The Cannibal Demon 

Second Case: The Silent Head 

Waiting for rain is the destiny of an umbrella’s life. 

— Zhang Ailing 

The sky was gloomy, and a clap of thunder echoed across the horizon.

A girl braved the storm and pushed open her front door, only to be greeted by a chaotic bedroom. Bloodstains were everywhere on the floor, emitting a foul stench.

The wardrobe had toppled over, clothes were scattered all around as if a fierce battle had just taken place.

With a crisp “crack,” a glass cup shattered on the floor. The girl stood frozen, staring at a corner of the floor, and let out a scream!

※

A thunderclap boomed overhead, and almost simultaneously, the phone of Wang Yue, the captain of the major crimes unit, rang.

Wang Yue was dozing off, but the sudden noise jolted him awake. He reflexively sat up straight and answered the phone.

“Captain, there’s been a murder at No. 98, Xinye Road, Hetan District!” Li Meng’s voice came through the receiver.

Old Yan, who was still sipping tea, sighed, “You really shouldn’t mention murders. Who was the jinx that said there haven’t been many cases lately?”

Wang Yue hung up the phone and quickly put on a raincoat. “Stop dawdling. If we get there early, maybe your trace inspection team can still catch a footprint!”

Yan Ji replied, “With this weather, I doubt it!”

Wang Yue swung his car keys. “You guys go ahead. I’ll pick up Gu Yuan.”

In the deepest part of the criminal investigation team’s corridor, a light was on in an office with the door slightly ajar. Wang Yue knocked on the door, “Gu Yuan, there’s been a murder. Get ready to head to the scene.”

Gu Yuan looked up at Wang Yue, closed his computer, put the black pen in his hand into the pocket of his white coat, and took off his anti-blue light silver-rimmed glasses, placing them neatly on the desk.

Wang Yue leaned against the door, watching Gu Yuan get up, take off his white coat, and grab his field investigation kit.

During this time, Gu Yuan didn’t say a word to him. Wang Yue could only guess from Gu Yuan’s actions that he had heard what he said.

Gu Yuan usually didn’t like to talk or join in on the fun. When there were no cases, he often stayed alone in his office, always with an attitude of “speak if you have something to say, don’t bother me if you don’t, and even if you do, don’t bother me.”

Wang Yue found Gu Yuan’s personality peculiar. Every time he approached him, he did so quietly, afraid of annoying this eccentric forensic doctor. After all, when Gu Yuan picked up a scalpel, he resembled a cold-blooded killer.

They had little in common, making the atmosphere slightly awkward.

Gu Yuan glanced back at Wang Yue, “Anything else?”

Wang Yue immediately straightened up, “Uh… no, I was just going to get the car. Come out when you’re ready.”

“Okay.”

“By the way, remember to wear a raincoat. The rain is too heavy; an umbrella won’t do.”

“Okay.”

Wang Yue awkwardly smiled, grabbed his car keys, and left the office.

“Okay.”

“Got it.”

“Anything else?”

Wang Yue mumbled Gu Yuan’s usual lines and sighed.

Gu Yuan was always like this: if he could say it in one word, he’d never use two, and if he could say it in two, he’d never use three, and so on.

At first, Wang Yue thought Gu Yuan had a communication disorder, but after more interactions, he realized that not only did Gu Yuan not have any disorder, but he was also a genius with a high IQ. As for his emotional intelligence, well, it was about elementary school level.

No wonder Teacher Mo often called Gu Yuan “Little Friend.”

To be precise, it was “My Little Friend.”

Three minutes later, Gu Yuan walked out of the forensic office with a silver investigation kit. He was wearing a black raincoat, the kind uniformly issued by the criminal investigation team, which looked a bit big on him.

The loose black raincoat hid his slender figure, and the brim of the hood covered his eyes, leaving most of his face in shadow. Only a delicate chin was visible, pale as if illuminated, making his red lips stand out even more.

Standing at the police station entrance, Gu Yuan looked up at the gray sky, his chin slightly raised. His exquisite profile was unforgettable at a glance.

He looked like a male lead straight out of a comic book, doing nothing but standing there, pleasing to the eye.

