When A Snail Falls in Love

The sun rose up from behind the mountains far away, covering the whole mountain in bright, golden yellow rays. The grass became greener right alongside the corpse, making a silently beautiful but penetrating image.

Ji Bai, Xu Xu, and a few other criminal police officers stood on the outer circle as the forensics team ran some test. After the forensics detective finished the examination, he stood up and walked over. “The time of death is before dawn, the day before yesterday. I suspect that the cause of death is poisoning via potassium cyanide, which is the reason why the corpse has a reddened face. Besides this, her wrists and ankles have scars from being restrained by metal chains, and her vaginal area is red and swollen, with a tear-like wound. There are no other obvious scars, and so, a complete conclusion can only be made after a post-mortem.”

Everyone fell silent. From the looks of it, this seemed like a homicide, rape and murder case.

Ji Bai asked with a stern look, “Has the identity of the deceased been identified yet?”

Zhao Han shook his head. “We’re still looking into it.”

As the forensics detective carefully shifted the corpse away, Xu Xu walked over and stared at her white-skinned, gentle side profile.

The criminal police soon spread out to investigate the scene, so Xu Xu stood in front of the corpse for a while then walked over to Ji Bai. He was standing beside the rock walk behind the crime scene, deep in thought.

“Where they chose to abandon the corpse had been thought out properly.” He pointed at the traces of soil under the rock wall and said, “There’s traces of erosion and aged mudslides over here, which means that once the rainy season is here, the corpse will be buried very quickly.”

Xu Xu nodded. “The culprit doesn’t want the corpse to be found.”

Ji Bai nodded then continued, “They’re only a few narrow mountain paths through this mountain, and there are no surveillance cameras anywhere close to this area, so even if the criminal had used a car, it wouldn’t have been caught on tape. Additionally, the mountain is full of dense trees and grasses, I’m afraid that it’ll be very difficult to find the footprints of the criminal.” Right after he said this, he looked over to Xu Xu but noticed that her face was now looking rather pale.

Seeing that there was nobody around, Ji Bai quickly walked to her side. “What’s wrong, are you not feeling well?”

Xu Xu shook her head. “I’m alright, just a little tired.”

Along the way, Ji Bai had focused entirely on the case, such that he did not bother about her. It was only then that he recalled that she had not eaten anything for the entire day, and since they had hurried here last night, it was no wonder that she was exhausted. Thus, he said softly, “I’ll carry you when we leave the mountain later, we’ll look for something to eat after we leave.”

Xu Xu felt a warmth in her heart, but there were still criminal police officers from the local county around, so she replied, “You don’t have to carry me, it wouldn’t be nice to do so around the crime scene, I’m alright.”

Ji Bai reached out and touched her head. “What’s not nice about it? It’s only right for a male colleague to take care of a female colleague, and it’s not like I can let other men carry you, right?”

Xu Xu laughed, then the two of them stopped talking and continued investigating the area around the corpse by themselves.

Just as Ji Bai had predicted, the criminal police gained nothing from their sweep of the mountain, the criminal did not leave any footprints, hair nor other evidence.

It was afternoon when everyone returned to the city. Soon enough, a detailed post-mortem from the forensics detective was completed which confirmed the hypotheses made in the morning. Besides, remains of drugs were found in the deceased’s body which, after they ran some tests, discovered that it was a Japan-made INVERMA solution, which was a type of powerful aphrodisiac for females and could be bought online. Ingesting even a small amount of it would cause one’s mind and muscles to go into a state of excitement and would also cause strong sexual hallucinations.

After Xu Xu returned to the police station, she laid on the couch in Ji Bai’s office to catch up on her sleep and regain some energy. When she woke up, the sky was already dark, and everyone else had left to investigate the case, so the office was now empty. She pondered for a while then left for the mortuary.

Since she had graduated, she was officially a criminal police officer. Ji Bai had suggested, and the Station Chief had agreed, that she could now independently arrange tasks for herself to focus on criminal psychology research. However, during group operations, it would be up to Ji Bai to assign her task.

The mortuary was spacious and brightly lit, and the air was cold inside. Workers were writing reports at the office desk outside, leaving the corpse laying on a metal work table.

