Chapter 219
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Chapter 219: Video Recording
“Cutting off fingers…” Lin Qiye pondered thoughtfully.
Many Mysteries had perverted habits, like the masked man before who would always gnaw the victim’s face until it was unrecognizable before eating other parts of the body.
But a creature that enjoyed cutting off people’s fingers… he had never heard of that before.
“What about the blood at the scene?” Lin Qiye asked after a moment’s contemplation.
“There wasn’t much blood at the scene. Most of it was from the bleeding caused by the severed fingers. The blood dripped from the wall to the ground, as shown in those photos.”
Little Black bent down to pick up two photos from beside the number tag and handed them to Lin Qiye.
Lin Qiye examined them carefully, his brows furrowing slightly. “Strange…”
“What is it?”
“Don’t you think there’s too little blood?” Lin Qiye pointed at the bloodstains in the photos, which only showed a small pool on the wall and beneath the victim.
“The blood vessels in fingers aren’t that numerous. Even when cut off, they wouldn’t cause arterial bleeding effects. The small amount of blood makes sense,” Little Black explained.
Lin Qiye narrowed his eyes without responding.
“Anyway, let’s check the video recorder first. That might be our only clue to finding this ‘Mystery,'” Wen Qimo led Lin Qiye into the pub as Little Black took out the recorder from the evidence bag and handed it to them.
They played the video.
The first thing they saw was a balding, greasy man curiously fiddling with the recorder, his cheeks slightly flushed, appearing drunk.
“This is the pub owner. They were having a party that night, quite a lively one,” Little Black explained.
The pub owner seemed to figure out how to use the recorder and filmed the bustling party scene. Indeed, the party was well-organized with many guests, including many young, beautiful women.
“The next few hours are just irrelevant party footage. You can fast-forward,” Little Black pressed the fast-forward button.
The party soon ended, leaving the pub in disarray. The owner put down the recorder, his face completely flushed, clearly having drunk quite a bit as he was stumbling.
Because of this, he carelessly tossed the recorder on the bar counter, forgetting to turn it off or stop recording. After briefly instructing the waiter Sun Xiao, he staggered out the door.
For the next half hour, the footage showed Sun Xiao cleaning up the pub.
Suddenly, the recorder’s image began to distort strangely, as if interfered with by something, flickering between bright and dark before completely going black.
Lin Qiye frowned and looked up at Little Black, who shook his head, gesturing for him to keep watching.
The screen remained black for about ten seconds before the image reappeared. The recorder’s angle seemed to have shifted slightly, or rather, the entire bar counter’s position had changed, as if something had crashed into it.
Through the door leading to the backyard, the camera could capture what was happening there. However, since the backyard was open-air without any lights installed, it appeared dim and unclear compared to the well-lit pub interior.
But this didn’t prevent them from seeing what happened next.
Sun Xiao, wearing his waiter’s uniform, was suddenly pinned against the backyard wall by some invisible force, as if being choked and gradually lifted into the air.
His limbs flailed wildly in the air, appearing to struggle.
Then, one by one, nails from the ground automatically sprung up and violently pierced into his body, pinning him to the wall. Sun Xiao’s mouth opened wide, seemingly screaming in agony.
Although the distance and poor lighting made it difficult to see details clearly through the recorder, they could still make out Sun Xiao’s fingers appearing to get shorter and shorter until they completely disappeared.
Finally, the last nail flew up and pierced directly into Sun Xiao’s heart.
Sun Xiao’s body shuddered, his head dropped, and he became motionless.
After another minute or two, the screen went completely dark, likely due to the recorder running out of battery after the long recording.
After watching this video, Lin Qiye walked to where the recorder had been placed and looked toward the backyard, seemingly deep in thought.
“Something’s not right…”
Wen Qimo and Little Black exchanged glances. “What’s wrong?”
“In the video, the victim’s fingers didn’t disappear all at once, but gradually… yet the autopsy report says his fingers were cleanly cut off by some sharp instrument.”
Wen Qimo pondered for a moment. “The footage was too far away, we couldn’t see all the details. Perhaps a knife was used, cutting the fingers bit by bit like carrots, until reaching the base?”
“Then where are the fingers?” Lin Qiye narrowed his eyes. “Where did the severed fingers go?”
“Perhaps they were eaten?”
“Like eating steak, cutting and eating piece by piece?” Lin Qiye shook his head. “If that’s the case, this Mystery has quite the sophisticated taste.”
Then, Lin Qiye asked again: “What time did last night’s party end?”
“Two-thirty in the morning.”
“The timing matches…” Lin Qiye thought for a moment. “Are there no surveillance cameras nearby?”
“The only camera is at the east street corner, but it only captures the pub’s exterior, not the inside. We checked the footage, but during the time of the incident, no suspicious persons approached.”
“From the footage, the victim appeared to scream. Did any residents nearby hear anything? Could we use this to determine the exact time of death?”
Little Black shook his head. “This is a commercial district. At the time of the incident, all the surrounding shops were closed, and nobody was around.”
Lin Qiye fell into thought again.
For some reason, he felt… something was odd about this incident, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what exactly was wrong.
He needed more information, more time to think.
“In any case, we can now confirm that a ‘Mystery’ is wandering around this area. From the video, we can deduce some of its characteristics,” Wen Qimo said.
“It possesses invisibility or telekinetic abilities, enjoys cutting off people’s fingers, and can cause slight interference with nearby electronic devices.”
Wen Qimo sighed. “This range is too broad. Who knows how long it will take to filter out the ‘Mysteries’ that match these conditions…”
Just then, Lin Qiye seemed to remember something and spoke again:
“Weren’t there three similar cases before? Where are those case files?”
“Since those three previous cases didn’t show any ‘Mystery’ characteristics, they were handled by the local police department as ordinary serial killings. We have copies of those files too, I’ll show them to you later,” Wen Qimo said.
Lin Qiye thought for a moment. “If possible, I’d like to examine their bodies personally.”
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