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This story and " Huijun's Story" are a series of stories that take place on the same day, and can be read in conjunction with each other.

本故事和「慧君的故事」為同一天發生的系列故事，請結合閱讀。

In mid-2022, the city held its first "National Beauty Pageant", open to all female residents between the ages of 18 and 24. The contest not only evaluated the appearance and body shape of the candidates but also included a talent and cultural assessment. More than 1,000 people entered the competition, and a panel of jurors selected the ten finalists after a months-long selection process. The committee then published the photos and CVs of the ten in the press, before the public voted for the final winner.

The champion would not only receive a substantial prize but would also become a star and earn the opportunity to represent well-known companies in advertising campaigns. However, the rules of the competition also stipulate that the contestants who finish in second to tenth place would be subject to execution, with their bodies made into assorted specimens to enrich the collection of the local university's recently expanded anatomical specimen collection.

Like Huijun and Eisenberg, Tao also participated in the contest and finished in the eighth place in the final voting session. 30 October 2022 was the day of her departure. In the morning, Tao and Huijun presented themselves to Ming-Hsing mortuary, where they were greeted by the executioner, Dr. Zhang Taihe, together with his assistant, Miss Huang, and underwent a basic physical inspection. At the time of the examination, the judicial police also brought in a female prisoner who was sentenced to capital punishment for committing a felony.

Despite the cold weather at the end of October, in order to prevent escape and ensure the successful completion of the execution, Dr. Zhang and Miss Huang stripped Tao and the other three women completely naked in the mortuary courtyard, and tied their hands with plastic tapes behind their backs. The group of six then boarded an escort vehicle and travelled to an old warehouse converted into an execution centre in the outskirts of the city.

Upon arrival, Tao and the female prisoner were rushed to the gas chamber after a group photo with Dr. Zhang and Miss Huang. Their hands were untied, but were immediately restrained to the wooden chairs in the gas chamber. Once outside the chamber, Dr. Zhang sealed the door, and poisonous gas poured down from the pipe above. Despite the prisoner's calmness in the face of death, fear drove Tao to wail hysterically in a futile attempt to free herself from the chair until she gradually lost consciousness, her body fell limp, and her head dangled to her side.

Outside the gas chamber, Huijun and Eisenberg witnessed the death of the two women. Even though their hands were tied behind their backs, and the door of the execution site was locked so that there was no possibility of their escape, their anxiety and despair still made Dr. Zhang and Miss Huang a little worried. In his heart, Dr. Zhang only hoped that he could push them into the gas chamber as soon as possible, so that he could finish his duties and get off work earlier.

Therefore, after confirming that the room had been emptied of poisonous gases, Dr. Zhang immediately went in to confirm the vital signs of the female criminal and Tao. As he was wearing a protective suit, he hastily touched the left breasts of the two women with his palm and peeled open their eyes briefly before announcing that they were dead. He then dragged out the body of the female convict and tossed it onto a stretcher, and together with Huang, he lifted out Tao's body and laid her flat on the concrete floor.

Huijun and Eisenberg were then sent to the gas chamber and turned into two beautiful corpses.

After the execution of the four was completed, Dr. Zhang and Miss Huang loaded the bodies into the van. The body of the female criminal was sent directly to the crematorium for cremation, while Tao was sent back to the Ming-Hsing mortuary together with Huijun and Eisenberg. It was nearly noon when they arrived.

Normally, the bodies of executed persons should be identified and inspected by family members before they are brought to the mortuary for post-mortem examination. However, as the hanging of Yan and the others (see "Yan's Story") was also carried out in the same morning, the mortuary staff were very busy. Therefore, only Huijun's body was pushed into the viewing room, while Eisenberg's and Tao's families were asked to come back to the mortuary the following day to identify the bodies, so their bodies were temporarily placed in the corridor outside the autopsy room.

After the lunch break, Dr. Li Jianliang, who had hanged Yan in the morning, pushed Huijun's body onto the autopsy table. When Dr. Li opened Huijun's mouth, he heard a strange noise coming from behind, and upon turning back, he found that Tao had woken up and was running towards the exit of the mortuary.

