Chapter 54: Two Grips for Holding a Blade

Regardless of whether Lu Yuan deliberately exposed his identity to Zhuang Dong or made a mistake, one suspicion could not be washed away: Lu Yuan was a problematic individual.

Everyone in the entire police station felt that Lu Yuan had issues.

Wen Ke shared the exact same feeling.

"Captain Wen, should we send someone to secretly tail Lu Yuan?"

A colleague asked.

Lu Yuan was obviously far from simple.

Perhaps they could dig up some secrets from him.

Wen Ke’s gaze flickered slightly. Although she and Lu Yuan could be considered friends, there were indeed too many suspicious points about him. If she continued to deny it, the suspicion of shielding him would be far too heavy.

Wen Ke nodded. "Send someone to tail Lu Yuan. Record every place he goes and everyone he meets every day."

"Yes, Captain Wen."

The person who took on the assignment was Officer Lao Zhang.

After all, within the entire police station, only Lao Zhang possessed the most exceptional shadowing skills, and tailing Lu Yuan could also be considered an opportunity to redeem himself through meritorious service.

Lao Zhang tentatively asked, "Then as for Zhuang Dong’s death..."

How should Zhuang Dong's death be concluded?

According to standard logic, a conclusion could actually already be made regarding Zhuang Dong's death. The reasoning was also quite easy to conceive: it was nothing more than lingering feelings for his ex-girlfriend Zhuo Yan, being unable to accept the sudden heartbreaking news of Zhuo Yan's death in the moment, and choosing to take his own life.

If they wanted to close the case quickly, this was the fastest approach.

Everyone else looked at Wen Ke.

Wen Ke was the captain.

The final verdict on this case depended entirely on her judgment.

Instinctively, Wen Ke felt that Zhuang Dong's death was not that simple. Suddenly, a thought struck her, and she looked at the forensic pathologist. "Has the chemical composition of the liquid inside the Ferris wheel cabin been tested?"

The forensic pathologist handed over a report. "The main components are sodium ions, chloride ions, and lactic acid—in other words, the sweat that our human bodies excrete every day. In addition, cyanoacrylate was detected, which is the main component of a certain glue. The viscosity in the liquid comes from this."

Wen Ke wore a look of utter astonishment.

The report was extremely clear.

To put it bluntly.

The liquid inside the cabin consisted of sweat and glue.

Yet the problem was, there was only Zhuang Dong inside the entire cabin. Just how much would he have to sweat to drench the entire cabin?!

"What is the mixing ratio of sweat to glue?"

"Seventy percent sweat and thirty percent glue."

The forensic pathologist adjusted his glasses.

Wen Ke frowned. "Did Zhuang Dong’s corpse show symptoms of dehydration?"

The forensic pathologist was also puzzled by this exact point. There was a tremendous amount of sweat inside the cabin; if it had truly been the sweat of Zhuang Dong alone, he would have definitely displayed symptoms of dehydration. However, tests conducted on Zhuang Dong's surviving skull revealed no signs of dehydration.

"There were no symptoms of dehydration."

The forensic pathologist always sought truth from facts, speaking precisely of what was found.

"Could it be that Zhuang Dong was sweating while constantly drinking water, thereby maintaining his body's water balance?" a young colleague speculated.

Before Wen Ke could speak, the forensic pathologist shook his head first. "When a person drinks water into their lower abdomen, it takes a transitional period of time for the moisture to be absorbed and transported to various parts of the body."

"When a person is suffering from a water deficit, even if they finish drinking water immediately, they will still feel thirsty—that is the most typical manifestation. Drinking water while sweating will still result in symptoms of dehydration, it's just that the symptoms will appear a bit more slowly."

The young policeman scratched his head.

He truly didn't understand much about this field.

Wen Ke’s gaze flickered. She didn't know much about this area either, but she understood the most basic logic: "Assuming just as you said, Zhuang Dong was sweating while drinking water, then why didn't we find any water containers inside the cabin? Not even a single mineral water bottle."

