Novice Forensic Doctor

Chapter 526: Chapter 496: The Leading Lady of the Little Movie_1

Seeing Mr. Zhao and Zhou Ning with solemn expressions on their faces, Mr. Qu felt somewhat embarrassed; it seemed his thoughts had been improper. He quickly tucked away his remaining awkwardness and raised his voice.

Zhou Ning slightly frowned and waved his hand.

"Play the video on the big screen, turn the volume to the maximum, and listen carefully. Identify what sounds you can hear. Don’t apply noise reduction; start from the beginning with the original audio."

Mr. Qu hurriedly did as instructed. At that time, Peng Shinian, who was analyzing the various bottles and jars nearby, pushed up his glasses and moved closer to the big screen, folding his arms without saying much.

The video played again, and as Mr. Zhao’s ambiguous mood dissipated, everyone stared intently at the woman’s reaction. The ten-plus minutes video finally reached the end, and just then, a dripping sound echoed at the laboratory’s door. By the time Zhou Ning turned around, Mr. Qu had already paused the video.

Xu Dayuan, Xia Momo, and Liu Yongxin strode in swiftly. Xu Dayuan glanced around and his gaze fell directly on the big screen. He hesitated in his steps and then looked straight at Mr. Zhao.

"You rascal, what are you doing?"

Mr. Zhao’s expression was akin to that of constipation, with his hands spread and a face full of grievance.

"I say, boss, this room is full of people; why are you shouting at me? Even if I’m inappropriate, it’s not like we’d watch an adult film here in the lab, especially with everyone else around, right?" freёwebnovel.com

Xu Dayuan coughed, and Mr. Qu quickly minimized the video. Xia Momo didn’t say anything; she just walked up to Zhou Ning. Noticing a new face, she glanced at Peng Shinian.

"Is this the fellow with dual doctorates?"

Zhou Ning stood up and introduced everyone.

"Peng Shinian, he’s one of Professor Li Chengbin’s students as well, holding doctorates in biology and entomology. Mr. Zhao gave him the nickname ’Poet,’ which he seems to quite like.

This is Deputy Chief Xu Dayuan, whom I’ve mentioned before, and this is my mentor Liu Yongxin. This lady is my girlfriend Xia Momo, also one of the project leaders at Qin Da Research and Development Center. You can just call her Mr. Xia."

Peng Shinian quickly came forward with both hands outstretched, then folded one and Xu Dayuan, with a smile, firmly shook Peng Shinian’s hand.

"Welcome aboard, Poet!"

Liu Yongxin and Xia Momo also extended their welcome after a brief introduction. Peng Shinian took a few steps back; he knew that the leader was upset about the video, but it seemed that due to his newcomer status, the leader hadn’t continued to express his anger. However, an explanation was still necessary.

Zhou Ning glanced at Xia Momo and walked over, rubbing his nose as he spoke:

"Why don’t you go rest in my office? Have some water, lie down for a bit. We need to analyze this case, and I don’t want you to watch this man heaving and ho-ing."

Xia Momo nodded her head; she didn’t engage in idle talk. Taking the keys from Zhou Ning, she headed straight out.

With the door closing behind her, Mr. Zhao heaved a sigh of relief and quickly recounted the entire story without any exaggeration. After he finished, everyone turned to look at Zhou Ning. Zhou Ning took the mouse from Mr. Qu, found a frame focusing on the woman’s facial features, and paused the video. Mr. Qu caught on and quickly took a screenshot, then enlarged the image.

Liu Yongxin stepped up to the big screen, staring at the image for a long time before turning around with a look of surprise:

"This girl is dead!"

Zhou Ning nodded, pointing to the image and saying:

"The video played twice with the original audio, without any noise reduction. There were only male voices; the female didn’t react at all, not even breathing sounds. Most of her face is covered by her hair; this shot shows the most of her face, only revealing part of her left cheek.

From this angle, you can see pressure marks on her cheekbone, faint post-mortem lividity on the side of her neck, and the skin around her mouth and nose appears paler. There are petechial hemorrhages around the lower eyelid, and in a previous frame, when the male pinched the female’s chin, her mouth was slightly open, revealing gingival petechiae[1].

So, this female is dead, and the time of death is within 48 hours. Rigor mortis in the limbs isn’t prominent, which seems to have been deliberately disrupted. As for the cause of death, it’s suspected to be asphyxiation due to blockage of the mouth and nose."

Liu Yongxin kept nodding beside him, clearly agreeing with Zhou Ning’s assessment, but he still sighed.

"It’s a pity, the lighting in this shot is too dim, and many details are indiscernible. With only this part of the deceased’s face visible, software probably won’t be able to perform a search, right?"

Mr. Qu let out a sigh.

"I’ve already captured the frame and adjusted the female’s face to a horizontal position, as well as simulated the other side of her face to scale. But her eyes are tightly closed, and that skips 50% of the comparison points. The search results are over seventy thousand."

Xu Dayuan rubbed his nose and stared at the screen, waving his hand.

"I’ll contact Liang Honggang to come over. When it comes to website searches, they surely have more information than you do. As for the video, study it more closely. You can reduce the noise and analyze the man’s accent and other characteristics, especially this room, which doesn’t seem like a hotel.

Furthermore, there must be a reason why these people upload videos to this website. Is it because they get paid for posting videos, or what? If it involves payments, is it possible to investigate through banking transaction information?"

Mr. Qu let out a long sigh.

"The puzzling part is just that; the website is non-profit, with registration requiring only an email address. It’s like a sharing platform, with no financial transactions to be traced. Right now, the uploader’s information is only a Tom email, with a name called Stoll."

