And indeed, at that moment Tai Wei really did want to curse someone out. Zhao Yonggui had already run to the fourth floor bathroom to throw up, and although Tai Wei wanted to do the same, at least one of them had to remain at the scene at all times, so he had no choice but to stay put.
So summoning up his courage, he turned around and faced a sight unlike any he had ever seen before.
They were in a fairly large classroom, with enough seats for 80 people. In the fourth row sat the victim's corpse. Its skin had been peeled off.
Because nearly every inch of skin had been removed-including from the corpse's face-it was difficult to determine its gender. But given the adipose tissue remaining on the victim's chest, it was most likely female.
The skinless corpse sat at the desk with its face lowered, as if filled with shame. The crown of its head, once covered by long, thick hair, was now a bloody mess. A tapestry of muscles and veins covered its body, as if the victim were wearing some motley red-and-blue attire. Without any lips to cover them, the corpse's white teeth glistened brightly in the light of the flashing cameras.
Next to the corpse, a plastic male mannequin sat quietly. A strange kind of outfit was stretched tightly across its muscular frame. On closer inspection, this was revealed to be blood-spattered human skin. A pair of breasts hung loosely from the mannequin's chest, the nipples already dark purple. If this was a woman's skin, then its owner was most likely the corpse sitting at the next desk. Sitting next to its bloody, ravaged female companion, the mannequin looked perfectly innocent. The thin smile that crossed its lips made the crime scene photographers shudder as they snapped its picture.
Dizzy from the constantly flashing cameras, Tai Wei increasingly felt the need to vomit. Breathing heavily, he pulled aside one of the photographers and asked roughly, "Are you guys done yet?" When the man said yes, Tai Wei waved his hand and said, "Everyone else, get to work!"
With that, the medical examiners and crime scene investigators sprung swiftly to action.
Silently, Tai Wei gazed at the two motionless figures before him. The sun was climbing higher in the sky, and the once dark classroom was now filling with light. As bright rays poured through the window, he grew distracted, and for a moment he imagined that he was a teacher, and these two "students" were his class. But what would he be teaching them? Human anatomy?
Suddenly, one of the medical examiners gave a shout. Then a moment later, he cried: "Tai Wei, come look at this!"
His reverie interrupted, Tai Wei quickly walked over.
"What is it?" he asked.
"See for yourself," said the medical examiner, clearly astonished. He pointed at the corpse's head.
Tai Wei looked to where he was pointing. Two thin black cords ran from somewhere inside the desk drawer, up the corpse's body, and then into either ear.
It was a pair of earphones. As Tai Wei reached out to open the drawer, the medical examiner quickly tried to stop him. "Be careful," he said, "inside there's probably a — "
Ignoring him, Tai Wei slowly opened the drawer. A small CD stereo had been placed neatly within.
After putting on a pair of rubber gloves, Tai Wei carefully lifted the stereo out of the drawer. Through the plastic covering, he could clearly make out the sound of a rapidly spinning disc.
This horrifying, skinless corpse was actually listening to music.
Tai Wei signaled for the medical examiner to remove the corpse's earphones.
Confronted by this strange scene, the medical examiner started to tremble, but composing himself, he reached forward and removed one of the earphones. However, when he tried to take out the other it wouldn't budge. Redoubling his efforts, the medical examiner gave it a much stronger yank, but rather than pull out the earphone, he instead nearly tore the stereo from Tai Wei's hands. Although Tai Wei was quick enough to hold onto it, the force of the maneuver caused the earphone cord to pop out of the stereo.
Instantly an explosion of noise erupted within the classroom, so deafening it seemed like a sledgehammer was smashing against the skull of every cop in the room. One of the men who had been carefully examining the back of the classroom was so surprised that he immediately fell onto his backside, but no one laughed. Everyone was too busy staring with fear and alarm at the stereo in Tai Wei's hands.
As for Tai Wei, he very nearly threw the screeching thing to the ground, but then he quickly got ahold of himself and hit the "Stop" button.
Her head lowered, the female corpse seemed to be secretly laughing at Tai Wei and the rest of the cops, while beside her, jostled by all the commotion, the straight-backed mannequin clothed in human skin appeared to rock with amusement.
The event that morning caused a great deal of discussion across campus, and as the days passed and Fang Mu waited to hear the real scoop from Tai Wei, he also did his best to collect what clues he could about what actually took place. He listened to both official news and rumor, and heard stories true and obviously false. But a few things were certain: someone had been killed in the MultidisciplinaryBuilding that morning, the victim was a woman, and from what he had heard, the crime scene was truly horrifying.
Sure enough, Tai Wei showed up at Fang Mu's dorm three days later. As soon as he walked inside and saw no one else was there, he flung himself onto Fang Mu's bed.
"You have anything to eat?" he asked. "I'm starving."
"Just instant noodles," said Fang Mu. Noticing Tai Wei's unkempt hair and bloodshot eyes, Fang Mu thought he looked more like a migrant worker who hadn't eaten in days than an officer of the state.
"Let me go to the dining hall and buy you something," said Fang Mu.
"Don't worry about it. Instant noodles will do fine. And if you have some hot Sichuan pickles to put on top, that would be even better."
Fang Mu poured some boiling water into a bowl of instant noodles, and then added a pack of Sichuan pickles whose month and even year of expiration were totally unknown. Before the noodles were remotely soft, Tai Wei began wolfing them down, all the while pointing at the black briefcase he had brought with him.
"Take a look at what's inside," he said, his mouth full of food.
The victim was a sophomore physics student named Xin Tingting. She was 20-year-old and from the city of Zhouxi in Sichuan province. When the crime was committed, she had already been missing for 36 hours. However, because she had numerous online friends and had left the city unannounced to meet them on previous occasions, none of her roommates had been concerned and no one had notified any of her teachers.
The victim's body was left in Room 404 of the MultidisciplinaryBuilding. It was found by a cleaning lady, who in the dim morning light believed that the victim was wearing red clothing. But when she turned on the light, she discovered that in fact the corpse had had all of its skin peeled off.
According to the interviewer's notes, the cleaning lady had seen two people when she entered the room. So without lifting his head, Fang Mu asked Tai Wei, "Who was the other person?"
Tai Wei stopped chewing at once. Based on the look on his face, he seemed to be remembering something awful.
"It wasn't a person," he said, forcing himself to swallow the food in his mouth. "It was a plastic mannequin."
Fang Mu frowned. "A plastic mannequin?" he repeated, and was about to ask more when he saw that Tai Wei had already begun to retch. Fang Mu quickly pointed at the trash can beside his desk.
Feeling rather embarrassed, Tai Wei gulped down several mouthfuls of water and cleared his throat. Then pretending as if nothing had happened, he said, "Damn, I ate way too fast."
When Fang Mu didn't respond, but rather just gave him a long look with a hint of derision in his eyes, Tai Wei got a little annoyed.