Chapter 1171: Hanging Coffin Mystery
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On a cliff on Wuqing Mountain, where the Seven Star Hanging Coffins were.
After driving over a bumpy road, Zhao Yu and the others had finally come to the extraordinary crime scene.
At that moment, the cliff had been blocked by the police, and people living nearby were not allowed to go up. Therefore, curious reporters and locals could only go to the opposite bank of the Baisha River, and they watched the police working on the cliff from there.
A local criminal police captain named Xiong Wendong told Zhao Yu and others about the incident. “Yesterday morning, there was a construction team piling wiring poles on the cliff. Digging the pole pit requires the drilling of rocks, and breaking rocks here is likely to cause damage to the hanging coffins.
“So, when Pang Zhihui, the President of the local Cultural Relics Protection Association, received the news, they immediately came to stop the construction team. He came with Ma Fusheng, the director of the Cultural Relics Bureau.
“They and the construction team exchanged words, which ended in a fight. Someone got pushed aside and accidentally hit the switch on the pole inserting machine, causing the pole to fall off the machine and roll down the cliff,” Captain Xiong explained.
“What an odd coincidence!” Zhao Yu said, pouting. He then walked cautiously to the cliff with Xiong Wendong.
The Seven Star Hanging Coffins were a famous local scenic spot. But their location was far from the town. On that cliff, there were no protective railings. It was quite dangerous.
“Be careful, sir.” Xiong Wendong said to Zhao Yu as he pointed down the cliff. “You see, fortunately, the cliff is sunken. After the pole fell, it just swept the top corner of the coffin. It smashed a small piece of the coffin lid, so they saw what was inside.”
Cui Lizhu had sharp eyes. She looked down and saw the problem immediately. She then said, “This is not right. The coffin lid is closed. It’s not broken.”
Xiong Wendong quickly explained. “Well, it was the forensic experts who closed it. And we filled the gap in. We were afraid that if the body was exposed to the air for too long, it would accelerate the decay.”
Zhao Yu looked back at Cui Lizhu. “Please shut up! Do you understand the rules? Stop interrupting, will you?” He turned around and said to Xiong Wendong, “Captain Xiong, you can just ignore her and tell me about this accident in detail.”
That was the first time Xiong Wendong had met such a prominent leader. He was obviously excited. “Where did I stop? Oh! Yes! President Pang of the Cultural Relics Protection Association saw that the pole fell on the coffin. Of course, he was very angry and also frightened. He rushed to the edge of the cliff to look down.”
Xiong Wendong then said, “At first, he was furious when he saw that a coffin had been broken.” Captain Xiong pointed to the bottom of the cliff. “But he looked carefully, and soon found something wrong with the coffins.
“President Pang had participated in the scientific excavation movement in the 1980s. He knew that the hanging coffins should have been empty. But when he looked down, he could clearly see that there was something in the coffin, and it was something similar to a human.”
Although the team members present had known about the dead bodies in the coffins before they arrived, they were still scared when Xiong Wendong told them what happened that day. Some even felt as though their hands and feet were freezing cold.
“President Pang was scared stiff. Both the destruction of the Seven Star Hanging Coffins and the thing he saw in the coffins made him realize that he should immediately report it to the police. He called us and also informed the Cultural Relics Bureau and other related units.
“I was the first to arrive. I took binoculars with me there. The sunlight got into the coffins. We saw that there was a human foot in the coffin from the gap,” Xiong Wendong said with a complicated expression on his face.
Xiong Wendong then said, “You know, local people believe in geomantic superstitions. The hanging coffins are a mysterious and sacred thing in their eyes. So, I really didn’t know what to do for a moment when I saw the foot in the hanging coffin. They always said that the hanging coffins were empty. How could there be a corpse in them? [1]
“So, we reported it to our leader and asked for forensic experts to help us investigate this strange case. Around noon, the experts from the city arrived. After a preliminary check, they decided to have someone go down to open all the coffins and check what was inside.
“Then, we helped them find a good climber and lowered him down with ropes…” Xiong Wendong was sweating as he spoke. “After the first hanging coffin was opened, we saw the body of a girl. You should have seen the picture, right? Although the girl was dead, she seemed just to be asleep.
“She is, at most, fifteen years old. She is wearing a popular shroud, and her feet are bare.” Xiong Wendong talked about the strange occurrence with a complicated expression. “At that time, forensic experts were also shocked. They hadn’t seen such a thing before, so they reported it to the provincial government.
“You know, we are too far away from the provincial capital, and there is no airport in this area. So, when the provincial government learned about this, it immediately gave us clear instructions. One was to have the best forensic experts conduct an on-site autopsy, but to try to avoid damaging the scene. The other was to open other hanging coffins immediately to see what was inside.”
Xiong Wendong sighed. “They are right. After we opened the other coffins, we found that in each of the seven coffins, there was a dead girl. You have seen the pictures. The girls are all of similar ages as the first one. They look like they are just asleep. You can’t tell if they are dead or not, or how long they have been dead. Some of them even have rosy cheeks, which makes people think they are still alive.
“It’s bizarre.” Xiong Wendong seemed like he was exhausted and had consumed all his strength. “So, when all of the seven coffins were opened, we finally realize this was a big case. The provincial government also believes that we need help. Therefore, they immediately asked us to suspend the autopsy and to close the coffins, then wait for you to come.”
Xiong Wendong asked Zhao Yu with expectant eyes, “Sir, please tell me. What should we do next?”
Zhao Yu stood up and frowned. The case turned out to be more complicated than he imagined.
At that time, Miao Ying said to Zhao Yu with a solemn expression, “Team leader, I’ll call Zhang Peipei now. I think it would be hard for the forensic team to deal with this kind of thing alone.”
Zhao Yu nodded. “In addition to the forensic team, we need someone who often deals with corpses that have been dead for a very long time. And…” He looked at the sun and said, “I need to call the provincial government and ask them to send helicopters to pick up the forensic team. We’ve wasted one night already. We can’t stand to waste any more time.”
“It’s all high cliffs here. We can’t wait until night. We must finish the work with the corpses before the sun falls,” Zhao Yu said. “Only when the autopsy is finished can we know how the girls died.”
[1]: Geomantic superstitions are those divined by geographic locations, figures, or lines
