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墨書 Inktalez
Jiang He had just denied Wang Chao's investigative abilities in front of so many leaders, yet in the next moment, he proposed a candidate for the Forensic Doctor position. It seemed that Jiang He truly lacked an understanding of social dynamics. However, Old Shao believed that this was actually one of the essential qualities needed in an investigator: to be pragmatic, neither exaggerating nor belittling the facts.
Only with such a mindset could one avoid external distractions and peel back the layers to uncover the truth.
"Who?" Old Shao asked.
Jiang He replied, "Xu Yiman from the Longcheng City Public Security Bureau."
"Is she the one who worked on a case with you?" Shao the Elder inquired.
Jiang He nodded. "That's right. I personally observed her perform an autopsy once, and from my observations, Xu Yiman is highly skilled. I am seventy percent certain that if Xu Yiman joins our team, she will be a great asset to our project group."
Old Shao looked at Jiang He but said nothing further. He turned to Director Wen and said, "Since she is your person, please get me a file on Xu Yiman. Where is she now? Let's head to the train station and notify her to arrive within an hour."
Moments later, a police officer printed out a physical document on Xu Yiman.
Old Shao and Jiang He got into a police car and headed for the train station.
Meanwhile, Director Wen's call went directly to Xu Yiman's mobile phone.
Director Wen issued a serious order for her to arrive at Dragon City train station within an hour.
Although Xu Yiman had been a doctor for some time, she had only recently become a Forensic Doctor. Receiving a call directly from Director Wen surprised her. Amidst her surprise, Xu Yiman speculated that something urgent must have occurred.
Thinking this, Xu Yiman casually threw on a coat, grabbed her house keys, and headed out.
In the car, Old Shao was reviewing a file.
Xu Yiman, female, thirty years old, originally from Dongxing City, currently serves as a Forensic Doctor at the Longcheng City Public Security Bureau. Previously, she was a surgeon at Dongxing City First People's Hospital. A year ago, Xu Yiman resigned from her position at the People's Hospital for personal reasons and spent a year unemployed at home. Subsequently, she joined the Longcheng City Public Security Bureau as a Forensic Doctor just a few months ago.
Although Xu Yiman had not been a Forensic Doctor for long, she had worked as a surgeon for five or six years, so performing autopsies was not a problem for her.
Old Shao noticed the two words on the file—"for reasons." While these two simple words seemed straightforward on paper, delving into the reasons behind them could lead to a lengthy story. The file did not specify, and it was highly likely that the individual involved had kept this "for reasons" confidential.
However, with Old Shao's intellect, he had already guessed part of the truth, though he would not reveal it.
When Old Shao and the others arrived at the train station, Xu Yiman had already been waiting for about ten minutes.
"Jiang He?" Xu Yiman asked as she saw Jiang He approaching with an elderly man. She couldn't help but inquire, "Jiang He, do you know what happened? The director suddenly sent me here."
"Congratulations, you are now a member of the special investigation team," Old Shao called out from a distance.
"Special investigation team? Old Shao?"
Xu Yiman was aware of the special investigation team; just last week, she had heard that some detectives from the bureau participated in the written exam for selecting members. However, most of them were eliminated. She hadn't even signed up, and being a Forensic Doctor, she wondered if there was another Xu Yiman who had been mistaken for her.
"It must be a mistake," Xu Yiman quickly shook her head. "I'm a Forensic Doctor, not a detective."
Old Shao waved his hand dismissively. "No mistake at all. It's you. Let's go; I've already bought your ticket."
"Where are we going?" Xu Yiman asked.
"Shangxi City," Old Shao replied.
"What for?" Xu Yiman pressed further.
Old Shao smiled. "To show you something interesting."
"So this is what you consider interesting?"
Xu Yiman looked at Old Shao and couldn't help but comment.
On the train, Xu Yiman still thought she could enjoy a business trip, but as soon as she got off the train and hadn’t even caught her breath, she was taken directly to the morgue by the local police. Shortly after, someone approached carrying a basket covered with a white cloth. When Xu Yiman excitedly lifted the cloth, she discovered a human head inside.
Xu Yiman should have anticipated that being brought to the morgue right after getting off the train meant something grim awaited her.
Old Shao observed the head and said, “Let’s perform an autopsy.”
“Just a head?” Xu Yiman shrugged.
Old Shao nodded. “Just this head; the rest of the body hasn’t been found yet.”
“Alright,” Xu Yiman replied. “If we’re going to examine it together, put on protective gear and wear masks and gloves.”
Once they were prepared, Xu Yiman instructed, “Jiang He, hold onto this head.”
