Chu Juxian grabbed the hem of Lu Linjiang’s jacket under the table. "Nonsense! Let Xiao Xu and the others go first!"
Lu Linjiang replied with righteous indignation, "A leader should lead from the front!" Then, with a quick twist of his body, he slipped away, ignoring Chu Juxian’s dagger-like glares.
He encountered Guo Junyi at the door of the room where the body had been discovered. Guo Junyi let out a surprised "Yo!" and asked, "Aren't you supposed to be at the memorial service with the Director?"
Lu Linjiang listlessly took a pair of gloves and pulled them on. "How could a memorial service be more interesting than a crime scene? Why is it another hotel? Have we been cursed by hotels lately?"
"Maybe!" Guo Junyi walked in with him. "Did you see the police report? It said he was bleeding from all seven orifices. I wonder what could be so potent."
The two entered the room one after the other. Lu Linjiang first glanced toward the bathroom. A brown-haired man was kneeling in front of the toilet, his body completely obscuring it. It looked as though he had been vomiting after drinking and had accidentally drowned himself in the toilet bowl. The deceased's posture made it impossible to see his face, but a distinct scent of rust hung in the air, causing Lu Linjiang to frown.
"Be careful." Lu Linjiang felt an inexplicable sense of unease. This was just an ordinary budget hotel; the room was much smaller than those at the International Hotel. Looking at the bloodstains on the floor and the bed, he instinctively cautioned the forensic colleagues who were coming in to take photos.
Guo Junyi stood beside Lu Linjiang, holding his hands up to avoid touching anything, as he surveyed the ubiquitous bloodstains. "This blood doesn't look quite right..." The two men exchanged a look, both seeing the same confusion in the other's eyes.
Once the scene photos were finished, Guo Junyi stepped into the bathroom and carefully hauled the man away from the toilet. "Damn!"
"What is it?" Lu Linjiang asked.
"See for yourself," Guo Junyi replied without looking up. "Give me a hand."
Lu Linjiang stepped inside. Following Guo Junyi’s directions, the two of them worked together to flip the man over and lay him flat on the floor. He could finally see the deceased's face—a Caucasian man in his late thirties or early forties. He immediately understood Guo Junyi’s reaction. For some unknown reason, the man was indeed bleeding from all seven orifices! Dark, thick blood had flowed all over his face, creating a truly gruesome sight.
"Be very careful," Lu Linjiang couldn't help but warn again.
"I know." Guo Junyi cautiously supported the man's head to examine it. "At least for now, there are no obvious signs of external trauma to the head." He lowered the head and carefully checked the limbs and neck. "There are no external wounds on the exposed skin, at least. The blood came from inside the body."
"Poisoning?" Lu Linjiang’s instinct reacted.
Guo Junyi shook his head. "Hard to say." He searched the pockets of the corpse's clothing, pulling out a wallet and a passport, which he handed to Lu Linjiang.
Lu Linjiang opened the passport. The name read Gil Guzman, a Spaniard, thirty-five years old. Lu Linjiang flipped through the pages; the passport was nearly full, suggesting the man might have been a businessman.
"Where’s Xu Zhiwei?" Guo Junyi called out.
Xu Zhiwei answered and hurried over. "This is..." He looked at the corpse on the floor, momentarily speechless.
"Is the gurney here? Get a few more people to help lift him later. His body feels very wrong to the touch; everyone must be extremely careful." Guo Junyi instructed the surrounding colleagues, his eyes never leaving the corpse.
Lu Linjiang inspected the bathroom. The floor wasn't particularly clean, and there were two faint marks where the man had been kneeling. Lu Linjiang leaned in close to look; the light wasn't great, but he could just make out what seemed to be watermarks. Sensing something was off, he reached out and lightly swiped the edge of a mark. When he pulled back into the light, the red on his glove was stark and jarring.
"On his body..."
Guo Junyi nodded. "There seem to be petechiae as well. It’s too strange. We’ll examine it further back at the lab." The body was moved onto the gurney, and Guo Junyi specifically had them add several extra layers of covering to wrap the corpse tightly.
Guo Junyi had originally intended to stay at the scene for further investigation, but after a moment's thought, he felt uneasy. "Xu Zhiwei, I’m leaving this to you. I’m going back immediately to perform the autopsy. Be careful."
Tang Hua found Lu Linjiang a short while later. "Captain Lu, the man is Gil Guzman. He checked in a week ago and paid the full room fee in advance. He specifically left a message saying he had a flight today and requested a wake-up call. When the staff called and couldn't get through, they came to knock, but there was no answer. They checked the surveillance and found he hadn't left his room in three days, so they opened the door with a spare key."
