National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 588 - 534: Pollen Atlas

Chapter 588: Chapter 534: Pollen Atlas

Trace Evidence Laboratory.

White paint, white tables, white scientific equipment, and lab technicians in white coats...

This was the highest-level laboratory at the Luo Jin City Bureau Criminal Science Center. Universities and research institutes might have more advanced labs, but in the field of criminal investigation, the Trace Evidence Laboratory was considered the pinnacle.

Not to mention, just the requirements for a clean room far exceeded the total budget of a standard laboratory, and as for the various pieces of equipment, the smaller they looked, the more expensive they naturally were.

The technicians working in the Trace Evidence Laboratory were typically full-time professionals—across other forensic disciplines like medical examiners that usually emphasized specialization, requiring professional certification and training, whether it be on-site investigation, trace examination, toxicology, or chemical analysis, all were an assembly of elites.

Although related police academies also offered relevant majors and courses, the internal requirements within the police force were not strict. It wasn’t strange for some police specialties to start working after only a few months of training.

The standards for the Trace Evidence Laboratory were relatively high, and because of its high construction and operational costs, the laboratory naturally had high expectations for its personnel.

Yet even such a group, when faced with the invading Jiang Yuan, wisely chose to follow his lead.

Jiang Yuan hadn’t actually shown any aggression, but his operations were inherently forceful.

It was like everyone was playing basketball, and someone joined in, gave a very polite smile, then started making mid-range shots, sinking one after another with a swish. Everyone would cheer and say how wonderful it was until he moved to the three-point line and kept hitting shots with a swish. By then, people started to give him their full attention while clapping, and when he began to drive to the basket, repeatedly dunking...

Of course, applause was still in order, but it now carried a hint of compulsion, as if not applauding meant being a resentful idiot jealous of someone’s talent.

What should they do if he started dunking from the free throw line? It was appropriate to cheer, but keeping a little distance from the court also seemed necessary. Otherwise, being relegated to a mere backdrop was quite uncomfortable.

Especially when many classmates held up their phones, gathering around.

Jiang Yuan was now practically dunking from the free throw line, switching his style with each dunk.

There was no choice, he had just acquired the skill of Legal Botany, so he wasn’t too familiar with all the techniques and naturally had to operate on full capacity. It wasn’t feasible to intentionally lower his skill level for the sake of hiding his brilliance.

Hence, one could see Jiang Yuan staining pollen, spores, and organic residues, embedding them, and watching as he placed the embedded samples on a glass slide, then went on to classify these items with a microscope, composing experiment reports.

Identifying pollen and spores was actually an incredibly difficult task.

Why are there so few botanists in the world, particularly those who delve into the area of pollen? Is it because people dislike it?

It’s because it is difficult and not lucrative!

Many types of pollen look almost the same to laypeople. Some pollen really is virtually indistinguishable, and it’s not an exaggerated rhetorical device; they are genuinely undifferentiable. For example, the pollen from roses is basically indistinguishable from that of apples, hawthorns, or wild roses.

As for those types that are easy to differentiate, that still applies to botanists. There are so many types of pollen in the world that even among botanists, only a few specialize in pollen, and most of them are only familiar with the pollen from their own region.

Thus, similar to the Cranial Reconstruction Skill, Legal Botany is an ultra-high-end skill with explosive difficulty.

Of course, the effects are also explosively impressive.

After all, this skill is incredibly hard to safeguard against, and even fewer people are aware of it.

Not until the 1990s did the United States begin to explore the application of Legal Botany. The results were good, but botanists showed little interest, and the difficulty was too great; this situation persists to the present day.

And in Jiang Yuan’s view, Legal Botany today is almost as revolutionary as DNA was when it first emerged.

Only its difficulty has prevented it from becoming as widespread as DNA identification.

Yet for the investigation of specific, individual cases, its value is comparable to DNA identification.

"From what I see, grains are the dominant type; they must have stayed in a place with a large quantity of grains for quite a while," Jiang Yuan concluded his report leisurely after identifying the types of pollen and spore samples under the microscope.

The original researchers of the Trace Evidence Laboratory collectively sat opposite Jiang Yuan, listening to him speak.

It was as if a group of tall players on a basketball court were watching an ordinary citizen dunk from the free throw line. Here, status didn’t matter anymore; applauding was all that was required.

Jiang Yuan operated the microscope while stating:

"The radiator contains inhaled insects, which can be further studied individually later on."

"The pollen inside the tire tread is much less than the mixed pollen found in the mud outside the tire."

"The air filter has a variety of pollen that can be regrouped later."

"The pollen patterns on the floor mats and pedals are similar, with nettle, grass, goosefoot, hawthorn, wild rose, ivy, birch, pine, elm..."

