Chapter 63: Coffin?

Down the vertical shaft?

Inside the underground parking garage!

The police officers looked at Shen Ting in surprise:

"Aren't we supposed to follow the wormwood smoke?"

"The smoke was clearly drifting upward!"

"That's right! Why check the bottom of the vertical shaft?"

"There's basically no point in doing this! Isn't the bottom of the shaft completely open to view? There's clearly nothing down there!"

Holding a high-powered flashlight, an officer shone the beam toward the bottom of the shaft, where it was plainly visible that nothing was there.

Xu Xinyi thought for a moment and said:

"Is it because the wormwood smoke didn't go straight up after entering the shaft?

Does that mean the airflow inside the shaft is more complicated than normal?

Shen Ting, do you suspect there's something at the bottom of the shaft that disrupts the airflow?"

"Exactly!"

As Shen Ting nodded, he looked at Zheng Yuanqiao and Qin Shan.

Since Shen Ting had said so, it was naturally impossible for the two of them to disagree:

"Then let's go down and check."

"Since we're already here, we won't have peace of mind unless we take a look."

Digging a vertical shaft should involve elevators and other equipment.

However, now that the construction site was abandoned, all such equipment was entirely gone.

The officers fetched ropes from the police cars and quickly set them up.

Xiong Beibei took the lead, descending into the vertical shaft first along with a crime scene investigator to check things out.

Clinging to the rope and having just descended halfway, Xiong Beibei suddenly shouted upward in confusion:

"Something's not right!

I think I smell a bit of a foul odor."

"What kind of foul odor?

Little Bear, you didn't scare yourself so badly that you soiled your pants, did you? Hahaha~~~"

An officer joked.

Xiong Beibei glared:

"Talk nonsense!

Would going down a vertical shaft make me shit my pants?"

The crime scene investigator beside him also frowned slightly:

"There is indeed a rather peculiar smell, somewhat like the stench of decaying flesh!"

Everyone in the garage turned serious.

Catching the stench of decay in a homicide case was never a good sign.

Could it be that the criminal had dismembered the victim, dumped the body parts into this vertical shaft, and then covered them with earth?

Xiong Beibei and his companion felt a bit unsettled inside.

The enclosed shaft was inherently oppressive, and combined with the stench of decay, their nerves grew taut.

They accelerated their descent and quickly reached the bottom of the vertical shaft.

After a brief observation, both of them immediately let out a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness!

There were no dismembered body parts as they had anticipated!

And naturally, no intact corpses either!

Wearing gloves, the crime scene investigator pulled two mummified carcasses from the corner of the shaft, placed them into an evidence bag, and showed them to the people above:

"False alarm, they're the carcasses of stray dogs.

They probably fell down here from the upper entrance of the vertical shaft.

The foul odor must have come from them.

There are no other clues; it's just yellow dirt all around."

After pondering for a moment, Shen Ting put on his safety gear and also climbed down along the rope.

Xu Xinyi and Zheng Yuanqiao followed them down as well.

Because space in the vertical shaft was limited, everyone else had to wait above.

Soon, the three of them reached the very bottom of the shaft.

Shen Ting looked around, and indeed, he found nothing.

At the absolute bottom of the shaft, he only discovered two watermelon-sized holes.

Earlier, the investigator had dragged the mummified stray dogs out from these very holes.

When they fell, they weren't dead yet, and their will to survive had driven them to claw at the yellow dirt in an attempt to escape.

But they had failed!

The problem was!

The wormwood smoke in Shen Ting's hand hadn't changed much either, save for becoming more turbulent, yet it still drifted straight up.

In the enclosed space at the bottom of the vertical shaft, air currents circulated frequently and were complex, so it was completely normal for the wormwood smoke to fluctuate!

"It seems there are no factors disrupting the airflow in the vertical shaft."

Furthermore!

The needle on the compass no longer vibrated!

Reluctant to give up, Shen Ting pretended to take photos for evidence while displaying the situation inside the shaft to the group members.

Jigsaw: "Compared to the volume of the building above, this vertical shaft seems a bit narrow."

