"Although this case is indeed very strange, I don't see what it has to do with you police officers, right? You don't need to cause trouble at the police station, do you?" Luo Tianhe couldn't help but say.
Even if the truth of the case cannot be found and the police seem somewhat incompetent, there's no need for them to cause trouble.
If everyone did this, then who would want to be a policeman?
The files in the archives are mostly unsolved cases where the murderer could not be found.
If everyone acted like them, the police station would never have a peaceful day; there would be people causing a ruckus every single day.
“You’re right, that was indeed the case. But because the cause of death is unclear and there are some suspicious circumstances, and the family insists, the body has not been cremated for the time being. Instead, it has been kept in the morgue’s freezer for further investigation.”
"On the third day after the body was laid out, his relatives came from all over the country to see him one last time. We couldn't stop them, and that's when the accident happened."
At this point, Zhang Qiang's voice was somewhat bitter, and there seemed to be a hint of regret.
What could possibly go wrong if you were looking at a corpse?
I was a little confused and urged Zhang Qiang to continue.
After a moment's pause, Zhang Qiang continued, his voice still tinged with shock:
“He had been dead for quite some time. We put him in a freezer, like the kind used in hospitals, about the size of a coffin, like a drawer that you pull out.”
"The person in charge of showing them the body and pulling out the drawer felt like the drawer was rusted shut. It was extremely difficult to pull it out. It took them a long time to finally get it out."
"The policeman didn't think much of it at the time, and neither did the victim's family. When they saw that he had been pulled out, they went over to see him one last time. What they saw was shocking. The victim's family discovered that the young man's stomach was inexplicably bulging half a meter high, like he was ten months pregnant. No wonder it was so difficult to pull him out; his belly was stuck on the top of the cabinet!"
Upon hearing this, Luo Tianhe, Li Huai, and I exchanged glances, all seeing the surprise and uncertainty in each other's eyes.
When a corpse decomposes, it produces gas, and the abdomen does indeed swell, creating the so-called gigantism phenomenon.
However, this usually occurs several days after death, when the temperature is suitable and bacteria multiply rapidly.
The body was still very fresh when it was first discovered!
Even the skin is very elastic.
Immediately afterwards, it was put into a freezer with a very low temperature. Logically speaking, it is impossible for the stomach to swell to such an exaggerated degree in just three days!
Even if it were placed in the wild, it wouldn't be like this!
"And then?" A sense of foreboding began to creep into my heart.
"Then things went completely wrong. The police officers who went with him were almost scared to death, and the two family members were also terrified. At first, they didn't say much, but later they insisted that we hadn't kept a close watch on him and that someone had moved his body and made him look like this."
At this point, Zhang Qiang's voice changed from helplessness to indignation.
“I can understand the feelings of the deceased’s family, but this is utter nonsense. The police station has CCTV footage, and no one has ever been inside! Besides, who would want to mess with a dead person and leave their body like this!”
"And then what happened to the body? It wasn't cremated, was it?!" I pressed, determined to see the body with my own eyes to find out the truth!
"Heh, damn it, cremation, I'd like to! If we had cremated earlier, there wouldn't have been so much trouble! But if we cremate now, it's like having mud in our pockets, even if it's not shit, it's still shit!"
Zhang Qiang rarely swore.
"Okay, don't be too anxious. We'll go to the police station tomorrow. I want to see what's going on!"
I reassured them, saying that it was too late for us to go to the police station again, and it wouldn't make a difference if we went tomorrow morning.
"By the way, this actually happened several days ago. You guys were busy before, and I thought the time was still manageable, so I didn't tell you."
I nodded. What he said was indeed true. Recently, because of Zhou Wenxiu's case and the mass grave a while ago, we have been extremely busy.
"At the time, I felt it wasn't necessary to trouble you with this matter, so I found an outside helper, an old expert from the province who was said to have researched abnormal corpses and difficult cases. His surname was Han, and he was very old. He was a retired forensic doctor. Moreover, he was an advisor to the Folklore Society, not the kind of scientific school that just scoffed at the mystical arts."
Is the expert surnamed Han a retired forensic doctor and consultant of the Folklore Society?
These two somewhat conflicting identities piqued my interest in the old man.
"What did the expert say? Did he figure something out?"
I couldn't help but ask.
"Well, he wasn't one to seek fame or fortune. After examining the corpse a few times, he wrapped the freezer in layers of yellow cloth covered with runes, welded the door shut with metal strips mixed with cinnabar and iron filings, and then affixed a seal to the outside..."
"This expert told me privately that the state of the corpse was extremely abnormal, and could not be explained by normal decomposition or pathological phenomena. He mentioned some taboo legends about 'yin fetus' and 'corpse pregnancy'..."
"A ghost pregnancy? A corpse pregnancy? I remember you just said the deceased was a man, right?" Li Huai, standing to the side, widened his eyes, his voice trembling.
“That’s right, it’s a man.” Zhang Qiang’s affirmative voice came from the other end of the phone. “It’s precisely because it’s a man that the deceased’s family is so angry; they feel it’s an insult to the deceased!”
Upon hearing this, we couldn't help but look at each other in bewilderment.
To have one's body altered to resemble a woman in her tenth month of pregnancy after death is indeed a great insult to a man.
But no normal person would think of such a way to take revenge!
This family has such a vivid imagination.
"By the way, have you investigated the deceased's belongings? Did he come into contact with anything unusual?"
I suddenly remembered something and asked Zhang Qiang on the other end of the phone.
"Now that you mention it, I remember. There really is one. Among the deceased's belongings, we found a very small peach wood amulet hanging on his keychain. However, it was a long time old, and the carving was very rough. It looked like something from a street stall. If it weren't for Expert Han's inspection and his statement that something was wrong, we would never have been able to tell the difference even in eight lifetimes."
"Did the expert Han say anything about the origin of that peach wood amulet?"
I couldn't help but press for an answer. Judging from Zhang Qiang's admiring manner, it seemed that the old expert Han really did have some real skills.
"He seemed to have figured something out and went to look it up, but he didn't tell me."
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