Chapter 5
Chapter 5: 1. deep rising-04
Jiang Xiaoyuan had followed Liu Yi for several months and was already familiar with his work temperament. He guessed that his boss was probably about seventy to eighty percent certain of his conclusion but didn’t dare to rush him, silently waiting for Liu Yi to announce the answer.
As for Li Jin, no matter how much he admired Liu Yi, as a rookie who hadn’t graduated yet and had mediocre grades, his instinctive fear and sense of inadequacy kept him from saying a word. He pretended to be a wooden post, trying to minimize his presence, terrified that Liu Yi might ask him something.
Fortunately, Liu Yi had no intention of putting the two juniors on the spot and directly shared his speculation.
“I think Zhang Yu froze to death.”
“What!?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan and Li Jin shouted in unison.
“This… this…”
Jiang Xiaoyuan’s mouth, hidden by a mask, formed an “O,” his jaw nearly dislocating.
For a moment, he wanted to ask, Boss, are you joking or have you lost your mind?
This was early October in southern China. Even in autumn, the lowest temperature was around 20°C. Wearing a thick coat could feel hot; sleeping in an office or outdoors for a night might only result in a cold. Freezing to death? Impossible.
Liu Yi let out a faint chuckle.
“Don’t you think his expression looks like a bitter smile?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan and Li Jin both focused on the deceased’s face, then glanced at each other.
“Uh… kind of, but…”
Jiang Xiaoyuan tried to recall the small, blurry textbook illustration of a “bitter smile” and compared it in his mind with Zhang Yu’s skewed, ambiguous expression. It seemed somewhat similar, yet slightly off.
Liu Yi casually picked up a probe, tapping on the red-purple bruises on the deceased’s earlobes, nose, fingers, and toes.
“If I’m right, these areas show signs of prior frostbite.”
He then pointed to the dissected stomach on the tray. “So, the dark brown hemorrhagic spots under the gastric mucosa are Vishnevsky spots.”
Jiang Xiaoyuan responded blankly with a hum.
Given Xinhai City’s geography and climate, even seasoned forensic experts might rarely encounter a frozen body. He racked his brain, recalling everything he had learned about hypothermic injuries, then stammered: “If it’s freezing to death… then… could we find the… iliopsoas and lumbar muscle hemorrhages?”
Liu Yi’s beautiful phoenix eyes curved like crescent moons. “Yes, definitely worth checking.”
……
After the dissection, the three moved to the pathology lab.
“Holy crap!”
Jiang Xiaoyuan, adjusting the caliper and looking through the microscope, shook with excitement.
“It really is iliopsoas hemorrhage from freezing!”
Under the microscope, Zhang Yu’s iliopsoas sections showed congested small blood vessels with multiple leakage sites, and the middle layer cells exhibited vacuolar degeneration—all highly specific changes in frozen victims.
“Boss, you’re amazing!”
Jiang Xiaoyuan turned to Liu Yi, giving a sincere thumbs-up without flattery. “How did you even figure out Zhang Yu froze to death?”
“I had a slight suspicion beforehand.”
Liu Yi smiled faintly.
“But after seeing the scene photos, I was about eighty to ninety percent sure.”
Jiang Xiaoyuan and Li Jin exchanged bewildered glances, both feeling like idiots. Seeing the same confusion in each other’s eyes gave them some small reassurance, and they hurriedly flipped through the photos together.
In the pictures, the elderly man’s chest was half-exposed, clothes in disarray, the grim, ambiguous smile even more unsettling than on the dissection table.
“According to the recorded scene environment, his office temperature was 19°C, consistent with recent weather.”
Liu Yi explained, tugging at his lab coat. “For example, in this temperature, going outside, I would need a shirt plus a coat to not feel cold.”
He pointed at the photos in Jiang Xiaoyuan’s hand. “But look, Zhang Yu’s shirt and cardigan buttons were mostly undone, exposing the undershirt.”
Jiang Xiaoyuan muttered, “Is… this paradoxical undressing?”
