Chapter 192

The skeleton numbered 5 has been boiled.

A white, bone-white frame, headless, lay on the first dissection table.

Jiang Yuan asked: "Has the No. 1 been put away?"

"Yes, because we ran out of dissection tables, and No. 1 was finished…" the forensic assistant hurried to explain.

To say it was "finished" was impossible, of course.

A corpse offers many inferable details, and even more methods exist—but some things are left to chance, like an equation with eight solutions, where one easily slips into mental ruts.

The autopsy room's conditions were what they were: four dissection tables were already a lot; the police bureau couldn't treat a six-corpse case as standard equipment.

Jiang Yuan asked: "How's the analysis of No. 5 going?"

"Just been laid out—no conclusions yet," the forensic assistant replied. M.

In fact, for an ordinary forensic pathologist, simply arranging the bones in order took considerable time. Everyone was busy and exhausted, with no chance for deeper analysis.

Jiang Yuan nodded and examined them himself, adjusting the bones' positions to make them look neater.

Aesthetics still mattered greatly—humanity's strongest sense was vision, and thought itself developed around vision.

The origins of astronomy, optics, even the adult video industry—all followed this pattern.

Famous mathematical formulas—the Archimedean spiral, the Cartesian curve, the Jacobian curve—were all celebrated for their beauty.

Whether a geometry problem could be solved often hinged on drawing auxiliary lines.

By extension, how beautifully a corpse was arranged mattered greatly too.

And though some people were ugly in life, acted vilely, rotten to the core—if you stripped their flesh and arranged their bones elegantly, they'd be reborn.

As the saying goes, some extraordinary people, given one chance, can shed their old skin entirely.

"Write this down," Jiang Yuan said, fiddling with the bones, measuring them with a ruler, then beginning to output his findings.

The most basic judgments could still be made very quickly.

The forensic assistant removed his gloves, washed his hands, then put on new ones and picked up his pen.

"Female."

"Height 160."

"Age… around 18."

Jiang Yuan stated the key judgments in a few sentences.

The forensic assistant took notes, then paused at the end, astonished: "So young?"

"Yes. A girl of 18 going missing—her family would take it seriously," Jiang Yuan said. "Wait, let me confirm the exact age."

Forensic anthropology could make many judgments from human bones—but certain bones were superior for specific assessments.

Long bones, for instance, were excellent for estimating height: highly accurate, low difficulty—even novice forensic techs could produce reliable results.

Lumbar vertebrae were different: they could estimate height too, but with lower accuracy and difficulty beyond a beginner's level.

Jiang Yuan had judged quickly earlier, basing gender on the pelvis, and age on the pubic symphysis.

The pelvis could be called humanity's treasure bone.

To determine gender from the pelvis, there were countless markers—from overall shape to the angle of the pubic arch.

In households with resources, one could compare one male pelvis with one female pelvis: easily seen, the male pelvis was tall and narrow, wider at the top, narrower at the bottom; the female pelvis was low and broad, the pelvic cavity short and wide, cylindrical…

If absolutely necessary, one could compare X-rays of a male and female pelvis—but then, the three-dimensionality and depth were lost.

Age estimation based on the pubic symphysis was also highly accurate and the primary method.

The rougher the pubic symphysis surface, the younger the age; the smoother, the older.

But as the saying goes, a single piece of evidence is insufficient—Jiang Yuan flipped through the bones again, then returned: "Eighteen is correct."

"Understood," the forensic assistant replied, adding another circle.

"The cause of death might be stabbing," Jiang Yuan added, catching them off guard.

The forensic assistant asked curiously: "How did you determine that?"

"The marks here on the ribs are stab wounds. The dismemberment was done with a saw."

As Jiang Yuan spoke, the four forensic pathologists outside finished eating and returned one by one.

Jiang Yuan glanced at them and immediately noticed their expressions were grim.

"Was the food bad?" Jiang Yuan asked, concerned. After all, he'd made the noodles.

Now he thought about it, bone broth noodles might not have been as good as thick bone soup noodles—perhaps he should've…

"I peeled off the outer tape," Forensic Assistant Xiao Zhuang confessed honestly.

Old Ye walked in with a disgusted look. "You peeled it off? Fine. But then you read it out loud—I ended up drinking half the soup."

"Sorry, sorry. I just saw a plastic head there and thought I'd pull it. I didn't expect to find bone broth underneath," Xiao Zhuang said helplessly.

"You were saying something about stabbing?" Old Ye cut the topic short.

"Yes. There are cut marks on the third and fourth ribs," Jiang Yuan said, lifting the bones and turning them to the right position.

Since all the bodies had been pulled from the reservoir and were severely decomposed, identification before boiling was nearly impossible; even after boiling, the bone surfaces were complex.

The cut marks Jiang Yuan found were extremely fine—only millimeters long—likely accidental scrapes from the killer's blade during the stabbing.

But despite their small size, these marks revealed much.

For instance, the killer's knife skills were poor; his occupation likely had nothing to do with doctors, butchers, or similar professions. Otherwise, he wouldn't have made such mistakes.

The forensic pathologists' moods improved immediately; they all gathered to examine the ribs.

Two younger pathologists even mimicked the motion with their hands over their own chests.

"One more thing," Jiang Yuan continued examining the bones. "No. 5 likely trained in ballet for a long time."

Forensic Ye paused, then hurried to examine the foot bones, exclaiming in surprise: "So many bones missing?"

"Probably chopped off," Jiang Yuan had already checked. "The killer likely noticed the ballet feet and removed them along with the head."

After deep ballet training, switching to pointe shoes often caused "ballet feet," deforming the foot structure.

Based on Jiang Yuan's analysis, No. 5's ballet feet hadn't yet severely altered the bones—but the killer couldn't see the bones, only the deformed feet, which were easily recognizable. He likely chopped them off early.

But the traces of ballet training extended far beyond just ballet feet.

The killer's act of chopping off the feet actually reminded Jiang Yuan.

Eighteen years old, trained in ballet, plus a missing persons report—this would easily identify the victim.