In the early hours of the morning, in the foreign residential area of Kankdar, in a hotel suite, Dorothy, dressed in pajamas, sat on the sofa, her attention focused on the edge of the local residential area in the distance, specifically on the toxin identification experiment that had just been conducted there. Although the identification was successful and the snake venom was successfully detected, the many doubts prevented Dorothy from feeling happy.
'Based on my long-term experience manipulating Corpse Puppets, since Corpse Puppets are essentially living corpses, a type of living being that survives by the extraordinary power of the ""Cup"", the fresher the controlled corpse, the better. The less damage and injuries it has, the better. Even just one hour of natural decomposition after death will reduce the sense of control over the Corpse Puppet. Four days have passed since the assassination occurred. Logically, Mazhar's body should have decomposed to the point of being completely uncontrollable. The fact that it can still move is quite absurd.'
Dorothy thought this, and then she decided to verify the time of death of the Mazhar corpse in front of her. Since the sense of control over a Corpse Puppet decreases linearly with the increase in the time of death, Dorothy estimated based on the sense of control, combined with traditional autopsy methods such as checking rigor mortis and lividity. Dorothy quickly deduced the correct time of death for Mazhar's body, which should have been two days ago. This result caused Dorothy to fall into deep thought for a moment.
'Died two days ago? Not four days ago? How could this happen? Did Mazhar not die immediately at the time of the assassination, but was kept alive by those guys for two days before being killed? Or is this simply not Mazhar's body?'
After deducing the time of death, Dorothy couldn't help but frown, her expression filled with suspicion. Amidst the many confusions, she decided to further examine Mazhar's body.
Manipulating the other Corpse Puppets in the basement, Dorothy completely stripped Mazhar and began further autopsy work. During the autopsy process, he focused his attention on the gunshot wound on the body's chest, caused by a firearm.
Dorothy recalled the scene on the day of the assassination. When the attendant gunman hit Mazhar with a pistol, the location where Mazhar was shot, after calculation, completely matched the location of the gunshot wound on the body. This seemed to some extent to confirm that this body was Mazhar. While observing the gunshot wound, Dorothy also discovered another suspicious point: the gunshot wound actually showed signs of healing. It was clear that this body not only did not die from the gunshot, but also lived for a considerable period after being shot, to the point where the gunshot wound had begun to heal, before being killed.
So, what was the real cause of death for this body? Did he really die from poisoning?
After seeing the various abnormalities on the body, Dorothy became doubtful about the body's true cause of death. During her autopsy process just now, she also discovered some phenomena. These were bleeding in the eyelids and signs of cyanosis on the lips. When Dorothy used the Corpse Puppet to press and examine the area near the jaw, she found that the hyoid bone of the body seemed to be fractured. This phenomenon immediately caught Dorothy's attention.
'Fractured hyoid bone... Why would this body have a fractured hyoid bone? Whether he died from a gunshot or from poisoning, it shouldn't cause a fractured hyoid bone, should it? Generally speaking, the hyoid bone will only fracture due to strong external force in people who die from strangulation or forceful constriction...'
After examining the body again, Dorothy thought to herself. Through the discovery of the fractured hyoid bone, she suspected that the body might have died from external strangulation, and the bleeding in the eyelids also seemed to prove this point. But if this body truly died from strangulation, there was another problem that was difficult to explain.
'If a person dies from strangulation, there should be very obvious bruises on the neck. This is caused by blood accumulating in the neck area and subcutaneous bleeding when the deceased is being strangled. After death, blood stops flowing, so such bruises are difficult to dissipate, and the strangulation marks should be easily visible. However, on the surface of this body, there are no obvious strangulation marks. What is the reason for this?'
Observing the body in front of her, Dorothy pondered seriously. In order to confirm whether the body had signs of being strangled, Dorothy simply dissected the neck area of the body and directly observed its interior. The result, based on the numerous necrotic blood vessels and some traces on the trachea inside the neck, indicated that the deceased had indeed been severely strangled, to a degree sufficient to cause death. However, the bruising caused by strangulation had almost completely disappeared. This strange phenomenon made Dorothy feel suspicious.
'It's really strange. This guy was clearly strangled; it looks more like he was strangled to death than poisoned to death. But the bruising caused by strangulation has mysteriously disappeared... How could this happen? Doesn't blood stop flowing quickly after a person dies? The human body also loses the ability to autonomously remove marks. Could it be that this guy's blood started flowing again after death?'
'Right, blood started flowing again after death!'
Suddenly, Dorothy felt as if she had realized a crucial point. She suddenly thought that if a person was strangled to death and then blood started flowing again, and the body's functions partially recovered, then the bruising marks on the neck would also slowly recover.
