National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 317 - 317 285 Jump

317: Chapter 285 Jump 317: Chapter 285 Jump Dawan Village’s most famous food is the Jumping Frog.

Out of the several dozen restaurants in the village, half are named after the Jumping Frog, and the other half also serve Jumping Frogs among other dishes.

The reason for this was because Dawan Village used to have an abundance of frogs.

The frogs caught in the fields were stewed in various ways before finally being perfected by a certain matron of the village.

Later on, the continuously incoming factories took over all the rice paddies, so the matrons picked up their spatulas and cooked bullfrogs for the hard-working migrant laborers.

Because the dish was spicy and had a strong flavor, it was quite popular among the laborers who exerted a lot of physical effort.

However, now there are hardly any Jumping Frog eateries left that are run by local Dawan villagers.

Basically, everyone is renting houses from the locals, learning to make Dawan’s Jumping Frogs, and then selling them to the migrant workers who come to Dawan Village.

Jiang Yuan and Mu Zhiyang had contacted a former butcher, who now runs one such Jumping Frog restaurant.

Noon.

When Jiang Yuan entered, he directly ordered the dishes and then called the owner over, offered him a cigarette, and said, “I’m the one who called you earlier, I heard you used to be a butcher, then you stopped?”

“Yeah, later on people didn’t want our goods anymore, our sales channels were cut off, so we just stopped,” said the owner, who was tall and sturdy, looking as though he was still capable of single-handedly butchering a person.

He looked at Jiang Yuan and asked, “Didn’t you say you want to build a cold storage?

Why are you asking these questions?”

“It’s impossible for a slaughterhouse to sell all the pigs, especially the internal organs, what can’t be sold has to go into cold storage.

But fresh meat turned into frozen produce means losing money.

So, a slaughterhouse’s business can neither be too good nor too bad.

Of course, many slaughterhouses sell their internal organs to others…” Jiang Yuan clearly understood the cold storage business and mentioned it casually before bringing the conversation back.

Jiang Yuan asked, “To just stop like that, it must have had a big impact on your lives, right?

Were they so high-handed?”

“They are all locals, what could we do?” The owner shook his head and said, “Previously, the slaughterhouses were owned by outsiders, and in the end, they too just stopped without warning.

Otherwise, it would have nothing to do with us.”

“And there’s been no new slaughterhouse here since.”

“When they stopped the business, the lion’s share must have been snapped up by slaughterhouses in other places.

After that, it would be impossible to start one again here.

Actually, not letting us do it basically meant letting the outsider slaughterhouses take over the business.”

“There are no slaughterhouses nearby anymore.”

“There are big slaughterhouses in the suburbs.” What he was referring to was the large slaughterhouses in Changyang City.

“Do they hire disabled people?

Including those with minor disabilities?” Jiang Yuan asked again.

The former butcher, now the Jumping Frog restaurant owner, slowly shook his head: “The work at the slaughterhouses is quite tough, and those who are frail may not be able to hold up.”

“That makes sense,” Jiang Yuan said.

“But nowadays, companies all have quotas, right?

Not hiring a single one surely won’t work.”

“They just hire the bosses’ relatives, who has a family without a relative with a disability certificate?” The Jumping Frog owner spoke very naturally.

“Right, those factories that hire disabled people would require a disability certificate.” Mu Zhiyang looked at Jiang Yuan with a bit of joy and blinked, hinting that they could find someone through the disability certificate.

Jiang Yuan remained unmoved and shook his head slightly.

He always brought up the disability certificate just as a way to obtain information conveniently.

Ordinary people don’t understand the standards for disability assessment and think that a slight physical disability is enough to get a certificate.

But as a forensic doctor, Jiang Yuan knew the standards for disability assessment crystal clear.

To obtain a disability certificate for a limp, according to the standard of the lowest level, a fourth-degree physical disability, the left and right legs must differ by more than 5 centimeters.

This was a very clear and easily measurable standard.

Based on the information he received from the bloody footprints, the killer’s degree of limpness was most likely insufficient to secure a disability certificate.

Jiang Yuan asked a few more questions, and by the time he finished smoking a cigarette, the owner went back to the kitchen.

After a while, the sizzling Jumping Frog dish topped with hot oil was brought out.

The frog meat was tender and spicy, salty, a perfect pairing in both taste and texture for those with a fondness for strong flavors.

Additionally, the vegetables like Chinese cabbage and bean sprouts underneath the frog meat, after being stir-fried in oil, were also extremely delicious.

If you soaked rice in the sauce, the frog meat could satisfy three or four people.

Indeed, a signature frog dish of Dawan Village.

Jiang Yuan tasted a little and ended up watching Mu Zhiyang completely clean out a basin of Jumping Frog, two side dishes, and a bucket of rice.

