Chapter 7: Stripping Away the Truth 3

  "Ghost of the dead."

  "Why are you asking this?"

  "I don't know either. I just thought of it suddenly. Xiaotong, you deal with dead people every day. Have you ever thought about this question? If the dead all have ghosts, like Huang Zhigang's mother, who is always staring at her child in the display window, motionless, watching him take away other people's lives. What do you think she would be thinking?"

  Zhang Tong didn't respond to the question. She didn't even listen to what Wang Ya Nan said afterwards, it was as if she hadn't heard it at all. At this moment, her mind only had one thought, a thought that she had never seriously considered before. It was the nightmare that had always haunted her. The sound of the little girl's crying in her ears kept echoing. She couldn't help but furrow her brow. Could it be that her sister was really sending her a dream? Was her sister no longer in this world?

  She can't answer this question.

  "Yan, how is Zhao Yun doing? It's been so long since we've had any news from him."

  "He was transferred to a hospital in Shanghai." Wang Yan couldn't help but praise, "Usually we look down on him, saying he doesn't have any masculinity, not like a real detective. But at this critical moment, he drove and hit someone, it's really beyond everyone's expectations. I heard from Little Zheng who went to send him that his lower body is paralyzed, yet he still managed to smile."

  "How did the doctor describe his injury."

  "I heard that it's a fracture of the third lumbar vertebra. The surgery is very difficult to perform. We need to go to Shanghai to find a specialist in neurosurgery, and only then there's hope for him to stand up again."

  Zhang Tong didn't say a word. She was well aware of the consequences of having a fractured third lumbar vertebra. Looking at Wang Ya Nan's complex expression in front of her, Zhang Tong really couldn't bear to let her suffer another blow of disappointment and self-blame.

  Late at night, lying in bed, Zhang Tong couldn't fall asleep for a long time. Under the dim yellow light, everything in the room became so unfamiliar.

  Mother is still living in her uncle's hospital. So the house is empty. Only Zhang Tong is alone.

  She didn't want to go home tonight originally. But for that little girl in her dream, Zhang Tong's heart couldn't forget.

  Her hand held an old, somewhat worn-out photo frame. Inside was a family portrait that she had secretly kept hidden away. Her father stood beside her mother, with two five or six-year-old girls standing in front of them. The four members of the family were smiling happily in the photo. This was the only remaining photo of her sister left in this world. Zhang Tong treasured this old photo as if it were her own life. Her fingers gently stroked the surface of the old photo, and a cold feeling instantly filled her entire body. Her father had already passed away from this world. For so many years now, searching for her missing sister had become an unyielding obsession for her. No matter what others said, Zhang Tong would never accept the idea that her sister was no longer in this world.

  So, after all these years, where did my sister go? Zhang Tong was thinking hard, her eyes unconsciously scanning every corner of the room inch by inch. Suddenly, a scene in front of her interrupted her thoughts. She quickly stood up and opened the bookcase door. A red and green international express package that was stuck in the door fell to the floor with a thud. Zhang Tong frowned and bent down to pick up the package from the floor. It turned out to be the strange American express package that her mother had signed for on her behalf a few days ago. At that time, she was busy with work and wasn't paying attention, so she didn't open it immediately and just threw it away. However, Zhang Tong clearly remembered putting the package in the drawer of the bookcase. So why was it stuck in the door now?

  What's even stranger is that the express delivery in my hand feels light and fluffy to the touch, it has already been opened, and at this moment, the large envelope is empty.

  Zhang Tong had a bad premonition. He casually put the express envelope into the drawer. Lying on the bed, thinking about all these strange phenomena.

  "Have you heard? A girl went missing on her way to school." Zhang Tong was about to take out the key to open the locker room cabinet door. The words that came from beside her ear made her heart sink involuntarily. She turned back to look, and it was Xiao Wang, the switchboard operator who was just finishing his night shift.

  "What's going on? Is it a report from 110?"

  Xiao Wang changed his clothes while nodding: "Zhang Jie, the case record is about a 16-year-old girl who was reported missing. It's strange and worrying."

  Nobody wants to hear this news.

  Two weeks later, on a day in the suburbs of Tianchang City. At this time, it was already the season when spring was in full bloom. Therefore, the suburbs, which were usually rarely visited by people, also had many people coming to travel and enjoy the greenery.

  A group of junior high school students are camping by a ditch under the leadership of their teacher. It's almost time for lunch, so some male classmates are preparing to go into the woods by the ditch to find some dry branches to start a fire according to the teacher's guidance.

  Suddenly, a strange smell attracted everyone: "Class monitor, is there a dead mouse in front? Why does it stink so much?"

  The class monitor was a little fatty. He scratched his head: "I don't know, let's go take a look. If there are dead mice, we won't pick up branches from that side. It's disgusting."

