Chapter 28: The Locked Room
Zhen Nuan lay in bed, blinking her eyes, soft and drowsy as she gazed toward the window. A crescent moon hung in the sky, and dawn was already breaking.
She raised her hand and rubbed her warm, sleep-flushed cheeks. "Xiao Yu, another murder case?"
"Wow, you really are cut out to be a forensic pathologist—not even afraid of midnight horror. I was going to scare you awake to perk you up." Guan Xiaoyu sounded a bit disappointed, then quickly got down to business. "Number 13 Ningxia Road, Jiangcheng District. Someone committed suicide. Get ready to head out."
Zhen Nuan quickly climbed out of bed. Her feet hadn't even touched the floor when the phone rang again.
She answered, her voice lazy and soft with a drowsy nasal quality, sweetly coaxing Guan Xiaoyu. "Mm, I know, I'm coming right now~"
The other end was silent for a few seconds. Then came Yan Han's clear, deep voice, slightly uncomfortable. "It's me."
Zhen Nuan was so startled she felt like she'd been struck by lightning, nearly tumbling off the bed. She fumbled to steady her phone, embarrassed and mortified as she explained, "Captain, I—I thought it was Guan Xiaoyu. She just called me."
"Oh~" He laughed once, with a lazy, roguish air. "Thought you were treating me like your boyfriend."
"No." Zhen Nuan's whole body was burning up, so embarrassed she wanted to cry.
But his laughter gradually faded as he got down to business. "I'm closer to you, so I'll pick you up. Don't wait for me downstairs. Tell me where you live, I'll wait at your door."
She gave him the number, hung up the phone, covered her face, and rolled around in her blankets for a full circle before hurriedly getting up to change clothes.
When Zhen Nuan finished getting ready and prepared to leave, she peeked through the peephole. Yan Han looked small and elongated, standing far away by the elevator, leaning against the wall with his head down, smoking.
He seemed to have been waiting for a while. Probably didn't want her to smell the smoke when she came out, which was why he stood so far away.
She quickly opened the door and went out. "Have you been waiting long?"
"No." He said briefly, immediately stubbing out the cigarette in the ashtray on the trash can before pressing the elevator button.
Once inside, Zhen Nuan unconsciously retreated to the corner, pressing against the elevator wall, subconsciously maintaining the maximum distance from him.
Yan Han noticed but made no comment.
"The DNA from the hair of one of the masked people in the 367 graffiti room has been extracted, and the glove fibers are being analyzed. We'll have to wait a while."
"Oh."
Too few clues. This couldn't be rushed.
Zhen Nuan slowly looked at him. He must have been called from sleep too, wearing a nostalgic-style dark blue cotton jacket that made him look almost like a student.
On the drive to the crime scene, Zhen Nuan thought of Qin Shu for some reason. "Qin Shu drew the suspect's portrait."
"I know." Yan Han paused, his expression slightly tense. "The girl who helped the swimming pool victim commit suicide has been found. She's this case's victim."
Zhen Nuan froze.
They'd just found a breakthrough, and the suspect was already dead?
"Was it suicide?"
"The officers on scene initially determined it was suicide."
Suicide? This answered the second question Yan Han had raised this morning.
Why wasn't that girl afraid of the police seeing her face? Because she'd already planned to commit suicide.
In that case, it probably wasn't fear of prosecution.
But she was still puzzled. "How could they determine it was suicide?"
"Apparently it's a locked room."
A locked room?
Number 13 Ningxia Road in Jiangcheng District was the location of Yucheng Institute of Technology.
The body was discovered by a cleaning woman who came at 5 a.m. as usual to sweep the corridors of the student activity building. As she passed a certain classroom, the woman vaguely felt she saw a bright red shadow float past the glass of one of the classroom doors.
The woman walked back to check. What she saw in the dark, murky classroom was a long-haired girl in a red dress and red high heels hanging in the air above the desks and chairs.
The woman was scared out of her wits and screamed for security. But the guard on duty found the door was locked and he had no key, so he quickly called the police.
When Yan Han arrived at the scene, Su Ya was there too.
"Well, the expert made it out too."
"Don't tease me. I'm in good work mode, is that not allowed?" Su Ya bit her lip and glared at him lightly.
If she only showed up for serial cases, she and Yan Han would have few opportunities to work together.
Today's Yan Han caught her eye. He'd somehow found a somewhat academic-style outfit that softened his sharp temperament considerably. It made her involuntarily think of times from many years ago.
Only, Zhen Nuan's head quickly popped up behind him. As soon as she entered the room, her clear, bright eyes swept around in a circle before heading straight for the deceased.
