The Underlying Reasons I Chapter 2

------Where are we?

------We are in hell and we belong to hell.

------What if there is no hell? Or hell doesn't want us?

------But hell exists. No matter where we go, we are in hell.

------Excerpt from Interview with the Vampire

night.

The night was thick with fog, and the full moon was covered by the fog, emitting a bleak light, shining on the desolate European castle-like building on the ground. A crow flew over the dead tree in front of the door, making an abrupt and hoarse cry.

In the deadly quiet environment, there was suddenly a hoarse sound of a door being pushed open - creak.

The castle gate was suddenly pushed open, and several figures poked their heads in from outside the door, looking inside cautiously.

"I say, do we have to go to a place like this to shoot?..." A girl looked at the dark and silent room and asked the person next to her timidly.

"Hey, this is the only place where you can capture the feeling of vampires, okay?" a boy next to him replied in a low voice.

"But, it feels so scary here..."

"Don't worry, I've checked and this is an empty house. No one is here. Don't worry, we just need to take a few shots."

"......Okay, the next scene we are going to shoot is the scene of discovering the vampire. Angel comes in from outside, sees the coffin in the room, opens it and sees Dracula inside." The boy who looks like a director explained the scene to the two actors around him.

"Hey, where is the coffin here?" The boy who played the vampire tugged at the director's sleeve.

"Hmm?..." The boy looked around and finally fixed his eyes on a cabinet in the corner.

"That cabinet, please. Stand in it and we'll make it lie flat."

The boy who played the vampire nodded, walked over, opened the closet door, and was stunned for a moment - someone had arrived here before him - no, maybe it would be more appropriate to say "the same kind" - the man in the closet was wearing a black suit, his eyes were wide open, his face was pale, there was blood at the corners of his mouth, and on his neck, there were two blood holes where the blood had long since dried...

"ah!!------"

"We received a call half an hour ago saying that a male corpse was found in an abandoned house. The callers were a few college students." The 110 police officer who received the call led people inside and explained the situation to Sean and others.

"Why are these college students coming to this remote place in the middle of the night?" Chris asked in confusion.

"They said they were going to make a short film about vampires," the police officer on duty laughed, "but I didn't expect that I would actually encounter a ghost."

"dmn! These students really don't know how to write the word 'fear'..."

As they were talking, everyone had already arrived at the door of the house. Sean looked at this European-style castle that was abruptly built in the suburbs and frowned slightly.

"Why is there such a strange building here?"

"It's a historical problem." Felix explained to Sean: "This piece of land was originally bought by a group that wanted to develop it as an amusement attraction. Later, the group seemed to have some problems and suddenly went bankrupt. The whole project was forced to stop. Unfortunately, this building was abandoned just after it was built. It has been many years now."

Sean nodded to show that he understood.

As they were talking, everyone had already walked into the building. A quick glance revealed that the building was completely decorated in the style of medieval Europe, with gorgeous chandeliers, intricately patterned floors, and spiral staircases. However, due to long-term disuse, a lot of dust had covered the place, and there was no electricity at all. In order to facilitate the investigation, several lighting lamps were set up on the scene. The bright lights interlaced with the surrounding darkness, making the place even more dark and eerie.

Everyone went straight to the room where the body was found. The body had been taken out of the cabinet and laid flat on the ground. A man in a white coat was squatting there performing an autopsy.

"Ryan, you came so quickly!" Felix greeted.

"Oh, don't mention it. I was supposed to take a day off tomorrow. I had already made plans with my friends to go hiking and fishing, but I just got to the holiday villa when I received a call." The man whose name was called stood up. He was also tall and thin, with a handsome face that looked quite tough, and the rimless glasses added to his elite temperament. He saw Sean, took off his gloves and stretched out his hand: "You are Captain Shen from the serious crime team, right? Hello, I am forensic doctor Ryan."

"Sean." Sean also stretched out his hand and shook hands with him.

"Well, come and take a look at the body," Ryan Jiang said, putting on his gloves again and squatting down: "The male deceased, judging from the liver temperature, the time of death was probably between 7 and 10 pm. The deceased struggled before death. As for the cause of death... take a look, how did he die?"

As he moved, everyone's eyes shifted to the body on the ground. The dead man looked to be in his forties, a middle-aged man with a rather ordinary appearance. His eyes were bulging, his face was pale, and he looked like he was dying with his eyes open. The most conspicuous thing was the two clear bloody holes on the dead man's neck.

The dark night, the European-style castle, the corpse, the bloody hole on the neck... all of this can't help but make people think...

"Vampire?" Jiang Li frowned and uttered the word softly.

"Really? You think so too, right?" Ryan clapped his hands happily, feeling very happy that someone was so understanding and could understand everything so quickly.

"No way? It's so mysterious?"

Sean seemed to have no idea about Ryan's "guess". He stared at the head of the corpse for a while, then raised his head and asked Ryan: "Did the deceased die from excessive blood loss?"

"That's right. There are no other external injuries on the body, so it should be caused by the two holes on the neck." Ryan pointed to the neck of the body and continued: "Do you think the deceased's face is particularly pale?"

Several people nodded.