While blood flowing again after death is impossible in her original world, it is completely feasible in this world, and she herself often does such things, or rather, she ensures normal blood circulation for dozens of "dead people" every day.
That's right, Corpse Puppet transformation is the simplest method to make blood flow again in a corpse after death. Since Corpse Puppets are essentially living beings, they have the function of self-resolving bruising. By transforming the corpse into a Corpse Puppet after death, and with some treatment methods, the bruising can be resolved quickly.
Therefore, Dorothy concluded that the current body of Mazhar should have been reactivated in a Corpse Puppet form after being strangled to death, thereby completing the process of resolving the bruising and removing the very obvious bruising marks that should have been on the body.
'That is to say, Mazhar didn't actually die on the day of the assassination, but was rescued, and then two days later was strangled to death by those guys, and then his strangulation marks were removed through Corpse Puppet transformation.
'But... why did those guys choose to strangle Mazhar instead of letting him be poisoned to death as originally planned? Since Mazhar was strangled to death, what's with all the toxins in his body? Did they want Mazhar to be strangled or poisoned?'
After initially solving the mystery of Mazhar's death, Dorothy fell into confused thought again. There were too many suspicious points on this body. Until she found a reasonable answer for these suspicious points, she dared not hand it over to Awei as evidence.
'Speaking of which, on the day of the assassination, it was publicly seen that Vanya treated two victims, and those guys should also know that the victims they injected with poison fell into Vanya's hands, and Vanya discovered the presence of toxins in their bodies during the treatment process.
'Since they knew that Vanya's side was aware that these victims were poisoned, they should also know that the fact that the Mazhar who truly died at their hands contained toxins absolutely must not be exposed, otherwise it would become evidence against them. They should have guarded against Vanya's side secretly stealing Mazhar's body.'
'Logically, if Mazhar truly died from poisoning, they should have strictly guarded Mazhar's body to prevent it from being stolen as evidence for their opponents. However, judging from the security measures at the Citizens' Mansion, Mazhar's body had almost no extraordinary-level security, clearly indicating that it was meant to be stolen.'
'The key is that if the stolen body doesn't have poison, it's fine, but if it does, it's even stranger. Is this intentionally sending evidence to the opponents?'
Dorothy thought this way. After this series of considerations, she felt a certain degree of suspicion about the Sand Scale Spotted Snake venom contained in Mazhar's body in front of her.
'No, I have to do an experiment...'
Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy had an idea. She immediately controlled several Corpse Puppets to leave the basement, go outside, and after having them wander around the messy local residential area for two rounds, they caught several mice and brought them back. These were Dorothy's experimental subjects.
After bringing the mice back to the basement, Dorothy immediately began the experiment. She injected one mouse with the venom of the Sand Scale Yellow Spotted Snake, and after watching it die painfully a few minutes later, she turned her attention to another mouse.
For the second mouse, Dorothy chose to strangle it first, waited for a period, and then injected it with the snake venom using a syringe. Next was the third mouse. Dorothy still strangled it, waited a moment, and then injected it with snake venom. However, after injecting the venom, Dorothy used her Corpse Puppet ability to manipulate it, made it move slightly twice, and then released control.
Afterwards, Dorothy waited for another two hours, then drew the blood from the three mice separately for individual analysis, and she obtained three different analysis results.
In the first mouse, which died normally from snake venom, the toxin combined quite thoroughly with the blood. A large number of blood cells died, and the coagulation function was destroyed. Only trace amounts of the original snake venom could be detected in the poisoned blood; the vast majority were products of the toxin combining with blood cells.
In the blood of the second mouse, almost no toxin was detected, only thick, congealing dead blood. Since the blood stopped flowing after the mouse died, the injected toxin could not spread throughout the body and could only accumulate at the injection site. Toxin could not be found by drawing blood from other areas.
The most interesting was the third mouse. Dorothy detected the original snake venom toxin in its blood, and the toxin content was much higher than in the first mouse that died normally from poisoning. This was because the third mouse was essentially strangled. After being dead for a period, a large number of blood cells in its blood had begun to die. The original living blood turned into dead blood mixed with a large number of dead cells. Not many of the original blood cells survived, so the toxin did not combine thoroughly with the blood.
In the body of the third mouse, the blood with a large number of dead blood cells began to flow again after being Corpse Puppetized, carrying the injected toxin throughout the body. The few surviving blood cells combined with the toxin to form poisoned blood. Some blood cells that didn't combine with the toxin remained unchanged, and there were also a large number of naturally dead blood cells. Dead blood, poisoned blood, and toxin coexisted... This was the phenomenon observed in the blood of the third mouse, which was significantly different from the first one, but similar to the analysis results Dorothy obtained from Mazhar's blood previously.
