Chapter 346: Surveillance

Seeing that Xu Mo and Chen Ke both said they were willing to help solve the case, the local officers instantly felt a surge of joy.

"If you're willing to help, that's wonderful! Thank you!"

Both of them are officers from the big city, so their abilities need no explanation, especially Xu Mo, who, up to now, boasts a perfect 100% case‑solving rate—a true master.

Moreover, Xu Mo only handles homicide cases, not the low‑difficulty matters of finding cats, dogs, or catching petty thieves, which alone attests to his skill.

The local officers think that with their assistance, the upcoming task will be considerably easier!

…

Under Chen Ke's lead, the group first went to the Monitoring Room to review the surveillance footage.

Chen Ke pointed to the corpse that appeared in the footage.

"This corpse isn't a living person in disguise; it's a genuine body, and it actually ran out of the Tai Ping Jian. The young nurse who just reviewed the footage with me can confirm that—she says she remembers clearly that the corpse was delivered to the Tai Ping Jian this morning."

The officers nearby, watching the footage and listening to Chen Ke, felt the hairs on their arms stand up instantly.

It's not that their nerves are weak; the scene on the monitor is simply too bizarre—a corpse chasing a person is utterly absurd!

"It was sent to the Tai Ping Jian in the morning, yet the corpse ran out of the Tai Ping Jian again at midnight? How did the corpse start moving? So strange."

"Yeah, I've lived this long and it's my first time encountering something so outrageous—could it really be a Fake Corpse?"

"Impossible, there's no such thing as a Fake Corpse! When a person dies, they're dead—where does that notion even come from?"

"Why not? I recall a documentary that said a dead body can still move a bit, not being completely motionless; a Fake Corpse might not be impossible."

A few officers began discussing the Fake Corpse topic.

Chen Ke then looked at Xu Mo nearby; he knows how proficient Xu Mo is in forensic medicine and wants to ask his view on the Fake Corpse matter.

"You understand forensic theory—according to medical science, is there such a thing as a Fake Corpse?"

After hearing Chen Ke's question, the officers also turned to Xu Mo; they hadn't expected Xu Mo to know forensic theory.

"A Fake Corpse certainly doesn't exist, but a corpse can indeed move; it's not completely static," Xu Mo stated the conclusion first.

He then added: "Of course, the movements are only minor—e. g., a male may experience a final erection about eight hours after death, or a corpse in Rigor Mortis may have its hair stand up, or roughly seven days post‑mortem the gases in the abdomen can push the tongue out, creating the illusion of a tongue‑sticking corpse… These are normal phenomena, but the scenario captured on the monitor— a corpse chasing a person— falls outside any normal range."

Chen Ke nodded slightly after listening, then gave a brief summary.

"So, this phenomenon of a corpse chasing a person cannot occur."

"Hmm, so there must be something fishy. Have you inspected the Tai Ping Jian? Are you certain the corpse captured on the monitor is the same one that was sent there this morning, not a nurse's misidentification or a recording error? If it was misidentified, perhaps some pranksters are at work," Xu Mo added.

He wanted to confirm once more that it was indeed the corpse from the Tai Ping Jian that ran out, not the nurse mistakenly misreading the corpse's face in a moment of nervousness.

"That's not the case, but we can go there now to verify."

Afterwards, they fetched the nurse who had accompanied Chen Ke to check the footage, had her lead them to the Tai Ping Jian, intending to confirm whether the corpse seen on the monitor was truly no longer there.

Tai Ping Jian.

The young nurse shakily pointed to an empty bed inside the Tai Ping Jian.

"When the corpse was brought in, it was placed on this bed. Now the bed is empty. I assure you I didn't missee; the one captured on the monitor is definitely the corpse that was delivered here this morning! That corpse is now gone—maybe… it really is a Fake Corpse!"

…

After sending away the nurse, whose emotions were trembling, the group stared at the vacant bed, each with a thoughtful expression.

First, a corpse moving on its own, exiting the Tai Ping Jian and then chasing a person, is absolutely impossible—it grossly violates science!

Yet the nurse has repeatedly confirmed that the corpse captured on the footage is indeed the one placed in the Tai Ping Jian this morning, so the possibility of someone masquerading as a corpse is ruled out.

"The corpse certainly wouldn't run out on its own, yet the corpse in the Tai Ping Jian is indeed gone, and the monitor also captured footage of the corpse chasing a person… those two points conflict," a police officer said, rubbing his hair.

Besides that officer, the others also felt bewildered at this moment.

If all we had was footage of a corpse chasing a person, one could explain it as someone deliberately dressing up as a corpse to prank.

But now it's confirmed that the corpse truly existed, eliminating the chance of a disguise, which makes the situation even more perplexing!

Xu Mo looked up at the ceiling of the Tai Ping Jian and then spoke.

"There's surveillance in this Tai Ping Jian; let's check it. A corpse can't move without cause—I suspect someone tampered with the corpse."

After Xu Mo's suggestion, the other officers hurriedly nodded.

The case was so bizarre that their thinking became a bit rigid; for a moment they even forgot to consider checking the surveillance, the most routine method.

"Right, right, check the surveillance. We only looked at the first‑floor hallway cameras before; we haven't examined the Tai Ping Jian's cameras yet. Maybe those will provide clues."

The group returned to the Monitoring Room again.

This time, they queried the surveillance video from inside the Tai Ping Jian.

"When I heard the scream coming from the first floor, it was around 11:30 a. m.; before 11:30, the corpse should still have been in the Tai Ping Jian," Chen Ke recalled the time he heard the scream.

"Heard the scream at 11:30… then let's start checking from 11:00!" a police officer said, dragging the playback slider to the 11 p. m. time slot.

At 11 p. m., the Tai Ping Jian footage still showed the corpse lying on the bed, unchanged, with a white sheet covering it.

"At 11 p. m., the corpse was indeed still there!" the officer said, turning on fast‑forward playback.

When the footage reached 11:13 p. m., a man entered the frame and headed straight for the corpse later dubbed a Fake Corpse…