SFTD -Chapter 33 Giant Cadaveric Swelling (14)

Zhou Hai quickly walked over.

A bloodstained baseball bat appeared before the two men.

Xu Biao’s face lit up with excitement.

“Haizi, this should be the wooden murder weapon you were talking about, right?”

Zhou Hai nodded.

“It matches Xu Zekai’s head injuries perfectly. Pack it up and send it for testing!”

Humming a tune, Xu Biao fetched a large evidence bag and carefully sealed the baseball bat inside.

As he turned around, he seemed to notice something. Squatting beside the trunk lid, he pulled out a magnifying glass and examined the support rod. Two silver fibers swayed gently in the wind. Their reflective material caught the light for an instant, which was what drew Xu Biao’s attention.

The waterproof tarp wrapped around the corpse had been cut open. These fibers were probably scraped off and caught there while the body was being moved.

Xu Biao quickly collected the fibers and hair into another evidence bag.

By then, the front doors of the Cayenne had already been cut off by the workers.

The two men began inspecting the interior of the front cabin.

Zhou Hai sat in the passenger seat and copied Xu Biao’s method, using a screwdriver to pry open the glove compartment beneath the dashboard.

A stack of paper documents lay inside.

Carefully taking them out, Zhou Hai sifted through useless items like insurance advertisements until several folded sheets caught his attention.

When he unfolded them, he discovered they were photocopies of a secretly photographed document, entirely in English. It read:

Among the three submitted samples labeled 1, 2, and 3:

The genotypes at the STR loci between samples 1 and 2 conform to Mendelian inheritance patterns, indicating a single-parent biological relationship.

Between samples 2 and 3, the loci DZ1S11, D16S539, VRA, and Penta E show no identifiable genetic source, indicating no biological relationship.

It seemed Xu Zekai had secretly investigated the paternity test results involving himself, Xu Xiangyuan, and Wan Zhiyong.

Zhou Hai stored the papers away. As he continued flipping through the remaining advertisements, a thin slip of paper fluttered to the ground.

He bent down to pick it up and realized it was one of Yu Lijuan’s ultrasound reports.

The date on it was March 6th, 2014.

It showed that Yu Lijuan had been twelve weeks pregnant.

Zhou Hai froze.

During the earlier autopsy, he had overlooked this completely. He had only performed the routine collection of vaginal swabs and had not dissected the uterus.

He immediately called Xiao Liang.

“Xiao Liang, thaw Yu Lijuan’s body. We’re conducting a second autopsy this afternoon.”

“Oh, alright!”

Xu Biao leaned over.

“What’s wrong?”

Zhou Hai handed him the ultrasound report sealed inside a transparent evidence bag.

“I made a mistake during the autopsy. I failed to notice Yu Lijuan was pregnant. Later, when we return to the center, I’ll perform a second autopsy.”

Xu Biao pulled off his gloves and patted Zhou Hai on the shoulder.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. This was an accidental discovery. The vehicle inspection’s finished anyway. Let’s head back and have Sister Zeng run the tests. We’ve got plenty of samples.”

Zhou Hai raised the secretly photographed paternity report in front of Xu Biao.

“I just found this. Looks like Xu Xiangyuan once took Xu Zekai’s and Wan Zhiyong’s hair samples for a DNA paternity test. For some reason, Xu Zekai later found out about it. The copy in his possession was printed from secretly taken photos, definitely not obtained through official channels. Now we just don’t know whether this was the reason Xu Zekai was murdered. And with Yu Lijuan also dead, whoever turns out to be the father of the child immediately becomes more suspicious. Looks like our line of investigation is correct. We just still can’t determine whether Wan Zhiyong or Xu Xiangyuan is the primary culprit.”

Xu Biao slapped the equipment case shut.

“Then what are we waiting for? Back to the center for the second autopsy!”

The two packed up and drove back to the forensic center.

On the way, Xu Biao received a call from Fengzi.

“I just called the boss, but nobody answered.”