The experiment concluded, and the results were summarized. In this experiment, her biggest discovery was the blood within a creature that died normally from the Sand Scale Yellow Spotted Snake venom. It was completely different from the blood within a creature that was injected with toxin after death and then had the toxin spread throughout its body through Corpse Puppetization. They could be distinguished through analysis.
'Whew... I was almost tricked...'
After reaching this conclusion, Dorothy let out a long sigh of relief. At this point, she roughly knew what those guys' trick was. In short, Mazhar's body was a trap they had dug. As long as she gave Mazhar's body to Awei as evidence, she would be in deep trouble.
Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy rubbed her temples. At this moment, she began trying to connect the key points she had inferred to reconstruct the opponent's series of actions regarding Mazhar.
'At the very beginning, those guys planned to use toxins to poison the victims after the shooting, not giving them a chance to survive and receive treatment. However, this plan was disrupted by Vanya and me. Not only were two of the victims rescued, but Vanya also learned of their intention to kill with toxins through the treatment.'
'So, they began to worry that if Mazhar died from poisoning as originally planned, the toxins in his body would become leverage for Vanya's side. Therefore, at the last moment, they decided to save Mazhar, truly treat his wounds, and detoxify him. Although Mazhar was saved by them, they still publicly announced his death, and Mazhar himself was detained by them. However, Vanya knowing their attempt to poison still bothered them.'
'Two days after Mazhar was detained, these guys came up with a new method to target Vanya's side. They first strangled the detained Mazhar, then quickly Corpse Puppetized him. With the help of the Corpse Puppet Mazhar's self-healing to remove bruises and marks, they erased the signs of strangulation on the surface, except for the unresolved hyoid bone fracture.'
'Afterwards, they released the Corpse Puppetization, waited for a period to allow some blood cells in Mazhar's blood to die naturally, and then restarted the Corpse Puppetization. They injected him with the Sand Scale Yellow Spotted Snake venom, causing the semi-dead blood to combine insufficiently with the toxin. This was done to create the appearance that Mazhar was injected with poison after death.'
'Then they publicly held a memorial service for Mazhar, brazenly placing his body in the City Hall, and they didn't even arrange many guards for watch, all to entice people from Vanya's side to steal the body.'
'They could anticipate that Vanya's side, knowing the victims were poisoned, would surely assume Mazhar also died from toxins. They would steal Mazhar's body and try to extract blood from it for analysis, and it would be very easy to detect toxins from it. If Vanya's side were to use Mazhar's body and the detected toxins as evidence for confrontation, then the trouble would be significant.'
'Because the blood in a person's body after being poisoned to death is completely different in characteristics from the blood after being injected with poison after death and then having the poison spread throughout the body through Corpse Puppetization. If Vanya's side were to accuse the Kankdar government side based solely on the toxins remaining on Mazhar's body, then the other side could immediately counter-claim that it was a smear.'
'They could claim that Vanya's side stole Mazhar's body through despicable means and then shamelessly injected and spread poison into it, trying to clear their own names and slander them. The evidence would be that the blood composition in a person who died normally from poisoning is completely different from that in a person who was injected with poison after death. Then they would conduct an experiment on the spot to demonstrate the difference. If those biased judges were to verify it, Vanya's side would be unable to defend themselves. At that point, the judges would directly seize the opportunity to label Vanya's side as slanderers as evidence to intensify the accusations, and Vanya would truly be in danger.'
'Instead of succeeding in the accusation, they would be exposed, and the slander would be confirmed with strong evidence. With this whole scheme, even Awei would probably find it hard to protect Vanya.'
Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy rubbed her temples, speculating on the enemy's plan. The more she speculated, the more she felt a sense of dread. If she hadn't been careful enough and had used the detected toxins in the body's blood as evidence to make an accusation, the outcome would have been a complete defeat after being counter-attacked by the opponent. They had already anticipated her coming back to steal the body; Mazhar's body was a carefully prepared trap for her!
However... a trap is only a trap when it is not discovered. Now that Dorothy had noticed the trick, the nature of the situation had changed.
"What a good trick to lure the enemy in... But once this conspiracy is exposed, it poses no threat to me. On the contrary, the exposure of this conspiracy has revealed quite a few situations on your side..."
Dorothy murmured like this. As she spoke, she stood up from the sofa in the suite and slowly walked onto the balcony, looking at the sun that had risen on the horizon, and a new round of thoughts began in her mind.
This exposed conspiracy, far from being the key to victory, was instead a fatal weakness.