Chapter 158: Unnatural Death

Setting aside whether there was still any passion after nine years of marriage, Che Feiting’s wife, Jia Yanli, had been dead for some time. Yet, the fresh hickey on his neck… what did that indicate? Was there someone else on the side?

A person’s private life wasn’t the police’s business. But… Xiao Yu stared coldly at him. 

‘You and your wife hadn’t divorced yet, and her body was still lying in the morgue. Is this really okay?’

“You have another woman?” Xiao Yu asked in a cold tone.

“Huh?!” Che Feiting averted his eyes from Xiao Yu’s gaze, his hands fidgeting as he shook his head. “No.”

‘Starting to lie, huh,’ Xiao Yu didn’t press the issue further. “Tell me about your wife’s brother.”

“He’s just a scoundrel,” Che Feiting said angrily. “He accused me of killing my wife? How could I do such a thing!”

The anger in his eyes seemed genuine, directed not just at his brother-in-law but also… Xiao Yu paused. Observing his micro-expressions, it didn’t seem like he was lying.

Could it be that even if Jia Yanli’s death wasn’t natural, he had nothing to do with it?

That raises a strange question. If Jia Yanli didn’t die naturally or was murdered, why would the body thief steal her corpse to scare Che Feiting? It didn’t add up.

Xiao Yu was puzzled by something else too. Why would Che Feiting be so terrified at the sight of his wife’s ghostly corpse? An affair, perhaps? Was it because he felt guilty for betraying his wife?

But that didn’t seem right. His relationship with his wife was already dead in the water, and they were planning to divorce. If he was seeing someone else at this point, it wouldn’t be out of guilt. After all, they were heading for a divorce.

‘So, what are you so afraid of?’

“Boss.” 

Guo Qiang and the others returned, shaking their heads at Xiao Yu. They hadn’t found anything. 

Xiao Yu, feeling unsettled, went up to the rooftop himself to check things out and was left standing there, stunned. There were no signs, no evidence that someone had used a rope to suspend a body outside Che Feiting’s bedroom window.

Xiao Yu’s mind was spinning. The situation was starting to feel supernatural again.

After thinking it over, Xiao Yu could only come up with one possibility. Could it have been done from the apartment above? Was the body suspended from there?

Che Feiting’s building was a small high-rise with eight floors. He lived on the fifth floor, leaving three floors above him. Guo Qiang and the others had knocked on the doors of the apartments above and searched them, but found no traces.

This was something easy to check. If someone had done anything outside the bedroom window, there would have been signs. For instance, the dust on the outer windowsill—most residents rarely clean that area. If the dust was disturbed or there was anything unusual, it would indicate something happened.

Could someone have lifted the body from below? 

Think about it—a female corpse, even if light, would still weigh around a hundred pounds. Holding it up? And keeping it suspended for a period? Not likely.

Tools? There didn’t seem to be any way to use tools from below either. Even the residents downstairs were checked, and Guo Qiang and his team found nothing.

“Is this place haunted or what?” Xiao Yu was baffled as he returned to Che Feiting’s apartment, walked into the bedroom, and looked out the window. 

The fifth floor, about fifteen or sixteen meters from the ground.

Xiao Yu surveyed the area. Below was a four-meter-wide patch of grass, followed by a fence, and then a road. Could it have been done from the road?

Suddenly, Xiao Yu’s eyes lit up. “Aerial work platform?!”

What’s an aerial work platform? It’s a special kind of vehicle that combines mechanics, electronics, and hydraulics, equipped with a self-propelled aerial lift. It can reach heights of about 25 meters.

If someone used such a vehicle to lift a corpse and suspend it outside Che Feiting’s bedroom window.

Xiao Yu hurried outside the complex.

Xiao Yu crouched on the road, shining a high-beam flashlight on the pavement as he activated his Eagle Eye to search for traces. 

He found it! 

Spotting marks on the ground where the hydraulic stabilizers of an aerial work platform had been set down.

When an aerial work platform is in use, four hydraulic stabilizers are deployed to stabilize the vehicle, preventing it from tipping over due to the tilt of the boom. It all made sense now.

Standing up, Xiao Yu let out a sigh of relief. Ever since he started working on this case, he felt like he’d been constantly debunking fake supernatural occurrences. Using logic and deduction to unravel these man-made ghost stories was exhausting.

“Pull up the surveillance footage and check for any aerial work platforms that entered this area,” Xiao Yu ordered.

An aerial work platform was a specialized vehicle, and there typically weren’t too many in a city. Soon, they had the vehicle information. By reviewing the surveillance footage, they confirmed that an aerial work platform had indeed entered the area around midnight.

By 4 a.m., they tracked down the vehicle owner, who was still asleep at home, but the aerial work platform was missing. A report from the traffic police indicated that the suspected vehicle had been found in another part of the city. It was confirmed—someone had stolen the aerial work platform to commit the crime.

“Well, this is something,” Xiao Yu said with a sarcastic laugh. “Stealing an aerial work platform just to scare someone with a corpse? I’ve got to say, that’s a pretty bold move.”

First, they stole a body from the morgue, then dressed it up to spook people, creating a false supernatural event. Now they’ve stolen a vehicle to scare the deceased’s family and create another fake ghost story. This wasn’t something a normal person would do. It was all so ridiculously over-the-top.

Xiao Yu couldn’t help but wonder what was the real motive behind all this.

“Boss, come up here,” Guo Qiang shouted from the fifth floor, sticking his head out of Che Feiting’s window.

“Huh?” 

Xiao Yu glanced up, then headed back into the complex and returned to Che Feiting’s apartment.

When Xiao Yu entered the living room, he noticed Guo Qiang looking serious, pointing at a small bottle on the coffee table, then at the pale-faced Che Feiting.

Xiao Yu frowned, walked over to the coffee table, and crouched down to examine the bottle. It was small, about the size of a thumb.

“A beta-blocker,” Guo Qiang said grimly, explaining to Xiao Yu, “I once worked on a case that seemed like a natural death at first. But after further investigation, we found something off. The victim had been killed by his wife using this kind of beta-blocker.”

Xiao Yu’s expression darkened immediately. He knew exactly what this was. With his “Medical Expert” ability, he was not only skilled in medicine but also knowledgeable about drugs.

What was a beta-blocker? 

Its full name was a beta-adrenergic receptor blocker. These drugs work by slowing down the heart rate, reducing oxygen consumption by the heart, managing arrhythmias, and improving heart function after a heart attack. However, if used in large doses, they could cause arrhythmias, heart attacks, heart failure, and other sudden conditions.

Xiao Yu looked up, glaring coldly at the pale Che Feiting. 

“Did your wife’s death have anything to do with you?”

Something didn’t add up. Xiao Yu had already observed Che Feiting’s micro-expressions and concluded that he likely didn’t kill his wife. So, what was this bottle of medicine doing here?

Everything was getting more confusing, and Xiao Yu’s head started to ache.

A strange thought popped into his mind: someone was targeting Che Feiting. And it wasn’t just one person.