Tang Ren: "Of course~~ Can't you see the walls are still bare yellow dirt? It's definitely not finished yet and needs to be dug out and widened further~~~"

Aside from being an educator, Jigsaw was also a master in the fields of structural engineering and design.

The traps he used for educating people were things ordinary people could neither design nor manufacture.

Moreover, he was very familiar with architectural structures.

Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to set up his educational base within the city without being discovered by the police.

Therefore, his judgment regarding the vertical shaft was undoubtedly correct.

Yet Tang Ren's phrasing was crude but accurate.

The shaft was incomplete, and subsequent expansion was definitely required.

Jigsaw: "It is indeed normal for the vertical shaft to be narrow at present. But this depth is abnormal! The structure of the building is residential above and parking below. Therefore, vertical shafts typically lead to the parking garage. However, this shaft goes even deeper than the parking garage. This indicates that underneath, there is another space requiring ventilation, similar to a parking garage."

That made sense!

As Shen Ting stood in a daze, forensic pathologist Qin Ming also spoke:

"I just examined the two dog carcasses. Due to the special environment in the vertical shaft, they have been mummified into an extremely dry state. Ordinarily, they shouldn't emit such a strong foul odor."

In other words, the stench of decay came from somewhere else?

A flash of insight struck Shen Ting, and he suddenly squatted down.

Then he saw that Xu Xinyi, standing beside him, had squatted down at the same time.

"Did you think of it?"

"Did you think of it too?"

The two of them exchanged a smiling glance.

Xu Xinyi put on her gloves and reached her hand into the pit the dogs had dug at the bottom of the well.

Shen Ting thrust the wormwood stick into the other cavity. ...

"There's... wind!"

"The wormwood smoke is swirling chaotically!"

Xiong Beibei immediately squatted down and shone his high-powered flashlight into the two holes.

To the naked eye, both holes appeared sealed, consistent with the earlier inspection results.

"There must be tiny cracks invisible to the naked eye!"

Shen Ting guessed: "The other side of this wall might be a large space requiring ventilation. That's why the vertical shaft extends this deep! The distance between the two should be very close; judging by the depth of the dog holes, it's only about thirty centimeters."

Zheng Yuanqiao instantly understood and shouted upward:

"Team Leader Qin, we've got a discovery. Send a few hoes down."

Soon, Xiong Beibei received a hoe and began to dig.

Though he possessed great strength, the limited space in the vertical shaft slowed his digging speed.

"Clang~~"

"Clang-clang~~"

"Clang~~"

The sound of the hoe chiseling into the dry earth struck everyone's hearts like drumbeats.

Everyone felt both nervous and expectant!

Shen Ting even more so.

On one hand, he worried for Gao Ya's safety.

On the other hand, Tang Ren's metaphysical approach had reached its dead end.

If they still found nothing, things would become very troublesome.

Rustle, rustle~~~

The dry earth on the wall was rapidly scraped away, piling up into a heap on the ground.

"Swish~~"

Suddenly, Xiong Beibei paused, followed by a surge of great joy:

"I've broken through! The other side is truly hollow."

He pulled the hoe back, and a chunk of earth the size of a fist immediately rolled down.

Through the opening, the few people inside the well all saw that the opposite side was pitch black.

Yet a dim, yellowish ray of light faintly cascaded down from the upper part of the space.

"It seems... there's a sound! And the stench of decay is stronger too!"

A woman's perception remained much sharper.

Xu Xinyi frowned slightly.

The four of them—Shen Ting and the others—did not even dare to speak. Taking a deep breath, they indeed found that the rotting odor had grown much heavier.

And it wasn't the smell of a slaughterhouse.

It was far worse than that!

It was the stench of decay mixed with trace amounts of disinfectants and chemical agents.

It somewhat resembled the combined odor of a chemical processing plant and a slaughterhouse blended together.

"Pattering~~ pattering~~~"

They also heard the sound of water droplets hitting the ground beside their ears.

Yet it wasn't crisp; it was duller.

The dripping substance seemed thicker than water.

Could it be... blood?

The thought that flashed through all of their minds simultaneously made their hair stand on end.

They strained to look through to the other side of the small hole, but the opening was simply too small, and the opposite side was far too dark.

