In the car, Zhang Hui began to arrange the next steps for the action team.

"First, we can’t let our guard down on Zhao Shengli, investigate his interpersonal relationships, see if he has any major conflicts of interest with anyone, and pay attention to any missing men among them."

"Second, find the hometown of that stonemason and check the specific situation."

While the action team was working at the Stone Carving Garden, there was also new progress at the Crime Scene Investigation office.

The corn detection results finally came back.

In the laboratory, four people gathered around a report.

"Haizhou City?"

Yang Sen frowned and spoke in confusion.

The results of the examination of the corn kernels from the seed company indicated that the corn inside the statue originated from the outskirts of Haizhou City.

"Whether the corn kernels were brought in by the deceased, or accidentally by the murderer, they all suggest that the crime scene or the deceased, and the murderer might be from the vicinity of Haizhou City?"

Old Bai had checked some information about corn online yesterday.

Don’t underestimate this small corn kernel.

The composition of corn from each region, including starch content, protein content, and moisture content, varies.

Especially the micronutrient content, which can accurately determine the origin of the corn.

The conclusion given by the seed company was that the corn came from the outskirts of Haizhou City because the corn contained a higher amount of the micronutrient zinc, and the proportion of various micronutrients was quite similar to that of the soil around Haizhou City.

Lu Chuan focused on another point: "Moisture, the moisture content of the corn is very low, it has been artificially dried."

Normally, the moisture content of corn is between 20% and 30%.

But during the actual harvesting process, Lu Chuan specifically asked a classmate who lived in the countryside before, yesterday.

Harvested corn generally has a moisture content between 30% and 40%, as farmers would say, from thirty to forty parts water.

Corn with such moisture content easily becomes moldy and is not suitable for long-term storage.

In the North, only after a long freeze in winter can corn be relatively easy to store.

Therefore, the selling price of corn is related to its moisture content, with lower moisture leading to higher selling prices and higher moisture leading to lower prices.

And if corn is to achieve long-term safe storage, its moisture content must be reduced to at least below 15%.

The moisture content of the corn kernel found inside the statue was 10%, which must have been dried artificially.

Corn is very difficult to reach this moisture content naturally.

Yang Sen had discussed this issue with Lu Chuan yesterday: "Lu, do you mean to focus on large corn dryers in the area?"

Using a large corn dryer or drying tower to achieve such a result is more feasible.

But Lu Chuan shook his head.

"Before seeing the corn kernel’s test report, I thought using a corn dryer or drying tower to dry the body, thereby forming a mummy, was quite possible."

"But..." Lu Chuan picked up the test report, "I checked the data yesterday, and also asked some classmates who are still farming in the countryside. Regarding corn drying, in drying towers, as long as it reaches between 14 and 15 parts water, that’s the standard for safe storage."

"But dehydrating this corn to only 10% moisture content..."

"Reducing the moisture content from 30%, 40% to 15% is relatively easy, but to reach 14% requires more energy, and a moisture content of only 13% is required only by large, high-standard grain depots."

"A 10% moisture content... is impossible to achieve in a large corn drying tower."

Lu Chuan expressed this as impossible not in an absolute sense, but a relative one.

A drying tower could indeed reduce corn’s moisture content to 10%, but the energy consumption would be enormous, nor is it necessary, and the lower the moisture content, the harder the drying process to control.

So from an economical standpoint, corn in a large drying tower could not possibly reach a 10% moisture content.

Lu Chuan explained, and Liu Guodong and the other two immediately understood Lu Chuan’s point.

"You mean... ruling out large drying equipment?"

Lu Chuan nodded somewhat helplessly.

He checked online yesterday that while there are many grain depots and drying equipment around Haizhou City, they are still limited in number.

If it could be determined that the body came out of such large drying equipment, then an investigation could likely uncover some clues.

But now this lead has broken off.

Old Bai frowned: "But if it’s not large drying equipment, how could the body have been dried to such an extent?"

An oven surely wouldn’t work.

If you say the body was disassembled, cut into pieces, and dried, then an oven might work.

But the body inside the statue was whole.

This time, it seems there isn’t much work that the Crime Scene Investigation side can do.

The DNA information and fingerprint testing on the body were both conducted, but could not identify the deceased. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Without identifying the deceased, it’s impossible to find the murderer by investigating the deceased’s interpersonal relationships.

The fact that the murderer could hide the body inside the statue suggests the crime wasn’t committed out of passion.

Or it’s unlikely that the victim was killed for no reason, and the murderer likely knew the victim.

The reason is easy to infer; the act of hiding the body reveals this point.

In the vast majority of murder cases, if the murderer knew the deceased, they would most likely hide the body or destroy the evidence.

The purpose is to hide the relationship between the murderer and the deceased.

In most crimes of passion, hiding the body is usually not done.

Because if the murderer didn’t know the deceased, the police could not possibly find them by investigating the deceased’s interpersonal relationships.

In such cases, the murderer might even want the police to follow the deceased’s relationships to trace them.

After thinking for a long time, the group still had no leads.

Yang Sen slapped his thigh: "Alright, we’re not on the front line, we’ve done all we can do, let the action team worry about the rest."

"Come, come, come, yesterday my classmate mailed me a set of teaware, let’s brew some tea!"

Saying this, he patted Lu Chuan’s shoulder, indicating to join him in making tea.

Lu Chuan let out a long breath.

Actually, Old Yang was correct, after all, we are technical detectives, involved in onsite investigations, and once the onsite work is completed, our job is essentially done.

Whether a case can be solved doesn’t depend on one or two people or one or two teams.

The action team, forensic doctors, crime scene investigators, logistics, and even other police units need to be involved.

Dozens to hundreds, even hundreds of people coordinating are necessary to solve a case.

We might be pondering here while the action team over there already has clues.

Lu Chuan had gotten used to being part of previous cases, always hoping for some decisive lead from the Crime Scene Investigation side.

This time, it seems very unlikely.

"Stone teaware?"

Opening the package, Lu Chuan was slightly surprised to find the new teaware Old Yang mentioned was very exquisite stone teaware.

"Never seen anything like it, have you? It’s a novelty! Let’s try it!"