Novice Forensic Doctor

Chapter 173: Chapter 172 Change of Face_1

In the laboratory, everyone became tense and instinctively gathered closer to where Xia Momo and Zhou Ning stood.

The surveillance footage had been rewound, and Zhou Ning stared at the screen. At 22:23, the fast-moving car, now only seen as a blur, was frozen on the large display. Although the image was paused, the license plate was unreadable due to the angle of the car’s entry, which was almost side-on.

The driver could be seen in the driving seat, wearing a baseball cap and glasses, looking almost identical to the surveillance image from June 30th. However, Zhou Ning furrowed his brows, feeling that it didn’t seem to be the same person.

Mr. Zhao looked carefully twice, pointing to the position near the rearview mirror where the dashcam was located, and said:

"This is He Ruxing’s car. Looking at this position, although the details can’t be seen clearly, you can make out the tan wooden bracelet with bright yellow tassels. And in the footage of He Ruxing leaving earlier, you can see this decoration."

Xia Momo quickly found the surveillance footage that Mr. Qu had just pulled up. The two images were placed side by side on a monitor, and the size of the captured content was adjusted to be as similar as possible. Despite the significant difference in lighting and the license plates being unclear, the bracelets indeed looked exactly the same.

Xia Momo continued to tap at the keyboard, trying to enlarge the footage and adjust the clarity. The face was obscured and couldn’t be recognized, but as the person in the video slightly turned their head, a mole on the right side of the jaw caught Zhou Ning’s attention.

"Extract the skeletal data of the two faces from the screenshots for comparison."

Xia Momo didn’t speak and hurriedly put the two screenshots together. The skeletal data was rapidly captured, and the comparison results came out in a moment. At a glance, the two looked very similar, but the data was completely different. This person was 5.7 cm shorter or taller than He Ruxing. This was not easy to notice unless the two screenshots were compared side by side.

But the mole...

Zhou Ning closed his eyes and searched his memory, trying to remember who had such a mole on their jaw.

At that moment, Liu Yongxin recognized something and kept nodding.

"It’s the same car, but it looks like a woman is driving this time. She’s disguised herself, but her height and arm length can’t be faked."

Zhou Ning looked towards Liu Yongxin and nodded slightly. A master indeed had a very keen observation.

Just as he was about to speak his suspicions, the door to the laboratory was pushed open, and Mrs. Cui hurried in, clutching a stack of reports, and walked straight to Zhou Ning. She handed him the reports with such formality that Zhou Ning raised an eyebrow.

"It seems the comparison results are out."

Mrs. Cui folded her arms and, seeing that Zhou Ning showed no surprise, sniffed.

"You’re not big, but your mind is like a little fox. Go ahead, it’s just as you guessed. Look for yourself."

Taking the report, Zhou Ning looked somewhat embarrassedly towards Cui Lili.

"Mrs. Cui, there’s something else I’d like to ask of you. It’s very difficult to find evidence in the aftermath of a fire, and it’s not easy to convict a suspect even if you find one. I think that the brick was thrown in by the murderer. Glass can melt, but a brick won’t. Could you search it several more times to see if you can find any of the murderer’s DNA on it, even just fragments for comparison?"

Mrs. Cui didn’t say anything, just nodded slightly and left. Mr. Zhao then came over to take a look. After reading the content of the report, he became unsettled.

"Damn, Luo Qian’s child is Dong Chengwen’s. What kind of twist is this? Moreover, Dong Chengwen and Luo Qian are not related by blood at all. Zhou Xiaozhou, did you suspect this all along?"

Zhou Ning nodded.

"It was just a suspicion. When I met Luo Qian in the detention center, the look in her eyes when she looked towards the visiting room wasn’t worry or nervousness. It felt like she was holding back, like she was restraining herself from rushing in. That gave me a different feeling."

"Just because of that?"

Liu Yongxin had also finished reading the report and poked Mr. Zhao.

"Stop talking nonsense and take the report to Xu Da. Dong Chengwen kept saying he didn’t know Luo Qian well, and even the people around them were creating that illusion. Obviously, they were trying to hide her identity. But Xu Da’s team has checked the household registration. How could they not have discovered anything?"

Mr. Zhao was about to leave when Zhou Ning raised his hand to stop him. Zhou Ning turned and pointed at the screenshot photo that Xia Momo had restored, saying:

"Also, ask Xu Da to bring Yi Xiaou in for questioning. We need to search their house, especially the surveillance footage. We need to go through it again."

"Yi Xiaou? Why do you suspect her now?"

Mr. Zhao was baffled.

"I remember that Yi Xiaou has a mole on the right side of her jaw, and the reason she was ruled out as a suspect was due to the evidence she provided.

But the evidence wasn’t verified by us. The fact that Yi Xiaou was doing something as mundane as fixing pipes for Luo Qian shows that Dong Chengwen must have trusted her greatly. She must know more of Dong Chengwen’s secrets."

Realization dawned on Mr. Zhao as he raised his hand, shaking it vigorously.

"I get it. You’re suggesting that the setup for He Ruxing and Fang Hua at the hot spring hotel two years ago could have been arranged by Yi Xiaou on Dong Chengwen’s behalf. That’s why even if Dong Chengwen had a special relationship with Yi Xiaou, he wouldn’t choose her as his wife. After all, she knew too many of his secrets and was far too cunning, not wife material?"

Zhou Ning nodded, and without wasting another moment, Mr. Zhao grabbed the report and ran off. Mr. Qu raised his hand, but Liu Yongxin kicked him.

"If you’ve got something to say, spit it out. There’s no need to raise your hand."

Mr. Qu laughed.