Jiang He followed Xu Yiman’s instructions and grasped the neck below the skull while Xu Yiman began shaving the head.
As she shaved, Xu Yiman carefully examined the skull. At first glance, it was clear that the victim was male. Both the Adam's apple and the weight and shape of the cranium indicated this was a male head. However, the hair was relatively long and matted with blood, obscuring the features of this person.
But as strands of hair fell away, the injuries on the head became increasingly visible to everyone present.
Since Jiang He had positioned the head facing him, he gradually discerned that this head could only be described as horrific.
The left eye was missing entirely, leaving behind a dark hole. The right eyeball bulged outward, filled with blood, resembling a case of conjunctivitis.
Looking further down, he noticed that the nasal bone was completely shattered; it had clearly suffered a crush injury and was now crooked to one side. Most importantly, nearly all of the teeth in this head were gone; only some molars remained while the incisors and canines were either missing or reduced to fragments.
Additionally, there was a significant indentation in the left cheekbone.
At that moment, they also noted that the hair on the head had been completely shaved off.
Xu Yiman held the severed head under the faucet, which oddly gave Jiang He the impression of washing fruit.
Xu Yiman pointed at the neck of the head. "The killer attacked from the neck muscles of this victim, severing the head from the body. Look at the incisions; the flaps are uneven and jagged, and all the openings are directed to one side. Given the irregular spacing of the flaps, it seems that the tool used for dismemberment was a saw."
Jiang He also examined the flaps. Upon hearing Xu Yiman mention that a saw was used, he mentally calculated the type of saw teeth but found it difficult to visualize what it looked like due to the lack of information.
At that moment, Xu Yiman spoke again. "From the wounds on the head, there are some that show signs of life and some that do not. This is easy to understand; some wounds clearly show livor mortis and bruising beneath the skin, indicating that these injuries were inflicted while the victim was still alive. However, some wounds do not show this, which is due to blood coagulation."
Xu Yiman pointed to several wounds. "You see, these blunt force injuries have clotted blood beneath them; these are injuries sustained while alive."
"And these," Xu Yiman indicated other wounds, "are clearly post-mortem."
After a pause, Xu Yiman continued, "Overall, these injuries are all blunt force trauma; there are no sharp force injuries. Especially near the skull, if you touch it lightly, you can feel cracks in the cranium, but from the outside, there are no significant marks."
Old Shao noticed Xu Yiman's confusion and explained, "This head was found inside a soccer ball. Before we discovered it, the head had been kicked around inside the ball, which likely caused all these blunt injuries."
"This head was stuffed into a soccer ball?" Xu Yiman remarked. "This is my first time encountering such a case."
"What about the soccer ball?" Jiang He asked.
The criminal police captain, who had been silent until now, hurriedly brought over the evidence.
Xu Yiman continued to dissect the head while Jiang He and Old Shao began examining the soccer ball.
The standard soccer ball is made up of twenty pentagons and twelve hexagons stitched together, and this one was no different. However, Jiang He noticed something: this soccer ball was larger than those typically used by athletes on the field; it seemed to be about the size of a basketball.
At that moment, several pieces of the ball's outer layer had already come off. Jiang He carefully observed the remaining connected panels.
He noticed that each seam between two panels was stitched with nine stitches; however, at the points where pieces had fallen off, there were varying numbers of stitches. This indicated that the killer had not adhered to standard stitching practices for a soccer ball. Furthermore, judging by the spacing of the stitches, they were not uniform.
This led Jiang He to understand that the killer had not paid attention to this detail—meaning they were not meticulous in their actions regarding this matter.
Old Shao picked up a piece of the ball skin and, at that moment, he noticed something inside it. To his surprise, there were teeth from a human head within the ball skin.
Old Shao examined the teeth and said, "This person has had dental work done. One tooth is the second one to the right of the lower front tooth, and the other is the third one to the left of the upper front tooth. Jiang He, come over and take a look. Am I correct in my observations?"
Upon hearing Old Shao's words, Jiang He immediately went to inspect. After mentally sorting through the information, Jiang He quickly confirmed Old Shao's assessment: "Not wrong at all."
"It's not that we can't trace the source of the body; no one has come forward to claim it. We should check with various hospitals and clinics about these two filled teeth. I believe we can find something out," Old Shao said, glancing at Li Qi, the captain of the criminal police in Shangxi City.
Li Qi nodded. "I'll send someone to handle it right away."
"Jiang He, have you found anything?" Old Shao asked.
Jiang He shook his head.
Old Shao smiled. "I have."
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