Chapter 328: Murder Clues

Long, slender arms and legs on a body only a quarter the size of its face. Because of its bizarre appearance, I had its features memorized after a single glance.

'Two identical dolls? Or did someone sneak the toy out of the director's office while I was entering the Psychological Health Department?' I wasn't the only one in the Qicun Maternity and Children’s Health Center. The female streamer's appearance had introduced a variable into everything. 'It isn't midnight yet. I still have plenty of time.'

Aside from the cloth doll, there was an inflatable swimming pool in the corner of the room. It was a square pool, one and a half meters wide and about half a chi deep.

This miniature pool was used to help children under three years old with balance training. The theory that all life on Earth evolved from the sea and that human birth is inseparable from water was quite popular in certain child healthcare circles.

The water in the inflatable pool hadn't been drained. It must have been sitting there for days, giving off a faint stench. I illuminated it with my phone and found that the water was filthy, with a few torn, fallen leaves floating on the surface.

'How could fallen leaves drift into the pool when the doors and windows are shut tight?' I picked up a leaf. Its veins were so brittle that it crumbled to pieces at a single touch. 'It's possible someone brought them in from outside, but why would they get into the pool? Why go through the monumental effort of breaking into a sealed hospital just to play in the water?'

There was nothing around the pool, making playing in the water my only deduction. 'An adult wouldn't do something like this. If it was a child, however, that would be a different story.'

Standing up, I looked toward the individual partition at the very back of the room. Upon stepping closer, I discovered that the words "Special Treatment Room" were written on its door.

I rattled the handle a few times. Surprisingly, there were two locks on this inconspicuous little door. 'It's just a Special Ward. It doesn't hold anything precious, so why does it need two locks?'

Seeing no one around, I aimed at the lock and kicked it. Having cultivated the Profound Truth Dao Method to the Breathing Realm, my physical strength had improved significantly compared to before.

However, this door was much sturdier than I had imagined. It took several consecutive kicks to the exact same spot to force it open.

'With such a loud commotion, could I have disturbed certain things slumbering inside the hospital?' I checked my watch. It was a little past eleven; I still had enough time.

A white cloth curtain hung just inside the partition door. I felt it with my hand; the curtain was specially thickened. Not only could it prevent people outside from peeking in, but it could also block sounds from escaping.

'Were they afraid of others seeing the treatment process?' Lifting the curtain, the scene inside defied my expectations.

There was no high-tech medical equipment like I had imagined. It was just a very ordinary, private lounge.

A hospital bed sat in the center. Smooth iron handrails were embedded in the walls at the head and foot of the bed, seemingly to allow the person on the bed to grab them and move around.

The partition was spotlessly clean. The bedding was neatly folded, and the sheets were laid out flat without a single wrinkle. The adjacent desk was completely dust-free. It looked as if someone had been regularly cleaning this room.

In the desk drawer, I found some documents. They were the rehabilitation records of a few children. For the most part, every child's physical and psychological condition had been continuously improving.

'Toddler psychological correction is one of the hardest challenges to overcome in psychology. How could they cure them so easily?' Although I wasn't entirely convinced, the records were written very clearly. There were four treatment stages in total, and only two children remained until the end of the treatment: Xu Qin and Wang Yu.

The records clearly stated that Xu Qin suffered from congenital brain damage, likely caused by oxygen deprivation prior to birth.

Wang Yu's condition was diagnosed as congenital autism. He was older than the children around him, but the doctors had spent the most effort on him. The difficulty of treating this child was no less than that of the others.

"Treatment Stage One: Unable to communicate normally with others. Emotionally unstable. Incidents of biting medical staff have occurred."

"Treatment Stage Two: Unable to communicate normally with others. Emotionally stable. Able to understand the words of parents and hospital staff."

"Treatment Stage Three: Unable to communicate normally with medical staff and parents. However, possesses a personal companion and can engage in brief communication with said companion."

"Treatment Stage Four: Patient successfully cured. Emotionally stable. Able to understand and execute the commands of parents and medical staff. Able to communicate normally with peers."