  Just then, a shrill cry came from beside him: "Look! A dead rat!"

  Everyone's attention was drawn to it at once. A large pile of garbage emitting a foul odor appeared before them, leaning against the edge of a ditch under an earth mound. Faintly visible were packaging bags that had long since lost their original color.

  A good student ran over and called the teacher in a flattering tone: "Teacher, someone has thrown away a lot of trash over there. You'd better go take a look."

  The teacher looked at the children next to him with a suspicious face, then turned back to look at the pile of suspicious objects, carefully examining them for a long time. Finally, he made up his mind: "Classmates, I'll go down and take a look first. After confirming what they are, we'll clean them up together and return a clean and tidy environment to nature, okay?"

  "Okay..."

  The students' enthusiasm for environmental protection deeply encouraged the team leader. He frowned, found a thick branch, covered his nose with his left hand, and carefully used the branch to poke open the covering on the pile of garbage. The scene that appeared before their eyes suddenly stunned everyone. Immediately, several people vomited on the spot.

  That is an artificial arm.

  At first, the teacher was still holding on. But that pungent and foul smell came wave after wave, making people dizzy. The teacher couldn't care about his dignity anymore, bent over and vomited a sky-shaking and earth-shattering one.

  Zhang Tong followed the homicide team to the scene. In front of her was a place that was rarely visited by people. The surrounding area was overgrown with weeds. From time to time, she could hear the chirping sounds of unknown insects in her ears. After getting out of the car, she walked towards the scene surrounded by police tape while thinking that if it weren't for those camping high school students who stumbled upon it unexpectedly, she really didn't know when this pile of corpses would be discovered.

  Closely following behind her was the new assistant, intern forensic doctor Deng Ran. Today was his first time appearing on the scene, so he looked a bit excited.

  "What are you excited about? You might have to run away soon." Seeing this, Zhang Tong couldn't help but pour a bucket of cold water on him.

  "I'm not that weak. Zhang Fadao. Just watch."

  Zhang Tong helplessly shook his head.

  The scene was basically motionless. Those frightened children hid far behind a large tree, occasionally glancing over here and then shivering with fear.

  Because the trash was piled up on the edge of the ditch, Zhang Tong's strength wasn't that great, let alone at such a steep 75-degree angle. Deng Ran had become her reliable helper at this moment. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the two forensic doctors finally managed to drag the three large green garbage bags onto the flat ground by the shore with great difficulty. Flies were flying everywhere, and there were also some annoying unknown small insects. Zhang Tong couldn't help but mutter: "It's really suitable to bring Old Zhao out, he would like these annoying little things."

  Lao Zhao is Zhang Tong's colleague and also a forensic doctor. His specialty is studying all kinds of corpse insects.

  Deng Ran forced a smile, his face flashing with unease. At this time, the cameraman on the side walked over, opened the camera and started recording the scene of the work in progress.

  Bend down to open the tightly wrapped green trash bag. A foul odor came rushing over. Unexpectedly, the intern next to him couldn't take it anymore. He muttered something unclear and quickly walked away with a pale face towards the parking area in the distance.

  "Zhang Faye. Should we wait for him?"

  "Never mind. Let him take a break. We'll continue."

  Zhang Tong didn't lift his head and continued doing what he was doing with his hands.

  Three garbage bags were tied up with something like a dog chain, while the one that was loose was pried open by the teacher who reported the case using a branch. Zhang Tong carefully opened one of them and found that the body fragments were wrapped in an old white bed sheet. When she lifted the sheet, what appeared before everyone's eyes was the lower half of a girl's corpse. The clothes were still on her body, but there was a terrifying and neat large incision on the buttocks. There were no black blood clots at the incision site, indicating that the dismemberment occurred after the victim's death. After opening the other two large garbage bags, they found the upper half of the body, the head, and the arms. Since the bystanders had been taken to a farther location and could not see the specific situation on the scene, Zhang Tong immediately opened a large black plastic sheet and placed the body fragments in their original physiological positions for preliminary examination. As an experienced grassroots forensic doctor with many years of work experience, she was very clear that the shorter the time she spent examining the body, the more favorable it would be for collecting physical evidence from the surface of the body.

  Finally, a girl's corpse appeared in front of them. Although it had already started to rot, from the facial features, physiological age and clothes on the body, it was somewhat similar to the 16-year-old girl who went missing two weeks ago as reported. Zhang Tong furrowed his brow, stood up and gestured to Wang Yanan beside him. Wang Yanan walked over, her face stern.

  "Preliminary identification of the body is a female, aged between 16 to 18 years old. From the wound, it appears to be post-mortem... Others, I'll notify you immediately after autopsy at the bureau."

  Wang Yanan nodded and turned around to leave.