Murder Bureau within Bureau

  Life is not absolutely fair, and there is no absolute good or evil in the world. People live with opportunities and setbacks, with happiness and suffering. Sometimes, we may deprive others of everything to gain our own freedom, but this is not cruelty, it's just a survival instinct!

  In '05, I committed a grave sin and was sentenced to 20 years. Later, unable to bear the life in prison, I was recruited by the police as an informant. At that moment, my sentence was reduced, and from then on, I started living on the edge of a knife. How many times could I feel death approaching me? Bullets flew past my temples, and if the tip of the knife had been off by just a fraction of a millimeter, it would have pierced my heart. But I made it through, also becoming one of the survivors of a brutal case.

  There were twelve people who got reduced sentences with me, and in the end, only a few of us remained. I don't want this experience to be buried, I want to write it out, I firmly believe that the secrets hidden behind the case will shock you, making you see another side of the world. Death is not scary, living is harder than death, and even more so when life loses its meaning due to societal injustice!

  Let's start with the thing that happened half a year after my sentence was reduced. It was an autumn night, 3:30 in the morning. A thick fog had fallen outside, making the originally dark street look even more eerie and sinister. I was walking side by side with someone named Panzi along the roadside.

  We were both wearing a black windbreaker, which was one size larger than our normal size, completely hiding our body shape. We walked very slowly, occasionally whispering to each other, and in fact, we didn't have the mood for a stroll in this gloomy weather, but Officer Li Feng had arranged for us to meet at 4:00 pm in the backyard of the police station.

  We arrived at the back of the police station on time, pinching each other. The backyard of this police station is actually a parking lot, which is locked up with an iron gate in the evening.

  When I arrived at the door, I vaguely saw someone standing inside. Although the light was dim and couldn't see the person's face clearly, from the blurry outline, it could be discerned that this was Li Feng.

  Li Feng is in his thirties, and my evaluation of him is that there are too many mysteries surrounding this person. He originally looked quite handsome, and occasionally his movements would clearly tell me that he was a sloppy nerd before. But now, he's exceptionally dull, with a beard and unkempt hair, looking dirty and disheveled.

  He was leaning against the wall beside the door, lost in thought, and didn't notice us arriving at all. After Pan Zi and I stood there silently for half a minute, I had to clear my throat softly to remind him.

  Li Feng was alerted by this cough, turned his head and looked over, patted the back of his waist, took out a flashlight and shone it at us.

  This is a strong flashlight, and suddenly a beam of light shines on my face, making me extremely uncomfortable. My eyes are also stabbed with pain. But I didn't dodge, letting it shine on me, and said in my mouth, "Boss, it's us."

  Li Feng ignored me and shone his flashlight at Panzi. After verifying our identities, he opened the iron gate and waved us in.

  I was used to his silent way of doing things, so I didn't ask much. Panzi and I looked around, making sure there were no followers, then followed him in, one after the other.

  To be honest, this is the first time I've come to the police station at night. Before, I only stayed here before going to prison, and suddenly returning to "familiar ground" makes me feel a bit uneasy.

  I thought we were going into the police station building with Officer Li, but he didn't have that in mind at all and instead took us straight to a small house next to the building.

  I lingered in front of the small house for a moment and looked up. Above it hung a sign with three large white characters - "Morgue".

  These three words struck deep into my heart like an electric current, Panzi also looked at the sign and couldn't help but take a step back, shaking his head slightly.

  I nudged him gently with my elbow, as a reminder, and then led the way in. I have to say, the air conditioning here is very powerful, as soon as we entered, a blast of cold wind hit me straight on, it was like a knife, sweeping across my entire body in an instant. This extreme temperature change made me shiver uncontrollably, but I clenched my fists and endured it. Panzi, on the other hand, chattered his teeth for a while.

  There are four beds in the morgue, three of which have corpses lying on them. They were all covered with white sheets and their faces could not be seen. Their feet were exposed, with a ring hanging from each big toe.

