Chapter Three: My Name Is Yu Mingxuan!

“This case file has issues,” I said.

Tang Jingjing immediately shot me an angry look. “What issues? You can’t speak carelessly about things like this. Even if you’re just an intern, you’re still a forensic doctor. Anything you say could become evidence in court, understand?”

I hadn’t even had a chance to reply when a middle-aged man walked in from outside. He wore a police uniform and stood at least six foot three, so tall he had to duck his head to enter the room.

His appearance was rather fierce, exuding an intimidating authority even without anger. Just standing there, he made my heart skip a beat.

Tang Jingjing instantly greeted him respectfully, “Director Wang.” Director Wang nodded, then his gaze landed on me.

Tang Jingjing hurriedly explained that I was the newly hired forensic intern.

“Hello, Director Wang. My name is Yu Mingxuan.” I greeted him politely, offering my hand.

Director Wang, however, didn’t shake my hand. He glanced at me coolly and found a chair to sit down. “I overheard you just now saying there’s a problem with the case file. What problem?”

I replied, “According to the file, the person who reported the case heard a woman crying in the dorm room and opened the door to check. But as soon as the door opened, both female college students were already dead. That’s awfully fast for someone to die, isn’t it?”

Tang Jingjing drew in a sharp breath, and Director Wang’s expression grew grave. “Where’s the file? Let me see it.”

I quickly handed it over.

Director Wang glanced through it, then slammed the file down in Tang Jingjing’s face. “Tang Jingjing, this is a serious oversight—no, dereliction of duty. Such an obvious flaw, and you didn’t question it?”

Tang Jingjing shot me a vicious glare, her delicate doll-like face nearly on the verge of tears. “Director Wang, it’s my fault. I’ll write a self-critique.”

To be honest, I felt a little sorry for Tang Jingjing. Despite her practiced exterior and her attempts to act mature in front of me, she was really just a young woman newly assigned to her post.

But Director Wang was unmoved by her pitiful demeanor, his tone unyielding. “Ten thousand words. I want your self-critique on my desk tomorrow morning.”

Tang Jingjing nodded at once. “Yes, Director Wang.”

This time, Director Wang’s attitude toward me changed noticeably. He even shook my hand. “Yu Mingxuan, right? You seem quite capable. Jingjing mentioned on the phone that you found an important clue?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“If you’re not one hundred percent sure you can solve the case, you need to be cautious. The consequences are serious.” Director Wang’s expression was rather grim.

I understood perfectly well—Director Wang wanted nothing to do with this mess if he could help it.

Still, I calmly recounted all my findings once more.

He smoked two cigarettes in silence, then waved his hand. “Send the bodies to forensics. I want you to examine them thoroughly and give me a detailed autopsy report. If anything comes up, report to me immediately.”

I nodded right away.

As soon as Director Wang left, Tang Jingjing blocked my way, teeth clenched, lips pursed so tightly they could hang an oil bottle. Her eyes blazed with anger, making my skin crawl.

“What are you staring at?” I said. “Let’s get to work.”

She stabbed a finger at my forehead. “You’ve got guts, junior! Hmph. Ten thousand words—I’ll make you pay it back a thousandfold.”

I gave a wry smile. So that’s what this was about. I hastened to explain I was only pointing out her oversight, not expecting Director Wang to overhear.

But Tang Jingjing ignored me, simply barking orders at the other officers to bring the bodies to forensics.

I decided to follow them to the forensic department to complete my onboarding paperwork.

Through all of this, Tang Jingjing didn’t say a word to me. If I spoke, she glared at me, teeth clenched. Oh well—it seemed we’d already made enemies. Fortunately, we weren’t in the same department; I was in forensics, she was in criminal investigation. We couldn’t trouble each other much.

Due to the special circumstances and understaffing in the forensic department, I officially started work the same day I joined.

Originally, there were three in the department, but two experienced forensic doctors had recently met with accidents, leaving only a woman named Xia Feng. The officer escorting me in warned me specially: Xia Feng was beautiful, but had a strange personality—don’t try anything funny with her.

When I entered, I saw a tall woman with long hair working over a corpse. This must be the eccentric forensic doctor.

I greeted her with a smile. “Hello. I’m Yu Mingxuan, the new arrival. Please take care of me.”

She turned her face to me, cold as ice, and gave a curt nod.

Even though I’d been prepared, her looks still gave me a bit of a shock. Her features—eyes, nose, lips—had a hint of foreignness, and even in her white coat, there was no hiding her commanding presence. But her gaze was frigid, devoid of emotion—a true ice queen.

“Whose body is this?” Sensing her impatience with my dawdling, I quickly changed the subject.

On the autopsy table lay a naked male corpse. Xia Feng was cleaning it.

I asked her what had happened to this body.

She told me it had been found in a stinking ditch, naked and soaked in filthy water. She had just finished a preliminary examination: the man had died after eating an enormous quantity of food—his stomach had ruptured, and the gastric juices had severely corroded his internal organs, leading to death.

Dying from overeating? That was a new one. Now, that’s what you’d call a real glutton.

“What did he eat?” I asked.

“Raw meat. We’re still waiting on the lab results to determine what kind,” Xia Feng replied, gesturing toward a glass jar where the evidence was stored.

I went over for a closer look. The pieces of raw meat still retained traces of blood. Since there are no enzymes in gastric juice that digest meat, the pieces remained largely intact.

The meat was unfamiliar. I’d never seen tissue like it before: covered in a mucous film, several thin layers, swollen...

Wait. Suddenly, it struck me—this looked an awful lot like a woman’s uterus!

My God. Instantly, my mind leapt to the dead girls in the dorm. Could this man have eaten the uteruses of those two women raw?

The more I examined the meat, the more certain I became.

I put on rubber gloves and started piecing together the fragments. Though chewed up, many pieces were still connected by ligaments. Soon, I had reconstructed the shape of a uterus.

I was elated—this was a major breakthrough. The perverted killer who ate uteruses could very well be our main suspect.

My father had taught me this method of connecting cases. I found myself in awe of him once again—he truly was brilliant.

As for the campus legend of the ghost infant, I had long since dismissed it from my mind.