Chapter 108: Weird Death

Criminal Investigation Team's warning line, like a cold scar, isolated Liu Jianjun's house from the entire world.

The air was filled with an inescapable fetid stench, mingled with a rotting odor, making people feel repeatedly nauseous.

Inside the room, several seasoned veteran detectives stood at Liu Ya's bedroom door, each looking sicker than the last, fine cold sweat beading on their foreheads, a chill rising in their hearts.

They had seen dismembered corpses, seen cooking, seen the most twisted, perverse murder scenes.

But none compared to the present pink room—neat, spotless, even scented with a sweet, cloying perfume of a young girl—more Weird, more chilling to the spine.

If forced to describe, the victim seemed to have been drained of every ounce of life while in extreme pain and terror, brutally killed.

Yet, paradoxically, she bore not a single wound.

Liu Jianjun just stood there.

They wore the same police uniform they left in, the silver badge on the shoulder still gleaming, but their whole frame collapsed like a beast stripped of its spine, eyes blood‑red, staring rigidly at the forensic examiner conducting the preliminary survey, unmoving.

In that gaze there was no sorrow, only an impenetrable density of madness and a desire for destruction.

"Old Liu..."

Detachment Chief Zhang Yi walked to their side, patted their shoulder, moved their lips, yet could not utter a single word.

Any comforting words at that moment seemed pale and powerless.

"How's the scene?" Liu Jianjun's voice was hoarse as if two pieces of sandpaper were grinding together.

Zhang Yi hesitated briefly, then whispered, "The doors and windows are intact, no signs of forced entry. The room... is very clean; aside from your daughter, no fingerprints, footprints, or hair of a second person were found. The surveillance was checked; no one entered or left the house last night."

"Clean?"

Liu Jianjun slowly turned his head, blood‑veined eyes staring straight at Zhang Yi.

"Are you saying my daughter, locked inside her own room, tormented herself into this ghastly state, then died on her own?"

His tone was flat.

Yet that very flatness made veteran Zhang Yi feel a cold surge from the soles of his feet straight up to the Heavenly Spirit Cover.

He knew this was the calm before the storm.

Liu Jianjun no longer paid attention, taking heavy steps, inch by inch toward the bedside.

He stared at his daughter's face, twisted and deformed by extreme terror, at the soiled mess left after she lost control, at her protruding, hollow, soulless eyes...

He reached out, trying to close her eyes for her.

But his hand trembled so badly he could not manage it.

"The murderer..."

"I don't care who you are, whatever method you used..."

"I will definitely find you."

"Then I'll chop you to pieces and feed you to dogs!"

He spoke haltingly, each word squeezed out of his teeth like a blood‑stained oath.

City Bureau.

The Forensic Autopsy Room's light was a ghastly, blinding white.

Lao Wang, the most experienced forensic examiner in the bureau, now faced Liu Ya's corpse, his brows knotted into a lump.

It had been a day and a night.

He and two assistants had performed virtually every possible test, yet the results made him increasingly uneasy.

"How's it going, Lao Wang?"

Liu Jianjun leaned against the door, eyes blood‑shot, beard unkempt, his police uniform crumpled, his whole appearance gaunt beyond recognition.

Lao Wang removed his mask, rubbed his forehead wearily, his voice a bit hoarse: "Old Liu, you need to brace yourself. The body's surface... shows no external injury, not even a scratch. No signs of poisoning either; the toxicology report is blank."

"What about the organs?" Liu Jianjun asked further.

"There is no damage at all."

Lao Wang paused, as if gathering his words.

"Based on the current findings, the immediate cause of death is acute cardiac failure."

"Speak in plain language!" Liu Jianjun growled.

"In lay terms..." Lao Wang sighed, "it's 'scared to death.'"

Scared to death.

Those two words struck Liu Jianjun's forehead like a pair of heavy hammers.

He staggered, grabbed the doorframe to avoid falling, then let out a low, beast‑like whimpering laugh.

"Heh... hehehe... scared to death?"

"You motherfucker tell me, what could frighten a living person so much they wet themselves and let all seven orifices gush!"

He lunged forward, grabbing Lao Wang's collar hard.

"You tell me!"

"Old Liu! Calm down!"

Detachment Chief Zhang Yi rushed over, tightly holding the emotionally unhinged Liu Jianjun.

"Lao Wang is only speaking based on the test results! Why are you taking it out on him!"

Lao Wang did not resist, simply letting himself be held, his eyes full of helplessness and sympathy.

"Old Liu, I understand how you feel. But the forensic examiner only states the evidence. The corpse doesn't lie; that's what it tells me."

Liu Jianjun's body shook violently, his chest heaving, and finally he weakly released his grip.

Indeed, evidence.

He had been a police officer all his life, and the thing he revered most was evidence.

But now the evidence gave him the most absurd, most unacceptable answer.

The final official autopsy report came out quickly.

Black letters on white paper, stamped with a bright red official seal.

In the conclusion column, it was written clearly:

"Deceased Liu Ya died of a heart‑related sudden death caused by extreme mental stimulation that disrupted her autonomic nervous system. Overall judgment: natural death."

Natural… death?

When Liu Jianjun saw the report, he was stunned.

He was stunned for more than ten seconds.

Then, he laughed.

He laughed until tears streamed down.

"Natural death? Hahaha… what a natural death!"

He jerked his hand up, "Rrriip—", and ripped the report to shreds!

"Damn your mother's fart!"

He lunged at the young forensic doctor like a raging lion, grabbed the man's collar, and slammed him hard against the wall.

"Are you fucking blind?! My daughter was tortured like that, and you call that natural death?!"

"This is an insult! The greatest insult to me!"

"You bunch of trash! Useless bums!"

"Liu Jianjun! You're insane!"

Detachment Chief Zhang Yi rushed forward again, and together with several other colleagues, they had to use Herculean effort to pull him away.

"Are you done messing around! I know you're in pain, but what can we do?"

Zhang Yi also erupted, pointing at the torn fragments of the report, his eyes reddened as he roared: "No weapon! No murderer! No evidence of homicide! How am I supposed to classify this as a murder? How am I supposed to open a case? Teach me!"

His words fell on him like a bucket of ice water.

Liu Jianjun froze instantly.

Indeed.

No murderer.

Not to mention legally.

From the most fundamental facts, this case simply cannot be filed.

A wave of unprecedented despair and helplessness instantly engulfed him.

The status he took pride in, the order he upheld all his life, at this moment became a joke.

He no longer even had the ability to seek justice for his own daughter.

What kind of Deputy Detachment Chief of criminal investigation is he then?

He is a colossal joke!

Liu Jianjun's strength was drained, and he slumped helplessly into his chair, clutching his head with both hands, letting out a painful whimper.

The entire office was suffused with an overwhelming, stifling sorrow.

Just then.

A rapid ringtone of a mobile phone suddenly blared.

It was Liu Jianjun's phone.

He numbly glanced at the caller ID; it was Lao Li, a colleague from the West City Branch.

He wasn't in the mood to answer any call right now.

But the ringtone persisted insistently.

Zhang Yi couldn't stand it, picked up the phone, swiped to answer, and pressed speaker.

"Hello, Lao Li, this is Zhang Yi, about Lao Liu…"

Before he could finish, a voice on the other end came out terrified, almost breaking in tone.

"Zhang? Great! Get Lao Liu out right now! No! You all come over immediately!"

"Over here… we've received several strange cases again!"

"All happened last night, all sudden deaths!"

Lao Li's voice on the phone trembled:

"The condition of death… the death condition is exactly the same as Lao Liu's daughter!"