Chapter 429: 11:34 pm

As soon as school was over, Mo Li got into Ah Ao’s car and prepared to go home. The rapid ringing of the phone shattered Mo Li’s plan of going home and having an early sleep. She rubbed her temples helplessly and picked up her phone. Due to her job, Mo Li was very sensitive to the phone’s ringing sound.

“This is the criminal case command center. A murder case has occurred in Nanping Village. The police and the Pearl River Criminal Task Force are already at the crime scene. Captain Xiao said that this was the contact number of the forensics team. Please be at the crime scene within the next 20 minutes.”

Mo Li sighed and then gave Ah Ao the address of the crime scene. They arrived at the crime scene just as the night was coming. This was when most people were let off work so there were many onlookers at the scene. The local police had cordoned off the entrance.

The crime scene was in a resident on the 4th floor of building 5. The neatly-dressed officer guarded the door with a solemn expression.

The person who reported the case was a retired official who lived in the room above the deceased. He returned home after training at 5 pm. He realized the deceased’s room door was open. Once he got near the door, the strong smell of blood hit him. He entered the room and saw a man lying on the ground. He called several times and there was no answer. There was a lot of bloodstain in the living room. He quickly called the police.

The owner was a trainer at a nearby gym, Li Hui. His wife worked in Nanping City and would only come back once a month. She would normally return in the middle of the month. The coupled had been married for two years, but they had no children. Some said they were not trying to have children.

The two met on an arranged date, and they didn’t have a loving relationship. Furthermore, they spent most of their lives separated from each other and that didn’t make their relationship better. This was everything the officers could find from the rudimentary interviews.

The crime scene was a two-bedroom apartment. The left side of the front door had a wall of shoe cabinets. The left side led to the bathroom. Walking forward and one would reach the living room, where the body was found.

The two doors on the east side of the living room led to two other bedrooms and the one door on the west side led to the kitchen. The windows of the apartment were closed and intact. In other words, no one broke in through the windows, and the front door lock was untouched as well.

The living room was about eight square meters, and the floor was completely soaked in blood. There was barely any space to put one’s feet on. Even the walls were covered in blood splatter. There were sprays, spatter, and even some dragging blood patterns.

The deceased, Li Hui was leaning against the western wall of the living room. His eyes were wide open. And his face was full of despair.

Mo Li and Qin Xuan pulled out a torchlight to examine the body. They noticed that the man’s neck was heavily injured, it was badly mutilated. Li Hui was dressed neatly and he had a muscular body. It would be difficult for an average man to take him down.

“My God, the killer has to be the Hulk! Look at the man… I don’t think the boss and I can even take him down.” Kang Zhi swallowed his saliva and sighed.

The trace analysts investigated the scene and couldn’t find anything valuable. They did find half a bloody palm print on the wall near the front door. It was proven to be the victim.

Since the scene was soaked in blood, they had to lay down some bags for them to walk towards the victim.

Mo Li put on her gloves. Li Hui’s skull scraped when she touched it. It was pretty clear that he had a skull fracture. There was a large incision on his neck. His carotid arteries, jugular veins, trachea, and esophagus had been completely severed. Mo Li looked closer and she saw the cervical vertebra poking out of the man’s neck. Blood pooled around the man’s neck, it had started to coagulate.

Due to a large amount of blood loss, rigor mortis wasn’t that reliable. In any case, rigor hadn’t formed at the major joints and the man’s cornea was still sparkling. Mo Li believed the man died not too long ago. Mo Li gestured to Qin Xuan to check Li Hui’s intestinal temperature. They would use that to calculate the victim’s time of death.

Mo Li squatted beside Li Hui and examined his hands.

Qin Xuan was calculating the time of death when Mo Li lifted her head to look at him, “The time of death is around 11.30 pm, right?”

Qin Xuan was shocked. “How did you know that? Just from his hands?” Qin Xuan just finished his calculation and it matched Mo Li’s observation.

“Great calculation but you need to improve your observational skill.” Mo Li smiled as he pointed at the victim’s wrist.

Only then did Qin Xuan notice the victim’s watch. The watch was shattered. He looked closer and realized the watch had stopped at 11.34 pm.

There were traces of struggle and fighting in the living room. However, the strange thing was, it was only limited to the living room. The other rooms were perfectly untouched.

The half bloody palm print was confusing as well. Because it was the only sign of blood outside of the living room. Since there was a bloody print on the wall, one would assume there would be blood on the floor, but there was none.