He put down the folder in his hand, his tone turning gentle: "Moreover, the uniqueness of this case makes it perfect as a research subject."

"Isn't it the duty of us forensic experts to speak for the dead and clear the way for the truth?"

Seeing Wan still wanting to say something, Zhang Yean, who had been silent, put down the microscope sample in her hand.

She softly said, "Senior brother, we should trust Mr. Jiang's professional judgment."

She turned to look at Jiang An, her eyes shimmering with trust: "Although you are the youngest deputy captain in our team, his achievements in forensic pathology are well recognized."

"Wasn't it the new testing methods that pinpointed the suspect in last year's serial murder case?"

Jiang An embarrassedly rubbed his nose and smiled, "Senior sister, you're too kind."

Seeing this, Wan also relaxed and patted Jiang An on the shoulder: "Well, since you all say so."

"How do we cooperate? Equipment adjustment or sample collection?"

......

Meanwhile, in the village committee office, Captain Wang Yang was carefully flipping through the thick personnel registration book.

The sunlight through the window cast mottled shadows on the yellowing pages.

He pointed to two names and said to Li Changhe in front of him: "We need to find Wang Ming and Qin Yong to understand some situations."

Upon hearing this, Li Changhe's face changed drastically, and the teacup in his hand was placed on the table with a clang.

"Them? What did they do?"

Li Changhe's voice unconsciously rose by eight degrees.

Wang Yang closed the registration book and said calmly, "Just a routine inquiry."

"They do long-distance transport, they might know some clues."

"What clues?"

Li Changhe pursued.

"The details of the case are inconvenient to disclose."

Wang Yang stood up and straightened his police uniform, "Please just take us to find them."

20 minutes later, in a humble transportation company office.

Wang Min said, "Officer, I'm just an honest businessman, never doing anything illegal!"

Wang Yang gestured for him to sit down: "Don't be nervous, it's just assisting in an investigation."

"If you are innocent, we will never wrong a good person."

Li Changhe interjected beside him: "Old Wang, cooperating with the police is every citizen's duty."

"Our village has always abided by the law, what are you afraid of?"

Saying this, he handed Wang Min a cigarette.

Wang Min took the cigarette, took a deep breath to calm his nerves: "Alright, alright."

"However, I have to transport fruit to Qingzhou tomorrow, business has been tough the past two years, I'm counting on this job..."

"Don't worry, it won't take long."

Wang Yang took out a notebook, "You just need to honestly answer a few questions."

Meanwhile, at the foot of the mountain, Chen Biao and Wu Bin were inspecting along the rugged mountain road.

The setting sun stretched their shadows long, the surrounding shrubbery rustling in the evening wind.

Chen Biao suddenly stopped, pointing to a dense forest in the distance.

"Do you think Jiang's theory of the traffic accident is reliable?"

Wu Bin wiped the sweat off his forehead, pondering: "Mr. Jiang is a criminal investigation expert and a forensic scholar by training, his judgment must have a basis."

"However..."

He squatted down, parted a clump of weeds, "In such a desolate place, other criminal possibilities cannot be ruled out either."

"In a case I handled, the perpetrator specifically lured young women to remote spots to commit assault..."

Chen Biao's eyes sharpened: "Are you suggesting it might be serial crimes?"

He surveyed the surroundings, the twilight forest appearing particularly sinister.

"If it truly is so, the body dump sites might not be limited to just this one."

"Exactly!"

Wu Bin suddenly stood up, "We should contact the local police station and check if there have been similar missing person cases in recent years!"

Chen Biao immediately took out his phone, dialing while speaking: "If we can consolidate the cases, the chances of solving them will be much higher."

After the call connected, he quickly explained the situation: "Hello, is this Qingshan Town police station? This is Chen Biao from the Chuan City criminal investigation team..."

An hour later, Zhou Yong and two forensic assistants cautiously carried precision instruments into the laboratory.

