National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1109 - 1040: The Three No’s

After confirming the identity and residential address of the victim, Kou Yu, Jiang Yuan immediately contacted Yu Wenshu and asked him to send someone to investigate.

Wang Chuanxing continued working on data mining, and as he mined away, he began to sigh heavily.

"What’s wrong?" Huang Qiangmin glanced at him.

Wang Chuanxing shook his head: "Looking at other people’s lives, I suddenly feel my life is miserably pathetic."

"Is this person living it up?" Mu Zhiyang grew curious.

Wang Chuanxing replied with a simple "Mmhmm."

"How good can it be? How extravagant are we talking?" Mu Zhiyang pressed further.

"Let me think how to put it..." Wang Chuanxing clicked his mouse a few times and said, "Last month, he bought two boxes of condoms, 100 pieces each. The month before last, it was one large box, along with four smaller boxes of 25 pieces each. The month before that, mmhmm, two large boxes, two small boxes, and two tubs of lubricant..."

"Wait... Are we really talking about this topic?" Mu Zhiyang was dumbfounded.

Wang Chuanxing tilted the screen toward them and pointed at the product names displayed: "All of them are extra-large size."

"Could he even use that many?" Mu Zhiyang tried but couldn’t figure it out.

"Depends on the gameplay," Liu Wenkai’s voice hummed from behind.

"Whoa... Captain Liu, when did you get here?" Wang Chuanxing asked in surprise.

Liu Wenkai responded, "I came in right when you were debating how much fun he could be having."

"What kind of gameplay?" Mu Zhiyang instinctively felt the scars from past bullet wounds ache faintly.

Liu Wenkai shook his head and offered: "Setting aside the ones who purely use 200 pieces for show, just hypothetically—hypothetically—you might have a guy hooking up with two women at once. If the two women happen to have high demands, maybe a little obsessive-compulsive disorder or germophobia, then during each switch, he’d need to change a condom. Do the math, how many would he go through in one session?"

"Ten? Even then, 200 condoms would take twenty sessions to burn through." Mu Zhiyang was lost in the math.

Liu Wenkai shot him a sidelong glance: "Well, in that case, I’d say life really is miserable."

Wang Chuanxing’s eyes widened: "Wait, germophobes doing a threesome? Isn’t that contradictory?"

"Germophobia, like OCD or depression, is a mental illness; it’s not something they chose willingly. But someone wanting a threesome—what contradiction is there in that?" Liu Wenkai countered.

For a moment, Wang Chuanxing had no answer, and the room fell into a silence as lifeless as a corpse.

*Clack.*

Jiang Yuan picked up the decapitated body’s spinous process and toyed with it, studying it.

The spinous process is the seventh cervical vertebra, the last segment of the cervical spine, and it moves along with the neck’s rotation.

On the dissection table, only this seventh cervical vertebra remained; the preceding C1 to C6 had likely been severed along with the head.

Judging from the scratches on the surface of the spinous process, the killer’s knife skills appeared quite refined. The cuts avoided hard bones, suggesting precision in execution.

"Focus on the corpse," Wang Chuanxing hurriedly redirected, fearing he’d descend deeper into existential musings.

Liu Wenkai let out a snort: "We could call Shen Yaowei over. He’s well-versed in public order. A man who goes through 200 condoms in a month is likely a menace to social stability."

Wang Chuanxing turned to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan nodded and resumed examining the bones.

The others didn’t give it much thought. With two murder cases, the most valuable evidence at this point was the skeletal remains.

A short while later, Shen Yaowei arrived, a hint of excitement coloring his entry to discuss matters with Liu Wenkai.

Wang Chuanxing quickly joined in: "We’ve gathered surveillance footage and other information from the crime scenes, but given that the cases happened over ten days ago, even if the video team were to work overtime, we haven’t got anything concrete yet."

Liu Wenkai paused his conversation with Shen Yaowei and said, "Kou Yu’s fingers were cut off, and yet his body is nowhere to be found. The spot where the fingers were discarded also raises questions. The killer’s crime pattern is puzzling."

Liu Wenkai, who was previously the squad leader of Ningtai County Criminal Police Brigade Second Squadron, specialized in major cases and had solved numerous homicides; his observations were sharp and clear.

"Indeed. Regardless of how the body was disposed of, you’d assume the fingers would’ve been dealt with along with the rest."

"Perhaps the killer intentionally severed the fingers and discarded them separately. That way, if the body was discovered, identifying the victim would be more challenging," Liu Wenkai speculated. "Or maybe the body was dealt with in a simple manner and, due to certain reasons, we just haven’t found it yet. For example... the killer might’ve left the corpse at the crime scene but discarded the fingers randomly in a residential greenbelt."

Though Liu Wenkai’s theory wasn’t flawed, it seemed too far-fetched. The younger officers hesitated to voice their opinions.

Huang Qiangmin broke the silence: "You just flipped the killer’s profile from clever to dimwitted."

"More killers tend to be dull-witted," Liu Wenkai summarized.

"If the killer’s a dimwit, how do you investigate?"

"If we assume the killer’s a dimwit, I’d hypothesize that the crime scene is near the finger discard location. Chances are, the killer committed the act there, cut off the fingers, and threw them away casually." Liu Wenkai considered for a moment and added, "We could start by having police dogs sniff around the residential area where the fingers were discarded to see if they lead us to the body."

Huang Qiangmin nodded slowly: "It’s worth a shot."

Regardless of how thoughtful the plan sounds, its practicality is undeniable. This was the essence of small-town criminal work—whether it worked or not was secondary; the approach was just to act and resolve it.

In many cases, crimes weren’t so much solved as they were stumbled upon.

In this small county, with a population in the tens of thousands, enough detectives pounding the pavement would always lead to someone lucking into a revelation.

At that moment, Jiang Yuan cleared his throat and said, "I support the idea of using police dogs to search the residential area where the fingers were discarded. However, I don’t think the killer is as dimwitted as that."

"You’ve found something?" Liu Wenkai might not solve cases at a glance, but he was quick to spot his colleagues’ insights.

Jiang Yuan nodded and replied, "The headless corpse and the Five Finger Corpse are very likely the work of the same person. The way the bones were cut, the force used, and the tools employed show considerable similarity, suggesting the same individual used the same kind of blade."

Liu Wenkai inhaled sharply: "The bone you’re holding is from the headless corpse, yet we’re discussing the case of the Five Finger Corpse... Are you sure? Based solely on this faint trace on the bone?"

"It’s almost certain. The blade the killer used was thin. During the cuts, the killer would start by testing on one side, gradually exerting pressure as they dragged the knife. The second slice would be when they applied force. So, on the severed bones, you’ll clearly see traces of two cutting attempts," Jiang Yuan explained concisely. Call it Level 6 Tool Trace Identification.

Once again, the dissection room fell into silence as heavy as a corpse.

"Two consecutive murders. Decapitation makes sense, perhaps, but what’s the psychology behind cutting off the fingers and tossing them into a residential area?" Liu Wenkai broke the silence, circling back to basics.

*Buzz buzz...*

Having stood nearby the entire time, Wang Lan excused herself, hurriedly answering her phone.

A moment later, Wang Lan hung up and turned to the group, her expression grave: "Another body has been found by the riverside in the Qianjin District—headless, fingerless, and with no toes either."