Chapter 16 - Case 2-The deadly chocolate

Chapter 16

The entire dormitory building of South City University had undergone a renovation in the previous year, and now there were four people in one dormitory; the computer tables and cabinets were stowed under the beds. In the corner of the dormitory, there was a small bathroom, where they could only go to the toilet and wash up, but could not take a shower.

Song Wen followed Lin Xiuran’s footsteps and walked in. The dormitory was in chaos, with bedding and various books scattered on the ground.

On the south side of the bedroom, there were two young female corpses wearing only pajamas. In the corner, one of them was curled up and hunched over as if in an extreme amount of pain. This girl was wearing a light olive green colored lace pajamas. Although her face was a bit hideous, one can still see her fair complexion.

Another body was located not far from her, and it looked like it had rolled down the bed with the blanket. The corpse was a girl with long curly hair and a slender body. Her fingernails were dark red, because of the extreme pain felt before death.

Now that rigor mortis had set in, she and the quilt were almost twisted together, both of her hands and feet were stuck in the quilt. A forensic scientist was trying to separate her from the quilt.

Both of these girls were just in their early twenties. They were originally in a beautiful stage of life, but now, in one night, they have died tragically in their dormitory. Even though Song Wen had been accustomed to seeing life and death in the past few years through work, he still couldn’t help but feel helpless when he saw such a terrible scene.

The two people had obviously experienced a great amount of suffering before death. Their faces were as hideous as a severe screaming ghost, because they were poisoned, their lips were not quite normal. There was vomit on the ground, and the poison also caused incontinence, so that the whole dormitory had a pungent odor.

Lin Xiuran had briefly checked the corpse. At this time, the Crime Scene Investigation team was taking photos, as well as dusting all of the surfaces to collect fingerprints. In order not to interfere with their work, Lin Xiuran dragged Song Wen back to the corridor and explained: “The identities of the two deceased have been confirmed. They are both senior year students from the Department of Civil Engineering. Dong Fang is the one curled up, and the one holding the quilt is called Ma Aijing. They should have been poisoned by a potent poison, and it mostly took no more than one and a half hours from the time of poisoning to their death.”

“For many Seniors in Civil Engineering, at this time of the year, they should be preparing for their Graduation Thesis, Defense and looking for a job, right?” Song Wen asked, “Has the cause of death been determined?”

Lin Xiuran said, “It looks like acute poisoning. After the attack, they had difficulty breathing then died from heart and lung failure. We just collected some samples and still need to undergo further autopsy before reaching a conclusion.” After thinking about it, he added, “At present, it seems that the students in the other dormitories did not react at all. It seems to be that this dormitory was specifically targeted, the poison is suspected to be Cyanide vapor.”

“Where was the source of the poison?” Song Wen shook open the gloves to put them on, “Isn’t this poison famous for its fast speed and painless death? The two girls were obviously tortured before they died.”

“It was probably not a large dose, just a trace amount, but enough to cause death.” Lin Xiuran explained, “After poisoning, the time and state of the attack is mainly related to the blood concentration levels……”

As the two were talking, a strong light suddenly came from outside, cutting through the dark night and piercing Song Wen’s eyes. Lin Xiuran was also shaken by that light, and dodged sideways to avoid it. Song Wen held his hand in front of his eyes, peering through the gaps between his fingers and walked to the window in the corridor to take a look; only to see an Audi slowly stopping in front of the dormitory building.

Song Wen suddenly remembered a saying: There are two kinds of lights in the world, one is all of the other lights, the other is Audi lights.’ He was about to say, which officer was driving such a flashy car, as if the case wasn’t eye-catching enough? Then he saw Lu Siyu open the door and got out of the car……

The dark clouds in the sky had not yet dispersed, but the wind had disappeared. The air was still sultry, and it felt like it would rain at any time. In the girls’ dormitory building at 2 o’clock in the morning, the teachers began to pacify the students one after another; telling them to turn off the lights and go to bed, warning them not to go out.

Under the dormitory building, Lu Siyu locked the Audi, put the car keys into his pocket and walked in from the entrance of the building.

Song Wen was dazzled by the car: “Little ancestor, did you not know that you have to be low-key when handling the case? Why did you drive something so eye-catching? Are you going to drive a Ferrari next time?”

Lu Siyu, at this time did not show any of the wretchedness from last night, nor displayed any lack of sleep. Under the influence of large doses of painkillers, he was now the most exhilarating and most awake. Lu Siyu did not mention last night’s events, as if everything has been a turned over page, playing his role as a perfect intern police officer. He walked closer, looking at Song Wen indifferently and seriously: “Captain Song, you are also dressed in a quite eye-catching manner.”

Song Wen rolled up his sleeves and said, “This was an accident.” His tone was not as confident as in the past. He was usually quite fierce. Most of the time being stern and tough will make people forget his age. At that time, it reminded people that he was not much older than these students in the school.

“It’s alright, it’s pretty good. It makes you look like you have long legs.” Lu Siyu looked at Song Wen while speaking.

Under the incandescent light, the white shirt and his snow-white skin served as a lightning board for each other. One didn’t know if it was his style of dressing or the design of the shirt, but the cuffs as well as the buttons on the sleeves were unbuttoned; revealing a sliver of the wrist, which was even more white and attractive.

Song Wen was stunned for a moment, he did not think someone wearing a white shirt could look so clean and elegant.

Lu Siyu took a few steps closer to stand in front of Song Wen, reaching out to help him straighten out the collar of his jacket, and whispered: “Captain Song, in fact, you can always give me a call and ask me to bring you some clothes. Fortunately, I have a spare set of clothes in the trunk of my car, you can change in my car.” Lu Siyu remembered something after he finished speaking, and softly admonished, “Change the top and the shoes too. Otherwise, it won’t be very coordinated.”

