National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 680 - 623 Growth

Chapter 680: Chapter 623 Growth

"I’ve collected Liu Hongbing’s remains," said Jiang Yuan as he took a white, transparent evidence box and methodically placed the skeletal remains from Examination Table One inside.

This case started with a thief reporting his own mother, and the crux of it was finding this very skeleton. Now that the remains had been found, the focus of the case shifted back to the thief, An Zhiqiang, and his mother, Zhang Yi.

Liu Hongbing and his bones could rest for a while now.

As Jiang Yuan placed the last bone into the box, a blue cloth emerged from among the remains.

Liu Hongbing’s legacy—Old Clothes Identification LV2: Liu Hongbing had held many jobs, none of which he liked. He chose to recycle old clothes, the job that paid most, simply to make ends meet. The job was dirty and exhausting. He had to maintain good relations with the security and janitorial staff in residential areas, and day after day, he packed, transported, and sold the collected clothes. Bundling up hundreds or thousands of garments made the collected scents of different people nauseating, and the bundles were so heavy that they made one’s legs tremble. In order to earn a little extra, whenever he had a rare moment of downtime, Liu Hongbing would sort through the clothes in the warehouse. Doing this over time honed his skill at identifying clothing, but if he had the chance, he would have abandoned this work for something else... If he could have lived without working, perhaps he would have seemed more human.

Jiang Yuan gently closed the lid of the evidence box.

Even the lessons brought by death are hard for the living to learn.

Living people always plan far into the future, up until the moment of death.

If Liu Hongbing were still alive, he would surely be concerned about the condition of his shoulder blade, and care deeply about his son’s paternity test result. But now that he’s dead, he no longer cares about any of these things.

Perhaps it’s because his life was filled with too many regrets, and these things simply didn’t make the list.

Perhaps, he just didn’t want to care anymore.

"Let’s call it a day. Time to go home after work," said Jiang Yuan.

Looking at the time, he no longer wanted to stay in the autopsy room.

The autopsy of the second body was complete, but the most critical DNA test was yet to be done, and that was the most pressing task at the moment.

Whether it was forensic anthropology or skull restoration skill, these required far more time to complete. They would only be needed if the DNA match failed.

Wang Lan and the others were actually exhausted too.

She had come from Qinghe City without stopping to participate in the excavation of the bodies, and then went straight back to the mortuary to perform autopsies.

Seeing that Jiang Yuan was not planning to stay up all night, Wang Lan breathed a sigh of relief. She tidied up a bit before heading off to shower and change her clothes.

She had not only been in contact with skeletonized remains that day but had also dug up soil from the grave, caught insects, and picked up chrysalises. There was a scent about her that freshness could not dispel.

Jiang Yuan and Wu Jun waited for Medical Examiner Wang Lan to finish washing up, then took their turns in the spartan shower room for a quick bath. They left without mentioning how they burned paper offerings and incense before heading home separately.

Dawn.

Mr. Jiang got up early and cooked a bowl of noodles for Jiang Yuan.

The noodles were instant, just needed to be boiled, served with beef in fried sauce, garnished with several chunks of beef, and sprinkled with cilantro and scallions. Paired with pickled radish and tiger skin peppers, it was exceedingly refreshing.

Jiang Yuan, too, ate a large bowl in one go, along with a bowl of beef soup, before he finally patted his belly and stopped.

Jiang Fuzhen himself had only a small bowl without any meat, just sipping weak tea while sitting beside the dining table, he asked, "Not a smooth couple of days at work?"

Jiang Yuan did indeed have the urge to talk, but he couldn’t discuss the sensitive case details. After a moment, he said, "The victim suffered terribly, and the perpetrator was vile. It’s unsettling."

"At least the perpetrator was caught," said Jiang Fuzhen.

"I can’t say," replied Jiang Yuan as he wiped his mouth and stood up. "That’s all I can discuss, I’m off to talk to people at the station."

"Right, talk more if you’re feeling down," Jiang Fuzhen suggested, taking off his Richard Lange watch and handing it to Jiang Yuan. "They say this is the most beautiful simple three-hand watch. Wear it. When you have nothing to do, just stare at the timepiece a little—it’s not a waste of time and is good for mental health."

"The watch salesperson must have fooled you," Jiang Yuan remarked, but he put on the watch anyway and added, "I have to take it off during autopsies. If it gets lost, I’m not responsible."

