Chapter 60 Female Corpse

Seeing that the coffin had been lifted and everything was settled, Liu Jun and the others turned and left, heading toward the wooden cabin where his second grandfather used to live. Arriving at the destination, relying on his shallow understanding of geomancy, Liu Jun selected what could be considered a favorable spot for his second grandfather's final resting place.

The grave was not extravagant—just a mound of earth, in front of which Liu Jun placed a wooden tombstone he had carved himself. His second grandfather had always been fond of frugality, so this suited him well.

By the time everything was finished, it was already afternoon. Brother Lin stated that he would not go to see Liu Jun and the others off; he preferred to stay here, continue patrolling the forest, and keep his second grandfather company. The group arrived at the airport around 3:00 PM, preparing to fly back to Yanshi.

While waiting in the departure lounge, Chu Feng received a phone call. Returning shortly after, he informed Liu Jun that Captain Yu needed someone knowledgeable in the esoteric arts to help out, as a bizarre murder had occurred on his turf.

Thus, the group hurried off to the location specified by Captain Yu. Inside the car, Liu Jun quietly gazed out the window. A light drizzle had begun to fall. Dealing with supernatural incidents in such weather—sigh.

Upon arriving at the scene, several police cars were parked around, and a few onlookers eager for excitement gathered outside the police cordon. Captain Yu stood quietly not far from the deceased. Seeing Liu Jun and the others, Ji Min walked over and led them to the body.

Liu Jun looked down at the deceased on the ground. She was dressed rather provocatively in just a black spaghetti-strap dress, her entire body lying on the ground in a twisted posture. Her long, black wavy hair was spread out, stuck to the ground by rainwater. A pool of dark red blood formed beneath her.

Taking a look at the dead woman's face, her features were quite delicate; she could certainly be considered a beauty.

"The retrieved surveillance footage shows that half an hour before her death, the victim entered the elevator, followed closely by a woman in red with her head lowered, her long hair obscuring her face. Strangely, the victim never glanced at the woman in red the entire time, let alone exchanged a single word. Hallway surveillance shows the woman in red clearly entering the apartment with the victim, yet on-site inspections revealed no footprints or other traces. Moreover, reviewing the security monitors, the woman in red was never seen coming back out. That's why I called to have you guys come and take a look," Captain Yu explained the suspicious points to him.

"How did the victim die?" Liu Jun asked.

"Fall from the ninth floor. There are no signs of a struggle or a fight inside the apartment. It looks like a suicide."

"No way, how could someone as pretty as this commit suicide?" Before Liu Jun could speak, Fatty chimed in first. Look at that—even a blockhead knew this woman hadn't committed suicide.

Liu Jun glanced at Fatty, who was squatting on the ground and staring intently at the female corpse, and kicked him squarely in the rear. Damn it, you won't even spare a dead body.

Fatty stood up to dodge, but Liu Jun's kick landed dead center. "Brother Liu, what are you doing?" Fatty asked with a grievance-laden expression on his face.

"What are you doing? Can you show a little respect for the deceased? Why are you just staring at her like that?"

"It's not that, Brother Liu. Look at the palm of this woman's hand—isn't there a character written there? I've been staring at this character the whole time, but I don't recognize it."

Hearing Fatty finish, both Liu Jun and Captain Yu walked over to the side of the deceased, squatted down, and gently lifted the victim's arm to see the character Fatty had mentioned. The character was crooked and distorted, resembling the Chinese character for "latch" (闩).

***

Latch? Liu Jun and Captain Yu looked at each other, both somewhat puzzled. What on earth was this woman trying to express? Wouldn't it have been better to just write it out clearly? Well, right—she probably didn't have enough time.

"Captain Yu, can I go inside the victim's apartment to take a look?" Liu Jun asked.

"Go ahead." Captain Yu led the way, and the few of them followed. The building where the victim lived could be considered a mid-range residential complex. Looking up, one could see the surveillance camera right above the unit door. Liu Jun pointed at the camera and looked at Ji Min.

"We checked that camera, but unfortunately, it's been broken for the past few days and hasn't been repaired yet," Ji Min replied, instantly understanding Liu Jun's implication.

Entering the elevator, Liu Jun looked around. It was plastered with advertisements for unclogging drains, unlocking doors, and the like. Suddenly, Captain Yu turned around, pointed to the spot where Fatty was standing, and said, "Surveillance shows that the woman in red was standing right here." Fatty hurriedly retreated backward, his face turning somewhat pale.

Liu Jun looked at the spot Captain Yu pointed to, then turned and walked over to the elevator buttons. He sensed from the corner of his eye that if someone were standing there, positioned slightly behind and to his side, he would definitely be able to see them to some extent; it would be impossible not to notice them.

