Chapter 154: The Serpent’s Blade

Huang Xiaotao said with a smile, "What 'ah' are you talking about? It's just for the investigation."

She pushed me onto the bed and climbed up herself — apparently, she wanted me to act as the killer. With a teasing grin, she said, "Your skin's so soft and smooth, like a virgin. The boss will like that. Tell me, how old are you this year?"

I groaned, "You don't have to get so into character. Your pose is all wrong!"

I tapped her leg with my listening stick, and Huang Xiaotao immediately straightened up. Although I felt a bit embarrassed, as soon as we started reconstructing the crime scene, I completely lost myself in the process.

We tried to reproduce every detail of the attack. When I stabbed the stick toward her chest, Huang Xiaotao instantly grabbed her chest and stepped back, mimicking the victim's reaction.

I said, "No, think about it — what would a ruthless crime boss's first reaction be when attacked like this?"

"To grab the knife!" Huang Xiaotao answered immediately.

"But he didn't do anything. He just took over a dozen stabs without fighting back."

I jumped up and checked the victim's hands. The crime boss's palms were wide and thick. I sniffed them carefully and made a surprising discovery. To confirm, I smelled the victim's head as well.

"The killer bathed with the boss. Both the hands and head smell of the same shampoo — it means the boss washed the killer's hair thoroughly. With such intimacy, there's no way the killer is just some prostitute."

Huang Xiaotao said thoughtfully, "Maybe a mistress."

...

...

"But whoever the killer was, how did they escape? The room was sealed — a locked-room situation. Mouse didn't lie, and he heard this from several channels."

I checked the other hand and found slight muscle strains around the joints — injuries likely caused after death. I asked Huang Xiaotao to grab the muguang spray from my bag and sprayed the victim's palm a few times. Blue stains appeared — blood residue.

I pointed to the pattern in the stains and asked, "What does this look like to you?"

"Wood?" Huang Xiaotao guessed.

"Right. It's the knife handle. The killer shoved the knife into the victim's hand after stabbing."

If the palm had blood, the back of the hand should carry the killer's fingerprints! I sprinkled some seaweed powder on the back of the victim's hand, and sure enough, fingerprints appeared — though incomplete, because the whole body had been washed after death, and skin oils were gone.

Judging by the length and width of the fingers, the killer was definitely female, around 1.5 meters tall, which matched my earlier estimation. I took photos with my phone.

Huang Xiaotao sighed, "What a pity! Such a crucial clue is gone. Do you think it's an inside job? The locked room and no one on the surveillance are probably fabrications."

I said, "For now, we focus on facts and don't speculate."

I still didn't understand why the killer would shove the knife into the victim's hand. If they could vanish into thin air, why bother with such a petty trick?

I took out a syringe and tried to draw blood from the body. Because the victim had been dead too long, only a tiny drop came out. I dripped it into a reagent for toxin detection. The blood immediately sank to the bottom.

Huang Xiaotao, seeing me test the blood for the first time, asked in surprise, "What's going on?"

"The victim was poisoned with snake venom," I answered.

Huang Xiaotao frowned, "Snake venom again? This case is getting messy!"

I muttered to myself while piecing clues together, "It's not messy at all — everything fits. How do you think the snake venom got into the victim's body?"

"Injection? Or swallowing?" Huang Xiaotao guessed.

I explained, "Snake venom is a protein. Swallowing it causes no harm — only bloodborne venom is lethal."

I thoroughly examined the body again. No needle marks, no bite marks. Then it hit me: the venom was on the blade — a highly toxic snake's venom, which paralyzed the victim's nerves. That's why he didn't resist the multiple stabs.

I told Huang Xiaotao to take the remaining blood sample for further testing to identify the snake species.

Just then, the corpse twitched. Both of us froze in shock.

Huang Xiaotao's cheek twitched involuntarily. I explained, "It's normal — the victim was in an extreme state of nervous excitement. I touched the spine while turning the body; that triggered a nerve reflex."

Huang Xiaotao laughed nervously, "Good thing Wang Dali wasn't here, or he'd have fainted."

Suddenly, our expressions changed. Where was Wang Dali? Why was he gone so long?

Huang Xiaotao called him several times, no answer. I heard his phone ringing faintly in the corridor.

I said, "Let's go find him."

We reached the restroom but didn't see him. I made Huang Xiaotao call again. The ringing came from a stall — turns out Wang Dali's phone had fallen into the toilet.

While looking down, I noticed a trail of bloody footprints on the floor. The stride and size indicated a woman.

I showed Huang Xiaotao and told her I'd just seen a woman in white drifting by. She gasped, "Could it really be a ghost? Did they take Wang Dali?"

I pointed to a spot on the floor, "Look, there's a yellow puddle there."

She asked, "What is it?"

I chuckled, "He peed himself! From the position, it's clear he stared face to face with the 'ghost.' He wasn't taken, just scared away."

Following the faint bloody footprints outside, we noticed occasional dribbles of urine. The footprints were so faint they were nearly invisible. Eventually, even Huang Xiaotao lost sight of them, and after a few steps, I couldn't see them either, though the air still reeked of blood and urine.

We arrived at a door marked, "Cremation Area – No Unauthorized Entry." As I pushed it open, a strong stench of blood hit me.

Behind a folding screen, Wang Dali screamed, "Ah, don't come closer! Don't!"

I called out, "It's us!"

At the sound of our voices, Wang Dali broke down crying, "Yangzi, you finally came. You scared me to death — some white-clad ghost was chasing me!"

We turned the screen and found Wang Dali crouched under an iron table, trembling, his pants soaked from urine. He looked utterly miserable.

I asked, "Where's the ghost?"

Huang Xiaotao said, "Song Yang, do you really believe in ghosts?"

I laughed, "We've seen ghosts before, but do you believe in ghosts that leave footprints? I think it's a person."

The smell of blood came from another room.

I said to Wang Dali, "Don't you smell all this blood? Someone's dead in there."

Tears streaming down, Wang Dali sniffled, "I don't know... I was crying so hard I couldn't breathe."

I waved them on, "Come on, let's check it out."

The next room was the cremation chamber. Wang Dali's hiding spot was the temporary morgue. But the moment we pushed open the door, a man in funeral clothes lunged straight at us...