The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective-Chapter 549 - 310: This Contest Has Only Just Begun!
"What? You’re scared?"
Zhang Yean raised an eyebrow, deliberately provoking him, "You’ve been a detective for so long, and you’re afraid of corpses?"
"If you don’t even dare to go to the funeral home at night, how will you catch bad guys in the future?"
"Who’s scared of whom!"
Wan puffed out his chest, pretending to be calm, "If a female cop isn’t afraid, why should I, a male cop, be a coward? Let’s go!"
Jiang An felt a bit sorry, hurriedly saying, "Senior brother, senior sister, why don’t you two go?"
"Going to see the corpses at night means, first, we can’t drink, and second, it messes up your plans."
"What are you talking about!"
Zhang Yean waved her hand, her expression firm, "The three of us are the ’Iron Trio’, we always advance and retreat together. We just won’t drink tonight, save it for next time."
Wan also laughed and agreed, "This way I can save some money to take my girlfriend to the movies."
"When you do treat us, you better make sure we have a lot to drink!"
"Alright! It’s a deal!"
Jiang An looked at the two gratefully, a warmth spreading through his heart.
"I’ll make sure to find a time to treat everyone to a good time!"
Afterwards, the three of them called two other team members and went to a Sichuan hotpot restaurant in the city center.
The restaurant was bustling with voices, full of life, the air filled with the rich aroma of hotpot.
The five of them sat in a small private room, a round table set with exquisite tableware, creating a warm and friendly atmosphere.
A waitress dressed in Sichuan minority traditional attire smiled and entered, "May I ask what kind of soup base you’d like? Spicy or clear broth?"
"Spicy! Hot and lively!"
Wan said loudly.
"Alright! The spicy pot is coming right up!"
The waitress responded and quickly left.
Soon after, a pot of hot, bubbling spicy oil was brought to the table, its fragrance overflowing.
Then, plates of fresh dishes were served one after another.
Zhang Yean pointed to the dishes and introduced, "I ordered these dishes online in advance, I hope they suit your taste."
"There’s duck intestines, beef tripe, trachea, chicken gizzards, rabbit brains, duck heads, duck feet, lotus root slices, enoki mushrooms, cod fish..."
"That’s enough, Miss Yan ordered perfectly, balanced with both meat and vegetables, nutritious!"
"I think it’s great too."
"Originally I budgeted two thousand yuan for dinner and drinks tonight, but it seems we won’t even use a thousand," Wan said.
"So, does that mean we ordered too little?"
Zhang Yean teased, "Should I add some tuna, caviar, or expensive seafood?"
"No problem! Tonight’s on me, order whatever you want!" Wan said generously.
Amid laughter, everyone enjoyed the food to the fullest.
From seven to eight fifty, the hotpot on the table was steaming all the while, and each person’s face was filled with a satisfied smile.
However, Jiang An’s mind couldn’t let go of the corpses at the funeral home.
Despite the relaxed atmosphere, a string in his heart remained taut.
After the meal, Wan, Zhang Yean, and Jiang An drove back to Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau.
Under the night sky, the lights from the bureau’s building windows glimmered like stars in the darkness.
Jiang An stood at the entrance, gazing at those lit windows, filled with various emotions: the peace of this city is quietly supported by countless people like them, bearing the burden and moving forward in silence.
Zhang Yean also looked in that direction and said softly, "Our efforts are to protect these countless lights."
"Let’s go, grab the equipment and head to the funeral home."
"Should we call ahead to make an appointment?" Wan suddenly asked.
"No need, there’s someone on duty at the funeral home 24/7, we can just go," Jiang An said.
Forty minutes later, the three drove into Jiangcheng City Funeral Home.
Under the night sky, the funeral home appeared particularly eerie, the lights in the yard dim and flickering, as if threatening to extinguish at any moment.
Rows of wreaths lined the road, gently swaying in the breeze, like silent phantoms.
At the doors of some mortuary rooms, mourners sat dozing, their figures especially lonely under the dim light.
