"This should be it. Jianyun Elementary School is definitely not the breakthrough point. Let's see what else we can investigate. We can't focus all our attention on this school."
"But is Cao Han still watching?"
"Keep watching. I have a feeling something is off about that person. I've also brought Gao Mingqiang into it."
"Alright, I hope we find more clues soon."
As we were chatting, Xiahou suddenly walked over. He looked a bit anxious, and I thought another case had come up. To my surprise, he said, "Bad news! The forensic department just sent word that Fan Tianyun's body is missing!"
"What? The body is missing?" I initially thought Xiahou was joking, but seeing his serious expression, I realized it was unlikely. Besides, he wouldn't joke about something so serious.
Liu Yuning and I both widened our eyes, and our bodies turned ice-cold. We immediately went to the forensic department. Xie Chuchu and Zhang Keying were there. When asked for details, Xie Chuchu said anxiously, "We don't know what happened. Xiao Dong is checking the surveillance."
I examined the freezer where Fan Tianyun had been lying and noticed a small amount of white, viscous liquid on the floor beneath it. I collected a sample with a test tube. Zhang Keying said, "This looks like尸液 (shī yè -尸液). After death, the body begins to decompose rapidly, producing an odor. This happens because microorganisms in the air break down the corpse. Due to the abundance of oxygen in the air, the number of these microorganisms increases, even attracting flesh-eating larvae, accelerating the decomposition process and producing this strange viscous liquid."
"Yes, the smell of a decomposing body is similar to that of rotten fish and shrimp. It mainly comes from the breakdown of protein. This white viscous liquid is essentially that, but how could it flow out if the body was frozen?" Xie Chuchu wondered.
"Could it be a problem with the body itself?" I said this vaguely, and no one present understood my meaning.
At this point, I took out the 'shadowless reflection tube' and scanned the morgue. I discovered footprints on the floor. These weren't ours. Judging by their size, I swallowed hard. Could my guess be true?
But how was that possible? Fan Tianyun was dead. How could she still...?
We went to the duty room and found several police officers and Xiao Dong sitting on chairs, their faces filled with horror, as if they had seen something terrifying. Even before looking, I had a premonition. Liu Yuning leaned forward, and seeing the screen, even she, with her strong psychological fortitude, couldn't help but gasp.
On the screen, a freezer drawer slid open on its own, and then Fan Tianyun sat up straight inside.
If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have believed the scene was from a horror movie.
I repeatedly watched the surveillance video and found the situation to be exactly the same. It was confirmed. Seeing her walk out, she appeared in the corridor of the police station and went downstairs. Our eyes nearly popped out. I even asked He Xin to check if there was a problem with the video, but after comparing it, she told me, "There are no signs of deletion or replacement in the video. This is the original version, meaning everything that happened was real."
In fact, I had already anticipated this. Asking He Xin to compare was just to confirm it again.
I returned to the forensic department. I wished I had kept the body at the crime scene investigation station. I re-examined the surroundings but found no other traces. Fan Tianyun had truly left the morgue upright. We searched near the stairs and found a window that had been broken. There was still surveillance outside.
"But why didn't we see it earlier? Did we miss something?" Gao Mingqiang and others came here with me, looking around. Xiahou was the first to place one hand on the windowsill and flip over. We followed suit. Since it was the first floor, we didn't fall.
Stepping out through the window, we reached the police station's parking lot. If Fan Tianyun could still move, she could have driven away in a car at any moment. I didn't have time to check the surveillance. Near a parking spot, I found more of that viscous liquid. It was too bizarre. This stuff only appears after a body has been dead for some time, but Fan Tianyun could still move. This logic was completely inconsistent; otherwise, we wouldn't have been so terrified by the surveillance earlier.
Xie Chuchu, who was with us, collected more white viscous liquid from the ground. We then left the parking lot. On the road outside, we found some tire tracks. Liu Yuning recalled, "That parking spot... wasn't that where our car was parked?"
"Yes, how is that possible? Was Fan Tianyun doing this on purpose? Was she trying to create a scene to scare us and stop us from investigating further?" He Xin speculated.
I said, "There's a possibility. She's probably not dead at all. No, she is definitely not dead." I hesitated. I would never use that word, after all, we are police officers.
But Liu Yuning seemed to read my mind: "Are you thinking of '赶尸' (gǎn shī - corpse driving)?"
"You've watched too many supernatural novels! How could that possibly exist in this world..." Gao Mingqiang retorted.
I waved my hand, "Corpse driving isn't entirely impossible. After all, there's a saying: the end of science is metaphysics."
"Ah, team leader, you believe in it too?"
"It's not about belief. These things exist naturally. If Fan Tianyun is dead, then the only explanation is corpse driving. When she left the police station, someone else must have been waiting outside, because I don't believe she could have accomplished so much alone. Can corpse driving enable someone to drive a car?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. We went to the traffic management bureau to check the surveillance near the police station and some vehicle dashcams. Upon viewing the footage, we discovered that the person had indeed driven away our car. In several surveillance videos, we saw two people in the car. Fan Tianyun was in the passenger seat, lying there like a zombie, limp.
"The situation is indeed as you said, team leader. Fan Tianyun was taken away," Xiahou said.
I stared intently at the computer screen. Did that guy really know the art of corpse driving? Corpse driving generally refers to Hunan's corpse driving. Corpse driving is a part of shamanistic culture, also known as 'moving spirits.' It originated in the ancient counties of Chenzhou, Yuanling, Luxi, Chenxi, and Xupu. During the Qing Dynasty, there were widespread rumors of "corpse drivers" in western Hunan, who used "secret arts" to bring the bodies of those who died far from home back to their hometowns for proper burial.