Chapter 891: Isn't This a Coincidence?

The next day.

Early morning.

Li Jiaoshou was sleeping soundly while hugging his dog when he was woken up by a phone call.

Opening his eyes, he saw the Golden Retriever in front of him looking at him with a grievance-filled expression.

Li Jiaoshou pushed the dog's head to the side, picked up his phone, checked the caller ID, and put it directly on speakerphone. "Xiao Ming, what is it?"

"Professor, you need to come to the office immediately. That Officer Jiang has brought people over." Xiao Ming was his doctoral student, equivalent to an inner-sect disciple, and they communicated quite frequently.

Li Jiaoshou laughed. "He's here to look at the skeletons, not to arrest you."

"No, he's here to attend a project meeting."

Li Jiaoshou glanced suspiciously at the time on his phone and frowned. "Is there a project meeting today?"

"No. I told Officer Jiang that, and he said we should just hold one now."

Li Jiaoshou was so angry he laughed. "Just because he's impressive doesn't mean he can dictate our working hours."

Hearing his master's laughter, the Golden Retriever crawled over from the bedside, wagging its tail to curry favor.

Li Jiaoshou gently stroked the dog's head, feeling a bit better, and said amusedly, "Tell him that the project has a schedule, and we'll just follow the schedule."

Xiao Ming grumbled inwardly, *The schedule was something I copied from the internet anyway. * Turning around, Xiao Ming added, "Officer Jiang said he has already finished determining the cause of death for all the skeletons in the Yong Wang tomb, and he wants to hold a project meeting today to brief us."

Li Jiaoshou was stunned, his brow furrowing. "Yesterday's... and he's done today? He must be messing around."

Xiao Ming said cautiously, "From what I can tell, it doesn't seem like it. He's quite famous; it's unlikely he'd make a fool of himself over something like this. Professor Tao and the others are looking into it too."

Li Jiaoshou hissed.

The Golden Retriever let out a "Woof."

Li Jiaoshou pushed the dog's head away, got up, and said, "Fine. I'll give him credit for being impressive; I'm heading back to the university now. Sigh, I just said, is he really that impressive? He couldn't have examined the skeletons in detail."

"He examined a few, said he was just refining the details, and the rest were results based on photos and given data." Xiao Ming didn't need to describe it in too much detail; everyone was an insider, and once a few key nodes were mentioned, those who understood, understood.

"A forensic immortal," Li Jiaoshou muttered, having nothing more to say. He brushed his teeth briefly, went downstairs, and drove back to the university.

Upon entering the office, Jiang Yuan was already there, flipping through bones.

The prepared skeletons were all stored in large boxes similar to Lock & Lock containers, clean and odorless. Jiang Yuan would just pour out one box at a time, look at them, and have people put them back when finished.

Li Jiaoshou looked left and right, then greeted them: "Professor Sun, Professor Zhang, Professor Tao, you've all arrived."

"If we didn't come, Wu Wu Fa Yi Jiang would have finished all our work," Professor Sun said with a smile.

Seeing Li Jiaoshou enter, Jiang Yuan nodded. "Everyone is here, let's begin."

The professors were all respectable people and naturally wouldn't fight him for the lead, so the meeting was chaired by Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan didn't care about that much; he just nodded to Tao Yajie and said, "I'll start by talking about my current findings and the information I can provide, then we'll see what needs you have."

Overall, Jiang Yuan was quite interested in the excavation of the Yong Wang tomb. Once one delves deep into anthropology, one is bound to come into contact with archaeology. Jiang Yuan hadn't had the opportunity before, and participating in such a massive project all at once actually aligned with his own needs.

However, because he held a superior position in terms of technology, Jiang Yuan didn't need to go through the full process with Tao Yajie and the others.

Jiang Yuan's thoughts and what he currently expressed were consistent: he would solve the problems he could, and if Tao Yajie had further questions, she could raise them. In this way, Jiang Yuan's efficiency was maximized. As for how things were coordinated behind the project, Jiang Yuan didn't care.

Tao Yajie couldn't say she had guessed Jiang Yuan's thoughts, but she was familiar with the mindset of technical personnel. Hearing Jiang Yuan say this, she complied, "Please go ahead."

Jiang Yuan then signaled to Wang Chuanxing.

Wang Chuanxing immediately opened the PPT he had stayed up all night writing.

Jiang Yuan took the remote control and, while clicking through it, said:

"First is Yong Wang. Judging from Yong Wang's remains, his age at death was 72. The cause of death may have been some type of cancer; one can see that the bone structure of the sternum and femoral head was damaged, with cavities and areas of dissolution. However, it is highly probable that it was bone metastasis, and the primary cancer type is unknown."

