Chapter 183: Pulmonary Edema

Qi Fei held a flashlight close to the wooden railing of the bionic wetland boardwalk. When the beam swept across the damp wooden boards, it suddenly stopped—several fresh scratch marks lay across the moss, with grayish-brown debris sticking to the edges.

He squatted down, picked up the debris with tweezers, and sniffed it. It was the red soil common on the ring road outside the zoo.

"There are climbing marks here," he shouted to the back, and Wu Shanqiu immediately trotted over with the evidence box.

On the cement floor, the fresh bird droppings that had condensed last night were like a layer of semi-dry plaster, with several complete footprints embedded in the indentations of varying depths.

Qi Fei squatted beside Chen Hao's feet, his hand wearing rubber gloves lightly turning over the deceased's shoe soles: "The deceased is wearing size 42 sneakers, which is consistent with these footprints."

Just as his words fell, a vibration sound suddenly came to his ears. It came from Chen Hao's jacket.

Qi Fei reached out and took it out. It was Chen Hao's phone ringing. The caller was an unknown number.

After the call was connected, before Qi Fei could speak, the other party spoke anxiously: "Hello, Manager Chen, I'm Xiao Wu from Nancheng Investment. Our business department is going on a business trip tomorrow. Please hurry up and book three plane tickets to Beihai for 10 am tomorrow morning."

"Hello, Nancheng Criminal Police."

"What? Ah, sorry, I dialed the wrong number!"

"This is Chen Hao's phone. He passed away last night. Are you his client?"

The other end of the phone was silent for a while, and it took a few seconds to stutter: "I was just looking for him to book a plane ticket. Sorry to bother you, sorry to bother you!" She said repeatedly and hung up the phone in a hurry.

This was just the beginning. Chen Hao's phone would vibrate a few times without rest, almost all of them looking for him to book plane tickets.

"This Chen Hao's phone is busy enough." Wu Shanqiu said.

"It's Chen Hao who is busy enough," Qi Fei corrected.

In the hot and humid Bai Niao Guan, a cool breeze brushed across his face. He lifted his head and saw a hole the size of a fist on the glass dome. The wind leaked in from there, and a black feather was vaguely visible on the edge. It seemed that Xiao Hei had most likely flown out from that place.

"Fei-ge, there is bad news," Wu Shanqiu walked over, "This Bai Niao Guan originally had infrared monitoring. When we just asked the park to retrieve it, we found that last night's monitoring had been set to a loop playback mode."

"That is to say, nothing can be seen," Qi Fei said helplessly, "But it's not entirely bad news, which shows that Chen Hao's death was not an accident."

In the police station office, Wu Shanqiu's back of the head was tapped lightly by a notebook.

"Ouch!" She rubbed her head and looked up, seeing Qi Fei standing beside her, muttering, "Fei-ge, what are you doing?"

"Not checking the case properly, scrolling through videos during work hours?" Qi Fei pretended to be unhappy and said.

Wu Shanqiu said righteously: "I'm looking through Xiao Hei's previous videos! To see if there are any clues."

"Then did you find anything?"

"Sigh, what can I find? There are so many halls in the zoo. I studied it slightly. Actually, this Bai Niao Guan is the hardest to sneak into. To prevent birds from flying around, this place can be said to be arranged like a net."

"But Chen Hao happened to sneak into this Bai Niao Guan and died inside," Qi Fei said, touching the stubble on his chin.

"Right, isn't it unreasonable? I think this place was not randomly chosen. I'm scrolling through the comments under Xiao Hei's video sharing account. I think we can investigate those people who show unusual interest."

"Any findings?"

"Sigh, what findings? A bunch of people squatting in the comment area, waiting for Xiao Hei to curse them as idiots. There really isn't anything else suspicious." Wu Shanqiu said helplessly.

"Haha, okay, put the phone aside first. Xiao Tao is ready there. Let's go to the autopsy room first," Qi Fei said with a smile.

Time was approaching April, and the temperature in Nancheng was rising rapidly.

Where there was sunlight, short sleeves were enough.

However, the autopsy room was as cold as ever.

Even after many years in the industry, Qi Fei was still not used to the smell of corpses in here.

Yes, corpses have a special smell. Qi Fei had never known how to describe it—that contradictory smell that carries emotional temperature but is dead and lifeless.

"Is there still no one to claim the deceased?" Qi Fei wore a mask, looking at Chen Hao, who was lying naked on the autopsy table, and asked.

Wu Shanqiu said on the side: "Chen Hao is a bachelor, and his hometown is in the Northwest. We are trying to contact his family. Because he has no relatives in Nancheng, we contacted the ticketing company, but they all said they were busy. By now, people should be on their way."

Chen Hao's dark skin faded of blood, like a piece of sandpaper pasted on his face.

Xiao Tao moved the shadowless lamp, observing Chen Hao's various parts one by one: "The deceased had complex mechanical injuries before death. Multiple contusions on the body surface, stellate contusion and laceration on the right temporal region, abrasion on the back of the metacarpophalangeal joints, combined with sheet-like hemorrhage of the thenar and hypothenar muscle groups of the palm."

Qi Fei also saw multiple bruises on Chen Hao's body: "These parts are not common injury parts for blocking or beating."

"Um, judging from the condition of his palms, these injuries are more consistent with those caused by falling from a high place," Xiao Tao said.

Wu Shanqiu compared the investigation records of the scene: "Then that's right. New friction marks were found on the artificial mountain in the Bai Niao Guan. It seems that this Chen Hao tried to climb up and caused it."

Xiao Tao's scalpel was ready, and he steadily dissected Chen Hao's chest. Swollen purple-red lung lobes appeared before their eyes. He pressed his fingertips lightly on the wet tissue, and the indented finger marks did not rebound for a long time. He picked up tweezers to clamp a piece of lung tissue against the light source, and the dense bleeding points dyed strange branch-like patterns in the gray-white stroma.

"Cause of death, suffocation caused by acute pulmonary edema," Xiao Tao said decisively.

"Pulmonary edema? Can you tell what caused it?" Qi Fei asked.

"There are many reasons, such as underlying cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, drowning, poisoning, etc. So far, from the autopsy situation, apart from having a relatively serious gastric ulcer, no other problems can be seen. As for drowning, no silt or drowning-related reactions were found in the deceased's nasal cavity and respiratory tract. As for poisoning, it depends on the toxicology report."

As he was speaking, Wu Shanqiu's phone rang: "Is the person from Chen Hao's company here?"

Before long, a short and strong middle-aged man in a suit and leather shoes walked in.

As soon as he entered the door, his phone rang: "Hello, sorry, I'm not booking tickets here today. Please contact others in our company." It seemed he was a busy person like Chen Hao.

He hung up the phone, looked at Qi Fei and the others, and swallowed nervously: "Chen Hao, where is he..." ===== CHAPTER 184 =====