Chapter 245: Death Is a Gift?!!!

The moment he pushed the door open, it was like piercing a layer of plastic wrap; the bloodiness wrapped inside rushed to his nose, so thick it almost made him retch.

The prison guard who pushed the door open changed color drastically and hurriedly turned on the switch on the wall.

The moment the light came on.

Terrifying, evil, like a hellish painting from ukiyo-e emerging from the darkness, flashed into the eyes of the three.

On the gray-white walls, on the bright white tiles, on the snow-white ceiling, all were splashed with black-red colors, the black-red colors solidified into dense, endlessly repeating six characters:

I confess, I have sinned!

Every character was crooked and twisted, deep and shallow, as if someone lay on the ground, lay on the wall, lay on the ceiling, lowered their head close, focused intently, using blood-stained fingernails, character by character, gouging them out.

The prison guard who opened the door stood dumbfounded, his feet rooted at the door; he probably now understood why Forensic Doctor Qin Liang had hesitated just now.

Qin Liang took a deep breath, pushed aside the prison guard blocking the way, mustered his courage, and stepped in.

On the floor tiles, everywhere were horizontal, vertical, or diagonal— I confess, I have sinned!

Almost no place to walk, only between sentence and sentence was there a little space to cross for stepping.

Qin Liang carefully tiptoed inside, his shoe soles inevitably brushed against blood, his eyelids twitched slightly.

Not because he brushed against blood, but because after seeing the blood smeared, he saw the scratches beneath the characters.

"How much force must have been used to scratch marks with fingernails!"

Just thinking about it made Qin Liang feel his ten fingers faintly ache.

He turned and glanced at the wall again; as a forensic doctor, his eyes were sharp, and he saw at the edge of the wall beside the bed, half a blackened fingernail embedded in the wall, with flesh residue, blood, and wall ash concrete remaining on the nail.

Qin Liang's gaze moved up, scanning the ceiling again, his heart felt even more terrified:

"The characters on the ceiling are just as forceful, but the ceiling is nearly three meters high, and Tian Tao is short; even standing on a chair he couldn't reach it, so how could he carve characters up there, could he really have been lying on the ceiling?"

A strange and terrifying image flashed through Qin Liang's mind.

In the image, Tian Tao, like a spider, hung upside down on the ceiling, crazily carving characters with his fingers while opening his mouth as if possessed, muttering, his face twisted and twitching as he endured the excruciating pain of all ten fingers connected to the heart.

Qin Liang shook his head, driving the terrifying image from his mind.

He went around the characters on the ground, exerting great effort, before finally reaching Tian Tao's front.

Tian Tao knelt on both knees, hands crossed on the ground, forehead touching the ground, making a posture like sacrifice or pilgrimage; combined with the surrounding scene, amidst the terror there was a strange sacredness.

Qin Liang slowly squatted down, without much effort, he bent open Tian Tao's corpse, indicating the time of death was short, not even enough for rigor mortis to set in.

He slowly straightened Tian Tao's head, and before his eyes appeared an unexpected face.

Not the terror, despair, distortion, madness Qin Liang had expected, but a calm smiling face?

As if after painstaking effort, silently enduring torment, finally completing some ritual or work, attaining the joy and relief of liberation!!!

Qin Liang swallowed his saliva; he had examined corpses for half a lifetime in the Second Prison, and this kind of corpse with a smile after death, he was truly seeing for the first time.

Qin Liang looked at the smiling face before him, his heart trembled: "A gift?!!!"

As a forensic doctor, if he could receive a smiling corpse, in a sense, it was indeed a rare gift... right!

Qin Liang exhaled deeply, suppressing the excitement in his heart.

He looked down again at Tian Tao's mangled fingers; not to mention remaining nails, the flesh on the fingers had been worn away, exposing horrible finger bones, all unevenly shrunk short by half.

Qin Liang seemed to understand why Tian Tao felt relieved; he realized in his heart:

"People all fear death, but they do not know that the existence of death means all pain has an end; otherwise, the abyss of despair would never end!"

Zhou Hu rudely pushed aside the prison guards who had come to watch in the corridor, strode into the duty room, his shoes stepping without care on the blood characters on the ground.

He quickly walked to Tian Tao, glanced at the latter's strange death state, his pupils suddenly contracted, then with a gloomy face looked at Qin Liang.

He asked in a hoarse voice: "What's going on?"

Qin Liang stood up and retreated half a step, having various thoughts in his heart, but only four words came out of his mouth: "Tian Tao is dead."

Zhou Hu coldly laughed: "I'm asking you how he died?"

Qin Liang frowned, almost thinking Zhou Hu was asking him who killed Tian Tao; he had a vague answer in his heart, but he dared not say it.

Not afraid of retaliation for speaking out, but simply wanting to make friends with that person.

The next second, Qin Liang realized Zhou Hu was asking how Tian Tao "died"; obviously, Zhou Hu had his own clear judgment about the "killer."

Qin Liang breathed a little easier, he pondered for a moment, and answered:

"Apart from severe wear on the fingers, the corpse has no other obvious injuries; uh, I'm afraid an autopsy is needed to find the cause of death."

Zhou Hu said rudely: "Then what are you waiting for?"

Qin Liang waved at the door; two prison guards walked in and helped Qin Liang carry the corpse to the autopsy room first.

The autopsy room operates 365 days a year and hardly "attracts customers"; usually, dead prisoners are sent directly to the incineration room, where would they need to "transfer" at the autopsy room?

Zhou Hu watched Qin Liang slowly walk out, coldly snorted, and then scolded the night shift prison guard: "Tian Tao made such a big production in his room last night, and you didn't hear a thing."

The night shift prison guard lowered his head, full of doubt, and answered: "The room was always quiet; we thought Captain Tian Tao had just gone to sleep."

Just then, the prison guard in the monitoring room ran over and replied to Zhou Hu: "I just checked the monitoring; after Tian Tao entered the duty room last night, no one else came in."

As the words fell, inside and outside the corridor fell silent for an instant, so quiet a falling needle could be heard.

Zhou Hu also felt a chill down his back, but more so anger; he coldly laughed:

"No one came in, then it's Tian Tao self-harming and committing suicide; otherwise, did an invisible ghost enter our Second Prison?"

The prison guards inside and outside the door dared not answer.

Zhou Hu didn't expect them to explain; his face was gloomy, he laughed in extreme anger, as if muttering to himself, as if deliberately saying it for all the prison guards to hear; he said gloomily:

"Fine, in one night, first Chang Wei, then Tian Tao, truly not a moment's peace; our new Prison Warden Qian really has some methods; who knows if it's my turn next?"

End of Chapter