Mu Mian and another female, Chen Xue, were temporarily assigned as assistants to Forensic Investigator Qin to familiarize themselves with the workflow.
Chen Xue, with her sweet appearance and warm personality, was well-liked. A graduate of the local medical university, she had interned at the city bureau earlier in the year, making her well known to everyone in the Forensic Department. Throughout the morning, she chatted incessantly with Forensic Investigator Qin and even bought coffee for all her colleagues.
Chen Xue was a popular girl.
Mu Mian, feeling somewhat irritable, followed the social guidebook, which deemed Chen Xue's behavior as normal and helpful for building relationships with colleagues. However, Mu Mian could not bring herself to interact as warmly with others. She could only offer social smiles to everyone she encountered.
Yet, the responses she received were strange glances.
Fortunately, Mu Mian had encountered many such looks before. She could only categorize them as some form of social behavior signal of "normal humans," which she still failed to fully comprehend.
"Mi Mi, have you heard? One of us is going to be transferred to the Special Crimes Unit."
Mu Mian shook her head. "I haven't heard anything. Does it matter?" Mu Mian didn't care where she was assigned, as long as she could keep this job.
"Did you come here this morning in Fang's car?" Chen Xue casually asked, but her expression was tense. "Do you know him? You two seem familiar."
"He gave me a ride. I didn't know him before, and we're not very close," Mu Mian thought for a moment and added, "He seems to dislike me. He's never smiled at me."
"Is that so..."
Chen Xue breathed a sigh of relief but was about to continue when Forensic Investigator Qin interrupted their conversation.
"Mu, the case from Zhiwei, you're the one who reported it. Come with me to the case analysis meeting later."
Mu Mian happily replied, "Sure."
"Qin, may I attend as well?" Chen Xue asked. "I'd like to learn more."
"Alright, Xue, you can come too."
On their way to the conference room, Chen Xue continued chatting with Mu Mian. "Mi Mi, the case with the pregnant woman tortured by the cat, you were the one who reported it, right? You were late to the orientation yesterday, was it because of the case?"
"Yes, the deceased was my neighbor, and I was the first to find her body."
"How coincidental." Chen Xue looked at Mu Mian with a complex expression.
It had been certain that she would stay at the city bureau, but Mu Mian was a variable. Mu Mian's resume was exceptional. She had heard inside information that the bureau only needed one forensic investigator, and the other two would be sent to various branch offices after training.
Mu Mian couldn't quite read the expression on Chen Xue's face. It might have been sadness or envy.
Mu Mian could only comfort her. "Chen Xue, you don't need to envy me encountering such special cases. It's all about luck. I've been quite lucky in this regard."
Chen Xue: "..." What normal person would consider encountering such horrifying corpses as lucky?
Suddenly, she felt that staying here wasn't so difficult.
Mu Mian didn't seem very intelligent to her.
At the case analysis meeting, the spacious conference room was filled with people, and Mu Mian sat at the back with Forensic Investigator Qin and Chen Xue.
The meeting had already started.
On the electronic screen was a photo of the deceased's life. She had a curvaceous figure, long wine-red curls, and beside it, a photo of her autopsy.
The deceased, Li Yan, was 28 years old, unmarried, and lived alone.
Initially, this case was being investigated by Fang Rui's Special Crimes Unit, but due to the severity of the crime and the urgency of solving it, it was handed over to the more experienced Major Crimes Unit, with Fang Rui's team assisting in the investigation.
The head of the Major Crimes Unit, Chen Dongyang, briefly introduced the case: "Li Yan, a local, 28 years old, was a freelancer and had worked as a sales assistant in a mall six months ago. She was unmarried but eight months pregnant. Investigations revealed that the father of the child was her former colleague—Zhu Minghui, the manager of a luxury store. At the time of the incident, he was attending a drinking party and has an alibi."
Forensic Investigator Qin distributed the autopsy report and began presenting the findings:
"A small amount of anesthetic was detected in the deceased's system; there were several bruises on her elbows and wrists, likely from a violent struggle. Four knife wounds were found on her abdomen. Two of them were shallow, indicating exploratory cuts. The perpetrator slit open the deceased's abdomen, punctured her uterus, and removed the entire placenta. The perpetrator then inserted a live kitten into the deceased's uterus and stitched her up."
Forensic Investigator Qin displayed a graphic image of the autopsy: the deceased's abdomen opened, with claw marks across the internal organs.
"The cuts on her body were uneven. Based on the size of the incisions, the weapon used was likely a Swiss Army knife. The stitching was uneven, and there were two exploratory cuts, indirectly indicating that the perpetrator may not have been skilled in anatomy—likely not a medical professional. We also found some plastic film in her abdominal cavity, which also tested positive for anesthetic."
Forensic Investigator Qin concluded, "These are the findings from the autopsy."
Everyone in the room took a sharp breath.
Some speculated, "The perpetrator must have hated the victim intensely. Could it have been Zhu Minghui's wife?"
"We've already ruled her out as a suspect. She was at the hospital with her son that night and didn't have the time to commit the crime."
Xiao Zhang couldn't resist speculating, "Have you seen the TV show Zhen Mou Chuan? Remember the cat punishment in it? The victim was stuffed into a bag full of live cats, and the cats scratched her to death. Could the killer have been inspired by that?"
Xiao Li rolled her eyes at him. "Why not say it was inspired by the 狸猫换太子 legend?"
"Right! The killer took the fetus from the victim. Could they have been reenacting the 狸猫换太子 story? But in the TV show, the child was swapped to seize a throne. What could the killer's motive be?"
"An 8-month-old fetus—couldn't it have been removed and born prematurely? Could the killer's goal have been to take the baby?"
Someone exclaimed, "The killer must have been a woman. Both the cat punishment and the 狸猫换太子 are typically things women do!"
A female officer retorted, "Don't start gender stereotyping! Women can't commit such cruel acts!"
"Who knows? It's said that the most vicious hearts belong to women. Wasn't Human Pig torture invented by women?"
The discussion grew heated, and the room became noisy.
The air was thick with voices, and Mu Mian felt agitated. She wanted to block out the noise, but fearing others would notice her unease, she lowered her head and began drawing in her notebook, attempting to shift her focus elsewhere.
But the noise seemed to intensify.
"The killer designed a procedure," Mu Mian suddenly stood up, speaking with certainty. "He wanted the deceased to give birth to a cat."
The once-chaotic room instantly fell into dead silence.