Chapter 81: A Terrifying Memory

The coroner led us to the door of the morgue, took several pairs of white gloves and masks from a cabinet beside it, and handed each of us a set. After we put them on, he opened the door and went to the storage tables numbered twenty-one through twenty-five. My master glanced at the tags and lifted the white cloth from one of the bodies. He then did the same for the other three, inspecting all four corpses before returning to us.

Captain Liu looked at my master’s expression and said to the coroner, “Please explain the situation.”

The coroner nodded, walked over to one of the male bodies, forced its chin upward, and pointed to the area between the jaw and the neck. “The deceased are three men and one woman, all between twenty-one and twenty-five years of age. The three men are local residents; the woman is from the northeast. Time of death was between eleven and eleven-thirty on the night before last. All four have marks on their necks consistent with strangulation, and their faces turned dark and bluish after death. Our preliminary examination suggests they died of asphyxiation by strangling. But the strange part is this—look here.”

As he spoke, he pulled back the upper half of the cloth covering the male corpse and pointed to its chest. There, I saw a hole in the center of the chest, about the size of a ping-pong ball. The coroner said, “At first we all concluded they died by suffocation. But after further examination, we found that each of the four had a blood hole of the same size in the chest, while the internal organs were intact. That is the second oddity. And there is a third.”

Captain Liu asked in disbelief, “A third?”

The coroner nodded, supporting the dead man’s head and lifting it up. He pointed to a spot on the back of the skull. “The third cause of death is here. All four victims had their occipital bones pierced by a blunt object. When they were delivered, their brain matter had already stained their hair. After cleaning them, we found that the back of the skulls appeared to have been punctured by the pointed end of a hammer. This is also where the worst injuries were. So we still do not have a precise conclusion. The injuries are identical in all four bodies, and there are too many unresolved questions about the deaths. Captain Liu, give me a little more time. I will submit an accurate report as soon as possible.”

Captain Liu nodded. My master walked to another body nearby and examined the same three places. Just as the coroner had said, the wounds were in the same locations. He covered the body again and came back, then said, “They should all have been frightened to death.”

His words stunned everyone there, except me. The coroner frowned at him. “What makes you say that?”

My master smiled. “Though the four appear to have died from external injuries, you have all focused on those injuries and overlooked something else.”

“Brother Tan, what is your opinion?” Captain Liu asked.

My master removed his mask and gloves, walked back to the corpse, and we followed. He pressed on the victim’s temples; they were soft, as though they might crumble at a touch. Then he said, “The four victims did indeed suffer serious external trauma, and your examination was not wrong. But think about it: for a normal person, suffocation, a hollow chest, a shattered skull—any one of those is enough to cause death directly. So why would the killer go to such lengths? When someone is terrified enough, or driven into mental collapse and death, the temples can soften like tofu. Perhaps you do not know this, or perhaps medicine has not discovered it yet. That is not your fault. So I infer that before death, the victims first sustained lesser injuries, such as bruises on the thighs or back, while the fatal blow was not one of the wounds we can see.”

When he finished, the coroner’s frown deepened, as if someone had intruded into his professional territory, and his expression turned sour. Captain Liu looked at my master half in belief, half in doubt, wanting to ask something but hesitating. I was also somewhat puzzled, yet I understood what my master meant: the four victims had probably already died before their chests were caved in and their skulls shattered, and it was very possible they had seen something so unexpected that they were scared to death. From my master’s tone, the final conclusion seemed to be that the victims were first injured by the killer, then frightened to death, and afterward the killer, still unsatisfied, continued the assault, which produced the scene before us.

In the end, Captain Liu could not hold back any longer. He looked at my master and asked in confusion, “Brother Tan, isn’t this conclusion a little too early? I mean, why are you so certain they were frightened to death rather than killed by their injuries?”

My master shook his head. “A guess.”

That single word stunned Captain Liu and the coroner again. The coroner now looked at my master with some contempt and said, “Sir, before the killer is caught, every conclusion is only speculation. If what you say is true, if these people were frightened to death, then how do you explain the killer opening their chests and striking through the backs of their heads? Usually, once a killer achieves his purpose, he flees the scene at once.”

