Dry Drowning

A short and curly strand of black hair…

Qi Yan nearly had to puke again.

That strand looked like a human’s! And it looked like the sort that grew on a particular part of the body…

Wen Yuansi was seated a little further away as he focused on writing the autopsy report for Song Caitang, so he couldn’t see as clearly. He only noticed that it was black, so after thinking about it, he said, “The pigs in that pigsty had black hair, I think.”

He thought it was pig hair.

“How did he consume that?”

Governor Zhang fiddled with his mustache as he gave this serious thought, “The victim was drowned, then thrown into a pigsty. He was discovered with his face buried in pig feces, so it isn’t unusual for a couple of strands to end up in his mouth.”

“You’re right, Governor Zhang. Having a strand or two of pig hair in the mouth would not be unusual, but…”

Song Caitang used the forceps to point to where she found the hair, “The hair wasn’t found in the mouth, but in the gullet.”

This was a very important observation.

“The victim was found in a pigsty and the cause of death was determined to be drowning. The pigsty was cleaned recently, so there wasn’t a lot of water from the feces, and it wasn’t enough to drown the victim. Combined with other signs we observed, we conjectured that the pigsty is the second crime scene. The body had been shifted before.”

She bent her head, her eyes clear and bright, “Since the body was moved after he died, struggling and swallowing would not be possible. It is normal for feces and hair to enter the victim’s nose and mouth, but it is not normal for it to be found any further down the digestive tract.”

She used the forceps to open up the gullet a little more so that Governor Zhang could see better, “As you can see, there isn’t a lot of feces in the victim’s mouth at all, and there isn’t any in the throat. It’s very clean here.”

The conclusion was clear. Lu Guangzong was already dead by the time he was thrown into the pigsty, so he would not breathe nor struggle. Because of the position his body was in when he was thrown in, some of the dirt and feces would enter his mouth, but he would not have been able to swallow it.

This black hair did not belong to a pig. Lu Guangzong should have consumed it earlier.

But how?

And this looked like human hair…

“Please tell me it isn’t what I’m imagining, please tell me it’s not…” Qi Yan’s face was even paler as terrible images filled his mind. He nearly puked from being grossed out by his own imagination.

Song Caitang merely frowned and did not respond to him. Her hand put the forceps down and she took a scalpel from Qingqiao to continue looking at the rest of the body.

Her blade sliced through muscle, arteries, other tissues… Everything was a mixture of red and white.

That color stained her gloves the same color…

The stench from the corpse was beginning to make everyone’s heads hurt…

But Song Caitang seemed to have done this a thousand times before and her expression didn’t flinch at all.

Qi Yan had imagined a dissection to be something really cool and incredible to watch, but now… he felt it was really scary.

“Why in the world did the killer decide to throw Lu Guangzong into a pigsty?” Since he had trouble holding his vomit in, he tried to change the topic to distract himself from the discomfort.

Wen Yuansi had discussed this point with Song Caitang before, so he quietly responded, “One reason is to humiliate the victim, the other reason is because it was a good place to dump the body.”

Qi Yan chewed on these reasons for a moment, “A pigsty is dirty and smelly, so throwing the body here would look pretty awful, so that’s humiliating, alright. A good place to dump the body… it was along the way?”

Wen Yuansi said, “The killer was probably very familiar with these streets.”

“Oh… I see…” Qi Yan nodded several times, “If he’s familiar, he would know when the streets would be emptier, and even if someone came by, he would know where to hide… and even if someone did spot him, he could give some random excuse. That would make it easy to get rid of a body!”

As he spoke, his gaze inadvertently caught a glimpse of Song Caitang’s hands, but he quickly looked away in fear. He had another question, “How did the killer do it then? Lu Guangzong had been an official for so many years, so he was good at pretending and scheming, and he would definitely be one who was extremely wary. How could the killer…”

Speaking out loud helped him arrive at the answer himself. He smacked one fist into his other palm and exclaimed, “I got it! The killer was someone he knew! They were acquainted!”

Qi Yan’s eyes shone brightly. He had been smart for once and he was so proud of himself. But he tried to suppress his glee as he turned around and waited for everyone to praise him…

Only to find that nobody looked impressed at all. Governor Zhang’s beard even twitched as the older man sighed and stared at him with pity and concern for this poor boy, as though he was saying, “Isn’t it obvious?”

Clearly, everyone had already come to this conclusion. Except him!

Qi Yan let out a deep sigh. It had been proven once again that he really had no knack for solving cases.

But he refused to let himself be demoralized, “Even if they knew each other, Lu Guangzong would not trust everyone either. Wouldn’t he have noticed if the other party wanted to kill him?”

