SFTD -Chapter 247 Rabies Virus (Part 2)

Half an hour later, in Autopsy Room No. 1 at the center.

This autopsy room had practically become Zhou Hai’s personal domain. Before he had even returned to the center, Xu Biao had already contacted Fengzi—the newly appointed leader of Group Two—and asked them to prepare for the examination.

At that moment, Zhou Hai raised both hands and nodded toward Xiao Liang. Xiao Liang immediately switched on the recording equipment and began the formal introduction.

“The deceased is Ye Xiuyuan, male, 24 years old, a graduate student at Su University, and an online fugitive wanted by Yancheng police. He was involved in organizing telecom fraud operations involving over 200 million yuan.

During the course of the fraud scheme, he also incited his subordinates to severely injure a man surnamed Yu in order to take Yu’s girlfriend.

Local police originally began investigating him over a public security incident, which subsequently exposed his telecom fraud activities. He was placed on the national wanted list in early 2014.”

The deceased’s clothes had already been cut away and placed on a nearby table. Xu Biao stood beside the new trace examiner, Zhang Wenqi, explaining how to collect samples while coordinating with Zhou Hai’s autopsy work.

Zhou Hai once again examined the body surface carefully. Other than the wound on the forehead and the scratches on the fingers, there were still no additional marks on the corpse.

His hands moved across the back of the head and the top of the skull. Only the occipital area showed slight swelling, indicating that after the frontal impact injury, the victim had died very quickly.

Abandoning the conventional dissection procedure, Zhou Hai proceeded directly with opening the skull. Sure enough, there was a fracture in the forehead area with obvious hematoma formation, and the countercoup injury at the back of the head was also evident.

Zhou Hai looked up at Xu Biao.

“Did you photograph the metal beam the victim hit at the scene?”

Xu Biao quickly stopped talking and returned to the autopsy table. After searching through the photos from the scene, he soon found the image of the protruding angle steel beam. Connecting the data cable, he projected the entire image onto the large screen. It became far clearer when enlarged.

“This is the angle steel beam the victim hit. It’s extremely thick and sturdy. I measured it—the dimensions are ninety by ninety millimeters, with a thickness of twelve millimeters.

And look here: the upper part is directly fixed into the floor slab, while four fire-control pipelines are connected horizontally to it from different directions.

I checked carefully, and there are quite a few similar installations throughout the underground parking garage.”

Zhou Hai studied the image, then glanced at the enlarged version on the distant screen, his brows knitting slightly.

“This beam is two and a half meters above the ground. Ordinary vehicles wouldn’t hit it. So how did the victim manage to crash into it?”

Xu Biao froze for a second. He had actually considered that question earlier. Quickly, he pulled up another photograph.

“There are tire marks beneath the beam. I figured a car had probably been parked there before.”

Wang Man thought for a moment and nodded.

“The entire underground garage was dark at the time, but I vaguely remember seeing headlights flash beside Ye Xiuyuan. I didn’t notice whether a vehicle actually passed through though. We were chasing him from the side, so we couldn’t see what was ahead of him.”

Zhou Hai nodded.

“The deceased was 182 centimeters tall. Adding the height of a car hood, that would already exceed 2.7 meters.

He must have been sprinting forward, jumped onto the hood of a car, and slammed his head directly into the angle steel beam.

The leap onto the hood, combined with forward momentum, would have generated enough force to shatter the skull.”

Wang Man nodded in agreement.

“Looks like my gunshot disrupted his judgment. Otherwise, this probably wouldn’t have happened.”

Xu Biao patted Wang Man on the shoulder.

“Captain Wang, don’t overthink it. This guy basically ran headfirst into a tree like a pig. Doesn’t have much to do with you.”

Wang Man laughed and slapped Xu Biao’s hand away.

“Cut the crap.”

Zhou Hai never stopped working. He continued the autopsy directly.