As Jiang Yuan spoke, a technician nearby had already unfolded a map and started looking at it.

After a while, when Jiang Yuan finished speaking, the technician said, "Captain Jiang, in Luo Jin City, there aren’t many places with hawthorn trees; they should serve as an indicator."

Jiang Yuan nodded his head, "Sure."

"Gramineae means rice, right? There shouldn’t be much of that left in the city. If it’s outside the city, coupled with a hawthorn tree or something, there should also be few," said the technician, who seemed to have some interest in the matter and started to mark it on the map by himself.

Jiang Yuan actually wanted to say it wasn’t necessary to go through such trouble; they simply needed to find a satellite image that could display the ground vegetation and then search through it area by area.

Pollen profiles not only determine the qualitative aspects but also the quantitative. The most time-consuming part for Jiang Yuan was counting the number of pollen grains.

This process was strenuous for him, involving identifying the species and counting, with recording in between.

However, after completing this step, Jiang Yuan was roughly able to determine the proportion of some plants in the area.

Perhaps there were two, three, or even ten areas that all had the above-mentioned plants, but their proportional quantities would definitely be different.

Therefore, by using pollen profiles, it was possible to find a unique location.

This was a very strong aspect within the field of advanced forensic botany. It was akin to DNA for a location.

Of course, having someone to help narrow down the search area was a good thing as well.

After leaving the laboratory and changing his clothes, Jiang Yuan made a phone call to Huang Qiangmin asking him to coordinate with Luo Jin City’s detectives to obtain satellite imagery.

When the phone call ended, he turned around to find a row of people behind him still grouped in a half-circle, surrounding him just as they had in the laboratory.

Jiang Yuan felt a chill down his back, and if he hadn’t suppressed it momentarily, he might have used the wrestling skills he learned from Uncle Qiang.

The leading technician said with an embarrassed smile, "Just curious."

Scratching off the car paint to find pollen and then determining the kidnapper’s location—this matter sounded intriguing enough to arouse curiosity.

The technicians from the Trace Evidence Laboratory had watched Jiang Yuan working, so naturally, they were even more curious.

Jiang Yuan didn’t mind and said with a smile, "Then let’s go take a look." He then led the crowd toward the conference room.

...

At this very moment,

Xu Tian, the Deputy Director of Luo Jin City Bureau, was escorting the entire office staff to aid the victim’s families.

The victim’s families hadn’t said much; they were just anxiously crying.

The parents of the two primary school students, along with the accompanying grandparents, aunts, and uncles, filled the spacious room to capacity.

Initially, Xu Tian didn’t want so many family members to come, but they couldn’t calm the parents of the two families, so they had to let the relatives get involved.

At the very least, with the relatives there to help soothe them, they had somewhere to start.

"Director Xu, why haven’t they released the person yet? We’ve given the money, so what else do they want?" asked the mother of one of the girls, stopping her cries momentarily before breaking into sobs again after speaking.

Xu Tian let out a heavy sigh and said, "We speculate that they may want another sum of money. The initial 2 million might have had a specific purpose for them, but this next amount is probably what they actually want."

"More money... we... we..." the mother looked towards her husband.

The man’s face was ashen. Clenching his teeth, he said, "I’ve talked to the bank; we’ll borrow some first, and when we get home today, we’re selling the house!"

The woman relaxed noticeably at his words, then clung to her husband’s arm and began to sob uncontrollably.

The man patted her shoulder and said, "We didn’t have a house back in the day either. As long as Yuan Yuan comes back, we can always make money to buy another one."

"Yes, yes..." the woman nodded vigorously, her tears soaking her husband’s shoulder.

Another couple nearby exchanged looks and also embraced each other, hand in hand.

Xu Tian felt terribly uncomfortable watching this. It wasn’t just him; the mood of the police officers present was also quite bleak. The victims’ families were forced to endure more and more, yet they felt powerless to help.

The kidnappers had already demanded more ransom, and this was money the police department couldn’t provide. If the victims’ families were unwilling to pay, the negotiation could very well break down, and the kidnapping case could turn into a homicide...

However, watching the families’ actions and feeling their emotions, everyone’s hearts were twisted with anguish.

If good people could only express their emotions through tears while the bad reap tangible benefits, what purpose did the police serve?

Xu Tian sighed inwardly and tried to reassure them, "This case is not only taken seriously by our city bureau but also by the provincial department and ministry, which have sent people over, and we have experts from all sides providing support. You must maintain your confidence and an optimistic spirit. We are coordinating forces to locate the other party and rescue the children..."

He would have been better off not saying anything, as his words made the parents’ just-contained tears fall again. The old ladies from both families also began to pull at their sleeves and wipe their tears.

Just then, Huang Qiangmin walked in with a beaming smile.