Chapter 4: Chapter Four: The Legacy of Uncle Seventeen

Jiang Yuan and Wu Jun’s expressions showed no change whatsoever.

Wu Jun merely glanced at the floor, ensuring the family’s vomit had not contaminated it, then nodded in satisfaction.

Jiang Yuan, meanwhile, systematically opened the chest cavity, flipped open the abdomen, and exposed the deceased’s intestines…

He worked slowly but methodically. School training was still school training; this was his first real case, and to him, it felt like an exam.

Wu Jun assisted with his movements while taking notes, but mostly observed Jiang Yuan’s technique.

At his age, dissection had become a physically demanding task; having a new colleague handle the heaviest work was more than Wu Jun could hope for. Still, he had to ensure the work was passed on in an orderly fashion—at the very least, without compromising the case.

Seeing Jiang Yuan proceed smoothly, Wu Jun let him continue further. Watching Jiang Yuan methodically examine each organ inside the corpse, removing each one after inspection, weighing it, and extracting tissue samples for later lab analysis, Wu Jun said nothing.

In the end, all organs had been removed, and both men exhaled in relief.

“I’m cutting open the stomach now,” Jiang Yuan said, taking the deceased’s stomach and slicing it open with a blade.

A profuse mass of food spilled out, reeking of sour decay—the odor intensified another notch.

The uncle, who had just begun to recover, took one look and rushed back to the trash bin, producing even richer odors.

Yet, compared to what he vomited, the stench emanating from the corpse remained superior.

To be more precise, vomiting was merely a living person expelling part of their gastrointestinal contents; autopsy, however, involved excavating every single substance from the deceased’s digestive tract. The two were not even in the same league.

Wu Jun turned and fetched a flask to collect the gastric contents. These materials could help determine the time of death and provide clues about the location of death.

Jiang Yuan shook the thick stomach sac slightly, and then a glistening mass floated upward—something resembling a glowing dumpling.

Without thinking, Jiang Yuan reached out and touched it, and instantly, a line of text appeared in his mind:

Obtained the Legacy of Uncle Seventeen: Egg Fried Rice Preparation (LV3)—This was Jiang Jianfeng’s signature dish. After years of refinement, Jiang Jianfeng could make a fragrant bowl of egg fried rice using exactly one-third oil, one-third vegetables, and one-third egg, with material costs far below market average, while maintaining excellent taste, health benefits, and environmental friendliness, satisfying countless customers.

The glistening dumpling flashed twice and vanished instantly, without hesitation.

“Did you see that?” Jiang Yuan asked Wu Jun out of nowhere.

Wu Jun frowned: “What?”

Jiang Yuan immediately realized the glowing dumpling was visible only to him, so he casually shifted the topic: “The gastric contents look abundant, and digestion was very incomplete.”

“Indeed,” Wu Jun nodded. “I’ll take over now.”

At this stage, Wu Jun could not entrust an entire homicide autopsy to a novice—especially when it came to determining cause and time of death. He wasn’t yet confident enough in Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan reluctantly yielded his position. After all, this was his own Uncle Seventeen—he felt he could be more meticulous if he did it himself…

In contrast, Wu Jun worked far more quickly.

He quickly made several stitches, then placed a corpse brick beneath the deceased’s neck and began examining the cervical region.

The wound on the cervical vertebrae was soon exposed.

Wu Jun studied it carefully and said: “Hangman’s fracture. Take photos from multiple angles—this is the fatal injury.”

Jiang Yuan didn’t remove his gloves, merely rinsed them slightly, picked up the camera on the table, and snapped pictures rapidly.

In this moment, Uncle Seventeen probably didn’t care about infection anymore.

After finishing, Jiang Yuan carefully examined the cervical vertebrae.

Hangman’s fracture is actually a fracture of the axis—the second cervical vertebra—so named because it was commonly seen in hangings.

However, hangman’s fracture doesn’t occur only during hangings; the fragility of human anatomy means various traumas can cause axis fractures. In this case, a fruit knife pierced the neck, resulting in the axis breaking.

“A small stroke of luck,” Wu Jun muttered.

Hangman’s fracture is one of the fastest ways to die—typically, the severed axis pierces the brainstem, causing instant death without a trace of fear. In that sense, it almost seems fortunate.

Wu Jun finally removed the brain tissue for examination, then handed the autopsy form to the uncle for his signature: “Finished. Sign here, and you can go.”

The uncle had now emptied his stomach and dared not look up. He asked a few questions while looking down, signed his name, and fled the autopsy room.

Wu Jun, accustomed to such scenes, smiled indifferently, then called Jiang Yuan to help clean up and return the sutured corpse to the cold storage unit.