Chapter 56: On-Site Autopsy (Third Update!)

10:30 PM, first floor of the Fuji TV Odaiba Building, restaurant, temporary Special Investigation Headquarters.

Seeing the time allotted by Nippon Life Insurance running shorter and shorter, the elites of Investigation Division 1 inside the Special Investigation Headquarters could not help but show anxious expressions on their faces.

Although the Metropolitan Police Department is a powerful department, Japan is, after all, a capitalist society; facing a large multinational corporation at the level of a Fortune Global 500 company like Nippon Life, the Metropolitan Police Department dares not offend them directly without evidence.

Not to mention that media giants like Dentsu and Hakuhodo are also involved; these two are also famous hard nuts to crack—offend them, and you can just wait for a constant stream of black material and negative news to be exposed.

What's worse, if the building lockdown continues, the image of the Metropolitan Police Department's incompetence will be proven once again during the live broadcast.

Hm? Why say "again"?

So, when the news that Hironaka Mariko had been found came from Police Inspector Megure at the front, everyone in the Special Investigation Headquarters breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yada☆ze~"

"Well done, keep your spirits up, didn't lose face!"

"That guy Megure, he's usually steady, and he didn't let us down this time!"

"Uesugi-kun, amazing!"

"This year's year-end bonus is safe, and the annual leave is safe too!"

A burst of cheers erupted from the crowd, and even Division Chief Mikasa of Investigation Division 1 let out a long breath: "That was close, it was a desperate situation!"

"Ouch, I can't take it anymore!" Once he relaxed, the Division Chief immediately clutched his crotch: "I can't hold it in!"

His exaggerated performance made the detectives in the restaurant laugh uncontrollably.

"The restroom, where is the restroom?" "The restroom is over there! Division Chief!"

Division Chief Mikasa ran off, leaving behind the Face of the Metropolitan Police Department, Watanabe Minami, and the Chief Driver, Okada.

"Cunning old guy!" Watanabe Minami's brilliant and beautiful face finally relaxed after receiving the news. Her pair of charming, wonderful eyes stared intently at Uesugi Muneyuki, who was chatting with Shirakawa Mai on the screen. Within her sweet eyes, ripples of brilliance stirred, and an indescribable sense of pride, satisfaction, and accomplishment poured into her heart.

This is the talent she discovered, this is the talent she selected, this is the talent she personally designated.

If it weren't for me, you would probably still be looking at corpses at Otsuka Station, right?

Thank you, Uesugi-kun!

The Face of the Metropolitan Police Department held her flawless face in her hands, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly, sweet and intoxicating.

This time counts as you saving Father once; our family will remember it.

I hadn't planned on making contact with you so soon, but this time I must express my gratitude to you in person, and by the way... get to know you.

Are you satisfied with Ikeda, whom I sent to you?

If you're not satisfied, I'll exchange or refund her!

Police Inspector Okada, who was sitting with Watanabe Minami, did not know the countless thoughts that had passed through the mind of this Face of the Metropolitan Police Department. He nodded and replied: "This old guy has always been like this."

Serving as the Investigation Division 1 Chief with a Non-Career Track status to lead the Career Track and Associate Career Track personnel in the division is a great test of leadership art, and Division Chief Mikasa's leadership art is to occasionally show weakness, putting on this low profile of having a small problem in public to appear grounded, relying on a sense of approachability to integrate into the workplace environment.

However, the content of the live broadcast quickly turned in a strange direction.

Fuji TV only gave Police Inspector Megure one shot, and immediately after, the camera focused on Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai, who were chatting idly.

This pair of handsome man and beautiful woman seemed to be in their own world, chatting vividly in front of millions of viewers across the Kanto region. Uesugi Muneyuki, who always presented a cold and stern image, rarely faced the active overtures of his senior Mai with an expression of surprise and emotion, occasionally raising his eyebrows, the corners of his mouth harder to suppress than an AK, subconsciously revealing a flattered smile.

And Shirakawa Mai was even more radiant with her smile; under the reflection of her stunning face, the surrounding scenery and people's faces were all blurring.

A series of tut-tutting sounds came from the Special Investigation Headquarters; the male detectives were envious, jealous, and hateful, lonely, empty, and cold, looking at Uesugi Muneyuki on the screen with hostility.

As for the female detectives, because of the emergency deployment and the complex situation, there were almost no female detectives on the scene.

"Let's go, we'll go over too." Watanabe Minami stood up.

"Go over now?" Police Inspector Okada was surprised by Watanabe Minami's decision: "But... the Division Chief and the others."

"If we're late, we won't be able to see Uesugi-kun's performance." Watanabe Minami smiled brilliantly, her steps light: "The case isn't finished yet, is it?"

"Alright." Police Inspector Okada had no choice but to quickly follow the pace of the Face of the Metropolitan Police Department.

————I am the separator line that is harder to suppress than an AK————

"If you say another word, I'll arrange to have you sent out right now!"

