Clown Game
Chapter 109 - 109 96 Hospital Suspicions Part Two

Chapter 109: Chapter 96 Hospital Suspicions Part Two Chapter 109: Chapter 96 Hospital Suspicions Part Two Chen Xiao followed the “team leader uncle” towards the other end of the corridor, flipping through the remaining photos as they walked.

The photos naturally showed another victim, a young man, who due to the intact corpse, appeared to be in his early 20s. Like the others, he was dressed in a white lab coat which, of course, was now so stained with blood that its original color was indiscernible. He lay flat on the ground, his legs and arms spread out naturally. There was a hole near the lower edge of his ribcage on the left side of his chest, through which several ribs protruded. In a close-up photo, a ruler indicated that the diameter of this penetrating wound was about 8 centimeters. It was worth noting that although the victim’s eyes bulged out in a horrifying manner, this was normal after death; in fact, he had no expression of pain on his face.

By this time, Chen Xiao had arrived at another crime scene.

On the corridor floor, a large fan-shaped bloodstain spread out with an outline of a human form in white lying inside it, head towards the window at the end of the corridor, feet facing in the direction Chen Xiao had come from, that is, towards the wards. The location of the “feet” was the starting point of the fan shape. The bloodstains within the white outline were more concentrated, and one could even make out the location of the penetrating wound.

To the left of the body was a wall, and to the right were several doctors’ offices. There was a camera at the end of the corridor, on the window.

At this moment, the uncle started his report, every bit as dutiful and responsible.

“The victim, Zhang Zhuo, an intern doctor, rushed out of the office upon hearing a family member’s scream, and then… um…” he said, but when it came to the crucial moment, he hesitated, as though considering how to narrate the incident.

After a moment, something seemed to occur to him, and he took out his phone and fiddled with it.

Soon, Chen Xiao’s phone vibrated, receiving a video file transfer. People like the “team leader uncle,” who was involved in detecting “Anomalous Phenomena,” might not engage much in combat or containment, but they were always on the front lines, gathering intelligence as second nature. Colleagues from the Foundation working on the same mission could naturally share some data very conveniently.

Without further ado, Chen Xiao opened the video.

From the angle of the footage, the recording was from the camera mounted on the window, timestamped at 9:15. The corridor, originally quiet, was suddenly pierced by a scream, followed by the intern doctor named Zhang Zhuo bursting out of his office. The video showed him, bewildered, although as an intern doctor, he possessed basic professional qualities, so he hurried towards the source of the sound. But after only two steps, something unbelievable happened.

In the footage, while Zhang Zhuo still maintained a light jogging posture, suddenly, his chest inexplicably exploded as though it had been struck by an invisible giant cannonball, without any warning. Blood spurted out instantly, forming a fan shape before him, as if his chest had been pierced through completely. The incident happened so swiftly he didn’t even have time to react before staggering and falling backward into the pool of blood.

Chen Xiao frowned. The victim had died too cleanly, the entire process taking less than half a second—a quick, abrupt death. If not for Chen Xiao’s sharp eyes catching the moment when the blood sprayed, he might have thought the video was spliced together.

Fortunately, since both victims were doctors, it was possible to infer that there was a “culprit” behind this event. Although other possibilities could not be completely ruled out, for the time being, they could tentatively focus their attention on a “human,” or at the very least, an entity with cognitive ability.

This point was crucial because investigations into “Anomalous Phenomenon” and “people with anomalous abilities” required completely different approaches,

Anomalous Phenomena tended towards “finding patterns,” much like the “Dark Realm,” where entering could result in being rolled into a ball by the space itself.

In contrast, investigations into people “with anomalous traits” resembled deducing “abilities,” such as in this incident, which might involve an “invisible person” causing trouble.

Since there appeared to be a “culprit,” the best starting point would be to look into “motives.”

“Any relation between the two?” asked Chen Xiao offhandedly.

“What else could it be? They simply shared a night shift,” the team leader uncle shrugged, continuing, “We also checked all the patients on this floor; none are suspects. Of course, we looked into accidents, medical incidents, and surgery deaths from recent years too but considering the hospital’s high patient turnover, if we were to search everyone for suspicious signs, I could talk for a week non-stop without finishing.”

Chen Xiao nodded. The sheer number of people involved made it impossible to narrow down to any one suspect, which was disheartening news.

Now he had no other choice but to work with the information on hand.

