Chapter 238 156: A Drastic Escalation! The Special Fifth Bureau Can't Handle It! Lock Down the City

Not a single one was male.

'Is this the specific trait?'

"And they're all young!"

Xu Huo added.

He crouched in front of several bodies and reached out, prying open a mouth that no longer had skin to cover it, and examined the wear on the teeth.

At the same time, he found another body whose skull cap hadn't been peeled away.

"The teeth show very little wear, and the skull cap hasn't fully fused."

"These people… were they all young girls? Eighteen-year-old girls?"

Xu Huo froze. His brow furrowed as he gradually sensed that something was terribly wrong.

"The killer's specific trait is young girls!?"

Zhang Liang froze, his mind a jumble. He had no idea why the killer was targeting these people.

As for the skull fusing…

It refers to the skull cap, but not just the skull cap.

A person's skull isn't a single, solid piece. Most people imagine the skull cap is smooth and round like a helmet.

In reality, it's pieced together from three sections, with a center full of dense, fine fissures.

As a person ages, the skull bones slowly fuse together.

Under normal circumstances, the skull bones will completely fuse between the ages of 20 and 30.

The victim's skull clearly showed incomplete fusion. Combined with the condition of the bones, teeth, and muscles, it was obvious this was a young girl!

"We were wondering before why the killer would capture a beautiful young girl and not do… other things, but instead just skin her."

"Looking at it now… was the skin of a beautiful young girl the target itself?"

Li Jianye found the whole thing increasingly absurd.

Did they really think the Eastern Country was still some primitive land where people wore feathers in their hair and had their scalps taken to be made into shoes?

The promise that 'anyone who dares, dies' was no joke, and now they were targeting people of this age…

"Young girl, skin…"

Xu Huo murmured, his brow knitted tightly as various images flashed through his mind.

After a long moment, he abruptly froze, as if time had stopped. His pupils constricted violently.

"Young girl… skin… Oh no!"

Startled by the sound, Li Jianye quickly turned his head to look at Xu Huo.

This time, what he saw was different from usual. Xu Huo looked… incredibly solemn.

Li Jianye paused, trying to remember the last time he'd seen Xu Huo this serious.

It was because of Cheng Yang in Zhaozhou; he had been furious then!

But this wasn't anger. It was the solemnity of someone who knew things had just gotten out of hand…

For a case to be treated like this by him…

All their past cases flashed before Li Jianye's eyes, but this kind of emotion was a first!

"What did you think of?"

Li Jianye asked tentatively.

"Get the medical examiner. Hurry and get the medical examiner here."

Xu Huo didn't answer. He didn't want to waste a single second; he just wanted to verify the idea in his head as quickly as possible.

Zhang Liang and the others didn't dawdle either, immediately calling for a medical examiner to rush over.

In fact, the medical examiner was already on their way.

The resources in the Capital City were on a level that regional cities couldn't comprehend.

In regional areas, where a city might not even have a single medical examiner these days, the Capital City had them in abundance!

It also had a fully equipped forensics department with laboratories, autopsy rooms, and so on.

Meanwhile, Zhaozhou Linlan City could only store bodies at the funeral home…

Just as Zhang Liang finished speaking, the sound of a car braking screeched from the entrance.

The next second, a figure in a white lab coat appeared before them.

It was the medical examiner.

She had left long ago and arrived just in the nick of time.

"Don't touch anything yet. I need you to check something for me."

Xu Huo stared at the female medical examiner, his gaze so dark and heavy it seemed like it could ooze water.

The medical examiner froze, instinctively looking toward Zhao Gang. She reported to him.

"Do as he says," Zhao Gang replied.

"Check what?" the medical examiner asked, confused.

Amid everyone's confused stares, Xu Huo took a deep breath and gravely uttered a single word.

"The hymen!"

The hymen…

'What the hell are we checking that for!?'

Everyone was stunned, their minds filled with question marks, completely unable to figure it out.

"Check it!" Zhang Liang ordered with a look.

The female medical examiner immediately got to work.

Everyone knows what a hymen is, but few people probably know how resilient it is.

The membrane is actually quite durable. For some women, the hymen can even remain intact after their first sexual experience.

It can even still be present after pregnancy.

It's much more durable than most people think. So, if you hear your girlfriend say she lost it from a bumpy bike ride, or from doing the splits…

Of course, that's not to say such cases don't exist.

But just to be safe, it's probably best to have her checked out.

As for whether the six female corpses were virgins…

Xu Huo stared intently at the medical examiner's hands.

After a moment.

"Huh?"

"All six female corpses are virgins. Every single one. There are no signs of tearing."

The female medical examiner stood up, her brows furrowed.

Hearing this, Xu Huo's mind went completely blank with a deafening BUZZ.

He stared for a long moment, then finally closed his eyes, a wave of helplessness washing over him.

"What?"

"What in the world is going on!?"

Li Jianye was dumbfounded. He truly hadn't expected all the female victims to be virgins.

The Capital City was hardly conservative these days. With its black markets, high heels, and bodycon skirts, some aspects of modern dating were even more open than in his previous life!

What he couldn't fathom was how Xu Huo's train of thought had leaped to the topic of virginity.

"The dyes."

Xu Huo said weakly, gesturing to the blue and red materials in the distance, made of Cinnabar and Lapis Lazuli.

"Those are dyes!"

"Regardless of how this case ends, it's not something a few of us can handle. Zhang Group, I advise you to report this up the chain right now…"

The case…

Can't handle it!?

"What is all this!?" the crowd asked in astonishment.

"A young girl, skin, a virgin, flayed alive, dyes…"

Xu Huo looked at Zhang Liang, silent for a long moment, before suddenly blurting out two terms.

Two terms…

Terms that almost no one had ever heard of.

"A Sister Drum…"

"And a Thangka?"

'What the heck are those?'

Li Jianye frowned and had just turned to look at Zhang Liang.

But he saw that the man's face was a mask of astonishment, his pupils constricted. He had subconsciously taken a step back, his eyes vacant.

It took a long moment for Zhang Liang to react.

His face ashen, he looked at Zhao Gang and roared:

"Contact Director Wang immediately! Regardless of whether this theory about the case is true, we must ensure the killer doesn't escape!"

"Contact the police, mobilize everyone…"

"We must, we absolutely must, at all costs, catch these lunatics!"

Zhang Liang's head was spinning; his mind was in chaos.

The two terms from Xu Huo were no less than three atomic bombs exploding in his mind!

He now understood why Xu Huo had worn such an expression.

This thing.

If they were truly still being made, he personally couldn't bear the weight of it…

Li Jianye frowned and asked:

"A Sister Drum, a Human Skin Thangka…"

"What in the world are these two things!?"

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