SFTD -Chapter 49 The Tragedy of an Entire Family (Part 2)

Auntie Liu and the security guard looked at each other and both shook their heads.

“This is an old residential complex, so there’s only one guard on duty at night. I can only monitor the vehicles going in and out of the main gate. Around 11:30 to midnight, I make a round through each building to check whether the unit doors are locked.

But I didn’t hear a thing!

Oh, right!

Your people just went to the guard room to check the surveillance footage. But honestly, it’s useless. Along both sides of the compound wall, they planted wisteria vines. Once it gets dark, everything’s covered. Forget one person—even ten people could sneak in unseen.”

Chu Menghan turned sideways to look at the guard.

“If this was such a problem, why didn’t anyone report it earlier?”

Auntie Liu patted Chu Menghan on the arm.

“Girl, you can’t blame the guards for this. Those wisteria trees were planted when the school was first built. Once they’re older than a certain age, the landscaping bureau won’t allow them to be touched.”

“We’re going to inspect the scene.”

Zhou Hai had already gathered enough information. He and Fengzi changed into forensic coveralls, picked up their cases, and headed toward the lawn.

The boy lay on his back on the ground, long devoid of life, his body soaked in blood.

The blood wasn’t caused by the fall.

It came from his neck. The left side of the child’s neck had been slashed upward from below in a single cut. The wound was terrifyingly deep, exposing the cervical vertebrae, with only a bit of flesh still connecting the head.

Zhou Hai took a deep breath. Even Fengzi’s hands trembled as he photographed the body.

“My god…They didn’t even spare a child. What kind of hatred does it take to do this?”

Despite the shock, Fengzi quickly continued documenting the scene.

He glanced at Zhou Hai’s grim expression. He knew Zhou Hai felt no less disturbed than he did. The only thing they could do now was find the killer—that alone would offer any comfort to the dead.

Zhou Hai reached out and touched the deformed skull. The sound of bone friction was obvious, but there was no subcutaneous hematoma—a classic postmortem injury.

Clearly, the damage had been caused by the fall from above.

But even if the child had been thrown down after death, the impact sound should have been loud.

Unless it happened in the dead of night, when everyone nearby was asleep, a brief noise like that might not attract attention.

Around the boy’s body, Xu Biao hadn’t marked any usable footprints. After all, this wasn’t the primary crime scene. Zhou Hai stood up and carried his case upstairs.

Behind him, Fengzi called for the staff to bag the corpse.

Looking at the row of body transport carts, Fengzi’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably. It was his first time handling a full family extermination case. Clearly, Captain Liu had prepared thoroughly.

Fengzi quickly caught up with Zhou Hai and saw him standing motionless in the third-floor hallway.

Following Zhou Hai’s gaze, he noticed several bloody footprints on the floor.

But these weren’t shoe prints with tread patterns. They looked exactly like the flat prints left by the shoe covers the investigators themselves wore—completely smooth, without any design.

Moreover, after the prints reached the landing, they disappeared.

On the windowsill, a bloody glove print stood out starkly against the white wall.

“The killer’s anti-investigation awareness is extremely strong. Wearing gloves is understandable, but he even wore shoe covers.”

Just then, Xu Biao walked out from inside the apartment and set the forensic case down outside the west-side unit on the third floor.

“The passage is clear!”

Zhou Hai nodded and walked upstairs. There were no signs of forced entry on the lock.

The moment he entered, there was a small foyer.

Beside the shoe cabinet curled the body of a young woman. Her head drooped slightly toward the wall. She wore a red nightgown. On the eastern wall, a curved arc of cast-off bloodstains and a large amount of blood spatter were painfully conspicuous.

But the victim’s posture was strange.

When someone is mortally wounded, they do not consciously reposition their body before dying.

Unless the killer had covered her mouth, slit her throat, and then slowly lowered her body to the ground and propped it to one side.

But why do that?

To avoid alerting the others?

She was in pajamas and attacked at the entrance. That meant the killer either entered after knocking on the door—

Or was someone the family knew?

Zhou Hai stepped closer. Like the boy downstairs, the woman’s neck bore a slash from left to right. One clean, decisive strike—fatal without hesitation.

For someone familiar to kill so ruthlessly meant the grudge ran deep.

On the foyer floor, centered around the woman’s body, a massive pool of blood had already formed.

Stepping carefully across the forensic pads, Zhou Hai entered the living room.

The sight before him sent a chill through his heart.

The heavy smell of blood was nauseating. Zhou Hai tugged at his mask to create a little breathing room and took two deep breaths.

As a forensic doctor, seeing one or two corpses was routine.

But four bodies sprawled chaotically across the floor and sofas multiplied the psychological impact countless times over.

Blood covered the floor tiles, walls, sofas, glass, and sliding doors.

This was a slaughter.

On the single-seat sofa sat an elderly man.

His head was still tilted backward. Like the woman in red at the entrance, his throat had been cut in a single slash. Blood spatter covered the sofa and coffee table. A dark pool of blood soaked beneath him onto the mahogany couch and floor.

Lying across the three-seat sofa was an elderly woman.

Again, her throat had been slit.

But this time the victim had fallen face down across the sofa, so only the backrest bore scattered blood droplets. Beneath her face and on the floor were two pools of blood, though most of it had seeped into the red satin cushions, leaving only a small puddle on the ground.

Behind the sofa, directly in line with the foyer, lay another woman sprawled facedown.

Her head pointed toward the staircase, as though she had tried to flee upstairs.

But a single stab wound to the back had killed her instantly.

The strike had been incredibly precise.

However, stab wounds revealed the shape of the weapon. Zhou Hai hurried over, found a rounded probe, and inserted it into the wound.

The depth exceeded the length of the probe entirely.

Moreover, the wound channel curved slightly toward the left.

Zhou Hai froze.

The blade was curved.

And when withdrawing the knife, the killer had used a twisting upward motion. The internal damage was far smaller than the surface wound suggested.

That movement was highly professional.

After examining the central area, Zhou Hai walked toward the junction between the stairs and the kitchen doorway.

There, lying on his side, was a young man.

The moment Fengzi saw him, he nearly dropped the case in his hands.

“This is horrible! This… He’s practically been chopped apart!”

Behind him, Xu Biao muttered, “The first time I saw him, I was scared half to death too! I think the killer hated this guy the most. His death was the worst.”

It was true.

The man had apparently fought back, but he was no match for the killer. Defensive wounds covered both hands. His head, neck, and arms were riddled with cuts and slashes.

His abdomen and chest were covered in stab wounds.

Worst of all was his face.

Almost the entire face had been sliced away, with only a thin layer of skin still attaching it to the head.

Behind him, the glass sliding door was covered in streaming columns of blood, spreading across a huge area.

A few ideas were beginning to form in Zhou Hai’s mind as he stepped upstairs across the pads.

He needed to see where the child had fallen from.

None of the third-floor windows were open, nor was there anything near the windows a three-year-old could climb on by himself.

That meant the child could only have fallen from the fourth floor.

Following the path upstairs, the horrifying bloody footprints continued all the way upward.

There was even a long smear of blood along the wall.

Zhou Hai almost sprinted up the stairs.

Directly facing the staircase was a bedroom door hanging wide open. Bloody footprints stained the bed as well.

The windowsill, glass, walls, curtains, and white bedsheets were all covered with blood droplets of varying sizes.

The invisible mesh screen over the window had been torn apart.

Apparently, after the boy’s throat had been slit, he had fallen backward, and the screen had been unable to bear the weight, ripping open instantly.

As the torn screen fluttered ceaselessly in the wind, it felt as though everyone’s hearts had been ripped apart with it.