National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 493 - 493 453 The Explosion Case

493: Chapter 453 The Explosion Case 493: Chapter 453 The Explosion Case Early in the morning, two Dobermans burst from the building entrance and started sprinting the moment they hit the lawn.

Although they had a good time playing in the Jiang Family’s living room on regular days, that joy was like comparing the slick, broth-coated Yangchun noodles to Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, both delicious and edible, but which one could make you leap for joy?

Of course, it was Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

Uncle Qiang gripped two dog leashes in his hand, temporarily using them as whips, and started running along the perimeter of the lawn to prevent the Dobermans from running off and bumping into pedestrians.

The Jiangcun Residential Area initially didn’t have such a large lawn, but there was quite a lot of leftover land.

Almost every household liked to fence off a piece and plant vegetables, some even considered raising chickens and ducks, but nobody ultimately succeeded in raising pigs.

However, the residential area was under the management of the village committee.

In recent years, as everyone’s conditions improved, and the number of elderly people willing to farm decreased, especially after Uncle Jiang Yuan took charge, he vigorously promoted zoning—that is, the re-planning of the vegetable plots, reducing their size, eliminating the raising of chickens and ducks, and increasing the area of lawns and greenery.

Although some old folks were somewhat reluctant, the response from city-accustomed young people in Jiangcun was very supportive, so the dissenting voices from the elderly in the households subsided quite a bit.

The two Dobermans happily played, barking and laughing.

Shortly after, Jiang Fuzhen and Jiang Yuan slowly made their way downstairs, treading on the dog poop on the lawn and starting to tease the dogs.

The days after the parade of deities were typically very relaxed.

The parade of deities exhausted everyone’s energy and made people eat and sleep too much, each person becoming like a pig fattened up for New Year’s, casually roaming around the residential area.

Some more fashionable families, starting from today, began making plans to travel out of town.

Jiang Fuzhen and Jiang Yuan, who were both not fond of moving around, performed rituals for their deceased relatives in their own private rooms, paid respects to Lord Guan, burned joss paper and lit incense, then strolled within the complex.

Looking at the vast expanse of buildings in the distance, Jiang Fuzhen couldn’t help but say, somewhat helplessly, “Now I think about it, if we were still in the village, I would rent another plot of land and build a cattle farm.

Our family could cook beef every day and never run out.

Unlike now, it’s just a bunch of buildings, which is really upsetting to look at.”

Jiang Yuan, following Jiang Fuzhen’s gaze, spoke calmly, “Dad, those buildings you’re looking at are all ours.”

“I know, and that’s why I say, it would be better to have a cattle farm,” Jiang Fuzhen sighed, “If I had a cattle farm, I’d work on cattle breeding every day.

Maybe I could develop a breed that’s particularly good for cooking.”

“Then buy a plot of land in the suburbs,” Jiang Yuan suggested.

“Didn’t we buy some before?

It’s too far, about twenty kilometers away.

I can’t even be bothered to go there, and later they demolished it to build a highway.

We got buildings as compensation,” said Jiang Fuzhen with disheartened resignation, “My cattle farm has been demolished three times already.”

Jiang Yuan’s mind, for some reason, inexplicably conjured up visions of a body farm.

“Shall we go back and cook some beef?” Jiang Fuzhen suddenly felt hungry.

“Sure,” agreed Jiang Yuan, thinking it was a good idea.

…

Buzz, buzz.

The phone set to vibrate trembled softly.

Lazily rolling over, Jiang Yuan still answered the call.

“Jiang Yuan, how’s your rest going?” Huang Qiangmin’s voice was smooth and refined, like a sated, adult crocodile basking contentedly.

“Not bad, pretty comfortable at home,” Jiang Yuan replied with a laugh, taking the initiative to ask, “Is there a case?”

Of course, there were always cases, but working on a case also required certain conditions.

Personnel, funds, time, resources, and even the political climate had to be appropriate to proceed.

Otherwise, the difficulty of many cases could be quite daunting.

Huang Qiangmin hummed proudly, as if just returning from a wildebeest season, “Let’s start with a case from Qu’an County, but this time there’s a specific request.”

“Oh?

What case?” Jiang Yuan slowly got up, stretched, walked a few dozen steps to the bathroom to turn on the water in the bathtub, planning to soak for a while before heading out.

“Have you heard of the Qu’an Train Station explosion case?”

Jiang Yuan hesitated before replying, “I have heard of it, but that case seems quite tough.”

The Train Station Explosion Case, as the name suggests, involved a train station and an explosion and naturally, there were casualties.

Almost immediately after the incident, the case received attention from the provincial department.

Subsequent developments were fraught with complications.

It narrowly escaped being classified as a terrorist attack, but it was also true that the case remained unsolved.

Although Jiang Yuan wasn’t familiar with the specific details of the case, he knew that the complexity of such a case was definitely high; saying otherwise would be an insult.

Moreover, he hadn’t dealt with explosions before, and it felt somewhat beyond his skill range.

His expertise in forensic anthropology could apply, but since the identities of the victims in the Qu’an Train Station explosion case were clear, there wouldn’t be much room for him to contribute.

Huang Qiangmin, only aware of Jiang Yuan’s exceptional skills, answered with a trusting “Hm,” “Qu’an County Bureau is eager to tackle this first.