Xu Xu put on gloves and lifted the white cloth covering the corpse, then she did a thorough inspection of the body inch by inch. She could smell a faint fragrance on the corpse, which smelt like Johnson’s milk-based body shampoo. As she was lost in her thoughts, she suddenly heard a familiar, low-toned voice behind her. “What did you find?”

It was Ji Bai, he had just returned. His attractive face looked serious, his deep, onyx eyes were quiet, and his burly body seemed to carry the chillness from the night outdoors.

Without even lifting her head, Xu Xu said, “The deceased’s throat is red and swollen, why is that?”

Ji Bai thought for a bit then answered, “According to the autopsy report, she had consumed a sexual stimulant, and her body showed signs of having frequent sex.”

Xu Xu understood straight away that it was the effect of the drugs which caused the deceased to shout hysterically during sex, resulting in a red and swollen throat.

She continued checking the corpse, whereas Ji Bai stood by her side as he read the autopsy report. A moment after, Xu Xu asked again, “All the pubic hair on her lower body had been completely trimmed off, why would he do that? Is it so that it makes her look cleaner and sexier? Does it make men feel more excited?”

“I suppose.”

Xu Xu frowned, then she turned to look at Ji Bai. “I don’t quite understand this, do men think that this is a unique habit?”

Ji Bai pondered for some time before answering. “It’s that it’s unique, it’s just that a lot of men like it.”

Xu Xu nodded. “Nonetheless, from the condition of the corpse, I gather that the culprit gets more aroused by this than other men.”

Later, the forensics detective arrived, Ji Bai went aside and conversed with him softly. Meanwhile, Xu Xu was almost done with her inspection, so she covered the corpse, pulled a chair over, and sat down facing the corpse, staring at her face the entire time.

Countless previously-scattered clues quickly linked together in her mind as image after image surfaced, almost involuntarily, in Xu Xu’s mind.

It was a room with gently-lit light and noiseless. The lady’s limbs were restrained by chains such that she could only let herself be manipulated by the man. He first cleaned her whole body, and perhaps even moved his head closer to smell the fragrance of the body shampoo on her. Afterward, he carefully shaved her pubic hair bit by bit, then looked down with satisfaction at her fair, fleshy body. It was as clean and as pure as a newborn baby, and it was now laying right in front of him.

He put on soft and comfortable clothes on her, which made her look refreshed and delicate, then, he fed her sexual stimulants, so that he could gaze at her aroused and obscene expressions. He enjoyed the way she looked as she was quickly overwhelmed by sexual desire.

He would trap her underneath his body before he subdued and dominated her repeatedly. Owing to that fact that she was now only semi-conscious, coupled with the extreme excitement and stimulated senses, she screamed continuously, until her throat became swollen and painful…

After this, perhaps he got tired of her, or that she enraged him, but he brought her deep into a mountain and laid her down in the prettiest and most lovely posture in a corner of the world that was known only to him. Before long, she passed away quietly…

When Xu Xu recalled the near-perfect image of her, she suddenly felt disgusted. She snapped back to reality and pressed on her chest to calm herself down. Then, she looked up again to find that Ji Bai was still talking to the forensics detective and was not looking at her.

Later that night, everyone from the Criminal Police Unit returned to the police station to meet again.

The night sky outside the window was tranquil and shadows of trees could be seen swaying under the streetlights. The conference room, on the other hand, was brightly light, but the atmosphere was tense. While everyone looked fatigue, they were all stern and exceptionally focused.

Old Wu began, “The identity of the deceased has been confirmed. She’s Bai Anan, 23 years old, from Lin City. She graduated from Lin University a year ago and was an employee from a foreign accounting firm. She had not gone to work since a week before national day, and on that day, a colleague received a message from her saying that she was going to return to her hometown and she asked her to help apply leave for her. Hence, even though her company was not quite happy with it, they didn’t pay it too much attention.”

Zhao Han added, “We’ve questioned Bai Anan’s colleagues, friends, and family – she has a very cheerful character, was active and also performed well in both work and with social situations, so there was no motive for her to commit suicide. Furthermore, she’s single and has no boyfriend.”

