Wang Li wished this was just some sick joke, but the truth was undeniable—someone who had been dead for over twenty days was still alive online.
Even more bizarre was the victim’s body.
The corpse found at the crime scene appeared intact, but after forensic examination, they were told that the victim had been dismembered after death, and the body parts had been discarded in different locations.
The body they found—seemingly complete—had in fact been pieced back together.
Wang Li had seen his fair share of strange cases over the years, but this one still shook him.
The forensic results hadn’t been made public, and the information was being strictly suppressed from above.
Wang Li suspected that this case involved far more than just an ordinary criminal matter.
But orders or not, they still had a job to do.
Perhaps Qu Yanning looked a bit too frightened, because Wang Li softened his tone, “I know this seems strange, but it’s more likely the killer is just trying to mislead us, creating a diversion to throw the investigation off track.”
“We’re here to see if you remember anything unusual.”
Qu Yanning shook his head.
His mind was in complete chaos.
Rationally, he knew all this ghostly talk was nothing but superstition, but emotionally, he couldn’t help curling up in fear.
Wang Li’s words of comfort didn’t help at all—he still felt a chill creeping up his back.
“Wait!” Qu Yanning suddenly remembered something, clinging to it like a drowning man grabbing a final lifeline. “She… she asked me to take care of her dog. A golden retriever named Dahuang…”
“She… had a dog?” he asked, hopeful.
“…” Wang Li paused, then looked at the scared kid almost sympathetically. “There was a golden retriever at the crime scene. Its right leg was broken and it had many wounds on its body. It looked like it had fought someone. When we found it, it was already very weak. It’s receiving treatment now.”
“…” Qu Yanning went silent, his expression crumpling with guilt.
He asked shakily, “I promised her I’d take care of her dog… If I don’t do it, will she… come looking for me?”
Wang Li replied with righteous authority, “There’s no place for superstition. Young people should believe in science…”
Qu Yanning’s worldview wavered, but he managed to hold it together—barely.
Then Wang Li continued, “…But the dog’s really pitiful. If you have time, you can go see it.”
Qu Yanning gave him a look. “Aren’t we supposed to believe in science?”
Wang Li coughed, his face solemn, “This is called compassion. Not superstition.”
Qu Yanning looked utterly defeated. “…Okay.”
Once everything was said, Wang Li and the other two officers got up to leave.
Qu Yanning followed behind, step by step, to see them off.
He walked them all the way to the elevator before Wang Li felt a little awkward. “You don’t need to see us off. If you remember anything new, just message me.” They had already added each other on WeChat.
Qu Yanning clung to the elevator door, nervously shuffling his feet.
In a small voice, he said, “Can I… come with you to see the dog?”
“…” Wang Li met his earnest eyes and nodded.
Qu Yanning immediately stepped into the elevator, positioning himself between the three tall, imposing police officers.
Just standing there made the chill on his back feel a little less terrifying.
The police station wasn’t far from the apartment complex.
Wang Li had driven over in a patrol car, so the four of them piled in and headed back to the station.
When they arrived, two other cars were already parked at the entrance.
Wang Li instantly recognized one as belonging to their chief.
He led the way inside and casually asked a colleague on duty, “The chief’s here?”
The colleague looked around cautiously before pulling him aside and whispering, “Director Zhang brought someone with him. Word is, they’re taking over your case.”
Wang Li frowned. “The case isn’t at the handover stage yet, is it?”
The colleague shook his head, dropping his voice even lower. “The old man’s aiming for a promotion this year. With a case this tricky, he pulled some strings and brought in someone from National Security.”
Wang Li’s brows jumped. “National Security?”
The colleague nodded, patting his shoulder. “Once they’re involved, it’s not our case anymore.”
Wang Li nodded his thanks and walked back, deep in thought.
The National Security Division was always shrouded in mystery.
Whenever strange cases couldn’t be solved by normal means, they were the ones who took over.
Officially, it was called “assisting the investigation,” but everyone who’d been through it knew—once National Security stepped in, the rest of them were completely shut out.
