Upon discovering that Li Zhemin was dead, the other three elderly people in the same room immediately began to scream.
The piercing scream startled the other passengers in the carriage, and the other eight elderly people also rushed over.
The elderly woman who had dinner with Li Zhemin yesterday nervously nudged his body: "Old Li, wake up, wake up!" Two other elderly women nearby were also talking amongst themselves: "What's wrong?" "What happened to Old Li?" "Oh my god, he hasn't woken up after so long, could he be dead?"
Upon hearing the word "dead," the elderly people were all shocked and began to whisper among themselves. Some even stepped forward, wanting to lift the blanket to check on the deceased.
Yu Hanjiang shouted sternly, "Everyone, please get out and don't touch the corpse!"
The flight attendant's expression was extremely serious, and her voice, like a thunderclap, startled everyone into a simultaneous freeze. Yu Hanjiang's sharp gaze swept across the crowd, and the people immediately turned pale and consciously took a step back, leaving room number 2 and making way for her.
Yu Hanjiang strode into room number 2, his gaze quickly sweeping over the crime scene.
Red hats from the tour group and four people's coats were hanging on the clothes racks on both the upper and lower bunks. Beds 2B, 2C, and 2D were slightly messy because the elderly had just gotten up, but Li Zhemin's bed 2A was exceptionally tidy.
Yu Hanjiang lifted the covers, and Li Zhemin had changed into a set of plaid pajamas. He was dressed neatly, and it was clear that he had not fought with anyone and showed no signs of struggle—he had been killed in his sleep. Even at the moment of his death, Li Zhemin was having a sweet dream, with a smile on his lips and an exceptionally peaceful expression.
Most people over 60 years old are light sleepers and easily awakened, while some elderly people suffer from insomnia and cannot fall asleep in the middle of the night.
There were four elderly people in room number 2. If one of them happened to be awake at the time, the risk of the murderer being discovered would be very high. Obviously, the murderer was very familiar with the daily routines of these elderly people and made sure that everyone was asleep before he made his move.
Logically speaking, it would be easier for the three people in the same room as Li Zhemin to commit the crime, because he could observe whether the others and Li Zhemin were asleep at any time, ensuring that he would not be discovered.
However, we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the elderly people in rooms 1 and 3 committed the crime. After all, these people have been colleagues for many years, know each other very well, and often travel together. They probably know exactly who has insomnia and who snores.
Tour guide Qin Shiyue was washing up when she heard the shouts from inside the carriage. She hurriedly wiped her face with a towel, grabbed her toiletries bag, and ran back quickly.
Seeing a group of people gathered outside room number 2, Qin Shiyue grabbed a familiar elderly woman and asked nervously, "Aunt Zhang, what happened?" The elderly woman pointed tremblingly at room number 2 and said, "Old Li seems to be dead..."
Qin Shiyue's expression changed, and she quickly walked over, only to find that the train attendant in carriage number 6 was checking the condition of the deceased.
Just as she arrived at the door, the other person looked up.
His gaze was cold and sharp, almost piercing through one's heart. Qin Shiyue was startled by his icy eyes. She took a deep breath to compose herself and asked in a trembling voice, "Uncle Li... is Uncle Li really dead? What happened?"
The people around shook their heads: "We don't know."
The balding old man suddenly said, "Could it be a sudden heart attack? I remember Old Li has always had heart problems!"
An old man next to him chimed in, "That's right, that's right. Old Li has had high blood pressure and heart disease for many years. His bed was originally the upper bunk, but he was worried that sleeping too high would cause him to have a heart attack in the middle of the night, so he specially switched with me to the lower bunk."
Another old man said, "He takes his medicine on time every day. He had heart surgery before and I heard he even had a stent implanted!"
The three men who mentioned heart disease were the same old men who shared a room with Li Zhemin.
Ignoring their wild guesses, Yu Hanjiang said in a low voice, "Xiao Qin, could you please go to carriage number 4 and call the train attendant over?"
Qin Shiyue nodded with a pale face and quickly turned to go to carriage number 4.
When she arrived at carriage number 4, she ran into Xiao Lou, who was rushing over. Qin Shiyue quickly said, "Hello, are you the conductor of carriage 4? The conductor of carriage 6 wants to see you!"
Xiao Lou nodded politely and strode quickly to carriage number 6.
The commotion in carriage 6 was so loud so early in the morning that Xiao Lou could still hear the screams, even though there was a whole dining car in between. Many passengers in carriage 4 were also looking over there curiously.
It must be a problem with Captain Yu's carriage. Xiao Lou immediately turned around and walked in that direction, just in time to run into the tour guide that Captain Yu had sent to call him.
As Xiao Lou walked, he asked, "What happened?"
Qin Shiyue's face was ashen: "An elderly person in our group suddenly passed away... Oh my god, such a big accident, I'll definitely be fired by the travel agency when I get back!"
Seeing the girl's conflicted expression, Xiao Lou whispered to comfort her, "Don't worry. If it's murder, the responsibility isn't yours. The travel agency might reconsider. We hope you can cooperate with our investigation."
Qin Shiyue stared wide-eyed in disbelief: "Murder? Wasn't Uncle Li suffering from a heart attack?"
