Chapter 17, Case D+, 'Headless'!

Central Hospital, morgue.

Long Hao walked in hurriedly with his team.

His face showed both confusion and a hint of disbelief.

He had just left with the Instructor not even half an hour ago.

And here he was, back again in the blink of an eye.

Returning alone would have been fine, but what left him confused and unable to comprehend was...

How did Chen Mo run into another case!

Is he the reincarnation of Conan?

Everywhere he goes, a case happens?

It's absurd!

"What's going on?"

He scanned the morgue; there were quite a few people: three doctors, a middle-aged couple, and a familiar-looking old man.

Finally, his gaze landed on Chen Mo's face.

He wanted an explanation.

"..."

"That's basically the situation. I discovered it by accident."

Long Hao pursed his lips. Although Chen Mo explained it very vaguely, he could guess that Chen Mo hadn't stayed properly in his hospital room and had suddenly come to the morgue with this Uncle Wang.

He was definitely here to watch the excitement.

The two of them were repeat offenders.

But this was a common hobby; it was just that Chen Mo and this old gentleman were a bit too curious.

The case having occurred was a set fact, and it had nothing to do with whether Chen Mo came to watch or not.

Naturally, he wouldn't blame Chen Mo for watching the excitement.

What's more, Chen Mo's status in his heart was no longer what it used to be.

"Forensics, start the Autopsy. You all, go check the victim's background."

Long Hao instructed everyone to get moving.

At the same time, his gaze landed once again on the three doctors, the middle-aged couple, and Uncle Wang.

"These people are all suspects. Oh, and the one on the ground, too. Take them all back for questioning."

Xiao Liu nodded and stepped out from the crowd.

"I... this..."

When Uncle Wang saw Xiao Liu walk up to him and skillfully pull out handcuffs, his vision went dark.

Again?

He really didn't want to go to the detention room again!

There was nothing there, and he'd have to sit for the whole night.

It wasn't like he committed the crime, so why was he always treated as a suspect?

"This has nothing to do with me. I came in with Xiao Chen."

Uncle Wang looked anxiously at Chen Mo, signaling for him to put in a word.

Last time he was treated as a suspect, he was helpless but could understand it; after all, who told him to walk directly into someone else's house?

But he hadn't done anything this time, right?

Why was he being treated as a suspect again?

It's unreasonable!

He still wanted to go home and watch the football match.

"A homicide has occurred. Everyone present is a suspect; this is a mandatory procedure."

When it came to matters of principle, Long Hao would not back down.

Chen Mo understood what he meant and helplessly shrugged his hands at Uncle Wang.

"Sigh!"

The old man let out a long sigh.

After Xiao Liu took everyone away, the two of them turned their gazes back to each other.

"We must first define the nature of this case before we can continue the investigation."

"If it's just simple stabbing of the corpse, at most it's the crime of insulting a corpse, and it has nothing to do with homicide."

Long Hao looked at Chen Mo; it wasn't to say that if it wasn't a homicide, they wouldn't investigate.

It was just that the level of attention couldn't be treated the same way.

"Mm, you're right."

Chen Mo also realized that using the word 'perpetrator' at this moment was indeed inappropriate.

But...

If it really was just simple insult to a corpse.

Could the case rating be D+?

It wasn't really exploiting a bug in the system's rating to know the difficulty of the case in advance.

Because how it would ultimately be solved still depended on him.

"I feel this case isn't as simple as it appears; we need to take it seriously." He wore a serious expression.

"Okay, I'll listen to you."

Long Hao didn't want to struggle with whether or not to take this issue seriously.

If Chen Mo said to take it seriously, then they would take it seriously.

Although he didn't state the reason, since he said so, there must be a reason.

He had unconditional trust in Chen Mo!

"There are many wounds on the victim's body; it feels like venting anger. In your words, the emotion of the perpetrator when stabbing was 'hatred'!"

On the front of the victim alone, there were over a dozen wounds left by a fruit knife, and there were quite a few on the sides as well.

The person was already dead, yet they still vented anger on the corpse. Without a doubt, the perpetrator hated the victim immensely!

Every knife blow that landed on the victim was releasing the rage in their heart.

"It really looks like something done by an enemy."

He agreed with this point too.

These were all obvious clues.

Just as the two were pondering, the results of the Autopsy came out.

"There are a total of twenty wounds on the victim's body. Based on the shape of the wounds, it should be a household fruit knife."

"The body has been stored here for about three days. Considering the temperature of the morgue, the wounds should have been formed within 24 hours."

"And judging by the wound on the victim's neck, the perpetrator also used a fruit knife to cut it, accompanied by obvious rotational marks."

The meaning of obvious rotational marks is that the perpetrator found it difficult to cut off the victim's head, so they chose to twist and pull it off.

This also explains why the victim's neck looked like a twisted dough twist.

And the time the wounds were formed was similar to what he had previously estimated; they were all formed within 24 hours.

Perhaps, at this time yesterday, the killer was standing right where they were, cutting off the head!

"Captain, Brother Mo, the information has all been found."

An officer walked in from outside, holding a stack of files.

"The victim is named Xu Qiang, 33 years old, elementary school education, worked in lending, with the main customer base being college students for nude loans."

"The cause of death was being hit by a truck three days ago. The driver fled, and the case was filed at the Tiexi Branch."

"We investigated his interpersonal relationships; he had no friends or associates. Collecting debts basically relied on a ruthless streak."

"According to news from the branch, because the victim couldn't collect debts, he forced two female college students to their deaths last month. It is highly suspected that the truck that hit and killed the victim was driven by the family members of the female students."

As the officer spoke, he took out a stack of documents.

These were all brought directly from the branch, saving a lot of investigation time.

In the files, there was footage captured at night by surveillance at the entrance of an Agricultural Bank.

The truck cab was red. The surveillance angle couldn't clearly show the face, but based on the build and clothing, it could basically be determined that the truck driver was a man.

"This is the older brother of one of the female college students, named Li Dong."

"This is Li Dong's usual attire; it's exactly the same as the person driving the truck in the surveillance."

"What's more interesting is that this Li Dong also happens to work as a truck driver."

Long Hao raised an eyebrow. He heard the implication in Xiao Zhang's words—there was something even more interesting.

Before he could ask, Xiao Zhang continued.

"What's even, even more interesting is..."

"The father of the other female college student who was forced to her death owns a fruit shop."

"And the wounds on the victim's body seem to have been made with a fruit knife, right?"

In an instant, a logical chain connected together.

Because Xu Qiang couldn't collect debts, he forced two female college students to their deaths. Afterward, the families were furious; one drove a truck to hit and kill him, and the other carried a fruit knife to vent anger on the corpse.

One can only say, the logic flows smoothly.

"It was solved so quickly."

Long Hao smacked his lips. He never thought a case involving insulting a corpse would be that complex.

But remembering what Chen Mo said earlier about taking it seriously, his heart, which had just relaxed, tightened again.

"What do you think?"

Chen Mo rubbed his temples. It was a bit strange.

It was too smooth.

It's not that being smooth is bad, but it was *too* smooth.

Unless the two were solely focused on revenge and had long been prepared to be caught by the police, they wouldn't have left so many clues.

But clearly, there were no remaining traces at the scene; the blood had even been wiped by the perpetrator before they left.

They clearly didn't intend to be caught by the police.

But then, how to explain so many obvious clues popping up?

"Interesting..."