"Yong Wang had osteoporosis, and the traces on the kneeling surface are very obvious, indicating a habit of kneeling... The wear on his teeth is slightly deeper than that of modern people, with dental calculus, dental caries, and missing teeth. Overall, the maintenance condition is still not as good as..."

"There are traces of multiple fractures, and the ankles also show traces of multiple injuries..."

"Long-term horseback riding caused changes to the spine, pelvis, and knees. Hmm, the tooth wear is also related to this..."

During the first half, Professor Tao and the others listened and nodded. Similar conclusions could be reached after they carefully observed the skeletons.

Of course, the careful observation and research here were measured in weeks—normal, ordinary anthropologists at LV1 level or above could talk eloquently about what caused a trace if asked, appearing as if they understood perfectly. But if you gave them a whole skeleton and asked how the deceased died, they wouldn't be able to reach a conclusion for the next week or two unless they slept beside the skeleton.

It's like a stock rising at 10:30 AM; during the review, everyone can state the reasons and causes, from international situations to insider information caused by the chairman's son's private life. But if you ask them if the stock will rise or fall tomorrow, they'll start stammering.

Jiang Yuan belonged to the type who had already drawn the K-line chart for the stock for tomorrow.

Tao, Li, Sun, and Zhang were greatly shocked.

The inner and outer disciples below were even more shaken in their worldview, whispering to each other.

"Any opinions?" Jiang Yuan paused and looked at everyone politely.

Everyone shook their heads in unison.

Seeing this, Jiang Yuan, just like when he was with the criminal police team in other regions, nodded reassuringly. "Then I will continue."

Jiang Yuan: "The Consort of Yong Wang in Pit No. 2, female, age 78. The cause of death is not very clear. She had given birth. Osteoporosis..."

"The deceased in Pit No. 3, among whom three clearly died of trauma, suspected to be human sacrifices. Among them, J4 and J5, aged 24 and 28 respectively, died from being hacked on the axis and the third cervical vertebra; both have clear hacking marks. The cause of death for J6 is highly likely to be suicide by throat-slitting."

"Additionally..."

"Pit No. 4, I see it's mostly animal bones, so we'll set that aside for now."

Jiang Yuan spoke for nearly 10 minutes this time, and the PPT had dozens of slides.

Tao, Li, Sun, and Zhang took notes in unison and had their students take many photos to keep. Even though Jiang Yuan said he would copy the PPT for everyone, they didn't fully believe it.

These were moments similar to highlighting key points; if one was too lazy to take notes and waited for the teacher to photocopy them, who would die if not you?

After Jiang Yuan finished speaking, he quietly took a sip of water.

The screen in the conference room displayed the "END" sign for several minutes.

Only then did Tao Yajie seem to catch her breath, smiling. "Teacher Jiang has sorted out the situation of all the personnel in the entire Yong Wang tomb; it was brilliant. In my understanding, can we proceed directly to the next stage now?"

"In terms of anthropology, the Yong Wang tomb should be fine," Li Jiaoshou immediately pledged his support.

"There may be areas that need supplementation later, and we will still need Teacher Jiang's help, including the writing of the final paper, which may also require Teacher Jiang's effort..." Tao Yajie didn't say it so bluntly, but she was worried that Jiang Yuan, not being an insider, wouldn't understand, and felt it necessary to explain.

Jiang Yuan said readily, "No problem. If there's a need, just send me a message."

"Uh... okay." Theoretically, Tao Yajie invited Jiang Yuan here hoping he would sit in and participate in the project team's work. That was the idea, but the anthropological content of the project team had been completely sucked dry by Jiang Yuan. Tao Yajie shook her head helplessly and said regretfully, "The most regrettable point about the Yong Wang tomb is that both Pit No. 3 and Pit No. 4 were robbed. Not only were a large number of cultural relics lost, but most importantly, a large amount of information was destroyed, which discounted the archaeological value of the tomb."

Jiang Yuan understood Tao Yajie's meaning. In terms of archaeology, the value of the funerary objects in the tomb was only a very small part. The archaeological layer-by-layer excavation model spent huge efforts to understand the living conditions of ancient humans and obtain first-hand information from thousands of years ago...

And tomb-robbing behavior clearly destroyed the most valuable part of this.

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment. Since one should help others to the end...

Thinking of this, Jiang Yuan took the initiative. "Professor Tao, speaking of which, cracking down on tomb-robbing behavior is the duty of our criminal police. I'll help you look into this case."

Professor Tao said hurriedly, "That would be great, but would it be too much trouble?"

"We'll see. I'll make a few calls first to see if anyone is willing to surrender voluntarily," Jiang Yuan said. ===== CHAPTER 892 =====