National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1080 - 1011: Sleepless Tonight

"The victim is male. 38 years old. Height 170 cm, weight approximately between 180 to 220 pounds..."

"No fingerprint or DNA records, no implanted medical devices in the body..."

Jiang Yuan stood in the autopsy room, his tone relatively relaxed.

In this room, forensic doctors held a certain degree of authority.

First, he reported some known information to the leaders present, giving them a topic for quiet discussion, and then Jiang Yuan began his routine work.

After examining the head of the corpse, Jiang Yuan had someone fetch a stand, carefully placed the head on it, and then set it directly at the front of the autopsy table.

On the autopsy table lay the corpse’s two arms, two legs, and torso. The head was elevated about a foot and a half, rotting and bloated, its ruptured, swollen eyes gazing blankly, with an unsettling calm.

Jiang Yuan dissected the corpse for a while, then looked up at the head.

He examined the head, then continued to work on the body.

With a Level 6 forensic sketching skill, given sufficient time, he could roughly sketch the victim’s appearance within a matter of minutes.

However, Jiang Yuan wasn’t in a rush. This head was not easy to sketch—it carried three layers of DEBUFFs. The first layer was deliberate disfigurement: the smashed nose bridge and brow bone, caved-in cheekbones, missing lips and teeth, all of which added difficulty. The second layer was decomposition over time, and the third layer was swelling and dissolution caused by drowning.

To Jiang Yuan, these three layers of DEBUFFs each had solutions. For instance, the smashed nose bridge could be measured for height and width. Restoring the brow and cheekbones on paper was comparatively easier. As for the teeth and lips, forensic methods were simpler than dental reconstruction techniques.

As for decomposition and drowning—those were traditional problems frequently encountered by forensic doctors, with endless solutions available depending on preference and expertise.

Still, combining all three DEBUFFs resulted in significant challenges. It was akin to encountering simultaneous physical traits like 36D bust, A4 waist, and supermodel legs—hardly trivial.

Jiang Yuan dissected while pondering how to proceed with the forensic sketch later on.

Additionally, with so many leaders from Qingshi City’s Criminal Police Brigade watching him draw, it felt a bit unbecoming. While the sketching might aid the investigation, the autopsy held its importance as well.

Of course, it was also possible that neither would.

"The cause of death appears to be a throat slashing," he said.

"After the victim’s throat was cut, he suffered massive blood loss, his trachea was severed, and thus couldn’t cry for help. He bled out quickly and died."

"There are no defensive wounds on the hands or feet. A sweep through the fingernails revealed traces of blood, likely the murderer’s own—it seems the perpetrator might have pressed their neck against their own during the act."

The autopsy was nearly complete. Jiang Yuan didn’t use overly technical forensic terminology but instead presented the cause of death as though in a case discussion.

He had performed most of the forensic examination the night before and had revisited the corpse, drawing conclusions based on wounds on the torso and those beneath the head.

The initially sleepy Fang Gang and others immediately perked up: "Throat slashing? Like this?"

Fang Gang grabbed an officer and demonstrated a professional posture—a rear choke followed by a single-handed throat slash—and asked, "Military background? Why wasn’t the corpse dismembered?"

"Based on the wounds, it was likely a frontal throat slash. The cut was deep, but the slide distance was very short," Jiang Yuan placed the head back on the autopsy table alongside the torso, and used a knife to gesture, "Assuming the assailant was right-handed, they would have held a sharp, heavy blade, applied significant downward pressure, deeply slashing the victim’s throat, but the movement only extended less than ten centimeters before stopping."

"Could it have been an accident during a fight?" Mu Zhiyang considered the possibility and immediately voiced it. In an analysis-oriented setting, anyone’s ideas were welcome, which was common practice in most criminal investigation units.

Strict adherence to procedure was reserved for seated meetings at long tables or large conference room discussions—the kind of scenes frequently depicted in television dramas.

Jiang Yuan refuted the idea: "No, accidental cuts would result in longer slash wounds due to quick movements. There wouldn’t be heavy downward pressure involved."

Jiang Yuan emphasized the point about heavy pressure.

Another Criminal Police Brigade captain from Qingshi City furrowed his brows, "Was it slashed from top to bottom?"

Jiang Yuan nodded, "While it’s technically possible to inflict such a wound face-to-face, the near-vertical orientation of the injury suggests it was made from above downward."

"So, the victim was lying down with their neck exposed and got slashed? And there are no defensive injuries on the body," Fang Gang said, a vivid image forming in his mind. His voice involuntarily dropped slightly, "Was their throat slit while they were asleep?"

Jiang Yuan nodded solemnly, "Quite likely."

"Whoa... That’s brutal. The dismemberment was carried out with kitchen knives—could it have been someone close to them?"

"Perhaps." Jiang Yuan didn’t dwell on speculative thinking. To him, such conjecture was meaningless at this point—solving the victim’s identification would likely provide a breakthrough.

The others realized this too and instantly became more alert.

After all, the forensic doctor conducting the analysis was none other than Ningtai Jiang Yuan.

"It’s over to you now." Jiang Yuan then abruptly set down his instruments, removed his gloves, and... amidst the bewildered faces of those present...

Picked up a drawing pencil.

Forensic sketching Level 6... The strokes began effortlessly.

The image of a middle-aged man with an intact nose, unbroken brow bone, and a full set of lips and teeth emerged gradually.

The man had a round face, a preserved hairline, a flat nose, and small eyes, giving off a somewhat dispirited appearance. Of course, a sketch based on a corpse’s face would naturally lack vitality.

"This can serve as a reference." Jiang Yuan used his police system app to search for the portrait but found no matches.

Similarly, not finding a match wasn’t unusual—it could indicate the victim’s real appearance differed slightly from the sketch, given it was derived from a corpse that had been disfigured and decomposed. Another possibility was that the victim’s facial data in the system hadn’t been updated.

Even so, having an image was better than none, especially after narrowing down the search area, as it could speed up visitation and screening efforts.

"Send the gathered knife fragments and blade shards for testing quickly—see if we can trace their origin."

"Once the diatom report comes out, see if we can pinpoint the entry water location."

"Search for the origin of the suitcase and clothes again."

"Continue filtering the missing persons’ data."

Jiang Yuan’s suggestions all fell within common investigative protocols.

Of course, what’s common depends on comparison. For most task forces, even achieving these preconditions of normalcy would be difficult—their occurrence was about as rare as so-called ’ordinary men.’

Fang Gang responded enthusiastically. Seeing signs of progress raised hopes that the case might move forward at a faster pace. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

A special task force is like a film crew, where every additional day adds expense. Especially under the current work mode, it functioned like a production having moved into active shooting—burning budget every second.

Needless to say, tonight, many people wouldn’t be getting any sleep.