Xu Dayuan smiled.
Zhou Ning’s question cut to the heart of the matter; this comfortable feeling of collaboration couldn’t be provided by anyone else.
Especially after having a eting all morning, where everyone hemd and hawed for ages before making a statent and not being decisive at all, it was hard not to be pleased when he finally obtained this fragnted information and saw Zhou Ning’s reaction.
"You guessed right. The Xiaolong Mountain Han Dynasty Tomb Cluster in Xinghua City began excavation work three years ago. However, due to continuous heavy rain starting at the end of last May, the excavation work, being situated in a low-lying pit, had to be paused. The experts withdrew, and warning tapes were set up all around.
Because there was a risk of landslides, they only guarded the periter, and in late August, the archaeological team received a temporary task to assist in Quanshan District, where they found over a dozen looted pits. The only option was to carry out ergency excavations.
After the Spring Festival, or precisely on February 11th, the experts returned to the archaeological site at Xiaolong Mountain in Xinghua City. It was only during aerial photography that they discovered scattered skeletal fragnts all over the place. One piece even had two bloodstains on it, which led them to call the police. They hadn’t expected reporters to be present at the ti.
That’s about all the information we have. The forensic departnt at the city bureau is weak in bone identification, experts from the provincial office ca once and gave so opinions regarding bone identification, but Cui Haibin’s side has made no progress either, and the investigation into the case has hit a stalemate, with no clue to the victim’s identity. I’d like to hear your opinion."
Zhou Ning knew Xu Dayuan was clearly hoping he could use Dr. Lu’s resources to reinvestigate this case.
He looked through to the end, and every part of the skeleton was there in the picture, except the skull was missing. Zhou Ning also felt uncomfortable because the software was designed for reconstructing skulls; what was he to do without one?
"Xu Da, I understand what you an, wanting to try that software, but without the skull, the software is helpless too. Why don’t we focus on finding the skull?"
Xu Dayuan nodded and sighed again.
"That’s what I thought too. I asked about the search for the skull then. Several groups of people have gone to the scene, conducting almost a carpet-style search, but even when expanding the search in this fan-shaped area, the skull wasn’t found."
Mr. Zhao ca over, still looking confused.
"Let interject, what’s the deal with that Zhongtian News? Is it just a reporter blabbering nonsense? Does that really have a big impact?"
"The news was released by foreign dia on April 28th, not on the sa day, so we didn’t hear about it back then. But because of their haphazard reporting, mixing truth with falsehood, the provincial headquarters issued a direct order for the case to be solved within a month. With ti pressing and the task daunting, only by solving the case can we withstand the rumors."
Mr. Zhao had a realization, but these things were really out of control.
Zhou Ning stared at the distribution map of the skeletal remains. He looked it over once and found nothing; he could only feel that it was halfway up the hillside, on the edge of a small path with a valley below—a place like this wouldn’t allow for the remains to have been disposed of very far away.
After so thought, he raised his eyes to Xu Dayuan, who was expectantly looking at him. Zhou Ning found it hard to refuse at that mont.
"Why don’t we take a look at those skeletons upstairs first?"
Xu Dayuan gestured with his hand.
"Let’s go!"
The group stood up, with Mr. Zhao patting Mr. Sun on the shoulder.
"Buddy, are you in charge of the keys to the forensic teaching and research office upstairs?"
Mr. Sun nodded and took a bunch of keys out of the drawer.
"Mr. Cui was in charge of them. Since he left, and nobody took over, they’ve been kept in the second group’s office."
Mr. Zhao took the keys and looked at Zhou Ning.
"Should we let Mr. Pang know?"
Xu Dayuan waved his hand, indicating that Zhou Ning didn’t need to make a call.
"When I was going upstairs, I ran into Mr. Pang. He was in a hurry to attend a eting at the city bureau headquarters. I told him I was going to check the skeletons from the 2.21 case, and he said it’s fine to proceed directly with you, with no need to ask further. I think everyone in the forensic departnt is avoiding this 2.21 case like the plague."
Zhou Ning sighed. This response didn’t surprise him. If he were from team four or five and soone ca to take over a case left by Mr. Cui, he wouldn’t be so proactive in helping either. After all, it was a hot potato—handle it poorly and you could end up in a ss.
The four of them went straight to the forensic teaching and research office at the far west end of the third floor. As the door opened and all the lights ca on, Mr. Sun imdiately ran to a computer and turned it on. The projector displayed many X-ray images, all of which were of the skeletons.
Zhou Ning’s attention was imdiately drawn to the large table. On a table the size of a double bed, there were two piles of bones, one scattered and the other seemingly trying to be assembled into the shape of a human body, but it looked awkward no matter how one viewed it. Two pieces of paper next to them labeled the bones with their era.
"Find a box and pack up the 159 bones that don’t belong to the 2.21 case."
Mr. Sun found an organizer box, and together with Mr. Zhao, they boxed up the smaller pile of bones, also considerately placing the paper inside.
