Chapter 277

When Qi Fei arrived at the forensic room with Zhang Yingdi, Xiao Tao, who rarely took the initiative, came out to greet them through the glass door.

"Only one family member can go in. Which one is going?" He looked at the several people behind Zhang Yingdi.

Hearing that she had to identify the body, Zhang Yingdi called several relatives to come and accompany her.

The small corridor at the entrance of the forensic room was now crowded with people.

Zhong Kui didn't hide her disgust, standing far away against the wall alone, watching the noisy scene with cold eyes.

Zhang Yingdi was already too nervous to speak, just grabbing the hand of a female relative beside her, looking lost.

Qi Fei had to do it for her, pointing at her: "This is the deceased's mother. Let's take her in."

"Wait a moment." Xiao Tao acted out of character and warned, "The deceased's condition is quite special; you need to be mentally prepared."

As he spoke, he took the two of them inside.

In the center of the cold forensic room, on that stainless steel autopsy table, what was covered by the white cloth should be Sheng Tianbao's corpse.

Zhang Yingdi's body was trembling violently, not knowing if it was because of the cold or fear.

When the white cloth was lifted, Zhang Yingdi was so scared that she took several steps back, hitting the iron cabinet full of tools. The sharp clashing sound seemed as if it would wake up those corpses in the cold storage.

Qi Fei also saw Sheng Tianbao's appearance at this moment and understood why Xiao Tao had acted so unusually just now.

He saw that the condition of the corpse had changed significantly since the last autopsy. Unexpectedly, the corpse had turned green. Coupled with the collapse of the facial skin and muscles, Sheng Tianbao's teeth were exposed outside his lips. Added to the green skin, describing him as a "green-faced, fanged monster" was not an exaggeration at all; he looked exactly like a zombie in a horror movie.

Zhang Yingdi was so scared that she shrank into a corner, muttering: "Ghost, this is a ghost, not my son..."

"How could this happen?" Qi Fei asked Xiao Tao, puzzled.

"I haven't encountered this situation either. I've already taken tissue samples from various organs for further testing. It looks like the poisoning is very severe." Xiao Tao said.

Qi Fei glanced at Zhang Yingdi, who was already scared out of her wits: "Strange, her condition is still okay. The hospital here can't even find the cause of her poisoning, saying it's very likely it was metabolized. Why is Sheng Tianbao so severe?"

Regarding this point, Xiao Tao seemed to have a speculation: "I detected a large amount of alcohol in his gastric juice. This person had been drinking before the accident, and alcohol very likely exacerbated the toxicity. However, I still haven't found what the poison is."

As the two were talking, suddenly a "thump, thump, thump" sound came. Following the sound, they saw Zhang Yingdi actually kneeling on the ground, kowtowing incessantly, muttering: "Old Mother, we were wrong. Don't make things difficult for Tianbao. Let him be reincarnated early. I swear I will chant Buddha's name to transcend you from now on. I will find you a better place to be buried. I beg you, I beg you..." She said incoherently, looking both ridiculous and pathetic in the forensic room.

Qi Fei tried to step forward to pull Zhang Yingdi up, but Zhang Yingdi was like someone possessed, just kowtowing blindly, unable to hear anything.

Qi Fei said earnestly: "The one last time was my colleague pretending to be your mother-in-law Luo Yongmei so you would tell the truth. It wasn't her. Your son's body condition is because the thing you were poisoned by is quite special. We will find a way to find out clearly. You have to believe in science."

How could Zhang Yingdi listen to his words? She just looked at him blankly: "This is retribution, this is retribution..."

"Enough! Since you're here, your son knows you didn't even take a look. Next time, he'll have to come find you with your mother-in-law." Zhong Kui said sternly, directly scolding Zhang Yingdi into a daze. She finally stopped kowtowing, and a bruise as big as a persimmon had already appeared on her forehead.

"Since you're here, you should still go take a look at your son." Qi Fei was soft-hearted after all and persuaded her kindly.

With the remnants of her reason, Zhang Yingdi stumbled back to the corpse.

Seeing Sheng Tianbao's remains, Zhang Yingdi finally didn't pick up her phone to record a video again. She wailed in despair; losing her son was losing her entire world.

Qi Fei understood her grief but found it hard to empathize.

This is what they call "the pitiful must have something hateful about them."

Zhong Kui said the reason for this contradictory mentality beside him: "Speaking of Luo Yongmei's death, she didn't shed a single tear. Hundreds of years have passed, and some poisonous legacies are truly rooted in people's hearts. In her eyes, Sheng Tianbao wasn't just her son; he was the so-called mission of continuing the family line, right?"

"So when Luo Yongmei refused to cover for Sheng Tianbao, Zhang Yingdi thought it was normal to let her die?" Qi Fei just watched from afar as the relatives carried away the disheveled Zhang Yingdi, feeling an indescribable sadness. He then thought of the victim of that legacy: "It seems Zhang Yingdi doesn't know about Huang Ruifen's disappearance. Only Sheng Tianbao and Luo Yongmei were there when Huang Ruifen went missing. Now that both of them are dead, this investigation will be difficult."

"Brother Fei, what are you looking at?" Wu Shanqiu suddenly said behind Qi Fei. Qi Fei shook as if waking from a dream and almost fell off his chair.

He saw that on his computer screen, he was asking AI: "What are the green-faced, fanged ghosts?"

"Are you still that Officer Qi who hates superstition the most?" Wu Shanqiu teased.

"I'm researching the cause of Sheng Tianbao's death." Qi Fei defended himself.

Just as they were talking, Xiao Tao appeared in the office.

"There's a new discovery regarding Sheng Tianbao's cause of death." As soon as he saw Qi Fei, he shoved a lab report over.

Having been a criminal police officer for many years, Qi Fei could basically understand the terminology of many reports, but this time a new marker, "SulfHb," appeared on the report.

Qi Fei couldn't even pronounce the word and pointed at the words on the report to ask Xiao Tao: "What does this mean?"

"Sulfhemoglobin." A rare trace of pride appeared on Xiao Tao's usually expressionless face, "I consulted some materials based on Sheng Tianbao's situation. Twenty years ago, there was a case of hydrogen sulfide poisoning in a mine in Pu County. The autopsy records of the deceased workers were very close to Sheng Tianbao's situation."

"So I had the testing center specifically conduct a sulfide test, and sure enough, that was it. This is also the reason why Sheng Tianbao's corpse accelerated decay and turned green. Sulfides accelerate decay and react with the iron elements in the blood to form green-brown sulfhemoglobin."

"Of course, there's also the question you raised last time: why did only Sheng Tianbao, who drank alcohol, die? This principle is even simpler; it's the same principle as not being able to drink alcohol after eating durian. Sulfides are the source of the durian's stench, and consuming sulfides with alcohol causes fatal synergistic toxicity. The alcohol in Sheng Tianbao's body exacerbated the toxicity of the hydrogen sulfide. This is the cause of his death."

"As expected of you." Qi Fei didn't skimp on praise, then turned suspicious again, "There's one point that's very strange. The case from twenty years ago was because it happened in a mine, where hydrogen sulfide gas was understandable. But the three of them were in their own shop. Where did the high concentration of hydrogen sulfide come from?"