Lin Dongxue stepped forward and reached out to touch the man. She found that the man's skin was as cold as ice. His trousers were bulging, and ginger-colored excretion dripped down from the trousers onto the ground, and the skin that the rope had bitten into was dark purple. His two eyes bulged out, as if they would fall out at any moment. His face was flushed and swollen. The skin elsewhere was completely different. At first glance, it was as though he was wearing an eggplant-colored mask.

Chen Shi went over. "He’s been dead for at least a day. Protect the scene and call Old Peng!"

Peng Sijue rushed to the scene with his people and began to survey the scene according to the standard procedure. He turned his head and found that Chen Shi was sitting on the sofa and drinking a bottle of soda. He scolded, "You’re drinking things at the murder scene again?"

"The scope of what you control is so large. Do you need this to be tested? I’ll keep the bottle for you if you need to test it!" Chen Shi shook the soda bottle in his hand.

Peng Sijue took a camera and photographed Chen Shi’s cocky expression while he was sitting with his legs crossed. Chen Shi said carelessly, "What? You want to report me? I don’t care!”

Lin Dongxue was so annoyed that she laughed. "Captain Peng, he’s teasing you. This bottle of soda was bought outside. It wasn’t taken from here."

Peng Jue glanced at Chen Shi angrily and continued to work.

Lin Dongxue had long noticed that the left ring finger and pinky finger of the corpse were gone. The injuries should have been old ones. When the forensic police carefully lay the corpse down, the scene was quite exciting. The excrement in the corpse's pants was scattered all over the place. They had to pick up the feces for sampling. Chen Shi felt sick from watching and wanted to leave quickly.

"Captain, what’s this?"

"It's a tattoo. Old Chen, come and take a look."

Chen Shi popped his head back in from the door and walked back. The tattoo was a little special. A stripe was tattooed on the forehead of the deceased. The pattern was very abstract. Everyone studied it for a long time. Chen Shi said, "Isn’t this male genitalia? Aren’t the words I used very refined?"

Peng Sijue glared at him. "No ivory comes from the mouth of a dog[1]."

The tattoo was indeed that of male genitalia. Based on the color, it had been tattooed a long time ago. The deceased might have found it embarrassing and deliberately kept his hair long in front to cover it.

All kinds of signs showed that this victim definitely had enemies.

Peng Sijue examined all parts of the deceased. "The cornea is quite cloudy, the pupils are visible, there are small folds on the surface, the rigor mortis has partially dissipated, and the livor mortis is starting to stabilize. The time of death should be about 24 hours ago."

Chen Shi added, "Don't forget that the victim had been hung up. The rope was tightly tied around the neck, so the air couldn’t enter the internal organs. Therefore, the decaying process would slow down. The time of death must be brought forward."

Peng Sijue said disdainfully, "Do I need you to remind me? This has already been taken into consideration."

"Are you still holding a grudge? What a narrow-minded guy."

The naked eye couldn’t tell whether it was suicide or homicide. There was a chair upside down on the scene with shoe prints on it, but Chen Shi felt that the shoe prints were too clear. If the deceased had kicked it backwards, they would be a little blurry.

Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi went out to interview the neighbors. The deceased’s house and the surrounding houses were all old bungalows. There was no property manager at all. The neighbors said that they were not familiar with the victim. He had moved in not too long ago and they hadn’t noticed any suspicious people come or go recently.

As they were investigating, Lin Qiupu came with some people and Lin Dongxue asked, "Captain Lin, why are you here?"

"This case is about to become a serial killing case. I came over to have a look. Do you think that it has something to do with the previous case of the victim falling from the building?"

Chen Shi said, "It’s 80% likely that they are connected, but this is just a series of murders, not serial killings."

After Lin Qiupu entered the house, Xu Xiaodong said mysteriously, "Two people committed suicide. Could this be the female ghost taking revenge?"

"Yes, one hundred percent right!" Chen Shi applauded. "The case has been solved, the case has been solved. Let's go and invite a master exorcist to catch the ghost tonight."

"Aiya, Brother Chen, don't laugh at me. I just said it casually." Xu Xiaodong said with shame.

"Ah yes, I need you to do me a favor."

"What favor?"

"I’ll tell you later!"

After the on-site evidence collection was completed, everyone was ready to take their leave. Chen Shi said, "Let Xiaodong stay!"

"Let him stay?" Lin Qiupu was surprised, and Xu Xiaodong also looked shocked.

"The deceased's interpersonal relationships are chaotic. There’s a high probability of him having enemies out there. If we go directly to them, those people won't say anything. I think it's better to wait and see if anyone will show up at the door."

"It’s fine if we just ask the neighbors to look out for these kinds of things."

"Did you see the deceased man's missing fingers and the dick tattoo on his forehead? I think that ordinary people won’t dare to provoke the people who would come and look for him. It's better to leave a policeman on guard!" Chen Shi patted Xu Xiaodong’s shoulder. "Xiaodong's skill is good, he’s got courage and he’s young and vigorous. There aren’t a lot of people as suitable as he is."

Xu Xiaodong’s cheek twitched awkwardly.

"Xiaodong?" Lin Qiupu asked him for his opinion.

Xu Xiaodong stood upright at once. "Let me stay. This is an opportunity to make a contribution."

"Okay then!"

After getting into the car, Lin Dongxue said, "You always manipulate Xiaodong into your traps."

Chen Shi replied seriously, "No, I think he has a pure heart without any distractions, so he’s very suitable for this kind of work."

"Doesn't that mean that he's stupid and easy to deceive?"

"Haha, you saw through it!"

The previous autopsy report had come out. Gu Daqiang’s body contained anesthesia that had been ingested through the digestive system. His autopsy records showed that he hadn’t made any defensive actions when he fell so he should have been comatose.

No container containing the drug was found at the scene, but there was a bottle of wine in the refrigerator that had just been opened. However, no wine-glass was found. The police suspected that the murderer had a drink with Gu Daqiang, took the opportunity to spike the wine, and then took the two glasses away.

The suspicious figure that appeared in the surveillance footage couldn’t be identified as they were all covered up. They discovered through another surveillance camera that the person had come out of the subway station. This was the last clue that the police could find.

After nightfall, Xu Xiaodong sat in the dimly-lit house. Although it had been cleaned up there, he still felt scared at the thought of someone hanging from the beam in the house. Whenever his line of sight shifted away from the beam, it seemed like the person was still hanging there, swaying left and right.

He secretly encouraged himself, telling himself that this was the test Chen Shi had given him, and that he had to stick it out.

He told himself that there were no ghosts in the world and that there was nothing to fear.

It was just that the atmosphere was too gloomy. It was unclear where the air had seeped in, but the temperature there seemed to be lower than outside. There were no street lights outside. Occasionally, there were dog howls and the noise of a quarrel between the couple next door. There was a water pipe leaking somewhere, with the sound of water dripping. These sounds made up the background sounds there.

"Awu!"

Xu Xiaodong trembled in fright when a stray cat screeched outside. He looked back and saw the old furniture hidden in the dark, looking as if they were something strange.

When he thought about it, Chen Shi had told him to stay, but he didn’t mean that he had to stay overnight, right? Could he head back?

At that moment, there was a sudden sound of footsteps outside…

1. No good words are expected from a scoundrel.