Xu Dayuan made a call to Liang Honggang, explaining the findings here, and soon hung up the phone.

Zhou Ning signaled to Mr. Qu to play the video again. This time everyone was eager to examine it as if they were holding magnifying glasses. Seven minutes into the video, Mr. Zhao slapped Mr. Qu’s back, and Mr. Qu quickly paused it.

He pointed towards the top of the wall where a corner of a promotional poster was visible, featuring a skull and the line ONE PIECE, followed by a hand on a hip and part of a red outfit, next to a woman’s waist, and said,

"Pirate King, this is a promotional poster of One Piece from 2012. Don’t rush; I think I have this one. It wasn’t easy to get ahold of at the time."

As he said this, Mr. Zhao flipped through his phone’s photo album. After a while, he lifted his phone up to show Xu Dayuan and Zhou Ning that the corner was indeed identical. This was indeed a promotional poster for One Piece.

However, such a poster didn’t really explain anything, as its circulation was impossible to estimate. It only proved that the room’s occupant liked One Piece.

Zhou Ning looked towards the big screen, where the room’s lights were off. It seemed that the only light was a wall lamp on the right side of the bed. Below the lamp, next to the bedside table on the wall, there was a control panel with light switches and track sockets—everything you’d find in the design of a five-star hotel.

At that moment, the camera was paused facing to the left. The bed looked like it was 2 by 2.4 meters, quite large. The white sheets featured vertical stripes with a hidden pattern, the kind made of damask fabric, which was of excellent quality. There were two white pillows of the same design on one side of the bed.

The headboard was in old European style, and in the video on the left side, one could see a portion of a window. There was just a bedside table between the bed and the window. The two layers of curtains were not entirely drawn, the inner bronze curtains were fully open, and white sheer curtains covered most of the window. The outside light was dim.

But it wasn’t nighttime, just gloomy daylight.

Outside the window, a partial silhouette of a shadowy structure appeared to be a building with a spire. At the edge of the sheer curtain, which seemed to be blowing in the breeze from an open window, the leaves of a tree could be seen shaking.

Upon closer examination, it seemed that no tree trunk was visible. Zhou Ning paused, then quickly turned to Peng Shinian, who was watching the excitement.

"Poet, by looking at the leaves, can you tell what kind of tree it is?"

Peng Shinian moved closer, asking Mr. Qu to rewind the video, watching it frame by frame, and then he stood up.

"That’s not a tree!"

Zhou Ning paused, and Mr. Zhao also looked astonished. The leaves in the video seemed to be fluttering in the wind, as the sheer curtain was moving as well.

"If it’s not a tree, then what is it?"

Peng Shinian pushed up his glasses and spoke very seriously,

"That’s ivy, native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa; it belongs to the genus Hedera in the Araliaceae family, with small shrubs usually having tri-lobed, triangular-ovate leaves. This one is tri-lobed."

Peng Shinian was fixated on the few moving leaf shadows, talking non-stop, and after finishing, he stood up straight and noticed that Zhou Ning and the others were staring at him. For a few seconds, his mind went blank since he hadn’t been back in the country long. Although there were no problems with communication, this reaction left him a bit perplexed.

"What’s up?"

Mr. Zhao coughed and wrapped an arm around Peng Shinian’s shoulder, speaking with earnestness,

"Look, Poet, I know you’re a double-doctorate with real knowledge and talent, but you have to consider that those of us listening to your explanation have a very basic understanding of botany, at best reaching the level of stamens and pistils. When you talk about entire margins and tri-lobed, can you put it in terms we can understand? Like our leader always likes to say, can you ’talk human’?"

Peng Shinian laughed, the term ’talk human’ being something he just learned about in a casual chat with Mr. Zhao that morning; he instantly understood Mr. Zhao’s point and quickly clasped his hands together before saying swiftly,

"Simply put, this kind of plant is very common in Qindao, especially near the hundred-year-old ancient villas by the seaside, or in some of the old houses with less environmental disturbances. Many of these buildings are covered in green vines, and that’s the ivy."

Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes.

"Old houses? Villas?"

As if a thought struck him, Zhou Ning placed his hand on Mr. Qu’s shoulder.

"Process that screenshot, and the sharp building in the distance outside the window, it looks familiar to me. Adjust it, I’d like more contrast to see if I can recognize, where is this?"

With a spark of motivation, Mr. Qu began clicking away rapidly. The screenshot underwent numerous changes in shade and color depth. With the adjustments, the sharp, black silhouette of the building outside became clearer, transformed into a high-contrast black image.

With such adjustments, nobody needed to tell Zhou Ning; Mr. Zhao moved closer, his eyes wide with astonishment.

"Wow, with it adjusted to this extent, you don’t need to tell— I know, that’s the Customs Building! The sharp tip on top, I initially thought it was St. Michael’s Church from the northwest, looking southeast, but it’s surrounded by flat ground, and you can’t see an angle like this."

As he said this, Mr. Zhao’s brows furrowed, and he glanced at Zhou Ning.

"Look, we’ve found three points, all trivial. All over Qindao, there are countless views of the Customs Building, and for ivy, just go to any old coastal neighborhood; it’s practically everywhere. After all, it’s impossible to eradicate completely; it can re-root and sprout again next year. And the One Piece poster—what more is there to say?"

Zhou Ning shook his finger.

"Each by itself is ordinary, but when you put the three together, it’s not ordinary. It at least points us in a direction."

Xu Dayuan’s eyes lit up as if he had just thought of something.