Seeing the girl's bewildered expression, Xiao Lou felt a pang of sympathy. A recent college graduate leading a tour group of senior citizens, she had been incredibly careful and responsible throughout the trip, only to have someone suddenly die in the group. This was no ordinary blow to her; she might face serious consequences when she returned home.
Disciplinary action, job loss.
Xiao Lou said gently, "We can't draw any conclusions yet. We'll have to check before we can be sure. Xiao Qin, could you please organize all the information for the tour group, including the forms they filled out when they registered with the travel agency? We'll get them from you later."
Qin Shiyue nodded with a complicated expression: "Okay, okay..."
Xiao Lou quickly arrived at carriage number 6 via the dining car, where he found a group of elderly people anxiously surrounding room number 2.
The family of four in room number 4 also peeked out when they heard the noise. The 3-year-old child, who had accidentally inhaled a raisin yesterday, asked in a childish voice, "Mommy, what's wrong? Why are the grandpas and grandmas gathered there? Is there something fun to do? I want to see too!"
Hearing the surrounding chatter, which sounded like someone had died, the woman's expression changed. She immediately took the child back inside, saying, "It's okay, baby, let's not go out. Let's watch cartoons in the room, okay?" She slammed the door shut, clearly not wanting to frighten the child.
Room 5, one passenger got off yesterday, and Mo Jiaran slept in it.
The noise outside startled her awake. The young lady had a particularly bad temper when she woke up; her face darkened, she flung open the door and shouted, "Can't a person get any sleep this early in the morning?! What's all this noise about! Can you please keep it down?!"
An old woman nearby said, "Young lady, someone died in room number 2..."
Mo Jiaran's face suddenly turned pale. She immediately jumped out of bed and ran towards carriage number 4 with a scream like a frightened cat. Xiao Lou stopped her and said calmly, "No one is allowed to leave."
Mo Jiaran pointed tremblingly to compartment number 2: "My God, someone's dead over there! I don't want to stay in compartment number 6 anymore..."
Xiao Lou opened the door of car number 4, smiled, and said, "Get in."
Mo Jiaran turned pale and refused to cooperate.
Xiao Lou said gently, "Don't be afraid, it's safer to stay in the room."
Upon hearing Xiao Lou's words, everyone's expressions turned somewhat grim, and Mo Jiaran reluctantly returned to room number 4.
Xiao Lou turned around and casually locked the door at the connection between the carriages.
Upon hearing his voice, Yu Hanjiang tacitly came out of room number 2 and whispered, "Carriage number 6 is temporarily closed. Please return to your rooms. We need to conduct an investigation on each passenger. Thank you for your cooperation."
An old woman nearby said, "What are you investigating? Old Li just suddenly died; it's obvious he died of a heart attack, right?"
One person complained, "What can you possibly find out? Do you even know how to perform autopsies?!"
Xiao Lou smiled slightly and looked at him, saying, "That's right, we do perform autopsies."
The old man was stunned, his face filled with terror.
Xiao Lou said gently, "Uncles and aunts, please don't panic. Please go back to your rooms first. The three people in room number 2, please wait in the corridor for a moment."
He and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance, nodded to each other, and then walked into room number 2 together, closing the door behind them to block the view from the outside.
If there are no medical professionals among the Challengers who cannot determine the cause of Li Zhemin's death, then what they should do is go to car number 4 and invite the doctor "NPC" Jing Weiguang over.
However, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang did not need Dr. Jing's help— Xiao Lou was more professional than Dr. Jing in conducting on-site autopsies.
Yu Hanjiang consciously took a step back, giving Xiao Lou enough space.
Xiao Lou put on a pair of gloves, bent down and lifted the deceased's clothes, quickly examining the body.
Yu Hanjiang pointed out, "The tour group just mentioned that Li Zhemin has a heart condition and has undergone coronary stent surgery."
Xiao Lou immediately took off the deceased's pants and, sure enough, saw surgical scars on his thigh. While examining the scars, he explained, "Stent placement surgery is generally used for coronary artery stenosis in the heart."
He pointed to the scar on the thigh and said, " Captain Yu, look here. There is a surgical scar on the femoral artery in the deceased's right leg. The doctor opened a blood vessel through the femoral artery and pushed a stent from here all the way into the heart blood vessel. This kind of surgery is very common and has a high success rate. Once the inserted stent opens up the narrowed blood vessel, the patient's heart blood flow will return to normal."
Xiao Lou examined the deceased's face, pupils, muscles, and skin condition, and concluded: "He did not die suddenly from a heart attack. Patients who die suddenly from a heart attack will have very prominent livor mortis, which is usually dark purplish-red. Due to the congestion of a large number of organs and tissues in the body, the body stiffens too quickly, and there will also be obvious scattered bleeding points on the body. Li Zhemin's case does not match this."
He carefully examined details such as the deceased's fingernails and oral mucosa, and said, "The possibility of poisoning is also unlikely."
It wasn't a sudden heart attack or poisoning; there were no signs of stab wounds or impacts on his body. Li Zhemin's death was completely undetected, appearing much like the natural death of an elderly person in their sleep.
Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly: "Can you deduce the cause of death?"
Xiao Lou paused for a moment, carefully examined the area around the deceased's navel and upper arm, and said, " Captain Yu, there are many needle marks on his body."
Yu Hanjiang was slightly taken aback: "Could it be that he's using drugs?"
Xiao Lou shook his head: "It could also be from the injections." He opened the door and asked the three old men standing there: "Gentlemen, besides heart disease, does Li Zhemin have any other medical history? For example... diabetes?"
The three exchanged glances, and one of them suddenly said, "It seems so! The three highs, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar. Old Li mentioned before that he has the three highs and has to eat vegetarian food and stuff."
Xiao Lou looked at Yu Hanjiang: "Search Li Zhemin's luggage."
Yu Hanjiang nodded and took Li Zhemin's bag from the luggage rack—the bag contained several magazines and some other items.
medicine.
Old Li was practically a walking pharmacy; he had over a dozen bottles of medicine in his bag. Yu Hanjiang didn't know what the medicine was for, so he poured them all out on the bed for Xiao Lou to see.
As Xiao Lou looked through the bottles, he explained to Captain Yu: "This bottle is for lowering blood pressure, these two bottles are for softening and dilating blood vessels, this is a gastric mucosa protectant; nitroglycerin is a commonly used emergency medication for coronary heart disease; this bottle is for treating acute diarrhea, and this bottle is for colds and fevers..."
As Xiao Lou explained the functions of each medicine, the elderly people around him were all dumbfounded.
An old man exclaimed in astonishment, "Are flight attendants all this capable these days? They recognize all the medicines!"
Xiao Lou didn't explain, but looked at Yu Hanjiang and whispered in his ear, "There's no insulin."
Yu Hanjiang understood and closed the door behind him, keeping the curious elderly people outside.
Xiao Lou lowered his voice and said, "Diabetic patients must carry insulin with them when traveling for long periods of time and use it to control their blood sugar every day."
He glanced back at the pile of medications lying on the bed and said, " Li Zhemin's bag is full of all sorts of random medications, like blood pressure medication and vasodilators, which he has to take every day; the others for diarrhea, headaches, and colds are probably for when he goes on long trips. But the most important thing, insulin, isn't in his bag, which is absolutely unreasonable."
Yu Hanjiang, lacking medical knowledge, couldn't help but ask, "Was it stolen by the murderer? Can insulin kill people?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "Insulin is a life-saving drug that has solved the problems of many diabetic patients. It can lower blood sugar. However, if an excessive amount of insulin is injected, the body's sugar metabolism will be disrupted, and blood sugar will be completely depleted, dropping to an extremely low level. This will cause irreversible damage to brain tissue, leading to coma, fainting, and death in one's sleep."
Yu Hanjiang's pupils suddenly contracted.
Therefore, Li Zhemin's death was clearly related to an insulin overdose.
Fortunately, Xiao Lou was professional enough to quickly determine the cause of death—the several needle marks around the navel and upper arm indicated that Li Zhemin regularly injected insulin to control his blood sugar; however, the insulin in his backpack was missing; Li Zhemin died peacefully, without any struggle before his death, which was consistent with the reasoning that he was injected with a large amount of insulin in his sleep, causing his blood sugar to drop to the limit and resulting in fainting.
Yu Hanjiang couldn't help but think to himself, "Bringing a Forensic Doctor along to overcome this challenge is so efficient; they figured out the cause of death in less than half an hour."
He looked at Xiao Lou with admiration and said, "Since the murderer injected Li Zhemin with a large amount of insulin, it is very likely that Li Zhemin's insulin has been used up. In order to avoid being noticed, the best thing the murderer would do is to dispose of the insulin bottle and the syringe."
The insulin dose carried when traveling is limited; it would have to be injected all at once to kill Li Zhemin. If his insulin bottle suddenly ran out, finding it in his luggage would certainly arouse suspicion— Captain Yu's speculation is reasonable; the murderer must have disposed of the murder weapon.
Xiao Lou suggested, "Shall we search the trash cans?"
Yu Hanjiang nodded.
The two walked out of the car together, went to the end of the carriage, opened the trash can, and quickly searched for food while enduring the strange smell of the food.
After searching the entire garbage bag, no trace of medicine bottles or syringes was found.
Xiao Lou asked in a low voice, "Could the murderer have thrown these things into another carriage? But if that's the case, what if they happen to run into someone in another carriage going to the toilet in the middle of the night? That would leave them with evidence."
Yu Hanjiang frowned and said, "The murderer is so cautious, he shouldn't rashly throw away trash in other unfamiliar carriages."
Suddenly, he noticed a lunchbox next to him. The box was tightly closed, and it seemed that the person who threw away the trash was quite hygienic, as they had closed the box so tightly to prevent any leftover soup from spilling out.
But as Yu Hanjiang opened the box, Xiao Lou was surprised to find—
Inside the lunchbox was a syringe and several empty insulin vials.
The two men exchanged a glance—through the autopsy and questioning of medical history, their deduction of the murder method was entirely correct.
Now it's time to find the murderer!