The sky was overcast, the raindrops dense and noisy. The weather forecast said this heavy rain would last a week. Mo Lin’s flight was canceled, so he wouldn’t be back anytime soon.

Under the stormy clouds and rain, his beautiful eyes were filled with loss, appearing even darker and more ethereal than usual.

The rapidly falling raindrops were captured in his phone. Gu Yuan took a picture of the sky, with no composition or buildings, just a gray background and a rainy sky.

Wang Yue drove the car to the bottom of the steps, lowered the window a bit, and shouted through the rain, “Little Gui Yuan, get in!”

Gu Yuan put away his phone and walked straight to the SUV with the license plate ending in 868, flashing red and blue police lights.

Wang Yue looked at the rearview mirror from the driver’s seat. The mirror was treated to be waterproof, perfectly reflecting Gu Yuan walking towards him.

Wang Yue couldn’t help but think of a criminal suspect.

The first time he saw Gu Yuan, he had this feeling. If Gu Yuan hadn’t pulled out his criminal investigation badge to prove his innocence, Wang Yue might have added him to the list of dangerous individuals.

It was an instinct from being a criminal investigator, but unfortunately, this instinct didn’t apply to Gu Yuan. He was a genuine and promising forensic doctor.

But Wang Yue always felt there was a dangerous aura about him, triggering his sense of alertness. As a result, his nerves would reflexively tense up when interacting with him.

Gu Yuan opened the car door, sat down, and placed the investigation kit at his feet. His fingers were wet, and he raised his arm to reach for a tissue.

He wiped meticulously, cleaning each finger in circles, not missing even the spaces between them. The ring on his left ring finger glinted subtly in motion.

Wang Yue handed a pack of tissues to the back, “Did Teacher Mo say when he’d be back?”

Gu Yuan’s fingers paused, and his brows furrowed slightly, as if the words “Teacher Mo” were taboo.

Talking to Gu Yuan often felt like throwing a stone into the sea. He seemed to be on a different wavelength.

Gu Yuan didn’t reply, so Wang Yue wondered if he hadn’t heard. He repeated, “When is Teacher Mo…”

“Don’t ask,” Gu Yuan said flatly.

Gu Yuan, the conversation terminator, could always end a dialogue with a few words.

After Gu Yuan’s “Don’t ask,” Wang Yue realized the couple might be having a spat. The atmosphere turned icy, and they didn’t speak for the rest of the drive. Wang Yue didn’t want to make things more awkward, so he focused on driving.

The wipers rhythmically swiped the windshield, the view alternating between clear and blurry. The red and blue police lights reflected on the window. The car was a bit stuffy, and Gu Yuan started to feel restless.

He popped a lollipop into his mouth and flipped open his phone. The most recent chat was a photo Mo Lin sent yesterday afternoon, featuring blue skies, green grass, sunshine, and a close-up of a handsome face.

Mo Lin looked genuinely happy, as if enjoying freedom and leisure alone.

The stark white fingers lingered over the input box for a long time before finally typing a few words: [Will you betray me?]

After sending it, Gu Yuan immediately retracted the message. Even he couldn’t understand why he sent something like that. He found himself increasingly perplexing.

Mo Lin: [Looks like you really miss me.]

Seeing the reply, Gu Yuan could almost picture a triumphant smile, which only made him more annoyed.

His fingers tapped the screen, finding the “Blacklist.”

[Are you sure you want to add this person to the blacklist?]

Just then, Li Meng’s call came in, and Wang Yue, who was driving, put it on speaker.

Li Meng’s side was noisy: “I’m already at the scene. When will you guys arrive?”

Wang Yue: “About 20 more minutes. The rain is too heavy to drive fast.”

“Alright. By the way, that Mo…” Li Meng’s words trailed off.

Wang Yue: “Mo?”

Gu Yuan perked up his ears.

Li Meng: “Don’t… don’t rush, take your time, safety first!”

Gu Yuan’s ears drooped.

Wang Yue hung up, thinking: What nonsense is this? Since when did he speak like that? Usually, he’s rushing us like crazy, wishing we could sprout wings and fly over!

After the call, Mo Lin was successfully added to the blacklist.