Zhou Yong wiped the sweat from his forehead, pointing at the silver-gray high-powered microscope.

"Mr. Jiang, we specially brought in this latest imported microscope from the evidence department, is this magnification suitable? They say this equipment was only supplied last month."

Jiang An bent down to carefully inspect the microscope's nameplate parameters, a hint of excitement flashing in his eyes: "5000x magnification? This completely exceeds my expectations."

"Frankly, this microscope's performance is even more advanced than our main equipment in the criminal investigation laboratory."

He gently turned the objective converter, continuing to praise: "What's rare is that it's equipped with a high-definition digital imaging system, allowing direct transfer of microscopic images to the computer, not only making observation clearer but also facilitating the preservation of key evidence images."

"That's good."

Zhou Yong showed a relieved smile, "You go ahead and use it, I'll take Zhang and Li to the meteorological bureau to retrieve weather data from the past five years."

"Considering the case's peculiarity, I've asked them to prepare more detailed data."

Jiang An nodded solemnly: "Thank you for your hard work."

"These basic data are crucial for determining the time of death."

Soon, the three of them drove to the city meteorological bureau, showing their police ID and introduction letter.

At the reception, a young staff member with glasses showed a puzzled expression.

He pushed his glasses up his nose and hesitantly asked: "Forgive my curiosity, does criminal investigation also require such detailed meteorological data?"

Zhou Yong smiled slightly, patiently explaining: "You might not know that in forensic work, meteorological data serves as important reference in inferring time of death."

"Factors like temperature, humidity, and precipitation all affect the rate of body decomposition."

He paused, lowering his voice: "This case is special, we need to establish an accurate climate model."

The young staff member suddenly understood, but then showed an expression of disbelief.

"Truly eye-opening! I always thought criminal investigations were about inspecting the scene and tracing clues, I didn't expect it to involve studying meteorology."

As he spoke, he quickly operated on the computer,

"I'll retrieve the data for you now, but it might take some time to organize it."

Half an hour later, the staff came over holding a thick stack of bound documents.

"This is the complete observation record of the past five years, including daily temperature, humidity, wind speed, precipitation, and more than twenty other indicators."

"We can only provide a paper version because the data volume is too large, totaling 728 pages."

Zhou Yong took the heavy documents, involuntarily drawing a breath: "So much?"

"This is already the most simplified version."

The staff explained, "We deleted all research data unrelated to the case, leaving only the basic observation records."

"If more detailed data is needed, there are hourly meteorological records in the system..."

"No need, this is already sufficient."

Zhou Yong quickly gestured no, then solemnly said: "Thank you very much for your cooperation."

"These materials will greatly assist in solving the case, we will specially note the meteorological bureau's support when concluding the case."

Leaving the meteorological bureau, the two assistants looked at the thick documents in their hands with pained expressions.

The young Zhang couldn't help but say: "Mr. Zhou, with so much data, just browsing through it thoroughly will take several days."

Zhou Yong pondered for a moment, patting both on the shoulder.

"Don't worry just yet."

"Once we get back, we'll discuss with Mr. Jiang to see if we can come up with a data screening plan."

"Perhaps we can focus on specific seasons first, or build an electronic database for quick searches."

He checked his watch, "Let's go, make the most of our time to head back."

Upon returning to the police bureau, they coincidentally encountered Wang Yang bringing two suspects down from a police car.

Zhou Yong quickly advanced: "Captain Wang, have you locked down the suspects so quickly?"

Wang Yang nodded, signaling the officers to take the two handcuffed men to the interrogation room.

"These two are long-distance transport drivers."

"Since you're back, join us for the interrogation."

While speaking, he noticed the documents in the assistant's hands, curiously asking: "What's this?"

"Such a thick stack?"

"These are the meteorological materials Mr. Jiang requested."

Zhou Yong explained, then turned to the two assistants, "You two take the documents to the laboratory first."

"I'll head to the interrogation room with Captain Wang."