"I took a look and found bruises near the victim's wound. It seems that someone was violently drawing blood out. I suspect that all the blood in the victim's body was drained out." Ryan said this and, as expected, saw the expressions of several people behind him gasping. He smiled slightly and added, "But whether this is the case or not can only be confirmed after I return to perform a detailed autopsy."

Suddenly, Quentin on the side said "Hmm?"

"What's wrong?" Everyone turned their heads.

"This person...why do I feel like he looks familiar?..."

"Look familiar?" Everyone was surprised. Sean immediately asked: "Where have you seen it before?"

"Well, I can't remember clearly. I always feel like I've seen it before." Quentin touched his chin and recalled with a frown.

"Does he have a criminal record, or has he been reported missing?" Chris reminded.

"Neither." Quentin shook his head: "I think I saw it recently... Oh, I just can't remember it! There are too many things stored in my brain. Sometimes when I want to retrieve something, I can't find the right place!"

The others rolled their eyes.

"Since you have no idea, I will provide another clue." Ryan took over the conversation: "Judging from the corpse spots, the deceased was moved into the cabinet after death, so this is not the first scene of death."

"Well, okay, thank you, you've worked hard, I'll wait for your detailed autopsy report." Sean nodded and wanted to order someone to take the body away. But he found that Ryan had no intention of moving at all.

"You're not leaving?"

"I don't dare to leave because someone hasn't come." Ryan showed an innocent expression.

"Huh?" Sean was stunned. Just as he was about to ask what was going on, he suddenly heard a voice coming from the door: "Ryan, are you blaming us for arriving late?"

Turning back, I saw two people in white coats, a man and a woman, walking in. Each of them was carrying a silver toolbox, and both of them had a sign on their chests that said "Forensic Team". The one who just spoke was the man walking in front.

"No, no, how could I dare." When Ryan saw the person coming, he immediately showed a happy and slightly flattering smile.

The man rolled his eyes at Ryan and walked straight to Sean. He looked quite gentle, but his eyes were full of seriousness. He extended his hand and said, "Hello, Team Leader Shen. I am Liam Li, the deputy team leader of the forensic team, and this is my colleague Rosa Xu. I'm sorry that we are late because of the traffic jam on the road."

"Oh, hello." For some reason, when Sean heard Liam mention the word "Forensic Team", a trace of fluctuation flashed across his usually calm face. He was stunned for a moment, then quickly extended his hand, and his tone was not as cold as before: "I have heard of your name a long time ago, so I will leave this place to you."

Liam, who met Sean for the first time, naturally didn't know how much of a contrast Sean's attitude was with his usual self. He just nodded very naturally and said, "Okay."

Sean led the criminal team away, while Liam and Rosa opened the toolbox. Immediately, many specialized instruments appeared. The two took out different instruments and started working in perfect harmony. Rosa was in charge of the body, while Liam was in charge of the cabinet.

Ryan, who had already finished his work, walked leisurely to Liam's side.

"Hey, Jiayu, you guys are really slow today."

Liam was carefully observing the cabinet where the body was placed and ignored him.

"The door of this cabinet is very tight. It cannot be opened without pulling the handle, so the murderer must have pulled the door handle." Ryan came close to Liam and reminded him.

Liam still ignored him, but he took out toner and a brush and started to extract fingerprints from the door handle.

"Oh, by the way, there is a nail protruding from the right side of the cabinet, and it seems that a piece of cloth has been scraped on it. It might belong to the murderer." Ryan continued to remind.

At the same time, Liam happened to check this part of the cabinet and saw that piece of fiber - the timing was too coincidental, as if he really saw it with the help of Ryan.

Liam turned around and looked at Ryan coldly: "Can you please stop interfering with my work?"

"How am I interfering with your work?" Ryan said innocently, "I'm helping you."

Liam looked down expressionlessly, pointed at Ryan's feet and said, "Don't wander around the room all the time. You may have destroyed all the suspect's footprints. Xiaorou, take a sample from his shoes to avoid interfering with our analysis of the scene."

"Hey! Liam! You don't have to tease me like this, do you?!" Ryan yelled. The dust on the ground was not thick, so there was no clear footprints. And those kids and police had already stepped on this place, so why would they look at the shoe prints? !

Over there, Rosa, who had been listening to the two people "flirting" for a long time, was already laughing so hard that her stomach ached - these two people would bicker whenever they met on the scene, and people who were familiar with them were already used to it.

"I'm talking to Forensic Doctor Jiang," Rosa walked to Ryan with the stamp paper and smiled as if she was watching a good show: "Please take off your shoes..."

On the other side, Sean and others came out of the house. He asked the others to look around, and he walked to the college students who were still trembling.

Sean briefly introduced himself, and then got straight to the point: "Is this the body you found?"

"Yeah." A thin boy answered: "We originally wanted to use this place to shoot a few shots, but when we opened the cabinet, we saw the dead man..." Perhaps recalling the horrible scene just now, the boy's face turned paler.

"Did you notice anyone around you or anything unusual from the time you came here to the time you left?"

Several people looked at each other and shook their heads.

At this time, the other people also came back, and from their expressions it was clear that they all got nothing.

Sean looked at the deserted house in front of him, which looked increasingly eerie in the moonlight, and frowned again.