National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 466 - 466 429 Rushing Towards Each Other

466: Chapter 429: Rushing Towards Each Other 466: Chapter 429: Rushing Towards Each Other Noon.

It was the most intense time of the sunlight when Wang Zhong suddenly took out a 10-centimeter-long red peach wood sword from around his neck.

Grasping the handle, he adopted a bow stance and, with a “ha-ha,” started jabbing with it.

Sitting in front of the computer, Jiang Yuan, who had been touching a skull, stopped and looked at Wang Zhong with bewilderment.

“Captain Wu taught me this.

He said it’s best to drive away the evil spirits after touching a corpse and going back to the office and all.

It’s also to intimidate the surrounding ghosts and monsters, making sure they know we’re not to be messed with.

The effect of wielding a peach wood sword is best at the time of day when the yang energy is at its peak.

I checked the sun’s azimuth and elevation angles,” Wang Zhong explained earnestly, without stopping his sword movements.

Jiang Yuan believed that this was indeed something Master Wu Jun had taught Wang Zhong.

Ordinary people couldn’t be so…

sophisticated about such things.

All Jiang said was, “Then let’s keep our voices down so as not to disturb the people in other offices.

We’re still in Longli County.”

“The voice is the energy from the dan tian.

I can do it silently, although the effect might be a bit weaker,” replied Wang Zhong obediently as he closed his mouth and continued to exert himself physically.

After watching for a bit, Jiang Yuan thought it was quite good.

Those working in trace evidence often sat in front of computers all day long.

Physical exercise was beneficial for the body, but something did raise a bit of doubt…

So Jiang Yuan asked, “How did you end up learning this from him?”

“I haven’t formally become a disciple.

It’s just learning by following him, kind of like a listed disciple,” said Wang Zhong cautiously as he glanced at Jiang Yuan.

He added, “Captain Wu only teaches me a bit of popular technique.”

“Okay then,” Jiang Yuan felt that Wang Zhong probably didn’t quite understand what “popular technique” meant, but reconstructing skulls was enough to keep him busy, so let him jump if he wants to.

And Wang Zhong continued to jump.

After approximately eighty-one times, which was almost 18 jumps per set across five sets and sweating on his forehead, he finally stopped.

Collapsing back into his chair, Wang Zhong was panting as he put the peach wood sword back around his neck.

He then whispered, “Jiang, actually, the things Captain Wu teaches make some sense.

I’ve been practicing for a while, and I feel healthier.”

Jiang Yuan thought to himself, a person who doesn’t exercise regularly will of course feel better after suddenly increasing their amount of physical activity.

Seeing Jiang Yuan’s expression, Wang Zhong remembered what Wu Jun had said and silently shook his head.

He then carefully lit a stick of incense at his desk and explained, “Given to me by Captain Wu.”

When Jiang Yuan didn’t object, Wang Zhong got up again to boil water for tea, opened the window for ventilation…

By the time he was done with his routine, he saw some new cars with Changyang plates arriving downstairs.

“Jiang, it looks like the Provincial Department’s people have arrived,” said Wang Zhong, who had been watching from the window.

He added, “It seems like it’s Medical Examiner Zhai with quite a few people.”

They had known in advance that the Provincial Department would be sending someone.

It wasn’t surprising that Medical Examiner Zhai would come.

Nowadays, Medical Examiner Zhai remained a charm of the Shannan Provincial Department, assigned wherever needed.

When seeking Liu Jinghui, they had sent him, and he had also initially conducted the autopsy for the abandoned corpse case on National Highway 805 in Luyang City.

Of course, it could also be said that the findings Jiang Yuan had previously overturned were done by Medical Examiner Zhai.

Jiang Yuan stood up for a look and saw the small, old figure of Medical Examiner Zhai, followed by seven or eight robust men—forensic doctors regularly handle corpses, so being strong was a must.

Unless you’ve achieved success like Medical Examiner Zhai, only then would there be people to help you lift and transport bodies.

The most pitiful were those like Mei Fang, who had no assistants and occasionally had to snag a detective to be a strong back, thanking their lucky stars.

Encountering female officers or senior officers who couldn’t easily be ordered around, they’d sweat more during an autopsy than eating a spicy hotpot.

Forensic doctors with male assistants carried a different aura when they walked.

Arriving at the office, Medical Examiner Zhai proclaimed with a robust voice, “Doctor Jiang, we’ve come to see you.”

“Welcome, welcome,” Jiang Yuan greeted at the door, still cradling the skull in his arms.

“Is that the skull you’re going to restore?” Medical Examiner Zhai’s gaze swept from Jiang Yuan’s face to the skull, casually saying, “Middle-aged female, around a little over 100 pounds?”

Identifying gender and age through the skull—as opposed to the pelvis—was slightly more difficult, but not too much so.

