National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 794 - 737: Two Degrees Higher

Chapter 794: Chapter 737: Two Degrees Higher

Autopsy Center.

Jiang Yuan sat in the police car, speeding back with flashing lightning, and began to perform an autopsy on the deceased upon arrival.

He truly felt urgent; on one hand, the fresher the body, the more information could be obtained, and on the other hand, the case had reached another bottleneck, seeming somewhat eerie. Jiang Yuan’s first thought was "speed."

This was a tactic he had employed before; in many cases, if you acted quickly, they remained simple and direct criminal cases. Drag them out, and they might turn into political cases.

As for what the situation was like in the Jingji region, Jiang Yuan from Ningtai County couldn’t quite figure it out, and he wasn’t all that eager to do so either. After all, acting quickly was always going to be safer.

Of course, in addition, Jiang Yuan also brought four colleagues from the Cold Case Squad, and Mu Zhiyang was even issued a Type 92 handgun.

If the killer could pull out a rifle, it would be outrageous for the police not to even have a pistol.

In fact, the riflemen had already been deployed in position; they just couldn’t possibly scamper around everywhere with Jiang Yuan.

"The time of death is roughly about a week ago. Six days is more likely." Jiang Yuan had made an estimate of the time of death at the scene, and he reiterated it now.

Zhan Kan was carefully attending to him, looking at the computer data and saying, "The victim’s family reported the disappearance 7 days ago, so does that mean the victim was killed on the day of the disappearance?"

"Juvenile delinquents don’t last overnight," said Liu Jinghui, who had found following Tao Lu and the others meaningless and had simply come to the autopsy center with Jiang Yuan instead.

Zhengguang Bureau had mobilized the entire department this time; nearly thousands of people were busy with this series of cases. There was a lot of information, but Liu Jinghui trusted Jiang Yuan the most.

Sometimes, more information isn’t necessarily better, especially when it involves 7.62mm bullets; Liu Jinghui even had to consider trustworthiness when analyzing the evidence.

Jiang Yuan continued with the autopsy in silence, analyzing meticulously.

After so long, the body’s stench had long emerged, and insects had bred several generations, with shells, maggots, and eggs, like a large, happy family.

As Jiang Yuan dissected the body, the falling maggots and eggshells were promptly collected by Zhan Kan into bottles, killed on the spot, and then stored away.

Liu Jinghui waited a bit longer, and when he saw no new information from Jiang Yuan’s side, he took off his gloves, washed his hands again, and started contemplating on his own. He often liked to prop up his chin with his hand when thinking, and touching corpse grease would affect his mood.

"There’s a through-and-through wound in the left lung, 3 centimeters by 2 centimeters."

"Between the 3rd and 4th ribs, there’s a wound measuring 4 by 2."

"The bullet’s angle was small, the victim was shot in the front; they may have been face-to-face with the killer, though probably at some distance."

Jiang Yuan occasionally voiced a finding, while another younger forensic doctor took notes at his side.

This case’s scale was large and had even encroached on the space for other cases, thus reducing the workload at the Autopsy Center.

Liu Jinghui just listened, occasionally making notes in his own notebook.

When Jiang Yuan had finished processing the internal organs of the body and captured all the insects alive, Liu Jinghui snapped his notebook shut and said, "Looking at it this way, it’s highly likely that the victim and the murderer knew each other."

"Hmm," Jiang Yuan acknowledged, then said, "The list of the deceased’s family members questioned by Cui Dayou seems to be constructed from the angle of acquaintance perpetration as well."

Whether the crime was committed by an acquaintance or a stranger makes a big difference. You could even say it changes the entire content of the investigation.

This is a question of investigative direction and also a main reason why the special case team occasionally organizes a case analysis meeting.

Differences of opinion on the investigation direction are often argued over at case analysis meetings. Deciding the direction means focusing efforts accordingly; failing to speak up during the meeting but conducting private investigations afterwards is definitely something that, if discovered, will be dealt with seriously.

It’s not just a matter of defying superiors’ orders; it can significantly interfere with the commanding officer’s judgement and is disruptive to the work of others.

The larger the task force, the broader the scope of the initial investigation, and they can attend to every detail. However, the investigation inevitably needs to deepen, and once it does, the scope of the investigation will naturally change.

