Chapter 447: Chapter 421 Transfer_1
The autopsy continued, and aside from this leather-like substance in the intestines, no other discoveries were made. However, several clotted and shriveled blood clots were found, and when uncovered, obvious damage was seen on the intestines.
All this indicated that the deceased suffered from prolonged starvation, causing erosion and damage to the gastrointestinal tract, with even bleeding. As for the piece of leather-like substance, mainly because it couldn’t be chewed and was too big, it got stuck in the duodenal bulb where there were already ulcers, and it remained there until death.
Shaking his head, he had now examined the deceased’s rectum, which showed multiple linear damages. However, unlike the ulcers in the stomach and small intestines, these appeared to be scratches, irregular, and extremely fine, not caused by fingernails.
Thinking of those leather-like substances, Zhou Ning didn’t pay much attention. It wasn’t surprising that such hard objects caused damage in various parts of the intestines—especially inside the rectum, where peristaltic movement for excretion could easily lead to scratches.
After completing the thoraco-abdominal autopsy, Zhou Ning shook his sore neck and gestured to Zhu Xingxing to take over.
"Get ready. You continue with the craniotomy, avoiding the fractured areas of the deceased. Once it’s open, just show me if there are any contrecoup injuries."
Zhu Xingxing, containing his excitement, got the two interns ready with the necessary equipment.
In fact, after over two months of training, these two were far more capable than interns from other groups. They exhibited no panic or nervousness, handling their tasks with calm, collected efficiency, clearly embodying Zhou Ning’s essence.
Liu Yongxin glanced over and nodded in approval; Zhou Ning indeed had a knack for teaching students.
At this moment, Zhou Ning went to the left side of the deceased. The right hand of victim number one, Liu Xiangrui, had a defect that looked like it was caused by animal predation, without any decay, indicating that it was most likely torn after the body had mummified and shortly before it was found.
Pulling over a wheeled chair, Zhou Ning sat down and dragged the LED magnifying glass over to take a closer look at the fingernails of the deceased’s left hand. After rehydration, the left hand, unlike other parts of the body, hadn’t fully regained its flexibility, which Zhou Ning speculated was related to activity.
Prying the fingers open with some force, the fingers and fingernails were a black-brown color. The pinky fingernail showed signs of a fracture, with a chunk missing from the nail bed and irregular edges around the fracture line, as well as dried blood on the nail bed.
Zhou Ning blinked. Generally, when nails are broken during the act of grabbing something or accidentally, they break cleanly, and even if uneven, they tend to fracture along the nail’s edge. The oblique break in the middle was indeed unusual.
Flipping over the finger, he noticed that the pad of the pinky seemed somewhat swollen, with the faint impression of an E-shaped mark lying down. This discovery caught Zhou Ning’s interest.
He quickly pulled the magnifying glass closer but found it harder to identify whether it was a bite mark the more he magnified the area. Nevertheless, Zhou Ning requested pliers and a sampling knife, ran the blade over the nail bed, and removed the nail for examination.
Seeing this, Mr. Zhao shuddered, but bit back any reaction and remained silent.
Zhou Ning glanced at him, and Mr. Zhao, acting as if nothing had happened, averted his gaze. Zhou Ning looked over at Zhu Xingxing’s progress; they had already finished. Sun Gaotie had returned, and Zhou Ning gestured to him.
Sun Gaotie, not understanding, rushed excitedly to Zhou Ning’s side.
"What’s up, boss?"
"Here, take over the sampling for me, remove all the nails of the deceased, make sure to label which hand they come from, and then get them ready for lab submission."
"Oh, ah?"
Sun Gaotie felt a jolt of surprise, glancing between Zhou Ning and the autopsy table. Liu Yongxin looked at Sun Gaotie, then briefly glanced at the two interns near Zhu Xingxing. Sun Gaotie swallowed any words he was about to say and quickly put on gloves, taking Zhou Ning’s previous spot, beginning to handle the nails with trembling hands.
Zhou Ning’s mind was in disarray because all the findings so far indicated that the victim had died from prolonged starvation, with only the head fracture remaining unexplained. However, the bone fragments suggested that of the several blows to the head, only one was inflicted when the victim was close to death.
So why would someone who was starved for five days and nearly breathless be repeatedly struck on the head?
Putting his thoughts aside, Zhou Ning approached Zhu Xingxing, where the craniotomy was completed. The two interns were cooperating with Zhu Xingxing to lift the skullcap of the deceased. Their clumsy efforts had them almost kneeling, sweat covering their heads and faces.
In fact, Zhou Ning had done this on purpose. They had experienced dismembered bodies, including that of a giant in advanced stages of putrefaction, and bones dredged from septic tanks. Now with a mummy that had been rehydrated and subjected to a craniotomy, such intensive exposure wouldn’t be too overwhelming for them in future autopsies.
Zhu Xingxing cut the connecting tissue, and the two interns were finally able to step away, clearing the area for Zhou Ning.
Glancing inside the skull, the brain tissue was curled up into a ball, its folds distinct. The frontal area, base of the skull, sphenoidal sinus, and other parts exhibited no signs of hemorrhagic staining nor were there any contrecoup injuries.
