Chapter 3: Gastroscopy X The First Suspect

  The color photos of the crime scene made my heart beat faster. Especially that on-site photographer, was he a psychopath or what, he even gave the deceased a close-up shot with a facial expression:

  The deceased was pale, but there wasn't a hint of anger on his face. However, his expression had an inexplicable eerie taste to it. His eyes seemed closed, but upon closer inspection, they were slightly open, revealing a sliver of white, and the corner of his mouth on the right side was subtly curled up - if one only looked at his face, it gave the impression that he was savoring something delightful.

  A person whose belly is cut open with a fruit knife and intestines pulled out of the abdomen should not have a twisted, gruesome painful expression on their face?

  Just this point alone makes me feel extremely uncomfortable, with a strong curiosity like thousands of caterpillars crawling on my body.

  The police officer said: "At first, when I saw the tragic scene at the crime scene, my first thought was that the deceased had been killed by his companions for hiding drugs in his body. Old Zou should know that some people now use their bodies to hide drugs and evade police detection. However, after a preliminary examination by the forensic doctor, no signs of hidden drugs were found in his body. Instead, there were large amounts of bananas in his stomach and intestines. In other words, before the incident, the deceased had eaten a large number of bananas. There were also many banana peels in the trash can beside his bed."

  "I couldn't help but interrupt again: 'Could it be that those bananas are poisonous?'"

  The police officer from Dong shook his head and said, "After the test, these bananas are normal. Of course, for a more detailed and specific test of the composition, further forensic testing is needed, and the results will not be out until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. Once they're out, I'll send a copy to Old Zou."

  The eastern police officer stood up, looking at me with a very strange expression and said in a very absurd tone: "Zhu Thirteen, you really look like your father. I hope you can be as excellent as your father."

  After he finished speaking, he left, holding an umbrella, and disappeared into the rain.

  I glanced at the stack of bloody photos on my desk that made me lose my appetite for lunch, then looked up at Housekeeper Zou and threw up my hands in exasperation. "Housekeeper Zou, what do you want me to do? No matter how capable I am, I'm not more capable than the detectives from Dongcheng Police Station! You can't be asking me to investigate this bizarre and terrifying case, are you? I've said it before, I don't know anything about this kind of thing. If I had to look at it, I'd say the victim wasn't murdered, but committed suicide - there's nothing to investigate!"

  Zou Guan's face was smiling, but his eyes were not. He stared at me and said, "Why did you say the deceased committed suicide?"

  I said, "Although I'm not a famous detective like Conan, I've been watching TVB's 'Forensic Heroes' since college and finished all three seasons without missing an episode. This drama taught me one truth: no one can enter a house to kill someone without leaving any clues or traces behind. And look at that watermelon knife used in the crime scene - why didn't the killer take it away but instead left it there? Moreover, the surveillance cameras in the elevator lobby didn't capture anyone entering or exiting. In conclusion, this is simply a straightforward suicide case."

  Zou Guanjia didn't make a sound after hearing my conjecture, but instead walked over to me, holding the knife and fork used for breakfast, and stabbed my arm with it. The pain made me shriek: "Zou Guanjia what are you doing?!"

  Zou Guanjia waved the silver knife and fork in front of me, saying: "You see, I just lightly pricked your arm with a fork and you let out a blood-curdling scream. If the deceased had really committed suicide, couldn't he have chosen a more ordinary method? Such as hanging himself or taking a large dose of sleeping pills, or if all else failed, jumping from the 12th floor to end it all. Why choose such a bloody and painful way to commit suicide?"

  Zou Guanjia's words are extremely reasonable, I was actually refuted by him and left speechless...

  Zou Guanjia said: "You are the president, collecting materials doesn't need you to do it, I will inform Kui Rulan and Chen Qiuyang. After collecting the materials, you can take action."

  What secretly surprised me was that the self-proclaimed "Socks Queen" Aoi Rokurou had such a high efficiency, she came back during lunchtime.