Mu Zhiyang felt a little embarrassed and finally explained, “Ever since I got injured, I just eat a lot more, I don’t know why…”

“No problem, eat as much as you like,” Jiang Yuan patted Mu Zhiyang on the shoulder, and when it came to the injury, he was definitely supportive of Mu Zhiyang.

After all, it was just eating.

In today’s society, being a big eater is hardly an issue, right?

Jiang Yuan courteously asked, “Would you like to eat more?

Shall we order another Spicy Sautéed Frogs?”

“No…

no need,” Mu Zhiyang said.

“Let’s switch to another place and order there.

I feel embarrassed to eat too much in one restaurant.”

So Jiang Yuan paid the bill, went out, and chose another restaurant, where he ordered three dishes for Mu Zhiyang before continuing their conversation with the owner.

Two hours later.

After making a big round, Jiang Yuan and Mu Zhiyang had finally managed to inquire about the five people on the list.

When they returned to the teahouse, they saw that Liu Jinghui and the others had already mostly returned.

Liu Jinghui was fervently writing in his notebook.

Seeing Jiang Yuan come in, Liu Jinghui looked up and asked, “How did it go?

Any leads?”

Jiang Yuan said, “The butchers we followed don’t seem to have major issues, and none of them limps.

I checked their gait; it doesn’t match either.

Their wives all seem normal.”

Liu Jinghui nodded.

Most of the tracking leads turned out to be useless.

The suspects were not rabbits on the grasslands that one could simply catch wherever they popped up.

At this point, Jiang Yuan sat opposite Liu Jinghui and said, “But while chatting with several butchers, I found out they didn’t know why the local slaughterhouse stopped operating.”

“You think there’s something off with the slaughterhouse too?” Liu Jinghui paused mid-writing and flipped forward two pages in his notebook.

“Too?” Jiang Yuan asked.

Liu Jinghui gave an “Mhm” and said, “This slaughterhouse didn’t shut down under normal circumstances.

One thing is that some of the payments for the goods hadn’t been settled.

Another thing is, it didn’t collect some receivables.

Sure, not getting paid is normal, but not collecting money that could have been easily collected is definitely not normal.”

Liu Jinghui pulled out a few records and said, “This slaughterhouse’s business was always pretty good.

Suddenly closing down even created a market vacuum…

Nevertheless, it closed more than half a year after the incident.

Afterwards, the owner came back to sell the machinery and settled some accounts, which is also odd.”

Fugitives generally can’t return once they’ve run away.

Many fugitives turn themselves in not because they are actively pursued, especially those involved in crimes less severe than murder.

If they run off to a big city or to Hengpie State, a place traditionally favored by fugitives, the local authorities often don’t even know about the crime, so there’s no way to catch them.

However, many fugitives end up choosing to surrender because of homesickness, uneasiness, and various other reasons.

Because coming back means they are more likely to get caught.

Especially when the crime just happened a year or half a year ago, which is the peak period for arrests.

The slaughterhouse owner closing down for no apparent reason, then turning around and coming back, this behavior is just oddly puzzling when you know the details.

“Have you followed up?” asked Jiang Yuan, guessing that Liu Jinghui wouldn’t let go of this clue judging from the details he had mentioned.

“Yes, we’ve already sent people out,” responded Liu Jinghui.

“The owner has moved to Hengpie State.”

“We may need to pay extra attention to the people around him.

Speaking of which, taking a taxi from Changyang City to Dawan Village feels like something a wealthy person might do.”

Liu Jinghui sighed, “But wealthy people wouldn’t kill taxi drivers.”

Jiang Yuan was taken aback.

Liu Jinghui’s words were a bit politically incorrect, but on second thought, it seemed to be the case.

In cases where taxi drivers were killed, the majority of the perpetrators were usually penniless, and although there was no statistical report, those familiar with such cases wouldn’t normally consider a factory owner a suspect during the initial investigation.

Not to mention why a factory owner would take a taxi; even if they did, the likelihood of accumulating enough conflict with the taxi driver to reach the point of murder in a short span of time was low.

Lastly, even if such a person, for some reason, was determined to kill a taxi driver…

they typically wouldn’t be able to overpower the taxi driver.

There was a higher probability that the driver could kill them in self-defense.

By the way, cases involving taxi drivers as the murderers are slightly harder to solve than cases where the taxi drivers are the victims.

“I heard from the butchers that the slaughterhouse had only about a dozen people, mostly the owner’s relatives, or relatives of those relatives—basically, it was operated by close personal relationships…

Should we find and interrogate all the original staff?” Jiang Yuan suggested an expensive…

and very thorough, cautious approach.

It was indeed a very comprehensive and prudent suggestion.

Liu Jinghui normally didn’t favor such methods, preferring to use direct, incisive reasoning that pierced through the surface to reach the truth.

But indeed, Jiang Yuan’s plan was more foolproof and safe.

“You tech guys…” Liu Jinghui shook his head, “All right, let’s do it.

Anyway, Changyang City can afford it.”