Chapter 364

Jiang Yuan did not follow the normal procedure to dissect the corpse; instead, he carefully collected trace evidence from the chest wound.

When the killer stabbed, he used great force, and the dagger moved with extreme speed, piercing the victim's heart and sliding in smoothly until the guard struck the victim's chest.

At the same time, the blade's edge made contact with the victim's ribs, and upon dissection, clear scratch marks were indeed visible.

Thus, trace evidence from the weapon may well remain at the wound site. Whether this evidence will aid in solving the case is still uncertain, but it will likely serve as courtroom evidence.

In fact, pinning a killer definitively is not easy. When evidence is insufficient, courts often reduce sentences, especially in capital cases, where the requirements for evidence and the evidentiary chain are raised by more than one level.

So sometimes, courts prefer to impose a suspended death sentence rather than an immediate execution, because even if they impose it, the sentence might be overturned during review, leaving them embarrassed.

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Investigators like Jiang Yuan are especially welcomed everywhere because he is a forensic pathologist who speaks through physical evidence. Solving a case isn't just about uncovering the truth—it comes with a complete set of evidence and a well-structured evidentiary chain. Unlike Liu Jinghui, whose logic sounds tight but in court amounts to nothing but empty rhetoric.

Wu Jun watched as Jiang Yuan collected the skin damage from the chest, then handed him the rib clamp without a word.

The rib clamp used by forensic pathologists is the same tool as the one used in cardiothoracic surgery—both operate on the principle of the mechanical lever to pry open bone. The difference is that surgical clamps are usually small, precise, and expensive, while forensic clamps are larger, coarser, and appear bulky yet powerful.

Jiang Yuan pried open the rib, took photos, then carefully re-collected samples before directly cutting off the section of rib bearing the mark.

Human ribs share many similarities with pig ribs; if the corpse had just been burned, it was said to emit a scent similar to roasted pork.

The freshly cut rib had the look of a pork spare rib, so Wu Jun wrote a label by hand to note it.

In addition, the heart was also a key sample target.

Finally, the entire bucket of internal organs—including heart, liver, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, pancreas, thyroid, and adrenal glands—was soaked in formalin, then each part was sampled, cut into strips, and placed into a dehydration machine.

After dehydration was complete, Wu Jun had already heated the paraffin wax.

The melted wax was poured into small molds, and the dehydrated samples—the cut strips of organs—were placed inside. Once the wax hardened, it formed a block resembling amber.

Next, the wax block was fed into a microtome to be sliced into thin sections, then placed into a spreading machine.

Inside the spreading machine, the sections expanded due to water tension, the surrounding wax melted away, leaving only a thin layer of tissue.

This process demanded high technical skill and tested the pathologist's expertise greatly.

Especially when sample material was limited, a few failed attempts could exhaust all samples, leaving nothing at all.

These sections were not only archived and used as evidence but also essential for future re-examinations, particularly in death penalty reviews, which would definitely require checking these key pieces of evidence.

In other words, to ensure a convict receives the death penalty, the handling of samples must be flawless.

Jiang Yuan performed it with extreme care.

Wu Jun stayed with him until the autopsy ended, and only after the body was wheeled into the cold storage did he say: "Don't forget—you promised Director Huang you'd solve this case."

"I remember," Jiang Yuan nodded.

"Can you solve it?" Wu Jun asked, deeply skeptical.

"I think I can."

"How?"

"I don't know yet," Jiang Yuan replied, realizing how vague he sounded, then quickly added: "I still have confidence, but I'm not sure yet which direction will lead to the breakthrough."

Wu Jun sighed: "So don't overpromise. You shouldn't have agreed so quickly—now it's harder. When Director Huang needs to show support, he still will."

Jiang Yuan just murmured "Mm-hmm" twice. Given his current skill set, being overly cautious felt more honest than pretending otherwise.

Although the autopsy revealed no direct clues pointing to the killer, Jiang Yuan knew there were still many possible avenues to explore.

Wu Jun had merely reminded him; seeing Jiang Yuan showed no signs of worry, he relaxed and lit a brazier in the room.

Jiang Yuan didn't wait for him to say anything—he obediently jumped three times.

The two then returned to the Criminal Investigation Unit by car.

In the conference room, intelligence kept arriving, and several team leaders whispered among themselves.

The investigation was still in its early stage, with no clear direction yet, so most work was being done by the Forensic Team—collecting and analyzing evidence from the scene.

Jiang Yuan entered without ceremony and went straight to the video office to review surveillance footage.

"The killer probably didn't take the usual route. We have cameras along all major paths, but no one was captured. At least not yet—we haven't identified any suspects," said Zhuang Wei, the head of the video office, who now had extremely high trust in Jiang Yuan and even showed a hint of nervousness.

Ningtai County had spent so much money upgrading its surveillance system—if it failed to deliver, it wouldn't just be funny; everyone in the video office would be held accountable.

Jiang Yuan had more confidence than Zhuang Wei. As he watched the footage, he asked: "Not a single trace of the suspect?"

"We still can't determine the suspect's physical appearance," Zhuang Wei admitted, slightly frustrated. Nowadays, people aren't even searched by photo—how do you know who to look for?

"Which way did the police dogs chase?" Jiang Yuan asked a nearby officer.

He had deployed the dogs not to get a direct answer.

But based on the blood spatter at the scene, the killer must have carried some blood away; the dogs' tracking could roughly determine the direction the killer fled.

The nearby officer pointed east.

Zhuang Wei added: "We've extended our search eastward, but found no clearly suspicious individuals."

"If surveillance doesn't yield clues, we need to change our approach…" Liu Jinghui stepped forward, trying to help reframe the case.

Jiang Yuan didn't follow Liu Jinghui's lead. Instead, he said: "At three a. ., anyone on the street is suspicious."

Liu Jinghui paused: "We can't screen every newcomer… Hmm, the killer is likely an outsider. From that angle, an outsider still on the street at three a. . could very well be the killer?"

"Let's test that theory first," Jiang Yuan replied, still calm.

Solving the case through surveillance is just one convenient method—not the only one.

Zhuang Wei shook his head again: "From 3: 0 a. . onward, very few people appeared on camera. We've traced them by vehicle, and so far, none match the killer."

His wording was imprecise, but everyone understood.

Anyone walking the streets at that hour, even if they walked a bit, would eventually take transport—so their identity could be determined through their vehicle.

Of course, some identities would remain unclear, but killers have a way of revealing themselves: they're tense, walk faster, glance around, and so on. Some killers can mimic normal people, but others just don't look right.

And police aren't hunting 007. From Zhuang Wei's perspective, people wandering around at 3 or 4 a. . might seem odd, but they didn't look like killers.

Jiang Yuan reviewed several surveillance clips from that time period and found no clues.

At this point, everyone's expressions grew grim.

Could this case truly slip through their fingers?

Jiang Yuan's expression didn't change. He simply had the camera locations around the bar marked, studied them carefully, then said: "Zhuang, keep watching the footage—especially analyze the surveillance from 3: 0 to 4 a. . near the bar. I'm going to the scene."

"Alright," Zhuang Wei replied.

Nearby, Mu Zhiyang immediately stood up, ready to follow Jiang Yuan to the scene, asking: "You want to check the scene again?"

"Yeah. The surveillance around the bar street covers a wide area—if we still haven't found the killer's trace, then he probably didn't enter or exit normally. If that's the case, he'll leave even more traces."