I calmed everyone down, and when night fell, with He Xin's help, we found the local Public Security Bureau. However, as we observed from outside, something felt very wrong. Usually, even at night, there would be someone on duty at the police station, meaning there would be lights. But here, there wasn't a single light. Even the nearby police stations and substations were the same.
"Have the police here all…?" Xie Chuchu voiced a daring thought. I told everyone to stay quiet, and then we snuck in through a back door. The interior seemed dead silent, with no activity at all. We moved as slowly as possible. As we approached the Criminal Investigation team's hall, something suddenly darted past near the cluttered desks. Xiao Yuande immediately shone his flashlight, and we all saw a police officer huddled next to a filing cabinet, trembling with fear. "Don't come any closer! Please! Don't come any closer!"
Confused, we approached the officer and asked him what was going on. But upon seeing us, he waved his hands frantically. "Ah! Help! Don't come any closer! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
"We're also police officers, your colleagues. What happened to you?" Liu Yuning asked urgently.
"I… you're police officers too!!"
I nodded firmly. "What's going on here, Lester? Can you tell us?"
"Ah, you've come at the right time. Are you reinforcements from outside? Have reinforcements arrived?"
We exchanged glances and could only admit it temporarily. The officer then continued, "Ah, the director is gone. We watched him get bitten to death by hundreds, no, tens of thousands of rats! He was bitten to death!!!"
"What did you say?" We all gasped in shock.
"That night, near the pond on the east side of the town, a huge crack opened up. Then, then thousands upon thousands of rats, with red eyes, poured out like a tidal wave. They first devoured everyone on the road, and then they all rushed into the Public Security Bureau, the police stations, and substations. If I hadn't been at home that day, I probably would have… Later, I came back here to check and encountered rats again. I thought I was doomed, but then they left for some reason."
We found it incredible. Our mouths moved, but we didn't know what to say. Honestly, I wondered if the officer had seen hallucinations. Thousands of rats? How was that possible?
I squatted down to calm him, but the officer remained very nervous and agitated. A sense of dread washed over me. Could it be that he was the only police officer left in the entire town? What about the two people we saw during the day?
When I asked about them, the officer cursed, "Nonsense, they aren't police officers. They wouldn't let outsiders in and wouldn't reveal that the director was dead. This town has been taken over by some strange people. They seem to be using these rats for something… these rats, for what evil deed I don't know!"
"Were those strange people wearing black clothes? And were there mercenaries among them?" I pressed.
"It's not like that. They were all wearing police uniforms!"
"What?" We were all utterly shocked. Could it be that some police officers here had betrayed us?
Even though the thought was terrifying, I could see that this officer wasn't lying. We took him with us. He told me his name was Lu Tianyu. Hearing his name, I curiously asked, "Do you know Lu Chusheng?"
"Lu Chusheng? That's my uncle. What's going on?"
"Ah, I see. Lu Chusheng is also one of our people, but he's a bit busy with something lately."
Lu Chusheng had taken leave a few days ago, saying he was returning to his hometown to busy himself with building a house. I guessed he might be getting married. Seeing it as a major life event, I immediately granted him leave. After all, for someone in criminal investigation, getting married isn't easy. I wondered which lady had fallen for our Uncle Lu.
With that thought, we decided to turn on the lights in the Public Security Bureau. However, it seemed to be a power outage. This was quite frustrating. Had these rats chewed through the electrical equipment? Xiahou went to check the power room and shook his head. "It seems to be a town-wide problem. Weren't there no lights on the road when we arrived earlier?"
"That's troublesome. It will be even harder to find clues in this situation," I muttered.
"No choice. Let's go. We can't stay in the Public Security Bureau all the time. Oh, right, Tianyu, where is your director's body?"
"Upstairs. It's terrifying, you really shouldn't go up!"
"No, I need to perform an autopsy!"
"Uh? You're a forensic investigator?"
"I used to be…"
"Used to be…" If I hadn't told Lu Tianyu, he probably would never have dreamed that I was now the厅长 (Director).
I ignored him and had him lead the way. We arrived at the Public Security Bureau's press conference room. I saw a statue of a goddess here. Ah, this place must have been influenced by Western culture. Besides that, I also found oil paintings in the corridor, as well as some decorative exhibition rooms, and of course, quite a few stone statues of unknown origin.
Xie Chuchu and I began to examine the director's body. We took out two evidence kits, turned on our flashlights, and I rotated the examination umbrella, scattering some seaweed ash…
Everyone turned on their flashlights to illuminate the area so we could better examine the body. But this corpse was truly disgusting. The police uniform was so tattered and riddled with holes that it was impossible to discern anything. The skin and flesh on the body, as well as the internal organs, were covered in dense bite marks. Xie Chuchu had compared them before and knew they were rat teeth marks.
But the density was unbelievable, with almost no gap between them. Anyone with trypophobia would likely collapse upon seeing this scene.
I noticed blue-purple reactions all over the deceased, indicating he had bled profusely. There were splatter marks of blood around the corpse. Imagining if all the rats had swarmed onto the director, he would have been torn to shreds, leaving only this rotten flesh. The director's eyes and ears were gone, his head almost a skull. His identification was bitten into pieces, and even his shoes were in tatters. If there were truly that many rats, they must have been rabid to not even spare human clothing?
I examined the deceased's perineum and found that his… well, both of them, were gone. I used my dissection knife to separate a corner in the middle and discovered even denser bite marks there. My God, the director must have been screaming continuously at that moment…