Chapter 3 The Victim Who Was Scared to Death

  When Liu Li heard this, he couldn't help but furrow his brow and glance at Du Yan: "What do you mean? The white-clothed woman you saw is the Wang Jie who has been dead for over a month?"

  "That's right, it was Wang Jie. At that time, all three of us saw her. It's possible for one person to be mistaken, but it's impossible for all three of us to be mistaken." Du Yan replied firmly to Liu Li.

  After a moment of contemplation, Liu Li let Du Yan continue to recount the course of events surrounding the case.

  Du Yan recalled for a moment, then continued to tell Liu Li about the case process.

  When they clearly saw the woman in front of them was already dead Wang Jie, Du Yan and the other two people's faces simultaneously flashed a hint of terror. Meanwhile, the woman in front of them who was called Wang Jie, after hearing Du Yan's words, had a sinister look flash across her face, both hands stretched out towards the three people pouncing on them, while her mouth was also eerily shouting: "I died so unjustly..."

  Seeing Wang Jie's ghost rushing towards him, Du Yan and the three others were so frightened that they threw down their electric bicycles and ran away in all directions. Du Yan saw a pile of cotton sticks in front of her and hid beside it, not daring to make a sound.

  About two or three minutes later, Du Yan heard a terrified scream from afar. Judging by the sound, she recognized it as Lin Na's voice. After hearing this, Du Yan dared not come out even more.

  After another ten or so minutes, Du Yan heard Peng Fei's voice from afar: "Du... Du Yan, where are you? Lin Na... where are you? Don't scare me, come out quickly."

  Upon hearing Peng Fei's shout, Du Yan plucked up the courage to come out and under the moonlight, she found Peng Fei standing at the crossroads, shouting in terror for the two of them. But Wang Jie's ghost and Lin Na had gone who-knows-where?

  After confirming the safety around, Du Yan finally crawled out of the cotton pile and reunited with Peng Fei. The two found that Lin Na was gone, so they started calling out Lin Na's name, but no matter how they called, they never heard Lin Na's echo.

  Unable to find Linna, Du Yan quickly came up with an idea and dialed Linna's mobile phone number using her own phone. A few seconds later, the two of them heard Linna's ringtone coming from a distance. Looking in the direction of the ringing sound, Du Yan and the other person felt a chill run down their spines. It turned out that the ringtone was coming from the tomb area over there.

  Peng Fei shouted in the direction of the ringing phone, but there was still no response. Seeing this situation, the two of them plucked up their courage and walked inside. When they arrived at the place where the ringtone came from, they found Lin Na lying in front of a tombstone, already without breath. The inscription on the tombstone read: Wang Jie's Tomb.

  Jian Linna died in front of Wang Jie's grave, Du Yan and the other two were shocked and frightened. Seeing the tomb rising in the night, they saw the tombstones standing in front of the tomb, thinking of the ghostly shadow that had just appeared, both of them felt a chill run down their spines. They stumbled back to the highway, and Du Yan immediately dialed 110 to report the incident.

  After hearing the cause of the matter, Liu Li was somewhat skeptical. Looking at the two people in front of him who were flustered and at a loss, he asked seriously: "Are you certain that what you just said is true? This is too unbelievable, could it be your hallucination?"

  "It's absolutely not an illusion, it must be real." Du Yan and the other person replied to Liu Li with great certainty.

  After hearing this, Liu Li glanced around and thought for a moment before instructing those behind him: "First set up roadblocks and pull up warning lines to seal off both sides of the highway to prevent the scene from being damaged by passing vehicles and pedestrians. Also notify the county criminal police team to send someone over to investigate and collect evidence."

  More than ten minutes later, five members of the county's first criminal police detachment and Zhao Fei, the director of Huangcai Township Police Station, arrived at the scene. After inquiring about the cause of the case, everyone felt somewhat unbelievable.

  Squad leader Zhang Yuqing first instructed his men to investigate the scene, then he called Du Yan and Peng Fei over, took their statements, while Liu Li followed the forensic doctor to the body for a preliminary examination.

  Liu Li saw forensic expert Li Liang come to the side of the body, first bowed his hands to the body, then muttered a few words and said: "Excuse me, no offense, no offense."

  "Li Fa Yi, you still believe in this?" Liu Li asked with some curiosity.

  When Liu Li heard this, Li Liang asked him to help take pictures of the body while answering: "As a forensic doctor, I deal with corpses all day long. After a long time, I will encounter some strange things, so I become a little weird, haha, sorry to make you laugh."

  After finishing, Li Liang started the investigation work on the corpse. First, he took a few close-ups of the face with his camera, then searched and collected evidence within a one-meter radius around the body. After completing these tasks, Li Liang asked Liu Li to help hold the flashlight and take notes while he put on a pair of disposable rubber gloves and began a careful examination of the corpse.

  The deceased's face was pale, with eyes wide open and pupils dilated, indicating that the deceased had seen a very frightening scene before death. Additionally, the deceased's facial expression was ferocious, with tense facial muscles, enlarged pores, and an open mouth, from which it can be inferred that the deceased had shouted loudly before death.

  The body had no external injuries, only minor abrasions on the left knee and right arm, indicating that the deceased was not killed by external forces. The deceased's arms were wrapped around their chest, which is a subconscious self-defense protective action that humans take when encountering danger.

  Taking into account these characteristics, in connection with the environment around him at this moment, and the experiences of the deceased before his death, I made a preliminary judgment that the deceased should have been frightened to death. However, to specifically verify this conclusion, an autopsy must be performed to see if the deceased's adrenal glands secreted excessive catecholamines.

  "When humans are in a state of extreme fear, the adrenal gland suddenly releases a large amount of catecholamine, causing the heart rate to accelerate rapidly, blood pressure to rise, and the oxygen consumption of myocardial metabolism to increase sharply. The rapid circulation of blood shocks the heart, causing the myocardial fibers to rupture, leading to cardiac hemorrhage and sudden death."

  Liu Li handed the notebook to Li Liang after finishing recording his words, and then he checked the ground around him with a flashlight.

  Seeing Liu Li's movements, Li Liang asked: "What are you looking for? I just searched the ground nearby and didn't find any evidence."

  "I'm not looking for physical evidence, but examining footprints." After saying this, Liu Li paused and explained to Li Liang: "You just said that the deceased had abrasions on his left knee and right arm, which means that the deceased fell down while running here.

  When a person falls, they are most likely to lose their sense of direction. However, after the fact, the deceased ended up in front of this tomb called Wang Jie. I don't think this is a coincidence, but rather the murderer intentionally led or chased the victim here.

  "In that case, the murderer must have left their footprints when chasing after the deceased, unless the murderer is a ghost. Otherwise, they will definitely leave behind clues. Excluding our own footprints, apart from the victim's and Du Yan's footprints at the scene, there must be a fourth person's footprints."

  After finishing speaking, Liu Li called over Dou Zhihao. The two of them shone their flashlights and started searching for footprints. However, after a thorough search, the two of them discovered something very strange.

  That is, after removing Liu Li and others' footprints, only Du Yan, Lin Na, Peng Fei's three people's footprints were left at the scene, and there was no fourth person's footprint.

  Seeing this result, Liu Li couldn't help but feel a little surprised. Meanwhile, Dou Zhihao glanced around at the surrounding graves and said with a trembling voice: "Liu...brother Liu, it can't be that there really are ghosts, right? Because I've heard that only 'ghosts' don't leave footprints on the ground when they walk."

  "What's going on here?" Liu Li was also unable to explain the situation, and after hearing Dou Zhihao's words, he fell into silence.