[{"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-105":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},2326800,4551,"Chapter 105: The Grave","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-105",105,"\u003Cp>Noon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the sun blazed high, faint light filtered through the thickets, warming the whole body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A squirrel leapt across the treetops, spotted the group below, froze instantly, and used its bushy tail to cover its face. At the same moment, a wild pheasant flapped its wings, emitting a startling cry, and flew upward along the slope, trying to hide itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan heard the noise, glanced once, and didn’t even bother to locate the source.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The terrain here in Pingzhou differed noticeably from that of Shannan, dozens of miles away—the forest was relatively drier, and the higher altitude supported different wildlife; small animals like squirrels and pheasants were everywhere, making the woods feel noticeably more cheerful than those on the Shannan side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If I weren’t sick of chicken soup, I’d shoot that stupid thing right now,” said the technician behind Jiang Yuan, miming a rifle grip.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I think you’re sick of living,” Liu Jinghui said, falling two steps behind. “In Wulong Mountain, there are pheasant assassins.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“White-crowned long-tailed pheasant. A kind of wild pheasant. Class-one protected species, same level as the giant panda.” Liu Jinghui mimed firing a gun. “You think you’re shooting an ordinary pheasant, get caught, maybe just a fine. But if a white-crowned long-tailed pheasant flies up—bang, five years. Bang-bang, ten years. Pheasant assassin.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The technician, suddenly immersed in the reality, felt immediate anxiety.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The search team advanced slowly and with difficulty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Earlier, they’d followed a hunter’s trail, which at least had a path. Now, to search—even just widening the search area—became exponentially harder. Fortunately, Liu Jinghui quickly adjusted strategy: only explore areas accessible to ordinary people. Assume that fugitives would also stick to human paths.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only then did the search proceed in an orderly manner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the spot where Su Qin’s body was found, the team gradually spread out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This area was still close to human habitation; road conditions were decent, and multiple narrow paths threaded through the dense forest. Occasionally, plastic water bottles and other trash could be seen—all now collected as evidence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After walking most of the day, the remaining searchers grew impatient. Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui, having come all the way along the old hunter’s trail, were accustomed to the dark, deep woods. The newly assigned searchers, though experienced, lacked deep-forest experience and voiced complaints.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Liu Jinghui was considering how to reorganize the team, the lead police dog barked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang wang, wang wang wang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Jinghui reacted as if hearing a superior’s call, breaking into quick steps and pulling Jiang Yuan along.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan, as if preparing to meet a superior, picked up his inspection case and hurried forward, pushing through the group to reach the front.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All officers on duty today were from Pingzhou province—local police dogs and officers. The one barking low and urgently was a German Shepherd: black back, yellow legs, energetic, young, ambitious—younger than Hezi, more capable than Dazhuang, radiating the aura of someone about to earn a second-class merit and eat 96-yuan buffet until the end of time. It was growling at a collapsed earth cliff beside the path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cliff stood beside the road, two or three meters high, over ten meters long—a drop-off from the higher slope above, which would form a small waterfall during rain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The spot the dog found was the middle section of the cliff, clearly showing signs of deliberate collapse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On closer inspection, the cliff was separated from the path by several large trees; easily overlooked if not paying attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But with so many searchers, no one could possibly ignore such an obvious artificial structure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Photograph. Record. Dig it open,” Liu Jinghui ordered, face grim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He already had a guess about what lay inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew he was chasing fugitives, knew they acted recklessly, even wildly, without restraint—but still, each corpse was hard to accept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan and several forensic officers stepped forward and began digging.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if it was just a mound of earth that had slid down, it could reveal much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If there was a body—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just a few shovelfuls later, a corpse emerged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the forensic pathologist, Jiang Yuan took the lead, switched to a small shovel and brush, and dug silently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Female corpse,” he said. Though the body was fully skeletonized, he identified it easily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Jinghui nodded. Time and gender matched. He ordered the idle searchers: “Search the surrounding area. Look for any possible campsite, discarded equipment.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Understood.” Pingzhou had also assigned a provincial-level official to coordinate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though provincial-level detectives had long left frontline work, inter-provincial collaboration remained inevitable—on the job, mutual assistance still mattered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the details of this case truly sent chills down the spine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan and two other forensic officers carefully extracted the skeletonized remains, making necessary records: burial depth and method suggested the killer was likely alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No grave was dug—instead, earth was simply scraped down—revealing the killer’s attitude and “earth-moving capability.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But regardless, this was the first buried corpse found in this case. If it was an anomaly, ask why. If not, were there more bodies buried similarly in the thickets?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan’s mind involuntarily turned to these questions; he stood straight and stretched.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Jinghui came over to inspect the corpse. “Any thoughts?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Under these soil conditions, a body takes about twenty years to fully decompose,” Jiang Yuan said, glancing at Liu Jinghui without turning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Jinghui asked: “No bones left?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If buried like this,” Jiang Yuan swept his gaze downward. “In twenty years, even the bones are gone.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If they started killing from the beginning of this century, the earliest bodies have already vanished.” Jiang Yuan sighed, crouched again, and began collecting bones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Jinghui paused, then said: “Not likely. Such a gang couldn’t last twenty years. Internal conflicts, generational turnover—they’d naturally die out. A gang surviving twenty years isn’t that simple.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A criminal gang dies out naturally? That’s too optimistic.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“True,” Liu Jinghui fell silent. Then: “This time, we just need to catch them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm.” Jiang Yuan lowered his head and kept working. This time, he planned to sift through every bit of soil and insect from the “grave.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a tedious task. In fact, many detectives had a habit of over-collecting evidence—only for it to become meaningless in the lab. Like finding evidence in a trash bin and bagging the whole bin—expecting lab technicians to sort through every single item? We’re all in the same bureau—you’re a careless detective, I’m a careless technician. Any side’s high demands are unrealistic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So if you truly want to examine everything in a trash bin, the correct way is to sort each item into the proper evidence bags.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If a field investigator separates a trash bin’s contents into a hundred evidence bags, he gets a hundred test reports. If he dumps it all into one black plastic bag, he gets one pile of garbage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan went even further—especially around the corpse. Level-4 crime scene investigation left nothing behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While Jiang Yuan was buried in the “grave,” the search team pressed forward, then regrouped at the planned time. Some continued ahead to find a campsite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most of the searchers would return to Pingzhou; only a few would press on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Liu Jinghui’s original goal—finding a corpse—had been achieved, the team was already assembled. Wasting a full day was a waste. Better to keep searching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The justification was easy: the corpse found couldn’t yet be confirmed as Sun Jingyi’s. Searching one or two more days was simply caution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before dark, Jiang Yuan returned to Langgu County and headed straight for the mortuary’s autopsy room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Evidence was logged and stored; the skeleton placed on the autopsy table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Zhen arrived, too, his face weary.\u003C\u002Fp>",1279,"2026-06-20T18:55:00.150Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","6aa74e6b2237030a410e0477cb03accf09524aead84ae766cff0c6f47385827d","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-106","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-104",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-cover.jpg"]