Chapter 193: Finding Order in Chaos

The worst thing in a murder case is having no clues.

As long as there's a clue, manpower is never lacking.

It's like someone used a gun to commit a mass murder, then fled into the mountains—local authorities could instantly mobilize a search team of over a thousand people.

Many murder task forces organize massive investigations, sometimes merely to exhaust their available manpower—regardless of whether it's sufficient or necessary, at least it keeps the team members occupied.

Having nothing to do strikes a severe blow to the task force's morale.

Jiang Yuan submitted the clue, and the 724 Qinghe Major Homicide Task Force immediately dispatched personnel to begin their investigation that very night.

Eighteen years old means senior high or freshman year; having studied ballet suggests a decent family background, so the victim was likely still a student.

Pulling up lists of missing students from Qinghe and surrounding cities, filtered by ballet training—even going back several years—left only one name.

Zhang Xiaoyun.

From Jianjiang City, and a student at Jianjiang No. 1 High School.

Jianjiang borders Qinghe, with similar economic levels; the entire city has only one ballet training institution, making inquiries easy.

Yet after DNA matching confirmed the identity, task force members still felt a chill.

It was purely because the ballet criterion was so narrow that they could easily expand the search to neighboring cities… and this again proved one thing:

The killer doesn't confine his murders to the local area.

This goes strongly against modern trends.

Today's commercial and cultural atmosphere emphasizes localization and social circles.

Even matchmaking now adds the first six digits of an ID number to requirements like car ownership and property.

Yet the killer doesn't even check ID numbers…

Of course, killers are often rebellious—that's understandable.

But task force members had to begin self-reflection:

If the killer no longer limits himself to local victims, how vast could his range be?

This isn't just a joke.

A killer's psychology changes with environment.

Some killers become reckless and violent abroad, yet return home and remain submissive—eating, drinking, enduring beatings from their wives, taking abuse from bosses, unchanged.

Others kill only in one specific place—and this is the norm. Especially those who dismember bodies; the dismemberment usually happens at home.

Reality often responds to such choices in strange ways.

A classic case is Jia Wenge from Nenhe City—he and his team killed 42 people locally over three years, drew a task force, and got away with it.

To lie low, he fled to Hangzhou, committed only a few scams, dared not kill again, and was arrested; three months later, he was executed.

The 724 killer, familiar with the reservoir and consistently dumping bodies there, should logically be local.

Yet both known victims are not from here.

Victim No. 1 came from Wanshang City, the far west of Shannan Province—likely on a business trip to Qinghe and killed there, or possibly killed elsewhere, like Jianjiang.

Now, Victim No. 5 is directly a Jianjiang student with limited mobility—likely killed in Jianjiang.

So does the killer live in Jianjiang, adjacent to Qinghe?

Dumping bodies in a neighboring city isn't unusual; anyone with basic anti-investigation sense knows it increases difficulty—ancient bandits even chose locations at the intersection of three provinces.

For the task force, the difficulty truly seems to have increased.

For two consecutive days, Qinghe City Bureau's conference room echoed with constant arguments.

Fortunately, Jiang Yuan no longer had to attend meetings.

He stayed locked in the autopsy room, studying bones every day.

These bodies had been submerged too long—most flesh had rotted away; exposed bones, soaked in decomposition fluid, had undergone varying degrees of color and texture change.

Such changes posed no problem for basic judgments.

For example, determining gender—pelvis is best, but not indispensable; hip bones work well, skull is fine, and mandible, sternum, and femur are all usable.

On this basis, even if bones had been soaked long-term or partially consumed by microbes, the impact remained minimal.

But making further judgments about the victims' origins was clearly difficult.

The remaining bodies—Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 6—each presented unique complexities.

The four autopsy tables in the room displayed four sets of skeletal remains.

Wang Lan assigned one body to each forensic pathologist, deliberately skipping Jiang Yuan.

The first two identifications relied entirely on Jiang Yuan's judgment; his forensic anthropology knowledge clearly sufficed—and likely far exceeded everyone else's.

Wang Lan had already granted him full trust; there was nothing more she could do.

On the first day, Jiang Yuan wandered among the four sets of remains.

Then, he increasingly focused his attention on Body No. 3.

Body No. 3 was the one hacked by an axe.

Its lumbar vertebrae and leg bones showed severe wear; Jiang Yuan's initial judgment was manual labor.

This judgment wasn't wrong, but the scope was too broad—finding the person based on this alone was nearly impossible.

At first, Jiang Yuan planned to study the axe marks.

If he could identify the axe type—even without solving the case—he might still gain a clue: common modern types like fire axes or small wood-chopping axes, for instance, have few buyers.

