254: Inert Gas Asphyxiation

Inert Gas Asphyxiation

Mo Li corrected, "Jing Zhen is not an artist at Huan Yu. In fact, she is signed to Le Yun, Huan Yu's competition, so how could she be at Huan Yu?"0

Yu Xuan thought Mo Li look familiar, when Mo Li said these things, it finally clicked for Yu Xuan. She exclaimed, "Wait, I know who you are! You are Huan Yu's latest star, Mo Li, aren't you? I remember you, your commercial was amazing. Several of your posters were featured around the mall for months! But why would you be here... Plus I remember you should be underage..."

"Why is she here is none of your business, you only need to answer the questions honestly." Xiao Rui frowned. He knew that Mo Li's celebrity status would come in as an impediment eventually.

"Boss, we got the name of the girl who was fired from the other workers. Her name is Zhao Jing." At that moment, Si Lin rushed over and dropped this bomb.

"Zhao Jing?!" Xiao Rui frowned. That is such a familiar name! "Looks like we will have to have another meeting."

After getting most basic information, the group hurried back to the station. Kang Zhi walked in happily with lunch boxes. "Boss, Chief Li has ordered these for us. The dishes are scrumptious! We should take a break!"

Xiao Rui glanced at his watch and sighed, "You're right, we haven't had much to eat since morning. Bring up the surveillance and elevator camera footage, we'll examine them while we eat." Kang Zhi placed the lunch boxes on the conference table and he was excited. He was so hungry! "I can hear my stomach grumbling! Come on, let's dig in!" Kang Zhi opened the lunch box and he salivated, "Pumpkin braised ribs, garlic baby vegetables, coriander and chili beef, sour and spicy shredded potatoes, mapo tofu and mushroom soup... This is amazing!"

"Well, this is rare. Chief Li's wife is normally very strict with the purse strings. The chief should consider himself lucky if he has 500 RMB as allowance a month. It's not often that he'd treat us, so we should appreciate this. Kang Zhi, you're still a growing man so you have to eat more!" Xiao Rui then turned to Mo Li. "Why don't you tell us about the autopsy result?'

Mo Li held the chopsticks. She accepted the roasted sausage Xiao Rui passed her. "The body is very fresh. Even though the body is burnt, it still looks human. The internal organs have been cooked. When we cut open the cranium, the brain was red and roasted."

Kang Zhi silently put back the mapo tofu. He sighed.

"The initial report was correct. The time of death is from 9 pm to 9.45 pm yesterday night. There was no other fingerprint found at the crime scene. The man's skull is filled with motor oil. Its component is similar to the oil found inside a toolbox at the office. The eyes were gouged out but the wounds were neat and didn't turn outwards so they were probably done post mortem."

"Then what the cause of death is?" Xiao Rui hadn't had the time to read the autopsy report so he didn't know many things.

"That's the interesting part. He died from asphyxiation but he showed no signs of struggle."

"Asphyxiation? I'd assume he'd die from being burnt alive. Plus how did the killer manage to suffocate him without him struggling?"

"Because he died from inert gas asphyxiation."

Kang Zhi frowned, clearly he had no idea what Mo Li was talking about.

"Inert gases are gases like methane, helium and so on. If one is exposed to these gases for a prolonged period of time, they will not feel pain, so some countries use them in euthanasia."

Seeing the confused faces, Mo Li explained, "A normal person's respiratory system depends on the density of carbon dioxide flowing through the blood stream. When the density is too high, one will feel suffocated. However if the carbon dioxide is replaced by inert gases, the body will slowly die off and then the person will lose consciousness and eventually die." 

Kang Zhi gasped, "That's so scary!"

"But some experts argue that this is not really a painless death. High density inert gas can harm the human brain and nervous system. The victim might feel the pain before they expire but they can't do anything about it."

Xiao Rui examined the crime scene photos and he asked, "So someone has swapped out the content of Dong Yun's oxygen tanks?"

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