This time, with targeted preparations, the conditions for descending the well were significantly better than yesterday.
Not only was it a sunny day, but the police had also prepared various related equipment for us. This included professional mountaineering gear like slings, steel cables, ascenders, safety belts, and portable waterproof high-intensity headlamps. They even provided a tight-fitting wetsuit, indicating that Zhang Yihan might want me to go into the water.
However, just as I was fully geared up and ready to descend, Zhang Yihan stopped me again. She said not to go down immediately but to be prepared for later.
You could have said that earlier!
In this scorching heat, wearing a wetsuit with a lot of equipment was torture. She was clearly messing with me. I had a lot of complaints but dared not voice them, so I removed all the gear.
With nothing else to do, I helped Old Ge collect the scattered body fragments around the well.
Four police officers in white coats, wearing gloves, were also assisting Old Ge. Two of them were using nets to retrieve remaining body parts from the well. Only forensic scientists could work under such stench without flinching.
While helping Old Ge organize the fragments, he asked me to check the well's water temperature when I went down later. He said it was to verify the cause and time of death of the corpse.
I asked why we needed to check the water temperature, and Old Ge explained a lot of professional knowledge: "According to the forensic report from Baiqu County, the capillaries in the various parts of the body fragments were in a state of severe contraction. You should have learned in the police academy that the density of the capillary network in different organs and skin tissues varies greatly. Although they cannot be controlled voluntarily, they have an 'unconditioned reflex' capability.
"Unconditioned reflexes are innate responses that humans are born with. These are relatively basic neural activities such as the knee-jerk reflex, blinking, withdrawal reflex, sucking reflex in infants, and urination reflex. These reflex actions are innate and do not require learning."
"In our line of work, we can derive a lot of answers from these unconditioned reflexes of the human body. When we say 'a body can speak,' this is what we mean.
Let's hypothesize: if the deceased was thrown into the well and drowned, she would have been extremely stressed in such an environment. Under such circumstances, her capillaries should have been dilated, not contracted. Generally, capillary contraction like this only occurs in people who have frozen to death."
Old Ge's explanation finally made me understand why he wanted me to check the well's water temperature.
We continued organizing the body fragments until around nine-thirty in the morning. It wasn't until a few police officers brought over a dozen villagers to the scene that Zhang Yihan asked me to descend into the well.
I didn't think much of it, assuming the villagers were there for questioning. When she called me to descend, I hurried to prepare, knowing that if I wasn't quick enough, she'd scold me again. Being reprimanded in front of outsiders would be humiliating.
Just as I was ready to go down, Zhang Yihan handed me a wireless camera to clip onto my portable waterproof headlamp. No need to ask; it was clear she wanted to see the well's interior and direct my actions from above using a computer.
With the help of the ascender, I easily descended to the water's surface, parallel to the bottom of the well.
However, I soon noticed something strange. Despite carefully examining the area, I couldn't find the scratch marks I had seen the night before.
"Senior Officer, this is strange. The scratch marks I saw last night are all gone," I said into the walkie-talkie.
"How is that possible?" Zhang Yihan sounded surprised.
Then I heard Old Ge's voice: "Check the upper part of the well walls. The water level might have dropped."
Hearing Old Ge's suggestion, I quickly ascended another meter to continue my inspection.
Old Ge's experience always made him think faster than us. As everyone knows, the water level in a well is the same as the surrounding groundwater level. This village undoubtedly has more than one well, meaning all these wells share the same water level. Last night when I descended, it was nighttime, and water usage was low, so the water level was likely higher. Now, in the morning, with villagers using water for cooking and irrigating their fields, a slight drop in the water level was normal.
However, after repeatedly ascending and descending, meticulously inspecting a range of three to four meters, I still couldn't find the scratch marks I saw last night.
I reported the situation to Old Ge and Zhang Yihan, and they were puzzled too. We all understood that if the water level hadn't dropped, the only explanation was that it had risen, submerging the scratch marks. But this didn't make sense because it was autumn, a season with relatively little rainfall. Normally, the water level should drop during the day with high water usage and slowly rise at night. A noticeable rise during the day was illogical.
While I was baffled, Zhang Yihan issued an order: "Lin, dive in and see how deep this well is. Check if you can find any clues at the bottom."