Gently separating the brain tissue, Zhou Ning lifted it to observe. Only at the position corresponding to the top of the skull was there a trace of a blood-tinged secretion, but it was very minimal—just a spot the size of a soybean—and the same was true for other areas.
Zhou Ning took a deep breath, placed the brain tissue back, and gestured to Zhu Xingxing.
"Stitch it up. Reorganize all the samples and send them all for analysis."
Zhu Xingxing turned off the recording device and quickly intercepted Zhou Ning.
"Boss, hurry up and tell us. The victim’s cranial injuries aren’t serious. Aside from the palm, there aren’t any fatal wounds on the body. The hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage are intact, there’s no strangulation marks or finger impressions on the neck, and there’s no dried foam from drowning in the mouth or nose.
The lungs are also in a normal dry state, and we’ve checked all the organs that we could—heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, bladder—and apart from some ulcers and erosions in the digestive tract, we have barely made any useful findings. What exactly is the cause of death?"
Everyone looked at Zhou Ning, who pulled down his mask and glanced at the victim’s images on the big screen.
"You’re right, he didn’t have any disease, and the four blows to the top of his head were either inflicted close to death or postmortem. As for the fatal injury, I believe it was starvation; this man starved to death.
During the later stages of prolonged starvation, insufficient energy intake causes a buildup of fats and protein metabolism byproducts in the body, leading to azotemia and acid-base balance disorders. These, in turn, caused dysfunction in the vital organs necessary for maintaining life, resulting in death.
Of course, the victim also showed severe signs of dehydration, meaning he wasn’t just starved but was starved in a place without water. This reminds me of people trapped after earthquakes. However, they have limited movement, whereas there are no restraint injuries on his body. That’s what I can’t understand."
After Zhou Ning finished speaking, everyone in the autopsy room fell silent, not because the explanation was obscure, but because they felt the deceased, labeled as Victim Number One, had died a terrible death—starved to near death, beaten on the head, and eventually his body left in the wilderness to become a mummy. What kind of grudge led to such a fate?
In the midst of the silence, the door to the autopsy room opened.
Xu Dayuan and Liu Yufei came in and, seeing the grave expressions on everyone’s faces, Xu Dayuan hurried over to Zhou Ning’s side.
"What’s the matter, is the autopsy not going well?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"On the contrary, the autopsy went very smoothly, and the cause of death has been found, although we need to wait for the final results of the tests."
Saying so made Xu Dayuan even more puzzled; he glanced at the autopsy table being tidied up and quickly asked:
"What was the cause of death?"
"To be precise, Victim Number One, Liu Xiangrui, died of starvation. The head injuries were inflicted postmortem, possibly out of spite. There are no signs of restraint or defensive injuries on the victim’s body, as if he quietly waited to die of hunger without any struggle or resistance."
As he spoke, Zhou Ning showed Xu Dayuan some of the details and repeated what he had said before. After hearing all this, Xu Dayuan was also stunned.
Liu Yufei leaned over to take a look at the victim.
"Both victims had such auspicious and meaningful names, but who would have thought they ended up dying such terrible deaths."
Zhou Ning nodded and signaled to Mr. Zhao to quickly take the body away. He then took Xu Dayuan and the others directly back to the office where Zhu Xingxing had already begun organizing the findings from the autopsy. On the other side of the whiteboard, she was writing quickly. Zhou Ning glanced at it and sat down in front of Xu Dayuan.
Before Zhou Ning could speak, Mr. Qu’s computer started beeping. Zhou Ning stood up and walked over to take a closer look, while the printer nearby also busied itself.
After reviewing the content, Zhou Ning’s brow didn’t relax much.
"The report for Victim Number Two, Zhang Wannian, is out. An unknown male DNA was found on his coat and dagger, with no match in the database. Samples taken from various organs revealed that Zhang Wannian’s liver cancer had metastasized to the lungs."
Liu Yongxin came over, a look of surprise on his face.
"So precise, was the lung portion sent for examination the cancerous lesion?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"It was quite fortunate, but there was an unexpected finding. The new lab technician conducted an additional test and discovered that Zhang Wannian was an HIV carrier."
"AIDS?"
Xu Dayuan, shocked, turned to look at Liu Yufei.
"You went to the hospital to check Zhang Wannian’s medical records and even spoke to the doctor, right?"
Liu Yufei nodded and pulled out a thick stack of photocopies, clearly hospital medical records from surgery and hospital stays.
"I checked, but I didn’t understand some parts, so I brought them here for Director Zhou to take a look. But I didn’t hear the doctor say that Zhang Wannian had AIDS.
He just explained the liver cancer situation and postoperative chemotherapy. I also went to the central hospital to meet Doctor Chen, who said the patient’s recovery wasn’t going well.
The last examination was on September 3. They asked him to undergo further testing, but there’s no follow-up information. I checked all the major hospitals in Qindao, but I couldn’t find any more medical records for Zhang Wannian."
Mr. Zhao coughed, seemingly in response to Liu Yufei’s visit to Doctor Chen for information, wearing a look of gossip on his face.
Zhou Ning glanced sideways at him, and he suddenly choked up, but seeing everyone looking at him because of his cough, he quickly blinked and changed the subject.
"Uh, Director Xu, I just wanted to ask, do we need to get in touch with Dayao City?"
