Chapter 5 The Bone Collector 4

  "My goodness." Wang Yan frowned, looking at the trash bag that Pan Jian and Zhang Tong were jointly pulling. "Is it that in this person's eyes, what he discarded was just a bag of trash?"

  No one answered this question.

  When the black trash bag was carefully pulled out of the body bag, the entire autopsy room was suddenly filled with a foul odor. Pan Jian tried hard to hold his breath and avoid the initial smell, because experienced forensic doctors all know that after surviving the first few minutes, their sense of smell would become numb. However, it seemed that this smell was not as easy to deal with as Pan Jian had imagined. Before long, he was about to vomit.

  Zhang Tong frowned at his pale-faced assistant: "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and do something! Time is not waiting for us."

  Pan Jian couldn't help but shiver. In order to slow down the decomposition of the body as much as possible, Zhang Tong adjusted the central air conditioner in the entire autopsy room to the lowest temperature. He shrugged and muttered: "This is too disgusting."

  "You'll see even more disgusting things than this in the future. If you want to be a forensic doctor, you have to learn not to feel disgusted. Don't waste words. Take the picture quickly."

  Pan Jian was silent.

  Under the flashing light, the yellowish round maggots on the surface of the corpse stared straight at the human who had invaded their beautiful dream. Some even raised their heads with a provocative attitude.

  Under these ugly lives, there are blood and flesh blurred cell membranes, as well as cartilage tissues that can no longer be distinguished.

  The skull and limbs have yet to be found.

  Wang Yanan burst into the dissection room like a gust of wind. When her gaze fell upon the messy pile of flesh on the dissection table, she couldn't help but furrow her brow: "Is this human? It looks like it just came out of a meat grinder."

  "Of course it's human. No doubt about it. If we had discovered it twenty-four hours later, it would have rotten into a pot of porridge." Pan Jian was now completely accustomed to the foul smell in the air and grumbled irritably.

  Zhang Tong glared at him fiercely: "I knew you wouldn't say anything pleasant."

  "Honestly, it's so smelly here today. And it's freezing to death. Can't even let people live, right?" Wang Yan hurriedly pulled over the work uniform hanging on the wall and hastily put it on. "What temperature is the air conditioner set to here?"

  "Fourteen degrees." Zhang Tong pointed to the remains on the autopsy table. "This is already the lowest. If possible, I'd really like to adjust it below ten degrees."

  Wang Yanan shook her head helplessly. She knew Zhang Tong very well, knowing that she was just like herself, with only work in her eyes, and everything else being secondary.

  "How is it? Can gender be distinguished?"

  "Female." Zhang Tong pointed to the vaguely discernible female flesh mass. "For now, if we only look at the surface of the corpse, it's hopeless to determine her identity. The skin is almost completely rotten, and there's hardly a single intact piece left."

  "Time of death."

  "It's still very difficult to determine at present. I'm waiting for the forensic examination report on the maggot cultivation. For now, we can only make a preliminary judgment of the deceased's time of death based on the developmental stage characteristics of the maggots, i.e., the larvae of flies, on the corpse."

  Wang Yanan nodded.

  "Yan, I have something else to show you." Zhang Tong gestured for Pan Jian to bring over a small tray from the other workbench. On the tray was a small lump of bloody stuff.

  "What is this." Wang Yan's face was full of surprise. "Found on the deceased's body."

  "I was found at the approximate location of the deceased." Zhang Tong picked up a medical forceps and gently clamped onto the special blood clot. "This is a fetal tissue of about four weeks, which means...the deceased was pregnant."

  "One corpse, two lives lost." Wang Yanan's face turned pale. "Too cruel."

  Zhang Tong thought for a moment, put down the forceps and tray, walked around the autopsy table to the workbench, took off his blood-stained gloves, picked up a test report on the desk, and handed it to Wang Ya Nan who was following closely behind him: "We currently only have one clear lead. The deceased had asymptomatic Huntington's chorea." Seeing the slightly perplexed expression on Wang Ya Nan's face, Zhang Tong continued: "Huntington's chorea is a severe genetic disorder. In other words, someone in the deceased's immediate family has already developed this disease and can't control their movements at all times, looking like they're dancing to some strange rhythm. But the deceased doesn't seem to have developed it yet, because the pair of genes that cause the disease haven't fully mutated yet and are still on the normal edge. I suggest you investigate all patients with Huntington's chorea in the city. It shouldn't take long to confirm the identity of the deceased."

  "I understand. Thank you. If there's any news from the forensic side, notify me immediately."

  Zhang Tong nodded and continued to sort out the corpse fragments in front of him.

  Wang Yanan tightly grasped the DNA test report in her hand, pushed open the door and walked out of the autopsy room. At the corner of the corridor, she unexpectedly ran into Zhao Junjie. Looking at Zhao Junjie's weak and pale face, his unsteady gait, Wang Yanan couldn't help but ask with concern: "Zhao Da journalist, how come you've become so thin in just one day?"

