Novice Forensic Doctor

Chapter 602: Chapter 572 You Hurt My Brother_1

Liu Yongxin stared at Zhou Ning, his gaze causing Zhou Ning some confusion. Seeing that Zhou Ning didn’t grasp his meaning, Liu Yongxin then continued to speak.

"The incident that year wasn’t reported. The school feared for its reputation and left everything for Shi Mingchen to handle on his own. It was this that exacerbated the situation. Of course, even if it had been reported, it would have been difficult to establish a direct connection between the deaths of Shi Mingchen and his wife and Li Li, Liu Meiling, Zhang Fangfang, and the person who took the photos."

"Shi Yun was just a 13-year-old child at the time. Her fifteen years of scheming were all for revenge. Yet, she actually murdered three, perhaps even four people. That’s an indisputable fact, and she cannot avoid the responsibility for her crimes."

Zhou Ning fell silent.

He understood Liu Yongxin’s meaning. Although it wasn’t explicitly stated, the facts were indeed as such: a person seeking revenge for their parents, making those responsible pay the price with their lives.

At its core, it was simply because they couldn’t be punished by the law.

And now that they had caught Shi Yun, with Zhang Fangfang still alive, as well as the possibility that the person who took the photos might be alive, she had to be held accountable for her actions. Zhou Ning was neither a saint nor a judge, nor was he a defender of the law or a messenger of justice.

After a long silence, Zhou Ning finally lifted his head.

"Master, I understand what you mean. Naturally, we must solve the case and pursue the truth—that’s our duty. We’re not judges. It’s not our responsibility to decide how to judge or convict. I won’t let my emotional sympathy influence the professional standards of this job."

Liu Yongxin patted Zhou Ning on the shoulder and let out a sigh as he said:

"So don’t be impatient. Take a rest if you need to. Send the DNA for testing; after all, we have to wait for Director Xu and the others to investigate the photographer’s information. I’m going to call Director Xu in a moment and suggest he have Liu Yufei take Zhang Fangfang back to Qindao. It’s advantageous for protection, and it would also help her to identify Mr. Xia’s sketches."

Zhou Ning didn’t object, watching as Liu Yongxin called Xu Dayuan to convey the idea of taking Zhang Fangfang back. Xu Dayuan naturally agreed, saying that he would go arrange it immediately. Even the vehicle that Zhang Fangfang had traveled in was being shipped back by freight, after which he hung up.

...

17:12

Technical Department.

A series of hurried footsteps approached quickly, stopping outside Zhou Ning’s office. Two light knocks were heard on the door, and without waiting for a response, the door swung open as Zhou Ning happened to open his eyes.

"Mr. Zhao?"

"You’re awake. The forensics lab has brought some results. They’ve found traces of an anesthetic in the tissues from Liu Meiling’s waist. After analysis and comparison, it’s determined to be Chlorpromazine Hydrochloride which, through the analysis of impurities, appears to be a veterinary drug, making it more easily obtained on the market.

As for the skeletal remains sent for testing, they’ve begun the third attempt to extract DNA. The first two attempts didn’t yield anything, and you know this is a matter of luck. Fifteen years is not long, the coffin was not waterlogged, nor was there any damage, so the inability to extract DNA was somewhat unexpected.

However, the local village chief of Ling Mountain found an old village head who had just been discharged from the hospital, and he identified the anonymous grave as the resting place of Yun Zhi Xing’s daughter and son-in-law. He also mentioned that it was a couple who had taken care of the burial, accompanied by a child.

The burial occurred at night, and he could not remember the faces of the three people after so many years. He only remembered that the child wore a red dress, and the couple spoke standard Mandarin.

There’s also one more thing—the old village head said he remembered that the woman had a very distinctive scent on her, difficult to describe. It was subtle but lingered, bringing a sense of peace to the heart. Oh, and Mr. Xia has assembled the information from the skull scans, confirming that the two deceased were indeed the Shi Mingchen couple."

Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes. freēwēbnovel.com

"It’s good that the skulls can be identified, at least it wasn’t all in vain. But again, it’s the scent. Remember the eyewitness to the car accident, Wang Liwei, also smelled a fragrance, described as high-grade. Could it be that we weren’t thorough in our search at the scene, and we missed something?"

Mr. Zhao blinked, leaning in quickly.

"Shall we go back to the scene tomorrow? It hasn’t rained these past few days, everything there is dry. If there are any oversights, we might still be able to find them."

Zhou Ning, however, shook his head. Finding something else would be meaningless if the DNA couldn’t be extracted. Unless fingerprints were found that could identify the murderer, it remained an unsolvable problem.

"Mr. Qu?"

"He’s in the lab, with Peng Shinian. Peng Shinian studied the pollen from the gravesite and is now checking the freezer we brought back."

Zhou Ning nodded and got up, going into the lab with Mr. Zhao. There, he saw Xia Momo with headphones on, studying sketches on one side, while Peng Shinian and Mr. Qu huddled over the freezer. They stood up quickly upon seeing Zhou Ning.

"Any breakthroughs?"

Peng Shinian nodded.

"I found pollen from the cudweed in the crevices of the freezer lid and also found a fingerprint on a glove. Although we knew the murderer wore gloves, we hadn’t found any traces before. This discovery means the gloves worn by the murderer were knitted latex gloves.

Mr. Qu says that the murderer left DNA on the victim’s neck, as well as blood in the wound. This implies that the murderer didn’t wear gloves initially, probably to avoid alarming the victim, but only injured themselves while slashing the victim’s face for revenge, right?"

Mr. Zhao nodded, showing signs of impatience as he urged:

"Speak directly if you’ve figured something out, don’t beat around the bush here."

