Chapter 327: Professionals are really different

Half an hour later.

A skull was hauled up by professional salvage workers and placed on the bank.

Police officers surrounded the skull, and the salvage workers dove back in to keep dredging the remaining bones from the bottom; the reservoir had a skull, so of course there were other bones too.

After the skull was salvaged and placed on the bank.

Wang Dachuan took the opportunity to show off the knowledge he had just self-taught from a book on autopsy.

A corpse in water takes the longest to become skeletal compared to one exposed to air or buried in soil; the whole process takes about two years, so this is likely an old adult case, and solving it won't be easy.

No sooner had he finished speaking than Han Fei gave him a surprised look: 'You even know this?'

"Hehe, I know a little, I know a little…", Wang Dachuan chuckled: "It's all from books; I specifically bought a book on autopsy."

Han Fei patted Wang Dachuan on the shoulder.

You kid, not bad—you've started studying.

Live and learn, huh!", Wang Dachuan scratched his head and continued: "Judging by the skull's size, it's unlikely to be an adult male; it's probably a woman or a child..."

Wang Dachuan's study of autopsy books was mainly because of Xu Mo.

Because, according to Xu Mo, his own autopsy methods and knowledge were self-taught from books.

If Xu Mo can self-teach this, why can't I? Wang Dachuan, intending to work hard in secret and then astonish everyone, bought many related books and began self-study.

I never expected it to come in handy today!

Having only studied for a few days, he pretended to be an expert in front of his colleagues. Wang Dachuan said… this feeling is really awesome!

After praising Wang Dachuan,

Han Fei's smile quickly faded.

He stared at the skull on the ground and suddenly felt a headache.

As everyone knows, the longer the time since the crime, the harder it is to solve.

Because time can wash away many things.

According to Wang Dachuan, the corpse has likely been in the water for about two years.

A dumping case from two years ago has only just been discovered and investigated; the difficulty is considerable, and even confirming the victim's identity remains a major problem...

Han Fei scratched his head and ordered the officers: 'Go check for missing women and children within the past two years.'

No sooner had he finished speaking than he heard Xu Mo, who was crouching beside the skull, utter an 'Huh?'

"What's wrong, Xu Mo? Did you find something?"

Xu Mo lifted his head and glanced at Han Fei.

"This corpse hasn't been dead that long; definitely not two years, at most two weeks."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Wang Dachuan nearby spoke up.

"Two weeks? Impossible, you must be mistaken; the book says a body in water takes about two years to become skeletal, and even if it's less than two years, it would still take a year—how could it be just two weeks?"

"What the book describes are changes under natural conditions; in nature, a waterlogged corpse does indeed take one to two years to become skeletal, but what if there's human intervention?' Saying this, Xu Mo pointed at the skull: 'Take a close look—doesn't the skull's color look abnormal, and aren't there these scratches?'"

Hearing this, Wang Dachuan crouched again and leaned in to examine the skull closely.

But he couldn't see anything.

There's no helping it—he's just a half-baked amateur; he only bought those autopsy books recently, and with work keeping him busy he hasn't even read a few pages—if he could spot the problem, that would be a miracle.

Wang Dachuan looked at the skull on the ground, then at Xu Mo, and said weakly: 'Is there a problem? I don't see any...'

Han Fei also found the two of them somewhat puzzling.

"So is it two weeks or two years?"

For this kind of dumping case, the time of death is crucial.

It directly determines whether the police investigation is headed in the right direction.

The difference between a time of death two years ago and two weeks ago can be huge!

If they get it wrong, they might even misidentify the victim, let alone uncover the truth.

Wang Dachuan didn't answer Han Fei, because he himself wasn't sure whether his judgment was correct.

He thought the skull's owner had died about two years ago, because the book said that, and the time for a waterlogged corpse to become skeletal is within two years.

But hearing Xu Mo speak so confidently, he suddenly began to doubt whether he'd been deceived and bought a fake book.

Seeing Wang Dachuan stay silent, Han Fei realized that Wang Dachuan himself had no idea either.

So, is it really as Xu Mo says—that the skull's owner died only two weeks ago?

No way… in just two weeks a body couldn't possibly become skeletal; that's too fast, it's common sense.

Although Han Fei doesn't know autopsy, he's at least a veteran criminal investigator; he's seen plenty of dumping cases, but he's never seen a body become skeletal in only two weeks—this clearly defies common sense.

Doubting, Han Fei turned to Xu Mo again: 'How did you reach the conclusion that the time of death is at most two weeks? Do you have any basis?'

Xu Mo, already wearing gloves, lifted the skull and laid the bare bone before everyone.

"A normal skull is whitish or yellowish, but this one is different—it has some speckled brown patches, like the color of meat after being boiled… Also, the skull bears many scratches; if I'm not mistaken, they were left by something like a spoon, meaning the skull has been tampered with."

Xu Mo opened his mouth and said something no one expected: 'Cooking the Corpse… the killer likely did this to dispose of the body; flesh clinging to bone is hard to remove unless it's boiled, and only after boiling can the meat be easily scraped off. The spoon-like scratches on the skull come from that, and the speckled brown color is from meat not being scraped clean.'

Hearing this, everyone sucked in a breath of cold air.

Even Han Fei was no exception.

"Cooking the Corpse?!"

He's seen plenty of perverted killers in his years on the job, but nothing this twisted—this is truly a first.

Xu Mo nodded and then added a bit more.

"I said the skull's owner couldn't have been dead more than two weeks; there's another way to tell: if a bone had lain in water for two years, when salvaged it would still have some algae or moss, but look at this skull… it's spotless."

"So this skull must have been thrown into the reservoir not long ago; the time of death definitely isn't two years."

After hearing Xu Mo's analysis, Wang Dachuan finally realized the gap between himself and Xu Mo.

Being professional really is different...

One only judges according to what's written in the book, completely unable to adapt.

Xu Mo is not like that; when he performs an autopsy, he doesn't get stuck on book knowledge, but instead makes a judgment only after observing some details.