National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 973 - 909: Verification

Tao Yajie stared at the photos on the table, her expression composed for sixty seconds.

Just when the others at the table thought she was about to question them, Tao Yajie took out her mobile phone and said with a smile, "Excuse me, I need to check a few corpses in here. The remains found earlier had already undergone partial anthropological identification..."

As she spoke, she flipped through the photos in her album.

A waitress came over to change the bone plates for everyone, walking from the door to Tao Yajie’s side, and she happened to see the glaring photos of corpses on Tao Yajie’s phone. The photos displayed bones in shades of black, gray, and white, featuring ghastly close-ups of skulls, overlapping leg bones, and a sternum lying quietly on shiny stainless steel.

The young girl rubbed her eyes and looked up again, only to see that there were also photos of skeletal remains laid out in front of Jiang Yuan, appearing even cleaner, more uniform, and deeply unsettling...

The young girl couldn’t help but gasp, her eyes widening to perfect circles.

Tang Jia, sitting nearby and worried she might scream, quickly stood up and said, "Don’t be afraid, we are not bad people..."

"I know. You must be from the medical department... It’s not really good for your health to look at these kinds of things while eating," the young girl had calmed down and resumed her work.

"We belong to the archaeology department," said Wang Weiqing, president of the student council, with a smile to the waitress.

The young girl uttered an "Oh": "That’s better. Medical students and faculty who come here often bring such horrifying photos."

"So in the end, it’s the medical department that’s the most terrifying, right?" Zhang Jiao said, twirling a phalanx keychain in her hand. The phalanx was stolen from the lab, violating rules and discipline, but she did it anyhow, resembling a common person who often breaks rules, disrespects protocols, disregards organizational rules, acts irresponsibly, recklessly, and selfishly.

The waitress, as she changed the bone plates, pondered for a moment and said, "The most terrifying has to be the biology department, especially the freshmen. They often bring in frogs, rabbits, and the like; some even skinned, asking the restaurant to cook them."

Zhang Jiao frowned slightly and her phalanx keychain stopped spinning. Had they just been outdone?

Before she could say anything else, Tao Yajie put down her phone and said in a surprised tone, "The age estimation of the first few skeletons is almost identical to your assessment, Doctor Jiang, differing by less than a year."

Comparatively, age estimation of skeletal remains from archaeological sites is harder than those from crime scenes because they have been deposited for much longer, and the tomb environment differs from the external environment, leading to very peculiar accumulated conditions over the decades.

Thus, in addition to her surprise, there was a hint of admiration for Jiang Yuan in Tao Yajie’s tone.

Jiang Yuan asked naturally, "Which numbered corpses show a difference in age estimation?"

In terms of forensic anthropology alone, he currently isn’t using a temporary +1 skill, placing him purely at Level 3, amongst the top in the Shannan Province archaeological circle, though perhaps not nationally noted. However, the skill of estimating the age of remains in relation to the time of death is closely related and Jiang Yuan’s time of death estimates are at Level 6, placing him not only at the national but also the international top tier.

Jiang Yuan also wanted to gauge the strength of the domestic archaeological community as he had been mainly working in the police sector over the past few years.

Tao Yajie, thinking that Jiang Yuan was not convinced, couldn’t help but say, "It’s already very accurate. You only looked at it for a few minutes... no, not even a minute and you estimated the age of the remains..."

As she spoke, she saw Jiang Yuan’s dismissive expression, and wisely stopped to say, "Looking at the records on my side, the third and fourth on the left, our expert group’s estimates are one year younger than yours, 34 years and 20 years."

Jiang Yuan let out an "Oh," leaned over, and quickly looked again at the photos of number three and number four, and promptly said, "The fourth one is just a question of the exact part of the year. For the third one, your estimate is off; you used the pelvis for age estimation, didn’t you?"

"Right," Tao Yajie nodded.

Using the pelvis—which is the best bone for anthropological identification, whether it’s age, gender, height, or childbearing history, it’s relatively easy to determine these attributes. At least, the pelvis is the easiest bone to discern such information.

Jiang Yuan simply stated, "The pelvis of this corpse indeed has some deceptive qualities, but the body is intact. Therefore, considering the rib cartilage, the sternum conditions, 35 years is more accurate."

Tao Yajie also knows a bit about anthropology, just not much. At this moment, she simply nodded as Jiang Yuan explained because recognizing the age of the deceased is crucial. However, whether it’s 35 or 34 years old isn’t that important. On this point, the rigor of archaeology is not comparable to criminal investigation.

However, a simple exchange also gave Tao Yajie a clearer understanding of Jiang Yuan.

Tao Yajie sipped some wine and then said, "When we return to the university later, I’ll introduce you to the experts from our team. You will definitely have a lot to talk about."

"Okay," Jiang Yuan replied succinctly.

With everyone preoccupied, they casually finished their meal and returned to the university.

The campus of Shannan University is vast, but the archaeology department under the Social Sciences College is a small department with only a few professors. Tao Yajie led the group into the academic building, and it only took a few greetings before many students and teachers gathered, drawn by the news.

The Yong King’s Great Tomb is the biggest recent news in the archaeology department, and Jiang Yuan has also been in the news a few times. These two factors combined have sparked great interest among the students of the department.

"This is Professor Sun."

"Professor Li."

"Professor Zhang."

Tao Yajie introduced several people in the office, then said, "Our expert team currently consists of these individuals. Doctor Jiang, would you like to say a few words?"

"Let’s get straight to work," Jiang Yuan, accustomed to working in external units, stood up under the gaze of several professors, walked casually to a spot he liked, and said, "I’m quite skilled at determining the time of death. How about I start with this part?"

"That would be great; I was also thinking..." Tao Yajie told everyone about the mealtime discussion and laughed, "If Doctor Jiang can maintain his earlier speed, our progress will greatly accelerate."

Jiang Yuan nodded and then said to Wang Chuanxing, "Set it up."

Without a word, Wang Chuanxing followed the procedural workflow of homicide cases, made a phone call, and in less than fifteen minutes, ready police officers brought eight laptops from a car parked in front of the building.

Wang Chuanxing and others set up the laptops right there and connected to the office printer, starting to produce photos with clicking sounds.

Several students were also directed by Wang Chuanxing. For example, Wang Weiqing, the president of the Archaeological Society, was called out because he stood too close and then began his career looking after the photos.

As for the professors, they were completely stunned.

They do have graduate students, doctoral students, or temporarily enlisted undergraduates, but the discipline of college students is not on the same level as that of police officers, nor is their execution.

Therefore, Jiang Yuan’s subordinates looked extremely efficient, setting up the computers in minutes and, under the guidance of a project team member, categorizing the photos of the remains.

Jiang Yuan waited briefly until the first batch of categorized remains was ready, then sat in front of the computer, found a pen and paper, and began measuring, marking, and concluding on the spot.

Similar to the dinner table, it only took Jiang Yuan about ten to several tens of seconds to deliver a result.

The experts present were astounded.

Is determining age this easy? Impossible!

Several people spontaneously gathered to closely watch Jiang Yuan’s judgment process and debate with him.