Top-secret experiment

The Disappearing Crime Scene

"Shasha... Now, a special news broadcast. Shasha... This evening, a dismembered body was found near People's Park in the city. According to the police, it is highly likely to be the fourth case in the 522 serial dismemberment murders. Currently, a joint task force has been established to investigate the case. We remind citizens to be cautious and avoid going out alone at night. Shasha..."

In the dead of night, the room was pitch black, with only an old television softly groaning. The rusted lock emitted a screeching sound, followed by the creaking of the dilapidated security door as it slowly opened. A bespectacled man, reeking of alcohol, staggered into the room.

"Eh... did I forget... forget to turn off the TV when I left?" The bespectacled man mumbled as he fumbled for the light switch on the wall.

With a crisp click, the switch was pressed, but the light didn’t come on, and the room remained in darkness.

"Ah... looks like the wiring is broken again, this city village is such a hassle..." The man shook his head and stumbled toward the bedroom.

After walking just a few steps, he suddenly slipped, and was about to crash to the floor when, in his panic, he grabbed the bedroom door handle to prevent falling flat.

"Geez, where did all this water come from? Is it the kitchen's pipe leaking again?" The bespectacled man, his vision blurred by the alcohol, looked down and saw a large puddle of water on the floor. He cursed as he headed toward the kitchen.

The kitchen had a window, and with the moonlight slanting in, the bespectacled man scanned the area but found no trace of a leak.

"Strange, wasn’t it the kitchen leaking?" He turned around in confusion and saw a line of dark footprints on the floor. It took a moment for his alcohol-saturated brain to process, and he finally realized that the footprints were his own.

The man chuckled foolishly, squatted down, and wiped his finger along the footprint, bringing it up to his nose to sniff. He was about to taste it when suddenly, his movements froze.

His slow-moving brain processed the visual and olfactory cues— the liquid was red and smelled strongly of iron... What was it? Oh, right, it must be blood.

Wait... blood!

The bespectacled man was startled, and the alcohol's haze quickly cleared. He rubbed his eyes hard, then brought his finger up to his face for another look. Sure enough, it was blood!

He recalled the "water stains" by the bedroom door. If that was all blood...

A chill ran down his spine. Terrified, he didn’t dare to think any further and crept back to the bedroom door.

The blood was seeping out from under the bedroom door. Despite the fear gnawing at him, his curiosity about what lay behind that door grew stronger.

Should he go in and check, or just run away?

Under the encouragement of the alcohol, his curiosity overwhelmed his remaining reason. He grabbed a kitchen knife, went back to the bedroom door, and without hesitation, pushed it open.

"Bang!" The knife clattered to the floor.

The chaotic bedroom was a scene of c*****e. Under the moonlight, the white plaster walls were splattered with large streaks of blood, and the floor was nearly submerged in dark red. Amid the blood, severed limbs and chunks of flesh were scattered across the room. A bloodied, disfigured head sat upright on the bed, its round eyes staring fixedly at the bedroom door, seemingly locked in a stare with the bespectacled man.

The man staggered back, vomiting as he went.

In his mind, the news broadcast he had just heard echoed, "This evening, a dismembered body was found near People's Park in the city... police have confirmed it is likely the fourth case in the 522 serial dismemberment murders..."

At that moment, the alcohol completely evaporated from his system, and his brain sharpened.

This was a dismemberment scene—how could it be happening in his home? Wait, the blood on the floor hadn't coagulated yet... the victim had only just died. And the door opening automatically... that means...

The murderer hasn't left!

************，**********。Just then, strange footsteps suddenly echoed from the hallway outside the door, "Creak, creak, creak..." The sound was rhythmic, heavy and light, as if a lame person wearing thick-soled boots was walking on wooden floors.

The footsteps grew closer, seemingly coming down the stairs from the second floor, heading towards the room.

"He found me! What should I do? Run... yes, yes, run!"

The man in glasses snapped back to his senses and was relieved that the landlord hadn't installed a security cage on the window. He hurriedly pushed open the bedroom window and jumped out.

Outside the house was a narrow, pitch-black alley. In the urban village, narrow alleys extended in all directions, often leading people to get lost. The man in glasses had complained about them before, but this time, he was extremely grateful for the disorganized maze of paths.

