Before Xiao Guo was mentally prepared, his eyes subconsciously fell on the face of the reporter. The bridge of his nose was still there, but it was wrinkled into a narrow cone, and his lips were tightly pursed into two short lines. What was even more terrifying was the pair of eyes on the dark face, which were squinted by two lines of palpebral fissures that were as hard to move as fruit shells. The few short eyelashes that were left were tilted to this and that, revealing the turbid, non-spherical, sunken eyes.
The pair of sunken eyes looked at him, the tanned cheeks moved, and a word came out from between the lips: "Hello, officer, I'm calling the police. I've been murdered."
Xiao Guo no longer knew what fear was. His mind quickly combined the scene before him with the thoughts of the document sent by his superiors for review a month ago.
Xiao Guo pushed aside Lao Cui, who was still watering himself, and plucked up his courage to walk across from the desk. He took out a piece of paper and a pen and said, "Could you please tell me your name, age, registered residence, address, and the details of the case?"
He felt that Lao Cui was looking at him nervously, as if he was doing something crazy, but Xiao Guo suddenly had an idea, and once it was formed, he could not suppress it.
——He is a policeman.
The person opposite him is not a living person, but he, Xiao Guo, is a policeman!
He enforces justice, whether in death or in life. Addressing needs is part of his job. Isn't that the natural order?
What's wrong with the deceased person himself reporting the case?
Xiao Guo's emotions were surging, and an invisible light was flowing through him. He wanted to pat the corpse's shoulder and say in a male announcer's voice, "Brother, how can I help you?"
#
When Dangtu Lanxun and Wenchong Li'ao arrived at the Nanjiao Police Station, the record-taking was almost finished.
The brown figure sitting across from the table was actually the mummy itself.
"Five years ago, I was murdered by Qianniu of the Tianguo Group and my body was dumped on Badapan Mountain..."
"Maybe the place where my body was dumped was special. My body didn't rot, but turned into a mummy instead."
The sound was extremely unpleasant, as if it came from hell. The mummy's vocal cords no longer vibrated, and it was his soul that was speaking.
The mummy stood up and, as if to prove something, peeled off its rotten coat, revealing its shriveled body underneath. Blunt wounds covered the entire front of its torso, the edges of which had long since shrunk and dried up, looking like beef jerky, which was terrifying to see.
"I myself... am the evidence of his guilt..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
