878: Chapter 816: Identification Points 878: Chapter 816: Identification Points Chief dical Examiner Niu, gasping for breath, clutched the Lock&Lock box filled with human bones and jogged towards the eting room.
Everyone who has read up on the subject knows that the bones of an adult male from the north weigh about 8 kilograms, while those from the south are slightly lighter, averaging about 70 to 90 percent of that weight; however, when reduced to ashes, they all weigh roughly the sa, about 2.5 kilograms.
Therefore, it was genuinely tiring for Niu Tang to run with the Lock&Lock box.
The instructor, with nothing in his hands, followed on the run and still felt tired.
He was getting older, spending more ti working on docunts than in the field, running and shouting, “Slow down, Niu, slow down, there’s no need to rush like this.”
“It’s not like I would have to run if you hadn’t held up preaching about the right mindset,” Niu Tang, who normally equates moving bodies with weightlifting and is not adept at running, half pushed, half walked, saying only, “Captain Jiang and Lei Da must be getting impatient.”
“Even if you get there, they’ll just pick out your mistakes.
Why the rush?” The instructor shook his head at Niu Tang’s regular-sized, non-long legs and said, “I wanted you to understand the situation, not to send you off to your doom.
There’s no need to be in such a hurry.
Lei Da and I both understand there’s a problem with the report, so don’t worry.”
“You’ve got to stand upright when taking a beating.
We’re cops who grew up watching gangster movies; we know the basic principles,” Niu Tang quipped, jokingly.
The instructor, being old, couldn’t stand hearing such things and shook his head, “Don’t talk nonsense.
I’m just worried you’re fixating on it.
Jiang Yuan’s standards are very high, and he can be unrealistic…”
“If there are flaws in the autopsy report, then there are flaws.
Don’t say Jiang Yuan sets the bar high; no matter how high his standards, he can’t make what’s right wrong,” Niu Tang was aware of where his problems lay.
Ultimately, it was related to Niu Tang’s own decision-making approach.
Many forensic autopsy reports could be written very conservatively; for instance, an estimated age could be given as “approximately thirty years old” or “under forty.” The ti of death could be broadened from “within 3 hours” to a particular day or thereabouts…
Even if Chen Shixian from the Eight Tigers ca over, he couldn’t fault them; at most, he would say they weren’t ticulous enough.
But Niu Tang had demands on himself.
Although limited by innate talent, driven by interest, or compelled by circumstances, Niu Tang had focused his main research on the identification of various paper products.
In other areas, even when he wasn’t strong, he did his best to reach his personal limits.
However, reaching the limits ant approaching the edge of error, and if a forensic doctor erred, it ant dozens or hundreds of colleagues had worked in vain—sothing that should be strictly prohibited.
It is for this reason many forensic doctors prefer a more conservative approach, aiming not for rit but for avoiding fault.
The penalties for failure were too severe; it wasn’t a matter of simply saying “I can handle it.” Most people couldn’t bear such pressure, not just in their work but in their personal lives as well.
Niu Tang, however, saw things differently.
He believed in the power of pushing limits.
If everyone contributed their strength, there would be no need to rely on just one piece of solitary evidence.
Conversely, if no one else could contribute, and it all depended on that one piece of solitary evidence, then challenging the limits was the right approach.
The instructor naturally knew Niu Tang’s thoughts, as they had discussed them before.
He didn’t have much to say about it.
Different people have different understandings of their careers and even their lives, not to ntion, to so extent, he partially agreed with Niu Tang.
“Let’s hurry up,” Niu Tang said after a brief pause, urging the instructor to move faster.
The instructor sighed, preparing to give Niu Tang so more ntal encouragent.
Annoyed, Niu Tang waved him off, “Enough, I’m fine.
As long as no one’s pointing fingers and yelling, I can take it.”
The instructor felt sowhat relieved, “If you really can’t stand it, just turn around and leave.
Don’t argue with them, okay?”
“Mmm hmm…” Niu Tang nodded and, grabbing the instructor’s hand, started running faster.
The instructor was forced to jog.
If you only looked at their silhouettes…
and disregarded their faces, physiques, proportional differences, and so forth, the two of them looked like they were shining with optimism, just like in a Japanese drama.
…
Thud.
The Lock&Lock box full of human bones was heavily placed on the table.
Lei Xin’s brow furrowed, but before he could criticize, he saw Jiang Yuan, unconcerned, stand up and say, “Co on, clear a spot on the table.”
A handful of people imdiately got to work, freeing over two ters of the long conference table.
A fake flower in a porcelain vase was moved a bit to the side, serving as a divider on the table.
“First, let’s take a look at the pubic symphyseal surface,” Jiang Yuan nodded to Chief dical Examiner Niu, not saying much more.