Qu Yanning had a feeling they were talking about the case, but didn’t dare ask directly. He kept glancing at Wang Li, wanting to speak but holding back.
Wang Li noticed and, still preoccupied with what he’d just learned, looked at the nervous kid beside him and changed direction—heading toward the back.
The victim had no family, working alone in the city of Shen.
With the case unresolved, her body had been temporarily stored in the station’s morgue.
That was likely where the National Security agent had gone too.
Wang Li guessed right.
When they arrived, their director was standing there, smiling obsequiously as he spoke to a tall man beside him.
The man was at least a head taller than him.
Despite his youthful face, he was dressed like an old-school scholar: long robes, a string of wooden prayer beads around his right hand.
If not for that overly young and refined face, he could’ve passed for a Taoist master straight out of legend.
Director Zhang hovered at his side, smiling eagerly, his double chin folding in layers. “Master Xie, have you discovered anything?”
Xie Qi didn’t answer. His gaze shifted instead—landing squarely on Qu Yanning.
Director Zhang had no response to that, but his face showed no frustration.
He simply followed Xie Qi’s gaze and then his expression hardened.
“Wang Li, what are you doing here?!”
Wang Li snapped to attention and saluted, sneaking a glance at Xie Qi, “Reporting, sir. I brought a witness in to take a statement.”
Director Zhang snorted, “Why are you back here if you’re taking a statement?”
Wang Li calmly replied that the witness had seen the victim, “I was bringing him to identify the body.”
Qu Yanning: “…………”
He opened his mouth… then shut it.
So police officers could lie without flinching.
“You’ve seen the victim?” Xie Qi suddenly spoke.
His voice was cold like a jade bead dropping onto ice.
The kind of cold that seeped into your bones.
Faced with that expression, Qu Yanning shrank slightly, “Yes…” he answered quietly, clearly worried the man would recognize him from the hotpot restaurant.
“Then come look,” Xie Qi said, turning back.
Qu Yanning blinked, his expression full of confusion.
Director Zhang, delighted, gave the two of them a glare, “Well? Don’t just stand there. Follow him!”
In the morgue, the victim’s body lay under a white cloth on a gurney.
Xie Qi stood at its side, slowly rotating his prayer beads with long, slender fingers.
Qu Yanning was too scared to approach, hovering at the opposite end.
Xie Qi lifted the sheet. “Come here.”
Qu Yanning stared at the floor, motionless, pretending to be invisible.
“You. Come here.” Xie Qi’s voice dropped another degree. His icy stare fixed on the boy.
The other two turned to look as well.
Now Qu Yanning had no excuse to play dumb.
He crept forward, step by step, until he stood beside Xie Qi.
Xie Qi’s tight lips relaxed slightly.
He pointed to the body, “Where have you seen her before?”
In his mind, Qu Yanning was already beating Wang Li into the floor.
Reluctantly, he turned to look.
The corpse’s features were delicate.
A beauty mark by her lip, fair skin, faint blush on her cheeks… If not for the reddish stains and purple bruises on her neck, she could’ve been sleeping.
You’d never guess she’d been dismembered and stitched back together.
Qu Yanning stared. His heart thumped harder and harder.
—He remembered now. He had seen her.
That first day at the night market.
The girl walking a golden retriever.
He swallowed hard, “The fifteenth. I was selling stuff at the night market. She… she was walking her golden retriever past my stall… She even talked to me.”
Director Zhang forced a laugh, “Young man, this isn’t something you should joke about.”
Qu Yanning shook his head, taking two steps back, eyes wide like a frightened quail that wanted to bolt but didn’t dare.
“What did she say to you?” Xie Qi remained calm.
He covered the body again and kept turning the beads in his hand.
Qu Yanning thought back to that night.
The more he remembered, the more his scalp tingled.
“She said thank you… and that our foundation was really good.”
“……”
Wang Li chuckled nervously, “Seems like she was a polite ghost.”
No one responded. The air grew awkward.
Wang Li cleared his throat and tried to save face, “The autopsy showed that her wounds were covered up using makeup. We also found a bunch of used cosmetics at the scene.”
“And…” He hesitated. “The victim was… a mortician.”