He caught a glimpse of Song Caitang’s bloody hand again and quietly turned away. Compared to fainting and puking in horror, it was better to just turn away, even if it seemed embarrassing to do so.

Dissecting bodies was something that Song Caitang was very familiar with doing. Saying that she could do it with her eyes closed would be an exaggeration, but she could pay attention to more than one thing at a time while doing this procedure.

When she heard Qi Yan’s question, she calmly answered, “The killer and the victim were definitely acquainted, but the killer might not have been someone close to the victim, or someone the victim trusted.”

Qi Yan’s eyes widened, “Wouldn’t Lu Guangzong become even more wary?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Why not?”

“The killer just needed to lure the victim out of the pub,” Song Caitang kept her head bent and her eyes never left the blade in her hands, “The victim has no external injuries. It’s clear that he had left with the killer willingly.”

Qi Yan was confused again, “Why did they have to go out? Why not inside the pub?”

Song Caitang sighed and didn’t say anything.

Qi Yan still didn’t get it.

Wen Yuansi helped her to respond, “There were so many people inside the pub. Never mind committing a murder – a little too much commotion would be enough to attract attention.”

But at the same time, nobody had noticed when Lu Guangzong left the pub.

Qi Yan finally understood, “Oh… that’s true… if the killer did it in the pub, we wouldn’t have to put in so much effort now. The killer would have been apprehended there and then.”

Wen Yuansi nodded and summarized the details, “The victim had been sitting by himself in the pub, then the killer used something to lure the victim out of the pub with him. Once they were in a secluded place, the killer used a sedative of sorts to knock the victim out, then drowned him, then abandoned the body in a pigsty without a sound…”

The actual process was definitely not too far off from this conjecture, but like what Qi Yan said earlier, Lu Guangzong was someone wary at all times, so he must have been suspicious at some point. How did the killer manage to pull this off?

Wen Yuansi frowned, “Perhaps the killer had something that the victim could not resist paying attention to.”

“Or…”

Song Caitang added, “It was something that the victim had been looking forward to, something he had wanted for a long time.”

Lu Guangzong had been held captive by his own son and had gone through a lot of physical and emotional torture. It had taken him a lot of effort to finally escape all that. What would he want to do most?

He did not go home and did not look for friends. He must have had a reason for heading straight to that pub.

And the killer might very well have known why.

Governor Zhang stroked his beard, “Looks like this killer knows the victim extremely well.”

Qi Yan opened his mouth, “In that case…”

He was about to say more when Song Caitang suddenly found something. She used her forceps to pull it out, “Please note this down, an unusual object has been found in the victim’s windpipe.”

Upon closer inspection, the object was a slightly lopsided oval shape, very thin, and a little grayish in color. But when she looked hard enough, she could see a faint pink in the middle.

“A petal?” Qi Yan was standing the closest and could see the clearest. The petal was a little shrunken and twisted, but it was definitely a petal!

Song Caitang thrust the forceps toward him, “Smell it. Do you smell anything special?”

Qi Yan’s first instinct was to shrink back. What other smell could something found in a corpse have? It was definitely just gross!

But just when he thought that, a fragrance wafted into his nostrils.

It was very faint, and very special, but it was definitely the smell of a flower!

Besides the flowery smell, there was also a faint… he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It was very familiar, but too faint, so he couldn’t identify it immediately.

“It’s alcohol.” Song Caitang was a lot more sensitive than Qi Yan in this aspect.

Qi Yan clapped his hands, “That’s right! It’s alcohol! That’s the smell of alcohol!”

Governor Zhang became rather curious and came closer to take a look. He was rather confused, “Alcohol and petals? Both the customers and the owner of the pub said they did not see Commissioner Lu drink any alcohol. The bottle he had randomly bought when he walked in had been placed on the table and left in the same place when he left. It was untouched.”

So, where did this alcohol come from? And where did the petal come from?

Besides, even if he had consumed alcohol, it should have been found in the stomach, not in the windpipe.

“Could it be that Commissioner Lu drowned in wine?”

Governor Zhang shook his head again, “That’s not right either. The smell of alcohol was not obvious when the body was discovered.”

The smell of alcoholic drinks was something too hard to hide. If Lu Guangzong had been drinking, they would have smelled it immediately after discovering the body.

Wen Yuansi noticed the bright look in Song Caitang’s eyes and realized what was going on, “Miss Song, you know what flower this is?”

“It’s a hibiscus syriacus.”

Song Caitang had come across this flower in a previous case, so she remembered it well, “It has a fragrant and sweet taste, and when in bloom, both humans and animals will become drowsy when they smell it. If you eat it, you will definitely faint.”¹

Everyone got it immediately, “That’s how the killer knocked the victim out!”

