Zhao Simeng took out a forensic kit and I asked, "Do you really carry that forensic kit with you all the time?"
"Hehe, it's a habit of mine," she replied.
Earlier, I had noticed something awkwardly bulging behind her, but I didn't ask at the time. Now I realized it was the forensic kit.
Just as Zhao Simeng took out the ultraviolet lamp, screams came from not far off in the hall.
"Ah, what happened to this person?"
I followed the sound and found a man in expensive clothes lying on the floor.
Next to him, a man holding a dagger had just passed by. Realizing his assassination attempt had failed, he tried to flee, but he was intercepted and beaten by many people.
"It's him! He tried to stab Mr. Liang!"
"Yeah, let's give him a good beating!" Several people surrounded the man on the floor and started beating him.
During the struggle, I learned that the man being beaten was named Huo Hong.
The stabbed man was a wealthy individual, and I wasn't sure what was going on. Perhaps he had been scared by the sight of the dead body. I quickly went to his side, and nearby, people were shouting, "We need to get him to the hospital quickly, or it'll be too late!"
I observed his pale face and trembling limbs. Using my enhanced sense of smell, I detected the scent of sugar on him. I instinctively said, "It's too late. Zhao Simeng, do you have a syringe?"
"Yes!" Zhao Simeng responded, quickly leaving the body and retrieving a syringe from her forensic kit.
At that moment, some of the guests nearby said, "You're not doctors, don't mess around! What if you end up killing him?"
"Yeah, what do you two know about medicine? A police officer and a forensic specialist, are you going to treat him?"
At that moment, Zhao Simeng's father, Zhao Tianming, appeared by my side and said, "Hey, who are you? Don't mess things up if you don't know what you're doing!"
I said, "Whatever happens to this man is on me, don't worry!"
It was the first time I was speaking with Zhao Simeng's father, and it felt a bit awkward.
"You think you can handle this?" Zhao Tianming asked.
I ignored him and focused on the signs of the wealthy man's condition. I knew he had a rare form of diabetes and needed regular insulin injections to survive.
Fortunately, Zhao Simeng had insulin with her, so I immediately administered the injection. The wealthy man's secretary, who had been standing nearby, noticed and said, "Mr. Liang, you're awake?"
"Where am I?" the wealthy man groggily asked.
"You passed out just now. This young man saved you!" the secretary explained.
Seeing that he was fine, the people who had been talking earlier fell silent, but a few still murmured, "Who is this young man? He's amazing."
I said, "Let's get him to the hospital now!"
The people who had criticized me earlier now turned to praise Mr. Liang. How fake these people are.
Zhao Tianming was a little surprised. He asked, "Are you a doctor?"
I shook my head and said, "I'm a police officer."
He responded, "After seeing what you did just now, you really seem quite capable!"
He pulled Zhao Simeng aside and seemed to say something to her. Simeng looked angry. I couldn't hear everything clearly, but I could catch some of it. He was asking Zhao Simeng to break up with me.
I was utterly speechless.
"My business is none of your concern, I need to get to work!" Zhao Simeng said as she walked over to me.
She continued, "Do you know what my father said to me just now?"
I shook my head, signaling that I didn't know. She smiled bitterly and said, "You've got good hearing, right? He told me to break up with you. But I'm not going to. I won't marry that snobbish Gu Wenbin."
"You businessmen probably only care about profit, right?"
Just then, someone called for an ambulance. After the wealthy man was taken away, the police backup arrived, including Xiao Yuande and Gao Qiang. To my surprise, even the coroner, Huang, and his apprentice, Sima Chao, showed up at the scene.
Whenever they showed up, I always had a bad feeling that something unpleasant was about to happen. As expected, as soon as Huang entered the scene, he immediately scolded, "Hey, new guy, why does it seem like every time you treat the autopsy scene like it's your home?"
His words were clearly directed at Zhao Simeng, but she didn't mind. Instead, she turned to me and said, "He Sheng, go out and buy some fresh eggplants for me."
"Oh, alright!" I responded, quickly leaving the hotel and heading outside. After a while, I finally bought a bunch of fresh eggplants and rushed back to the hotel lobby.
But as soon as I returned, I noticed that the man, Huo Hong, who had been beaten earlier, was now lying on the ground. I curiously asked, "What happened?"
"He's dead!" Sima Chao, who was dealing with another body, told me.
I looked over at the table where the earlier corpse had been, and I was shocked. How did two people die so suddenly during this dinner?
Huang was still arguing with Zhao Simeng about the body next to the table, so I went over to Huo Hong's body and, when I touched it, I was surprised to find that his death seemed a bit unusual.
"He was fine just a moment ago. He only got beaten a few times before he died?" I asked.
The people who had beaten Huo Hong were now being questioned by the police. One of them said, "I only kicked him a few times, and he died! That can't be right!"
Hearing this, I frowned and said, "Normally, people don't die that easily."
At this point, Zhao Simeng seemed to have reached an agreement with the coroner. He and Sima Chao were heading off to investigate the body by the table, and Zhao Simeng came over to deal with Huo Hong.
She whispered to me, "There's something the coroner won't be able to figure out. I checked the body at the table earlier and found that he had been dead for seven days. As for this body, I haven't verified it yet, which is why I told you to come over."
"What? He's been dead for seven days?"
"Yes."
"Then how could he attend the matchmaking event?" I asked.
"Well, he's a zombie, I guess. What I'm curious about is how the killer did it," Zhao Simeng replied.
Zhao Simeng seemed to suggest that someone was controlling these "zombies" to target the wealthy man.
I had the police investigate the relationship between Huo Hong and the wealthy man. Soon, some officers returned with the information.
They told me that the wealthy man's name was Xuan Xingchang, and Huo Hong was the CEO of Longteng Pharmaceuticals. It seemed like the two had some kind of grudge, but Huo Hong wouldn't have personally killed anyone. Therefore, Huo Hong wasn't the murderer. Someone else must have been controlling him to carry out the killing.
The murderer's ability amazed me. It seemed as if they were controlling people like zombies to commit murder. In my knowledge, the concept of "zombie driving" had several types.
Zombie driving is part of the witchcraft culture, also known as "spirit migration," which originated from the ancient counties of Chenzhou, Yuanling, Luxi, and Chixu in the Hunan Province. During the Qing Dynasty, there were widespread rumors about "zombie drivers" in Western Hunan, claiming that these "zombie drivers" used "secret techniques" to transport the corpses of those who died away from home, returning them to their hometowns for burial.
Three people would carry a corpse to the "zombie inn," and as they walked, the body would seem to bounce with every movement, which was actually the lifters' actions causing the illusion.
Although "Hunan zombie driving" has never been scientifically verified, and there's no direct evidence, some people still believe in these legends.