SFTD -Chapter 59 The Tragedy of an Entire Family (Part 12)

Zhou Hai shook his head and pointed at the row of perfectly ordinary men’s clothing.

“People with a cross-dressing fetish usually don’t appear this normal in daily life. Perhaps our suspect is also suffering from dissociative identity disorder. It’s just that his other personality is female.”

Xu Biao’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“My god! A psychologist who’s actually suffering from dissociative identity disorder himself? Isn’t that a little ironic?”

Beneath the women’s clothing was a cabinet with doors. Zhou Hai casually opened it and found a cardboard box inside. Pulling it out, he discovered several more nested boxes of different sizes.

Each one was labeled with women’s clothing brands, all dated from the beginning of the year.

“Maybe some kind of outside stimulus awakened the personality he’d been suppressing,” Zhou Hai said. “We need to find out what happened at the start of the year that caused Fang Qing to change so drastically.”

Xu Biao thought for a moment and leaned closer.

“I remember Fang Qing saying he started treating Zhang Junya near the end of last year. Could it be related to that?”

The two continued searching.

Under the master bedroom bed, they found a suitcase filled with sex toys—whips, ropes, handcuffs. Xu Biao quickly packed everything away and carried it off.

Suddenly, a shout stopped them in their tracks.

“Brother Hai, we found a knife!”

Carrying the box, Zhou Hai ran toward the voice.

Xiao Liang was coming out of the kitchen, holding up a long, narrow knife wrapped in an evidence bag. The blade looked extremely similar to the one Zhou Hai had sketched earlier.

Single-edged. The blade curved slightly toward the edge, with a broader tip that gradually narrowed toward the back. The spine was wider than that of an ordinary dagger.

Zhou Hai took the knife and gently pushed a finger across the flat of the blade. A translucent, greasy substance smeared onto his glove.

He lifted it to his nose and sniffed.

“Vaseline. It’s the same substance found in Zhang Junya’s neck wound. We can run a comparative analysis.”

Raising a magnifying glass, he examined the blade about one-third from the tip. Sure enough, there was a tiny chip in the edge.

A blade this sharp would definitely chip if it struck bone with enough force.

Carefully, Zhou Hai placed the knife into the large evidence bag Xu Biao had prepared. Turning around, he noticed Xiao Liang looking troubled.

“What’s wrong?”

Xiao Liang sighed.

“We found the knife, but it’s been scrubbed completely clean. It’ll probably be hard to find blood traces.”

Xu Biao lifted his chin proudly.

“Hey! Don’t underestimate your Brother Xu’s skills! Leave it to me—I’ll definitely find blood residue. Blood isn’t something you can completely wash away just by scrubbing it clean. Even if it’s been boiled in hot water, traces can still be extracted. It’s just that the proteins get damaged and the DNA structure deteriorates, so extraction becomes harder.”

“Seal the scene for now. Let’s get back and run the tests immediately. Compare it with Fang Qing’s DNA.”

Three in the afternoon, third floor laboratory department of the Forensic Identification Center.

Zhou Hai paced anxiously in front of the door. The glass door opened, and he turned to see Sister Zeng and Xu Biao walking out.

“Well?”

Sister Zeng wore a smile.

“You could at least pretend to be polite. You know we’ve basically been working around the clock for your 8.25 task force. I haven’t gone home in two days!”

Zhou Hai looked awkward.

“Uh… thanks for your hard work, Sister Zeng.”

Xu Biao threw his head back and laughed. His chubby face instantly moved to within two centimeters of Sister Zeng’s arm.

“Sister Zeng is the best! Our Second Team’s cases have been exploding lately. Our Hai-zi is so busy he’s practically forgotten how to talk. Please bear with us! I’m dying to complain to somebody! Once this case is over, we’ll treat you to dinner!”

Amused by Xu Biao’s clingy behavior, Sister Zeng pushed his face away.

“Alright already. I appreciate the thought, so stop acting cute with me. Hurry and look at the results. Look how anxious Forensic Doctor Zhou is!”

Taking the report, Zhou Hai quickly flipped through it.