Reaching the reception desk, Zhang Yean stepped forward and presented her credentials, "Hello, we’re from the Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau, here to examine three bodies."
The receptionist rubbed her sleepy eyes, filled with surprise and confusion, "Alright..."
She hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Can you tell me the names of the deceased? I’ll let the master bring out the bodies."
Jiang An stepped forward, reported the names of the deceased, and added, "These three bodies have been stored for nearly 20 years."
"20 years? They must be mummified by now!"
The receptionist exclaimed, "And with such a long freezing time, you might not be able to conduct an autopsy tonight."
"No need to perform an autopsy, I just need to look at the surfaces of the bodies."
"The bodies were systematically examined back then; another autopsy is largely meaningless—the organs have been removed too," Jiang An explained.
"Alright, will you be examining them at the forensic entity autopsy center or in our funeral home’s mortuary?"
Jiang An pondered for a moment, then said, "Let’s just look at them in the freezing storage, no need for the autopsy center."
Following the staff into the building where the bodies were stored, a bone-chilling coldness hit them.
The corridors were lined with densely packed mortuary cabinets, seemingly endless.
Wan couldn’t help but shiver, his voice trembling slightly, "This is my first time coming to a place like this."
"So many cabinets, there must be four or five hundred? All holding bodies?"
"Who knows, but there must be quite a few bodies,"
Zhang Yean deliberately lowered her voice, her tone eerie, startling Wan who shivered and tucked his neck.
"Why do I feel like there are so many eyes watching us?" Wan looked around nervously.
"We’re here to help ’them’ seek justice; what’s there to be afraid of?"
"If anything, it’s Dr. Jiang they’d seek first; we’re just passing through."
Zhang Yean patted Wan on the shoulder, half-jokingly speaking.
Led by the staff, they reached the depth of the denser section of the storage.
The nameplates "Wang Xue", "Zhao Jian", "Zhao Yun" caught their eyes.
Jiang An looked at these names with a pang of sadness: "It’s a pity, this family still hasn’t had a proper burial."
"If we can solve this case, it would count as a great deed done by us Jiangcheng detectives."
Wan said with feeling.
As they spoke, the staff donned gloves and pulled out the three bodies from the dense cabinets, placing them on the trolley frame.
The three bodies were unreservedly exposed before them.
After two decades of freezing, the bodies’ faces had severely deformed, the skin dry and blackened, like monsters from another world.
Wan only glanced once before he couldn’t help but turn his head, his face a little pale.
Jiang An took gloves from the toolbox and put them on, as did Zhang Yean and Wan.
The three stood on either side of the bodies and began to examine them closely.
First was Zhao Jian’s body.
The suture wound on his chest was particularly prominent on the dried skin, like a hideous scar.
On the left chest was another independent wound, and the arms and wrists were covered with defensive wounds, with a shallow cut on the neck.
Strangely, his face was intact, without any external wounds.
Jiang An observed for a long while and said, "Senior brother, senior sister, lend me a hand to turn it over, let’s see the back."
Then the three worked together to turn the body over, and apart from some blackness on Zhao Jian’s back, there were no other wounds.
Jiang An nodded and moved to Wang Xue’s body.
The sight made both Jiang An and Zhang Yean frown.
Wang Xue’s face and chest were covered with small cuts, though not deep, they covered a large area, as if tortured repeatedly with a sharp weapon.
And the long, deep cut on her neck was appallingly enough to be fatal.
"How could the killer be so cruel?"
Zhang Yean’s voice trembled, filled with anger and compassion.
This was her first time observing a body so closely, and she was profoundly affected.
Jiang An stood between the two bodies, his gaze shifting back and forth, frowning deeply.
His mind kept pondering: why is there such a stark difference in the wounds on the two bodies?
Does the killer have different motives for different victims, or is there some hidden secret?
These questions, like tangled threads, entangled his mind, driving him to continue seeking the truth.
In this quiet and eerie funeral home, a silent battle, a dialogue with the dead, and a contest with the killer, had just begun...