A few of Bai Anan’s photos suddenly appeared on the projected screen in the conference room. Compared to the peaceful expression that she wore when she died, photos from her daily life portrayed her to be full of smiles, fresh-looking and charming.

Da Hu said, “If we do the math, she had been missing for a whole two weeks.”

As they thought of the corpse, everyone became a little downhearted. During the two weeks, this attractive, outstanding office lady had probably experienced a living hell.

Right then, somebody asked, “Captain, what do you think?”

The case felt like a tricky one, thus everyone instantly set their eyes on Ji Bai, hoping that he could identify a breakthrough.

Ji Bai looked around him calmly and replied, “Other than the corpse, the criminal did not leave behind any clues at the scene so for the time being, it’ll be difficult for us to make further deductions.

However, the culprit did leave us with a few remarkably obvious clues that we can probably work with.”

Upon hearing this, everyone became energetic as Ji Bai continued,

“Firstly, potassium cyanide is a controlled drug, so whoever buys it would have to get strict approval and their names would be recorded. Little Zhao immediately began searching for the approval record;

“Secondly, there’s a possibility of the murderer being a lover or admirer. Old Wu, lead a team to investigate the daily interpersonal relationships of the deceased, put importance on those who had a complicated relationship with her – ex-boyfriends, admirers, all of them need to be questioned in detail”

“Thirdly, since the culprit transported the corpse deep into the mountain, he certainly has a car, and also owns a secluded house where he could abduct the victim and trap her in without being noticed. You must take note of this when you do the screening”

“Fourth, Da Hu, you’re in charge of investigating information on all the rapists in the province, check if anyone was recently released from prison, and see if they could be suspects in this case.

“From this day onwards, everyone please refrain from taking leave. Moreover, the information for this case must be kept strictly confidential from the public.”

Everyone nodded one after another and recorded what he had said, then a few groups of people started delegating specific tasks. At that moment, Ji Bai noticed Xu Xu chewing on her pen as she sat at the end of the table; she was lost in her train of thought, so he called out to her. “Xu Xu, what’s your opinion?”

Xu Xu’s research in criminal psychology had so far been used as an additional supplement to traditional detective methods in the police unit. On top of that, this case was most unusual, so everyone looked at her curiously.

Xu Xu nodded and replied, “I don’t have a specific conclusion, but I’m certain about one thing, the culprit carried much heavier emotions for the deceased.”

Everyone was stunned.

In order to explain a criminal’s mindset to them, Xu Xu said, “I’ll first explain a bit of matured theory about rape.

“Why do men rape women? On the surface, it looks like unrestrained sexual desire, but why can’t they restrain these desires? At the end of the day, it’s still a problem derived from their mentality.

“According to the conclusions drawn by foreign researchers, some men satisfy their inner desire for power by controlling women; some do it entirely to vent the anger inside of them.

“There are also some people who are less successful in male-female relationships and think that raping will be able to make them feel victorious. This is reflected in data surrounding criminals, whether it’s the rapists in our country or in other countries, people with lower incomes and from a less educated background tend to occupy a much larger proportion.

“On the other hand, young people rape mainly because of their curiosity about sex.”

Everyone nodded after hearing what she said.

Xu Xu continued, “That being said, there’s another type of person who longs to build an intimate relationship with the victim through rape. Although the causes of this mentality are not clear, I think that the culprit in this case belongs to this group.

“He still thinks that his relationship with the victim is private, pure, passionate, and is controlled completely by him. He didn’t perform any other abusive acts on the deceased’s body, he even chose potassium cyanide to kill her, which would result in him being exposed to a certain amount of risk, but would not cause the deceased any kind of pain.

“I’m making an early deduction that this man is between 20 and 40 years old, financially well-off, has a clean appearance, a delicate and patient character, and is not normally violent. In other words, he’s a psychopath. In view of his strong desire for intimacy and sex, he’s probably single. In the past, he most likely chased after, harassed, and tracked the victim, but all of those failed. Therefore, I agree with Captain Ji’s point of view to investigate those that had complicated relationships with her.”

