[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner":3,"chapter-the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-104":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Nation's Forensic Medical Examiner",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2326799,4551,"Chapter 104: Another Hiker","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-104",104,"\u003Cp>After concluding the victim had Marfan syndrome, Jiang Yuan continued his autopsy slowly and meticulously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Performing an autopsy in a remote location is difficult; once thawed, it’s best to finish it all at once, otherwise refreezing and thawing again would only complicate matters. Moreover, secondary or tertiary autopsies increase difficulty for both the current and future forensic examiners, who must then determine whether injuries were caused by the crime or by prior examinations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other hand, confirming the victim’s identity was one thing—he still wanted to find additional physical evidence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He truly didn’t want to trek the old hunter’s trail again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan sincerely hoped his workplace could be more stable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By mid-afternoon, Li Zhen, the coroner from Langgu County, could no longer hold out; he leaned on the autopsy table, propping himself up to rest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan watched as the cloudy fluid, soaked through the corpse, soaked into Li Zhen’s clothes and dripped steadily onto the floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Li Teacher, your clothes are wet,” Jiang Yuan had to remind him, then rinsed his own feet with water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhen stood up dazedly, waving his hand. “I’m old, didn’t nap, can’t stay awake—I’ll wash my face in a bit.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this environment, washing one’s face was hard enough. Of course, being sleepy in such a terrible setting was also impressive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan didn’t know what to say, so he said, “I’ll speed up—we’ll finish as soon as possible.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’d be best,” Li Zhen said, then added, “Actually, identifying the body should be enough.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm. Just the identity won’t solve the case,” Jiang Yuan replied, not following his lead. “The killer likely still kills randomly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Random killings are troublesome.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Indeed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With that, the autopsy room fell even quieter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though they said they’d hurry, another hour passed before they reached the final stages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhen called over a part-time technician from the funeral home; the three of them worked together to reseal the body in the ice coffin and cleaned the autopsy table and floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The strong stench faded slightly; Jiang Yuan looked at Li Zhen’s clothes again. “Your clothes will be a nightmare to wash.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No problem,” Li Zhen said, then blinked and added, “Actually, let me teach you one of my secrets.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Secrets?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“For clothes like these, don’t rush to wash them right away—best to hang them out for a day first,” Li Zhen said, tugging at his surgical gown with a smile. “That removes the odor most effectively.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huh? Like that?” Jiang Yuan exclaimed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhen nodded. “I can’t teach you anything about autopsies, but I’ll give you this secret.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After saying this, Li Zhen felt deeply satisfied, as if he’d reclaimed his old coroner’s dignity, and cheerfully went off to shower.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beautiful romance\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After finishing all his tasks, Jiang Yuan returned to the guesthouse and smelled the familiar aroma of chicken soup.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Jiang Yuan’s back! Perfect timing—come eat chicken,” Liu Jinghui called out from the kitchen at the other end of the courtyard, warmly greeting him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Still got a rooster?” Jiang Yuan was surprised. Didn’t normal people buy something else to eat?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Jinghui seemed to guess his thought and chuckled. “We’ve got other things too, but chicken has its own flavor—I bought chili peppers too. This time I’m making spicy chicken, very tasty. Old Liu and the others only know how to cook this.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The guesthouse was a courtyard formed by a four-story building and a two-story building—simple but practical. Several other technicians who had come along emerged from the kitchen with Liu Jinghui; they’d bonded on the trip, honed their skills at stewing roosters, and now put them all to use together.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Plus, we bought a hen—a broody old hen—simmered for four or five hours just for soup,” Liu Jinghui said, his proud smile tinged with exhaustion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan sat down politely, sipped the soup politely, and asked politely: “Have you identified the victim?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We have,” Liu Jinghui said, his expression growing serious. He sat across from Jiang Yuan. “The victim is Su Qin. She’s from another province, has Marfan syndrome, so she kept up physical exercise and loved hiking—she was a hiker. But socially, she was isolated. All immediate family are gone—her mother passed away, her father divorced and remarried and lost contact; the missing person report came from her cousin.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Another hiker?” Jiang Yuan shook his head. “What about her child? She gave birth.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She divorced her ex-husband; the child stayed with him. They barely communicate and live in different cities,” Liu Jinghui paused. “Another important clue: Su Qin wasn’t traveling alone.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Did her companion return?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No. It was the companion who reported the disappearance, which then alerted her cousin.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No one knew they came to Wu Long Mountain?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They probably only registered locally when they arrived.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then, you could check phone records, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We only traced them to Pingzhou. The family filed a report later,” Liu Jinghui said, not elaborating—he hadn’t pursued the inquiry deeply.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan murmured “Mm.” After handling a few cases, you realize most solved cases are simply solved—straightforward. Unsolved ones are just a string of bad luck, missteps, mismatches, and inconvenient circumstances. Every case has some coincidence, some inevitability.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s like having a day when everything goes wrong—from waking up, nothing works. And on a lucky day, everything goes smoothly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, detectives don’t need to be lucky all day—just once, at the critical moment, and the case breaks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But criminals can be lucky once, twice, even for a year or two—but one slip-up, and they’re caught.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, like most cases, someone here clearly cut corners—but Liu Jinghui wouldn’t mention it, and Jiang Yuan didn’t bother asking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most people spend most of their time cutting corners—including Su Qin’s family: her cousin, her ex-husband—they too cut corners as family members.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What about the companion?” Jiang Yuan pressed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Jinghui pursed his lips. “Sun Jingyi. That’s her name. She’s also divorced, has a child, but her family ties are tighter. She was reported missing three days later. Logically, the two likely met the same fate.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm.” Based on current information, there were probably many ghosts haunting Wu Long Mountain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What do we do next?” Jiang Yuan asked Liu Jinghui.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this point, the case had begun to clarify. In a police unit, this would be the moment to set the criminal investigation direction: stakeout, systematic screening, or broader investigation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But no matter which option, none were guaranteed to succeed—and all carried some risk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, staking out the old hunter’s trail assumes the killer still uses it—but that’s just a guess, not certain. If the killer stops using the path or only passes through once every few months, you’d waste an entire team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And if you actually caught these desperate criminals, would you have to fight a jungle battle? Even if they didn’t have Vietnamese-level firepower, even if Wu Long Mountain’s jungle wasn’t as complex as tropical terrain, police always prioritize peaceful arrest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Jinghui had clearly thought about this—he skipped the potentially lethal option. “I plan to organize a search team. Starting from where Su Qin’s body was found, we’ll head toward the old hunter’s trail to see if we can find more bodies or body parts. Also, since both women were hikers, their gear and food were likely taken and reused—we should look for those too.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan nodded in agreement. Though screening was time-consuming and low-efficiency, at this stage, it was the most reliable option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, Jiang Yuan understood why Liu Jinghui was so calm drinking his chicken soup—organizing a sizable, somewhat professional search team couldn’t be done in a single day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, the three of them waited three days before Pingzhou finally assembled the search team, which then advanced slowly with the folk search team from Shannan Province waiting in Langgu County.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Jinghui and Jiang Yuan and the others followed the Pingzhou team, carrying ample supplies.\u003C\u002Fp>",1313,"2026-06-20T18:55:00.150Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","ce6e4fb3f316ca473107f85a381219a5d27bff1f86bafdad009665c66b0e5643","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-105","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-103",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-cover.jpg"]