Chapter 258 - 258 243 Garbage Classification

Words : 1769 Updated : Sep 29th, 2025

258: Chapter 243 Garbage Classification 258: Chapter 243 Garbage Classification Jiang Yuan automatically and conscientiously began to change into protective clothing, ready to resume work. Two bodies and one body represent two different concepts entirely. In the domestic environment, one body is considered a normal homicide case. Taking Ningtai County as an example, if a body is discovered, the head of the county bureau and the executive deputy director in charge of criminal investigation would be the first to arrive, with the entire criminal police team mobilized, and a report made to the city bureau. If the city bureau has resources available, they would often provide certain support, such as laboratory assistance, fingerprint assistance, and if an extra forensic doctor is available, they could also send one over to help with the autopsy. However, if two bodies appear, the case would be elevated to the attention of the provincial office immediately. If things go smoothly, that’s one thing, but if they’re not going well, the provincial office would quickly dispatch a supervisory team or technical experts to assist. So, if a person accidentally kills another person, their evasive techniques might still be of use. But if someone kills two people at once, like a young couple or a newlywed couple, the case would immediately receive attention from provincial experts. At that time, fingerprints, footprints, bloodstains, and even video materials from the scene could all potentially be supported by the technical department of the provincial office. To sum it up in one sentence, facing an investigation for killing one person is vastly different from facing one for killing two people. And certain murderers, those who commit atrocities like wiping out an entire family, leaving a couple and their child dead, face the scrutiny of ministry-level criminal investigation organizations and personnel. Sometimes, fingerprints that can’t be extracted at the grassroots level can be easily lifted in the ministry’s laboratories. As for the special investigation team and officers, their attitudes differ greatly depending on the level of the case they face. Not to mention anything else, if another body appears now, Xu Taining wouldn’t need to consider going back; he would have to bring something out of this case without fail. And considering the current situation, the likelihood of a third body appearing is extremely high. The newly unearthed body bag was repacked into a new body bag, half-supported by Chief Medical Examiner Niu inside the basket, as he semi-embraced the body package and brought it to the top of the mine. The quality of the travel bag didn’t seem particularly good, and since no one knew how long it had been buried underwater, nobody dared to yank the bag and lift it up. Moreover, the bottom of the lifting basket wasn’t flat; it was made of a steel grid with mesh, and the forensic doctors were worried that the jerking and halting motion might damage the body, even if it was already dismembered. At this point, the body was all that remained for them to find clues. Once the lifting basket came up, several forensic doctors rushed forward, embracing the body bag onto the flatbed cart, and prepared to transport it directly to Qinghe City for autopsy. As for Chief Medical Examiner Niu, filthy as he was, he was the last to be pulled up. Jiang Yuan was still hesitating whether to follow the body or not when Wang Lan called out to him. “Jiang Yuan, let’s do the crime scene investigation first,” Wang Lan said in front of their superiors. “Jiang Yuan’s crime scene investigation skills are among the best in forensic medicine. The autopsy can be handled first by others; we’ll check it out later.” Forensic doctors also need to carry out crime scene investigations, especially in this kind of environment. Crime scene work done by forensic doctors themselves is very different from that done by crime scene investigators. Jiang Yuan had no objections and nodded, “I’ll go down then.” “You’re working hard,” said Xu Taining, offering a rare word of comfort. Jiang Yuan smiled and followed Wang Lan back down into the mine. After roughly 10 hours of work, the mud at the bottom of the mine had been mostly cleared, and several large chunks of concrete were also pulled up by machinery like cranes. The Komatsu excavator, about the size of a large donkey, was puffing and panting as it continued to dig through the rubbish. The garbage had become compacted under the pressure of tens of meters of water above, clumping together as if formed into a single hard mass, making for a laborious excavation. Upon seeing Jiang Yuan come down, Wang Lan reassigned him to a new area and murmured, “What do you think, are these bodies the work of Wangguoshan?” Wangguoshan, the killer in the reservoir body dumping case, had been confirmed to have taken more than 10 lives, but his accounts of the earlier cases were very vague. With regards to the cases involving Zifeng Mountain, Wangguoshan had been evasive from beginning to end, which was one of the reasons Liu Jinghui was convinced that the investigation must continue. Jiang Yuan found it difficult to be certain at this moment but could only say, “Whether it’s