Even the list-based investigation led by Liu Cheng was conducted following those who had access to firearms.

Liu Jinghui had been following up on the progress of all parties and shook his head, saying, "His acquaintance won’t do."

"What do you mean?" Jiang Yuan looked towards Liu Jinghui.

"The list that Liu Da made is basically the deceased Ye Shun’s family’s acquaintance, not Ye Shun’s acquaintance. Of course, this difference is not too big; the bigger issue is related to guns. If we assume the weapon was a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, I don’t know much about guns, but what does this gun have to do with ordinary people who can access firearms? It’s like having relatives in the army, who could bring a gun here?"

Jiang Yuan nodded as he listened.

Liu Jinghui said, "Such standard-issue weapons are definitely strictly managed by their units. I don’t know the specifics, but I’ve heard that even internal inspections by some units found nothing. From what I vaguely understand, there are too many points where the gun could have been taken out, and anyone with a normal brain wouldn’t use such a hard-to-obtain weapon to shoot an ordinary adolescent."

Jiang Yuan continued to nod. Liu Jinghui’s reasoning was always persuasive, probably a result of his many years of experience. He didn’t have any enforcement powers himself; even when supervising local cases with the rank of a senior police officer from the provincial department, he couldn’t directly command the local police but had to convince the officers in charge to get things done.

Over the years, Liu Jinghui’s reasoning had become grounded, making sense to both ordinary people and intelligent leaders, without resorting to mysterious and suspenseful cases to highlight himself.

After all, once the investigation was over, he would return to the provincial department, and he might never visit a certain county town again in his life. His sole focus was on solving the cases.

Jiang Yuan compared the recently examined corpse with the previous analyses and asked, "So, do you have any ideas?"

"I think there’s a problem with our direction of investigation. Looking into the gun, which I just mentioned, is not that we shouldn’t investigate, but firearm management is too strict to kill an adolescent so easily. There’s no need," Liu Jinghui said, counting off on his fingers before continuing, "Looking into acquaintances or acquaintances involved with guns is fine, the network of relationships and all, but for an adolescent, what kind of financial entanglements could there be? It’s perhaps more likely to look into early love relationships."

"Cui Dayou has been investigating that aspect," Zhan Kan, who was no longer just a forensic doctor but had also been following the progress of the case with Jiang Yuan, added, "Apparently there was an early relationship, and it caused a conflict with other boys at school."

"I’ve seen that, just two high school boys secretly liking the same girl, it’s nothing," Liu Jinghui dismissed with a curl of his lip.

"But there was conflict," Zhan Kan whispered.

"Then check it out. It won’t take many people," said Liu Jinghui with an indifferent tone. "The key is still the direction. These random ways of investigating are all wrong."

"So—" Jiang Yuan helped Liu Jinghui complete his thought.

"We should follow the timeline. Now that we’ve confirmed the time of death is the day the victim disappeared, as long as we clarify the victim’s whereabouts that day, everything will become clear." Liu Jinghui patted his notebook and added, "Beforehand, the focus was mainly on accidental causes, chasing the gun issue and not considering the victim’s side. Now that we’ve confirmed the time of death..."

"We investigate the victim’s timeline!" Jiang Yuan agreed with Liu Jinghui, summarizing the point.

Liu Jinghui’s reasoning was very reliable. Jiang Yuan wiped his hands and called Tao Lu.

Although without the persuasiveness of Liu Jinghui’s reasoning, the trust Jiang Yuan had built up over the past few days was enough to make Tao Lu decide without question.

With minor adjustments within the special case team, several police groups were immediately dispatched.

Before long, news started to come back.

"Ye Shun went out that day with two classmates."

"All three carried backpacks and wore some outdoor gear."

"Their chat history shows that their goal was to go on an adventure. An adventure akin to that of special forces, typical of high schoolers, that was roughly the idea."

Jiang Yuan went directly to the command center, and Tao Lu arrived nearly at the same time. They listened together to reports from all sides.

As news came in rapid succession, one piece stood out and electrified everyone.

"Li Guangzhi, this student used his cell phone to search for ’how to assemble a Type 56 rifle’!"

The reporting officer, unable to contain his excitement, raised his voice a couple of notches when delivering this piece of information.