Moreover, Xiong Beibei was too tall and broad, and the hole he had punched was high up, making it utterly impossible to discern the situation on the other side.

They could only confirm it was a massive space!

"Hurry up and dig! Dig faster!"

Even the usually composed Zheng Yuanqiao urged them anxiously.

Xiong Beibei tucked the hoe under his arm, spat twice onto his palms, rubbed them together, raised the hoe, and smashed it fiercely toward the small hole.

The entire hoe head sank into the soil.

"Swish~~"

Xiong Beibei pulled hard, and a large chunk of earth and stone half a person high instantly peeled away from the wall.

The fist-sized opening also expanded to half a person's size!

And the instant the earth and stone peeled away, the five people in the well froze abruptly.

Their eyes widened, and their throats bobbed involuntarily.

Even Xiong Beibei, standing at the front, couldn't help but step back, his hands growing so weak he could barely hold the hoe.

He managed to steady himself, gripping the hoe tightly with both hands, but both his hands and the tool trembled slightly.

"Hey, what's the situation down there?"

Qin Shan poked his head out from the upper parking garage, clearly noticing the odd state of the five people, and asked anxiously:

"Speak up! Is there a space on the other side? Did you find the criminal? Is it the criminal's body-dumping site? Is the missing person still alive? Are you guys alright?"

Qin Shan was nearly frantic with worry, firing off questions one after another.

Yet the five people at the bottom of the vertical shaft seemed not to have heard a thing.

As if paralyzed by an acupuncture needle, they stood there, stiff yet trembling.

The skin on their faces began to twitch slightly.

Other than terror, their eyes held no other emotion.

And that terror was not the startlement of a sudden fright, but a horror rooted deep in their marrow and carved into their genes!

Their gazes all passed through the opening and fixed on a single spot.

In the center of the vast space opposite, a long coffin sat atop a high platform!

The crucial point was!

That coffin was not made of wood, but was pieced together from human bodies!

The space opposite was indeed very dark, and under normal circumstances, nothing should have been clearly visible.

Yet there was an opening at the top of the space, through which the final amber rays of dusk penetrated, happening to fall directly upon the coffin.

It was vaguely discernible that an untold number of human corpses were bound and embraced together, forming a massive coffin nearly two meters long.

Human hands, feet, breasts, faces, and long hair protruded from the surface of the coffin.

The coffin appeared damp, pooling a substance resembling corpse fluid atop the high platform, which dripped from the edges down into the darkness below, making a "drip-drop" sound.

Intermingled within it were even stranger, fainter noises.

"Rustle~~"

"Rustle~~~"

The sounds clearly originated from the coffin.

The five of them hurriedly looked over, discovering that the sounds seemed to emanate from a protruding human face.

That face was covered in various patches of gray, white, red, and black mold, rendering its gender indistinguishable.

Was it the sound of wind passing through the coffin creating the "rustle"?

As they wondered, "Swish~~"

A friction sound suddenly rang out.

The sound was faint, barely audible.

Yet to the ears of the five people, it struck like a great temple bell, violently jarring their already taut heartstrings.

"Swish~~"

"Swish-swish~~"

"Swish-swish-swish~~"

The friction sounds grew increasingly rapid.

The heartstrings of the group vibrated with mounting violence.

The bizarre "rustle" and the dripping of corpse fluid remained mixed within it.

Whether it was an illusion or not, it seemed to have accelerated further.

"What... is going on?"

"Where is that sound coming from?"

Their voices were hoarse, their volume suppressed to the absolute limit.

"Swish-swish-swish~~~"

"Swish-swish-swish-swish~~~"

"Swish-swish-swish-swish-swish~~~"

The sounds grew ever more frantic!

Then abruptly, that mold-covered face suddenly bulged outward from the surface of the coffin...

"Holy crap~~"

"Damn~~"

"Ah~~"

"What~~"

"Hoo-hoo-hoo~~~"

Pushed to the absolute limit of tension, the five people were jolted stiff by the sudden change, retreating rapidly and pressing tightly against the earthen wall behind them.

The crime scene investigator even collapsed to the ground in terror, clawing at the earthen wall with both hands, his eyes dilated to the absolute extreme of horror...