“Quit whining! Haizi’s driving. We were inspecting the vehicle just now, so all our phones were on silent. I only just switched mine back to ringtone mode.”

“Oh! Hahaha!”

Black lines appeared across Xu Biao’s face. Fengzi and Zhou Hai really were alike—both a little eccentric. Hearing him laughing to himself was genuinely hard to deal with.

“Stop acting lovestruck, alright? If you don’t have anything important to say, I’m hanging up.”

Fengzi hurriedly stopped him.

“Don’t hang up! Xu Biao, I found a razor in Xu Xiangyuan’s house with blood on it. Pretty lucky, huh?”

Xu Biao burst into laughter.

“Very lucky. Come back to the center. We also found some evidence that needs DNA comparison.”

It was already past noon when they returned to the center.

After submitting the evidence for testing and grabbing a quick meal, Zhou Hai led Xu Biao, Fengzi, and Xiao Liang into the autopsy room for the second examination.

Following the original incision path, they reopened Yu Lijuan’s abdominal cavity and removed the uterus.

Sure enough, attached to the uterine wall was an embryo about the size of a child’s fist.

Fengzi’s eyes widened.

“My god! She was actually pregnant! How did you know?”

Zhou Hai frowned slightly.

“We found an ultrasound report while inspecting the vehicle, so I decided on a second autopsy. During the first examination, we made assumptions too quickly. We thought identifying the cause of death was enough. I didn’t expect the real case details to be hidden here. That was my mistake, and I’ll note it in the report.”

Fengzi blinked repeatedly.

Seeing Zhou Hai being so serious made him feel ashamed of himself.

Xu Biao leaned closer.

“Haizi, are you stupid or what? You’re the one who found all this evidence, and now you want to pin a charge on yourself too? Let’s just focus on the work!”

Zhou Hai shot Xu Biao a grateful glance, removed the embryo, placed it into a specimen tray, and handed it to Xiao Liang.

“Xiao Liang, send it for testing.”

Fengzi re-sealed the corpse into the body bag and wheeled it back to the freezer storage.

Xu Biao and Zhou Hai removed their masks and gloves and stood silently in the autopsy room.

“Sigh… She was a pretty girl. Only twenty-three and already dead. An orphan who managed to get into Tongji University must’ve been hardworking and motivated.”

Zhou Hai glanced sideways at Xu Biao.

“Don’t judge things by appearances. Ordinary people are easily deceived by surface impressions. For women who have never given birth or undergone pregnancy, the cervical opening is circular. But women who have delivered children—including abortions or induced labor—will show tearing marks at the three o’clock and six o’clock positions of the cervix. That causes the cervical opening to become flattened into a straight oval shape. Yu Lijuan’s cervix was exactly that shape. Moreover, her uterine wall was extremely thin, likely the result of multiple curettage procedures. The fact that she was able to become pregnant again was already difficult enough. I never expected that…”

Xu Biao’s eyes widened in confusion as he stared at Zhou Hai.

“Haizi… did you work in obstetrics and gynecology before?”

Zhou Hai paused while removing his protective gown, then ignored him entirely.

After cleaning up, Zhou Hai returned to his office and called Captain Huang, briefing him on their discoveries.

“Captain Huang, all the laboratory analyses and examinations are being rushed through overnight. Tomorrow morning, I’ll bring all the results to the July 28th special task force meeting. Tonight, you can conduct an intensive interrogation of Wan Zhiyong. Start with Yu Lijuan’s death. Ask him why he killed her. Judging from how carefully Yu Lijuan’s body was wrapped, Wan Zhiyong clearly had feelings for her. Her death is his greatest emotional weakness.”

Captain Huang, however, did not sound excited.

“Alright, understood. We’ll begin the interrogation tonight. Sigh… If Wan Zhiyong is the murderer, things are manageable. But if it’s really Xu Xiangyuan, then we’re in trouble. China and the UK don’t have an extradition treaty… what are we supposed to do then?”