The Five-Flower Mountain is a beautiful scenic spot attracting many visitors, but most just hike along the trails. Few venture into the forest off the trails.

Even if some do enter the forest, it’s often for quick reasons like this couple, maybe to use the restroom.

Therefore, the forest sees little foot traffic, which provides Lu Chuan and his team with many conveniences for the crime scene investigation.

The traces left by the two young people who went into the forest for a romantic escapade were very obvious.

Other tracks can easily be excluded. Most currently appear to have been left by the perpetrator.

On the way down and up the mountain, the perpetrator touched the surrounding trees multiple times, leaving even some clothing scraps.

On some trees, Lu Chuan and his team collected some clothing fibers.

Of course, fibers alone cannot determine if these belong to the perpetrator or the victim and require lab testing.

Today is the weekend, and Wang Changjiang had to leave Haizhou City, so this time, only Shen Yan is here from the forensic team.

Fortunately, Lu Chuan has skills in this area and can help Shen Yan with a preliminary examination of the corpse.

This was the first time Shen Yan had seen a corpse in such a state of decomposition.

However, as a forensic doctor, this level of decomposition only visually impacts her somewhat, without causing much discomfort.

The forensic equipment was brought over by Qin Yong, and now Shen Yan is fully geared up.

Using tweezers to move maggots on the corpse, observe their sizes, and touch intact areas of the skin to test its elasticity.

"Typical outdoor decomposition, the time of death is approximately half a month ago."

"The surface of the corpse is significantly decomposed, making it temporarily impossible to determine if there are any wounds."

"The exact cause and time of death need an autopsy to be confirmed."

Shen Yan’s analysis was generally consistent with the results of Lu Chuan’s recent inspection.

"Are the shoelaces from the victim?"

The deceased was wearing lace-up sneakers, but the shoelaces were gone from the shoes and found around the neck.

"Was it intentional by the perpetrator?"

"Or was it for some other reason?"

Lu Chuan had noticed this earlier and had attempted to analyze it.

"There are likely two possibilities: the perpetrator was staging a fake suicide by hanging, and since there wasn’t a handy rope available, the shoelaces were used."

"Another possibility is the perpetrator might have committed the murder impulsively without adequate preparation, so they used the shoelaces."

"The victim is about 1.6 meters tall, appears frail but must weigh at least 40 to 50 kilograms. These two shoelaces..."

Lu Chuan understood Shen Yan’s implication, questioning how such thin shoelaces could support such weight.

"I took a quick look earlier, and the main component of the shoelaces appears to be nylon."

Nylon, essentially a polyamide compound, is a synthetic fiber with high tensile strength, commonly used in modern clothing.

In recent years, standard nylon has evolved into ultra-strong nylon, nano-nylon, and high-strength nylon for specialized applications.

It is applied in industrial fields like aerospace and aviation.

"Ordinary nylon has strong tensile strength, and nylon shoelaces of this thickness can support at least a hundred kilograms of force."

Thus, with the victim’s weight being only 40 to 50 kilograms, the nylon shoelaces can indeed bear the weight.

Three years ago, Hengzhou City experienced a case where a middle school student went missing. Since the missing person was a minor, it caused quite a stir.

The police dispatched thousands of people to search, but they couldn’t find the individual.

The student went missing while attending school, and due to incomplete surveillance facilities, there was no valuable evidence for the police.

The missing student’s parents were agitated, and there were numerous speculations. The school’s cooperation at the time was not very effective, creating a significant media sensation.

No matter how much media attention the case got or how anxious the parents were, after mobilizing a thousand people to search a 10-kilometer radius without success, the case went cold.

Lu Chuan was in college at the time and frequently saw updates on the case while browsing his phone.

The turning point in the case occurred three months after the incident.

A grain warehouse keeper found the body in a forest near their grain storage area.

The body was found hanging on a branch by two nylon shoelaces.

This forest by the grain warehouse was less than a kilometer from the school.

After finding the body, the police conducted a path simulation and confirmed the student voluntarily went missing and hanged himself in the forest.

Another reason for confirming it as a suicide was a handwritten suicide note found in the student’s clothing.

The boy weighed about 70 kilograms.

Since 70 kilograms could be supported, it was logical that the shoelaces could handle the 40 to 50-kilogram weight of a female corpse.

Of course, the case was ruled a suicide because the suicide note was present, and only the student’s traces were found, with no other individuals’ traces.

The preliminary external examination of the corpse ended quickly, and Lu Chuan called two people to help lift the body down, as it was a bit tricky to take it off the tree.

It’s not that the body was hanging high, but the shoelaces had cut into the decomposing neck, necessitating multiple people to minimize damage when taking it down.

The action team is expanding the range of field visits and investigations, and although it’s in the mountains, some people come up here to pick mushrooms.

Perhaps someone might have noticed something.

In the forensic autopsy room, Shen Yan began the dissection of the body.

Even though Wang Changjiang was absent, Shen Yan’s skills were sufficient to perform an autopsy alone, especially with Lu Chuan’s assistance.

Because the body was decomposed and Lu Chuan had unique insights into judging the time of death by cultivating maggots, Qin Yong had asked for his help.

"Preliminarily, the maggots have not gone through generational cycles, and appear to be first-generation ones. Judging by the growth stage, the death occurred approximately 13 to 14 days ago."

Determining the time of death for outdoor bodies follows a strict and precise procedure.

Shen Yan nodded: "There hasn’t been any rain on Five-Flower Mountain recently, and combined with the local temperature and humidity, the decomposition time is indeed about two weeks."

On the autopsy table, the clothes on the corpse had been cut open.

"No significant wounds found in the thoracic or abdominal regions, hyoid bone fracture suggests death due to asphyxiation."

Shen Yan determined only the preliminary cause of death, which was asphyxiation, but couldn’t confirm whether it was strangulation or choking.

Due to the severe decomposition of the neck, no obvious strangle or choke marks could be identified.