Chapter Eight: The Infant in the Water!

This was certainly not the ghost infant. Judging by its appearance, it seemed more like an elderly man whose life was flickering out.

“Who’s pretending to be supernatural here?” I shouted.

“It’s back. It’s come back,” the old man rasped, his voice hoarse and weathered. Then, like a madman, he rushed forward, crying, “The ghost that eats people!”

My last line of psychological defense finally crumbled; both Tang Jingjing and I immediately crouched down. The dark figure dashed past us in a blur.

The noise he made as he moved was unmistakable—he was definitely alive.

I stood up and said, “After him!”

But Tang Jingjing clung to me desperately. “Don’t leave me here alone.”

I could only soothe her with a few words, half dragging, half coaxing her out of the copse. The old man, however, had vanished without a trace.

“Damn it,” I cursed. “He got away!”

Tang Jingjing suddenly spoke up. “Swear it.”

“Swear what?”

“That you’ll never tell a soul how scared I was that I couldn’t move.”

“All right,” I replied helplessly. “I won’t say a word.”

We searched for Li Xingchen for a long time, but couldn’t find him, so we called his phone. He was still shaken, his voice trembling, and when I asked him where he was, he said he was at the guard post.

So I went to find him there. Li Xingchen was furious, declaring he’d never go out with us again, no matter what.

I asked, “Did you see anyone suspicious leave through the school gates?”

Li Xingchen shook his head. “How could a ghost be seen by people?”

“Exactly,” I said. “Let’s go back.”

In the car, Tang Jingjing asked me, “Mingxuan, what did you mean back there? Do you really believe there are ghosts in this world now?”

I analyzed it with her. “Think about it carefully. Didn’t that shadow look like an old man? And I thought his speed was quite slow, almost staggering. By our pace, we should’ve caught up, but we never did. And he didn’t escape through the school gates either. So I suspect there’s definitely a hole in the copse.”

“You actually make sense,” Tang Jingjing said. “That’s exactly what I was hinting at. Why are you looking at me like that? You’re just an intern forensic doctor, my assistant—understand?”

I nodded, having no desire to compete with Tang Jingjing for credit.

“Tomorrow, we’ll send more officers into the copse,” she said. “If we can find the entrance to a tunnel, we’ll probably discover the murderer’s hiding place. There will surely be many clues waiting for us…”

This discovery was significant. Tang Jingjing immediately called Director Wang to report.

Unexpectedly, Director Wang didn’t praise us. Instead, he was furious and scolded the three of us thoroughly, saying our action was far too dangerous and that we should have reported to our superiors before acting—this was reckless behavior.

Tang Jingjing, who had hoped to claim credit, was now chastened and looked quite unhappy. However, in the end, Director Wang said something nice and awarded the three of us a third-class merit.

How vexing, Director Wang! Though he appeared stern, he really cared for his subordinates.

Early the next morning, Director Wang organized a large-scale search. Not only did he call in several seasoned detectives, but also brought in two firefighters.

Since we suspected there was a tunnel beneath the copse, but the surface was surely concealed, we needed the firefighters to cross-reference maps and locate the original positions of the sewer lines.

We now strongly suspected the murderer had converted the sewer into a tunnel!

We first conducted a thorough search of the copse, confirming that the entrance wasn’t exposed. Only then did we proceed to the second plan: letting the firefighters locate the old sewer entrances and outdated fire hydrants.

Using the school’s planning maps, the firefighters quickly outlined four areas for us. Three were the locations of old fire hydrants, and one was the sewer entrance.

We examined the sewer entrance, digging about half a meter down before finally uncovering the manhole cover.

Beyond that lay the campus wall. After the school was built, a second round of burying took place, so the infrastructure was naturally hidden beneath the earth.

The firefighters used crowbars to pry open the old manhole cover, and immediately a wave of stench assaulted us.

I quickly covered my nose and retreated, as did the others.

