National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1096 - 1027: Persistently Stupid

"Welcome, welcome. You’ve worked hard."

Shen Yaowei wore his cleanest police uniform, a fresh smile on his face, and extended his clean, pale hand to greet the colleagues stepping off the bus.

"Old Shen, you really stink!" Miao Liyuan, the colleague in the Cold Case Squad who knew Shen Yaowei best, slapped away his paw and then gave his shoulder a hard smack. He said earnestly, "Thanks to you, we can stink together for the next few days."

"It’s my fault for discovering the clue." Shen Yaowei maintained his fresh smile. Due to his discovery, half the members of the Cold Case Squad had been sent to the garbage dump. Taking a beating wasn’t entirely unreasonable in this situation.

"You dug for two days without finding anything, that’s the reason we had to come over." Miao Liyuan sighed and said, "I used to be good at watching footage and locating surveillance."

Shen Yaowei chuckled, threw him a mocking look, and said, "If I were you, in the future, I would say this: I joined Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team to learn surveillance analysis and data interpretation from God Jiang."

"Saying it like that... "

"That’s the secret to keeping your spot; I don’t tell this to just anyone." Shen Yaowei smiled smugly and, still smelling foul despite being scrubbed clean, patted Miao Liyuan’s shoulder.

Miao Liyuan eyed Shen Yaowei skeptically. He wasn’t entirely sure whether Shen Yaowei was right, but disproving it was just as hard.

The key point was that Shen Yaowei was undeniably the rising star of Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team.

Everyone had been reverse-loaned from Changyang City to work on the team. Over time, Shen Yaowei had made the most progress. Although his background was already the strongest among them, his accomplishments were evident to everyone.

In summary, Shen Yaowei’s promotion didn’t arouse jealousy in Miao Liyuan!

If this were a strategy, Shen Yaowei might really be onto something.

"Sigh..." Meng Chengbiao stepped off the bus just in time to overhear the latter part of their conversation, and he couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.

Shen Yaowei felt a bit awkward and coughed twice before saying, "Team Meng, do you feel the morals of society are declining? There’s no choice; everything nowadays is just endless competition."

Meng Chengbiao waved his hand in front of his nose and said, "I wouldn’t say society’s morals are declining. Honestly, your generation is much more sincere than ours used to be."

"Not really, not really," Shen Yaowei laughed heartily, "It’s just that nowadays, sincerity is considered the ultimate weapon."

"A weapon for self-destruction?" Meng Chengbiao seemed to mishear, then nodded slowly, "That actually makes some sense."

...

Wave after wave of police officers were transported over. After briefly acclimating to the foul stench, they began their long-term work in the garbage-ridden environment.

Jiang Yuan and his team still acknowledged Shen Yaowei’s judgment.

That Prada women’s blouse was not only delicate—it couldn’t have withstood the transfer and degradation within the garbage pile—it was also a new seasonal release. Even if the original owner had embraced a minimalist lifestyle, it seemed inconceivable they’d discard such a garment.

Moreover, the blouse had been dumped alongside multiple missing children’s clothes in the same pit—a vertical garbage hole bearing clear signs of excavation.

In short, it was highly probable the garment had been discarded by a suspect.

However, regarding this Prada blouse, all suspects were keeping silent.

For Jiang Yuan and his team, this silence was both understandable and frustrating. While the abduction and theft of five children as part of a gang operation was serious, the Wu Yang gang members faced relatively low chances of receiving death penalties.

Add a murder case to this? The risk of capital punishment would skyrocket.

Thus, refusing to confess served their best interests.

Jiang Yuan could only deploy more personnel for further searching.

This also highlighted the extent of his authority.

Had it been anyone else, even if new clues were found, they would merely have instructed the original team to continue digging through the garbage. Only if something substantial was unearthed could they proceed with the case.

Without immediate findings, technically, a single piece of clothing wouldn’t justify filing a case.

But with Jiang Yuan’s status today and the specialized task force at his disposal, he had the resources and necessity to expand the search team directly. Elsewhere, such a large-scale operation in a landfill would place immense pressure on leaders.

Criticism against bosses exists in every profession, each with its own style.

A criminal investigation team leader from Yuwan City took over onsite command, assigning areas for everyone before silently getting back to work.

With officers from other regions joining the search, local officials could hardly avoid showing up.

After over a day of additional searching...

Finally, a human femur was unearthed from beneath the garbage.

From then on, more bones started appearing on Jiang Yuan’s desk.

"Female. Twenty-one years old, 172 centimeters tall. Judging from the skull, she seemed reasonably good-looking. Evidence of cosmetic surgery—chin enhancement, a major procedure. Given her age and height, she should be traceable."

Jiang Yuan had initially planned to use other bones for forensic anthropology but felt reassured upon seeing the skull.

While not exceedingly rare, it’s uncommon for someone at the age of twenty-one to have undergone multiple cosmetic surgeries. Coupled with her relatively unusual height, finding her identity locally wouldn’t be difficult.

His junior, Miao Ruixiang, had been sent in as reinforcements from Ningtai County. As he registered the details, he commented, "If this woman was good-looking, wouldn’t it have been more profitable to sell her than kill her?"

"Controlling criminals is a skill in itself," Liu Jinghui, standing nearby, chimed in casually. "By the time Wu Yang’s gang started abducting children, they had just barely formed as a cohesive operation. Before that, among the seven members, it wasn’t even clear who listened to whom. This woman might not be a pure victim—she could have been someone’s mistress in the gang or even a shared mistress among multiple members."

Miao Ruixiang, a fresh recruit this year, was deeply shocked. "A mistress can be shared by multiple people?"

Liu Jinghui eyed Miao Ruixiang teasingly. "When you’ve ended up in a garbage dump, you have to save where you should, and spend recklessly where you want."

"Would the woman agree to it?"

"If there were no physical or psychological consequences, of course she’d agree. It’s just like how a man might date multiple women," Liu Jinghui remarked, before smirking and clarifying to Miao Ruixiang, "You’re still young and don’t understand. Once you’re my age, you’ll realize—when a woman dates multiple men, it’s pragmatic; when a man dates multiple women, it’s purely for flexing."

Miao Ruixiang nodded thoughtfully. "So, this woman—"

"A female victim!" Liu Jinghui corrected him.

"A female victim," Miao Ruixiang echoed. "So this female victim could be a member of the gang?"

"Impossible!" Liu Jinghui’s abrupt retort left Miao Ruixiang baffled.

Miao Ruixiang hesitated, "But earlier, you said—"

"Earlier I mentioned a possibility. You’re just too curious about the topic." Liu Jinghui shook his head and explained, "Women wearing luxury clothing and boasting attractive appearances wouldn’t willingly associate themselves with garbage-dwelling thugs. These suspects don’t have any significant wealth, so it’s highly likely the woman was coerced, or possibly even relocated post-mortem."

Liu Jinghui glanced toward Jiang Yuan. "However, I believe the main question now is whether we reveal the details of this body to the Wu Yang gang members. At least until we locate those five abducted children, we might need to give them some level of hope, even if only partially."

"Is obtaining a confession really that difficult?" Jiang Yuan knew locating the children hinged on extracting a verbal confession. The seven gang members had stubbornly refused to reveal the children’s whereabouts, complicating the investigation.

Liu Jinghui simply smiled. "It’s a matter of endurance. You’ve grown accustomed to breakthroughs via technology. In cases like this, the suspects often resist subconsciously and refuse to confront their capture and sentencing. Give them a few more days, and they’ll confess faster than anyone."

"It’s been several days already."

"True, but this group may be less intelligent, yet they’re remarkably resilient."