Chapter 1173: Not Ordinary Materials
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“The name of the girl is Geng Yaai, from Baiping Town, Beigang City. She is 16 years old. She left home a month and a half ago and hasn’t come back since then,” Zeng Ke said with a pile of documents in his hands.
“Baiping town?” Zhao Yu opened the map on his phone to check the place. He quickly found the town’s location and said, “It’s more than 100 kilometers away from Wuqing County.”
“I was right about this case.” Cui Lizhu rubbed her palms nervously and said with a solemn expression, “Only a crazy murderer could do this, killing people and putting their bodies in the hanging coffins. This murderer is so cruel.”
“In that case, Team Leader Miao, let’s do things separately this time. You take Zeng Ke and Cui Lizhu back to the criminal police team in Wuqing County,” Zhao Yu said to Miao Ying. “First, find out the identities of the dead girls. Now that we have found a missing person, maybe it will be a useful clue to the case.”
“I see.” Miao Ying nodded, agreeing. “Don’t forget to call me when you hear back about the autopsy.”
“I will. Don’t worry about that.” Zhao Yu repeatedly asked Miao Ying to be careful before she and the others left for the police station.
After Miao Ying left, Zhao Yu took a deep breath, then took a look at the day’s new hexagram. On the system interface, there were two prominent characters. Kun Gen.
Kun Gen! Kun meant that something big was going to happen, and Gen stood for cases. Zhao Yu’s understanding of the system made him realize that this hexagram was announcing a big case to him in advance.
Zhao Yu had started the new hexagram on the way to Wuqing in the high-speed train. So, he had known that the hanging coffin case was not ordinary before he arrived.
Now it had been proven that one of the dead bodies in the hanging coffins was a missing girl. So, these girls were very likely to have been murdered.
If those seven girls had all been murdered, this case had more victims than the Headless Female Corpse Case or even the Devil Case.
The victims were all underage girls, so the murderer must have been a cruel monster.
“Who was it? Who was the one that killed these girls? Why did this guy choose to hide the bodies in the hanging coffins? Why did the killer do this?” Zhao Yu kept asking himself.
“Team leader.” At that time, Ran Tao came to Zhao Yu along with a middle-aged man in his 50s. Ran Tao said, “This is Pang Zhihui, the president of the Wuqing County Cultural Relics Protection Association, and also chief of the County Cultural Relics Bureau and deputy director of the County Museum.”
“Haha. Wuqing is just a small place. So…” Pang Zhihui quickly waved his hand and said, “We are a small town in Wuqing. In fact, the museum, the Cultural Relics Bureau, and the Cultural Relics Protection Association are all the same thing.”
“Team leader, President Pang just led my technical team colleagues and me on a walk around. Apart from the pole pit which was not completed, we haven’t found anything,” Ran Tao said.
“Oh… So…” Zhao Yu nodded then asked, “President Pang, do you think the murderer used the scaffolds to go down the cliff?”
“I’m not sure about that. But, Leader Zhao, come here and have a look.” Pang Zhihui went to the edge of the cliff and pointed to a place on the ground. “Look, these small holes sealed with cement were used to fix scaffolds when we carried out the first scientific expedition in the 1980s,” he said.
“Here.” He pointed to the people who were working below and said, “Just like how they went down, we used the same method to get down the cliff at that time.”
Zhao Yu squatted down and looked at the sealed holes carefully. After a very long time, the cement and the rocks almost became the same color. He needed to watch carefully to identify the holes.
“I see, there are seven coffins on the cliff,” Zhao Yu said. “The coffins are in different places. So, if the murderer wanted to put a body in each coffin, he had to constantly adjust the scaffolds’ position, which would leave undeniable traces on the cliff.”
President Pang nodded and said, “I didn’t think I could explain this to you in a short time, but you understood it all immediately. No wonder you solved so many big cases.”
“So, if there are no scaffolds and elevators, is there any other way to get down?” Zhao Yu asked.
Pang Zhihui thought for a moment then said, “There are many hanging coffins on Wuqing Mountain, but for the sake of safety, we used this method to go down high cliffs every time. Besides the elevators, we also used safety ropes. Although there were no formal guidelines, we always used scaffolds and elevators.”
“So, the murderer didn’t do this on his own,” Zhao Yu said. “He carried dead bodies here and needed to open the coffins. Is it difficult to open the hanging coffins?”
“It’s not an easy thing. But it’s not that hard, either.” Pang Zhihui didn’t sound very sure.
“What do you mean?” Ran Tao urged him. “Is it easy or not?”
Pang Zhihui quickly replied, “It’s not hard to open the coffins if you master the key rule. But if you don’t know how to do it, you can’t open them.”
“Oh? What is the rule?” Zhao Yu asked.
“The coffins have no nails or wedges. I’m afraid you won’t believe this. Although these hanging coffins were built 600 years ago, they used sliding lids,” Pang Zhihui explained.
“Ah? You mean you can slide the lid to open a hanging coffin?” Ran Tao asked.
“There is a fixed slide on the coffin, but you need to remove the wooden dowels in the slide before you open it,” Pang Zhihui answered.
“Is it? The designers are smart.” Ran Tao was surprised.
Pang Zhihui smiled and said, “The wisdom of our ancients is far beyond our imagination. You may not know this. These Seven Star Hanging Coffins are different from the other hanging coffins in Wuqing Mountain. The rest of the hanging coffins were more than 2000 years old. The oldest one could be traced back to primitive times.”
Pang Zhihui continued, saying, “But these seven hanging coffins by the Baisha River are different. They have only been around for 600 years. They are relatively young compared to the ancient coffins. These seven coffins hanging from the cliff form a distinct pattern; the Big Dipper. This is a rare thing.
“We also found that the plates of these seven coffins are different from those of the others.” As soon as he spoke about the coffins, President Pang’s eyes lit up and he excitedly raised four fingers. “Cypress, pine, willow, and sandalwood. Come on, what do you think?”
“It’s Sandalwood. I often hear people say that sandalwood is the best materials for making coffins,” Ran Tao said without hesitation.
Pang Zhihui smiled mysteriously and said, “Yes, but not all of them. The Seven Star Hanging Coffins are indeed made of sandalwood, but through our testing, we found that the sandalwood is semi petrified.
“We have picked up a variety of compounds and unknown chemicals from the samples. Some experts suspect that the Seven Star Hanging Coffins had been immersed in a kind of oil-like liquid for a long time, and that’s how they become like they are now. That means, in a thousand years, or even in a million years, the hanging coffins will not be eroded.”