“Exactly.”
Liu Yi nodded. “When body temperature drops below 32°C, the thermoregulatory center gradually becomes paralyzed. Some people experience hallucinations and feel abnormally warm, not cold, and may remove their clothing.”
He paused, continuing: “Zhang Yu’s shirt and cardigan were in disarray, exposing the undershirt. If he had died from a sudden illness, his family wouldn’t have removed his clothes, and emergency doctors wouldn’t handle him so roughly. This must be paradoxical undressing due to hallucinated heat.”
Jiang Xiaoyuan and Li Jin’s expressions wavered between enlightened and puzzled.
“I understand the reasoning…but…”
Li Jin cautiously asked, “But in the end, how could the old man have frozen to death?”
“Hmm, that’s a good question.”
Liu Yi tapped the table lightly, a habit when thinking. “A supermarket of that scale in South City should have a freezer, right?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan and Li Jin gasped.
Realizing this was likely the place of death, they understood that if Zhang Yu died in the freezer, his body in the office must have been moved—making the first discoverer, Zhang Yu’s second son, Zhang Wenqiang, extremely suspicious.
“Each of us has our specialty. We only deal with forensic identification.”
Liu Yi waved his hand. “As for the truth of the case, that’s for the police to investigate.”
He smiled at the two students. “Of course, if the police need us to profile suspects, I’d be happy to discuss it with you.”
Profiling suspects involves using corpse characteristics and scene evidence to infer motives and approximate appearance and identity.
In many baffling cases, profiling is extremely important.
Since even two inexperienced students could notice the first discoverer’s suspicious behavior, more experienced criminal investigators would certainly not miss it.
Liu Yi’s lips curved slyly as if recalling something. He winked at his graduate student. “Speaking of freezers and refrigerators, we seem to have quite a history with them lately.”
“Ahhhh!”
Li Jin didn’t understand, but Jiang Xiaoyuan suddenly screamed in horror.
“Boss, have mercy! Don’t make me recall that!”
Li Jin curiously looked at Jiang Xiaoyuan. “Senior?”
“That was recent news.”
Liu Yi answered for his student. “In our city, a white-collar worker argued with his wife, whom he’d been married to for only a year, strangled her in a fit of rage, sawed her body apart, and hid the pieces in a freezer. You’ve probably heard of it.”
“Yeah, I saw it on Weibo.”
Li Jin nodded.
“The murderer mixed the body parts with kitchen waste, discarding a bit each day to dispose of the body. One day, stray dogs pulled a piece out, it fell into a ditch, and a passerby reported it. That scene, we handled it.”
He pointed at Jiang Xiaoyuan, grinning mischievously. “That day, Xiaoyuan and the officers combed several garbage sites in the pouring rain for hours. It left him psychologically scarred.”
“Ahhh! Boss, please stop!”
Jiang Xiaoyuan held his head, wailing. “I thought I could handle it, but that day’s experience—I never want to recall it again!”
Li Jin glanced at the wailing Jiang Xiaoyuan, then at Liu Yi, his expression turning subtly conflicted.
He remembered that his boyfriend, a criminal investigator, had mentioned this case.
He recalled being told how forensic clues at the scene made them search the garbage sites in the rain for hours, finally finding the remaining body parts in a black plastic bag, then using other trash to identify the murderer. Though the case was solved quickly, the garbage search was harrowing.
Thinking of Qishan Yu, Li Jin’s face darkened.
Especially since he had argued with him earlier that day—though only Li Jin had lost his temper—he felt no regret or apology. This was clearly Qishan Yu’s fault!
He couldn’t help but glance at Liu Yi’s face again.
…If my partner were Director Liu…
Liu Yi turned and caught Li Jin staring blankly. The intern’s gaze was intense yet absent-minded, which made him smile slightly.
However, he had no interest in Li Jin’s inner thoughts and didn’t even ask, casually turning his attention back to instruct Jiang Xiaoyuan on writing the forensic report.