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There are so many coincidences in this world.

Standing in the stinking room, Duanmu Huai seemed speechless. In fact, he was speechless when he learned about the incident, and he was even more speechless after coming here.

"Hello, Mr. Duanmu."

The detective in charge of the on-site investigation was a police detective named Jiumu, who had met Duanmu Huai several times—well, this is normal. With Duanmu Huai's appearance, the police are the most likely to react to him.

"I didn't expect you to take this case."

"I don't want to either. To be honest, I would rather go home and sleep right now."

Duanmu Huai yawned, looking bored and depressed.

The reason why he came here was simple. The principal called him to come.

As for why the principal asked Duanmu Huai to come here...

"Tell me about the situation."

"Okay."

Detective Jiumu nodded, then took out his mobile phone and scanned it.

"The deceased is Shizuko Matsushita, 32 years old, a former national gymnast, currently a physical education teacher at Qianyuan Academy..."

Duanmu Huai sighed silently.

This is why he is here.

Duanmu Huai still remembers that when the principal invited him to Qianyuan Academy, he said that the physical education teacher was on leave due to illness, so he could substitute for the class as a physical education teacher and conduct investigations at the same time. At that time, Duanmu Huai just listened to it, but he did not expect that he would meet this physical education teacher under such circumstances.

According to the description of Detective Jiumu, the situation of finding Shizuko Matsushita's body was actually very simple, because there was a foul smell in the apartment where Shizuko Matsushita lived, which disturbed other people, so he went to the administrator to protest. The latter took the key to open the door of Shizuko Matsushita's apartment, and then found Shizuko Matsushita's body lying in the living room.

Then he immediately called the police, and then the police came to investigate, and learned her identity, so they called the principal of Qianyuan Academy, and after the principal received the call, he called Duanmu Huai. Therefore, Duanmu Huai had to get up and rush to this stinking apartment in the middle of the night.

It seems that I have to take a shower and change clothes when I go back.

"What is the cause of death?"

"It is still unknown, but according to our investigation, Matsushita Shizuko died about five days ago. There are no signs of fighting in the room, and there are no signs left by anyone other than Matsushita Shizuko. So we initially judged that the other party should have died of a sudden illness, and the body was found by others after it rotted and smelled... This is not a rare thing."

"Do you have a photo of the body?"

"Of course."

Detective Jiumu took out a photo and handed it over. Duanmu Huai took the photo, glanced at it, and then he twitched his mouth slightly.

"What kind of disease is this death?"

It's no wonder that Duanmu Huai complained, because the body in the photo was swollen all over - well, this is understandable. But what is incomprehensible is that the other party was completely cracked from the head to the abdomen, and corpse water and corrupt internal organs poured out of it, and the whole person seemed to be cut open.

Of course, not only that, for the battle-hardened Duanmu Huai, he could tell at a glance that this was not someone cutting open the body from the outside, but something tore Matsushita Shizuko's body from the inside and drilled out, leaving behind this empty shell.

"According to the forensic doctor, there is a certain chance that the rotten corpse will explode when it expands, producing this strange phenomenon."

"Okay."

Duanmu Huai nodded and returned the photo to Detective Jiumu.

"Do you mind if I investigate?"

"No problem, our investigation is over."

After the initial on-site investigation, the police seemed to think that this was just a simple accidental death. Although the exploded corpse was a little difficult to explain, it was not impossible to explain. At least for now, there were no obvious signs of homicide or drugs or alcohol on the body. And there was no sign of outsiders entering the room itself. At present, it was just an accidental death, so the police also planned to withdraw.

After the police left, Duanmu Huai began to observe the room in front of him. Although there was still that disgusting stench, the whole room was decorated with a feminine atmosphere. For example, pink curtains and plush carpets, as well as trophies placed on the bookshelf, but Duanmu Huai was not interested in them. He looked around and found the chandelier on the ceiling, then reached out and put his hand on it.

Soon, in front of Duanmu Huai, time began to go back.

"Buzz............"

The sound of the air conditioner echoed in the living room, and the woman in sportswear curled up on the sofa. It was not a hot summer, but the woman was wearing very cool clothes, only shorts and short-sleeved jackets similar to those worn by basketball teams. Not only that, she even turned on the air conditioner.

It would be wrong to say that the woman felt very hot, so she was huddled up and shivering at the moment, and her skin was pale, looking like she was very cold. But even so, she had no intention of turning off the air conditioner, and even ice cream and popsicles could be seen on the table.

To be honest, even if she was not sick, she would get sick.

There was an advertisement on TV, and the woman was huddled on the sofa and shivering, but she had no intention of watching the advertisement. On the contrary, she held her phone tightly in both hands, as if she was looking at something. However, her long hair obscured her vision, so her expression could not be seen clearly.

“———————!”

At this moment, the whole room suddenly darkened, the TV was turned off, the sound of the air conditioner disappeared, and everything seemed to fall into silence.

Well, to put it simply, it’s out of power.

“——————!!!”

However, at this moment, the woman suddenly stood up in a panic. She was about to rush to the door as if running for her life. However, at this moment, the woman suddenly let out an indistinct wail, and then slumped down as if she had lost her strength. on the ground.

Later, Duanmu Huai saw it.

