I pressed the play button and played back the recording.

Bai Yidao’s face turned from a furious red to a sickly green and finally pale with fear.

“You know what punishments you’ll get for disrupting the unity within the police force and the abuse of power, don’t you, Officer Bai?” I asked.

“What do you mean by abuse of power?” asked the astonished Bai Yidao. “Do you have any evidence?”

“Yup!” I said. “I recorded it all—especially the part where you threatened us.”

That was a lie, though. I actually didn’t record that part.

Huang Xiaotao snorted and whispered, “You have my respect, Song Yang! I really want to give you a nickname—how about ‘Recording Genius’?”

“No, thanks!” I said, shaking my head. “That nickname sounds awful!”

“You, you, you... what do you want?” stuttered Bai Yidao through gritted teeth.

“Just apologize and this will all be over,” I said.

“Me? Apologize to you? Don’t even think about it!” he yelled.

“Let’s go, then!” I waved to Huang Xiaotao and the others.

Just as we turned and were about to leave, Bai Yidao suddenly stopped us. He came over and hesitated for a long time then said, “I went overboard just now. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. Please don’t take it to heart.”

“Didn’t your daddy teach you how to apologize properly?” I teased. “Say you’re sorry!”

Bai Yidao pouted like a petulant kid, then bowed at Wang Yuanchao and said, “I’m sorry, Instructor Wang.”

“That’s better,” I said. “Come on, let’s not waste anymore time. We’ve got an autopsy to do.”

On our way to the morgue, Dali excitedly said, “Dude! That was awesome! You were so cool back there! You’re like a totally different person from your usual self!”

“You’re too kind,” I said modestly. “But I’ve learnt that you need to be sly and cunning if you’re dealing with these kinds of people.”

“Hahaha, to think that the arrogant bastard got wrecked by Old Wang and then got taught a lesson by you!” exclaimed Dali. “He’ll be reflecting on this for a while. Holy shit, this made my day!”

Bai Yidao slid away secretly from our group as we made our way to the morgue, most probably out of embarrassment. I had a special investigation order signed by the Director-General in my hand, and I had the authority to remove anyone from the task force. By this token, I was also nominally his superior, so I had all the power to take him out of the team. But I knew that Bai Yidao was the director’s son, so getting a cut in his salary probably didn’t affect him at all. Besides, I was in no mood to kick someone when they were down, so I decided to just let it slide. This would be for the best anyway. I found the bastard insufferable, and now that he was gone, well, out of sight, out of mind.

My problem right now lay with the coroner, Dr. Luo Weiwei. She was probably angry at me for embarrassing her boyfriend, and had been staring at me with evil eyes all the way to the morgue. She must be planning to take revenge on me by making a fool out of me during the autopsy. But, tough luck, because unbeknownst to her, autopsy was my real battlefield! She could never hope to defeat me there!

The temperature in the morgue was kept very low, I could see sheets of cold air flowing down from the air-conditioners. The three dead bodies were placed on three metal tables, covered by blood-soaked white sheets. The pools of blood around them had frozen into ice.

“Do you need anything, dude?” asked Dali. “I’ll go buy them for you now!”

“I have to look at the dead bodies first,” I replied. “By the way, it’s really cold here. Can you go get our coats in the car?”

“Right on it, dude!” Dali rushed out immediately.

I washed my hands with soap in the wash basin beside the bodies, then was preparing to perform an autopsy on the bodies, but soon realized that I could not find any rubber gloves.

“Where are the rubber gloves?” I asked Luo Weiwei.

She snorted and took a few rubber gloves from an iron cabinet then tossed them into my arms.

“Thank you,” I said, giving Huang Xiaotao and Wang Yuanchao a separate set. Before I put it on, I took out a tiny box from my pocket and poured out three greenish black pills from the inside, then divided them between me, Huang Xiaotao, and Wang Yuanchao.

“What is it? Candy?” asked Huang Xiaotao, scrutinizing it in her hand.

“It’s a sweetgum candy,” I explained. “It’s made of oriental sweetgum mixed with a number of medicinal ingredients like camphor, buffalo’s horn, musk and agarwood. It will refresh the senses and help you tolerate the bad smells in the air. I’m afraid it will get quite gory later during the autopsy, so this should help a bit.”

Huang Xiaotao reluctantly placed it into her mouth, and then the expression on her face changed immediately.

“Wow!” she exclaimed. “This is even more refreshing than mints! It feels like my nose is all cleared! This must be great for the flu and colds too!”

“You’re right,” I said, smiling. “This candy can actually relieve pain and relieve congestion in the lungs too.”

Wang Yuanchao also popped one into his mouth. I noticed some minute changes to his usual poker face. His eyebrows raised just a little and his pupils shrank slightly. I know what it was like to experience the sweetgum candy for the first time. It was—to put it in one word—cooling!

“I found the recipe for it in the Collected Cases of Injustices Rectified,” I added. “It should not be chewed but should be sucked slowly in the mouth. That way, the effect can last for more than two hours.”

Huang Xiaotao smiled, “Song Yang, you are more and more of an expert now. Right, can I take some of these back with me? I’d love to share it with my other colleagues!”

“No way,” I said, waving my hand. “Do you have any idea how expensive these are to make? Each of these costs me about ten yuan!”

“You’re joking! Is it that expensive?” Huang Xiaotao was surprised.

Luo Weiwei snorted with disdain.

“Who would bother with silly candies before an autopsy?” she jeered. “Just wear a mask and you’re set to go!” She then took out a perfumed wet wipe and put it in a mask.

What Luo Weiwei didn’t understand was that while modern coroners used scalpels and various other advanced equipment to examine the body, their nose and ears could be completely covered; but a Traditional Coroner like me didn’t dissect and didn’t rely on tools, so I needed all my senses to work normally during the autopsy, which was why I never wore masks.

In addition to using the eyes, ears, nose, and hands, The Chronicles of Grand Magistrates also recorded an ancestor named Song Shennong who would use his tongue to perform autopsies. He would taste the flesh, the blood, and sometimes even the feces! Through this bizarre method, he managed to obtain many invaluable new practical and theoretical pieces of knowledge. But I must admit that I would never follow his methods regardless of the potential gains.

After putting on the gloves, I pulled up the white sheet covering the first dead body. It was of the wife who died a gruesome death. Even Huang Xiaotao couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath and round her eyes when she saw the condition that the body was in.

The clothes on the body had been cut off, the skin was frozen hard, and it was as pale as a piece of paper.

The horror we saw on this body was even worse than what Officer Liao described! The right half of her face was cleanly cut off. The knife had sliced through her head from the top of her right eye to the base of her neck. The eyeballs were cut in half, and the whole slab of flesh was attached to the rest of her body only by a small piece of flesh at the neck. She had at least twenty knife wounds on her body, most of them in her torso, and the skin at the wound was cracked, revealing red muscle tissues and white fat. In some places, even the bones were exposed, and the abdomen was stabbed through several times, causing her intestines to spill out of her body.

She was stabbed through the navel too, which exposed her uterus. The uterus was the size of a big fist, and in it there was a tiny clump of flesh resembling the shape of a peach blossom. One of her hands was completely sliced off her arm, and that hand which was clenched into a tight fist was placed right beside the body. It was still holding a kitchen knife.

Looking at this mangled body, it was almost impossible to imagine that all this was done by the hand of her loving husband!