They had all taken courses related to forensic medicine, but they truly didn't know how a brain could be removed from such a small opening.
It had been taken out quite cleanly.
In fact, it was almost too clean.
The head was like a hollowed-out watermelon.
Nan Yue glanced at the pale-faced Yin Qian and Jiang Haoyu and told them to take the Mute upstairs first.
"Old Jiang is right. The head is empty. Not just the brain, but many tissues are gone. It's impossible to just teleport things out."
Gu Xiang Kai couldn't figure it out; he didn't know what kind of technique could remove a human brain through such an opening.
Nan Yue gave a dry laugh. "The size isn't enough to remove a whole brain, but a spoon could reach inside..."
Gu Xiang Kai's expression changed. He looked at the mangled corpse in front of him and imagined the scene Nan Yue described.
In the dead of night, someone crouched in a two-meter-deep pit with a gruesome corpse before them.
They used a stone to crack open the corpse's head, reached in with a spoon, and dug out the brain bit by bit...
Gu Xiang Kai felt a bit sick.
"The bodies found at the construction site before weren't mentioned to have head injuries."
Gu Xiang Kai frowned as he recalled, but the people at the construction site hadn't dared to look closely. It was possible they had missed it.
Nan Yue didn't respond to that. Instead, she asked about something else.
"That scoundrel's body yesterday—there was an opening on his head too, right?"
Gu Xiang Kai had been close and seen it clearly; he immediately remembered.
Although the shape of the opening was different—clearly made by randomly smashing with a hard object—the size of the opening was about the same.
The three of them fell silent. Was this a criminal technique used by the killer that they hadn't grasped before, or...
Was there more than one killer?
Jiang Siyan and Gu Xiang Kai found two shovels and dug in the pit. They unearthed two more bodies from beneath the soil where the female corpse had lain.
Just like the ones at the construction site, they were wrapped in plastic sheeting, their faces slashed beyond recognition.
There were no wounds on their heads.
"No need to dig anymore."
There were two right here; who knew how many were in this pit.
The three of them went back to wash up, and the others gradually returned as well.
Yin Qian and Jiang Haoyu sent the Mute back; he certainly wouldn't be able to go to work today.
Zhu Xi Ning and Chi Yu also accompanied Su Xiaoxi and Mu Qing back, managing to get some information out of them.
No owners had gone missing from Oasis Community before. The people living there were different from those in the demolition area; if someone went missing, people would look for them.
This was the first time.
Yin Qian looked a bit stifled, lacking his usual smiling expression.
Jiang Haoyu was quite irritable. His mental stability seemed to be fluctuating as he paced the room restlessly.
Jiang Siyan inconspicuously used his white mist to test Jiang Haoyu. His mental stability was a bit low, but not too bad yet.
"Given the current situation, we might be facing more than one killer."
As soon as Nan Yue spoke, the sound of sharp intakes of breath filled the room.
She frowned. Is it my imagination? Several of them don't seem quite right.
"So what do we do now?"
Jiang Haoyu ran his hands through his hair, leaving it a mess. "We've been here for several days and haven't found any leads. Usually, there's a seven-day limit, and we're already halfway through."
Zhu Xi Ning had a severe headache today, but she still patiently tried to soothe him. Jiang Haoyu pursed his lips and stopped talking.
Nan Yue glanced at him and continued, "This is a major breakthrough. To leave this world, we have to figure out exactly what happened in this building."
Following Nan Yue's train of thought, Gu Xiang Kai said, "If one is a face-slasher and the other is a brain-scooper, and they aren't the same person, then they must have been operating separately before."
The bodies at the construction site and those deep in the pit were all wrapped in plastic sheeting, their faces slashed, having died of asphyxiation.
That was one killer.
The other would crack open the victim's head and scoop out the brain with a spoon.
This killer didn't necessarily have to kill the victims personally; their primary goal was the brain.
So one was addicted to killing, while the other had a morbid appetite.
This unfinished building was truly full of hidden dangers.
The weather was too hot, and they were all tainted with the stench of corpses, so they buried the bodies and left the pit.
They didn't tell anyone else. If the scene were cordoned off, it would be very disadvantageous for their search for clues.
For instance, with the scoundrel's body, if they had been able to observe it up close, they would have discovered the matter of the brain long ago.
But now, because there were no family members, the body had already been cremated, and no one would take the extra step of an autopsy.
Furthermore, although the Mute had accidentally discovered the body dumping ground, it was possible that neither killer knew about it. They might come back to this spot to commit more crimes, and Nan Yue and the others could catch them in the act.
"Let me emphasize that our identity in this mission is as reporters. What we need to do is dig out the secrets of this unfinished building. This building might be a hunting ground where the killer chooses victims, or it might be the killer's hideout."
"If anyone truly encounters an emergency, try not to confront them head-on. Just observe, hide, and protect yourselves."
This time they had identity restrictions; they were just powerless reporters and could not kill.
Because they had identities in this pollution world, everything they did had to align with the starting point of Mingmu News Studio and could not involve them in a murder case.
They all nodded in agreement.
Noticing that Yin Qian hadn't spoken the whole time, Nan Yue specifically asked him a question.
"Are you feeling unwell?"
Yin Qian waved it off. "I just feel uncomfortable in my heart, like I'm stifled."
Jiang Siyan walked over and patted him. "Where exactly is the discomfort?"
Yin Qian shrank away like a mouse seeing a cat. "Nowhere!"
Jiang Siyan's previous movement had already sent the white mist through him. It was strange; Yin Qian's mental stability was also somewhat low.
Although Yin Qian wasn't a fighter, he wasn't weak. Given his abilities, he was excellent at providing support.
Not everyone could be like Nan Yue's team, where they could handle offense, defense, support, and healing. Zhu Xi Ning was originally a bit weaker, but she had Number Two within her; when she got ruthless, even Gu Xiang Kai would have to call her sister.
Jiang Siyan had interacted with Yin Qian quite a bit before, but he had grown distant from everyone later for his own reasons. Usually, Yin Qian was quite casual; not many things could cause his mental stability to fluctuate.
Once Yin Qian and the others left, leaving only the four members of their squad, Nan Yue glanced at Zhu Xi Ning. "Something is wrong."
"Even if we set aside Jiang Haoyu's greenness, Yin Qian's state also seems poor."
But what truly concerned Nan Yue was Zhu Xi Ning's condition.
It wasn't unusual for a person to have a headache or a fever.
What was unusual was that she was still feeling unwell every day even with Jiang Siyan around.
Although Nan Yue didn't say it, Zhu Xi Ning knew she was worried.
She squeezed Nan Yue's hand. "Don't worry, let's wait and see."
Missions in a pollution zone were never simple. It seemed like three days had passed, but in reality, the clues might have only just begun to surface.
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