He wanted to scream for help but feared alerting the killer, so he ran desperately down the narrow alley.

He didn't know how long he had been running, but his chest burned with pain, and his legs felt as heavy as lead. However, the strange footsteps still echoed, and overwhelming fear pushed him forward like a giant wave.

Just when he thought he could run no more, the alley finally ended. Ahead was an open area, illuminated by a solitary streetlamp, lighting up the entire world.

To his relief, under the streetlight, a police car was parked, its flashing red and blue lights like the dawn's first light, giving him an overwhelming sense of hope.

The man in glasses screamed and rushed towards the police car.

"Officer, no, police comrades, someone’s chasing me! No, no, they killed someone, I saw a murder!"

He babbled incoherently, but inside the police car, there was only silence.

The man in glasses quickly looked inside the car but saw nothing. It was pitch black, as if no one was there!

"Not good!"

His heart skipped a beat. He realized that his delay might cause the killer to catch up...

Just then, a large hand slapped his shoulder.

"Ah!"

The man in glasses jumped in shock, turned around, and saw two policemen.

Their hats were pulled low, making it hard to see their faces, and they looked somewhat eerie under the dim light.

The man in glasses was terrified but didn't think about it too much. He quickly told the policemen what he had seen.

When the two policemen heard that it might involve the 522 serial dismemberment case, they immediately asked him to lead them to the crime scene. Although the man in glasses didn't want to, he figured it would be safer to follow the police, so he led them back.

Strangely, the two policemen said nothing along the way and didn’t ask for any details about the case. They just silently followed the man in glasses.

The man in glasses was uneasy but didn't realize anything was off, and they walked for more than ten minutes before returning to the rental house.

He opened the worn-out security door and instinctively pressed the light switch.

With a crisp click, the light, which should have been broken, suddenly turned on, and the room was flooded with light.

The man in glasses froze on the spot, but the two policemen silently walked in.

It wasn’t until then that he came to his senses and quickly caught up with the policemen.

"This way, comrades, it's in the bedroom, there’s blood everywhere!"

He hurried ahead and opened the bedroom door, but once again, he was stunned.

The bedroom was messy, but it was just dirty clothes and socks. The fresh blood, limbs, pieces of flesh, and the human head were all gone.

"Disappeared? How is this possible? I clearly saw it earlier..."

The two policemen ignored the shocked man in glasses and entered the bedroom. They searched back and forth but found nothing.

Finally, they exchanged a look, shook their heads, and wordlessly left without even acknowledging the man in glasses.

The man in glasses was stunned for a long time. Suddenly, something occurred to him. These two policemen had silently followed him earlier, and after the light turned on, they had deliberately turned their backs to him. He still hadn’t been able to clearly see their faces.

Moreover, a major case like dismemberment—why wouldn’t they inquire about the details? Even if they didn’t at first, they should have taken him to the police station for a report afterward. How could they just leave without a word?

These two policemen were suspicious!

The man in glasses’ heart sank.

At that moment, the lights in the room suddenly went out, and the room fell into darkness again.

His heart skipped a beat, and before he could figure out what had happened, the eerie "creak, creak" sound echoed once again in the quiet room.

"It's the killer! He didn’t leave, he’s still here?!"

The man in glasses was terrified and immediately turned to run for the door.

However, his peripheral vision caught sight of the moonlight streaming in through the back window, casting his shadow on the floor. Strangely, there were two shadows, not just one.

The extra shadow was slowly stretching out, like a rapidly growing sapling, extending from behind him, quickly covering his own shadow.

"Outside the window, he's outside, he’s in!"

A buzzing sound filled the man in glasses' head, and his body shook uncontrollably. His limbs no longer obeyed his commands as he helplessly watched the shadow’s hand reach out toward him.

"No, no!"

The man in glasses was in extreme panic. He instinctively turned his head, but before he could see what the thing looked like, a sharp pain shot through his neck, and then his head spun, and he collapsed.

In the moment before he lost consciousness, the man in glasses vaguely saw a strange metal bottle fall in front of him. The bottle had an oddly-shaped red "X" printed on it.

The last rays of the setting sun poured through the window, turning the entire interrogation room golden. The old officer looked at a pile of materials and grinned slyly.

"Bao Shuai. Heh, that’s an interesting name. 22 years old, just graduated from university two months ago, currently unemployed. Your school gave you a good evaluation—good character, active thinking, and a sense of justice.