The cufflink contained Zhang Junya’s blood. Although the surface had been wiped clean and no complete fingerprints remained, Fang Qing’s DNA was discovered on it.

As for the knife, the chipped section of the blade contained Tong Xinwei’s blood. In the gap where the blade met the handle, they found a mixture of blood from Zhang Junya, Tong Xinwei, and the little boy. Fang Qing’s fingerprints were also found on the handle.

The evidence was conclusive.

Zhou Hai immediately called Captain Liu and explained all their findings and evidence one by one.

Captain Liu sounded delighted.

“Great! As long as we can nail one of them!”

Zhou Hai suddenly stopped walking.

“What? Still no sign of Liu Handong?”

Captain Liu rubbed his temples as he walked out of the hospital surveillance room.

“Nothing at all! We reviewed every surveillance camera and still couldn’t find a trace of Liu Handong. Chu Menghan already pulled footage from all the surrounding roads too, but there’s still no progress. This Liu Handong… it’s like he vanished off the face of the earth!”

Even Zhou Hai found it strange.

With surveillance cameras everywhere nowadays, disappearing without leaving any footage was practically impossible.

So where exactly was the problem?

“Captain Liu, which hospital are you at? We’re done here already. I want to go take a look at Liu Handong’s hospital room.” First Affiliated Hospital, inpatient department.”

Zhou Hai froze.

“First Affiliated Hospital? Could Liu Handong’s disappearance be connected to Fang Qing?”

Captain Liu slapped his thigh.

“Damn it, I forgot about that possibility! I’ll have someone interrogate Fang Qing again immediately. You come over and help Chu Menghan look for clues.”

Half an hour later, Fengzi drove the four of them to the hospital with police lights flashing the entire way.

The moment they got out of the car, Xu Biao and Xiao Liang both crouched on the ground, trying to recover from the dizziness.

Rubbing his forehead, Zhou Hai slowly helped Xu Biao up.

“Fengzi, you seriously should be a race car driver.”

Xu Biao weakly bared his teeth.

“Hai-zi, confiscate his driver’s license. No—revoke it entirely! That was f*cking terrifying. My internal organs feel like they’ve all switched places!”

Zhou Hai immediately let go of the swaying Xu Biao.

“Revoke it? Then who’s going to drive from now on—you?”

Xu Biao smacked his lips and pushed Zhou Hai toward the inpatient building.

“Pretend I didn’t say anything. Come on, don’t keep Beauty Chu waiting.”

By now Xiao Liang had recovered. He and Fengzi each carried two equipment cases as they walked over.

“Brother Xu, don’t try to avoid manual labor.”

Fengzi grinned wickedly.

“This won’t do, Xu Biao. I only drove you around a couple laps and now your legs are weak and your whole body’s drained. You’d better start taking supplements. Otherwise once you get married, you’ll be even weaker!”

Xu Biao shot Fengzi a resentful glare, stood up on his own, and grabbed the evidence case from Xiao Liang.

“So impure. Let’s go—I’m off to see Beauty Chu.”

Following the location Captain Liu had provided, the four entered Inpatient Building No. 2 and climbed to the fourth floor.

At the eastern end of the hallway stood a large group of police officers.

Without question, this was the room where Liu Handong had “disappeared.”

The group hurried over.

Chu Menghan was currently watching a colleague review surveillance footage. Hearing footsteps, she looked up and saw Zhou Hai. A trace of gratitude appeared on her face.

The matter of Liu Handong had already gone beyond the scope of their original work, so she was genuinely touched that they had come to help.

“Forensic Doctor Zhou, you’re here!”

“Mhm. Tell us the situation. Maybe we can help search for clues.”

Chu Menghan nodded and began explaining.

“Last night, when we returned from Yunlian Port, it was already close to one in the morning. Liu Handong’s condition had been terrible the whole time. He was drowsy and barely conscious—we couldn’t wake him up at all. His fever was extremely high.”

Zhou Hai suddenly raised a hand, interrupting her.

“Wait. When you found Liu Handong, was he already in that condition?”