Chapter 199 - 199 191 Beauty and Ugliness

Words : 1388 Updated : Sep 23rd, 2025

199: Chapter 191 Beauty and Ugliness 199: Chapter 191 Beauty and Ugliness The skeletal remains labeled number 5 had been boiled and prepared. The skeleton, white and gleaming but missing its head, was placed on the first autopsy table. Jiang Yuan then asked, “Is number 1 put away?” “Yes, because there aren’t enough autopsy tables, and number 1 was already done...” the forensic assistant hurried to explain. To say it was done, of course, was impossible. There is a lot of information that can be deduced from a body, and there are even more methods, but sometimes it is also a matter of fate, like eight different ways to solve a problem and it’s easy to fall into a fixed way of thinking. The conditions in the autopsy room are such that having four autopsy tables is already quite substantial, and the police can’t treat a six-body homicide as standard equipment. Jiang Yuan then asked, “How is the analysis for number 5 going?” “Just laid out, no conclusions yet,” answered the forensic assistant. In fact, for ordinary forensic doctors, it took a good amount of time just to methodically arrange the bones. Everyone was busy and tired, with no time for further analysis. Jiang Yuan nodded, began to look over the bones on his own, and took the opportunity to adjust their positions, arranging them more aesthetically. Aesthetics are quite important. Vision is humans’ strongest sense, and the development of thought is also centered around visual perception. For example, the beginnings of astronomy, of optics, of the AV industry, all started this way. Those famous mathematical formulas, Archimedean spirals, Cartesian coordinates, Jacobian matrices, are also known for their beauty. Whether a geometric problem can be solved often hinges on drawing the right auxiliary lines. Similarly, the aesthetic arrangement of a body is very important. Moreover, some people might have been unattractive in life, acted hideously, and were rotten to the core, but if you stripped their bones and arranged them nicely, they could be completely transformed. As the saying goes, some people just need one chance, and they will emerge anew. “Take notes,” Jiang Yuan said after fiddling with the bones for a while and taking some measurements, ready to present the results. The most basic assessments can still be made very quickly. The forensic assistant took off his gloves, washed his hands, then put on new gloves and picked up a pen to record. “Female.” “Height, 160 centimeters.” “Age... around 18,” Jiang Yuan swiftly announced the most crucial points of judgement. The forensic assistant was taking notes and paused at the end, surprised, “That young?” “Yes, if an 18-year-old girl goes missing, her family would probably take it very seriously,” Jiang Yuan said, adding, “Wait a moment, let me confirm the exact age.” According to the techniques of Forensic Anthropology, many bones in the human body can be used for a variety of judgements, but there are always certain bones that are more advantageous for specific types of determinations. Long bones, for example, are particularly useful for determining height, offering high accuracy and low difficulty, allowing even a rookie forensic doctor to obtain precise results. The lumbar vertebrae, on the other hand, are different. They can be used to deduce height as well, but the accuracy is lower, and the difficulty surpasses the level of a novice. The quick judgement Jiang Yuan had made was based on the pelvis to determine gender, and on the pubic symphysis to estimate age. The pelvis could be considered a treasure trove of bones. Using the pelvis to determine gender, there are numerous characteristic points, from the large-scale form of the pelvis to the small-scale angle of the pubic arch, all helping to distinguish male from female. Families with the necessary means could each take a male and a female pelvis for comparison. It is easily seen that the male pelvis is generally tall and narrow, larger at the top than the bottom. The female pelvis is low and wide, with a short and broad pelvic cavity, forming a cylindrical shape... If not feasible, one could also compare a male pelvis X-ray with a female pelvis X-ray. Only, by doing so, the comparison lacks a sense of three-dimensionality and depth. The accuracy of determining age based on the pubic symphysis surface is also very high and is the primary method of assessment. The rougher the surface of the pubic symphysis, the younger the age; the smoother it is, the older the age. However, as the saying goes, single evidence is not enough to stand on its own, Jiang Yuan went to flip through the bones for a while, then turned back and said, “18 years old is no problem.” “Okay,” the forensic assistant responded, and circled another item on the list. “The cause of death could be stabbing,” Jiang Yuan added, somewhat unexpectedly. The forensic assistant curiously asked, “How did you come to that conclusion?” “The marks here on the ribs should be knife stab traces. The dismemberment was still done with a saw.” As Jiang Yuan spoke, the four forensic doctors from the outer room had finished their meals and were returning one after another. Jiang Yuan glanced over and noticed that the expressions of the four were not very good. “Was it not tasty?” Jiang Yuan asked with concern. After all, he had made the noodles himself. Thinking about it now, big bone soup noodles might indeed not be as delicious as thick bone broth noodles. Maybe he should have... “I tore off the tape around the outside,” forensic assistant Xiao Zhuang admitted his mistake honestly. Ye walked in with a face full of distaste and said, “Tearing it is fine, but reading it aloud after tearing it, so I only drank half the soup.” “Sorry, sorry. I just saw a plastic end there and wanted to pull at it,” Xiao Zhuang said helplessly. He had not expected to find big bone soup under the caution tape. Ye steered the conversation back on track and asked, “You mentioned something about knife stabs?” “Yes, there are cut marks on the third and fourth ribs,” Jiang Yuan lifted the bone and turned it to the correct position. Because they were all highly decomposed corpses retrieved from a reservoir, it was difficult to differentiate before boiling them. After boiling, the conditions of the bone surfaces were also complex. The cut marks Jiang Yuan found were very fine, measured in millimeters, probably areas the killer had accidentally scraped while stabbing. Though the cut marks were small, there was plenty to interpret from them. For example, the knife-wielding skills of the killer should be downgraded, implying that their profession likely had no relation to those of a doctor or butcher. Otherwise, such mistakes would not have been made. The moods of the forensic doctors immediately improved, and they crowded around to look at the ribs. Two young forensic doctors even gestured over their own chests. “Another thing,” Jiang Yuan continued examining the bones, and said, “Victim number five likely studied ballet for a considerable duration.” Dr. Ye was stunned for a moment, then hastily looked at the foot bones of the corpse and exclaimed in surprise, “So many bones are missing?” “They might have been chopped off,” Jiang Yuan had already looked over them and said, “The killer probably noticed the ballet feet too and likely processed them along with the head.” As ballet training intensifies and dancers start wearing ballet shoes, it can lead to ballet feet, causing deformation of the foot. From Jiang Yuan’s analysis, the ballet feet of victim number five might not have progressed to the point of affecting the skeleton, but the killer couldn’t see the bones, only the deformed feet of the corpse, which made it easy to identify. Therefore, they might have chosen to chop them off prematurely. However, the traces left by extensive ballet practice were not limited to the ballet feet alone. The killer’s act of chopping off the feet inadvertently reminded Jiang Yuan. 18 years old, with ballet training, plus a missing person report, it would be easy to determine the identity of the corpse.

Chapter 199 - 199 191 Beauty and Ugliness

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