Forensic psychology was sowhat on the fringes, and Jiang Yuan didn’t know what state Chief dical Examiner Niu’s emotions were in, so he spoke matter-of-factly about the task at hand.
Chief dical Examiner Niu internally breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that Jiang Yuan’s “ferocity” didn’t seem too intense, and hurriedly stepped forward to help.
Jiang Yuan’s junior fellow, Rui Xiang, quickly stepped forward, put on gloves, and helped turn over the bone fragnts.
Jiang Yuan didn’t even wear gloves.
The skeleton’s bones had also been boiled, and who knows if the pot used might have had remnants from previously cooked pork intestines or chicken; sterilization was definitely thorough, and no residual evidence lingered on the bones.
Clang clang, Rui Xiang pulled out most of the bones, and when he turned his head, Jiang Yuan had already pieced together the pelvic structure.
At first glance, the bones of the pubic symphyseal surface looked like a butterfly, rough and uneven in texture.
After examining it carefully for a mont, Jiang Yuan continued, “The previous forensic report thought that the pubic symphysis was rather flat and seed to have ridges, with the ventral bevel not reaching the top…
Of course, flatness is subjective, but to , the surface feels smooth to the touch, yet the texture is very dense, and there’s no sign of ridges.”
As he spoke, Jiang Yuan passed it back to Niu Tang.
Niu Tang silently took the bone and scrutinized it.
In fact, when the news arrived, he had spent a long ti reminiscing, but honestly speaking, with a case six years old, such minute details could be hazy or even mistaken.
Niu Tang couldn’t be sure how he made such a judgnt back then; he had no recollection of how he approached writing the report.
Now reviewing it afresh, Niu Tang couldn’t say he was completely in the dark—indeed, it felt so.
This matter was sowhat like appraising antiques, particularly like identifying porcelain from the Qing Dynasty.
What characteristics define Qing Dynasty porcelain are clearly written in books, but upon close inspection, most are subjective terms.
Just like the term “dense quality,” who knows what level of fineness constitutes “dense quality”?
As a comparative unit, the standard becos the core issue.
Now, with Jiang Yuan saying the pubic bone is dense, Niu Tang couldn’t agree, but neither could he rebut.
“What’s directly affecting my judgnt is the ventral bevel,” Jiang Yuan gave Niu Tang a mont to examine the bone, and seeing no response, he reminded, “The report ntioned the ventral bevel didn’t reach the top and that the ventral margin was essentially ford, but on close inspection, the upper end of the ventral bevel is actually damaged and not unfinished…”
“This…” Upon a closer look, Niu Tang saw that the upper end of the ventral bevel was indeed rough, as if it had lost so paint, a small piece no bigger than half the size of a pinky fingernail, perfectly obscuring the discriminative feature.
It was very hard to notice with the naked eye, as the bone had just lost a thin layer, which could have been due to prolonged boiling or accidental scraping during assembly.
The color and appearance of the lower layer hadn’t changed much, just that the discriminative feature happened to be scraped off.
“This really is…
damaged…” Niu Tang wasn’t even sure whether it was broken during storage or had already been broken at the outset, but this conclusion was indeed persuasive.
Niu Tang couldn’t help shaking his head, “I didn’t see it at the ti.”
“Not seeing it is normal; this bone really can’t be considered typical,” Jiang Yuan was half guessing and half shooting the arrow before drawing the target.
This wasn’t surprising, much like the process of an experienced appraiser feeling sothing amiss at first, then upon careful inspection finding similarities, and then starting to pick out the flaws.
Jiang Yuan was a Level 4 forensic pathologist and Level 3 in Forensic Anthropology.
In terms of expertise, it wasn’t as abnormal as Tool Trace Identification, where one could easily read the answers.
However, even at Level 3 in Forensic Anthropology, one starts at an expert level, much more advanced than Niu Tang.
“If that’s the case…” Just as everyone was feeling relieved, Niu Tang spoke again, asking, “If the bone surface is damaged, the age would be hard to estimate, right?”
For an unsolved case from six years ago, finding people from that ti would not be easy, and having relatively accurate information would naturally make the search easier.
“37 years old,” Jiang Yuan didn’t beat around the bush and directly gave an exceptionally precise age.
Niu Tang was stunned, and the question “How did you see that?” reached his lips but was then withdrawn.
What to ask?
It was like soone questioning him why he could tell just by touching that a piece of tissue paper belonged to a specific brand.
When getting into the details, the explanation would be endless, especially since the other party might not understand, and even if they did, they wouldn’t rember, or if they rembered, they wouldn’t grasp it firmly, and if they did grasp it firmly, they still wouldn’t learn it, and if they learned it, they wouldn’t be able to use it, and if they did use it, they would still be incompetent, so…
why bother explaining?
Niu Tang touched his head and quietly listened as the captain gave orders.
Reviews
All reviews (0)