The forensic doctor of the special case team is none other than Zhang Yuanchao's student, doctoral candidate Li Changgeng.

When Lu Chuan first conducted a skeleton identification analysis, it was Li Changgeng who discovered it while on duty.

The two have collaborated many times during this period and have become quite familiar with each other.

"Lu Chuan, are you participating in the autopsy?"

Inviting the crime scene investigators to participate in the autopsy is mainly to examine the surface traces on the body.

But for this scene, it's actually no longer necessary.

"Brother Li, the investigation in the room is basically complete, I won't participate in the body surface inspection."

The murderer acted swiftly and decisively, entered the room to kill, and left immediately without contacting the body.

The basis for this judgment is the footprints in the room.

The footprints coming in and going out are very clear.

The trajectory of coming and going is easy to determine.

Li Changgeng nodded and began the autopsy.

Li Changgeng handled the autopsies of all three cases.

To be honest, there's really not much to do.

The cause of death is clear, the method of death is clear, and the time of death is relatively easy to deduce.

With just a light press on the current body, Li Changgeng knew that the rigor mortis had already begun to dissipate.

Rigor mortis is one of the most important criteria for determining the time of death, especially in bodies that have died within a short time frame.

Generally speaking, rigor mortis starts to appear ten minutes to seven hours after death; the timing isn't particularly fixed and is related to various factors such as gender, age, physical condition, and degree of obesity.

The appearance of rigor mortis follows a certain pattern and order, such as from top to bottom or vice versa.

By judging the stiffness degree of different parts of the body, one can determine the time of death.

In most cases, rigor mortis peaks between twenty-four to forty-eight hours after death, and then gradually subsides.

By the third to seventh day, it completely disappears and in the same order it appeared.

The first parts to become rigid are also the first to relax.

As one of the most evident early phenomena in a corpse, rigor mortis is the most direct basis for a forensic doctor to determine the time of death.

As for why rigor mortis occurs, there is no unified scientific conclusion yet.

However, most scholars believe it is related to human muscles, particularly with the decomposition of a substance called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

"The cause of death for the male body: neck lacerated by a sharp weapon, fracture injury, excessive blood loss leading to death."

With the neck severed, a person dies from excessive blood loss before the brain becomes hypoxic.

In other words, at the moment of decapitation, the person is conscious.

However, because the brain and body are separated, the person cannot react at that moment.

Only the eyelids can move, nothing else.

"Time of death: between forty-eight and fifty-two hours ago."

"Cause of death for the female body: head struck with a sharp weapon, brain matter ejected, brain death."

"Time of death: between forty-eight and fifty-two hours ago..."

While examining, Li Changgeng recorded the findings in the autopsy record book.

Like the crime scene investigators, forensic doctors at a crime scene examine the body from top to bottom, from outside to inside, starting with the surface of the body.

All examination items follow a prescribed procedure, filling out or checking off one item in the record book upon completing each step.

While Li Changgeng conducted the autopsy, Lu Chuan followed the murderer's footprints and arrived outside the tiled house.

The weather in January is frigid, with a heavy snowfall just a week ago.

However, the victim Zhao Dong was evidently a diligent farmer; the yard was cleanly swept without any snow accumulation.

The murderer's footprints indoors were still fairly discernible, but outside they could no longer be distinguished.

The perpetrator killed quickly inside; as the victim's blood flowed onto the ground, the murderer had already left.

Therefore, no bloodstains were present on the murderer's footprints.

All three crime scenes were like this.

This was the most challenging case Lu Chuan had encountered in his police career, without exception.

Other than the footprints, the perpetrator left virtually no traces.

Lu Chuan even performed a trace evidence analysis on the footprint traces from the previous two scenes.

Of course, the outcome wasn't entirely unfruitful.

The shoes worn by the perpetrator were new, just the most common yellow rubber shoes.

They can be bought in any market or supermarket.

As for the soil and dust on the soles, nothing unique was found.

Lu Chuan's current basic footprint identification analysis abilities had reached their limit.

The sky was a bright blue, with no wind or clouds.

Standing in the yard, Lu Chuan took a deep breath.

The air filled with the unique smell of cow dung, which made Lu Chuan feel somewhat refreshed.

Turning his head, he saw five black-and-white dairy cows leisurely chewing the cud in their stomachs, their large eyes round and calm.

They showed no realization that their owner had been killed and that they might have no fodder in the future.

Hm?

Fodder?

Lu Chuan was slightly taken aback.

Zhao Dong had been dead for more than two days, so why hadn't the cows finished their fodder?

Lu Chuan quickly stepped forward, walked to the railing of the cattle pen, and examined the situation inside.

The trough for feeding cows was already empty.

However, a considerable amount of fodder had accumulated on the ground, beside which two cows were lying down, leisurely taking bites and chewing.

Their leisurely manner exhibited a 'food comes to the mouth' kind of ease.

Besides that, there were two water troughs made from plastic buckets in the cattle pen.

The half-circle white plastic buckets appeared to be made by horizontally cutting large plastic buckets in half.

The water inside the two troughs was slightly murky, but about one-third of it remained.

A calf was drinking water.

Or rather, it was nibbling on ice since the water had long frozen into small blocks, and the calf was crunching away at it.

After observing for a moment, Lu Chuan examined the layout of the courtyard.

Then he put on his gloves again, opened the unlocked door of the eastern warehouse.

A large heap of neatly stacked fodder filled the warehouse, with three or four white plastic buckets about one meter high at the back.

A moment later, Lu Chuan returned to the room.

The caller, Sun Zhiyou, was still being questioned.

Seeing Lu Chuan walking toward him, Chen Kang realized he might have something important to say, gestured with a look, and upon seeing Lu Chuan nod, he said to his colleague beside him, "You continue questioning."

Outside the room, Chen Kang took the Chunghwa cigarette Lu Chuan handed him, "What's up, brother, anything wrong?"

Though Lu Chuan was only a crime scene investigator with the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Team and participating in the case as a temporary assignment.

Nonetheless, Chen Kang and the others treated Lu Chuan very well.

Even though Lu Chuan was young, his crime scene investigation skills were quite impressive.

Having experienced two murder scenes, they all knew that, in terms of scene investigation, Lu Chuan was professional.

Moreover, he was adept at footprint identification and analysis.

And, according to Li Changgeng, Lu Chuan's ability in skeleton identification analysis was much stronger than in footprint analysis.

Furthermore... giving out Chunghwa cigarettes upon meeting, who wouldn't like him?

As it happened, several detectives gathered around as the two stepped out for a smoke.

Lu Chuan casually took out a new pack of Chunghwa cigarettes and distributed them to everyone.

"This case... it's a tough one."

"No doubt, this bastard is most likely a professional; he handled things too damn cleanly."

"Yeah, didn't leave a clue, killing was as easy as slaughtering chickens."

While Lu Chuan and others were busy, other detectives were also engaged.

Yumin Village Group One was a small settlement with less than thirty households, altogether just over fifty people.

In such a small place, typically the presence of outsiders would be quickly noticed.

But no one had noticed.

"Perhaps the murder occurred at night; the victim's house is at the head of the settlement, so it might have been hard to spot outsiders arriving."

Everyone was contributing their views.

After taking half a cigarette, Chen Kang listened for a while and then nudged Lu Chuan: "Lu, isn't there something you want to say?"

He was in the midst of questioning the informant, and Lu Chuan wouldn't have interrupted without good reason.

"It's nothing major, Brother Chen. When you're questioning the informant later, could you ask how they usually feed the victim's cows?"

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