Firstly, the possibility came to mind that someone had the ability to “turn invisible,” but Chen Xiao quickly dismissed it because the bloodstains at the scene clearly indicated that the “culprit” was incorporeal.

Next to consider was a power like “telekinesis,” and judging by the manner of death, the individual’s strength must be enormous, potentially capable of “plucking the willows from across the void.” However, after pondering for a short while, Chen Xiao found something amiss, as the way the two victims had died didn’t fit the “remote” aspect—pluck a head, for instance, seemed much more like something one would do with “hands.”

Of course, all of this was speculation, for they had yet to embark on a crucial element of solving any “murder case.”

And that was “to examine the body!”

Obviously—so far, Chen Xiao had only watched videos and photos, listened to the team leader’s narration, almost as good as watching the news or listening to a storytelling session.

By now, Chen Xiao had a good grasp of the surrounding environment.

“Let’s go check out the body,” he said naturally.

Since this was a hospital, the body would certainly be kept in a place like the “morgue.” In fact, if not for the multiple witnesses, given the Foundation’s nature, even if the body were crawling with maggots, they would most likely leave it in place, undisturbed, to preserve the scene’s “original flavor.”

…

…

Soon, the two of them arrived at the hospital’s underground morgue.

In most novels or movies, morgues are described as lifeless, making one’s scalp tingle and skin crawl at the first step inside, as if cold, fear, and a mess of descriptive words are drilling right into your bones.

In fact, apart from being “cold,” a real morgue is much better than those hospital wards crowded with patients, and a disinfected corpse is cleaner than most living people.

“Team Leader Uncle” took out some kind of identification and showed it to the person in charge here, also commonly known as the “Night Watchman.” After a glance, the man obediently left and very perceptively closed the door behind him.

Now, only Chen Xiao and the uncle remained inside the morgue.

Since the storage for the bodies was “drawer-style,” with iron stretchers underneath, it was easy for the two to lift the first corpse onto the examination table.

With a “zzzip,” the body bag zipper was pulled all the way open, and the headless corpse was exposed under the ghastly white light.

To say “headless” wasn’t accurate because at this moment, the severed head portion had been “restored” to the top of the neck, but torn flesh still hung inverted, the neck extraordinarily twisted, the jaw crushed by tremendous force, though the chin at the front still seemed intact. It looked slightly better than in the photographs, but it was still shockingly gruesome.

Team Leader Uncle was not a combatant, but having spent so many years in the police force and having seen his share of violent crimes, he showed little emotion upon seeing the corpse before him, only a slight discomfort as he frowned.

And at that moment.

“Hehehe…”

Chen Xiao seemed to chuckle involuntarily a few times.

“Fuck… what are you laughing at,” the uncle bellowed.

He was fine with the corpse, but that strange laugh truly scared him silly. Then, he noticed Chen Xiao’s expression.

“Hey! What’s with that look on your face!” he shouted again.

Chen Xiao looked up, his face excited and eager as he replied, “Huh? No expression…”

As he spoke, he patted the corpse’s shoulder as if to say, “Buddy, work with me here.”

The uncle’s eyes twitched; he did not want to waste words with this deranged individual.

“Forget it, just do your thing, hurry uuuuup! Fuck!!!”

He hadn’t finished speaking when he began to howl again, the tail of his yells clearly laced with a sob.

For right at the halfway point of his words, without any warning, Chen Xiao grabbed the corpse’s hair and violently yanked out the head along with a large portion of the spine, which dangled limply in the air, swinging due to inertia.

This took the uncle by such surprise he nearly fainted from fright.

“Shit, shit, shit—calm down, calm down,” Team Leader Uncle was muttering to himself while clutching his chest. Having been toughened by years of handling corpses, he was not like average people; he took several deep breaths and impressively managed to suppress the terror rising in his heart.

That’s when he looked up again at Chen Xiao.

Chen Xiao was holding the head, bringing it level with his own gaze, looking at “it” with obvious delight. Then, with his free hand, he fiddled with the spine attached to the bottom of the head, pulling it this way and that. Throughout this process, his tongue was continuously licking his lips, an expression of insatiable eagerness on his face.

Seeing this scene, the uncle’s suppressed fear surged back up.

“What the hell are you actually… You’re the murderer, aren’t you!” he said with a grimace.

Of course, he said this in his heart, fearing that if he actually said it out loud, the man opposite might do something even more monstrous.

Heh, he still didn’t know Chen Xiao very well, did he? Our lovable Xiaoxiao, he never needs a reason to do things.

And then…