After saying that, he shoved the heavy car keys into Song Wen’s hand.

Song Wen pulled down his expression and thanked him. He hurriedly took the keys and ran out.

Lu Siyu put on his gloves, took a pen and paper, and began to record. Xiaocheng was taking pictures inside. He nodded when he saw him. There was another member from the Crime Scene Investigation team who also waved his hand to say hello.

There were four or five people standing in the small dormitory, and they had to be careful not to step on anything at all times, which made them unable to move their feet. After writing down the time and location, Lu Siyu came to Dong Fang’s corpse.

Due to Dong Fang struggling before death, under her pajamas, he could see that livor mortis spots had formed on her body over time. However, the size and colors of the spots varied and were bright red. Lu Siyu stretched out his hand again and carefully looked at the deceased’s eyes and the mucous membranes in her mouth. They were all in a state of bright red hyperemia. He raised his head to look at Lin Xiuran and asked, “Cyanide vapor?”

Lin Xiuran nodded: “Suspected, further testing is still needed to determine if it is indeed cyanide vapor and not something else.” This poison will cause insufficient oxygen utilization in the body and increased oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood, so the livor mortis spots will appear differently and will be bright red. This was one of the obvious features of this poison and basic common knowledge in forensic medicine. However, for the sake of preciseness, he did not make a decision now.

Lu Siyu looked at the time again. The time of death was about an hour or so ago, that is, one o’clock in the morning. If the dosage was large, the victim would immediately go into a coma and death would occur. People will die within a few seconds, and any rescue measures would be too late. But it seemed that these girls still retained normal bodily functions when they were preparing to go to bed, so the poison may have been taken before going to bed. Because the dosage was not large, the body went into seizure before finally dying. After the poison was taken, it was dormant for about half an hour or so. In the aftermath, it took anywhere from fifteen to forty minutes for the poison to fully go into effect.

Lin Xiuran was on the side, watching Lu Siyu being busy. This newcomer was not only a criminal policeman, but also a forensic doctor. His good grades and professionalism enabled him to cope well with the task at hand.

People said that forensics was a profession of Buddha’s heart and ghostly hands, but Lin Xiuran felt that this Buddha’s heart was dragging him down. He wasn’t able to transcend the world to see more cases, punish more murderers and rescue more people.

Lin Xiuran had been working hard to become more professional. He had been in the field for almost ten years and had been through a lot of battles, but he still couldn’t be indifferent to death. He could tolerate more gruesome corpses, more unpleasant smells, increase his skill set, but whenever he is faced with victims, he could not overcome his pity for these people. Deep down, there was always mercy and compassion in his heart which caused him problems at work.

Lin Xiuran felt that Lu Siyu was different from ordinary people. This newcomer had impressed him from the moment they had met at the crime scene during the previous case, and now the second collaboration also proved true. Lu Siyu had a different kind of “indifference” to life and corpses, which was a commendable characterization.

Lin Xiuran felt that, as a forensic pathologist, he was indifferent and cold enough to restrain his humanity, which enabled him to better devote himself to the case. Only by not allowing the sympathy and fear of those human beings to influence oneself, can all truths be explored objectively.

Lu Siyu seemed indifferent to these victims, but he was fully committed. He was cold and ruthless, but he was also fearless. Any harrowing tragedy seemed to make him unmoved.

Now standing in the dormitory, Lu Siyu seemed to be able to see everything the girls had experienced before they died.

At around eleven o’clock in the evening, the girls took the poison roughly at the same time, but the dosage varied per person and was either large or small. The lights in the bedroom were turned off at midnight and they went to bed on time after washing up. At first, they just felt a little numbness in the mouth. They tried to moisten their throats with saliva, but they began to drool uncontrollably at the corners of their mouths. Then Dong Fang, who had taken the largest dose, started to vomit. She simply did not have time to get off the bed. She tilted her head and vomited directly on the pillow, which had left a puddle of vomit on the pillowcase.

The girls who heard the sound got up, but because it was late at night, they did not attract the attention of the other dormitories. The two girls with lighter poisoning even came to investigate the condition of Dong Fang, except…… Why did they not call for help and the police in time?

Lu Siyu turned his head and looked at the bed on the side. After Dong Fang, Ma Aijing also began to have a seizure. She was more violent and fell directly from the upper bed wrapped in a quilt. The vomiting did not relieve their symptoms. Headache, nausea, chest tightness, and difficulty breathing. At that time, the women who had studied chemistry should already know what had happened, but the onset of the poison came so quickly that they had no time to react, or did they deliberately not take any actions?

At that moment, one girl ran out into the corridor, and by then, she too had begun to have a seizure. The poison quickly limited her ability to breathe, which prevented her from making a sound, and she left some blood on the door of the dormitory next door with her finger.

Finally, the poison also began to affect the fourth girl…… but what was she doing before? And what did she do after that? Lu Siyu frowned slightly and went back to the messy dorm room.

The girls were all struggling, unable to call for help, with irregular heart rhythms, weak limbs, narrowed pupils, followed by convulsions…… and finally they became paralyzed and fell into a deep coma until they died.

This was the end of the hallway in the dormitory. With such a movement, no one was disturbed except for the dormitory, 107 next to it.

♛♛♛

Translating team shenanigans

Nothing much happens here, interesting stuff starts from next chapter. But i find it so cute, how LSY is such a waifu material *squeals* (≧∇≦)/

I apologize for the delay. This chapter was edited 10 days back but I was so caught up with life and procrastinated （︶︿︶） .

Please bear with me, the updates should be regulated from February ( hoping so (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) )