"Get all the surveillance footage."
"I’ve already sent someone to look into it," Tang Hua said, checking his notebook. "He arrived by taxi. Xu Sichen is currently contacting the taxi company to find the driver."
Lu Linjiang’s brow remained furrowed throughout the process—a rare occurrence. Yang Bo walked over after hanging up his phone. "Captain Lu, Immigration says he arrived on the 14th on the 3:40 PM flight."
"The 14th?" Lu Linjiang thought for a moment. "What a coincidence." Tao Minxing and his group had arrived on the same day. Lu Linjiang glanced at the chaotic room, his hand instinctively flipping through Guzman’s passport page by page until he stopped at a Danish visa. "Check if he has any connection to Tao Minxing’s group."
"Tang Hua, go to the airport. Get the passenger manifest for that flight and check the surveillance to see if he arrived alone. Yang Bo, investigate this man’s social connections. See who he contacted after entering the country."
Because the windows and doors had been opened upon entry, the metallic scent of blood in the air had finally dissipated. However, Lu Linjiang had the distinct feeling of a calm before a massive storm.
***
Guo Junyi and Huang Yidong moved Guzman’s body onto the autopsy table. Guo carefully used scissors to cut away the clothing, rinsed the body clean with water, and then scanned Guzman from head to toe with a UV light.
"No signs of external force." The two exchanged a look. Guo Junyi put down the light and pulled his mask up higher. "Xiao Huang, put on your mask. Ensure full protective measures."
Guo Junyi waited for Huang Yidong to don his mask and helped him tighten his cuffs before finally picking up the scalpel. Guzman’s body had begun to stiffen, yet it felt strangely spongy when pressed. Guo Junyi’s left hand pressed against Guzman’s chest as he very carefully made the first incision.
Despite being prepared for something unusual upon opening the chest cavity, Guo Junyi did not expect blood to spray out from the incision with such force. He reflexively turned his head, but blood still splattered across his face.
"Damn it!" Guo Junyi dropped the scalpel and rushed to the sink, turning the faucet to maximum. He didn't look up until his scalp felt numb from the cold water.
"Mr. Guo... are you alright?"
Guo Junyi leaned against the edge of the sink, his body feeling slightly weak. "Xiao Huang, take some samples. Run a toxicology screen."
Huang Yidong hurried to comply. He put down his notes to grab a swab, but was suddenly barked at by Guo Junyi. "Don't move!" Huang Yidong froze instantly. Maintaining his reaching posture, he slowly turned around. "Mr. Guo?"
Guo Junyi smoothed back his wet hair, revealing a forehead with a slightly receding hairline. "I’ll do it. Go get me a towel so I can dry off."
Huang Yidong quickly found a towel. Guo Junyi dried himself as best he could; as the water evaporated, a faint chill seemed to rise from his head. Gradually regaining his composure, he changed his gown, put on a new mask, took the samples with a swab, and placed them into separate test tubes.
"Run toxicology and pathological analysis." Huang Yidong quickly noted it down and placed the tubes into the equipment.
Guo Junyi waited for Huang Yidong to return. The blood from Guzman’s incision had slowly drained away. He rinsed the area clean and made the cut once more. When the entire chest cavity was opened, Guo Junyi remained silent for a long time. He had already suspected what the organs might look like given the high intrathoracic pressure, but the degree of decay before his eyes still left him stunned.
"Based on the rectal temperature, the time of death shouldn't exceed twenty-four hours. How could the internal organs rot to this extent?" Huang Yidong couldn't help but ask.
He stared at the mass of disintegrated organs. "It’s impossible for there to be no reaction. If it were me, I’d have gone to see a doctor no matter what... Could he have turned into a zombie?" After receiving a sharp look from Guo Junyi, Huang Yidong gave a dry chuckle. "I was just trying to lighten the mood."
"Bring the trays over." Guo Junyi very carefully removed the organs one by one. The tissue was almost entirely destroyed; the organs lay limp in the trays like clumps of rotten cotton wool. This couldn't have been caused by any violent factor. Guo Junyi looked at the trays before him and finally sliced a small piece of tissue from the liver.
Under the microscope, the tissue appeared to have been corroded by something. Within the scarlet tissue, he could see vast areas of honeycomb-like perforations. Guo Junyi had been in the profession for nearly ten years and had performed hundreds of autopsies, but for the first time, he felt a genuine sense of dread.
He instinctively looked up. There was a reflector on the autopsy table, and Guo Junyi caught his reflection from a distance. A tiny wound on his cheekbone was now glaringly red—it was a small nick from shaving this morning.
