National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 740 - 683: Breakthrough

Chapter 740: Chapter 683: Breakthrough

"The clothes have been brought back."

Wang Chuanxing and Shen Yaowei returned with several large boxes of evidence. As Wang Chuanxing placed the items into a cabinet, he said, "The facilities at Zhengguang Bureau are really nice. Their evidence room is even better than our new office."

"You can’t compare it to Beijing. Besides, they’re just big. The decoration alone is so-so, and the evidence room doesn’t have much equipment. Just some cabinets and a few computers." Huang Qiangmin was sitting right there and smirked.

Beijing’s infrastructure is something small counties can’t compete with. Regardless of the high housing prices in Beijing, when it comes to constructing public facilities for the departments, achieving grand and majestic goals is fairly easy. For an agency like Zhengguang Bureau, the annual normal budget is more than two billion yuan, really hefty indeed.

Wang Chuanxing, who was seconded from the provincial capital to Ningtai County, was not so intimidated by Huang Qiangmin and chuckled, "Their evidence room has constant temperature and humidity. If I turned into evidence, I’d like to stay in a place like that."

"If you turned into evidence, in Beijing, you’d be in an autopsy center’s ice coffin." Shen Yaowei was very tactful and smiled at Huang Qiangmin. "The good thing about Beijing is that they preserve evidence well. I guess Captain Jiang might collect quite a few pollen samples."

As he spoke, everyone’s gaze turned to Jiang Yuan, who was sitting in front of the lab bench.

There was just a microscope on the lab bench, and then a tray with tweezers and such. You could ask someone for help with this task, but given the significance of the case, with pollen on the clothes being the most favorable evidence, Jiang Yuan couldn’t be bothered to delegate the initial collection of the pollen.

To be honest, teaching a forensic doctor who had never done such work before, watching them for a while, answering some questions, and dealing with minor incidents during the experiment, would probably be more tiring than doing it himself.

"What I’ll find, I don’t know yet. I’ll know when I see." Jiang Yuan spread out various vessels and took out the first piece of clothing from the evidence bag, releasing a foul stench that had been festering for years. It was even more potent than usual, like a long-stifled fart, neither fully gaseous nor solid, neither soft nor rigid...

Huang Qiangmin’s breathing was disrupted for a few seconds, swiftly donned a mask, and said, "I’ll sit with you for a while, I’m not busy right now. I’ll scroll through my phone and then we can find a good restaurant and have something nice to eat tonight. On the Zhengguang Bureau’s expense."

At that, Wang Chuanxing and Shen Yaowei exchanged glances and quickly said, "We’ll stay too. Though we can’t be of much help, we’re at Captain Jiang and Commissioner Huang’s disposal."

Huang Qiangmin smiled and casually took out his phone, "Right, let me show you the new detention center our bureau is building. They’re still working on the underground piping. Take a look at this construction standard. If this video got out, escapees would cry their eyes out."

Jiang Yuan had already seen it and let out a chuckle, then focused his attention back on the microscope.

As he had just said, only upon seeing the evidence would he know what could be found.

Rainwater, various cleaning agents, friction, time factors, and environmental elements could all potentially cause some pollen to lose its adhesiveness or to disappear completely.

Overall, though, pollen is a very resilient form of evidence. It is not like blood or hair—those trivialities that can’t stand acid or alkali. Pollen has survived through many major extinction events of past centuries. Volcanic ash, deep ice, floods and beasts, beauties and stockings, hairy parasites, sleek microorganisms, and nuclear radiation from across the ocean—are all trivial in the eyes of pollen.

Under the microscope, many pollen samples looked like fortresses, with long and tough spikes, thick bones, and a dense and fine mesh. Magnified tens of thousands of times, they appeared like futuristic space fortresses. They were not to be trifled with, no matter how you looked at it.

If comic artists were ever short of ideas, they could look up a few pollen guidebooks to modify, and it would be more powerful than making up space fortresses. The somewhat yellowish pollen could even be used in adult comics.

"Aster Tribe pollen," declared Jiang Yuan as he shook his neck and began to log notes in his notebook.

There wasn’t a lot of pollen on the clothes, so Jiang Yuan started by picking out the more apparent ones first.

Huang Qiangmin, who had been scrolling through his phone, immediately came over and asked, "Chrysanthemum?"

"Asteraceae is not simply a daisy." Jiang Yuan continued to look through the microscope, speaking somewhat subconsciously as he observed, "Based on pollen typification, Asteraceae has three types of pollen: the sunflower type, the thousand-mile-light type, and the spring golden daisy type. This one should be of the sunflower type."

"Does that mean there were sunflowers at the crime scene?"

"It’s not that simple. Because within the sunflower-type pollen, there are many kinds, including the Sunflower Tribe, Zelan Tribe, Aster Tribe, heart-leaved aster Tribe, Marigold Tribe, and in addition, the blanket flower Tribe and thousand-mile-light Tribe also have this type of pollen..." Jiang Yuan spoke of tribes, and beneath these, there were about 30 genera, which were exceedingly complex.

Most who dabble in Legal Botany give up when they hear this.

Huang Qiangmin also felt overwhelmed, his dark face furrowing, "Just tell me if there were sunflowers at the scene."

"There were." The pollen Jiang Yuan found was indeed from the genus Helianthus.

This judgment alone could drive a normal botanist mad. Sunflower-type pollen has both similarities and differences, making it not easy to identify. In fact, it should be quite difficult.

Jiang Yuan reached a conclusion without referring to any data, equivalent to casting a spell instantly without a magic book, a shame because everyone present was a Muggle, with not a single one understanding.

"When victim number three was found, there were no sunflowers at the scene, so are we getting closer to the primary crime scene?" Wang Chuanxing, invigorated, turned over.

"We’re still far from pinpointing the location." Jiang Yuan looked up at Wang Chuanxing, then began to pinch another pollen grain.

Wang Chuanxing shook his head, "Even so, it’s a breakthrough. Considering other factors, such as the victim’s mobile location on the day, witness testimony, etc., we might just find the primary crime scene."

Indeed, practicing Legal Botany within a city doesn’t have the thrill of the wild outdoors.

However, looking from another perspective, the origins of pollen in a city are also very singular, and even the pollen from common plants like sunflowers isn’t necessarily readily found.

Armed with technology, Jiang Yuan certainly wouldn’t use such rough methods. Besides, the pollen on the clothes was already being examined, and this time, it had to be fully analyzed. Otherwise, if the case didn’t progress smoothly and a re-examination was needed, it would be a second examination, which would limit accuracy, and a lot of information might be lost.

Whether or not the case is solved, the documentary work must be done thoroughly. This is also one of the foundations Jiang Yuan relies on to solve cases through case files.

Soon, Jiang Yuan also scanned for the pollen of willows and pines, followed by camellias and clematis...

However, the most abundant was still the sunflower pollen.

In a moment of life questioning, Jiang Yuan suddenly looked up, "Sunflowers are insect-pollinated."

"Hmm?" Huang Qiangmin and the others present did not catch on immediately.

"Wind-pollinated plants have a far dispersal distance, insect-pollinated plants have a short dispersal distance. If it’s a sunflower field, beehives are usually nearby," Jiang Yuan said as he took notes. The locations found later had to match the criteria to be useful.

In general, the requirements for Legal Botany are quite strict, but when it comes to investigation, the discipline holds its own in an assertive way.

No matter how professionally the murderer might have cleaned up the crime scene, how could they possibly contend with Legal Botany?