In the morning at the execution site, the poison gas concentration in the gas chamber was insufficient Tao did not stay in the chamber for long enough, as Dr. Zhang Taihe were impatient to get Huijun and Eisenberg, who were waiting outside anxiously, into the gas chamber as soon as possible. Tao only fainted at the scene. When the vital signs were examined afterwards, the stethoscope could not be used because of the protective clothing, and the judgement of death was made by a simple touch on the chest, resulting in Tao being sent to the mortuary without her being thoroughly killed. Afterwards, staff at the crematorium also mentioned that the female convict who was sent to the gas chamber with Tao also woke up at the crematorium, causing a drama in which her family members knelt in front of the police officers and judges at the scene to plead for mercy. The execution was eventually completed after a police officer dispersed the crowd and shot the convict in the head.

When he saw Tao running away, Dr. Li did not hesitate and chased after her, catching her in the mortuary courtyard. Should she run out of the courtyard naked into the street and get seen by passers-by, it would cause a major scandal. The coroner pinned her under one arm and carried her back to the mortuary. Tao's screams and struggles were ignored, without him even noticing that the struggling woman was urinating uncontrollably on the floor.

Li doctor quickly called Dr. Zhang Taihe, who was busy with paperworks in the office, to discuss the situation. Facing the two coroners, and looking at Huijun, lying cold on the autopsy table next to her, Tao knelt on the floor and begged them to let her go. Unlike Dr. Li, Dr. Zhang did not have such strong mental qualities, and was overwhelmed by the scene in front of him. However, Dr. Li's words finally convinced him: "Do you think you can still keep your job if you let her out alive from this mortuary?"

"Put her in the body fridge." Dr. Zhang whispered, " There would be no external injuries, and the family would not find out."

"She's officially dead, no one knows she's still alive, don't worry." Dr. Li reassured him.

Seeing that she could not escape her fate, Tao got up and tried to run away again, but the two coroners could not give her another chance. They quickly grabbed Tao's wrists and ankles and dragged her towards the fridge. Ignoring Tao's struggles, Dr. Li picked her up and shoved her into the middle shelf of the fridge, slamming the door in her face.

Since the body fridge was not intended for long-term preservation of bodies, but rather as a temporary storage space, and to avoid the troubles associated with defrosting, the temperature inside the fridge was set at around 1 degree Celsius. Enduring the bone-chilling temperature, the naked lady struggled to turn over in the small space, before slapping the stainless steel door hopelessly with her hands while wailing and screaming. The two forensic pathologists tried to pretend they could not hear her, concentrating on examining the bodies of Yan, Huijun and Eisenberg.

In the late afternoon, the two coroners completed all autopsies, cleaned up the countertops and sent the bodies of Yan and others away. They wrapped Eisenberg's hands and feet with plastic tape and placed her body in a compartment on the right side of the freezer, before switching off the lights and leaving for home.

By now, Tao was unable to make much noise, lying curled up on her side in the freezing cold. She remained in this position in the fridge for the entire night, and her life faded away at some point in between.

The following morning, Dr. Li came to the mortuary to work as usual. He fetched a body trolley, opened the middle door of the fridge, pulled out the curled up body of Tao and put her on the trolley. At this time the body has been completely cold and stiff, her originally fair skin showed a reddish colour often seen on bodies dead from hypothermia, and her face also showed a very tangled and painful look.

"If such a body is shown to the family, things will definitely go wrong." Dr. Li thought.

As the family would be arriving soon, Dr. Li hurriedly moved the body to the autopsy table and called the assistant Miss Huang to give him a hand. He quickly arranged for some archival photos to be taken, and then began trying to relieve Tao's rigor mortis. It took him a lot of effort to relieve the stiffness in some of the joints, but there was really no good solution to the reddish skin. He felt that the best solution was to powder the surface of Tao's body with make-ups, so he immediately went to look for the necessary tools. He arranged for Huang to continue taking pictures and instructed her to massage Tao's face as intensely as possible to alleviate the terrible look on her face and make her appear more peaceful.

About ten minutes later, Dr. Li returned empty-handed. As there were not many cosmetics used in the mortuary recently, he did not find any in the inventory. The good news was that Huang had thoroughly massaged Tao's face and elevated her head. As the family has already been waiting at the viewing room, Dr Li immediately picked up the upper torso of the body, took a photo with her, and hastily signed the death certificate, before removing the body from the autopsy table. The cause of death on the death certificate was stated as "death penalty: gas chamber (carbon monoxide poisoning)".

小说相关章节：毒氣室（慧君和桃的故事） - Huijun and Tao in the gas chamber