National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 465 - 465 428 Authentic Flavor

465: Chapter 428: Authentic Flavor 465: Chapter 428: Authentic Flavor The first time he performed skull restoration, Jiang Yuan was very meticulous.

He changed the water in the pot twice when boiling the skull, boiling the bones to the point where if you shook them a bit, the flesh would fall right off.

The remaining bones weren’t handled with quite the same care; they were boiled vigorously in a large pot.

Occasionally, the scum was skimmed off the surface, and any rotten flesh and excess grease were removed in the process.

“Boiling this always reminds me of making stew back home.” Doctor Ye stirred the pot with a femur, his eyes filled with wistful nostalgia.

“My grandmother’s stew was unrivaled, and every year during New Year’s, she would cook a lot of it with chicken, beef, and mutton, then pack it up and give it to various families to take home.”

“That’s a family skill passed down through generations,” Wang Zhong, still young, chimed in to agree with Doctor Ye.

Doctor Ye nodded solemnly and said, “After I became a forensic doctor, that tradition was discontinued.”

“Why?”

“One year, while making the stew, I just threw out the meat, just like what we do here.

It was right around New Year’s, and there were many deaths, so I ended up boiling corpses at work for a week, and got used to it,” Doctor Ye muttered, then added, “That pot of stew was later scorned by the villagers, claiming it smelled of formalin; it went to waste.

It’s a shame…

our Ye family’s 40-year tradition of the stew.”

Wang Zhong listened with a mix of pity and discomfort, “Is it the secret family stew of a forensic doctor’s household, passed down through generations?”

What he actually wanted to say was that such a stew, if wasted, was just that—wasted.

Doctor Ye took it as a genuine expression of regret and sighed heavily, saying, “Your words remind me, I should still make a pot of stew when I go home this year, good or bad…”

Jiang Yuan didn’t wait for them to finish boiling the other bones.

He took the skull and sat aside, beginning to precisely measure its dimensions and take notes.

Looking back, this piece of skull would need to be scanned again, but measuring its size himself was the most basic task.

While measuring, Jiang Yuan also examined the skull.

The history of the Skull Restoration Skill can be traced back a long way, with the earliest mention by the German anatomist Schaafhausen in 1877.

This year corresponded with the third year of the Guangxu Emperor’s reign in the Qing dynasty, only two years after Zuo Zongtang’s coffin had been carried to Xinjiang, and 37 years before the outbreak of World War I.

Schaafhausen’s theory was simple and direct—he had found that there were certain patterns to the thickness of the soft tissues on a person’s face.

So, if one knew the thickness of the soft tissues at different points on the skull, one could surmise what the skull’s owner looked like when they were alive.

Even though it was a theory from over 100 years ago, the framework of the Skull Restoration Skill hadn’t changed much in the following century; what changed was the technology.

Of course, from a practical standpoint, the evolution of technology only seems simple when you’re at that point in time.

Look at it from three to five decades earlier, and it’s more or less regarded as high-tech magic.

The earliest skull restoration was quite straightforward.

First, measurements were taken of the thickness of the facial tissues to get a usable average, and then these numbers were continuously expanded and refined.

One critical basis for this was the relative constancy of the thickness of a person’s soft tissues.

To put it more bluntly, fat people only have fat cheeks; the bridge of their nose, eye sockets, forehead, and ears typically don’t accumulate fat.

With the skull as a foundation, the thickness of the soft tissues was determined by looking up tables based on the skull owner’s age, race, gender, and other limiting factors.

Then muscle and glandular tissues were taken into account…

all of this was layered on bit by bit.

But whether it was the early Russian method, the subsequent American method, or the now most commonly used British method, the results of skull reconstruction were greatly influenced by the operator’s aesthetic judgment and technique.

This was the most challenging aspect of Skull Restoration Skill.

Another significant difficulty was the evolution of technology.

With the advancement of modern technology, the previous methods that used frameworks and clay were gradually being superseded by computer technology.

In other words, Level 1 skull restoration required the technician to be familiar with forensic anatomy while also possessing some artistic aesthetic and even sculpting skills.

By Level 2 and above, you were expected to understand computers and mathematics…

Such hexagonal warriors, whether in the dating market or a forensic office, were exceedingly rare.

So, when Jiang Yuan measured the skull dimensions with increasing precision, Doctor Ye began to feel that something was amiss.

“What are you doing hugging that head for so long?” Doctor Ye asked.

Jiang Yuan answered truthfully, “I’m preparing to do a skull reconstruction.”

Doctor Ye laughed, “You’re joking, right?”

Jiang Yuan replied, “I’m not.”

Jiang Yuan then continued to measure the skull dimensions.

Soon Doctor Ye realized that Jiang Yuan wasn’t joking around.

Jiang Yuan was always too busy to joke around, and even if he did, it would only be a couple of verbal jests, never cost-bearing ones with a man of his middle-aged, semi-retired status.

Watching Jiang Yuan’s methodical approach, Doctor Ye instinctively felt uncomfortable, as if he’d missed out on some essential knowledge while others had gained it.

After measuring the features of the face, Jiang Yuan got up to inspect the rest of the bones that had been boiled.