What did he use to drink water?

This was the strangest part.

The entire meeting room fell silent once again.

After a long while, the young policeman from earlier muttered, "Could it really be that there are ghosts?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked at him.

The young policeman hurriedly shook his head. "I was just talking nonsense."

Whether there were ghosts or not, she did not know, but Wen Ke knew that Lu Yuan most likely knew something. In the private chat logs between Lu Yuan and Zhuang Dong, Lu Yuan had already shown a deep interest in ghosts.

"File a report on Zhuang Dong’s case, framing his death as a suicide driven by excessive grief, but do not apply to close the case."

Wen Ke made the final decision.

Submitting the report was meant to provide an explanation to the public, preventing excessive panic by categorizing Zhuang Dong's death as a suicide rather than a homicide.

Not applying to close the case was because there were still lingering doubts surrounding his death.

The two did not conflict.

In police casework, the highest priority was naturally catching the perpetrator, but if there were no leads in the short term, one had to manage the emotional reactions of the masses.

Furthermore, although Zhuang Dong's death was fishy, the possibility of homicide was extremely small, essentially ruling out the existence of a killer. Releasing the conclusion of suicide would not affect the personal safety of the general public.

Handling cases required flexibility.

Although Wen Ke was young, being able to serve as the captain of the police station at this age meant she undoubtedly possessed extraordinary talent in this field.

After handling matters concerning Zhuang Dong, Wen Ke redirected everyone's focus back to the corpses of An Shi and Zhuo Yan. These two bodies represented genuine homicides.

After many days of meticulous investigation, new clues had finally been uncovered.

"Through magnified dissection, I found that the fatal wound on Zhuo Yan’s heart has a rather strange characteristic. Zhuo Yan suffered only a single fatal wound, which was a stab wound piercing straight through her heart."

The main purpose of the forensic pathologist coming to the meeting room today was for this matter, rather than Zhuang Dong's death.

On the screen, a meticulously dissected heart appeared before everyone's eyes.

The forensic pathologist pointed to the wound on the heart displayed on the screen and made a hand gesture gripping a knife. "This stab wound is far too straight."

Far too straight?

What did that mean?

Wen Ke fell into deep thought.

Seeing that most people did not understand his meaning, the forensic pathologist explained, "Everyone, imagine the posture Zhuo Yan was in when she died: lying flat on her back on the sofa, with her body forming a certain inclined angle relative to the sofa."

This point was easy to grasp.

The forensic pathologist looked at a young policeman. "Supposing you were the killer, and you wanted to stab someone lying on a sofa to death, at the exact moment you thrust downwards, would you deliberately adjust the angle?"

The young policeman replied without hesitation. "Definitely not. The only thing on my mind would be to finish the killing and run as fast as possible."

"Exactly. Therefore, under such circumstances, the fruit knife should have pierced the victim's heart at an inclined angle, and the length of the wound on the heart should be far greater than the width of the blade."

The forensic pathologist spoke softly.

Wen Ke understood. "Ruling out the possibility of deliberately adjusting the tip of the knife, there are only two possibilities that could result in a stab wound this straight, where the wound and the blade width are identical."

Wen Ke stood up, walked behind a young policeman, instantly clamped her left hand around his neck, raised her right hand high, and mimed a downward thrust.

"A backward slash!"

A wound caused by this stabbing angle would infinitely approach the width of the blade.

Immediately afterward, Wen Ke walked to the side of the young policeman, pretended to hold the knife in her left hand, and thrust downward toward his heart.

"A left-hander."

A downward stab executed with the left hand would likewise produce a wound strikingly close to the blade's width.

The forensic pathologist looked at Wen Ke with an expression of admiration. As expected of the daughter of Wen Weihai, once hailed as S City's top police officer, her comprehension and analytical skills in this area were exceptionally brilliant.