After reading the lines of text on the reports, I shook my head. Being able to understand and execute the commands of medical staff wasn't a cure at all. The most significant difference between humans and animals is independent thought. They had trained these children into obedient pets. This didn't count as a cure; it could even be considered secondary trauma.

'A group of amateurs who know nothing about psychological treatment conducting intervention therapy will definitely cause problems.' Both children were marked as successfully cured on the reports, but there was no follow-up after that. Their parents hadn't raised any objections either. At the very end of the reports, I even saw their parents' signatures.

'Xu Qin, Wang Yu... I really don't know what kind of training they went through to turn from children into obedient puppets.' The two children's fourth-stage treatment had been conducted in this very Special Ward. I rummaged through the drawers and cabinets but couldn't find any useful clues.

Walking further inside, I found another cramped individual room within the ward.

I curiously pushed the door open, and a pungent smell of disinfectant flooded my nose.

At the very back of the ward was an adjoining bathroom. It was only two or three square meters in size. On the left was a toilet, and on the right was a sink enclosed by tiles. Mops and rags had been haphazardly tossed into the sink.

I reached out and touched them; to my surprise, the rags were still somewhat damp.

'The hospital was completely sealed and taped off three days ago, but the rags are damp. Someone was here at least before dark today!' Ghosts and monsters wouldn't touch rags out of boredom. I was fifty percent sure that, at this very moment, there was someone else hiding inside this building aside from me and the female streamer.

'The other party probably already heard the sounds of me kicking the door and smashing the glass. Since he hasn't come looking for me yet, he must have gone to look for that female streamer.' My anti-reconnaissance awareness was quite decent, and my enhanced five senses far surpassed those of ordinary people. If he had come looking for me, I would have detected it immediately.

'The female streamer hasn't screamed. Perhaps she isn't in danger yet, or perhaps she's already been killed. If the other party used something like ether to knock her out from behind, she wouldn't have been able to make a sound to call for help.' Regardless of which scenario it was, there was no way I could save her. The Maternity and Children’s Health Center wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either. If I wasted time searching for her, the final outcome might be both of us dying here.

I turned my head and glanced at the ward door. I hadn't shut it completely, leaving a small crack. By using the Chasing Eye, I could easily observe the situation outside.

'There's another abnormality with this room—the smell. The scent of disinfectant in the air is extremely overpowering, as if it was intentionally masking another odor.' Using disinfectant to cover up smells in a bathroom? Highly unlikely. I picked up the mop and spotted a few strands of women's hair among the tattered cloth. Some were black, some were pale yellow; the hairs belonged to different women.

Compared to the public restrooms out in the hallway, this bathroom was far more concealed. If I hadn't kicked open the door to the Special Ward, I would never have discovered this place.

'Women, hair, disinfectant, concealed... Did the other party come to the bathroom to dispose of something unmentionable?' I shifted my gaze to the toilet. The drain seemed to be the only thing capable of flushing things away.

Using the Chasing Eye to observe closely, the inner bowl of the toilet visibly reflected the light from my phone.

I grabbed the bedsheet and wiped the inner bowl, discovering that the reflective layer of substance was grease.

Compared to bloodstains, biological fat was much harder to clean off completely.

'Dismemberment? Destroying a corpse to wipe out the evidence?' The danger level of the case spiked almost instantaneously. I threw away the bedsheet and pieced these clues together. 'The rags and mop are somewhat damp, so the murderer might still be in this building. The hairs on the mop are all female, meaning this person's targets are likely predominantly women. That female streamer is probably in grave danger.'

The killer mostly murdered women. I didn't know how this connected to the children I was looking for. To solve this mystery, I still needed more clues.

'Missing children, murdered women, and a killer dismembering corpses.' Walking out of the adjoining bathroom, I looked at the hospital bed. Since I had pulled away the bedsheet, the mattress underneath was exposed.

Unlike the clean and tidy bedsheet, the mattress was lumpy and uneven. It seemed like something was hidden inside.