Walking into the victim's apartment, several police officers were already searching around to see if they could uncover any clues. Liu Jun walked over to the balcony and saw shattered glass strewn all over the floor. Peering out, he confirmed it was directly above the spot where the victim had fallen. Noticing some water on the floor beneath his feet, he didn't think much of it at first, considering it was still raining outside.

Liu Jun turned and walked back to inspect the living room. Various daily necessities were piled up haphazardly. To the left of the entrance was a shoe cabinet filled with high heels of various styles, with no other types of footwear in sight, indicating that the victim was quite fond of wearing high heels.

Wait a minute. Liu Jun remembered seeing a pair of extremely high stilettos near the victim's body downstairs, and he recalled that the high-rises used high-strength glass. He re-estimated the distance from the balcony to the living room.

At this distance, without using a sharp weapon to smash the glass, if she tried to hurl herself straight through it to jump to her death, the glass probably wouldn't suffer any major damage even if she battered herself to death against it.

Therefore, to shatter the glass, she would need a running start to gain momentum. But how could anyone run in extremely high stilettos? Wouldn't she just sprain her ankles? Master Qianjin, the great detective Sherlock Holmes, went online once more.

With a pair of eyes brimming with wisdom, Liu Jun looked at the sole female present—police officer Ji Min—and asked, "Let me ask you something: how do you run while wearing high heels?"

Ji Min looked at Liu Jun with confusion, seemingly wondering why he would ask such a thing, and replied, "I don't like wearing high heels, but if I really had to run in them, I'd take them off, hold them in my hands, and run barefoot."

Liu Jun was stunned. You could do that? Master Qianjin, the great detective Sherlock Holmes, was forcibly logged off.

Turning around to enter the bedroom, his eyes were greeted by a messy bed with various clothes scattered about in disarray, and even a pair of pink panties.

Liu Jun asked Ji Min for a pair of medical gloves, put them on, and pulled open the drawer of the bedside table. Inside were a few bottles of sleeping pills and some condoms.

What was the meaning of putting condoms and sleeping pills together?

***

Walking over to the bedside table on the other side, just as he lowered his head to pull open the drawer, a photo frame on the table caught Liu Jun's attention. He looked closely: it featured one man and two women, with the man in the middle, and all of them appeared to be smiling happily.

Seeing Liu Jun examining the photo frame, Captain Yu also walked over to take a look at the picture. He called Ji Min over and instructed her to find out who the other two people were.

Shortly after, Ji Min walked back carrying a laptop, looking at the screen while introducing the people in the photo to Liu Jun and the others.

The man in the middle was surnamed Lin, the woman on the left was the deceased surnamed Pang, and the woman on the right was Lin's wife, surnamed Tian. These two women had been very close best friends. However, once when the three of them went out on a trip to an island and were boating around it, their boat capsized and all three fell into the water. Among them, only the deceased, Pang, was a strong swimmer.

Strangely enough, instead of saving her best friend first, Pang rescued her best friend's husband ashore first. It was said that due to exhaustion, she lacked the strength to return and save Tian, resulting in Tian drowning.

Lin woke up in the hospital and was grief-stricken upon learning of his wife's death. After staying in the hospital for a few days, he also disappeared without a trace.

Hearing Ji Min finish, Liu Jun used his brilliant mind to ponder the situation. The relationship among these three was probably not as simple as Ji Min made it sound.

Liu Jun walked back to the balcony and looked at the puddle of water on the ground. Sure enough, while he hadn't paid much attention to the water in the hallway and elevator when coming up, this water had issues.

"Captain Yu, is there any way to determine whether this puddle of water is fresh water or seawater?" Liu Jun turned to look at Captain Yu and the others who had followed him over.

Before Captain Yu could speak, Fatty walked over. "Why bother going through the trouble of testing it? Just taste it." Before Liu Jun could stop him, Fatty dipped a finger into the water and put it in his mouth. "Brother Liu, it's a bit salty."

Indeed, it was seawater. Regardless of what kind of drowned ghost it was, their body would always be soaking wet, leaving a trail of water wherever they went.

"Captain Yu, the woman in red seen on the surveillance footage is none other than Lin's deceased wife, Tian. Tian turned into a drowned ghost and came back to harm Pang. The water stain on the ground here must be seawater. As for the character downstairs, it wasn't a latch (闩), but an unfinished 'Tian' (田)."

"Oh crap, this is water left behind by a dead ghost?" Fatty cried out in astonishment, bolted straight for the bathroom, and began to vomit.