National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 830 - 771: Group of Botanists

Chapter 830: Chapter 771: Group of Botanists

The botanists had set up a group chat and the conversation was fairly lively.

In the group, everyone discussed work, chatted, shared pictures, forwarded jokes and news, watched drama unfold, posted links, and ranted about incompetent leaders and policies, sharing new perspectives on world and historical issues...

It was clear that, since this was a group of biologists, just like any other creatures, everyone tried their best not to talk about work.

Using changes in the natural environment to locate bodies was not easy. Despite Jiang Yuan unearthing several graves with ease, it had taken him several days, and he had to search in a targeted manner, grounded in Level 4 Legal Botany expertise.

That day, the location where the special case went missing was determined by Qi Changye. Although it was only a direction with a vast area, there was still a defined range. Jiang Yuan dug over the most identifiable locations within that range and left the leftovers for a bunch of scholars who didn’t even reach Level 1 in Legal Botany to research. Needless to say, their progress wasn’t as smooth.

It was like a handsome expert spending days sweet-talking each girl in a dormitory, only to leave behind those girls who were unresponsive for a classmate who was a virgin, single since birth, average-looking, of ordinary family background, average height, not eloquent, not into dressing up, with no sense of fashion nor care for food and clothes, poor sports abilities, lacking confidence, and too proud to lower his face.

This group of over twenty botanists—their enthusiasm was drained in just a few days.

Jiang Yuan returned to his office, scanned over the group chat, and had a clear understanding of the situation.

Soon, Jiang Yuan updated the group announcement:

Announcement: [Everyone, in the next two days, we will excavate the locations you’ve marked. If you have more places to mark, please send them to me privately. The trial excavation is expected to last two to three days.]

Jiang Yuan estimated that everyone had indeed marked some locations.

The past few days of delay might have been somewhat dull, but as botanists, could they really be scared of monotony?

Ding dong.

Sure enough, in no time, Jiang Yuan’s phone started ringing.

Marking a location meant the police would verify whether there were any remains there, which in itself was quite exciting.

Jiang Yuan opened a WeChat message to see that it included a location, marker, photo, and a lengthy description explaining why this place was chosen.

Pure concern of a good student eager to learn.

Jiang Yuan immediately replied with a thumbs-up emoji.

By evening, Jiang Yuan checked and found that the group of nearly 20 botanists had provided 78 marked locations.

It was evident that everyone had different hobbies. The botanist who provided the most locations had marked nine spots, even more than Jiang Yuan had. And his proficiency in Legal Botany was far inferior to Jiang Yuan’s.

It was clear that Professor Zhao Tian was genuinely interested in this field.

Jiang Yuan then roughly sorted through these 78 marked locations.

He primarily looked for obvious signs of buried remains. Such locations needed to be dealt with promptly to prevent unforeseen complications and also to cover any oversight.

But there were none.

Level 4 Legal Botany was overpowering for these freshmen botanists. Although after a brief period of study and practice, they might reach Level 1 or Level 2 proficiency, at this moment in time, their expertise paled in comparison to the difference between Jiang Yuan and Wang Zhong in the field of trace evidence.

However, the involvement of the botanists was still very meaningful. Satisfying their curiosity was just the first step; unearthing bodies was the bait Jiang Yuan laid for them, the nest he had made.

Afterward, as long as the botanists were willing to gradually participate more, the number of tasks they could accomplish would naturally increase.

"Cui Da, I’ll send you the marked locations; have someone check if any bodies can be found," Jiang Yuan phoned Cui Qishan. This was also part of the plan that Tao Lu had already arranged.

Cui Qishan responded immediately and after looking at his phone, he was taken aback and carefully said, "If there were 78 bodies in Beijing, that would be too many, we..."

"It’s just 78 suspected locations, not 78 bodies," Jiang Yuan laughed.

Cui Qishan didn’t laugh, "Last time you also gave a few places, and we dug up 6 bodies."

"Those few were carefully selected, the best of the best..." Jiang Yuan paused, then continued, "These 78 locations were not chosen by me, they were picked by those botanists."

"Last time also... Then how many did you personally select?"

"None, they were all picked by the botanists."