  It's been several days since I last saw Kui Ruo Lan, she had been on vacation before. Today, she walked in wearing a dark red tight-fitting leather suit with catwalk steps, her snow-white melon seed face, and a head of chestnut-colored curly hair. What I couldn't bear the most was that the front of this tight-fitting leather suit was hollowed out into a heart shape, revealing her snow-white skin and faint career line.

  As soon as she came in, she yelled loudly: "Hey, thirteen, long time no see! You seem to have gained weight again!"

  I gave her a white eye and asked: "Zhōu Guǎnjiā let you go investigate, what did you find out?"

  Ailian sat down in front of me and said, "Of course I found some great information. There's no information that I can't find, hehe!" She smiled and shook her chest a little, I was really worried that her full breasts would jump out like two little white rabbits from the heart-shaped position.

  I can imagine Aoi Wakana standing in front of those men who were drooling with desire while she was gathering information.

  "According to the information I've gathered, the deceased is named Yang Hong, a Hong Kong native who has many business dealings in Guangzhou but lives alone there and doesn't have a good relationship with women..."

  "Stop, stop, these are his past deeds that the police officer has already told me. What I want to know is who he has been in contact with recently and if he has offended anyone."

  Because if there wasn't a deep-seated hatred, the perpetrator wouldn't have used such a cruel method. So, my investigation direction was initially confirmed as a vendetta. However, Ou Ruolan's answer broke this speculation: "Yang Hong is a refined and elegant person, gentle and courteous, everyone who has come into contact with him praises him to no end, even the security guard in his residential area can't help but shed tears when mentioning him, saying that it's really a pity that such a good person would encounter such a tragic event. His character is absolutely flawless."

  "But my investigation wasn't entirely fruitless. From what I know, Yang Hong has been going to the Chinese hospital recently to see a doctor named Ruan De-feng. I think he's the most suspicious."

  Then, I and Kui Ruo Lan arrived at Longcheng Hospital, found the director of Gastrointestinal Department, Dr. Ruan De Feng.

  Ruan De Feng, middle-aged, plump and fair-skinned, somewhat resembling a benevolent Bodhisattva, with a neat crew cut, only his hair was flecked with white. When I and Kui Ruo Lan arrived at his clinic, we found it packed with patients as far as the eye could see.

  "Good heavens, so many people have gastrointestinal diseases these days. Zhu Thirteen, you foodie, be more careful!"

  We waited for a long time before we could go in, and inside were hung red silk banners given by patients, all praising his wonderful medical skills and kind heart. I got straight to the point and explained our intention to Dr. Nguyen Dinh Phong.

  Ruan Defeng also knew about the news and Yang Hong's situation. He said with a bit of sadness, "That's right, he did come to see me for medical treatment, three times in total." As he spoke, he searched for Yang Hong's medical records on his computer and continued, "The first time was a month ago, he said he had gastrointestinal discomfort, after my diagnosis, it turned out to be acute gastroenteritis."

  I saw on the computer that his medical record wrote "epigastric abdominal colic, urgent diarrhea" and so on, and the prescription was "domperidone dispersible tablets, lansoprazole enteric-coated tablets" and so on.

  Ruan Defeng said: "I helped him diagnose and prescribed medication for him. However, I could see that he was a bit anxious because he kept asking me if he needed to have an anti-inflammatory injection. I told him it wasn't necessary, but later he asked me again if he needed to do a gastroscopy examination. I told him to take the medicine first, and if it didn't work, he could come back to see me and I would arrange for him to have a gastroscopy examination."

  "I wonder: 'Gastroscopy'?"

  "An endoscope is a flexible tube, slightly thicker than a pencil, with a miniature camera on the front that can directly transmit images of the upper digestive tract esophagus, stomach and duodenum to a TV screen. Simply put, it's inserting the instrument from your mouth into the stomach, mainly for checking the stomach, if you want to check the intestines, you need to enter through the anus."

  The check behind made me suddenly feel a bit tense... That's too terrifying!