"Try not to lose it; I had it custom made," Jiang Fuzhen said as he stood up to go to the kitchen and asked, "What would you like to eat tonight?"

"I probably won’t be back tonight; there’s still a lot to do today."

Jiang Yuan waved his hand and went downstairs to drive away.

Criminal Investigation Detachment.

In the meeting room, the team leaders from the various squads were gathered to listen to the case briefing on the Liu Hongbing case.

The person responsible for the briefing was Liu Wenkai.

Liu Wenkai, who had been up all night, stood up with bright eyes, and began,

"Through our work over the past few days... especially the efforts of Jiang Yuan, who used various means to find the remains of the victim Liu Hongbing and confirmed it through DNA identification... the murderers Zhang Yi and Li Gan have also confessed to the specific details of the killing and have respectively recognized the scene..."

After this simple statement, gentle applause echoed in the meeting room.

With details and the crime scene confirmed, this case was basically considered solidified.

Huang Qiangmin also smiled a serious smile of 11.1 degrees.

The difficulty of this case was still very high, and it utilized Legal Botany, a field he found quite unfamiliar. But regardless, the outcome of the case was positive, and it was satisfactorily resolved in front of the chief of a Criminal Investigation Detachment from another province, so Huang Qiangmin was quite content.

Liu Wenkai then mentioned a few more names, with particular emphasis on Mu Zhiyang, before changing the subject, "At present, the informant An Zhiqiang seems to intend to recant his statement, but it won’t affect the overall situation."

Huang Qiangmin furrowed his brow, "An Zhiqiang is that oil thief, right? He sold out his own mother to reduce his sentence. What is he trying to do by recanting now? Has he been in touch with someone?"

"It’s possible that in the detention center, someone heard about this and started saying things like An Zhiqiang is responsible for his own mother’s death... An Zhiqiang’s own claim is that he thinks his mother should be imprisoned but not sentenced to death... We’ve already explained to him that the death sentence isn’t certain, but An Zhiqiang is quite emotional and even demanded that we write a guarantee, which is definitely impossible..." Liu Wenkai briefly explained.

Huang Qiangmin snorted, "Now he remembers it’s his mother, that little beast!"

In his heart, Huang Qiangmin, who had seen many killers, looked down even more on the likes of An Zhiqiang.

In a way, it was for his own sake that he sent his mother to death.

Thinking of this, Huang Qiangmin asked, "How is Zhang Yi’s emotional state?"

The biggest concern in detention centers and prisons is suicide risk, and in Zhang Yi’s situation, she was a person of particular concern once she was imprisoned.

Liu Wenkai shook his head and said, "She’s very agitated. She never expected to be reported by her own son, and now she’s accusing her lover of being the mastermind..."

"Pay close attention to her. I’ll speak to the detention center later..." Huang Qiangmin didn’t wish to dwell on this topic and turned to ask, "What was the motive for the murder?"

Liu Wenkai took a breath before continuing, "The victim Liu Hongbing had originally wanted to collaborate with Zhang Yi, asking her to collect some clothes and then buy them back at a marked-up price. Zhang Yi had lived in the area for many years, was well-known, and was a strong and assertive person who had good control over the janitors of the nearby neighborhoods. But when discussing it at her door, Zhang Yi demanded the right to choose clothing first from Liu Hongbing’s warehouse to sell on her own."

"Zhang Yi figured that among the clothes Liu Hongbing bought from various places, there were certainly some that were relatively valuable. If she could get some for free, she could open a second-hand clothing shop and earn a tidy profit without any initial investment."

"Liu Hongbing thought it was too much hassle and would increase his workload, so he insisted on splitting the profits as originally planned."

"After the argument escalated, Li Gan got involved and the conflict intensified, ultimately leading to Liu Hongbing’s death."

Huang Qiangmin shook his head as he listened, "It’s all unnecessary. They could’ve simply not cooperated... Has the primary culprit been identified?"

"They’re still disputing it. The prosecution thinks the nature of this case is egregious and seems to want to sentence both of them to death!" Liu Wenkai explained.

Jiang Yuan silently nodded. Murder, dismemberment, and then burial; before the body was found, Li Gan and Zhang Yi were still stubbornly resisting; stacking up all sorts of aggravating debuffs... It proved from another perspective that after long cooperation with the prosecution, there was indeed growth.