National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1185 - 1115: The Money Generation

Evening.

The slanted moon casts its last rays, the copper candle has wept its last tears, the cool dew lightly wets the clothes...

The white bones of this worldly life are finely textured and clearly grained.

The dissection table in this world is clean, tidy, and brightly colored.

The freshly boiled white bones still seem to emit steam, lying on the cold dissection bed, like a lady who hasn’t awoken from her spring dream, tender and charming.

Jiang Yuan sat on a high stool, rubbing a piece of white bone with one hand while pondering.

Miao Ruixiang carefully wrote the report beside him, clearly not finding it easy. After a while, he quietly got up and discreetly added a stick of incense to the Xuande censer by the wall facing the door. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

The thin incense stick burned slowly, and its smoke instantly calmed Miao Ruixiang’s mood.

Jiang Yuan also smelled the aroma and turned his head.

Miao Ruixiang immediately offered a smile and whispered, "This is incense powder handmade by the master, compressed into incense sticks, which helps with thinking."

"Agarwood? The master is quite generous."

"He specifically asked me to bring it to you." Miao Ruixiang paused, then added, "Uncle Fuzhen gave the agarwood to the master, a large piece of it, and the master shaves off a little with a knife each time he uses it..."

"It’s quite a good scent." Jiang Yuan nodded.

Miao Ruixiang smiled at the corners of his mouth and immediately said, "This batch of incense was specially selected by the master. The main scent is sweet, particularly suitable for beginners... Of course, I don’t mean that you are a beginner..."

"Sometimes corpses can also emit sweet scents," Jiang Yuan suddenly interjected, interrupting Miao Ruixiang.

Miao Ruixiang was stunned, "Isn’t it a stench?"

"Esters released during decomposition are at least five of the same compounds released when fruit rots. So people who like the smell of ripe fruit might also recognize a familiar sweet aroma from a corpse."

Miao Ruixiang, being a newcomer forensic doctor, recalled for a moment and his face slightly changed, "So some corpses are both smelly and fragrant. It’s not something on the body, but its decomposition smell?"

"You also like fruit, don’t you?" Jiang Yuan chuckled and then turned his head, "Then let’s buy a durian, that’s tonight’s supper."

"Oh... okay." Miao Ruixiang silently squatted beside the Xuande censer and opened the delivery app on his phone.

Local forensic doctor Li Chang, unable to resist, grabbed Miao Ruixiang’s hand and said, "It’s already dark. Let’s not order takeout. We’re still in the funeral parlor."

Miao Ruixiang paused and nodded, "So you all go buy it yourselves? Must be tiring."

"Does takeout even get delivered in Ningtai?" Li Chang retorted.

"It didn’t before, but Captain Jiang often gives tips to the delivery guys, so they’re willing to come." Miao Ruixiang paused, "Sometimes he even gives them a pack of cigarettes. Later, we set up the new forensic center right in the detective squad’s courtyard, and delivery to the gatehouse became normal."

Li Chang gave an envious hiss, "Give me a pack of cigarettes, and I would deliver too."

"So you all don’t eat supper anymore?" Miao Ruixiang asked, showing slight sympathy.

"If we’re in the dissection room, we don’t eat unless we bring it ourselves. Or we might trick a detective to come up, claiming a discovery and have him bring something along." Li Chang laughed slightly before shaking his head, "Usually not. Our squad doesn’t have that many cases, typically no overtime."

When Li Chang spoke the first half, Miao Ruixiang chuckled carefree. As the latter half came, Miao Ruixiang began to feel pity for himself, his chest also felt constricted.

Jiang Yuan could hear their conversation and thought seriously for a moment before saying, "Let’s go with the second option."

"Second option?" Li Chang didn’t understand.

"Trick a detective to come eat." Jiang Yuan pulled out his phone and dialed Jian Louyuan’s number, "Captain Jian, I have a discovery here. You could come have a look... also, bring a durian along..."

"Oh, oh, okay, I’m on my way!" Jian Louyuan sounded very happy.

Jiang Yuan smiled at Li Chang, "This trick works too."

