I wondered how strange a death could be. Was it because they couldn’t determine the exact cause of death? But wait — that reminded me of a certain Jiangbei Daggers! Was he on the prowl again?

“Take me to the crime scene now!” I said.

“Okay,” said Huang Xiaotao. “Follow me.”

We went into the elevator and went up to the fourth floor. There were a few police officers in the hallway and a dark-skinned fat guy wearing big pants was squatting on the floor. He was stripped to the waist while wearing a pair of disposable slippers, and around his neck was a chunky gold chain. Beside him was a woman who was covering her body with a blanket, also sitting on the floor, while both of her hands were holding her head and her long hair covered her chest area.

If there was a reporter carrying a camera there as well, this scene would’ve looked exactly like the raids of the brothels you’d see in the news.

The police officers were interviewing them, and the fat guy had a distressed expression on his face.

“I told you, Officer,” he said. “We’re a couple. We love each other like Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai! We’re not in the kind of relationship that you accuse us of!”

“I can’t just take your word for it. Show me your ID and your driver’s license!”

“I told you I didn’t bring them!”

“Who are you trying to fool?” replied the police officer. “How would you check into your room without your ID?”

“Shit, dude,” said Dali, “did we enter the wrong building? This is clearly a raid of the brothel, right?”

Huang Xiaotao said these two were the ones who discovered the dead body. They came here and booked a room for the night but when they were about to do their business, the bed suddenly rocked. They checked under the bed and discovered that there was a corpse there! They were both scared out of their wits and they reported it to the police immediately.

When the police arrived, they suspected the woman to be a prostitute and the man to be her ‘client.’ They asked for their IDs but neither would hand them over, so that was how they ended up stuck here with the police interrogating them. Huang Xiaotao said that they’d already contacted the anti-prostitution team, so the two were in for some more interrogation.

“That guy has the worst luck,” I said. “He came out to have fun but instead found a corpse underneath the bed! And now he’s going to be interrogated by the police. I suspect that he’ll be quite traumatized after this. He probably won’t be able to get hard for a while.”

Huang Xiaotao couldn’t keep herself from laughing.

“Well he’s only got himself to blame!” she said. “None of this would’ve happened to him if he had just stayed at home.”

Judging by the looks of it, I surmised that the murderer was probably not Jiangbei Daggers, because if it had been Jiangbei Daggers, the dead body wouldn’t be hidden. In fact, he would go one step further and show the dead body off in a very public place, just to mock the police!

The fat guy was still stuck with the police officers. We passed by him and went into the room where they found the dead body.

There were a few police officers who were examining the crime scene. Huang Xiaotao said they’d collected a few dozens of unique fingerprints from the furniture and the walls. But that was to be expected since it was a hotel room where people came and went every day.

I turned to the bed and saw that the mattress and bedframe had been removed, exposing the dead body underneath it.

The dead body was of a slender woman. She had long hair that was trendily styled; she was only wearing bras and panties; her skin was so white it almost seemed to have a strange glow to it — it was clearly not a natural hue for human skin, but more like the white of bleached paper.

She clearly died a horrible death. Her eyes were wide open, her hands were stiff like chicken claws, all the signs on her body showed that she suffered terribly before she died.

Faced with this scene, Dali immediately hid behind my back. Huang Xiaotao saw it and glared at him with contempt.

“Why did you bring this idiot here?” she asked. “To act as the clown that ties his shoelaces during the crucial moment?”

Clearly the memory of how Dali stopped to tie his shoelaces while she and I were trying to catch Deng Chao was still fresh in Huang Xiaotao’s mind.

“But I’m Song Yang’s trusted assistant,” said Dali. “He can’t do anything without me!”

“It’s true,” I said, nodding. Then I asked Huang Xiaotao, “Did anyone move the dead body?”

“Just now Xiaozhou from the forensics team scanned the body with ultraviolet light to check for fingerprints,” said Huang Xiaotao. “But other than that no one has touched or moved the body.”

“Were any fingerprints found?” I asked.

Huang Xiaotao was about to answer, but a man wearing dark glasses with perfect slicked back hair walked in towards us and interrupted her.

