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Five months pregnant!

Shi Boren was utterly startled, promptly adjusting his mask before approaching for a closer examination. "I don't see any sign of the child. Could she have fallen onto the ice cart?"

"Both the ice cart and the tunnel have been thoroughly searched, with no results," Sir Lin disclosed, also taken aback by the gruesome sight of the female corpse. He shifted slightly to the side, revealing a compassionate gaze.

After a moment of silence, Song Heng spoke, "There's reason to believe that the fetus was removed by the perpetrator. Judging from the coagulation of blood in the abdominal cavity, the pregnant woman had also undergone physical torment. She suffered immensely before her fetus was taken, eventually bleeding out until death."

Upon hearing this conclusion, the entire scene fell into a somber silence.

Isn't this… essentially a live cesarean section?

Aside from the human flesh buns at the Eight Immortals Restaurant incident before, no such heinous case where the victim's body was minced into meat filling had occurred in Hong Kong for decades.

Chu Yuening felt a surge of anger. Gazing at the female corpse's mouth slightly agape, her face frozen in agony, she rubbed her forehead, attempting to activate her Third Eye.

All she saw was darkness.

"How is it?" Zhou Fengxu asked.

Chu Yuening shook her head, her expression not particularly good.

She couldn't sense anything.

Nor could she see the woman's past.

Most importantly, the woman's soul... was gone.

Zhou Fengxu instructed the attendant to take the body back to the police station. As he watched the body bag being sealed shut, he said with a grave look, "Let's return to the station first."

The sky had officially turned dark.

The interrogation room was dimly lit, with only a desk lamp placed on the table.

A man in a blue vest sat there, cooperating with Shi Boren to give his testimony.

He was Fan Zhiyong, 33 years old, originally from Fujian. Twenty years ago, he had come to Hong Kong with his wife to work and settle down.

His wife was a primary school teacher, while he worked at an ice delivery company, Ice Cool Ice Delivery, for eight years.

"Our company has three ice delivery trucks, with six people working in two shifts. Day and night shifts alternate, and there are three routes. I'm responsible for delivering to the Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui areas. Usually, once we've loaded the ice, we don't check the truck again. If not for the back door not being properly latched, I wouldn't have known there was a body inside."

Fan Zhiyong leaned slightly forward, his posture tense and unnatural. His fingers gripped the armrest of the chair, his eyes filled with fear and anxiety. "Sir, I've told you everything. I genuinely don't know when the body was loaded onto the truck or who moved it. My wife is waiting for me to come home for dinner. Can't you let me go?"

"Pal, the corpse turned up in your shift's ice truck. Until we clear this up, you're the prime suspect. You expect to go home now?" Shi Boren put down his pen for taking statements and took a sip from his water cup.

"What should I do?" Fan Zhiyong, unable to shake off the suspicion, feared imprisonment, and his eyes burned with urgency. "Sir, I'm really out of luck. My mother fell seriously ill last week and is hospitalized. I earn less than my wife, so I'm constantly belittled. I was thinking of switching to a higher-paying job, just handed in my resignation, and then this happened. I really don't want to go to jail."

"Mr. Fan, calm down. Take a breath first." Zhou Fengxu spun a lighter, tapping the table. "Where do you usually park your truck? Are there any CCTV cameras around?"

Fan Zhiyong, flustered, quickly replied, "After work, they would usually be parked in the basement parking lot. There should be closed-circuit television (CCTV) installed there, as well as at the front entrance of the company. But not at the back door where the warehouse's freezer is located."

All relevant questions had been asked.

Zhou Fengxu, having exhausted all potentially valuable leads, stood up. "Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Fan. Take some rest for now. If you get hungry, feel free to call the on-duty staff to get you some late-night snacks. We'll do our best to solve this case as soon as possible."

Fan Zhiyong, at a loss, could only clutch his hair and sit helplessly, staring blankly. "Sir, can't I go home? This situation is just too absurd."

Why would a corpse suddenly appear in an ice truck?

"I apologize, but according to Hong Kong Police regulations, due to your significant involvement in this suspicious case, the police are legally authorized to hold you in custody for 48 hours," Zhou Fengxu explained. "Detention doesn't imply guilt. Once the investigation concludes and your suspicions are cleared, you'll be free to go."

"Oh? For 48 hours?" Fan Zhiyong's face fell. He scratched his head and then looked at the officers. "If I have to be detained, can you at least let me call my wife? She must be worried sick at home."

"Of course," Zhou Fengxu agreed, arranging for it before leaving the interrogation room.

The group re-entered the room.

Chu Yuening leaned against her chair, gazing at the dark night, deep in thought. She had just read Fan Zhiyong's facial features and understood that he wasn't lying.

How did the body end up in the ice truck?

Where had the soul gone?

She had just attempted a summoning ritual but couldn't locate the returning soul.

"What a tragedy," Luo Qizhong sighed loudly as he brewed a cup of coffee and sat down. "Five months pregnant, and the fetus was surgically removed while she was still alive. What kind of grudge or vendetta could justify such brutality?"

"Upon interrogation, we found out that Fan Zhiyong genuinely didn't know the victim. If he wasn't the murderer, then who could it be?"

Shi Boren speculated wildly.

"Could it be the victim's husband? Due to their divorce and his desire for a child, he might have resorted to such extremes? A five-month-old fetus could potentially be preserved in an incubator, right?"

"Although the organs aren't fully developed, hospitals might attempt it, albeit with great risks and high costs. If it was the husband, did some sudden argument provoke him into committing the crime?" Luo Qizhong mused aloud, but then dismissed the idea, setting down his coffee.

The night had grown deep.

None of them retained the earlier energy they had at the party; all were drained and listless.

The gruesome act of extracting a living fetus was too heinous.

The woman's pained expression at the time of her death lingered vividly in their minds.

Zhou Fengxu pondered the case, spinning a lighter in his hand continuously before lifting his gaze. "Ren, you'll head to the immigration office early tomorrow to verify the victim's identity and then contact the family for body identification. Everyone, get some rest early. We'll check the CCTV footage at the cold storage company tomorrow, hoping to find new leads."