Chapter 404

Noon.

It was the time of day when the sun was strongest; Wang Zhong suddenly pulled a red peach-wood sword, ten centimeters long, from around his neck, gripped the hilt, adopted a horse stance, and began thrusting it while chanting "Ha! Ha!"

Jiang Yuan, seated at his computer, stopped touching his skull and looked at Wang Zhong in confusion.

"Taught by Officer Wu," Wang Zhong said with solemn conviction, still moving the sword. "Says after handling corpses, once back in the office, you should perform a purification—it wards off all the ghosts and demons around you, lets them know we're not to be trifled with. The best time to wield the peach-wood sword is when yang energy peaks. I checked the sun's azimuth and altitude."

Jiang Yuan believed this was truly something Officer Wu had taught him. No ordinary person could pull off something so... refined.

Jiang Yuan only said: "Keep your voice down, don't disturb the other offices. We're still in Longli County."

"The voice comes from the dantian, so I can do it silently—it'll just be less effective," Wang Zhong replied obediently, clamped his mouth shut, and continued his vigorous movements.

Jiang Yuan watched for a moment and thought it wasn't bad. Forensic analysts sit at computers all day; some movement helps the body. He had a slight doubt...

Jiang Yuan asked: "How'd you end up learning this from him?"

"I didn't formally become his disciple—just picked up a few things, like an honorary student," Wang Zhong glanced at Jiang Yuan cautiously, then added: "Officer Wu only taught me basic techniques."

"Alright." Jiang Yuan figured Wang Zhong probably didn't understand what "basic techniques" meant, but reconstructing skulls kept him busy enough—let him dance if he wanted to.

Wang Zhong kept dancing.

After roughly eighty-one repetitions—about eighteen per set, five sets total—he stopped, sweat beading on his forehead.

He plopped back into his chair, panting, slipped the peach-wood sword back around his neck, and whispered: "Brother Jiang, Officer Wu's methods actually make sense. I've been practicing for a while now—I feel healthier."

Jiang Yuan thought: You've never exercised before; suddenly increasing your activity level will naturally make you feel better.

Wang Zhong glanced at Jiang Yuan's expression, remembered what Wu Jun had said, silently shook his head, lit an incense stick on his desk, and explained: "Given to me by Officer Wu."

Seeing Jiang Yuan didn't object, Wang Zhong got up again to boil water, brew tea, and open the window for ventilation...

When he finished his routine, he noticed several new cars with Changyang license plates parked downstairs.

"Brother Jiang, it's probably the provincial bureau," Wang Zhong said after peering out the window. "Looks like Forensic Officer Zhai's here—he brought a whole crew."

Jiang Yuan already knew the provincial bureau was sending someone; Zhai's arrival wasn't surprising.

Nowadays, Forensic Officer Zhai remained a star of the Shannan Provincial Bureau, sent wherever needed. He'd been dispatched to find Liu Jinghui, and had originally handled the autopsy for the 805 National Highway body dump case.

Of course, one could also say the identification Jiang Yuan had overturned was Zhai's work.

Jiang Yuan stood up, glanced out, and saw the small, frail-looking Forensic Officer Zhai followed by seven or eight muscular men—forensics routinely haul corpses; you can't stay weak unless you're like Zhai, who, after achieving fame, now has others carry the bodies for him. The worst off were like Mei Fang, who had no assistant at all—sometimes he'd drag a detective along as a laborer, and if he got a female officer or an older cop, he'd be lucky if they agreed. One autopsy could leave him sweating more than eating a whole pot of spicy hotpot.

A forensic officer with men behind him walked with a different air. Arriving at the office, Zhai announced loudly: "Forensic Officer Jiang, we've come to visit you."

"Welcome, welcome," Jiang Yuan replied, standing at the door, still cradling the skull.

"This is the skull you're reconstructing?" Zhai's gaze slid from Jiang Yuan's face to the skull, then remarked casually: "Middle-aged female, maybe a hundred pounds or so?"

Determining gender and age from a skull is slightly harder than from the pelvis, but not overly difficult. Still, Zhai's ability to identify it at a glance proved his sharp eye and confidence.

In comparison, judging fatness or thinness was simpler. Fat deposits leave traces on the outermost layer of the skull bone—the fatter the person, the rougher the surface; the leaner, the smoother.

