antique on the run

"The condition of the corpse may be a bit scary, Qi Xiao, are you... all right?"

In the process of being led to the wooden box, Sai Wei saw that Qi Xiao's face was not very good, and recalled the description of the corpse's condition in the fragments in his mind, and his face turned pale in an instant.

This is probably the biggest challenge they need to face in this antique hunt.

Qi Xiao closed his eyes: "Hmm..."

He is now on the verge of riding a tiger, even if there is a problem, it has to become a problem.Fortunately, he is not a person who faints with blood and corpses, otherwise he really doubts that such a simple and easy pursuit of antiques might end up here.

"Just wait and take a look. Do you still remember the words described in the book? Just tell Lestrade just like that. How about I repeat it to you again?"

Sai Wei whispered in Qi Xiao's ear, but Qi Xiao interrupted him and said: "No need, I remember." He squinted at Sai Wei, "You should think about what to do first."

The autopsy has never been Watson's business alone. How could Holmes, a case-solving fanatic, not examine the corpse himself?

Sai Wei obviously also thought of this level, his footsteps paused, his lips were tightly stretched, and he stopped talking.

Indeed, with Sherlock Holmes' character, I'm afraid he spent much longer observing the corpse than Watson.

Neither of them spoke anymore, they were silently doing their own psychological construction.They thought they were ready enough to be able to collapse the mountain without changing their color, but when they really saw the corpse in the wooden box, Rao even Qi Xiao's expression changed...

"Phew, my friend, phew, you ran so fast and left me alone, what are you doing... oh my god!"

Lestrade came over with great difficulty, panting and accusing Saiwei, but he caught a glimpse of the corpse in the wooden box from the corner of his eye, and Lestrade immediately looked away.

"Are you... in the autopsy?" He took a few deep breaths and then turned his gaze to Sai Wei and Qi Xiao again, "How is it, did you see anything?... Doctor Watson, your complexion doesn't seem to be very good, it's because you're tired Are you awake?"

"No, no, I'm fine, Lestrade."

Qi Xiao's tone was a bit difficult, without any expression on his face, he slowly took the milky white rubber gloves from the police detective beside him, rolled up the sleeves and put them on his own hands, then looked at Saiwei without speaking.

Autopsies have always been dominated by Holmes.

Sai Wei also put on rubber gloves. He closed his eyes, walked steadily to the wooden box and squatted down.

It was a very old and heavy wooden box, very strong and boxy, and it had not deformed after being soaked for so long.However, due to long-term immersion in the river water, the original colorful paint on the surface of the wooden box has been worn away almost invisible, revealing the mottled dark brown wood grain inside.

"Native British pine wood, produced in Northern Ireland." Sewe tapped the surface of the wooden box, "The color of the pine wood there is always darker than other places, and the wood grain is finer. The most important thing is that this pine wood The density is very high, stronger than ordinary pine, so the price is also very impressive."

He gently wiped off the peeling paint blocks on the surface of the wooden box, rubbed the paint blocks with two fingers, and kneaded the paint blocks into powder, and said: "But the paint on the surface is of low-quality paint, so it will be damaged after being soaked in water. It comes off so easily."

Sewell turned to Lestrade and said: "An expensive and high-quality pine wooden box, but spray-painted on it with poor-quality paint. My friend, this wooden box is not simple."

"Did you see anything?" Lestrade asked: "This wooden box was salvaged yesterday by two workers who cleared the river trash. They thought it contained some treasure, but when they opened it, they found a female corpse. , and immediately ran to Scotland Yard to report the crime. Sherlock, do you see where this wooden box came from?"

"I don't know about that." Sai Wei shrugged and shook his head, "The key information on it has been artificially worn out."

"Artificially... worn off?"

"Yeah, look here." Sewi pointed to a corner of the wooden box, where the paint had been completely peeled off, leaving only rough wood grain.

"It's not from the river," Sewell said.

Lestrade frowned: "What do you mean?"

"It was polished by people. Not only here, but also here, here..." Sai Wei pointed to different positions on the wooden box, "All these places have been polished by people in advance to polish the surface of the paint. It fell off, exposing the wood inside. It’s just because it’s been soaked in river water for a long time, and the paint blocks in other places have also peeled off more or less, so it’s not so obvious.”

"What information does this man wish to conceal." Lestrade mused. "These paint patches may reveal his identity if they are kept, so he wants to wear them off, is that right, Sherlock?"