  Zhao Junjie furrowed his brow: "Can't be helped. It's all because of that dead body by the sea that's causing trouble. I've vomited countless times in the past few days."

  "Where are you going?"

  "The chief editor said that the 'Bone Collector' case has a high level of attention. I think we should take another look at the autopsy data in the morgue." Looking at Wang Yan's thoughtful expression, Zhao Junjie hastily added, "Don't get any wrong ideas, this is something Director Li personally agreed to."

  As soon as he heard this, Wang Yan's face was filled with sympathy: "Zhao journalist, this time, even if Li Ju agrees, I have to give you a word of advice. It's best not to go to the autopsy room now, otherwise, you will never forget what you are about to see."

  "Is it that serious?" Zhao Junjie's face was half-believing and half-doubtful.

  "Believe it or not, it's up to you." Wang Yan waved the DNA test report in her hand. "I'm busy, Zhao journalist. I won't keep you any longer. See you later."

  Zhao Junjie stood there in a daze, somewhat perplexed.

  "Liu Chunxiao, where have you been running off to these past few days? I've gone to the procuratorate to look for you several times, but was shut out every time." Zhao Junjie glared at Liu Chunxiao with a scowl on his face, muttering complaints under his breath.

  "Alright, alright. I'm not busy, let's go out. Today I specifically came to invite you to eat seafood. You're not still angry, are you? If I were you, I'd take advantage of the situation and get down from the donkey now." Liu Chunxiao comforted Zhao Junjie with a smile. "You look like you're in a bad mood, so I ordered some good dishes for you to make up for it."

  Zhao Junjie glanced at Liu Chunxiao and forced a smile: "This is barely passable."

  Three cups of wine down the hatch. Zhao Junjie's words started flowing: "I'm saying, little brother, you left without a word. Speak up, where did you go?"

  "I went to Shanghai. The other day, I heard from friends that an American psychology professor came to their university for cooperation. This foreigner has a unique insight into the treatment of selective amnesia. So, I took a leave and went to Shanghai specifically to find him."

  "Wait a minute." Zhao Junjie swallowed a mouthful of shrimp with force, and then said, "Don't tell me you've forgotten about that thing with your old classmate?"

  Liu Chunxiao laughed even more happily: "To a very large extent, I went for her."

  Zhao Junjie couldn't help but widen his eyes: "I think you'd better change careers and open a psychological clinic instead. Being a prosecutor seems to be a huge mistake for you."

  Liu Chunxiao's smile on his face disappeared. He sighed and said, "No way. Sometimes the things you want to do aren't that easy to achieve."

  Zhao Junjie thought for a moment, diverting the topic, leaned forward slightly and said seriously: "Tell me about your gains. Do you have confidence in letting Zhang Famedoctor recover his memory?"

  Although the drug injected by the murderer back then had some effect, after all, she was in a coma for so long. But based on my observation, her performance is extremely resistant. In fact, sometimes it's the subconscious at work, and she herself won't be aware of it. Resistance is just a conditioned reflex. Normally, she looks mature and decisive, no different from a normal person. However, as soon as this memory is mentioned, her mental age will revert to twenty years ago. I think that at the time, she must have seen something terrifying, isolated and helpless, and only after waking up would she force herself to seal off this memory. In her opinion, as long as she doesn't think about it, she'll be safe. But what we need to know is that human memories won't permanently disappear. Even if you can't remember, it's just temporary. And as time passes day by day, the sealed-off memories will also be awakened. What I'm worried about is whether Xiaotong can bear the cruel truth when that happens.

  "So did you tell her your thoughts?"

  Liu Chunxiao smiled helplessly: "I've been trying hard, but there's always no result. The more she resists, the more terrifying the scene she experienced at that time is from another perspective. This is the self-protection consciousness in human thinking at work."

  "You should think of a way too. I have a feeling that if things go on like this, she'll get into trouble sooner or later. She's like a time bomb now." Zhao Junjie's face was filled with worry. "Have you considered having a direct talk with her? Do you have any way to help her if she's willing to face it?"

  "There is only one way, and that's hypnosis."

  Hypnosis.

  "Yes, on the premise that the patient fully trusts you and accepts the hypnosis you implement, she may truly recall every detail of what happened at that time, just like reliving it again. Only then can many doubts be resolved. If she doesn't open the box, the things inside will become more and more inflated with the passage of time until the day they 'explode'."

  "Why didn't she accept treatment for this aspect after the case was exposed?"

  "At that time, she was still very young and her mind was not yet mature. Recovery requires an adaptation process. If Xiaotong had accepted hypnosis after the incident, it's highly likely that her consciousness would have been forever trapped in that terrifying environment, eventually developing into a severe autistic patient."

  As soon as he heard this, Zhao Junjie's face turned pale: "No wonder her mother tried so hard to protect her in front of the media back then. Her sister still hasn't been found to this day. She disappeared without a trace."

  Liu Chunxiao did not utter a word.