The roar of the middle-aged man, exhausted after a whole day, carried a bit of personal grievance. Uesugi Muneyuki wisely shut his mouth, while Shirakawa Mai hurriedly put her hands together and pleaded with a sincere face: "I'm sorry, Officer, just let me stay here, okay? Hironaka Mariko is also a friend of mine, and she took good care of me at the TV station, so I followed along to take a look. Please don't chase me away, okay?"

Shirakawa Mai was wearing a fairy-like long dress today. Under the swaying hem of the long dress were a pair of delicate, jade-like feet with only the ankles exposed. On her feet, she wore white, Chanel-style butterfly high heels. Her skin was so fair that one couldn't even tell if she was wearing stockings; the pure jade color, like mutton-fat jade, revealed a seductive pinkish hue, and the ankles of her jade feet were outlined by a thin strap, the slender ankles forming a wonderful match with her lower legs.

Coupled with the exquisite makeup on her face, her stunning beauty was dazzling in all directions. When she tilted her body slightly to plead, her beautiful figure outlined a golden-ratio curve that almost no man could refuse.

Half fairy, half enchantress.

"Then stand a little further away and don't cause trouble." Police Inspector Megure's old face also flushed, and he muttered: "It's a strange thing that you would appear here."

The people from the Metropolitan Police Department immediately accepted Shirakawa Mai's apology and naturally allowed her to stay at the scene.

"Junior, it's not easy to talk here. Let's exchange contact information first and chat later." Shirakawa Mai took out her mobile phone.

Uesugi Muneyuki naturally had no objections. Under the murderous gazes of dozens of male animals around him, he exchanged contact information with Senior Mai.

Ikeda Erena, who was beside Uesugi Muneyuki, witnessed the interaction between the two the entire time.

When she saw this national actress chatting happily with Uesugi Muneyuki, Ikeda Erena's expression was a bit unpleasant, but she had to admit that Shirakawa Mai was truly beautiful—beautiful to the point that Ikeda Erena couldn't help but feel a bit inferior. Moreover, Shirakawa Mai's gentle and generous temperament was more in line with traditional Japanese aesthetics.

If it came to competing on figure, Erena still had some confidence in herself, but in terms of pure facial features, Shirakawa Mai was more than a level above her.

And she also admired Shirakawa Mai's "independent, self-reliant, beautiful" persona. Her phrase "Japanese women can say no" had always been one of Erena's mottos. Originally, seeing Shirakawa Mai at such a close distance, Erena subconsciously felt very happy.

As it turned out, she was actually a schoolmate of Uesugi Muneyuki, and she even took the initiative to acknowledge him, calling each other "Senior" and "Junior," and then she didn't even look at her properly, treating her as if she didn't exist the whole time!

Now, Erena was not happy!

Especially when she saw Shirakawa Mai actually take the initiative to take out her phone and exchange contact information with Uesugi Muneyuki, the expression on Erena's face was already one of forced smiles.

It's time to give Uesugi a more core Karate technique lesson—actual combat.

Putting away his phone, Uesugi Muneyuki continued his superficial autopsy. However, unlike before, this time with Senior Mai watching from not far away, Uesugi Muneyuki only felt his emotions were particularly excited and particularly serious.

He stood outside the room, facing the live broadcast camera of Fuji TV. Facing the female anchor's question, Uesugi Muneyuki suppressed the excitement in his heart and said calmly: "The cause of death is asphyxiation."

He added to Police Inspector Megure: "According to the scars, Ms. Hironaka had a certain degree of resistance, but it was not intense."

"What do you mean?" Police Inspector Megure stood with his hands behind his back, frowning.

"What I mean is, Ms. Hironaka must have come into this room with the killer; at the very least, there was no conflict between the two parties before arriving in this room. It was only after they entered this room that a conflict arose for some reason, and the killer took action here." Uesugi Muneyuki carefully examined the marks on the corpse: "Coupled with the fact that the killer was actually able to hide Ms. Hironaka inside the wall, I have a hypothesis."

"The killer is highly likely to be an internal staff member of the TV station." Police Inspector Megure lived up to his reputation as a member of Investigation Division 1; he said coldly, then turned his gaze toward Fuji TV.

President Kameyama's face grew darker and darker, but he did not speak.

"What about the estimation of the time of death?" Ikeda Erena suddenly spoke up: "Why are you so certain it was Friday night, and why did you say Ms. Hironaka most likely died shortly after leaving the surveillance?"

Uesugi Muneyuki smiled upon hearing this and pointed to the wall: "First of all, an estimation of the time of death can never be extremely accurate, but this kind of environment has always been one of the environments we Forensic Pathologists like best, perhaps second only to corpses in a freezer or cold storage."

"The area where the corpse is located is fixed, the air does not circulate, and the temperature around the corpse is almost completely constant." Uesugi Muneyuki pointed to the situation inside the wall: "In this situation, the rate of decomposition of the corpse will almost not change, so we can easily deduce the time of death of the corpse."

Subsequently, Uesugi Muneyuki extended a second finger and pointed to the legs of Ms. Hironaka Mariko: "And have you noticed? There are urine stains above the Silk Stockings on Ms. Hironaka's legs."

