Two hours later.

Qin Yong arrived at Five-Flower Mountain with a large group of people.

Their eyes on Lu Chuan and Shen Yan were quite peculiar. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Zhang Hui clicked his tongue twice and nudged Lu Chuan’s waist: "Brother, you two... your reputation really precedes you."

They say only names can be misunderstood, but nicknames never lie. The Deadly Duo truly lives up to their name.

It was only a few days ago that the two of them went to the East Sea Camping Area and discovered the mummified corpse inside a statue.

The Criminal Investigation Team had finally settled down a bit with no major cases, and now this one came up.

Lu Chuan spread his hands in speechless resignation.

On the side, Shen Yan pursed her lips, her face also showing helplessness.

They were just out to enjoy the autumn and have some fun, who would’ve thought they’d stumble upon another case.

"Brother Hui, we didn’t want this either, it just happened. What can you do?"

Ahem, ahem.

Qin Yong coughed twice, interrupting their conversation.

"Alright, let’s get to work."

"Lu Chuan, what’s the situation at the scene?"

Talking about the case, everyone became serious. Lu Chuan composed himself and reported to Qin Yong.

"Around 9:30 this morning, Shen Yan and I were here at Five-Flower Mountain for a visit."

"Around two bends ahead, we heard someone shouting for help, so Shen Yan and I rushed over."

The two young people who saw the corpse during their outdoor activities were still shivering on the side.

"Those two were the first to discover the body."

"Then I entered the scene second and found a female corpse hanging from the branch of a tree in the woods below, with a shoelace around the neck and the body in a highly decayed state."

"I’ve conducted a preliminary survey of the scene; the deceased is female, approximately 30 years old and 1.58 meters tall."

"The time of death is tentatively determined to be about two weeks ago, with the cause of death yet undetermined."

During the initial crime scene investigation, Lu Chuan did not conduct a tactile examination of the body due to a lack of tools and gloves.

Qin Yong nodded and asked, "How’s the surrounding area?"

Lu Chuan knew Qin Yong was asking if there was any evidence left by the murderer if it was a homicide.

"The leaves have just started falling with the onset of autumn, so there aren’t any obvious traces around. They could be covered by leaves, requiring further investigation to find clues."

Whether it was a suicide or homicide, Lu Chuan had already formed a judgment when reporting to Qin Yong, primarily concluding it was a murder case.

Because if it was a self-hanging death, there would definitely be something to step on when the person hung themselves.

It’s possible to climb a tree while alive and hang themselves from a branch.

However, there were no climbing marks on the trees at the scene, nor stones or other items to step on the ground.

After hearing the report, Qin Yong instructed the action group to take statements from the two young people who first discovered the body.

"Crime Scene Investigation should proceed first, followed by the forensic examination."

As it was a sudden case and a weekend, not everyone was present. At the Crime Scene Investigation office, Lu Chuan was at the scene, Yang Sen was out, while Old Bai and Liu Guodong arrived.

"Master, let’s clear the fallen leaves around the body and see if we can find some clues."

Liu Guodong nodded, as they were outdoors and in a rarely visited area, any clues left by the perpetrator were unlikely to have been disturbed.

Since it was early autumn, not all leaves had fallen from the trees yet.

There was only a thin layer of fresh fallen leaves on the ground. Once these were cleared, what lay beneath were last year’s decayed leaves.

The three of them worked outward from the body and quickly discovered some clues.

Whether it was Lu Chuan or the two young people who first discovered the body, the tracks were left on the fresh fallen leaves.

Such footprints, when stepped on fresh leaves, leave shallow marks in the decayed leaves underneath.

However, if the footsteps were made on the decayed leaves before the fresh leaves fell, the marks would be deeper.

"Lu Chuan, look here!"

Old Bai quickly made a discovery.

After the fresh fallen leaves below the body were cleared, Old Bai found some inconspicuous holes on the decayed leaves.

Probing them with a finger, they were a few centimeters deep, about three to four centimeters.

"Made by a high heel stab."

Lu Chuan only needed a glance to know what kind of footprint had left the mark.

He squatted down, took out a ruler, and measured the footprint.

"Heel hollow and the hollow part of the forefoot... 5.6 centimeters, the high heels worn by the person are size 40, pit depth... three to four centimeters..."

"The perpetrator is very likely a female, about one meter seventy-nine to one meter eighty tall, aged between twenty-five to thirty..."

Lu Chuan measured while verbally recounting the clues he found.

The footprints left by the perpetrator in the decayed leaves were different from those left on a harder surface.

When Lu Chuan conducted the analysis, his calculations were slow and quite challenging.

However, the unique nature of high-heeled footprints allowed Lu Chuan to extract some information.

Additionally, following the trajectory of the high-heeled footprints, the three of them cleared the leaves covering them, discovering the path the perpetrator used to transport the body.

"The perpetrator carried the body down from the above footpath."

Lu Chuan lay on the ground, observing the newly discovered line of footprints.

"There are two lines of footprints here; the deeper ones indicate the perpetrator was carrying weight, while the adjacent shallower ones are likely the return path."

Although the high-heeled holes had pierced into the decayed leaves, the forefoot marks varied in depth under different weight conditions.

This made it easier for Lu Chuan to identify traces of the approach and departure.

With this clue, the next task for Lu Chuan and the team was to find any additional traces left along the path taken by the perpetrator.

Such as fingerprints, skin flakes, or hair.

In modern criminal investigation techniques, the primary method of identifying a suspect is through trace evidence to determine if they were present at the scene.

Fingerprint identification, footprint identification and analysis, and DNA information comparison are the most common methods.

By comparison, fingerprints are relatively easy to hide; if the suspect wore gloves, they generally wouldn’t leave fingerprints at the crime scene.

Footprints, however, are difficult to eliminate, and even if they are, they leave behind some other clues.

Of course, the identification and analysis of footprints are more challenging, and the success rate of identifying a suspect is not very high.

Moreover, if the scene’s footprints are damaged, they cannot be extracted.

Another commonly used trace identification method is DNA information identification.

Due to the body’s metabolic processes, everyone leaves their DNA information in any place they pass through at any given time.

This is an objective law, not something one can avoid by being cautious.