Chapter 223 - 153: Case Established: The Human Skin Blood Robe Case

"The examination was brief, but based on the wounds, the forensics department has come to two preliminary conclusions."

"First, the skin was flayed from a female victim."

"The victim was very young, somewhere between fifteen and twenty years old. We believe she was most likely around sixteen."

The medical examiner got straight to the point, pulling down his mask to read from his notes.

"Judging from the wounds, the killer used more than one type of sharp instrument. During the flaying process, they used different tools for different parts of the body."

"The technique was meticulous, almost like a surgical procedure."

"Beyond that, our second finding is..."

The medical examiner’s expression grew grim as he spoke, his voice lowering.

"There are significant signs of hemorrhaging on the skin."

"This indicates that there was massive bleeding when the skin was removed. Blood vessels ruptured, staining the adjacent skin tissue."

"In our tissue samples, we found large numbers of red blood cells dispersed in the interstitial spaces."

"Along the wound edges, we can see the skin is curled—a sign of skin retraction that occurs when flayed alive."

"In other words..."

The medical examiner paused, then delivered the chilling conclusion.

"She was flayed alive."

Flayed alive...

The killer had taken a young woman, and while she was fully conscious, ignoring her desperate screams, flayed the skin from her living body...

The skin from her entire body!

A hush fell over the room.

It was deathly still. Everyone stood in silence, a cold chill running down their spines.

’This is bad...’

Zhang Liang shut his eyes in despair.

People’s excitement for the upcoming New Year was at an all-time high.

At a time like this, the higher-ups were on high alert. Even a minor incident would be put under a microscope.

Let alone something like this...

To call this killer "deranged" would be an understatement!

Flayed alive! Torn from a living person!

The killer had flayed a person, watching the exposed, glistening red muscle, the bones, blood vessels, perhaps even the internal organs...

Listening to their victim die amid agonizing screams and wails.

And what’s more...

...the technique was exceptionally skilled.

The implications of that were staggering...

"What do you think of this case?" Zhang Liang opened his eyes and looked at Xu Huo.

’What do I think?’

Xu Huo’s heart sank.

The time limit the system had given him to solve the case was...

Thirty days.

’What was the last case that came with a time limit like this?’

’The joint operation in Hanhai Province, the one where they had to bring in the special chief instructor to catch the culprit!’

’And even then, he, Xu Huo, had to cross a moral line and use a corpse as bait. If it had come down to urban warfare...’

’No one dared to imagine the chaos someone like that could have unleashed if they’d run rampant in Zhaozhou.’

’It was unthinkable!’

’But he didn’t have to imagine it anymore.’

’Someone like that was right here.’

The pressure of just thinking about it was enough to make one despair.

"It’s difficult. Extremely difficult."

Xu Huo said quietly, his chapped lips barely moving.

"Whether you look at the madwoman’s actions, the scant clues we have, or the potential ramifications..."

"...every aspect of this case screams ’difficult.’"

Hearing this, Zhang Liang actually sighed in relief.

Why?

Because the suspense that had kept his heart in his throat was finally over. It had been replaced by the certainty of doom.

He glanced back, only to find that Wang Chao had slipped away at some point and was now outside.

Not that he was in any mood to give him trouble for it.

"Is the madwoman the killer?" someone suddenly wondered aloud.

"It’s hard to say. The capacity to commit the crime is certainly there, but we have no logic to back it up."

The others shook their heads.

Their only person of interest was insane, and it was impossible to get any information.

Who was she? Where did she live? What was her name?

And for that matter, who was the victim?

How do you even begin to investigate a madwoman!?

Surveillance footage?

It was no joke; in this day and age, the entire Capital City had precious few surveillance cameras.

Footprints?

They were buried under the snow, completely untraceable!

A scent trail, then?

Forget about police dogs.

Even Xu Huo was helpless in this weather; he couldn’t smell anything of value.

The Zhaozhou case at least gave them a clear facial description to work with.

This case had nothing...

The group sank into a heavy silence.

No one spoke. Everyone was frantically racking their brains, trying to make sense of the case.

It was so quiet they could hear each other breathing.

Until a shrill sound shattered the silence.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Startled out of his thoughts, Zhang Liang looked down and pulled out his phone. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the caller ID.

Caller ID: Director Wang.

He hesitated for a moment before accepting the call.

A moment later.

"Hello?"

"Xiao Liang, have Advisor Xu and that young man with him left yet?"

"Going by the time, they should have reached Jiangsan City by now, or be in the air on their way back to Linlan City."

"When are you heading back?"

"We’re calculating and handing out the holiday bonuses at the bureau over the next few days, so hurry back..."

"The New Year is just days away. You, the police, and the folks at National Security need to be on your toes. The last thing we need is an incident during the holidays. That would be a major problem."

Zhang Liang...

Zhang Liang’s lips trembled. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He was utterly at a loss.

As he listened to his director’s easygoing chatter, he tried to say something, but the words just wouldn’t come.

Zhang Liang looked up, his gaze falling upon the skin laid out neatly on the table in the forensics lab.

He glanced over at Xu Huo and Li Jianye, standing off to the side.

"Don’t look at me."

"I’m just a hired hand here."

Xu Huo said nothing, doing his best to fade into the background.

Zhang Liang fell silent.

’What was he supposed to...’

’...how was he supposed to answer?’

"Hello? You there?"

Wang Tao’s voice came through the phone again, now tinged with confusion.

"Xiao Liang, you there?"

"Did you get things sorted out?"

"Say something!"

"We’ve still got New Year’s arrangements to make!"