The woman's face was split in the middle, extending from her forehead all the way down to her lower abdomen. Her body was like a balloon, being squeezed from the inside by something, expanding, cracking, and then exploding!

"Bang!"

It was a sound no louder than the bursting of a balloon, and it marked the woman's complete death. She just collapsed to the ground and stopped moving. Immediately afterwards, Duanmuhuai saw countless black, rat-like things swarming out of the woman's body, and then disappeared like scattered cockroaches.

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai raised his eyebrows, then rewinded again - paused and zoomed in.

He followed the lamp on the ceiling downwards and stared carefully at the mobile phone in the woman's hand - there was a selfie of the woman on the mobile phone. Of course, if it was just this photo, it wouldn't be unusual. But what caught Duanmu Huai's attention was not the woman herself, but the book she was holding in her arms in the selfie!

A black book with a thick leather cover that looks like a magic book!

And this book, Duanmu Huai has seen it!

Literary girls used to carry it with them!

At that time, Duanmuhuai used his mobile phone to look back at the literary girl's past, but Duanmuhuai didn't know how he got the book. Because in the past that the mobile phone recalled, the literary girl at that time put down her mobile phone and went out, and when she came back, she had this book in her arms!

It was only after that that the literary girl excitedly said that with this book, she could increase the probability of summoning spirits, and then went to commit suicide happily.

And now, this book is actually in this teacher’s cell phone photo!

Duanmu Huai didn't believe that two people bought a book each. After all, they were both from Qianyuan Academy, one was a teacher and the other was a student. Moreover, when the literary girl took the book, the physical education teacher was not sick yet... ………Um?

Wait, could it be because the literary girl took the teacher's book that she died in the end?

So where did this book come from... That's a bit of a problem!

…………Forget it, continue to collect clues, and then go home and let your brain think.

Duanmuhuai gave up thinking decisively. His brain was itchy and he couldn't take the exam anymore.

The teacher's mobile phone was kept as evidence, and because it was not a murder case, Duanmu Huai was not qualified to obtain it. But he didn't care about this little trouble. Duanmuhuai first went to the apartment manager to ask about the situation. Facing Duanmu Huai, the apartment manager naturally knew everything and talked about everything.

"The electricity usage in Room 308...? From what you said... there does seem to be something wrong."

"How to say it specifically?"

"Although I don't remember it clearly, it is true that the power consumption of No. 308 has been increasing since some time ago. I was also worried that the other party would do some illegal activities in the room, so I went to inquire about it, and the result was that ………”

"result?"

"She just turned the air conditioner on."

"that's all?"

"That's what she told me, saying that she is more afraid of heat..."

"But it's not summer yet."

Summer vacation isn't even over yet.

"That's what I thought, but since the other party is willing to turn on the air conditioner all day long and is also willing to pay the electricity bill, then I have nothing to say. In fact, this time it was probably because the electricity ran out, so he was discovered. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the power ran out, I’m afraid we wouldn’t have discovered that she had... ugh..."

"Is her air conditioning turned on very low?"

"It's probably around ten degrees... To be honest, I can't stand it."

"Do you know when this started? Or has it been like this since she moved here?"

"You said so..."

The administrator scratched his head.

"It seems that she wasn't like this before. It was just very ordinary at the beginning... Oh, yes, if I remember correctly, it should be a year ago. She went back to her hometown, and she became like this after she came back. !”

"A year ago?"

"Yes, I remember she went back to her hometown to celebrate the New Year, and she brought me local specialties when she came back, so I remember it very clearly. After that...she seemed to have the air conditioner on all the time, and the temperature was always very high. Low. To be honest, her room feels like a cold storage. Sometimes I feel a bit chilly when I walk through the door..."

"Did you know she has a book?"

Duanmuhuai gestured to the administrator.

"A black one with a large cover?"

When he heard Duanmuhuai's question, the administrator was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly clapped his hands.

"Yes, there is such a thing! About half a month ago, she came to me and asked me if I had seen such a book. She also retrieved the surveillance video from the time, and I watched it with her. But it wasn’t found. At least it wasn’t left in the apartment.”

Oh?

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai narrowed his eyes.

"So how did she look at that time? Was she anxious?"

"Now that you mention it, she did seem to be very anxious at that time. Maybe the book has some special meaning to her..."

"Okay, thank you."

After getting the information he wanted, Duanmu Huai left the apartment directly. He first sent an email to the principal to explain the situation, and then immediately called Shionji Yuko to inform her of the matter.

"……………So, the other party did not die accidentally?"

"I suspect this case may be related to the previous one. By the way, can you investigate where the teacher's hometown is? She went back to her hometown a year ago, so there should be records."

"Let me check it out………Hmm……………"

Soon, the sound of keyboard typing came from the phone, and it paused slightly after a moment.

"Hmm? You must be very interested in this news."

"Let me guess."

Duanmu Huai's face sank.

"It can't be related to the light of the universe."

"You guessed it right. Her hometown is in Yangchen Town, Aomori, which is one of the addresses on the list... Is this a coincidence?"

"It may be a coincidence, or it may be the result of spillover."

Duanmu Huai snorted coldly.

"Continue to investigate. I will talk about the rest when I get back."