Director Wang looked displeased and scolded, “Stand your ground! What kind of police are you?”

“Director Wang!” Despite his anger, I said, “I can detect more than just rot down there. There’s the stench of corpses.”

Director Wang looked at me in confusion. “You can tell?”

I nodded. “I’ve learned this from my father since childhood—I know this smell too well…”

Upon hearing this, everyone found breathing even harder.

To put it bluntly, most of the city police were decorative, hardly having seen any gruesome corpses.

“Go down,” Director Wang ordered. “Who’ll go with me?”

Tang Jingjing immediately volunteered. “Director, I…”

“I’ll go!” I volunteered as well. “Jingjing, when we go down, tie a rope around us. If anything dangerous happens, pull us up immediately, understand?”

Once I got to work, I forgot my own position and started directing on site, making the veteran detectives look displeased, as if to say, Who do you think you are, giving orders here?

I smiled wryly, realizing I’d been a bit reckless, disregarding their seniority.

Director Wang, however, was quite approving. “Mingxuan’s right. Hurry and prepare the ropes!”

Director Wang and I quickly tied the ropes around ourselves. I had wanted to go first, but Director Wang shook his head and blocked me, giving me a sense of paternal protection.

Later, I learned that it wasn’t just me—others in the bureau felt the same way. Director Wang, what can I say about him? A military man transferred into the police force, naturally exuding masculine energy, fiercely protective of his own, never letting his subordinates take risks.

I figured if he took risks, it was by choice. After all, for a soldier stuck in an office, it must feel stifling.

To call the sewer filthy and messy would be an insult to those words. The stench below was overwhelming; even as a forensic doctor, I felt faint from it, but Director Wang, ever considerate, asked if I was all right and whether I wanted to go back up.

I replied that I simply felt like vomiting, but could continue.

After walking a while, Director Wang stopped. I asked if there was a problem, and he said not yet, but it was obvious no one had been here for a long time.

I nodded in agreement—the spider webs here were thick and undisturbed.

But if that was the case, where was the corpse smell coming from?

“Hmm, there’s a child’s body here,” Director Wang suddenly said. “Mingxuan, come take a look.”

I squeezed past him and found the child’s body was tiny—no longer than my forearm. The whole body was swollen from water, many parts already rotted, with maggots crawling everywhere.

“So this is the ghost infant?” Director Wang snorted.

I put on disposable gloves and carefully examined the corpse. “It’s only been dead about a week. Looks like a miscarried infant—probably unrelated to the case.”

Director Wang sighed. “Girls these days…”

I understood the reason for his sigh and sighed along with him.

We retreated, and unexpectedly, Director Wang carried the dead child out as well.

As soon as the corpse emerged, everyone instinctively looked away. I quickly explained, “It’s unrelated to the case—a chance discovery.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed they’d feared this was the ghost infant.

“There’s no one in the sewer,” Director Wang said, frowning. “Check the other suspicious spots.”

We searched the remaining three locations, but found no tunnels.

Another veteran detective on the task force analyzed, “The murderer is likely very clever—not hiding in such obvious places. Maybe we should do another thorough search?”

Director Wang hesitated. “That’d be a huge undertaking.”

Indeed, the workload would be enormous, and if the police caused such a commotion here, it would certainly have a negative impact on the school. Unless absolutely necessary, it shouldn’t be undertaken lightly.

“Director Wang,” I suddenly said, “since we can’t find the tunnel, maybe we should look for people instead!”

I rejected the veteran detective’s suggestion, earning a cold glare from him. “If you can’t find the tunnel, how do you find people? Young man, think calmly.”

Wasn’t he just hinting that I lacked brains?

I smiled at him. “I mean, we can list the most likely suspects who would sneak into the copse late at night based on previous cases. And since the suspect is elderly, that narrows it down even further.”

Director Wang abruptly stubbed out his cigarette. “You mean…the previous gatekeeper?”