It was then that Doctor Ye finally began to come around, asking softly, “Captain Jiang, when did you learn to do skull reconstruction?”

“I’ve also learned it just recently,” Jiang Yuan said.

Doctor Ye frowned, “That’s…

not easy to learn, right?

Did you just pick it up like that?”

According to a forensic scientist’s own understanding, skills such as skull restoration are typically either you’re born with the skill or you’re not.

As a veteran forensic doctor, Doctor Ye had actually never seen two people who were truly proficient.

Perhaps there were some who could, but they had never demonstrated it in front of him.

He himself had only become aware of it through training or during meetings.

Jiang Yuan then reflected on the variety of difficulties he’d encountered while looking for Guihua and admitted candidly, “To tell you the truth, it is indeed not easy to learn, quite troublesome.”

Hearing this, Doctor Ye started to believe him, but it just made him itch with curiosity even more.

“Then, when you do it later, can I watch?” He wasn’t really interested in learning; he was mostly curious.

Of course, from the perspective of drawing lots, he, Doctor Ye, had no chance of encountering the Skull Restoration Skill in his lifetime.

What if he also had a talent for it?

Taking a look wouldn’t cost him any flesh.

Additionally, he was worried that Jiang Yuan might overly cherish his own skill, possibly driving people away when the time came or secretly performing the task himself.

Jiang Yuan hadn’t thought about this at all.

Since Doctor Ye wanted to watch, he agreed, then continued examining the boiled bones.

“Looking at the proportion of this foot to the body height, there’s a high probability that the person is a local from Shan Nan…

The wear on the knee suggests someone who frequently climbs mountains, not like a sports enthusiast.

Maybe they lived on a mountain?

Or worked a job that involved regular uphill and downhill movement?” As Jiang Yuan examined the bones, he directed Wang Zhong, who was beside him, to make a record of his observations.

Advanced forensic anthropology always played a role in skull restoration, such as determining race—ethnicity is relatively homogeneous within China, but there are still different minority groups and foreigners who may reside in the country.

You never know when a Uruguayan might end up dead in a pond.

Moreover, people from different provinces have different facial characteristics.

For example, people from the Yellow River basin typically have yellower skin, thicker eyebrows, and fuller lips.

Those from the Yangtze River basin tend to have a shorter average height than those from the Yellow River basin, but they have fairer skin and are more often monolidded.

People from the Pearl River basin have darker skin, more prominent frontal bones, and thicker lips.

Besides, branches like the Kangba type, the Annan type, the Northeast Asian type, and so on, each have their own distinguishing features.

These classifications are all done with the purpose of determining the proportions of cartilage.

In this sense, only those with a basic understanding of LV1 anthropology could truly perform basic tasks.

At a minimum, one would need LV2 forensic anthropology skills to do a decent job.

Moreover, Jiang Yuan’s skill in footprint analysis and the like was equally applicable.

Jiang Yuan conducted his analysis in detail while Wang Zhong made careful records.

Doctor Ye silently boiled the bones, their fragrance filling the room.

…

The following day.

The crows at the funeral home cawed loudly.

Red-beaked birds, some perched on branches, others landing on the ground.

They foraged with hardly any wariness.

Early in the morning, Hou Lejia rushed to the forensic autopsy room.

Upon entering, he saw Jiang Yuan holding a skull, examining it closely.

Hou Lejia had already received a call from Huang Qiangmin the day before, and his ears were still aching.

Seeing this scene, he cried out, “Doctor Jiang, my good Captain Jiang, can’t we just use traditional methods for this case?”

“Do you mean change the direction of the investigation?” Jiang Yuan had already been informed by Huang Qiangmin and wasn’t surprised, so he merely lifted his head slightly.

Hou Lejia looked even more haggard than he did the day before, with dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept well at all.

Caught off-guard by Jiang Yuan’s question, he hesitated before whispering, “Not the investigation direction.

I mean, can’t we just examine the bones?

Or, perhaps, work on another cold case…”

“Captain Hou,” a muffled, nasal voice came from the side—it was Tang Jia, who had been sent over early in the morning.

Hou Lejia, still a bit dazed, looked over.

“Captain Hou, even if we switch to another cold case, Director Huang’s requirements won’t be lowered,” Tang Jia said with a cute voice, delivering a brutal message.

Hou Lejia heaved a heavy sigh.

Jiang Yuan remained unmoved.

The Ningtai County Bureau definitely couldn’t afford a CT scanner or anything like that, and Longli County’s budget surely wasn’t much better, but the year had just started.

“Forget it, I’ll call someone to install the machine.

It’s still in the testing and trial phase for now.

After you’ve seen it, if you’re interested, we can pay for it,” Hou Lejia said, glancing one last time at the ghastly skull in Jiang Yuan’s arms before leaving, adding as if it had just occurred to him, “Oh right, the provincial department said if you decide to take this case, they would like to bring people over to observe.”

“I have no objections,” Jiang Yuan replied promptly, as he was already accustomed to working under the scrutiny of various groups.

Hou Lejia walked away with heavy footsteps.

With provincial department people coming, it was up to him from Longli County to play host, and with the number of people coming, he estimated that the meal expenses were going to be astronomical.

In the end, it was always the grassroots level that shouldered everything.