National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 610 - 555 Classification

Chapter 610: Chapter 555 Classification

"Why not choose the easy cases?" Pang Jidong found it a bit hard to understand.

According to conventional thinking, if the benefits of each project are similar, then one would certainly choose the easiest one to tackle. Even if criteria for judging the difficulty of projects vary, it’s always right to pick the relatively easy ones.

Jiang Yuan’s answer was entirely beyond Pang Jidong’s expectation, "The other cases might not involve Legal Botany, and then you would have to forget all the things I’ve told you."

This was really... Pang Jidong felt as if his chest had suddenly been filled with warmth.

"You chose this case for me?" Pang Jidong stood in the cold basement, feeling stunned, his heart warm, his mind bemused, his expression blank, and his limbs fidgeting aimlessly.

Jiang Yuan smiled frankly, "It’s for myself as well. I originally thought the last few cases would be enough. You’ve been struggling to get started, and I think that starting directly with pollen is too hard. The most practical application of Legal Botany is in drowning cases; since we have one, let’s take a look..."

"It’s... it’s because I’m too slow..." Pang Jidong regretted so much. He should have worked harder in the past days.

Pang Jidong couldn’t help but reminisce; it had been over a decade since he left the ranks of the young, and no one had been so kind to him since then.

Once, when he had just started out, his master was very kind to him. The following leaders, including the bureau chief, treated him quite well too, but gradually, the leaders retired, left office, were transferred away... His master retired to enjoy his old age at home, and the only ones who were kind to him were his wife and later, his children. Eventually, the focus of care from his wife and children shifted too...

Approaching middle age, it seemed the only option left was to burn oneself out.

"Captain Jiang, I..." Pang Jidong’s heart pounded in his chest.

"You do your best, and I do mine. That way, if there’s ever a case in Luo Jin City that can use Legal Botany, you’ll at least be able to handle it," said Jiang Yuan, not giving Pang Jidong the chance to speak his heart. It’s not suitable for three men to discuss such matters at work; the bodies in the ice coffins would laugh if they could.

Pang Jidong nodded vigorously, "I’ll come to you when I find a suitable case..."

"That’s not necessary, but there certainly are technicians who know how to do Legal Botany, and you can look them up later. One good thing about our country is that researchers are lowly paid. Offer a little extra compensation, and you’ll always find someone willing to help," Jiang Yuan thought. Even the most demanding normal botanist in China couldn’t open their mouths wider than Huang Qiangmin.

Of course, Jiang Yuan provided a one-stop service, and it wasn’t just about utilizing Legal Botany techniques, which is another matter.

During the conversation, the three of them went to the autopsy room to examine the body.

The body was swollen, and only two fingerprints had been extracted, which failed to match any records. One of its thighs had already been removed for bone marrow and diatom analysis, but even so, the body’s point of entry into the water and identity remained unverified.

If they couldn’t establish the identity, it made the case very difficult to proceed with.

The forensic doctor of Luo Jin City, Lu Jie, again produced a large number of photos, which he hung on a backlight screen, "When the body was brought in, there were obvious signs of strangulation on the neck, leading us to conclude it was a homicide."

As he spoke, he pointed to the photos for Jiang Yuan to see.

The neck of the body, due to dissection and storage, was not very clear. The photographs, however, were much more discernible.

After Jiang Yuan had a good look, Lu Jie continued, "The body was found in the Jinshui River. Jinshui River has a large volume of water and is extremely long. We searched upstream for a long time and took many samples, but haven’t found any useful clues."

Jiang Yuan pondered for a moment and then said to Pang Jidong, "This is a downside of algal communities, unlike pollen profiles, because algae are more concealed and cannot be directly observed, they can only be used as proof, not as a directional tool."

Pang Jidong understood this aspect and nodded, "It means we can only find the location and use the algal community to prove it’s here but can’t directly find the place through the algal community."

"Pretty much," Jiang Yuan said, looking at Lu Jie.

"It should be freshwater. River water," Lu Jie said.

"River water is the most troublesome. If it were saltwater, we could determine the approximate sea area based on salinity. Most crime or accident scenes are in bays, so it’s easier to pinpoint location. Lake water also has certain characteristics in its algal distribution. But for river water, especially long rivers like the Jinshui River, it is difficult to determine the position," Jiang Yuan gave Pang Jidong a brief introduction.

In Jiang Yuan’s view, what Pang Jidong needed was this kind of superficial information, which would help him harness expertise in the future.

As for real academic judgment, trying to teach Pang Jidong would be asking too much.

"So what do we do now?" Lu Jie asked. Jiang Yuan was a forensic doctor, and so was he; he wanted to learn and progress as well.