Hei Zi quickly gave Yan Han an overview.
The deceased was a graduate student at the Institute of Technology, recently writing her thesis and looking for work.
According to her roommate, her family circumstances weren't great. She'd tested into grad school here from a third-tier university in a small city. She studied very hard and was quiet and withdrawn. Not good-looking, apparently never dated, and had been repeatedly rejected in her job search. Recently her roommate kept hearing her say things like "studying is useless" and "life is meaningless." They thought she was just complaining and offered a few words of comfort, but didn't take it to heart.
"Ask the expert to give us an analysis." Yan Han looked at Su Ya as he began putting on gloves and shoe covers.
"You can actually see it yourself." Su Ya glanced at him sideways, then said confidently, "Her situation is quite typical. Only knows how to study, little social interaction, psychologically fragile."
"Living in a small place, poor family economics—after coming to the big city and comparing herself to glamorous classmates or academically superior ones, she'd be more prone to inferiority. And that inferiority would make her deny her previous lifestyle and values, leaving her lost and directionless."
"Especially when facing employment, the pressure multiplies, but she has no friends or trusted people to help her decompress. The gap between years of effort and inability to find work to improve her situation is too great for her to bear, making her increasingly negative."
"At this point, people usually have two reactions."
"One is to rebound—completely abandoning their previous state, either forging ahead or subverting their values."
"Two is to sink deeper and deeper in a closed-off world, developing depressive tendencies."
Su Ya finished, then calmly said, "I believe her subjective intention to commit suicide existed and was quite reasonable."
The school official standing nearby listened very nervously. This kind of suicide case was very bad for the school's reputation, but they couldn't accept a malicious homicide even more. He nodded repeatedly. "The expert is right."
Yan Han also nodded slightly, vaguely indicating agreement.
Hei Zi continued reporting about the scene:
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The door and security bars on the windows were intact. The windows weren't closed. When the girl was hanging, the wind from outside kept blowing her red full skirt—the image was eerie.
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The door could only be locked from inside; from outside it required a key. The activity room key was hanging around the girl's neck. The key belonged to her roommate, who was in charge of the "Future Female Entrepreneurs" club and had applied to the school for an activity room. But the key had been lost a day ago. The roommate got a spare key from a teacher to make a copy.
Theoretically, only the roommate and the deceased had keys. There was no discord or conflict between them. The roommate had been in the dorm the whole time, with dorm building surveillance as proof. When the female officer found her, they woke her from sleep, and she took out her own key from a drawer.
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Although the activity building had surveillance, the hallway lights were off at night, so nothing was visible.
-
The girl's phone was missing.
Hei Zi said, "Although the missing phone makes me feel something's off, the security bars aren't broken, there's no key, the door can only be locked from inside—the girl should have committed suicide."
The school official immediately chimed in. "The officer is right."
Yan Han said nothing, turning to look at Zhen Nuan.
She was crouching on the ground, undisturbed by the outside world, wearing gloves as she examined the dead graduate student. A recorder was clipped near her collar. Absorbed and focused, she slowly and softly recorded:
"Livor mortis has settled in the hands, lower abdomen, and lower limbs. Pupils are cloudy. Rigor mortis has spread throughout the body. Teeth bit into the tongue. When hanged, the ligature compressed below the Adam's apple, lifting the tongue root forward. If compressed below, the tongue root presses backward, pulling the tongue tip back."
"...Death occurred over 5 hours ago, should be around midnight."
"During this time, muscles relaxed, deceased was incontinent."
"No injuries to the head or other parts."
"The skin around the neck ligature mark is dark purple-red, congested, with skin abrasion and subcutaneous hemorrhage. This is ante-mortem hanging, not post-mortem suspension..."
"We just said it was suicide—aren't you stating the obvious?" The school official interrupted, dissatisfied, afraid she might say it was homicide.
Zhen Nuan looked up blankly, her face flushing. She bit her lip and retorted, "You say your thing, I'll do mine."
Guan Xiaoyu and the other colleagues at the scene all turned to look, watching "kitten" Zhen Nuan show her claws, their eyes full of surprise and amusement. Su Ya also found it somewhat interesting.
The school official naturally disliked disobedient "subordinates," and seeing she was young and female, trusted her even less. Just as he was about to say something more—
Yan Han turned his head slightly, impatient. "Lao Bai, escort him out."
"On it. Don't disturb the crime scene." Lao Bai was very protective of Zhen Nuan and had been waiting for the boss's order. He immediately cheerfully ushered the official out with polite insistence and closed the door. Turning back, he gave Zhen Nuan a thumbs up. "Kitten, that's the way!"
