National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1180 - 1110: Maggot Master

Clack, clack, clack.

The technician picked up the camera, pointing it at the corpse and the surrounding scene, capturing the murder on film, as the shutter clicked away furiously.

Miao Ruixiang, who had come with the family from Ningtai County, was muttering as he put on his protective gear.

He was considered a junior disciple of Jiang Yuan and the last disciple of Wu Jun. During his time in Ningtai, he had followed Wu Jun and seen many cases of unnatural death, but he never had the qualification or opportunity to independently dissect a corpse in a murder case. Only by following Jiang Yuan could he have the chance to learn.

Miao Ruixiang gestured a few times, then put on his gear, and walked up to serve Jiang Yuan in the same way he would serve Master Wu Jun, asking, "Senior brother, what should I do now?"

"First, prepare the bottles. What are we using here?" Jiang Yuan referred to the poison bottles used in forensic entomology.

"Ethanol." Miao Ruixiang started pulling out his equipment.

The maggots on the corpse, including their eggs and adult forms, need to be captured and killed. Bringing them alive serves no purpose and since the insects continue to grow, they can interfere with determining the time of death.

So, quickly killing the insects is the first step in forensic entomology. The poison bottles described in textbooks often have a two-level structure, like a duplex gas chamber for insects, where insecticide is placed on the lower level and insects are put on the upper level. This method stabilizes and is effective, albeit a bit troublesome and slightly costly.

Ethanol is considered a simpler solution. Although it’s a bit wetter than using gas, the alcohol evaporates quickly and doesn’t significantly affect the operation.

Of course, many districts and counties use even cheaper solutions, like boiling water.

Small maggots are particularly tender since they’re typically only a few days old, smaller than veal, so boiling them is quite convenient and keeps their appearance intact.

Miao Ruixiang picked the larger maggots, dropping them into an ethanol bottle.

Catching maggots is primarily for determining the time of death. Common flies come to lay eggs within an hour of human death, with the egg stage lasting one to two days, hatching into maggots. Maggots have three instar stages, each looking different. Finally, they pupate and eventually emerge as adults.

If there’s more nutrients on the corpse at this point, this process can repeat.

Using a more memorable analogy, the egg stage of flies is similar to the Qi Refinement Realm. Once in a resource-rich environment, they quickly break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage as maggots. Maggots have some ability to move, drilling through the corpse, experiencing three major changes similar to Foundation Establishment to Golden Core and then to Nascent Soul.

A maggot in the Nascent Soul Stage metamorphoses again, entering the pupal stage. The pupal stage lasts much longer, often over a week.

However, once the pupal stage is surpassed, it is the time of emergence, likened to Divinity Transformation; with no earthly obstacles left, it enters the Immortal Realm.

Adults in the Divinity Transformation state are naturally difficult to catch, whereas pupae and eggs are stationary and do not need to be captured.

However, the maggots in the Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul stages look similar and tend to burrow around, making observation difficult.

It’s best to kill a batch of the larger ones for closer inspection.

The main goal is to find their senior leader.

The precise birth time of the smaller maggots isn’t important. To establish the time of death, identifying when the first batch of eggs was laid is crucial, specifically finding the first-born maggot.

A relatively simple method is by comparing size.

Among the same batch of maggots, the strongest in skill... no, the largest in size can be considered the earliest born, thereby allowing backtracking to when the eggs were laid to ascertain the time of death.

These are essential forensic skills, which require forensic entomology knowledge at about Level 0.1. Even Miao Ruixiang could do it easily.

He picked the larger maggots from the clusters, putting some in the bottle, and then moved towards the lower part of the corpse.

This was not because of Liu Wenkai’s influence, but because flies prefer laying eggs in warm, moist places with crevices.

The saying "flies don’t land on seamless eggs" implies in forensic entomology that flies seek seams for egg-laying.

As such, the maggots in the lower part of the corpse are generally larger and stronger, akin to the central area of a Mainland, while others are likely to have migrated from the center.

Miao Ruixiang skillfully extracted handfuls of maggots from the lower body, placing them into a large ethanol bottle.

As he continued and the maggots’ filling capacity diminished, bits of decaying flesh fluttered down.

The stench of decay in the air grew more intense.

Jiang Yuan put on a 3M gas mask.

A corpse swarming with maggots is about the foulest state, only second to when a giant is dissected. The latter’s stench can’t be blocked even with a gas mask, especially indoors; wearing one makes little difference.

The current situation was just manageable, being outside, and the corpse hadn’t reached peak stench. However, Miao Ruixiang didn’t wear a gas mask because he needed to catch maggots, and the resin mask of the gas mask slightly impaired detailed vision. Slower catching meant squatting by the corpse for longer, closer to the body, defeating the purpose of the mask.

"That should be enough." Miao Ruixiang stopped only when the ethanol in the catching bottle overflowed.

Jiang Yuan glanced over, nodded, and said, "Sort out the larger ones nearby, and discard the smaller ones."

"Okay." Miao Ruixiang obediently moved a bit further, brought over an examination box to lay flat, then poured the maggots from the poison bottle onto it, straightening them with his hands and lining them up by size.

Perhaps because he caught too many and poured too fast, some maggots hadn’t died and continued writhing on the examination box.

Maggots move differently than snakes, which rely on abdominal and core muscles; maggots use expansion and contraction.

Hence, as maggots writhe, their length varies, affecting measurement accuracy.

Miao Ruixiang had to return any writhing maggots to the poison bottle and focused on sorting the well-behaved ones.

On the examination box, the right side held piled-up maggots, while the left had neatly lined ones. As more were sorted, Miao Ruixiang’s accuracy improved, allowing for bulk elimination of smaller ones.

Meanwhile, after completing the initial observation, Jiang Yuan donned three layers of gloves.

The outermost two layers were latex gloves, similar to those worn by surgeons during operations, while the innermost layer was a PVC glove used for blocking acids, bases, and oils, much like gloves used in some restaurants for eating crayfish or large bones.

After donning full protective gear and confirming the photos were taken, Jiang Yuan began slowly turning over the corpse under the camera’s full video recording.

Jiang Yuan’s first touch felt greasy. This was due to the liquefaction of the body’s fat after death.

The corpse was slippery, requiring him to grip firmly to hold it. This caused the already mushy flesh to get squashed, causing decaying flesh and maggots to fall again.

Squawk.

Several crows circled with red eyes overhead, wishing to topple everyone at the scene.

"It should be a case." Jiang Yuan pointed to a large cluster of maggots below after tearing several chunks of flesh, saying, "Take some clear photos here; it should be a wound."

Flies like laying eggs in crevices and on wounds of corpses.

The location Jiang Yuan pointed to no longer showed the distinct form of a wound, but with his reminder, a vague shape could still be discerned.

This shape was enough to confirm filing a case.

A decaying body wasn’t necessarily a murder case; it might be someone who accidentally died here. However, from the corpse’s location, experienced detectives could easily deduce the low probability of that.

Regardless, a forensic confirmation was reassuring.

Jiang Yuan continued examining the corpse, his milky latex gloves quickly turning pale yellow, and the surface becoming pitted, corroded by the decay liquids.

The PVC gloves weren’t affected for now; when the outermost gloves became uncomfortable, Jiang Yuan silently stood up, removed the outer gloves, put on a new pair of latex gloves, and continued inspecting the body.