However, for someone like Medical Examiner Zhai to spot it at first glance still proved his keen eye and confidence.

On the other hand, gauging someone’s weight was a bit simpler.

Fat globules would leave traces on the outermost layer of bone on the skull; the fatter the person, the rougher the skull’s exterior.

Conversely, the skull of someone who was pure thinness would appear exceptionally smooth.

The skull Jiang Yuan was holding looked shiny and smooth; without saying, the body fat percentage wouldn’t be too high.

Considering that females have a higher body fat percentage than males, her weight could not have been more than a little over 100 pounds.

Jiang Yuan was not surprised that Medical Examiner Zhai could tell; the latter was mostly making polite conversation.

Jiang Yuan nodded and said, “Yes, that’s about right, a female around 34 years old, who had given birth, relatively light in weight, likely to have engaged in labor for many years…”

“I remember,” Medical Examiner Zhai nodded.

He had indeed seen the body before.

The accompanying forensic doctors followed into the office.

This office was one of the Criminal Science Squadron’s offices in Longli County, temporarily made available for Jiang Yuan’s use.

The body and the autopsy room were both at the funeral home, which, besides being far away, also had very low temperatures and was not suitable for long-term office work.

Medical Examiner Zhai brought a total of eight forensic doctors, all of whom were receiving training at the provincial department and were young forensic doctors from public security bureaus of various city districts.

In terms of rank, district public security bureaus and county public security bureaus were comparable and both belonged to the grassroots front line, being the first responsible party for handling bodies.

However, because of the heavy workload, it was hard for grassroots forensic doctors to find time to improve themselves.

Especially when working independently, progress became even more difficult.

In some cities, the solution to this problem was to send forensic doctors from the municipal bureaus to assist or supervise or teach, as is the case with Qinghe City’s system.

Medical Examiner Wang Lan thus embarked on a path of daily business trips.

However, some cities had different approaches, especially when the municipal bureau’s forensic doctors were not effective, or when they were promoted to leadership positions, preventing rotation.

Consequently, over the years, the technical skills of forensic doctors in the district or county bureaus might become distorted.

The provincial department would hold training classes and various training meetings every year.

For those who were motivated, these were also a pathway to skill advancement, although such advancement rarely led to material gain.

Several young forensic doctors entered, curiously observing Jiang Yuan’s office and naturally began to glance at Jiang Yuan’s computer screen.

Jiang Yuan was using 3DSlicer, which had a fairly high level of complexity.

If not for the system-granted skills, learning this software would normally take several months.

The domestically produced Police Star CCK also had practical case applications and was a software commonly seen by everyone, but it was not as complex and therefore not as detailed.

“You really started doing skull restoration,” Medical Examiner Zhai clicked his tongue and asked, “Do you have to use skull restoration?”

“Not necessarily, but I haven’t tried other methods,” Jiang Yuan said honestly, intent on using this technique.

Medical Examiner Zhai smiled, glanced at the skull again, and said, “If it can be done, identifying the body will be easier than a search.”

Without using skull restoration, the most common approach was first to locate the origin of the body based on attachments on the body, such as clothing and accessories.

If that failed, one would have to rely on autopsy or forensic anthropology techniques to find the body’s origin, and either method required cooperation with a large-scale search.

Even after completing the skull restoration, a search would still be necessary, but inquiry-based searching by facial recognition is easier than looking for a 35-year-old former dancer with a sprained ankle, for example.

Most importantly, accuracy in facial recognition searches is high, so it’s less likely to miss any lead.

The worst fear in a search is an oversight, which was precisely why Jiang Yuan insisted on having Xu Taining take charge during the 805 case.

In other words, searches were either expensive or risky, and no matter which, they were slow.

And even the expensive option was not without risk.

Overall, however, using skull restoration to find the body’s origin was clearly advantageous: effective and with a lower overall cost, the only downside being the scarcity of practitioners.

Medical Examiner Zhai, of course, was not one of them.

To speak of him, this small, gaunt-faced, expressionless old man had dissected more bodies than most in Shannan Province, especially in earlier years when there were few forensic doctors everywhere, and Old Zhai often traveled from county to county to perform autopsies.

However, skull restoration, a skill requiring a composite talent, was something Medical Examiner Zhai ultimately was not able to participate in.

“Where are you in the process now?” Medical Examiner Zhai showed some concern.

He might not know the skill, but he was still willing to understand new technologies.

Jiang Yuan then sat in front of the computer and said, “I am currently working on edge detection.

Since the Laplace operator is sensitive to high-frequency signals, I’m considering low-pass filtering the image before Laplace operator filtering.

I’ve chosen Gaussian low-pass filtering, using Gaussian and Laplace operators to create a single LoG operator…”

After listening, Medical Examiner Zhai stood up and said, “Show me that file, make sure you’ve taken photos of all the bones.”