My master nodded. “That is not wrong either. I am only guessing. Keep investigating the details. Captain Liu, didn’t you say there was another eyewitness at the scene? Can you take me to see her?”

He shifted the topic away at once, and the coroner’s mood darkened. He stepped aside and covered the bodies. My master glanced at him, then Captain Liu said, “Yes. We found a female witness at the scene. She is currently recovering in the hospital, but she has already lost her mental stability, so we cannot get anything from her.”

My master waved a hand. “It’s fine. Just take us there.”

Captain Liu had no choice but to nod. After greeting the coroner, he led us out of the morgue and to the hospital. Soon we got out at the hospital entrance. Under Captain Liu’s guidance, we met the female witness from that night. At the moment, she was half-reclining in bed, staring fixedly at her own hands, saying nothing. Her face was very pale.

Her family sat nearby, looking helpless and heartbroken. When they saw Captain Liu arrive, they greeted him. He nodded and asked about her current condition. It was the same as before: since the police found her, she had not uttered a single word, and her gaze had remained vacant. My master walked over, patted Captain Liu, then turned to the girl’s parents and said, “I am a psychologist. May I speak with her alone?”

Her parents were surprised. Captain Liu then said to them, “It’s all right. I also need your help with something.”

Only then did the girl’s parents nod and follow Captain Liu out. After the door closed, only my master and I remained in the single-occupancy ward. My master smiled, pulled a chair over from the side, and sat beside the girl. He said, “Little sister, what is your name?”

The girl said nothing and did not even look up at him. My master asked several more questions, but she still did not answer. At last, he sighed, waved his hand, and a streak of spiritual light flew into the top of her head. The girl suddenly shuddered, then lifted her head and looked at us dazedly. My master smiled again. “Little sister, we are here to help you. Can you tell me your name?”

She kept staring at us like that for a long while before finally whispering, “My name is Chen Siqi.”

“Chen Siqi? What a lovely name. Would you like some fruit?”

Smiling, my master pointed to an apple in the fruit basket nearby. Chen Siqi gave a slight nod. My master peeled an apple and handed it to her. She took it, but did not eat it, only held it in her hands and stared at it. My master set the fruit knife on the table and said, “Siqi, can you tell us what happened that night?”

As soon as he finished, Chen Siqi seemed to remember something horrifying. The apple slipped from her hand onto the bed. She stared in terror at the bedsheet and, sobbing with fear, said, “D-don’t come over here. H-help... help me, help me!”

Seeing this, my master immediately patted the crown of her head and comforted her. “It’s all right now. Don’t be afraid, Siqi.”

With his reassurance, Chen Siqi, who had been agitated a moment before, gradually calmed down. Her eyes were still red as my master continued, “It’s all right, Siqi. Don’t be afraid. Look, it’s broad daylight now.”

He pointed toward the sky outside the window and laughed softly. Wanting to ease her tension, I also smiled and said, “Yes, everything is fine now. Your parents are waiting outside. You need to get better soon too. There are still many fun things waiting for you, heh heh.”

I deliberately gave a foolish grin. My master rolled his eyes at me, but Chen Siqi finally showed a smile that had been rare these past few days. Seeing that it was working, my master went on, “Then, Siqi, can you tell us what happened that night? We are all here to help you. If you really do not want to speak, we will not force you. Just rest well.”

Without waiting for her answer, he rose to his feet. It seemed he had already expected her to speak in the end. Sure enough, just as we turned to leave, Chen Siqi suddenly cried, “Wait!”

My master smiled faintly and returned. Chen Siqi looked at us and asked, “Are you police?”

My master glanced at me and said with a smile, “We are more professional than the police.”

I smiled too. Chen Siqi nodded and asked again, “Can you really help me? I’m almost being driven insane. I... my good friends, they all... sob...”

At the end, she broke down crying again. My master comforted her with a few words, took several tissues from the box beside him, and handed them to her. Chen Siqi wiped away her tears, gripping the tissues tightly, and looked at us as she began to speak.