Chapter 134: Inviting You to Speak, Not to Talk Nonsense

Although he spoke with such conviction, Yu Dazhang still noticed two problems.

First, hypnosis works on people.

If the one being hypnotized was the duty officer, it would indeed be possible to make him hallucinate—let alone a corpse running off, even corpses flying all over the sky would be possible.

But besides the duty officer, there were also surveillance cameras at the scene.

There's no way the duty officer was hypnotized and the surveillance cameras were hypnotized too.

Second, if one really had to use hypnosis to achieve this effect,

then it wouldn't be a person being hypnotized, but those few corpses.

Only by hypnotizing the corpses into running off on their own could the current result be produced.

But can corpses be hypnotized?

They say people sleep forever after death—these are already sleeping forever, so how could they be hypnotized?

At this moment, the others who had joined the discussion shared Yu Dazhang's view and all felt it was unlikely to be related to hypnosis.

Seeing everyone rebut his point, the officer who had raised the hypnosis idea didn't get discouraged.

Case discussions are like that—not every idea can be useful.

Just then, another team member suddenly said:

"I just had a thought. Of course it's just a thought, everyone can criticize it, but don't take it seriously."

Seeing him pile on so many qualifiers and then turn to look at him, Ji Bin could only say:

"Go ahead and say it. It's just a case analysis, we're all brainstorming."

That team member blinked, glanced at the others in the meeting room, and slowly said:

"What I mean is, is it possible there's a method specifically for hypnotizing corpses?"

"Just like those corpse-walkers in the movies…"

"They might be using a method of hypnotizing corpses to control them…"

At this, not to mention Yu Dazhang, even Ji Bin couldn't hold it together.

Everyone here is a police officer, a fighter under the red flag of materialism.

Regardless of whether this thing is real or fake, no one present could possibly have had any contact with it.

Remembering this was a formal meeting and there would be meeting minutes later, Ji Bin quickly cut him off:

"Alright, alright, don't continue with that."

The others couldn't help but start questioning this team member.

"Old Chen, isn't this just nonsense? Movies are movies, how could this possibly exist in real life?"

"Exactly. I once handled a case in the southwest too, and I talked with comrades over there—there's absolutely nothing that outrageous going on."

Seeing the discussion starting to go off track, Yu Dazhang quickly cleared his throat and spoke up, drawing everyone's attention back.

"Alright, we'll discuss these things later. Let's get back to the case now."

"Captain Ji." After calling out to Ji Bin, Yu Dazhang went straight to his own view:

"Based on my current thinking, let's temporarily set aside how this case happened."

"We'll treat the four corpses as if they were living people."

"Starting from the seven elements of a case, we'll investigate point by point!"

The so-called seven elements of a case refer to a concept in criminal investigation.

They are: what, when, where, circumstances, why, what means, and who.

As long as these elements are all clarified, a case will naturally be solved.

Ji Bin thought it over and agreed:

"Alright, then you'll make the specific arrangements."

Yu Dazhang looked around the room and said in a deep voice:

"Except for Hu Hao, who already has a task, the rest of us will split into three groups."

"Everyone will mainly investigate three things!"

"First, how these corpses were delivered to the morgue—the entire process must be crystal clear."

"Who delivered them, who they came into contact with on the way—everything must be investigated thoroughly."

"Second, after these corpses disappeared from the morgue, where did they go?"

"Treat them as missing persons, start from the morgue, and trace them one by one."

"Not only check the surveillance cameras, but also conduct on-site investigations to see if they left any clues behind."

"Third, the time of death for these people must be determined. 'It needs to be precise to the minute—which hospital they died at, who contacted the mortuary—find the connection points as much as possible.'"

Seeing that Yu Dazhang had already broken down the tasks, Ji Bin didn't delay and immediately began assigning personnel.

There was no choice—Yu Dazhang wasn't familiar with the people at the Qingpu branch, so he didn't know who would be best to assign to which task.

Under the two men's arrangements,

the newly formed task force quickly began roaring to life like a machine.

Ji Bin also deliberately left one team member behind to assist Yu Dazhang.

After everyone had taken their tasks and headed out, Ji Bin glanced at Yu Dazhang and asked:

"What else needs to be done next?"

Yu Dazhang thought for a moment and replied:

"Let's also go help check the surveillance cameras. Best if we can find the whereabouts of these corpses first."

Ji Bin knew this was key and quickly agreed:

"Alright, then I'll take you to the command room."

Please... collect... 6... 9... Book... for me...!

The so-called command room is fully named the Integrated Combat Command Room.

It is one of the outcomes of recent digital reforms across police bureaus.

It sounds very impressive, but its actual function is much like the surveillance room in a residential community.

It is simply a place to watch surveillance footage.

The only extra feature is the wall of screens, which allows visiting officials to see the frontline's initial progress.

He found an idle computer, sat down, and Yu Dazhang began his investigation with ease.

After the first decade of the new century, as surveillance cameras increased in number,

how to use surveillance to solve crimes became a necessary skill for police officers.

This sounds simple, but the underlying expertise is actually substantial.

The various image processing techniques required were not well known even to Yu Dazhang.

He located surveillance footage near the hospital and fast-forwarded it at eight times speed.

After finding nothing, he switched to the next set of video data and continued watching.

Surveillance review is mostly this dull.

Unless the target's route can be continuously tracked, every nearby camera must be checked.

Once the target disappears from surveillance, this step must be repeated.

It can be said to rely on patience and visual fatigue to lock onto suspects.

After watching another segment of surveillance, Yu Dazhang paused briefly and simply called up the morgue's surveillance footage again.

This time, he did not watch the video after the incident; instead, he rewound the timeline directly.

After about ten minutes, Yu Dazhang finally found a clue.

At this point, the timestamp in the upper-left corner of the surveillance video read 23:20 on August 16 — one hour before the incident.

In the video, six corpses were successively wheeled into the morgue.

Since the corpses were entirely covered by Bai Bu, their faces could not be seen.

Why are corpses covered with Bai Bu after death?

Modern explanation: covering with Bai Bu provides psychological comfort.

After death, blood flows to the back, causing the face to turn pale, muscles to relax, and the expression to appear grotesque.

Covering with Bai Bu prevents relatives from seeing this and avoids fear, reducing psychological stress.

In fact, this practice dates back to ancient times.

In ancient times, medical conditions were limited, and death confirmation was simple.

After covering with Bai Bu, if the cloth moved, it indicated the deceased was still breathing — allowing timely detection of false death and avoiding misjudgment.

Yu Dazhang pressed pause, turned to his team member beside him, and said:

"Call the hospital and ask them to provide the exact times when each of the four corpses was brought into the morgue."

(End of Chapter)