SFTD -Chapter 66 Who’s Next? (Part 4)

Zhou Hai shook his head and picked up the femur.

“First, the knife wasn’t suitable. Second, it might be a strength issue. And third, possibly a lack of experience. I believe the cause of death was blood loss from a severed neck.”

“But there are also minor cut marks on the limb bones?” someone asked.

“You already said it yourself—minor cuts, so they aren’t fatal. We’ll wait for Xiao Liang’s bone smear slides before making a final conclusion.”

With that, the three of them walked toward Victim B.

Victim B’s head had already been cleaned. After brushing aside the messy long hair, the facial features were revealed.

Xu Biao quickly started taking photos from every angle without missing a detail.

Because the head had been hanging beneath the manhole cover, close to the ground surface, decomposition was very severe. Xu Biao stepped back and steadied himself.

“Haizi, why is the head decomposed more severely than the torso? It was hanging there and didn’t even touch the water.”

“The optimal humidity for decomposition is around 70%, so being submerged in water actually slows it down. Also, the head’s hanging position was closer to the surface, where the temperature is higher than in the water, so decomposition progressed faster.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is. I thought water made it rot faster!”

Zhou Hai placed a magnifying glass over the wound on the neck. The cut surface had contracted; muscle tissue and blood vessels had all retracted upward, exposing the cervical vertebrae.

Although the fracture surface was damaged, one could still sense how clean the killer’s technique was—one strike severed the cervical spine gap, then cut through muscles and soft tissue of the neck.

Even Zhou Hai and the others couldn’t perform such a clean cut—unless it was someone like a butcher who did this daily. After all, this weapon seemed more suitable than the one used on Victim A.

“The neck wound has been heat-treated, probably… to stop the bleeding,” Zhou Hai said.

Fengzi leaned in and looked. The wound surface was indeed heavily contracted.

“It seems this case is getting more complicated. There are no heat-treatment marks elsewhere on the head.”

Xu Biao shuddered so hard his DSLR almost fell.

“What—boiled? Boiled human flesh? No, boiled a human head? Ugh—”

Seeing the two of them look over, he quickly covered his mouth. He knew Zhou Hai disliked being interrupted during analysis and didn’t want to attract trouble.

Zhou Hai had already shaved the victim’s hair clean and was fixing the head in preparation for a craniotomy.

A burning smell filled the autopsy room. Along with the piercing sound of the electric saw, the door opened again and Chu Menghan walked in.

Xu Biao turned around upon hearing the sound and waved at her. Chu Menghan, wearing protective clothing and a mask, stepped in cautiously.

“Beauty Chu, you’re here so early?”

Xu Biao lowered his gaze to her shoes and raised an eyebrow.

“You didn’t go home last night, did you?”

Chu Menghan paused and looked at him. She hadn’t expected Zhou Hai’s team to be so observant.

“How do you know?”

Xu Biao pointed at her shoes.

“Yesterday everyone went into the sewer. Our clean and fashionable Beauty Chu is still wearing shoes covered in mud. Obviously, you didn’t go home and worked through the night.”

“Impressive. How’s your progress?”

Xu Biao bumped her lightly with his shoulder and lowered his voice.

“When Haizi is dissecting, don’t interrupt him. The consequences are serious.”

Chu Menghan glanced at him, noticing his unusually serious expression rather than a joke, and nodded.

Zhou Hai had already opened the skull. The brain tissue was intact. After inspection, he placed the brain and skull back and sutured them.

With the saw stopped, only occasional “sizzle… sizzle…” sounds came from inside the room, accompanied by a strange meaty smell.

“What’s that sound?” Chu Menghan asked.

Without looking up, Fengzi replied while continuing his work:

“We’re boiling the pubic symphysis in a pressure cooker to remove soft tissue for comparison.”

Chu Menghan immediately covered her mouth. Her body’s hairs stood on end—this was the smell of human flesh.

After steadying her breathing for a long while, she suppressed the nausea.

Seeing that she hadn’t left, Zhou Hai finally looked up.

“You should wait in the office. The smell is too much for women.”

Chu Menghan stubbornly stood her ground, lowering her hand without responding, silently proving him wrong through action.

Zhou Hai didn’t have time to focus on her. His mind was filled with questions.

The torso dissection no longer required opening the abdominal cavity. He held a magnifying glass and carefully examined the cut surface.

The victim’s internal organs were partially missing—the stomach, intestines, and spleen were largely gone—but the remaining organs were intact, including a fully preserved uterus. Inside it, Zhou Hai unexpectedly found an IUD.

After collecting samples, he sutured the severed torso.

Then he examined the victim’s perineal area closely with a magnifying glass. Chu Menghan felt slightly awkward and her cheeks warmed under the mask.

But Zhou Hai’s soft “Hmm?” broke her embarrassment.

“What is it?” someone asked.

“She has an IUD inside her body, so how could there be fresh tearing in the hymen?”

Zhou Hai examined it again and slowly nodded.

“Got it. She had reconstruction surgery—at least four or five times.”

Xu Biao took photos as instructed.

To be honest, none of them could see much. Only under Zhou Hai’s forceps did the tissue come together, showing faint pale nodules on both sides.

“Are these nodules the clue?” Xu Biao asked.

“Yes. It’s scar hyperplasia. She likely underwent anti-scar treatment, but the results weren’t ideal. We’ve probably identified the victim’s profession.”

Looking at the time, it was almost eight o’clock.

“Xiao Liang, are the bone slides ready?”

“Yes, they’re done!”

Xiao Liang quickly delivered the polished bone slides to Zhou Hai. Satisfied with their thickness and quality, Zhou Hai nodded.

“Good. Send these slides and tissue samples for testing. Do HV testing on both Victim A and B.”

Xiao Liang ran off with the samples.

Zhou Hai removed a layer of gloves and his protective suit, then walked to the high-powered microscope and placed the slide under it.

Chu Menghan asked quietly, “What are you observing?”

Fengzi lowered his voice:

“Zhou is looking at changes inside the bone canal. In a premortem fracture, there will be bleeding around the bone tissue, which infiltrates the surrounding structure. So we check whether there is hemoglobin inside the bone canals. If the fracture happens after death, there is no blood circulation, so this won’t occur.”

Zhou Hai had already found small dark red spots inside the bone canals—hemoglobin infiltration. He pressed the camera button, and the screen showed the magnified area.

“Look. This is the cervical vertebra fracture slide of Victim A. There are red blood cells here and here. Although not many, it confirms this was a premortem injury. So Victim A died from a severed neck.”

Chu Menghan gasped. Xu Biao shrank his neck.

“So it really was beheading? What kind of hatred would make someone kill like this so brutally?”