A cold sweat trickled down Luo Weiwei's forehead as she stammered, "It… it looks like some kind of burrs from bamboo."
I switched off the ultraviolet lamp and said, "Judging from the angle those burrs pierced in, the victim must have forcefully pushed against some kind of bamboo stick at the time. If you don't believe me, you can compare them to that pair of red chopsticks and see if the burrs came off from there."
"It really was the husband who killed his own mother!" Huang Xiaotao exclaimed in shock. "Matricide!? That's unbelievably brutal!"
Luo Weiwei frowned in frustration. "Even if what you say is true, the last one to die would definitely be the wife, because…"
"Because you think it's impossible for someone to chop off their own head, right?"
Under my piercing gaze, Luo Weiwei hesitated. I could tell she was beginning to doubt her earlier conclusion.
But in the end, she stuck to her point: "Of course not. There are so many nerves and blood vessels in the neck — a person would be dead halfway through chopping. How could they possibly chop their own head off? Isn't that basic common sense?"
I sneered. "How about we make a bet?"
Luo Weiwei panicked. "A bet… what kind of bet?"
...
...
She was a girl, so I didn't want to be too harsh or make her eat smoke. Instead, I said, "Can you drive?"
"Yeah!" Luo Weiwei nodded.
"If I can prove the victim committed suicide, you'll be our driver for free during our investigation here in Wuqu City."
"What?" Luo Weiwei widened her eyes. "Why should I?"
"Don't tell me you've lost confidence?" I asked.
Luo Weiwei frowned, weighing her options. "What if you lose? I won't need you as my driver!"
"Well, I don't even have a license," I laughed. "If I lose, I'll do whatever."
"Okay, if you lose, I want the four of you to go apologize to Yidao for what happened earlier!" Luo Weiwei said after thinking for a moment.
I thought she would tell us to stop meddling in the case, but surprisingly, Luo Weiwei openly defended her boyfriend. That was unexpected. Looks like she knew well they couldn't crack this case on their own.
I agreed readily. "Forget apologies — kneeling down and admitting fault is fine by me."
Huang Xiaotao's eyes went wide. "Hey!"
Luo Weiwei crossed her arms smugly. "Alright, you said it. A gentleman's word…"
"Can't be taken back!" I finished.
Huang Xiaotao muttered, "Song Yang, you make the bet, but why drag us into it? If you have to kneel, do it yourself!"
"Don't worry, would I mess this up?" I smiled mysteriously.
"Fine, I trust you. Don't embarrass the Nanjiang Police Department!" Huang Xiaotao said.
"Rest assured a hundred times over!" I said.
Luo Weiwei, seeing I wasn't budging, urged, "Then get on with the autopsy. We're waiting to see your trick."
"Don't rush. Wait for my assistant to come back," I said calmly.
After more than twenty minutes, Wang Dali finally returned, carrying bags and two pots strapped to his back, looking comical yet excited. "Hey Yangzi, this supermarket was hard to find! Here, everything you asked for!"
"Thanks!" I told Wang Yuanchao to help me hang strong adhesive hooks on the ceiling in a row.
Luo Weiwei shouted, "Hey, don't mess around here!"
I glanced at her. "Want me to start the autopsy? Don't worry, I'll clean everything up later."
After hanging the hooks, I tied all the elastic bands into loops and evenly spaced them along a wooden stick, then inserted the stick into the hooks on the ceiling. I tugged it to make sure it was secure.
All the officers watched me curiously, wondering what I was up to.
"Uncle Wang, help me lift the corpse!" I ordered.
Wang Yuanchao and I lifted the male corpse to hang directly under the hooks, posed it in a kneeling position on a metal table, and looped elastic bands around the victim's arms. The body hung like a marionette puppet.
"This is… necropsy technique?" Huang Xiaotao asked.
"No, this time I'm using something more advanced," I said, pulling out a sewing needle and a magnet. I rubbed the needle along the magnet in one direction until it became magnetized — a magnetic needle.
This preparation took some time. Wang Dali started joking again. "Yangzi, I heard a joke the other day. It's hilarious."
"Tell me," I said.
"Two cops arrive at a crime scene. The senior cop says to the junior, 'Xiaoming, this case has something in common with the locked-room murder last month, the dismembered body at the dock, and the dumped corpse at the crossroads the month before that.' The junior cop asks, 'You mean the same person did all these?' The senior cop seriously replies, 'No, I mean I can't solve any of those.'"
Wang Dali laughed so hard he was slapping his leg. Huang Xiaotao and I couldn't help but laugh. Unintentionally, it sounded like a jab at their detective skills, and Luo Weiwei and the other cops looked increasingly sour.
Huang Xiaotao smiled and said, "Watch your timing."
Wang Dali gave Luo Weiwei a sly glance. "Alright, alright, I get it."
By then, I was done preparing. What I was about to perform was an upgraded version of 'necropsy technique' — the 'necromancy technique.' The Chronicles of the Corpse Whisperer records a mysterious method to make the dead 'come alive' by stimulating acupoints with a magnetic needle.
I had accidentally used the necropsy technique during the vampire case and later studied human meridians intensively.
What exactly are meridians? Western medicine once dissected corpses and found no physical evidence of meridians, dismissing them as Eastern superstition.
But traditional Chinese medicine, with thousands of years of history, shows acupuncture's miraculous healing effects. According to its theory, the human body is an inseparable whole — pulling one hair moves the whole body. Stimulating one acupoint can affect an organ or part, a fact repeatedly verified for centuries.
Therefore, some believe the body contains many small magnetic fields, intersecting to form biological magnetic meridians — the essence of the twelve meridians described in the Huangdi Neijing.
The 'necromancy technique' involves inserting a magnetic needle into special acupoints to release residual magnetic energy in the body's meridians, making muscles replicate movements from before death.
Of course, the awakened muscle power is slight. The mortician must use external force — like these elastic bands — to support the corpse's weight for the effect to show.
Before inserting the needles, I warned Wang Dali, "There's gonna be some intense scenes. You wanna step out for a bit?"
Wang Dali shook his head excitedly. "No way! This is stuff you don't see every day — way more thrilling than horror movies."
I chuckled, "Don't blame me if you get scared later."
Measuring along the victim's spine, I inserted the magnetic needle into major acupoints — Dazhui, Shendao, Lingtai, Zhongshu, Xuanshu, Mingmen, and Yaoyangguan — pushing each needle in almost halfway.
These points are extremely dangerous to try on the living — mild injury means paralysis; severe means death.
But with the dead, such 'strong medicine' is necessary to 'wake' them.
After inserting all the needles, the corpse didn't react. Luo Weiwei sneered, "Ha, all that mysterious stuff and no effect."
"Don't rush!" I slapped the corpse's shoulder hard — and it slowly began to move.