Wen Yuansi had another question, “Is it a sort of hibiscus? Don’t they bloom in autumn?”

If it bloomed in autumn, then they weren’t in season yet. How did the killer get hold of this flower?

Song Caitang smiled and uttered one word, “Wine.”

Alcohol and its derivatives had many uses in everyday life. One of them was to preserve organic things, and it was the best way to carry smells. That was why modern perfumes used alcohol in their base formulas.

“The killer had done something with the flowers and preserved it in wine.”

Or perhaps the killer had extracted its essence.

Qi Yan’s eyes flew open, “This killer is really impressive! They even know how to do something like that?!”

“Not only that. The killer has carefully prepared all this for a long, long time.”

It wasn’t autumn yet, and it had been several months since the last one. At least six months had passed in between… This killer was a very strong willed one who was very determined to kill Lu Guangzong, and was able to wait it out.

Governor Zhang concluded, “So, the faint alcohol smell we noticed when the body was discovered wasn’t consumed, but sniffed in. The killer might have doused something in the wine made with these flowers, then found a way to make the victim smell it. Or they might have just covered the victim’s nose and mouth with it to force him to breathe it in, then killed him after he was knocked out.”

“That’s right. You can send your men out to look for this wine.”

Song Caitang put the petal down carefully, “Using this flower comes with pros and cons. The good part is that very few people know what it is, so the sources would be hard to trace and we would have trouble finding out who bought these flowers. The bad part is, both alcohol and these flowers have an obvious smell that doesn’t go away even after a long time. So, even if the killer had buried the body, humans might not sniff it out, but animals can…”

Qi Yan was confused, “Animals?”

Wen Yuansi immediately connected the dots, “I think the runners have been training some dogs specially to search for such things.”

Qi Yan punched his palm, “You’re right! Dogs have excellent noses! If you get them to sniff it out, we’d definitely find more of this stuff!”

He began to discuss this possibility with Wen Yuansi very excitedly.

Wen Yuansi was a very capable man indeed. He was able to chat with Qi Yan while listening to Song Caitang. The brush in his hand continued to move from time to time, ensuring that the autopsy report did not miss anything out.

Qi Yan eventually noticed that he was being a nuisance and felt bad about it, so he stopped talking and turned to look back at Song Caitang instead.

He… shouldn’t have done that. He almost fainted from what he saw.

Song Caitang had already cut off anything holding the lungs down and was carrying them out of the body with both hands.

The wet, sticky, grayish-white, smooth lungs were stained with blood and yellowish fats, trembling as they sat in Song Caitang’s hands.

Qi Yan clamped a hand over his mouth and told himself to hold it in! He was a man! He was a strong man who could take this!

He must not vomit! Must not!!

Song Caitang didn’t notice his reaction at all. She placed the pair of lungs on the table and frowned slightly, “There’s something wrong with these lungs.”

Governor Zhang asked, “What’s wrong with them?”

“They’re too small.”

Governor Zhang stroked his beard, “Perhaps Commissioner Lu had a different physique from others?”

“No, his lungs are the same size as a regular human’s,” Song Caitang shook her head, “but they’re not swollen enough.”

Governor Zhang had no idea what she was talking about. Why should the lungs be swollen?

Song Caitang explained, “When a person drowns, a large amount of liquid would enter the lungs. The air already inside the lungs would be pushed to the sides of the lungs, so it would have expanded from both the water and air, causing its area and weight to increase. It would also have indentions on the surface from the ribs pressing against it, but our victim doesn’t have those.”

Governor Zhang was shocked, “So, Commissioner Lu didn’t die by drowning?”

“No, we found those mushroom-like bubbles around his nose and mouth when we discovered the body, so he must have drowned.”

“Then…”

Song Caitang narrowed her eyes and uttered, “It was a dry drowning.”

Dry drowning?

Everyone in the room had eyes as wide as saucers. What did that even mean?

“That means drowning to death with very little liquid.”

Song Caitang raised an example, “Let’s say you have a small bowl of water. If you hold a person’s head down such that his nose and mouth are both in the water, it won’t take long for the person to die.”

And because he had drowned, he had the unique characteristics of a drowning victim. But because the amount of liquid used wasn’t a lot, there wasn’t enough to enter the lungs and cause it to swell.

“There wasn’t a lot of feces in the pigsty, but it was wet everywhere, including the victim himself, so we didn’t think it was dry drowning.”

Qi Yan’s eyes widened, “So, our conjecture that the scene of the crime was in a body of water was wrong! We had been searching lakes and drains for nothing!”