A beep sound reached Zhou Ning’s ears.
Beep. The bonded person can choose the mission level.
Zhou Ning didn’t even think about it and directly chose the interdiate task. The system imdiately issued the interdiate task:
1. Identify the deceased’s identity within 48 hours;
2. Ascertain the cause of death within 48 hours;
3. If there is a murderer, find the perpetrator and all the evidence, proving the cause of death within 7 days.
Upon seeing the content, Zhou Ning gritted his teeth. The system was indeed the system, consistently demanding. With just a pile of bones, he was supposed to determine the identity and the cause of death within 48 hours. Wasn’t that asking for the impossible?
But what did it an by "if there is a murderer"?
Could it be that it was an optional task?
Besides, the ti limit given by the head office was one month, but his system was even more ruthless, straightaway seven days. The countdown had already begun, and he had no right to bargain, after all, he had received plenty, and the rewards were generous. He had nothing to complain about.
Zhou Ning didn’t look up, and after observing for more than ten minutes, comparing the X-ray images constantly, he got moving.
Thanks to the system’s torturous training every night, he had developed muscle mory for assembling bones and their respective shapes. Similar to solving a puzzle, Zhou Ning quickly rearranged the skeletal pieces.
Watching his movents, Xu Dayuan also ca closer. It’s true that after rearranging them, they no longer looked so strange.
Zhou Ning kept moving. During the rearrangent process, he had already noticed so traces. He picked up a piece of bone with blood on it—it was the distal end of a femur, just above the knee, with almost all the cartilage layer of the joint surface stripped away.
Mr. Zhao was considerate and had already brought his LED magnifying glass in front of him. Xu Dayuan looked at the device, seeming sowhat familiar.
"This... Isn’t this the one Zhou Xiaozhou bought and claid for reimbursent?"
Mr. Zhao waved his hand and quickly explained:
"We ca here naturally prepared, with our equipnt. Zhou Xiaozhou feels comfortable using it."
Zhou Ning didn’t join in their conversation. Under the magnifying glass, he could clearly see repeated cutting marks on the fracture surface of the distal femur. The cuts were uneven, forming a three-tiered stepped structure. These marks seed to be caused by an electric saw.
Next to the cut surface, there were four or five cuts of varying depths with traces of blood within them. Zhou Ning furrowed his brows slightly. These appeared to be tentative cuts, possibly due to the perpetrator’s unfamiliarity with handling the saw or lacking the strength to control the electric saw and failing to finish cutting in one go.
Putting down the bone in his hand, Zhou Ning picked up a lumbar vertebra. This vertebra hardly had any saw marks on it. Although it appeared intact, the bone density was low.
He glanced up slightly at Mr. Zhao.
"No chitchat, jot this down. The deceased was male, aged between 70 and 80 years old, height ranging from 170 to 175 centiters, weight between 65 and 75 kilograms, with limited mobility in the lower limbs.
The perpetrator lacked strength, so he dismbered the victim into smaller pieces to dispose of the body. The tool used for dismbernt was a handheld electric saw."
This analysis had already impressed Xu Dayuan, whose eyes shone. Many people had been involved in investigating the case, with little effective information. The skeletal remains were severely damaged, and the existing information was just this pile of broken bones. He had not expected to discover so many issues from the bones.
"You can estimate the weight too?"
Zhou Ning nodded. He couldn’t explain in detail since he had found the estimation thod in the literature given by the system, which included a lot of research content from the island countries, and of course, was not publicly accessible.
"Yes, though it’s not very accurate. If we had the skull, the estimation would be extrely precise. From the bones we have, the perpetrator’s lack of strength can be inferred. Many serrated marks were created while cutting the bones with a saw due to the perp’s inexperience and insufficient strength.
Look right here! These marks occurred because of the murderer’s lack of proficiency and strength, and another reason is that the deceased was not fat, yet not just skin and bones either, otherwise the marks would be deeper."
Mr. Zhao was about to speak, but Xu Dayuan pushed him away.
"Don’t interrupt. Doctor Zhou, please continue with your findings. I’m having trouble keeping up with the train of thought. You deduced all this already? What about the age and impaired lower limb mobility? Are there traces on the bones for those as well?"
Facing Xu Dayuan’s questions, Zhou Ning nodded and pointed around the pelvic area.
"The pelvis had mostly been reconstructed earlier. The inlet is heart-shaped with a smaller anterior-posterior distance, characteristic of a male pelvis. This would also match up with the DNA results, but I won’t go into that in detail.
As you can see on the X-ray, the vertebrae have significant osteoporosis, indicative of degenerative changes, further substantiating the deceased’s age.
On this distal end of the femur, you can see the remaining cortical layer, with so erosion. Mr. Zhao, enlarge the X-ray at this spot, and Xu Da, take a look. Do you see any ’soap-bubble’ changes on the distal femur?"
"What soap bubbles?"
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