In reality, Jiang Yuan had underestimated tool mark analysis; his expertise in this area was insufficient to determine the axe's origin.

Determining time of death… this path was clearly impossible too.

The underwater environment is closed; for bodies this old, determining time of death usually requires external help—like examining maggot generations or algae growth duration…

Even if conditions were ideal, time of death could only be estimated in years.

In fact, time-of-death estimation is the most difficult and advanced part of forensic medicine—meaning, it's the least accurate.

For recent cases with fresh, warm bodies, liver and rectal temperatures can still be measured. But for cases this old, the liver is gone, the anus is gone, even the microbes may have evolved…

In the end, what remained for Jiang Yuan to study were the most basic traces on the bones.

Theoretically, skeletal remains can preserve many traces from a person's life—daily activities, occupation, illness, or environmental exposure.

A modern example: if twenty people were murdered in a subway, their flesh boiled off, and only bones remained, what would be the most common skeletal trace?

The incidence of excessive cervical vertebrae wear would be extremely high.

Jiang Yuan had already observed the lumbar and leg bone wear on Body No. 3; further inspection led him to conclude that the knee, tibia, and heel wear all stemmed from daily life or occupation.

But what occupation caused wear precisely at these locations? Jiang Yuan couldn't figure it out.

He thought about it for the duration of one instant noodle meal, still unclear, and called Liu Jinghui directly.

In Jiang Yuan's view, Liu Jinghui, the detective, might actually be useful only in moments like this.

Liu Jinghui, Senior Police Superintendent Level 4 of the Shannan Provincial Department, arrived at the autopsy room at top speed.

Jiang Yuan handed him a protective suit and said, "You didn't need to come—phone would've been enough."

Liu Jinghui shook his head: "Some things can only be understood by seeing them firsthand."

"Fine." Jiang Yuan led him to the No. 3 autopsy table and handed him a tibia. "Look for yourself."

The tibia is the shinbone—or more precisely, the larger inner bone of the lower leg.

It's very hard; when held, it fits perfectly in one hand—clever ancient people recognized this early, and thousands of years ago, they ground tibias into daggers, even carving blood grooves down the center.

Based on archaeological finds, tibiae made excellent dagger material.

But as evidence alone, Liu Jinghui turned it over and over for a long time and saw nothing.

"Explain it to me," Liu Jinghui sighed.

Several forensic pathologists quietly gathered nearby, eager to hear Jiang Yuan's live analysis.

"The wear is mainly here—the bone surface has become rough," Jiang Yuan said, holding the tibia and showing Liu Jinghui the worn side.

Liu Jinghui still couldn't see it.

"That's why I said a phone call would've been enough," Jiang Yuan said.

"It's not far," Liu Jinghui retorted, refocusing on the body. "What activity causes this kind of wear?"

"Probably frequent squatting," Jiang Yuan said, demonstrating.

Liu Jinghui studied it closely and nodded slightly: "Knees, tibia, heels."

Jiang Yuan nodded: "Too bad it's male—if female, she might've worked in service."

"Oh my…" Liu Jinghui clicked his tongue, studying Jiang Yuan. "You really know your stuff—no wonder you're from Jiang Village, so young and already…"

"I mean service jobs—like shoe sales or first-class flight attendants," Jiang Yuan said.

"Men can do those jobs too—do you have to be so rigid about gender?" Liu Jinghui joked.

Jiang Yuan smirked: "Heavy labor."

"First-class flight attendants who constantly carry luggage? Or shoe salespeople who work night shifts at courier stations?"

"I'm just giving examples," Jiang Yuan shook his head. "Given the victim's age, he spent far more time squatting daily than shoe salespeople ever would."

"Welder?"

Jiang Yuan paused, then nodded: "Possible."

"An athlete in some sport—like skiing?"

"Also possible."

Liu Jinghui guessed a few more occupations; he now roughly understood Jiang Yuan's judgment.

"This killer murders very casually," Liu Jinghui sighed.

Jiang Yuan grunted, placed the tibia down, glanced at the other bodies, and asked Liu Jinghui: "How's the task force doing?"

"A complete mess," Liu Jinghui said grimly.

"Didn't the provincial bureau send you here to advise and direct?" Jiang Yuan looked at Liu Jinghui.

"My guess is, this guy is a random offender," Liu Jinghui returned Jiang Yuan's gaze. "Do you know how to solve a case like this?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head. Among the unsolved homicide cases in every province, random offenses made up the majority—and there was a reason for that.

"You have to pile up all known conditions," Liu Jinghui said. "From chaos, find order. List the known facts—that's the most basic step. I've called in two more teams of divers to check if there are any more bodies in the reservoir. If we don't recover any, then these few corpses are all we have."