Jiang Yuan considered for a moment and said, "Two plans. First, perform cranial reconstruction. Once we have the cranial reconstruction, compare it with photos of missing persons, and we might find something. Forensic Anthropology could help too, same idea, but it works better in conjunction."

Forensic doctor Lu Jie laughed. Yes, indeed, Jiang Yuan knew how to do cranial reconstruction and understood Forensic Anthropology. While they were both forensic doctors, it would be presumptuous to expect a forensic doctor to understand cranial reconstruction and Forensic Anthropology intimately. They were all well-educated, after all; why not go to Tsinghua University?

Jiang Yuan made a brief comment, then continued, "Second, we could classify the algae and see if we can narrow it down to a small range and then look for the scene; it might have a bigger chance of success."

"Classification?" Lu Jie furrowed his brows, sensing that what Jiang Yuan referred to as classification was definitely not what he had imagined.

"Yes, let’s prioritize the diatoms. Once other algae are dried out, it becomes very difficult to identify their genus and species. By contrast, water doesn’t really have any effect on the siliceous frustules of diatoms." Jiang Yuan casually introduced Pang Jidong to this, then continued, "For the other algae, we’ll try as much as we can. We will classify as many as possible."

Lu Jie could only nod blankly.

Diatoms and other algae—he had extracted them all, but why hadn’t they been classified before? Not because he didn’t like to, of course!

Among these, there were over 200 species of diatoms. As for algae, stating a total number is not very meaningful since many species are not local, but for reference, here’s a figure: more than 27,000 species.

Even if Lu Jie’s head were flattened, it was impossible for him to learn how to distinguish all the species of algae. Finding a professional expert on algae might be possible, but that would be a huge amount of work; and besides, it wouldn’t be over just by identifying the species of algae found on the body. Subsequent samples sent over would still need to be analyzed.

Moreover, even if the scene was located, there was still a distance to go before cracking the case.

So, a forensic doctor like Jiang Yuan, a one-stop solution for solving cold cases, was absolutely not overpriced by Huang Qiangmin.

"Let’s start." Jiang Yuan felt he had said enough and rolled up his sleeves to get to work.

Lu Jie silently followed suit, curious to see how Jiang Yuan would do it.

He watched...

He watched from the side...

He watched from above...

He watched, leaning against Pang Jidong...

Night fell.

Pang Jidong went to get some takeout and returned to find Lu Jie hiding in a corner, crying.

Here was a man in his thirties or forties, crying like an ugly, rough-skinned, thin-haired fat child, and Pang Jidong couldn’t help but feel a wave of sympathy.

"What’s wrong?" Pang Jidong sat down next to Lu Jie and asked softly.

"Pang Da, tell me, am I an idiot?" Lu Jie asked with tearful eyes.

If it were a young lady, Pang Jidong would usually say something to warm the heart, but facing a grown man looking this ugly, Pang Jidong could only say truthfully, "If you’re comparing yourself to Jiang Yuan, then yes, you are an idiot."

"He uses the nine-step method, I use the nine-step method, why are the diatoms he screens out more numerous and easier to identify than mine? Why does he recognize 200 species of diatoms..." Lu Jie got to the painful part and plunged into Pang Jidong’s arms.

Pang Jidong firmly pushed him away, laughing, "I thought it was something serious. It’s only 200 species, you can learn them slowly."

Lu Jie looked at Pang Jidong blankly, "How many kinds of green leafy vegetables do you know?"

"What?"

"The differences between diatoms under a microscope are even less than the differences between green leafy vegetables. If I give you 200 kinds of green leafy vegetables, could you distinguish each one?" Lu Jie asked earnestly.

Pang Jidong: "It does sound like it would be difficult."

"He also identified over twenty other kinds of algae," Lu Jie said, shaking his head. "He actually recognized all the algae that still had features..."

"Difficult... quite challenging?"

Lu Jie let out a dry laugh, "If I gave you 27,000 dogs and asked you to pick 20 and name them, could you do it?"

"How about trying with 27,000 ex-girlfriends?" Pang Jidong hadn’t met his share of collapsing criminals and victims, including sometimes the detectives under him, and knew how to change the subject.

Lu Jie indeed burst out laughing, then continued, "He also revised the post-mortem submersion interval... Tomorrow morning, it’s time to take samples..."

Lu Jie’s voice grew fainter and fainter, clearly, the blow received at the scene was nothing like the stories he had heard.

Pang Jidong just smiled. Algae? Pollen was even more twisted. And if you wanted to talk about being frustrated, just look at how frustrated the bureau leaders were now.