"Dr. Liu, what I mean is, although we can’t trace who installed the eavesdropping software on Dong Chengwen’s phone, we can take these people’s phones and check them. I can find the phone collecting the eavesdropped data. Even if it’s been deleted, I can recover it."

Liu Yongxin immediately dialed Xu Dayuan’s number, briefly explained Mr. Qu’s suggestion, and of course, mentioned that Mr. Zhao would arrive soon with details and a full report.

...

In the interrogation room.

Xu Dayuan hung up the phone and looked at Luo Qian across from him with a complicated gaze. He stood up.

"Doctor Liu, you keep talking to her."

After speaking, he left the interrogation room. Mr. Zhao had already run over, panting from urgency. His hurried actions had already attracted the attention of Bai Ruixin, Tao Zhenshan, and Mr. Zeng, who all gathered around. They walked into the adjacent observation room, where Mr. Zhao handed a report to Xu Dayuan and recounted all of Zhou Ning’s suspicions and various findings.

All of this was too incredible. Xu Dayuan looked at the others and said:

"Bai Ruixin, find a female police officer in charge of household registration to take over the interrogation from Doctor Liu. Just control Luo Qian, no need to delve too deep. Mr. Zeng, go verify Luo Qian’s identity, contact the local authorities in Jingzhou directly, and confirm at her home whether she was adopted."

"Zhenshan, go arrest He Ruxing. Even if he isn’t the murderer, looking at his actions now, he’s helped the murderer escape and enter the crime scene area. That already makes him a participant."

"Doctor Liu and Mr. Zhao come with me, we’ll bring back Yi Xiaou for questioning, and go to her house for an on-site investigation. Bring back everything, such as surveillance footage. Alright, let’s start moving now." freewebnøvel.coɱ

Mr. Zhao had already made a call, asking Yang Xuetong and Zhu Xingxing to come down. Everyone got into their vehicles, and with the wail of police sirens, a fleet of cars burst out of the police station.

Xu Dayuan, clutching the car door handle, looked at Mr. Zhao.

"I didn’t notice Yi Xiaou had a mole under her jaw, is Zhou Xiaozhou certain?"

Mr. Zhao waved his hand.

"Don’t worry, Zhou Xiaozhou has sharp eyes. If he says there’s one, there definitely is. I don’t know about the rest, but Yi Xiaou’s evidence is too complete. Although she’s an assistant at a law firm, she’s too calm. Plus, the surveillance isn’t unadjustable. If the dates were set a day ahead all along, everything would make sense."

No one else in the car spoke again. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at Ningyuan Law Firm. The car had not yet come to a complete stop when Doctor Liu jumped off from the police car in front and led the team straight in.

The receptionist at the front desk was dumbfounded, having never seen such a spectacle. She covered her mouth and leaned against the backdrop wall, her eyes wide.

Xu Dayuan followed in, pointed Doctor Liu in a direction, and Doctor Liu headed straight for the outer room of Dong Chengwen’s office. As soon as the door opened, Yi Xiaou looked up.

Doctor Liu showed her police badge, then said:

"I’m from the criminal police brigade, are you called Yi Xiaou?"

Yi Xiaou nodded, looking puzzledly at Doctor Liu, even with a displeased and angry expression on her face, her eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"Yes, I am. But what does this mean? Was our cooperation with the investigation last time not sufficient, or are you going to shut down our law firm?"

As soon as these words came out, many lawyers gathered around. Even if Dong Chengwen was arrested and their firm investigated, their work was at least unimpeded. But if the law firm was shut down, then their jobs would be gone, and moving from such a tainted law firm would make finding a new job difficult; after all, Ningyuan Law Firm had become synonymous with scandal.

"What do you mean by this?"

"Why are you shutting down our law firm?"

"Even the police can’t be this outrageous!"

For a moment, there were a lot of chattering voices, but they were all shouting from outside. Xu Dayuan, who had now reached the door of Yi Xiaou’s office, looked back at those making noise.

"Go about your business. We need to take Yi Xiaou back to the criminal police team for questioning. Or is it that you have some evidence to provide, or do you have an objection to the police enforcement?"

Such a resounding statement made everyone stop their whispering, and no one else came forward. Xu Dayuan glanced at Yi Xiaou and directly raised a search warrant in his hand.

"Yi Xiaou, come with us. Take a look at this, it’s a search warrant. We need to search your home, car, and office for evidence."

Yi Xiaou set down the document in her hands, her face devoid of much expression.

"I can cooperate, but may I know the reason?"

Xu Dayuan shook his head.

"We can’t disclose that for now. There’s an eyewitness who saw you, so we need identification, and to collect blood samples and fingerprints for exclusion. Please cooperate."

Yi Xiaou stood up, and Doctor Liu reached to grab her arm. Yi Xiaou dodged away and smiled faintly.

"This doesn’t seem like an arrest warrant requiring handcuffs, right? I can walk myself, please don’t pull on me. I don’t want to disrupt the normal operation of the law firm, and I would appreciate your cooperation as well."

Doctor Liu smiled and nodded at Yi Xiaou.

"Very well, Ms. Yi, please come with us. Also, we need your home address so we can search there as well."

"No problem, my home is very close."

Doctor Liu unlocked her phone, having received a text message from Mr. Zhao. It read that from the property records, it was confirmed that Yi Xiaou owned two properties—one was in the community behind the law firm, and the other was in Lijiang East Road’s Zhonghe Jin’an, Jingkou District.

"I need to see Zhonghe Jin’an on Lijiang East Road."

Yi Xiaou paused, her expression changing slightly as she looked surprised and tilted her head, seemingly not understanding Doctor Liu’s words.

"I haven’t lived there?"