Chapter 321: The Bone Injury Unveiling Tes (1/2)

”What’s the good news?” I asked.

”The good news is that we’ve managed to investigate Qiu Wanxia.”

”What about the bad news?” I chuckled.

”The bad news is that Qiu Wanxia died of cancer ten years ago!”

What on earth was going on? Wasn’t Qiu Wanxia’s body lying in the morgue waiting for me to perform the autopsy? How could a person die twice?! The bones we found last night suggested the victim was killed no more than three years ago.

”I'll be right there!” I said.

When I got to the school gates, I called Dali who happily recounted his conversation with Luo Youyou, but I was too preoccupied with the case to pay him any attention.

As soon as we arrived at the station, I almost sprinted into Xiaotao's office. She was assigning tasks to several officers when I barged into the room so she quickly sent them off and handed me a file.

It was Qiu Wanxia’s household registration document. The picture showed a girl with clear eyes and a graceful temperament. She was a Northerner who came to Nanjiang City ten years ago for work and eventually died of a terminal illness.

”Perhaps they happen to have the same name?” I wondered out loud.

”I thought so too at first, but her surname is rather rare,” explained Xiaotao. “She’s the only one in the country with this name, and her blood type matches the victim’s. More importantly, they look exactly the same!”

”How so?” I remained doubtful.

”The Physical Evidence Identification Center has restored the victim’s face. Let's go and have a look.”

As we headed out the building, we bumped into Dali who had just parked the car. ”How’s the new car?” asked Xiaotao.

”It certainly gives me recognition among my classmates,” Dali grinned. “Xiaotao-jiejie, when will the bureau give Song Yang a helicopter? I’d like to share the glory as well!”

”Why don’t you make some money and buy him one?” she laughed.

The three of us headed to the Physical Evidence Identification Center, where the equipment vastly differed from the technical team’s. We were greeted by a researcher named Li at a laboratory with many computers. He immediately showed us the image of the victim’s reconstructed face.

The black and white 3D image in the computer showed no hair but the girl in the picture was blessed with beautiful facial features, bright eyes and straight teeth. ”Wow, what a beauty!” exclaimed Dali.

The image of Qiu Wanxia in the computer matched the picture on the household registration document. Of course, visual inspection alone didn’t count for everything. The lab had a facial recognition software that was able to match faces based on their bone structure by stacking the photos of the victim’s skull and Qiu Wanxia’s face.

”98%? So there’s still 2% that doesn’t conform,” I stated.

“Because the body was exposed to open air for two years and bitten by insects and mice, a certain extent of damage falls within the range of error and can be ignored.”

The word ”damage” inspired an idea. I turned and left the lab without waiting for the other two. Xiaotao ran out after me, shouting, ”Song Yang, where are you going?”

”I need to look at the dead body again!” I replied.

I rushed back to the station and headed straight to the morgue. The skeleton had been placed on the morgue slab and was covered with a white cloth. Because the skull was used for comparison, it had been carefully cleaned with alcohol.

Xiaotao soon came in after me. ”I'm sorry,” she apologized. “We needed to identify the victim so they cleaned the skull...”

”It's okay, I had to clean it anyway.”

I ran my eyes all over the skull, carefully examining as I asked Dali to prepare a metal bowl, some cling wrap, a bottle of vinegar and a pot of succulents, as well as some realgar, borneol, teasel root and rehmannia from the Traditional Chinese pharmacy.

”Are you planning on conducting the Thrice Steaming Bone Test?” asked Xiaotao.