“There was no trace of any fingerprints on the victim’s body,” said the man in a haughty tone, “and there was no skin tissue underneath the fingernails either.”

“This is Xiaozhou,” introduced Huang Xiaotao. “He’s a forensics expert, and he’s solved numerous murder cases.”

Xiaozhou slightly nodded then turned his eyes to me.

“So, you are Song Yang,” he said. “I’ve heard so much about you from Team Leader Huang. I heard that you know of a traditional method to perform an autopsy. I would love to see that!”

“You’re too kind,” I said.

“Still,” he said, smiling slyly, “I would bet that you won’t find anything no matter how much you try, because the perpetrator of this case is not a human being.”

His provocations made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Police officers were people too, so there are numerous different types of them, and this Xiaozhou belonged to the competitive group.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“You’ll understand what I mean when you see it for yourself,” said Xiaozhou. “Give them the rubber gloves.”

A police officer handed us each a pair of rubber gloves, then we donned them on and walked up to the dead body. Xiaotao offered me a flashlight to help me see better, but I told her I didn’t need it.

There were frightening teeth marks on the neck of the dead body — two distinct puncture holes that looked black. I poked at them with my finger and was surprised to find that they were very deep. This meant that the teeth that bit the victim was very long indeed.

“Flip the body over,” I ordered.

Once the body was flipped over, I noticed that there was no blood shade on the victim’s chest and abdominal area. Blood shade was a term used by Traditional Coroners; in modern forensics it would be called livor mortis.

Because there was no blood shade, this meant that the victim’s body was sucked dry of her blood — and that was the reason why her skin was so white!

“Oh my god!” exclaimed Dali, his hand covering his gaping mouth. “Whoever did this isn’t a human being! A vampire killed her!”

“You shouldn’t jump to conclusions before a thorough examination,” I said.

This time Xiaozhou walked over to me and said, “I’m sorry, Great Detective Song, but I scanned the dead body with ultraviolet light and a laser spectrometer, and there were absolutely no traces of fingerprints on the victim’s skin or clothes, so I think you shouldn’t waste your time with another examination…”

I detected the mockery in his tone, and it annoyed me very much.

“Just because you didn’t find them,” I began, “ doesn’t mean that they’re not there.”

“I’ve heard of you and your deeds,” he said. “You somehow detected some handprints on the dead body using some kind of umbrella, then Dr. Qin was completely defeated by you and he had to apply for a transfer to another branch. Frankly speaking, Dr. Qin was not a good coroner at all, but he was old and had a lot of experience, so he could boss everyone around. He really brought shame to the police force.”

Huang Xiaotao smiled wryly. Judging from the way Xiaozhou had been treating me, there was definitely something going on under the surface.

“Are you trying to say that you’re much better than Dr. Qin?” I asked.

“Well, to be perfectly frank with you, yes,” he said. “I studied in America and specialized in trace evidence analysis. I even attended a class taught by Dr. Henry C. Lee! The equipment I use are all imported from America. There is no trace evidence under the sun that I cannot detect. To put it simply, if I didn’t detect it, then there’s only one reason for it — it does not exist!”

I glanced at the dead body. No corpse on earth would not have at least the tiniest trace of evidence on it. The only exception might be Jiangbei Daggers. But other than that, I was sure that I would find something on a dead body that would point towards the perpetrator. What Xiaozhou said just now was nothing but hot air.

I sensed that this guy loved to boast about his own strengths — wouldn’t it be fun to teach him a lesson?

“Isn’t that the definition of superstitious?” I teased. “You put a hundred percent of your faith into these gadgets of yours. Crime investigations are like medicine — the most expensive drug isn’t always the best drug. I’m sure that as long as somebody touched the dead body, there will be some traces of the perpetrator left on it.”

“Hahaha, what an impressive speech!” said Xiaozhou. “How about you start proving it to me then?”

“And what if it turns out that I’m right?” I asked with a smile. “Do you want to bet on it?”

“Sure!” answered Xiaozhou confidently. He looked around, then pointed to an ashtray on the bedside table. “If you turn out to be right, I’ll eat the contents of that thing. But if you’re wrong…”

“If I’m wrong,” I said, “I’ll eat the contents and the ashtray itself!”