The skull Jiang Yuan held had a smooth outer surface—clearly, its owner had low body fat. Since women naturally have higher body fat than men, her weight could only be a bit over a hundred pounds.

Jiang Yuan wasn't surprised Zhai could tell—he was just making small talk. Jiang Yuan nodded and said: "About right. Around thirty-four, female, gave birth, light weight, likely did hard labor for years..."

"I remember," Zhai nodded. He'd seen the body before.

The accompanying forensic officers filed into the office.

This office was one of Longli County's Criminal Science Team's rooms, temporarily assigned to Jiang Yuan. The body and autopsy room were at the funeral parlor—too far, and too cold for long-term work.

Zhai brought eight forensic officers—all junior forensics currently in provincial training, mostly young officers from district public security bureaus in cities.

In rank, district bureaus were roughly equivalent to county bureaus, both being frontline grassroots units primarily responsible for handling corpses. However, due to heavy workloads, they had little time for improvement. Especially when working alone, advancement became even more difficult.

Some cities solved this by sending city bureau forensics to assist, supervise, or teach—Qinghe City's system worked this way. That's why Forensic Officer Wang Lan ended up constantly on the road.

Other cities took different approaches, especially when city bureau forensics were underperforming or promoted to leadership roles, breaking the rotation cycle. Over time, the skills of county or district forensics could deteriorate.

The provincial bureau held training sessions and meetings annually—useful for those eager to improve, though skill advancement rarely brought material gains.

The young forensics entered, curiously observing Jiang Yuan's office, then naturally began glancing at his computer screen.

Jiang Yuan was using 3dsler—a highly complex system. Without the system-gifted skill, mastering it alone would take months.

Domestic police software had real-world cases and was commonly used, but its simplicity meant less precision.

"You really went for skull reconstruction," Zhai muttered. "Is it absolutely necessary?"

"Not necessarily—I haven't tried other methods," Jiang Yuan answered honestly. He just wanted to use this one.

Zhai smiled, looked again at the skull, and said: "If you can reconstruct it and confirm identity, it's easier than mass investigations."

Without skull reconstruction, the usual method was first to search for identity through items on the body—clothing, jewelry. If that failed, use autopsy or forensic anthropology techniques. Either way, large-scale investigations were unavoidable.

Even after reconstruction, you'd still need to investigate—but asking people to identify a face is easier than searching for a 35-year-old former dancer with a sprained ankle.

Most importantly, facial identification has higher accuracy and fewer misses.

Investigations feared omissions most—that's why Jiang Yuan insisted on sending Xu Taining during the 805 case.

In other words, investigations were either expensive or risky—and either way, slow.

And the expensive version wasn't risk-free either.

Overall, skull reconstruction still had clear advantages: high effectiveness, low overall cost. The only flaw was the scarcity of people who could do it.

Zhai, of course, couldn't do it.

This thin-faced, expressionless old man, if judged by the number of corpses he'd dissected, was likely among the top in Shannan Province. Back in the early days, when forensic officers were rare, Old Zhai would travel county to county performing autopsies.

But skull reconstruction—a skill requiring multidisciplinary expertise—Zhai never had time to learn.

"How far have you gotten?" Zhai asked, showing genuine interest. He didn't know it, but he still wanted to understand new technology.

Jiang Yuan sat back at the computer: "Currently doing edge detection. Since the Laplacian operator is sensitive to high-frequency signals, I'm applying a low-pass filter before Laplacian filtering—I've chosen Gaussian low-pass, combining the Gaussian and Laplacian operators into a single LoG operator..."

Zhai listened, then stood up: "Show me the case file. Did you photograph all the bones?"

However, Dr. Zhai never got the chance to participate in cranial reconstruction, which requires a multidisciplinary team.

"How far have you gotten?" Dr. Zhai asked, showing mild interest; though he didn't understand it, he was still willing to learn about modern technology.

Jiang Yuan sat down at the computer and said, "We're currently doing edge detection. Since the Laplacian operator is sensitive to high-frequency signals, we're applying a low-pass filter before the Laplacian filter—I've chosen Gaussian low-pass filtering, combining the Gaussian operator with the Laplacian operator to form a single LoG operator..."

After listening, Dr. Zhai stood up and said, "Let me see that case file. Did you photograph all the bones?"