"This is only a possibility, my friend. It may also reveal the identity of the deceased or the relationship between the murderer and the deceased."

After Sai Wei finished speaking, he stopped looking at the wooden box, but turned his eyes to the wooden box, "Okay, now let me take a look at my little princess."

A female corpse was curled up in the wooden box, her clothes were stripped off, and she was crumpled up like an old rag doll and stuffed into this small and cramped box, her posture was twisted to a weird level.

Her whole body was a horrible bluish-white color. Due to the soaking in water, her skin and flesh were swollen and rotten. There were densely packed corpse spots all over her body, exuding a disgusting smell.

"A very young girl, in her early twenties, and has been dead for more than two months, isn't that right, John?"

"Yeah." Qi Xiao nodded, and slowly said according to the narration in the fragment: "Because it is winter, this corpse was locked in a wooden box and soaked in the river water, without contact with air, so the decay rate of the corpse is relatively slow. .”

He stepped forward and tried to stand beside Sewei, but was gently pushed back by Sewei.

"Oh, John, don't stand here, you are too much in the way, you'd better go to the back."

After he finished speaking, he ignored Qi Xiao's expression and turned his attention to the corpse again.He picked up one arm of the female corpse, and saw that the blue-white arm was limply drooping, and a cut was made with a knife starting from the pulp of the five fingers, and continued along the palm to the wrist.

"The bones of her ten fingers were taken out completely, and the bones in her arm were crushed, but she didn't show any signs of struggle. It seems that she was deboned after she died."

Sai Wei carefully observed the fingertips without the phalanges of the female corpse, as if it was not a corpse, but some novel and lovely toy, "The fingertips are well maintained, and the nails are neatly trimmed and short, which shows that her occupation does not allow She has long nails."

Women in this era, no matter nobles or commoners, always like to grow slightly long nails, thinking that it looks good, but the nails of this corpse were cut baldly, so it can be seen that there must be something that prevents her from growing long nails.

"Her fingertips have thin calluses, and each finger has calluses, and the thickness of the calluses is similar. These characteristics indicate that the girl's occupation is probably related to piano, and she is probably a piano teacher."

Sai Wei put the dead body's arm on the edge of the wooden box, gently pinched the female corpse's chin, and looked at her face carefully.

This small face is very full, and it can be seen that she should have been a great beauty in the past, but now she is terribly hideous.Her eyes were sunken, and the eyeballs had been gouged out, and black and purple blood clots flowed out from the eye sockets and solidified on her cheeks.Her mouth was wide open, and her lips had begun to rot, leaving only a layer of blue-black skin wrinkled.

There was nothing in her mouth.

"The tongue was pulled out." Sai Wei closed his eyes. "It's a terrible method. The tongue was pulled out very well, just like a finger bone that was peeled off. The murderer is probably a master anatomist, and he is related to this girl. His hands and mouth are very hostile."

"Are you an expert in anatomy?" Lestrade still didn't forget to make a joke at this time.

"Obviously not." Saiwei turned his head and waved at him solemnly, "If he wants to surpass me, he obviously won't be able to do it in his life."

He gently twisted the female corpse's head, and pressed the female corpse's body and legs, all of them were soft, and there was a long gash in her lower abdomen, which seemed to have been cut open, but now it was covered with black The blood clots were so smeared together that I couldn't see anything clearly.

"Her neck bones were also crushed, not only that, her spine, ribs, pelvis, and leg bones were all crushed."

All the bones in her body were crushed except for the finger bones that were taken out.

Without the support of the neck bone, the female corpse's neck was so soft that it could assume any weird and twisted poses.

"Oh, no, no, she's not a piano teacher!" Saiwei suddenly noticed something, pointed to the position on both sides of the neck below the ears of the female corpse, and said: "Look, her blue veins are very obvious here, and they are all gone. drummed out."

Protruding blue veins can be vaguely seen on the bluish-white skin, "This kind of situation mostly happens to elderly teachers. They have been teaching for a lifetime, and they have spoken much more than ordinary people, so the tendons connecting facial muscles The web will bulge slightly, but judging from this girl's age, it doesn't seem that this should happen to her."

"So why?" asked Lestrade.

Sai Wei closed his eyes and imagined a young and beautiful girl in his mind. She was wearing a light pink tunic dress with delicate lace embroidery on the cuffs and skirt. She had long golden wavy hair and a sweet and gentle smile. .She was sitting in front of a wooden piano, playing music while...

"She is indeed a teacher!" Saiwei opened his eyes violently.