  Perhaps Li Feng was already used to this environment, he wasn't afraid at all. He let us bring the door and beckoned us to gather around a corpse together. With one hand, he grabbed a corner of the white sheet and reminded us, "Don't be scared later!"

  But his reminder had the opposite effect, and his emphasis on not being afraid only made us more tense.

  I exchanged a glance with Panzi, and I nodded to Officer Li again. He pulled hard, exposing the corpse completely in front of us without any cover.

  I don't know what I felt at the time, anyway, just one glance and I was stunned on the spot. Panzi was even more frightened, let out a loud cry, retreated step by step, and only stopped when he backed into the corner of the wall.

  This is a female corpse, with a large sutured wound on her abdomen, which must have been stitched up after an autopsy. The top of her head was also wrapped in gauze, indicating that she had undergone trephining. Her hands were curled up like chicken claws, and the blood vessels on her arms were bulging out, clearly showing that she had suffered greatly before death. But what's most terrifying is her face, with her facial features twisted together, her mouth open to reveal her canine teeth.

  She seemed to be smiling before she died, but this smile was so ferocious that even the word "feral" couldn't do it justice. I've never seen anyone smile like that in my entire life.

  Li Feng kept looking at my and Pan Zi's reactions, perhaps he thought that this female corpse was not enough to shock us, so he walked to the other two autopsy tables and pulled down the white sheets.

  Three beds were placed side by side, and three gruesome female corpses appeared before me at the same time, the visual impact was indeed not small.

  My mind was almost a complete blank, I didn't know what to do next, so I simply leaned against the wall, felt for my cigarette case in my pocket and lit one, not caring if smoking was allowed here or not.

  Li Feng gave us a brief respite, and for a moment the morgue was very quiet, until I finished smoking this cigarette, he spoke up, "Du Rui, what do you think?"

  At this time, I was much calmer and my brain could function normally again. However, I still didn't want to look at the female corpse anymore, so I stared straight at Li Feng and asked him, "Boss, where did the female corpse come from? What was the situation back then?"

  I asked this question to understand the cause of death of the female corpse, and also to indirectly know what kind of person we will be facing in this mission.

  Officer Ke Li's answer didn't give me any information, he told me that the female corpse was transported from a remote mountainous area in the north, and no one knew the specific cause of death. The only thing known is that these three people died one after another in the wilderness, without showing any signs of madness or fever before their deaths.

  I understand why he emphasized the fever, in our local dialect, people who are possessed by ghosts or haunted to death will have a fever before they die. By saying this, he's clearly telling me that this case has nothing to do with ghosts.

  In my heart, I had this idea that these female corpses were killed by ghosts. Otherwise, why would they have hands like chicken claws and such twisted expressions?

  Pan Zi added a sentence, he muttered "this, this" for a long time, although he didn't say anything specific, but Li Feng and I both understood what he meant.

  Officer Li fell into deep thought, and with an attitude that was both like talking to himself and speaking to us, he said something. It was an experience from his early years in the police force. At that time, he had encountered a female corpse who would smile foolishly after death. Later, it was proven that she had been poisoned by the murderer with a strange toxin, which led to this bizarre phenomenon. However, the female corpse not only smiled strangely but also had scabs on the back of her neck. This phenomenon did not appear in any of the three female corpses in front of us, and the forensic examination did not find any abnormalities, nor were there any wounds found from head to toe.

  Officer Li's words ruled out the possibility of poisoning again, leaving me even more astonished after hearing them.

  Officer Li lost interest in explaining to us, and he obviously had prepared beforehand. He touched his pocket, took out an envelope and two train tickets, and said to us, "Although the case of the three female corpses is not under our city bureau's jurisdiction, it is related to another murder case. I want you two to go to a remote mountain village to investigate. These are your train tickets for tomorrow night and your expenses. Take them."

  I took over the envelope and ticket with ease, but at the same time, my heart was exceptionally cold, because this time, what happened to us was really too strange.