Chapter 262 - 262 246 A Cartful

Words : 1804 Updated : Sep 29th, 2025

262: Chapter 246 A Cartful 262: Chapter 246 A Cartful “Excuse me, please let me through.” “The pot is ready.” “Add a bit more water.” “Trim that piece of meat.” In the autopsy room, everyone was busy with their tasks while shouting to each other, creating a slightly noisy environment. Facing a major case like this, with a relatively large number of forensic doctors, the work was actually quite manageable. The main challenge was the high mental pressure. For instance, right now, no fewer than six forensic doctors were crammed into one autopsy room, with additional personnel in the rest area ready to rotate in. Even the hefty task of boiling bones had become easier. Large bones that were usually difficult to handle with just one pair of tongs became easy to manage when two people worked together. Most forensic doctors dislike Forensic Anthropology because, apart from its difficulty and low success rate, the high workload is also a deterrent. Unless the findings were completely skeletonized bodies, for most remains that were only buried for a few years, or bodies fished out of the water, applying the knowledge of Forensic Anthropology required the boiling process. Not to mention the psychological impact of the entire process, even just the physical labor was exhausting. Moreover, most grass-roots units only have one forensic doctor. For a thin female forensic doctor like Wang Lan, it would indeed be too difficult to boil a body on her own in a unit with only one staff position. She couldn’t just dismember the body before boiling it either, as the knife’s edge could easily leave traces on the bones. Later, it would be unclear whether the marks were made by her or the killer. Lifting the pot, adding water, and pouring it—each task was challenging. Of course, the above refers to the average forensic doctor. In the criminal investigation industry, if anyone in any position exhibits a high level of technical skill, enjoying some special treatment is not an issue at all. Jiang Yuan’s ability to apply for a position as a forensic doctor in Ningtai County was because Comrade Wu Jun made quite a fuss, demanding respect for the elderly and the young, to increase staffing and decrease the workload. The reason why Jiang Yuan is now frequently out handling tasks elsewhere is that he is strong enough, and as a result, the Ningtai County Criminal Police Team has come to be regarded differently by the higher-ups. In fact, a forensic doctor doesn’t need to reach Jiang Yuan’s level of expertise to request an assistant. Having a Level 2 skill in Forensic Anthropology is often enough to manage it. Medical Examiner Zhai, for example, has skills in Forensic Anthropology roughly at Level 2 Plus. It’s very likely he’ll never reach Level 3 in his lifetime, but he still thrives when guiding work throughout the province. It’s just that the skill level required for anthropology is too high. The difficulty of this skill would be akin to that of Image Investigation in terms of involvement with imaging science. Moreover, unlike imaging science, the market is not filled with highly valuable talents. Forensic Anthropology is not only difficult, but there are also fewer people learning it. And there are not many opportunities to use it either. Medical Examiner Zhai initially thought that Jiang Yuan’s level in Forensic Anthropology was just a bit beyond that of a beginner—meaning only slightly better than the average forensic doctor, but still functional. He had already regarded Jiang Yuan quite highly. After all, Jiang Yuan was still very young, and anthropology requires a great deal of accumulation. Once Jiang Yuan had noticed the peculiarities of the body bag, Medical Examiner Zhai had already begun to admire his keenness. But it wasn’t until the bones had been boiled and each was placed on the autopsy table that Medical Examiner Zhai realized just how far from a beginner Jiang Yuan truly was. Starting with the first step of assembling the body, Medical Examiner Zhai was far behind Jiang Yuan’s progress. In theory, assembling a body is something a medical student can do, but there are varying degrees of skill involved. The weakest students might have to assemble the skeleton in order from top to bottom, searching for each bone and continuously adjusting them. Someone as strong as Jiang Yuan, on the other hand, could simply take a bone and place it on the autopsy table; the placement was almost always just right. Such seemingly effortless maneuvers were personally challenging for Medical Examiner Zhai as well. Medical Examiner Zhai was getting older; his energy and physical strength were not what they used to be, and after only a slight distraction, he heard Jiang Yuan beginning to make judgments: “Corpse source one, age between 35 and 40 years old, female...” “Height around 160 centimeters...” “Shoulder injury, cervical spine disease, knee joint damage...” Medical Examiner Zhai had been working on assembling another set of boiled bones but, hearing Jiang Yuan begin to draw conclusions, he simply stopped and turned to examine Jiang Yuan’s bones instead — confirming the findings. Of course, there were no mistakes. When it came to determining age and gender, Jiang Yuan could now take a bone and almost instantly make a fairly accurate assessment. While this might seem like a basic requirement in anthropology, it is exceedingly difficult