Hmm... a so-called good student from a second-rate university?

Two months have passed, and you still haven’t found a job. I think either your school is flattering itself, or your second-rate university is so bad that even every average student gets the "good student" label."

The man in glasses slowly raised his head. His hair was messy, his eyes bloodshot, and he looked haggard. He was Bao Shuai, a college graduate from a rural area... or rather, a former college student.

In contrast to his flashy name, Bao Shuai was short and unremarkable, with only his high-degree nearsighted glasses nearly covering half his face.

Four years ago, Bao Shuai entered the big city from a remote mountain village after the college entrance exam.

Like other rural students, he set off alone with the hopes and dreams of his entire village, hoping one day to return home in glory.

However, reality was far from his dreams. Bao Shuai, the literary star in his mountain village, was just a poor nobody in the big city.

A second-rate university couldn’t fulfill his hopes of changing his life. He had no money, no connections, and no looks, and even his academic performance wasn’t remarkable. This was the reality of his life.

By the time graduation season arrived, Bao Shuai failed the postgraduate exams, struggled with job hunting, and his girlfriend of three years left him for a decent job.

Yet even in this situation, he still had his dignity.

"Officer Tang, I’m the one who reported the case, not the criminal. Insulting me or my school only shows your lack of professional ethics."

Hearing Bao Shuai’s mildly angry response, the old officer smiled slightly.

"Oh, right, right, you’re the one who reported the case. But, in my thirty years on the police force, this is the first time I’ve heard someone report over forty false cases in one night. Heh, you’re either crazy or you’re the criminal you speak of."

Officer Tang’s sarcasm made Bao Shuai frown. He adjusted his thick glasses and said in a deep voice, "I’ll say it again, I only reported one case, and it was real. I saw the dismembered body, it was in my house!"

"We searched your house thoroughly. Don’t talk about any dismemberment scene, there wasn’t even a drop of blood, not even as dirty as your face! How is this not a false report? You’d better give me an explanation."

"This..."

"Alright, let me give you an explanation! When we found you, you were lying asleep in the alley, drunk out of your mind. I’ve seen drunk people act crazy, but your behavior has already crossed the line!"

"No, no, I really saw it last night..."

"Last night? Wake up! We received forty-two calls from you between 3 and 5 AM on the 25th. But when we found you, it was this morning, and today is the 27th. That means you disappeared for a whole day. Where were you? What did you do?

Moreover, if, as you described, the killer attacked you and you lost consciousness after discovering the crime scene, how would the killer just let you go?"

"Officer Tang, I didn’t lie to you. The killer attacked me, and when I fell, I saw a small bottle with an odd red 'X' on it. I’m telling the truth, please believe me..."

"What did you say?"

Officer Tang shouted sharply, interrupting Bao Shuai’s explanation. His expression turned serious, a look of incomprehensible intensity replacing the sarcasm.

The atmosphere suddenly grew tense. Bao Shuai felt a sense of unease and nervously said, "I said, please believe me..."

"It’s not that sentence, the one before that. What did you see?"

"I... I saw a small bottle, like a medicine bottle, with a strange red 'X' on it..."

"A strange red 'X', did you see clearly?!"

"I... I saw it clearly."

Officer Tang suddenly stood up, took a step towards Bao Shuai, and pulled out a photo from his inner pocket, handing it to him urgently, "Is this it?"

Bao Shuai jumped in shock, instinctively taking the photo and looking at it.

The photo appeared to be from a crime scene, with a strange red "X" painted on a weathered wall, almost identical to the one Bao Shuai had seen.

"Yes, this is it! I saw this, the strange red 'X'."

"Really?!"

Officer Tang’s pupils contracted, and his face showed a complex mix of excitement, regret, and relief.

Bao Shuai was left confused and asked tentatively, "So, Officer Tang, you believe me now? It really is a dismemberment case?"

Officer Tang gave a bitter smile. "Kid, I believe you, but this isn’t a dismemberment case. Get ready, you’re going to need 24-hour police protection."

"24-hour protection? Hey, Officer Tang, please explain! I still need to find a job!"

Officer Tang furrowed his brow and said harshly, "Find a job? Kid, you might not even survive until tomorrow morning!"