Wangguoshan’s doing or not, he definitely has accomplices on the outside.” “Are you talking about the one who punctured the tires?” Wang Lan immediately remembered. “Right.” “Maybe the tire-puncturer is just an accomplice for one or two of the cases?” Wang Lan had come across similar cases before. Multiple murderers differ essentially from the serial killers described in Europe and America. Many murderers kill for some form of vested interest. In this situation, the killer might temporarily seek out accomplices. It’s almost akin to the concept that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But once the temporary alliance ends, some killers continue to murder, while others are tormented by the secret for life. By comparison, such cases are naturally somewhat easier to solve. Jiang Yuan understood what Wang Lan meant and also knew what sort of answer she expected to hear. But Jiang Yuan still shook his head and said, “It wouldn’t be a novice’s doing. I have studied the case where Director Liu’s tires were punctured in detail. The perpetrator acted very decisively, bold yet meticulous. If not for good luck, Director Liu might have died in a car accident on the spot.” Pausing for a moment, Jiang Yuan continued, “If the crash had caused a fire, or if the location of the accident had been more in line with what the killer had expected, they could have set another fire, and the tire incident might not have even existed.” Wang Lan slowly nodded, “So, the other killer is still the main culprit?” “Wangguoshan is still imprisoned. He could act alone or gather others to commit crimes,” Jiang Yuan said, and then added, “But if it were up to me to handle this case, I wouldn’t link it to Wangguoshan.” “Oh? Why?” Wang Lan was quite surprised; combining cases was often the best way to solve them. “Director Liu must have considered combining the cases. He wasn’t able to solve it in a short time either,” Jiang Yuan replied simply. Since arriving in Zi Feng Town, Jiang Yuan had consciously chosen to look at things from a different perspective than Liu Jinghui. In his memory, Liu Jinghui’s deductive skills were extremely strong. If he had spent a month on a case without success, following in his footsteps, even without considering issues like the murderer getting wind of the investigation or adjusting their behavior after a warning, Liu Jinghui couldn’t wait another month either. If it were solely to crack this case, then Jiang Yuan felt that he could simply wait a few more months before proceeding with it. However, the most pressing matter at the moment was to locate Liu Jinghui. Seeing the person alive or finding the body was certainly better than having him missing. Moreover, Jiang Yuan’s approach was inherently different from Liu Jinghui’s; he just needed to follow the evidence. Combining cases precisely tested one’s capacity for analytical reasoning—the areas Jiang Yuan did not excel in. Wang Lan partially understood Jiang Yuan’s thought process but didn’t fully agree. Regardless, the person in charge of this case was Xu Taining; it wasn’t up to two forensic doctors to direct the investigation. The two finished their discussion and continued digging in the mine shaft. More and more garbage and construction waste were being dug up. As evening approached, another Sany mini excavator was sent down, and the progress slightly accelerated. Then, another grey plastic bag was excavated. “Hold on. Don’t take it out,” Jiang Yuan, seeing it from afar, quickly walked over. When the last body bag was dug up, not everyone was sure it contained a body, but this time, without a doubt, everyone could guess what it was. After someone took photos, Jiang Yuan observed the body bag and the surrounding trash and analyzed calmly, “Take pictures of the garbage too, and determine its position.” Wang Lan quickly came to the realization and eagerly said, “Right, the trash was probably dumped here at the same time. It can also help analyze the source of the body.” They hadn’t seen the body yet, but according to the news from the rear, although the body provided a lot of information, it wasn’t necessarily helpful in pinpointing the body’s origin. In fact, it is very difficult to determine the origin of a body that has been dead for many years. The proportion of bodies whose origins can be identified is extremely small. There are no data for the identification rate in criminal cases, but another aspect illustrates the difficulty of determining the origin of bodies—famous mass graves in some regions had top anthropologists sent in to identify the sources, yet even when dealing with a specific population from a known region, the identification rate remained low. For the forensic doctors present, any factor that could improve the identification rate was helpful. Jiang Yuan was even on site changing his gloves, donned an extra two layers, and began sorting through the trash on the spot. His previous case with the scavenger had granted him a Garbage Sorting (LV4) skill, and now utilizing it, his efficiency was indeed quite high. The other forensic doctors, although possessing certain abilities to identify evidence, began to wait in front of him as they watched Jiang Yuan’s actions unfold.

Chapter 258 - 258 243 Garbage Classification

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