"Why don't you dive in yourself?" I muttered to myself. It was obvious she was deliberately making things difficult for me. There were dozens of ways to measure the depth of the water, yet she wanted me to dive in.
"Not willing?" Zhang Yihan sensed my reluctance. "Do you want your phone reimbursed or not? To get it reimbursed, you need to retrieve the remains of your phone, right?"
Reluctantly, I complied. Grumbling internally, I adjusted my gear and prepared to dive into the murky water.
As I descended into the well, the cold water enveloped me, sending a chill through my body. The dim light from my headlamp cut through the darkness, illuminating the eerie stillness below. I scanned the well walls and bottom, searching for any signs or clues that might help us understand the mysterious occurrences.
The well seemed deeper than I had anticipated. The temperature of the water was noticeably colder as I descended, which aligned with Old Ge's hypothesis about the possible freezing conditions.
At the very bottom, I carefully felt around, hoping to discover something that would shed light on the situation. The texture of the well floor was uneven, with patches of sediment and some small, unidentifiable objects.
After a thorough inspection, I found nothing conclusive but managed to take note of the well's depth and other physical characteristics. I then started my ascent, eager to report back and get out of the chilling water.
Once back at the surface, I relayed my findings to Old Ge and Zhang Yihan. The well's depth and temperature seemed to corroborate some of our earlier theories, but there were still many unanswered questions.
"We need to analyze the sediment and any materials you collected from the bottom," Old Ge said, thoughtfully. "This might give us more clues about the conditions and timeline of the victim's death."
Zhang Yihan, still watching closely, nodded in agreement. "Good work, Lin. Let's get these samples analyzed and see what we can learn. In the meantime, we should continue questioning the villagers and gather any additional information about the well and its history."
As we regrouped and planned our next steps, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something we were missing, some critical piece of the puzzle that would bring everything into focus. But for now, all we could do was follow the leads we had and hope they would eventually guide us to the truth.
Hearing Zhang Yihan's order, I finally relented. Although Old Ge was the most senior in our task force, Zhang Yihan was in charge. If I wanted to get reimbursed for my new iPhone 5, I'd have to follow her instructions.
I returned to the well's edge and handed my excess equipment to Officer Li. Then I asked him for a diving watch and goggles. After donning the gear, I slid down the static rope directly into the water.
The body fragments had already been cleared, and bleach had been used to disinfect the well before I descended. Although a faint smell of decomposition lingered, it was overshadowed by the pungent bleach odor.
Wearing only the wetsuit, a portable waterproof headlamp, diving goggles, and a diving watch, I adjusted my gear, took a deep breath, noted the time on the diving watch, and let myself sink to the bottom.
As I descended, I kept counting seconds in my head.
I intended to reach the bottom in one breath, but twenty seconds passed without touching it. Realizing the well was deeper than expected, I continued descending.
According to Guinness records, Italian diver Davide Morini once held his breath for 20 minutes and 55 seconds in Hunan's Baofeng Lake. While I couldn't match that, I could hold my breath for over five minutes without pure oxygen.
Twenty seconds was easy for me, but the deeper I went, the colder and more pressurized the water became. Around thirty to forty seconds in, I decided to ascend.
When I surfaced, Zhang Yihan asked if I'd reached the bottom. I said no, so she ordered me to try again.
Unable to argue, I took a deep breath and descended head-first, determined to reach the bottom.
However, after thirty to forty seconds, I still hadn't reached the bottom, and I started to panic.
In this plain region, the groundwater level shouldn't be too deep. Wells typically range from ten to twenty meters deep. Based on my estimated descent rate of one meter per second, this well far exceeded normal depth.
The water temperature continued dropping, probably from over ten degrees Celsius to just a few. At sixty seconds, I still hadn't touched the bottom, and I grew anxious.
Unwilling to surface and face another descent order from Zhang Yihan, I pressed on.
As the pressure increased, my descent slowed. Finally, at seventy-eight seconds, I reached the bottom. I estimated the well's depth at fifty to sixty meters.
Upon touching the bottom, I felt something soft and balloon-like instead of mud, which startled me.
Looking down, I saw a reflective object—my iPhone 5. Relieved, I reached for it. But as I did, the water rippled, and a black object moved, revealing a pair of large, protruding eyes—human eyes.
"Ah..." I screamed, releasing a stream of bubbles.
Without hesitation, I flailed and swam upward with all my might...