It’s natural for them to have some demands, given that the train station explosion case is their most pressing unsolved case.

It’s definitely challenging, but such cases—if we can handle them, we do; if not, there’s no shame in it.

Who from the provincial department was sent to supervise the case back then, and who even remembers it now!”

“Who is it?” Jiang Yuan asked.

“Qiu Yue,” replied Huang Qiangmin, then added, “I just checked the archives.”

Jiang Yuan smiled slightly and said, “Okay, I’ll pack up and head to Qu’an County Bureau first.”

“Good.

Let’s meet in Qu’an,” Huang Qiangmin replied, obviously placing great importance on this case.

If this case was solved, it would mark the official commencement of Qinghe City’s “Cold Case Assault Initiative”.

Such initiatives are carried out every couple of years by provinces, cities, counties, and ministries, and their requirements always vary.

For example, in Qinghe City, when they first started clearing cold cases, it was normal to solve three to five cases in one operation.

When it becomes difficult to solve these cold cases, even the arrest of a single fugitive is considered a success.

In short, whether the task is rolled out or what form it takes, actually depends on the capability of the participating parties.

After all, ranking is ultimately a matter of competition.

A very important point is, if Longli County, Qu’an County, including Ningtai County, all solve murder cold cases, the pressure on other districts and counties will be as heavy as a mountain.

By then, Huang Qiangmin’s work would naturally become much easier.

Of course, each district and county could also rely on local resources, digging deep to strive for the breakthrough in murder cold cases, but what if they can’t solve them?

Huang Qiangmin was very familiar with the various precincts and county bureaus in Qinghe City, and he was clear about their capabilities.

He did not rate their chances of winning in this competition highly, because, in the end, their enemy was actually Jiang Yuan—as well as their ally.

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yuan called Jiang Yongxin, then notified Mu Zhiyang to gather the whole team and set off.

Jiang Yuan himself went to inform his father and Uncle Qiang, then took a shower, got dressed, and went downstairs.

Jiang Yongxin’s car was already waiting in the underground garage.

Jiang Yongxin and his drivers were faster and more stable drivers than Jiang Yuan himself, which also allowed Jiang Yuan to communicate with others on the phone and ask about the situation while in the car.

Rushing all the way, they arrived at Qu’an County Bureau, where the deputy director in charge of criminal investigation and the head of the criminal police team were already waiting in the conference room.

Huang Qiangmin introduced everyone to Jiang Yuan and others, and the case analysis meeting was immediately held in the conference room.

Generally speaking, the detectives from Qu’an County Bureau had a good attitude but were not in high spirits.

Jiang Yuan was not very good at offering psychological comfort, so he treated everyone around as forensics professors, listening intently to the police officer in charge of the case briefing:

“…The explosive device was finally identified as a portable emergency light, located about 30 meters from the exit of the train station.

It was next to a set of trash cans and appeared abandoned.

This was also where many passengers chose to board their buses.

In order to avoid the station’s fees, buses would temporarily stop here to pick up passengers.

The incident occurred 8 years ago, when the station tacitly allowed this situation.”

“Due to this, the case quickly caught the attention of the provincial department, viewing it as an explosion targeting the life safety of unspecified multiple people, and organized an elite force to investigate…”

“The evidence collected at the scene was mainly in two parts.

First, regarding the victim, the victim, Zeng Guoqing, was the owner of a nearby repair shop.

He worked on repairs until late at night and rode his motorcycle home around 4 a.m., coming into contact with the explosive device.

If it hadn’t been for Zeng triggering it ahead of time, people would have started waiting here to board by 5 or 6 a.m.

Zeng Guoqing died on the spot, with his left arm blown off and his right eye burst out, and he suffered multiple blast injuries all over his body.”

“Second, about the explosive device itself.

It was made of black powder, using an electric blanket’s resistance wire stripped of its plastic coating, about 1 centimeter long…

Four Nanfu size AA batteries were connected in series, with signs of solder at the joints, apparently detonated by heating the resistance wire…”

“The distribution of the explosive material was fan-shaped, the furthest being 20 meters from the blast center, with bony human tissues found up to 18 meters from the blast center.

There was a large amount of blood and fragments of clothing at the scene, but the road surface had no obvious blast marks…”

As Jiang Yuan listened, he looked at the photos on the PPT behind the police officer.

The scene was gruesome, but after eight years, even with his skillset, it was difficult to find a breakthrough path.

“The evidence and photos should all be available, right?

Let’s start from scratch,” Jiang Yuan said after the case briefing, without offering any opinion.

Logically, at a case analysis meeting, there should be some analysis, some direction for the investigation, but from Jiang Yuan’s perspective, he really had no analysis and no ideas.

Yet Huang Qiangmin seemed very pleased, his lips curling up in a perfect 66.6-degree arc, boasting to the deputy directors and others from Qu’an County Bureau, “That’s how Jiang Yuan is, quietly working on cases.

Sometimes he just looks at some photos for a while, and bam, he cracks the case.”

The deputy directors and others immediately offered compliments:

“That’s amazing.”

“Ningtai Jiangyuan, the name is well deserved!”

“A force to be reckoned with!”

Jiang Yuan silently looked up at Huang Qiangmin, suddenly feeling like an engineer looking at a salesperson—thinking that we could probably tone down the boasting a bit.