in reality. A regular forensic doctor who is not skilled in anthropology would typically need the pelvis to make such judgments. A skull would not be sufficient. Some people have faces that make it difficult to discern their gender when alive, so expecting to identify gender from a skull after death is quite challenging. It’s not that it’s entirely impossible to judge, but if a forensic doctor incorrectly guesses the gender once in four attempts, can the criminal police team trust such conclusions? Therefore, for a typical forensic doctor, the pelvis is reliable and can also reveal information about age, whether birthing has occurred, and other aspects. The pelvis could be said to be the treasure trove for those less knowledgeable in the field. Here, one could also mock the limited knowledge of the average murderer. Dismembering and hiding the head is actually quite unnecessary. Aside from when the head is fresh and the face recognizable, after being buried for a few days without embalming, not even a bedfellow could name the owner of that head. As for techniques like skull restoration, only a few experts in big cities can manage that, how could a typical criminal police team possibly have such resources. So, if you’ve killed someone and want to counter-investigation, hiding the pelvis is better than hiding the head. But this carries a rather provocative implication – “The robbers to the south scorn us, for we’re old and weak; they kill and discard the buttocks, not the head, brazenly dismembering and abandoning them in our territory.” In the end, it is certain that an ordinary forensic doctor, at a level of Forensic Anthropology LV0.8, will call upon colleagues, and even summon a level LV3 anthropology expert. At the LV3 level, almost every piece of bone can provide a wealth of information. Let alone determining sex, a single rib can indicate the time of death. However, anthropology has its limits here as well. Aside from determining sex, and basic information such as the deceased’s age and height, estimation of the time of death has never been particularly accurate. Even more so, the accuracy and difficulty of additional information are two extremes that diverge even further. “That’s about it,” Jiang Yuan said, after piecing together a skeleton, having provided all the information he could. In terms of the current progress of the criminal investigation, there wasn’t much that could be used. Medical Examiner Zhai nodded slightly. He had no more to add. “Shall we look at the second one?” Jiang Yuan still looked to Medical Examiner Zhai. “Sure, it’s all yours,” Medical Examiner Zhai decisively stepped aside. His expertise had never been in examining bones. Faced with someone as formidable as Jiang Yuan, he simply yielded the floor. Jiang Yuan, unceremoniously, pieced the bones together in a matter of minutes, then began his analysis, saying: “Victim two, between 30 to 35 years old, female, roughly 165 cm tall. Time of death, between 3 to 5 years ago. Signs of bunion, likely frequented wearing high heels, has childbirth scars, has given birth...” Medical Examiner Zhai nodded in agreement. Chief Medical Examiner Niu said, “Then we have two young females.” Medical Examiner Zhai, who had been echoing sentiments of agreement, now shook his head, saying, “There’s no need to jump to such conclusions right now. Is the next one ready to boil?” “It will take a while longer,” Chief Medical Examiner Niu wrinkled his nose, patted his stomach, and sighed, “Looks like I’m on a diet today.” So, Jiang Yuan continued to review the two bodies from before. Information such as age and gender had been thoroughly researched by predecessors, and was done by repeatedly comparing and researching different bones. But to obtain more complex conclusions, such as employment history, presented significant challenges. These couldn’t just be ascertained by a simple examination; they often required comparing and correlating different scenarios. With that, they examined until late into the night and then went to sleep. In his dreams, Jiang Yuan was plagued by a sea of bones. And chunks of flesh being boiled. The floating fat from the corpses. In the dream, there was more corpse fat, since modern people tend to be overweight, which produces a great deal of fat when boiled, aligning more with probabilistic studies. The next morning. It was the sixth day of Liu Jinghui’s disappearance. Someone came to announce, “The motorbike has been delivered.” The forensic doctors, who had been cooped up in the room boiling flesh all day, rushed out en masse. Xu Taining had come in a big semi-trailer, driving into the funeral home. The truck was covered with a black tarp, so it was impossible to see what was inside. People who had come early to the funeral home to take care of their affairs were talking among themselves upon seeing such a large truck. “Something big must have happened.” “A multiple-vehicle collision?” “Haven’t heard anything about that. What family could lose a whole truckload of people?” The driver, listening to the chatter, felt it was inappropriate, so he just drove on into the funeral home. Sometime later, when the funeral home director, alerted by the rumors, came out to see. That’s when they saw several motorbikes, each with different speeds, circling the yard, with a white ghost floating above each one...

Chapter 262 - 262 246 A Cartful

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