Due to all the work that needed to be taken care of, Xu Xu only returned home again after three days. Meanwhile, Ji Bai still stayed at the police station to oversee the investigation.

Ji Bai only returned home at 10pm that night. When he entered the room, Xu Xu was hugging her knees as she sat on the couch as she looked at pictures of the crime scene.

Ji Bai was completely drained as he sat down and hugged her waist, then he shut his eyes and leaned back against the couch.

Xu Xu turned to look at him. “No progress yet?”

Ji Bai nodded. Everyone was on the brink of death, so he gave them a break tonight, they would continue working tomorrow morning.

He pulled her into her arms and kissed her, he was temporarily escaping from his tight schedule; it felt like he was taking a warm shower as he kissed her skin, softening his tense body that had until now felt numb and frozen.

“Still looking at pictures?” He wrapped around her from behind and let his lips and tongue wander on her silky smooth, fair neck.

Xu Xu nodded and furrowed her brows. “Mmm. I feel like I’ve seen this picture before.”

Ji Bai was confused.

Nevertheless, Xu Xu got nowhere even after thinking for some time as she was probably overly exhausted. Since she was also starting to get a headache, she simply put the pictures down and turned to kiss him. “Quickly go shower.”

Rushing water could be heard from the bathroom as Xu Xu stared blankly at the door for a while, then she returned to her bedroom, shut the door, and took a pregnancy test kit out of her bag.

She had bought it from the drug store downstairs when she came home from work. She read the guidelines once, then brought it into the toilet in the master bedroom.

A few minutes later, Xu Xu held the pregnancy test kit up and saw that it had two lines on it. Stunned, she laid down on the bed facing the ceiling.

According to Baidu, poor quality condoms that tore halfway, dampened contraceptive pills, pre-cum from the males, condoms slipping off during the process after the male uses too much force… all of these could lead to accidental pregnancy.

Xu Xu stared at it for some time then pushed it into her pocket.

Just because they were home did not mean that they were free from work. After Ji Bai took a shower, he made a cup of coffee and entered the bedroom with a stack of documents.

Xu Xu was supporting her head with both hands behind her at this instant. She sat against the headboard and looked at him with pitch-black but energetic eyes, the complexion of her reddish face seemed vibrant as well. Ji Bai smiled and pinch her chin as he kissed her, then he took a small stack of documents out and passed it to her. “The information regarding Bai Anan’s friends. Take a look.”

The two of them cooperated well, they worked overtime together, discussed theories together, and overall, they were highly effective.

Xu Xu took the information then looked at the clock on the wall, it was 11:00pm. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she felt like her stomach was quite bloated, as if somebody was reminding her not to stay up to work overtime.

She fell silent for a while then said, “I don’t want to work anymore today, I want to sleep.”

Normally, she would always be more energetic than him when it came to work, hence her response today surprised Ji Bai, and he reached her hand out to stroke her cheeks. “Tired?”

“Mmm.”

Ji Bai kissed her forehead and took the documents back. “Give them to me, you go to bed first.”

It was getting late as the night grew even quieter. Ji Bai sat in front of the desk, and only the sound of him flipping through the stack of paper under the study lamp could be heard. A moment later, he lifted his head up to see Xu Xu curled up under the blanket, her face was as white as jade and she was sleeping soundly.

When the sky slowly got bright, Ji Bai turned his body on the bed and suddenly realized that his arms were empty. Thus, he immediately woke up at once and noticed that Xu Xu was not in bed.

As he turned to scan the room, he saw her standing at the edge of the bed in thin pajamas while looking at the floor with her head lowered. The dark blue morning sky outside the window and the yellow streetlights weaved to create a quiet shadow behind her, making the little body of hers seem extra lonely.

Was something bothering her?

Ji Bai had only slept for a couple of hours, so his mind was still quite blurry. In spite of this, he immediately got up and move over to hold her hand. “What’s wrong?”

Xu Xu turned to look at him and he looked ghastly. She reached her hand into her pocket and passed him a white and pink stick. “I’m pregnant.”

Ji Bai was immediately wide awake.