Without that flamboyant avatar, Gu Yuan’s world suddenly felt much calmer.

Just as he turned off his phone, his QQ account pinged.

Mo Lin: [Remove me from the blacklist, be good.]

Gu Yuan indifferently turned off his phone, biting down on the lollipop in his mouth.

After twenty minutes of driving, they finally arrived at No. 98, Xinye Road, Hetan District.

This suburban area was quite remote, with few people and sparse vehicles. The further north they went, the more rural it became.

Near No. 98, Xinye Road, there was an undeveloped small hill, fenced off and turned into a chicken farm.

As soon as Gu Yuan opened the car door, he was hit by the fermented smell of chicken manure. Despite the rain washing over it, the odor lingered.

The smell wasn’t particularly strong, but it was much worse than cow or pig manure. With his sensitive sense of smell, Gu Yuan rubbed his nose through his mask.

Thunder rumbled overhead, and dense raindrops pounded on his raincoat, splashing water onto his face.

Gu Yuan raised his dark eyes to survey the entire hill. The greenery on the slope had been pecked away by the chickens, leaving a barren, yellowish slope. Rainwater mixed with mud flowed down, splattering mud on his boots.

At the top of the slope were two prefab houses, the crime scene.

Wang Yue glanced at the prefab houses and the surrounding scenery. With such heavy rain, outdoor footprints were unlikely to remain, so they could only hope for more clues indoors.

Then he paused, recognizing a familiar figure.

The person was wearing a dark gray shirt, standing in the corridor beside the prefab house, arms crossed, looking their way with interest.

Wang Yue immediately recognized Mo Lin. Mo Lin’s presence was palpable, even through the rain.

Wang Yue’s phone rang again.

“Be careful going up; the ground is slippery. Don’t fall,” Mo Lin’s voice was gentle, and Wang Yue realized the words weren’t meant for him.

He glanced back at Gu Yuan, who was staring intently at someone at the top of the slope. That innate gloominess sent a shiver down his spine.

Wang Yue swallowed, “Why did Teacher Mo suddenly come back?”

“Nothing to do,” Gu Yuan said, heading up the slope first.

Nothing to do?

Teacher Mo, such a busy person, how could he have nothing to do?

A narrow concrete path extended from the top of the slope, roughly made and indeed slippery. Rainwater mixed with mud flowed down both sides, mingling with chicken manure washed away by the rain.

Thunder boomed every few minutes, making hearts jump.

The scene was cordoned off with police tape. A group of criminal investigators stood in the corridor beside the prefab house, all wearing black raincoats, looking like they were attending a funeral.

Seeing the forensic doctor arrive, everyone perked up.

Mo Lin stood a head taller than the crowd, conspicuous, with a friendly face still smiling at people. He didn’t seem upset about being blacklisted.

Gu Yuan’s face was tense as he walked past Mo Lin. Just as he was about to step inside, a strong arm pulled him back.

Mo Lin gently wiped the raindrops off Gu Yuan’s eyelashes with slightly bent fingers, his movements soft, carrying an extremely gentle allure.

“Missed me so much you cried?”

Mo Lin’s tone was slightly teasing.

Gu Yuan frowned, blocking Mo Lin’s hand.

Mo Lin wasn’t angry, just smirked. But when he lowered his eyes, he saw Gu Yuan’s fist already clenched.

The man lowered his voice, “Give me some face outside?”

Seeing Gu Yuan still unhappy, Mo Lin added, “I brought you a gift. Guess what it is?”

Gu Yuan wasn’t in the mood to guess gifts and turned to enter the prefab house, quickly immersing himself in work.

The crime scene was like two boxes joined together, with a board in the middle and a door connecting them.

The left room’s door was ajar, and neither room had lights on. The light was limited, but the stench of decay was strong, likely emanating from the left room.

Li Meng, who arrived first, had already gathered some information from the victim’s daughter.

“The victim’s daughter is in her third year of high school at No. 1 High School. She usually boards at school and doesn’t come home often. This morning around ten, she took a bus home and found no one inside. The left door was locked from the inside. She thought someone was inside but got no response when she called.”

Gu Yuan scanned the room with his dark, ethereal eyes, “How did she open the door?”