"I mean, these gloves are very thick and not designed in different sizes. Women usually don’t have the strength to perform a stabbing using such gloves unless the dagger is held with the tip facing downward, grasped with both hands. Hence the wounds should be on the side of the palm near the little finger, but I am not sure if the murderer is left-handed or right-handed. Such a wound should be quite deep."

Zhou Ning closed his eyes, recalling the strangulation marks on the victim’s neck, with the thumb on the right side, indicating it was made by a right hand. Such a sudden assault is typically executed with the hand that is most commonly used.

"The murderer is right-handed. I indeed overlooked this point mentioned by the poet. The murderer’s left hand has a cut, located on the second and third joints of the little finger and where the palm wrinkles, forming a corresponding laceration. If they were wearing rubber gloves, then this cut would be quite deep. Perhaps we can check records of outpatient stitching at various hospitals in Qifeng City on that day."

Mr. Zhao hurriedly took out his phone and dialed Fang Mu’s number. Fang Mu and his team were about to head back when they heard the news and quickly instructed the driver to stop.

"I’ll look into it right now, not just the records. I want to directly access the surveillance footage of that day and copy it all to take back for Mr. Qu to examine."

As soon as this conversation ended, Zhou Ning’s phone rang; the call was from Xu Dayuan.

"Are you saying you’ve woken up?"

"Boss, you sound a bit unhappy with that concerned tone of yours?"

"You little brat, wisecracking with me, huh? You don’t get anything good from Zhao Xinli. By the way, I’m telling you that we’ve found Liu Meiling’s parents and asked about the person who sent the photos back then. Her mother said it was a girl who didn’t give her name, only saying she was a reporter for the daily paper.

Besides giving them those few photos, she also left the film negative. I asked Liu Meiling’s mother to look for it, and she actually found the negative. There are no fingerprints on it, but the paper wrapping the negative is a half sheet from a notebook, with what seems to be a sketch of some architectural draft and a few words, though only half of the words are visible."

Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes. Clearly, Xu Dayuan had already guessed what those words might be, and as for the architectural draft, it wouldn’t have been mentioned by Xu Dayuan if it had no distinctive features. Thinking about their previous profession, Zhou Ning’s eyes widened slightly.

"Is it a sketch of a landscape and greenery layout? Could those words be the name ’Xu Qingshu’?"

Hearing Zhou Ning say this, Mr. Zhao was somewhat stunned and quickly grabbed Zhou Ning’s phone to turn on the speakerphone. Xu Dayuan sighed. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

"Yes, I just brought Xu Qingshu to the criminal police team. If you want to come over and listen, feel free."

Click, Xu Dayuan hung up the phone. Mr. Zhao blinked, his curiosity piqued, but since the other party didn’t say more, the ambiguity was quite unsettling.

"Let’s go, let’s go, we’ve always been the proactive ones, and now they say ’if you want to listen, listen.’ What’s that supposed to mean, looking down on us? Let’s go and listen!"

Suppressing a smile, Zhou Ning actually did want to go and listen, considering how far the investigation had progressed.

He patted Xia Momo’s arm, signaling for him to pause for a moment.

"Let’s go, we’ll go and listen together. We’ll let Xu Qingshu look at the pictures and ask if she remembers Shi Yun."

Saying this, the group went to the front building where Xu Dayuan, with his arms crossed, stood in the hallway. Upon seeing Zhou Ning and the others, the corner of his lips slightly lifted.

Zhou Ning pretended not to notice, as such behavior was too childish for a deputy director who should be more disciplined. He appeared to be satisfied only when you couldn’t guess the outcome.

"I thought you guys wouldn’t be interested, but let’s go and listen together."

Zhou Ning nodded and followed Xu Dayuan into the room next to the interrogation room. To their surprise, Mr. Bai was sitting inside, next to an older detective. Zhou Ning knew him; it was Peng Da from the second team, also known for his hot temper. This was an interesting pairing.

Zhou Ning glanced at Xu Dayuan and hastily spoke:

"We have a new discovery. I was negligent during the autopsy. The murderer is right-handed. During the process of killing Liu Meiling, she wore rubber-coated gloves. We deduce that she cut herself on the outside of her left little finger -- at least two deep wounds that might have been stitched.

So we contacted Mr. Dui directly to have them visit the major hospitals in Qifeng City, get all the registration data for outpatient stitching that day, and make copies of the surveillance footage to compare when they return later."

Xu Dayuan raised an eyebrow, giving Zhou Ning a meaningful look but did not say anything else. He just signaled everyone to pay attention to the interrogation. Zhou Ning frowned slightly; that look from Xu Dayuan was too reminiscent of the way Liu Yongxin looked at him earlier.

Could it be that they all think I’m trying to control the pace of the investigation?

This thought unsettled Zhou Ning, who shook his head and looked toward the interrogation room. Xu Qingshu still had a calm demeanor, her arms crossed, staring at Mr. Bai and Peng Da. Although Peng Da had a strong presence, she seemed unaffected.

Peng Da slammed a photo on the table and pushed it towards Xu Qingshu.

"Speak when asked. Is this photo taken by you or not?"

Xu Qingshu glanced at it and shook her head slightly, refusing to open her mouth. Mr. Bai was getting anxious, seemingly about to say something, but Peng Da kicked him, prompting him to shut up.

"Do you think we police just sit around and do nothing? Without any evidence, do you think we could have brought you to the criminal police team?"

Xu Qingshu snorted.

"Right now, our family is the victim. My brother was harmed while in a police car. Although I’m grateful that you found out someone had drugged him and Li Li, it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve harmed my brother!"