Li Chang opened his mouth, thinking "That’s not what I meant," then turned his head and asked, "When Captain Jian gets here, how do we explain? If it turns out we don’t have discoveries, wouldn’t Captain Jian figure it out? He’s a seasoned detective."

Miao Ruixiang curiously asked, "Isn’t it your idea to trick a detective to come up? How did you trick them before?"

"That was a figure of speech. We only say things after discovering something." Li Chang became anxious.

Jiang Yuan waved his hand, "Let’s just talk about our current findings, which will help Captain Jian plan tomorrow’s work."

Li Chang was puzzled, "Our... current findings are?"

"The basic image of the victim has emerged. Performing a full skull restoration would be a bit of a waste of time. I can sketch a preliminary facial drawing for him to investigate. This person actually has some distinct features." Jiang Yuan said while having Mu Zhiyang bring over a drawing board, and began drawing on the spot.

Level 3 skull restoration skill to fully restore a victim’s appearance requires a lot of time and a significant workload. However, if it’s just extracting some facial features and combining it with Level 6 forensic sketching, Jiang Yuan can easily sketch some characteristics of the person.

Quickly, Li Chang saw Jiang Yuan focusing on drawing the lower half of the face on the board, sketching a slightly protruding mouth as if something were inside, tense lip lines, and a jutting chin...

"The victim’s dental occlusion is problematic, with slight anterior open bite, and it seems untreated." Jiang Yuan explained that an anterior open bite is when the front teeth don’t come together at rest, leaving a gap in between.

Other than congenital reasons, mild anterior open bite often relates to dental hygiene or constantly biting on things. Like Churchill, who always had a big cigar in his mouth every day, making open bite more likely.

Dental occlusion not only decides mouth shape but also chin and face shape, which is why many undergo orthognathic surgery for cosmetic reasons — it’s a high-risk, high-reward procedure.

With his Level 4 forensic odontology, combined with sketching skills, Jiang Yuan effortlessly drew the lower half of the victim’s face.

To laypeople, this scene might seem astonishing, but to Li Chang, it was nerve-racking.

He had seen similar forensic techniques in school, but those were professor-level teachings, and the other party used them simply as academic study parts. Everyone knows that mistakes in academic research bear no responsibility, whereas material used in frontline police cases theoretically becomes part of the file.

Even if it is just a direction for investigation, it demands frontline officers’ efforts. Especially someone with Jiang Yuan’s rank and position — rather, particularly someone with Jiang Yuan’s rank and position won’t easily produce an ungrounded sketch.

Jian Louyuan evidently shared the same thought. He arrived quickly, enough that Wei Shikan, who was running while holding the durian, complained, "Captain Jian, we’re heading to the funeral parlor by car, not delivering ourselves there. Take it easy."

"Keep chirping, and I’ll send you to the crematorium." Jian Louyuan, contemplating how to handle Jiang Yuan, was irritated by Wei Shikan’s babbling and shot him a glare.

Wei Shikan, rarely on the receiving end of such treatment, suddenly became much more obedient.

Before entering, Jian Louyuan’s voice arrived first, "Captain Jiang, finally summoned by you."

"It’s not me summoning, it’s the corpse," Jiang Yuan said, handing over a sketch of a chin and mouth to Jian Louyuan, "The victim’s lower half of the face looks roughly like this."

"You can figure that out?" Jian Louyuan asked the same question as Li Chang but with a completely different sense, "Can we investigate based on this?"

Even Jiang Yuan was startled, "Why would we suddenly start investigating?"

"We only have a half-face photo, so investigation seems the option."

"And the wool socks," Jiang Yuan corrected, "We only need to investigate rich people."

"And a gigolo." Wei Shikan, holding the durian, added from the rear.

Jiang Yuan shook his head, "Gigolos are almost ruled out, he’s ugly."

Jian Louyuan also showed the printed sketch to Wei Shikan.

Even with just the lower half, if someone’s ugly, half a face can confirm it.

"This way, the search scope is greatly reduced. The victim is likely a rich and powerful person." Though speaking, Jian Louyuan’s expression didn’t show much relief.

Jiang Yuan shook his head again, "The person might be well-off, but not necessarily powerful. Teeth with an anterior open bite are typically corrected. The victim is around 45, and if from a wealthy family, they belong to the first generation."