SFTD -Chapter 237 The Strange Dagger

Zhou Hai briefly explained what had happened. Liu Da and Xu Biao also entered the room at this point. After all, Zhou Hai was the one who had endured the greatest pain. Xu Biao and Liu Da then described some of the conditions at the scene as well.

Father Lu helped Mother Lu sit down on a chair. He had regained some composure by now and wiped away the tear stains on his face before looking at Liu Da and Zhou Hai.

“Have you found the killer?”

Zhou Hai shook his head and tightened his grip on his own arm.

“The issue we need to discuss with you and auntie right now is this: we need to perform an autopsy on Lu Xi. We need to check the wound to see if it left behind any additional clues.”

Mother Lu suddenly stood up and grabbed Father Lu tightly.

“No, no autopsy! Don’t agree to it!”

Lu Zhengfei patted Mother Lu’s arm and held her in his embrace.

“Don’t be like this. Although we don’t want to accept reality, Xixi is indeed gone. Zhou Hai’s love for her is no less than ours. Only by performing an autopsy can we find more clues. Only then do we have a chance to catch the killer. Otherwise, the more time passes, the slimmer our chances of solving the case become. Do you want the person who harmed Xixi to go free?”

Mother Lu’s tears began to flow again. As she lowered her gaze, she noticed the little girl squatting on the ground, hugging her knees and silently crying. Thinking of how much Xixi had loved this child, she reached out and pulled her up.

“Silly child, let’s all stop crying. Let your brother handle the next steps. We must catch the bastard who hurt Xixi.”

Hearing this, the little girl looked up at Zhou Hai and slowly walked over to him, resting her head against his chest.

She touched the dried blood on his sleeve. She could feel Zhou Hai’s pain—and this pain was even deeper than her own grief. Now that Xixi was gone, only “Brother Zhou Zhou” could take care of her.

“Brother Zhou Zhou, go do your work. I can take care of Uncle Lu and Aunt Lu. I’ll stay at the Lu family for now. Come pick me up after you’re done.”

Zhou Hai tightly embraced her. No tears came from his eyes. This was not the time for crying.

He patted her head and only then noticed the blood on his own palm. He quickly turned his hand downward to hide it.

“Alright. I’ll take your Xixi sister away now.”

Zhou Hai looked once more at Lu Zhengfei and his wife and nodded slightly to them.

Xu Biao had already arranged for staff to come in. Zhou Hai glanced at him and shook his head, then covered Lu Xi’s face with a white cloth and carried her out of the emergency room.

He did not want her placed inside a body bag. The Lu family’s parents would not want that either. Because that kind of visual impact leaves a pain that can never be erased.

They left the emergency department and got into the car, heading toward the center.

Center, Unit 1 Autopsy Room.

Liu Da stood in front of Zhou Hai, gripping his shoulders with both hands. He had already changed into protective clothing.

He had previously cleared everyone else out, leaving only Zhao Xinli, “Fengzi,” and Xu Biao.

“Haizi, I suggest you don’t take part in this autopsy. After all, that’s Lu Xi. We’re human too. We have emotions. If you participate, you may never be able to come out of it.”

Zhou Hai shook his head.

“Director Liu, don’t stop me! I’m fine. Very calm and rational. In terms of homicide case analysis, I don’t think anyone in the center is better than me. So I must take part in this autopsy. Besides, I’m only here to examine the wound and extract residual material—nothing else needs to be done.”

Zhou Hai’s firm attitude left Liu Da somewhat helpless.

Although regulations required Zhou Hai to avoid involvement, as he had said, he was the most authoritative person in homicide analysis in the entire center. Replacing him with someone else would not achieve the same result.

However, Zhou Hai’s calm and unwavering demeanor made Liu Da even more worried. He silently decided that a psychologist should be arranged later to help him process this.

“Alright.”

Liu Da turned and left the autopsy room.

Zhao Xinli looked at Zhou Hai.

“Should I perform the dissection?”

Zhou Hai nodded and said nothing more.

Zhao Xinli and Fengzi stood by the side and began examining the wound on Lu Xi’s back.

Dr. He had years of experience in outpatient work and had long coordinated with forensic teams, so he had already sent over photos of the wound with the dagger still embedded, along with the dagger itself.

Zhou Hai looked up at the image on the large screen and gestured for Xu Biao to zoom in.

The round metal handle at the back of the dagger was almost completely embedded in Lu Xi’s body, while at the chest exit wound, the blade could be seen clearly—it was a semi-curved blade with an extremely sharp tip.

He turned to the dagger on the autopsy table and picked it up.

The touch was extremely cold and heavy.

It was a dagger he himself had once ground and modified. It should have been made from a steel pipe. Except for the handle, half of the pipe’s longitudinal surface had been cut away.

The edges were then sharpened into a blade. On the reverse side, about four to five centimeters below the tip, a groove had been carved all the way to the handle. This hollow groove acted like a blood channel, designed to cause rapid blood loss and death.

To cut a steel pipe into such a shape, with such precision—especially the blood groove, perfectly uniform without any roughness—this was not something that could be done by hand. It must have been made using professional machine tools.

Zhou Hai handed the dagger to Fengzi.

“Has the dagger been processed for evidence extraction?”

Fengzi nodded.

“Yes, just done. Handle, blade, blood groove, and internal cavities of the handle—all sampled separately. But this dagger is very unusual. Doesn’t it look more like a bayonet? The kind mounted on rifles in wartime?”

Everyone examined it carefully again. Ignoring the curve, it did resemble a bayonet.

But Zhou Hai shook his head.

“The steel pipe design only shows that the material was meant to be inconspicuous and easily overlooked. And the person who made this is someone the killer trusts. More importantly, the designer has medical knowledge—they know that rapid blood loss accelerates death and reduces the chance of rescue. Judging by this level of craftsmanship, this isn’t something made in one or two attempts. It suggests repeated production and great familiarity.”

Xu Biao shuddered.

“Haizi… you mean the killer commissioned a lot of these daggers? What is he trying to do? Anti-social? Anti-human?”

Zhou Hai did not answer. Without finding the killer, it was impossible to know what he was thinking.

His gaze fell on Lu Xi’s body.

The back wound was at the heart area but slightly off-center. Comparing it with the exit wound on the chest, this stab had not gone straight through.

Zhou Hai looked at Fengzi.

“Give me a probe.”

Fengzi quickly handed him one.

Zhou Hai inserted it into the wound. After advancing four to five centimeters, the track suddenly bent toward the front right.

This did not indicate hesitation from the attacker, but rather the effect of human body movement and force dynamics. The killer had swung his arm in a semi-arc motion, producing this trajectory.

And the arc from left to right suggested a left-handed motion pattern.

But what does that imply?

Was he chasing Lu Xi?