03 Friends

I reasoned that the eyeball stuck in the drain was most likely the left eye that had been gouged out from the previous victim. That raised a question: when was this left eye shoved into the water outlet of my washbasin?

As I recalled, before leaving to handle the call, I hadn't seen this eyeball. But now I wasn't entirely certain; after all, I hadn't paid close attention at the time, and I couldn't jump to conclusions since even the slightest time difference could lead to a completely different judgment.

To put it crudely, if the eyeball had been there when I first woke up from my drunken stupor, I couldn't even rule out the possibility that I had shoved it in there myself after getting drunk. After all, I had a history of sleepwalking and dissociative episodes, and doing something like that while drunk wasn't entirely unheard of.

On the other hand, if it had appeared only after I left for the police call, then I had a solid alibi, proving it definitely had nothing to do with me.

Thinking about this, I already dialed Miao Miao's number, asking her to come to my dorm to retrieve the eyeball.

Miao Miao arrived promptly. She didn't seem to care much for our male living quarters, keeping her gaze strictly straight ahead as she stepped inside. Fortunately, I kept my place reasonably clean without any eccentric odors like smelly socks, so I didn't feel particularly awkward.

Miao Miao quickly used a pair of tweezers to carefully extract the eyeball and place it into an evidence bag. To be honest, I truly admired her skill; if I had tried to pick it up myself, I would have undoubtedly crushed the eyeball, squeezing out its fluids.

Then I asked her, "Miao Miao, can you tell when this eyeball was placed here?"

Miao Miao asked me directly, "How many times did you wash your face earlier?"

I told her I had splashed my face thoroughly to sober up before heading out on the call, and had just rinsed it again after coming back.

As soon as I finished speaking, Miao Miao replied, "This eyeball must have been put in after you left for the police call, because I can see the blood on it hasn't completely faded yet. If it had been shoved in before your first wash, even if the flowing water didn't wash it down the drain, the blood on it would certainly have been rinsed away."

Hearing Miao Miao's words, I let out a sigh of relief. That being the case, the possibility of me doing something wicked while drunk was completely ruled out.

However, my heart leapt back into my throat almost immediately, because I suddenly thought of one person: Bai Ye.

Since the perpetrator wasn't trying to frame me, but simply wanted to create a sense of horror and leave me panic-stricken, this behavior felt precisely like the style of a stalker.

Could it be that Bai Ye wasn't actually dead, and was still lingering around me like a shadow?

Yet, I soon dismissed this as unlikely. While I couldn't claim to know Bai Ye inside and out, I felt I understood him. At the very least, although he was evil, he was by no means petty or sleazy; he would never stoop to something as disgusting as rape.

For a moment, my thoughts became somewhat chaotic, and I lost my grasp on the motive behind this rape case.

At that moment, Miao Miao had already walked to the door, holding the evidence bag with the eyeball. Suddenly, she turned her head and said to me, "Chen Mu, I'm going to perform an autopsy on that female corpse. Aren't you coming to take a look?"

Hearing Miao Miao's words, I immediately followed her. For one thing, I could learn a thing or two from her; for another, I wanted to find out the cause of death of the female corpse as soon as possible.

Soon, we arrived at the autopsy room. It was just the two of us and the female corpse, giving me a rather bizarre feeling. Being alone with such a stunning beauty not to romance her, but to dissect a corpse—it was simply a terrible waste of natural talent.

Miao Miao, on the other hand, was completely unfazed. She treated me as if I were invisible, stepping up to the autopsy table and handling the female corpse directly.

She didn't cut open the woman's abdomen; instead, she pried open her mouth and inserted a long steel rod down her throat.

Shortly after, she withdrew the steel rod, picked up surgical forceps, and began to cut into the lower parts of the corpse.

As she cut open the woman's lower body, Miao Miao said to me, "There are no other fatal injuries on her body. Preliminary judgment indicates she died of erotic asphyxiation."

Miao Miao's single sentence instantly dragged my mind into the gutter. I thought to myself that the perverted rapist must have been quite intense to actually screw someone to death.

Suddenly, I recalled how Miao Miao had frowned back at the victim's house, saying there was something uncertain that could only be determined after the autopsy. I immediately realized there might be other hidden secrets.

