mijobooks Chapter 34 Venus in the Art Room
Chapter 34 Venus in the Art Room
The deceased, Li Qian, was 28 years old and an art teacher at the Third Middle School of Linchuan City.
At 9:00 a.m. on April 23, senior high school students specializing in art went to the art room for a copying class and found the classroom door closed and locked from the inside. Several students knocked on the classroom door but no one answered, so they asked the school security guard, Qian Gang, to open the door.
After Qian Gang opened the door, 11 students entered the art room. Student Yao Xinchen noticed that the eyes of the Venus de Milo plaster statue in the art room appeared black, and immediately felt something was wrong, so he told the students around him. Several boys went closer to examine it and found that a real person was wrapped inside the plaster, so they immediately reported it to the school's academic affairs office and called the police.
The Chengnan Squadron of the Linchuan City Patrol Police arrived at the scene at 9:26 a.m. The technical team broke open the plaster shell and found a naked female corpse inside with both arms severed. School staff confirmed that the deceased was Li Qian, an art teacher at the school.
The forensic examination at the scene, including a liver temperature test, determined the time of death to be between 19 PM and 23 PM on the 22nd, but the cause of death remains unknown.
Police reviewed corridor surveillance footage and determined that the deceased entered the church at 6 p.m. on April 22 and did not come out. There were no unusual occurrences in the video footage until the incident.
Police officers from the Chengnan Squadron examined the scene. All doors and windows were locked from the inside. The only exhaust pipe was very small, ruling out the possibility of normal human entry. There was no other entrance or exit at the scene.
The plaster coating on Li Qian's body, according to the technicians, is an alternating layer of plaster and salt, with one layer of plaster and one layer of salt, totaling seven layers.
The strangest thing was that the deceased's pupils were still constricted and had not dilated.
Sun Tiemei closed the folder and looked up at the group of people.
"I've finished watching it, what do you all think?"
The fat man spoke first: "The doors and windows were locked from the inside. The surveillance footage only showed her going in alone; there was no other entrance or exit. Her arm was severed, and her entire body was wrapped in seven layers of plaster and salt. Her pupils are still constricted. This isn't something a human would do, at least not something a normal person would do."
Chen Shi thought the fat man was talking nonsense; a normal case would never come to Group Five.
Su Xiaohe looked up from her notebook: "The most troubling thing right now is the contradiction between the locked room and the homicide. The doors and windows are locked from the inside, the exhaust pipe is too big for the murderer to pass through, and there is no second person on the surveillance. But the victim's arm was severed, and all his clothes and personal belongings disappeared and were made into a statue. This proves that the murderer must have done something at the scene, because the victim himself could not have done these things."
She looked at Sun Tiemei and said, "Either the surveillance footage has been tampered with, or the locked room is a fake, or the murderer used a method we can't explain to get in and out."
"The surveillance footage has been technically analyzed and found to be genuine," Sun Tiemei said.
If the surveillance footage wasn't faked, then the locked room is real. The doors and windows were locked from the inside, and even a child couldn't squeeze through the exhaust pipe. The surveillance footage didn't capture a second person at all. Since it's physically impossible to enter and exit, there's only one possibility left: the person who entered used some method that transcends physics.
The fat man pondered, "There aren't many registered space-type ability users in the bureau, and they're all rated A or above. They wouldn't need to go to a middle school's art room to kill an art teacher, would they?"
Sun Tiemei noted: "Every spatial ability user must be investigated."
Chen Shi said that it is also possible that the awakened ones are not registered, their abilities are incomplete, so their rating is low, but they just happen to be able to exploit a certain loophole.
"Do you remember those men in black in the basement of the rehearsal shop? The two who controlled the silk and the ones who controlled the arc were awakened but not registered, so there are no files for them in the system."
Chang Biao said, "Actually, I don't think it necessarily has to be a space-based ability. For example, a virtualization ability would work. If you can temporarily transform your body into a kind of penetrable solid state, a door crack would be enough, and you wouldn't even need an exhaust pipe."
Su Xiaohe said, "Brother Biao, don't forget the deceased's arm. Those who can blur their own bodies can blur other objects."
"Make a note of this," Sun Tiemei said. "We can't rule out the possibility that the murderer used an unregistered supernatural ability. But supernatural abilities can only explain the locked room, not the seven layers of plaster, the addition of salt, or the pupils. Let's list out the suspicious points first."
"Cause of death unknown." The fat man tapped the forensic report. "There are only a few causes of death, so why can't it be determined?"
"The forensic pathologist has not yet conducted a formal autopsy; the preliminary assessment is unclear. We will await the forensic report later," Sun Tiemei explained.
"And her arm," the fat man continued. "The killer took her arm. I can understand clothes and personal belongings, but taking her arm? I don't understand."
"There must be a reason why the arm couldn't be left at the scene." Chen Shi flipped through the crime scene plan. "It could be evidence, like the killer's fingerprints, DNA, or some kind of trace he couldn't erase at the scene. Li Qian might have grabbed him before she died, with skin tissue or clothing fibers embedded in her fingernails. The killer didn't dare gamble, so he took it with him."
At this point, Chen Shi paused, thought for a moment, and then continued, "But looking at the scene, don't you have a feeling that the way the body was arranged was very ritualistic, and those arms might have been part of the ritual?"
"And salt," Chang Biao interjected. "You might not know, but salt can speed up the setting of plaster. But one layer is enough. Why wrap it in seven layers, and add salt to each one? I think what Xiao Shi said earlier makes sense. This case has a lot of ritual."
Su Xiaohe flipped through her notes: "In some places, salt in folk customs has the meaning of warding off evil spirits, purification, and drawing a circle around a person with salt, either to prevent them from going out or to prevent outside things from coming in. There are seven layers of plaster and salt, which is to purify the dead, indicating that in the eyes of the murderer, the dead person is an unclean person, or... or to protect the dead from being violated."
"Following Xiaohe's line of thinking, let's assume the murderer believed Li Qian was impure. Then turning her into Venus would make sense. Venus is a symbol of perfection, and what do arms represent? They represent action, resistance. By removing the arms, the deceased can no longer change herself, becoming an immobile, purely aesthetic object," Chen Shi said while checking his phone. "In other words, he's creating a new Li Qian according to his own goals."
Chang Biao was silent for a while: "This person is terrifying, but his own logic is quite reasonable. He thinks he is helping her."
Sun Tiemei summarized: "Next, we have several investigative approaches. Pang Daqiang will be in charge of coordinating with the patrol police, especially to find out the cause of death as soon as possible. Chang Biao will be responsible for checking Li Qian's personal communication accounts to see who she has been in close contact with recently and who is suspicious."
"In addition, Su Xiaohe, research space-related abilities or other special abilities, and then work with us to investigate. Also, Chen Shi, you will be in charge of Li Qian's social relationships."
"Let's split up and act separately."