Zhen Nuan's heart warmed slightly, knowing everyone was looking out for her. But...
Who exactly had given her the nickname "kitten" in private? Not cool at all. Guan Xiaoyu's codename was "Big Fish." A whole heap of wide-noodle tears in her heart.
She quickly continued her careful examination. Xiao Song beside her found something odd. "Teacher, generally speaking, people who die by hanging should have cyanotic faces."
Zhen Nuan explained, "Usually with lateral, anterior, or incomplete hanging, the carotid artery isn't fully compressed, blood enters the face causing congestion, resulting in cyanosis and mucosal bleeding."
"But in rare cases, like complete vertical hanging, the ligature completely compresses the carotid artery and vertebral artery, facial blood circulation stops, causing anemia, and the face will be pale."
Xiao Song slapped his forehead. "Ah, I remember now, that's right."
Su Ya also looked over slightly, discovering that Zhen Nuan's work demeanor was completely different from her usual self. Perhaps, as Yan Han said, she really was a very professional forensic pathologist.
"The ligature compressed the neck for a long time, forming a very fixed furrow—deep and narrow, caused by a thin, hard rope. The bottom of the furrow shows the surface pattern of the rope."
Zhen Nuan picked up a section of rough hemp rope near the deceased's head.
"Consistent with the rope found at the scene. The ligature is a closed single-loop noose."
"Also, the furrow is typically figure-eight shaped, horseshoe-shaped, deeper below and shallower above—from suspension hanging, ruling out the possibility of strangulation on the ground then hanging up."
"Only one furrow, also ruling out the possibility of hanging to death elsewhere then moving here."
"No marks on the back of the neck or other body parts—not forced by another person."
Zhen Nuan observed and analyzed methodically. Just by looking carefully and attentively, she clearly ruled out multiple possibilities.
Although the detectives and others had determined at a glance that suicide was highly likely, only when she spoke did her assessment truly put people at ease.
She translated the deceased's bodily testimony word for word: not killed by other means then hung up, not hanged elsewhere then moved here, not strangled by someone then hung up.
Brother Tan watched her finish, clapped once, and gave her a thumbs up.
Su Ya was also somewhat amazed. She'd always believed her specialized field of psychological analysis and criminal profiling was miraculous and impressive, that forensic pathologists just needed to determine how the deceased died, leaving the solving to professional detectives. This time opened her eyes.
Yan Han lowered his head, his voice even lower. "Still going to ask me what qualified her to be recruited?"
Su Ya said nothing.
Yan Han actually hadn't interviewed Zhen Nuan. He was away on a case. Cheng Fang sent over the final two candidates' materials and interview videos. Zhen Nuan's performance was very nervous, but she wasn't eliminated because of her technical skills.
Yan Han's reason for selecting Zhen Nuan was very simple: Shen Yi's girlfriend.
Xiao Song asked, "Teacher, so it was suicide?"
At this point, however, Zhen Nuan frowned slightly. "There's something very strange."
"What?"
"Too few struggle marks on the body and neck." Zhen Nuan said, "Almost no friction or contusions on the neck, no signs of the ligature shifting. After hanging, under the effect of gravity, the rope strongly compresses the trachea and bones, causing extreme pain. Even in suicide, people will struggle violently. And also..."
She pinched the heel of the bright red high heel on the deceased's foot and pulled gently. The slightly oversized shoe fell off easily.
"Why didn't these loose high heels fall off during the struggle?"
Zhen Nuan spoke slowly, suddenly remembering the ghost story Guan Xiaoyu had told her—about how at midnight, a woman who hangs herself in a red dress and red high heels, filled with resentment, would become a vengeful spirit.
Zhen Nuan glanced at the key hanging on a red string at the deceased's chest. Unable to explain this locked room, the deceased's body told her:
"When she died, there was definitely someone in this so-called 'locked room.'"
Thoughts,
While everyone—including criminal psychologist Su Ya—concludes it's a straightforward suicide based on the victim's depression and circumstances, Zhen Nuan's meticulous forensic examination reveals crucial anomalies. Despite the locked room and apparent suicide setup, the lack of struggle marks and the impossibly pristine state of the loose high heels suggest someone else was present during the death. The chapter showcases Zhen Nuan's transformation from a shy, nervous young woman into a confident professional when examining evidence, while also developing the subtle romantic tension between her and her boss, Yan Han. The case connects to a previous swimming pool death, suggesting a larger pattern of assisted suicides or staged murders.
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