Sure enough, when I saw the mutilated lower body of the corpse, I couldn't help but shudder. To be frank, it was truly grotesque.

From the outside, the woman's lower body didn't look particularly abnormal, but once Miao Miao made the cuts, I saw that the interior was completely ruined, a bloody mess, and severely swollen—resembling an ulcerated rot that had suffered from gynecological diseases for hundreds of years.

While I was still reeling in shock, Miao Miao said to me, "See? This is what I wanted to tell you back at the victim's house. This is not a normal rape case at all."

Hearing this, my heart skipped a beat, followed by a chill running down my spine, making my entire body creep out.

What did Miao Miao mean? Could it be that a ghost had committed the crime? Had a ghost raped this woman?

Just as I found this unbelievable, Miao Miao opened her mouth, then hesitated as if wanting to say more.

I urged her to speak her mind. Then, with a rare, faint blush coloring her cheeks, she said to me, "I don't mean supernatural forces. I mean it wasn't a normal rape. The victim was ravaged to death by some massive instrument, not a man's reproductive organ. This might be a clue; I suspect the killer either lacks sexual capability, or is a woman. Of course, the possibility of a homosexual male committing the crime cannot be ruled out either. Causing the victim to die of erotic asphyxiation wasn't for the pleasure of rape, but out of revenge."

Miao Miao's words made my heart leap in my throat. I couldn't help thinking how twisted the culprit was, literally stabbing someone to death! But since the woman died of erotic asphyxiation, at least she must have felt pleasure when she died...

As I was lamenting to myself, a sudden series of loud knocks sounded at the door, startling me. It turned out to be Fatty.

I had previously asked Fatty to help me investigate the victim's identity. I hadn't expected him to find out so quickly; his work efficiency was truly impressive.

Fatty spoke directly to me, "Chen Mu, I've checked. The deceased was an elite student named Huang Feifei, a senior majoring in dance. She didn't have a boyfriend, but she was being kept as a mistress. The crime scene is the hideout where the man keeping her stashed his golden canary."

Upon hearing Fatty's words, and connecting them to what Miao Miao had just said, I immediately suspected whether the man's wife had committed the crime out of revenge. But to directly stab someone to death was far too twisted, and stuffing an eyeball into my drain for me to see... what on earth did that have to do with getting back at Huang Feifei?

As I was pondering this, Fatty continued, "Although this Huang Feifei was pretty, her social circle wasn't wide. Aside from school, she spent most of her time at her residence. We haven't found any enemies or personal grudges."

I hurriedly asked, "What about her parents? Does she have any siblings?"

Fatty replied, "I checked, but she's an orphan and no parents could be found, which completely rules out the possibility of her being killed because of her parents."

Hearing this, I felt the most pressing task was to investigate the social circle of the man who kept Huang Feifei. He and his wife were prime suspects in the crime.

However, right at that moment, Fatty suddenly said to me, "Oh, by the way, I have another discovery. This Huang Feifei was a friend of my idol Jin, so this case is in the bag—it'll be solved in a split second. My idol Jin won't just sit by and do nothing."

I was taken aback and asked Fatty what kind of thing an "idol Jin" was. He glared at me and said he meant Jin Ze.

Then I was stunned. The deceased Huang Feifei actually turned out to be a friend of Jin Ze. It turned out they were from the same orphanage and had kept in touch afterward.

Because of this connection, I decided I must immediately inform Jin Ze of Huang Feifei's death. Not to ask him to help solve the case, but simply out of the duty of a friend.

However, just as I pulled out my phone and before I could even find Jin Ze's number, my phone suddenly rang. As if telepathically linked, it was Jin Ze calling.

I answered, and Jin Ze spoke directly, "Chen Mu, even though this isn't good news, I don't want to keep it from you. I plan to tell you right away."

Hearing his tone, my heart skipped a beat, thinking to myself that this wasn't good. Could Huang Feifei's case be the result of Jin Ze losing control after drinking? Theoretically, that was completely impossible.

I hurriedly asked Jin Ze what was going on. Jin Ze said directly, "Huang Feifei, the one you shot and killed not long ago—her corpse's interior has also rotted, just like the assassin Chen Mu's."

Hearing this, my heart violently leaped into my mouth. It felt like a bolt from the blue, sending a numbing shock straight up my scalp.