“There’s a window here.” Li Meng lifted a piece of canvas, revealing a square window about 1.2 meters on each side, made of two movable glass panes.

“The victim’s daughter was worried something happened inside, so she pushed open the window and reached in to unlock the door.”

Gu Yuan glanced at the old-fashioned canvas, which seemed newly attached, “Was it already covered?”

“Yes, I didn’t even notice there was a window at first.”

Seeing Gu Yuan searching for a switch, Li Meng explained, “The circuit’s broken; we can only use flashlights for light.”

“When did it break?”

“Not sure, it was already broken when we arrived.”

The room was very dim. Gu Yuan used a flashlight to open the inner room’s door, and the stench of decay hit him immediately.

The flashlight beam swept across the corner, landing on a large wardrobe. The wardrobe was toppled, surrounded by suitcases and clothes.

Beside the wardrobe was a 1.5-meter double bed, aligned with the wardrobe, so when the wardrobe fell, there was no obstruction.

The stench was strong, but at first glance, there was no body in sight.

Gu Yuan moved to the center of the inner room, sweeping the flashlight around until he found a decaying human head among the chaotic pile of clothes.

Seeing the head, he frowned.

Below the head was a neck and an empty severed surface. The shoulders and other parts of the body were not within view.

He had seen many dismemberment cases, but most would hide the head and leave the other limbs at the scene, making it difficult for the police to identify the victim.

Leaving only the head like this was indeed rare.

The head was already swollen and rotting, obscuring the original features. Black, messy long hair clung to the face, crawling with black and white maggots.

Gu Yuan crouched down, focusing on the head to observe its details.

The damp, sticky black hair had clotted into blood clumps, with a mass of white maggots wriggling in the decaying flesh at the severed end, white like a lump of moving tofu dregs.

Each maggot wriggled slowly, intertwining and overlapping, rubbing against each other, producing a faint “rustling” sound.

Some were heading towards the flesh below the head, while others, having eaten their fill, began crawling to the next target, seemingly chaotic yet rhythmically surging.

Large flies clustered together, laying eggs on the victim’s face.

Some flies, startled, flew around chaotically, buzzing. Fortunately, Gu Yuan wore a head cover and goggles; otherwise, these flies would have flown straight at his forehead.

Gu Yuan had to wave his hand to drive away most of the flies.

The victim’s facial skin and lips were already swollen and decayed, the tongue protruding from the lips, the eyeballs bulging from the sockets, two-thirds of the eyeballs protruding, appearing pitch-black and extremely horrifying.

Gu Yuan quickly noticed something unusual. Normally, after death, the cornea’s color changes over time, turning from clear to cloudy, then gradually becoming a grayish-white mist, a normal process of decay. But the eyeballs were black, which wasn’t scientifically plausible.

Gu Yuan reached out to examine the victim’s left eyeball.

As soon as his hand pressed on the swollen eye socket, an eyeball, unable to withstand the pressure, rolled out of the socket.

The eyeball rolled a few times on the ground before stopping.

This scene startled Zheng Mao, squatting behind him, nearly making him fall on his butt, “Holy crap! What the hell?”

Gu Yuan picked up the eyeball mixed with mucus, weighed it in his palm, and gently squeezed it. The eyeball collapsed like a piece of clay. Gu Yuan brought it close to his nose and said a single word, “Grass.”

Wang Yue was stunned. It was the first time he heard Gu Yuan swear.

“It smells a bit like mugwort,” Gu Yuan added.

Gu Yuan held the mugwort ball between his thumb and index finger, extending it to Zheng Mao.

Only then did Zheng Mao take a closer look. It wasn’t an eyeball, but he was still shaken, momentarily not understanding Gu Yuan’s intention.

“Evidence bag,” Gu Yuan reminded.

Zheng Mao finally reacted, handing over an evidence bag.

Behind them, Wang Yue and Li Meng were relatively calm. They had been in criminal investigation for years, having seen all sorts of bizarre scenes.

Gu Yuan brushed aside the hair covering the face, revealing the right eyeball, which was also clearly fake.

Gu Yuan directly pressed the right eye socket, and like before, the other “eyeball” rolled out with decaying fluid.