"In cases of death by asphyxiation, the deceased may experience incontinence in an environment of cerebral hypoxia, with women being the most prone, because the female urethra is shorter than the male's and it is harder to hold urine." Uesugi Muneyuki said in a deep voice: "Therefore, Ms. Hironaka must have been murdered shortly after she went missing, which also matches the rate of decomposition of the corpse; otherwise, if she had the opportunity, she definitely would have gone to the restroom."

"So, to summarize these suspicious points, the killer is highly likely to be a staff member within the TV station who is familiar with the environment and the locations of the surveillance cameras, and they should have known Ms. Hironaka. Furthermore, the time of the crime was Friday night, no later than twelve o'clock on Friday night." Uesugi Muneyuki then extended a third finger: "The above is the confirmed information. Police Inspector Megure, please first proceed to eliminate suspects according to these clues."

"I still need a little more time to look at the rest."

See that? This is what you call professional.

Police Inspector Megure nodded frantically while Uesugi Muneyuki was speaking, and the surrounding detectives were even more filled with admiration.

This kid performed an Autopsy in five minutes, which was infinitely more reliable than those guys from the Forensics Division who spent several hours and still couldn't say why.

With just a few sentences, he immediately helped the police greatly narrow down the scope of suspects, and all of his judgments were well-founded and convincing.

It's just that on Fuji TV's side...

"President, the ratings are dropping rapidly!" A staff member grabbed President Kameyama and said secretly.

"What? Why? Haven't the people already been found?" President Kameyama looked puzzled: "When were the ratings highest before?"

"It was when the camera was aimed at Uesugi and Bai Chuan, while they were chatting!" The staff member said in a low voice: "The ratings at that time had already reached 38%. As a result, after Bai Chuan-san left the Live Broadcast, the ratings began to fall back, and now they have dropped to 35%!"

"How can this be?!" President Kameyama was so angry he slapped his thigh.

The incident had already broken out, people had already died, and his position as president was already teetering; his only hope was to host this Live Broadcast well and prove his ability to handle the crisis to the Board of Directors, the shareholders, Dentsu, and all departments of the TV station!

Thinking of this, President Kameyama decided to go all out.

At this time, Bai Chuan Mai had already left the restricted area under the escort of the Metropolitan Police Department. A strange, indescribable feeling radiated from her bright and beautiful face, and her pair of bright, beautiful eyes remained fixed on Uesugi Muneyuki, who was talking eloquently in front of the camera.

In a realm invisible to everyone, a Dharma Image was unfolding behind this national actress.

The ancient god, Konohanasakuya-hime.

Interesting.

Bai Chuan Mai stared at Uesugi Muneyuki.

This is probably a newcomer, and... quite righteous. No wonder he is so good at performing an Autopsy; it turns out he is also...

Caught you!

Actually, if you had just ruled it a suicide, it would have been over. Fuji TV would approve, the Metropolitan Police Department would approve, and it would barely be justifiable in terms of both reason and emotion.

Bai Chuan Mai laughed to herself: But if you had handled it that way, you would be finished! Death penalty, it would be the death penalty!

For now, though, it is still worth investigating further. After all, it is not easy to find a peer with moral standards. This newbie fits the standards she envisioned, and she has a great advantage herself.

She had absolute confidence in her beauty, and she knew from a slight contact that this man also admired her.

The national actress reached out and gently pressed her lower abdomen, a streak of crimson spreading up her neck to her face, beautiful beyond compare.

Just at this moment, President Kameyama squeezed through the crowd and arrived in front of Bai Chuan Mai.

"President?"

"Bai Chuan-san, I beg of you!" President Kameyama bowed deeply at ninety degrees, pushing his old face forward: "Could I ask you to serve as the temporary host for our station's Live Broadcast?"

"Eh?" The national actress was stunned for a moment: "Is that okay? But my assistant and Agent are still..."

"This is a request for the life of me, Kameyama Chihiro. Please." President Kameyama looked full of entreaty, his hands pressed together: "Our station will take responsibility for communicating with your Agent and assistant. Bai Chuan-san, for the sake of our station, please give me a hand!"

"Well... alright then!" The radiant Mai-senpai dragged out a long note with great interest, pretending to be in a difficult position, until President Kameyama showed a look of despair, then she quietly agreed: "Since it is the request of the President, then just this once, and never again!"

"I am deeply grateful!" President Kameyama was overjoyed. He immediately took Bai Chuan Mai and squeezed through the crowd: "Make way, everyone, make way!"

"Reimi, you come down, and let Bai Chuan-san go up to serve as the host."

Just like that, Fuji TV's own female anchor was replaced, and Bai Chuan Mai went up to serve as the temporary female anchor.

The effect was quite explosive.

"President, the ratings are starting to rise rapidly! They have already surpassed this year's Kohaku Uta Gassen and are currently rapidly approaching 45%!"

"President Takashima of Dentsu called to say we did a great job!"

"Great!" Good news came one after another. The senior management of Fuji TV celebrated, everyone was beaming with joy, and it was practically a scene of righteous officials filling the court and a sign of restoration.

"This battle, our station has won!"

Total victory!

The third update, the next update will be in a few hours.

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(End of this chapter)