On the other end of the line, Cui Qishan breathed a sigh of relief, sounding much more relaxed, "That’s a relief. I’m not against finding bodies, but these big cases really take a toll on us."

Jiang Yuan and his team were certainly in danger on the front lines, but the police officers in the rear weren’t idle either.

Even those not in the special case team were actually under a lot of pressure. In a county town, one murder case could have the whole station mobilizing; the Zhengguang Bureau, facing so many corpses, was no better off.

"Right," Cui Qishan asked before hanging up, "we can hire people to dig, right? With 78 pits, we’d be digging until next year on our own."

"It should be fine; you go ahead and create another group. After each location is dug up, drop some photos and videos in the group so the botanists can all have a look and learn," Jiang Yuan still placed great importance on user experience.

Cui Qishan acknowledged the request, and soon Xiao Si had created a group.

Being a police officer for a long time, one naturally developed a dislike for chat groups because there were too many—they almost needed a separate group for each case. It was not unusual to have several groups for a single case. Detectives handling multiple cases at once was the norm.

For team leaders like Cui Qishan, who darted between various special case teams daily, it was typical that even if a task force for a murder was established in a sub-bureau, the ones previously set up for serious injuries or burglaries weren’t likely to be disbanded.

Moreover, for most cases, the investigation stage was just the beginning and middle of the case process, which included securing evidence and interrogating all the way up to the inspection stage; this could take even more time.

Therefore, there were groups not only among police officers but also between police officers and victims’ families and with witnesses.

Xiao Si created the group, hesitatingly not bringing Jiang Yuan into the group, and then Cui Qishan.

Cui Qishan: [No need to add me...]

But seeing that Jiang Yuan was also in the group, Cui Qishan ultimately didn’t have the heart to leave.

Xiao Si then added Li Jiang, Wang Chao, and others, followed by a group of botanists.

Xiao Si: [This group is for the Zhengguang Bureau’s live excavation of corpses. Everyone, please add your affiliated school before your name.]

Agricultural University Wang Bin: [?]

University of Science and Technology Zhao Tian: [Is it about digging up that corpse of Jiang Yuan’s? Quite thrilling.]

Polytechnic University Pang Shiqiang: [What’s the order of excavation?]

Agricultural Research Institute Sulei: [What about the results of the corpses that were dug up before? Has the case been solved?]

Seeing this, Xiao Si quickly replied:

[The previous cases are still confidential. Everyone, please don’t discuss it openly, and those who know should also pay attention to keeping it secret. Yes, this current case is also confidential, including the content discussed in the group. Don’t leak information, don’t take screenshots, and be responsible for yourselves.]

With that, the group went quieter.

Previously, people were willing to chat in the group because botanists from different schools shared common hobbies and were willing to discuss topics like politics and history.

Now that they had switched to a group with more police officers, everyone just automatically kept quiet.

However, as the first marked location began their excavation work, the group gradually became lively again.

University of Science and Technology Zhao Tian: [Is this the location I chose? Good, good, let’s see what can be dug up.]

Polytechnic University Pang Shiqiang: [Professor Zhao’s choice is quite good.]

University of Science and Technology Zhao Tian: [@Forensic Expert Jiang Yuan, what do you think? Will anything turn up?]

Jiang Yuan didn’t reply immediately, but the experts and professors below started to voice their opinions.

Some say it’s possible, others say it isn’t, with some giving reasons and others just making bets.

By the time Jiang Yuan finished his round and looked at the group again, the excavation team had just uncovered the plants on the surface, and the group had scrolled through hundreds of messages.

At this time Cui Qishan also strolled over, making a special trip to Jiang Yuan’s office to say with a laugh, "Your botanist group is guessing whether a body will be found or not."

"If they’re guessing, then they definitely can’t," Jiang Yuan silently closed the novel page on his computer, opened the computer version of WeChat for a glance, and started typing rapidly, "This is perfect, I’ll explain it to them."

"Explain what?"

"Discuss why the body wasn’t found at that location," Jiang Yuan answered as he typed.

Cui Qishan looked carefully at Jiang Yuan’s expression and realized he spoke as if it were true, not like he was acting.