The victim’s body was in excellent condition. None of the organs showed abnormalities, and even the lungs were remarkably clean. It appeared the victim did not smoke. The stomach was completely empty, suggesting he had not eaten and had been constantly on the move, which explained the total gastric emptying.

Xiao Liang had already sent the collected samples to the laboratory. Fengzi finished suturing the body while Zhou Hai stood at the foot of the autopsy table with his hands raised.

“Judging from the autopsy, the deceased likely had no history of drug abuse. His lungs are too clean. Over ninety-eight percent of drug users also have a smoking history. In addition, there are no injection marks whatsoever on his arms, so drug use can basically be ruled out.”

Xu Biao paused, losing his earlier joking attitude.

“This guy… could he actually have cannibal syndrome?”

Wang Man looked at Xu Biao in confusion.

“Cannibal syndrome? Is that some kind of disease?”

“Not exactly a disease. It’s more of a hallucination caused by drugs, though people exaggerate it a lot. As for what exactly made this guy so violently agitated, I think we still need to wait for the lab results. Let’s head upstairs. This kind of testing is very fast.”

Zhou Hai stripped off his protective suit and all his equipment. Fengzi had already finished suturing the corpse, while Xiao Liang busied himself arranging for the body to be transferred into cold storage.

Watching them work together, Zhou Hai smiled faintly.

Wang Man looked puzzled and nudged him with his shoulder while walking.

“What are you grinning at? You look creepy.”

Zhou Hai glanced at Wang Man’s honest-looking expression and shook his head slightly.

“Seeing Luo Yunfeng and Xiao Liang handling things so independently makes me happy.

“During the autopsy just now, there were many tasks they completed on their own without needing me to say anything. That’s why I feel gratified.”

“Oh! I thought you’d figured out the case already.”

From behind them, Xu Biao poked Wang Man with a finger.

“You really don’t know how to talk. You’re even worse than Beauty Chu—every sentence stabs straight into someone’s lungs.”

Wang Man looked innocent.

The three quickly returned to the office. Before they had even sat down, Zhou Hai’s phone rang.

Seeing it was Sister Zeng’s office number, he answered immediately.

“Sister Zeng, how is it? Did the results come out?”

On the other end, Sister Zeng snorted twice. She had probably heard about Zhou Hai’s recent situation and didn’t bother teasing him further.

“Mm. The results are out. Rabies virus was detected in Ye Xiuyuan’s body.”

Zhou Hai froze and immediately switched the phone to speaker mode, afraid of missing any detail.

“Rabies virus? How could it be rabies virus? The deceased had no external injuries or broken skin. Even rabies infection requires a wound for transmission!”

Sister Zeng’s voice rose several degrees.

“If you don’t know, then I know even less! Anyway, if you need more tests done, come find me anytime. Hanging up!”

She ended the call almost as if fleeing from the conversation.

Xu Biao and Wang Man hurriedly leaned closer.

“Rabies virus?”

Zhou Hai frowned and nodded slightly.

“The rabies virus contains five proteins: glycoprotein (G), nucleoprotein (N), polymerase (L), phosphoprotein (NS), and matrix protein (M).

The glycoprotein of the rabies virus can bind with acetylcholine, which determines its neurotropic nature.

So once the virus begins attacking the nervous system, it causes irreversible damage to the human body.

Most people know rabies as hydrophobia, but fear of water is only one symptom.

In the early stages, patients experience low fever, loss of appetite, nausea, headaches, fatigue, and general discomfort.

Then symptoms progress into extreme terror, hydrophobia, fear of wind, spasms of the throat muscles, difficulty breathing, trouble urinating and defecating, excessive sweating, and drooling.

Finally comes hydrophobia along with violent mental agitation and loss of reason.

This Ye Xiuyuan displayed exactly that kind of violent mental instability. Such symptoms are actually very rare.

Right now, the first priority is notifying Xiao Zeng to get a rabies vaccination immediately.”