Chapter 737: Chapter 736: A Forensic Examiner’s Request for Help

Yu Suye told Yan Feifan that his aunt’s pregnancy was a wonderful surprise.

His aunt had come to the Affiliated Hospital today for a gynecological exam, hoping to get her body in good condition to start trying for a baby.

Yu Suye had gone with her and helped her find an experienced attending gynecologist.

But to their surprise, the blood test results came back showing that she was already about ten days pregnant.

Yu Suye said with a grin, "Your aunt was both surprised and overjoyed, and she made me promise to keep it a secret for now."

"If I hadn’t seen that you were in a bad mood today, I wouldn’t be telling you."

Then she added a warning, "Feifan, you can’t tell anyone, especially not your uncle."

A happy expression spread across Yan Feifan’s face. "Don’t worry, I’m not like you. My lips are sealed."

He couldn’t help but remark, "My uncle just got married, and now he’s finding out he’s going to be a father. He’s going to be ecstatic."

"A child really makes a person feel a greater sense of responsibility. My sister and I won’t have to worry about him falling back into his old ways anymore."

Seeing the genuine smile on Yan Feifan’s face, Yu Suye couldn’t resist asking, "Feifan, do you like children?"

Yan Feifan answered honestly, "I like cute, well-behaved children. I don’t like the ones who are always crying and constantly pooping and peeing."

This answer made Yu Suye roll her eyes.

Then another thought occurred to her. "Feifan, for your clinical rotations, you still need to complete gynecology and pediatrics. When do you plan on getting those done?"

"You can’t stay a resident forever, can you?"

Yan Feifan said dismissively, "For me, those titles and ranks are meaningless now."

"As for the gynecology and pediatrics rotations, I could go take the final assessment right now and pass without a problem."

"So, I’m in no hurry. I’ll get to them eventually."

Yu Suye felt he had a point, so she didn’t press the issue.

After dinner, the two of them returned to the living room, working on their own things in comfortable silence...

A little after eight-thirty, two unexpected visitors interrupted their work.

One was an acquaintance, Zheng Libin from the District Public Security Sub-bureau.

The other was a forensic expert from the Municipal Public Security Bureau, a man in his forties named Li Songzhu.

Zheng Libin was very polite. "Mr. Yan, I’m terribly sorry to disturb you so late at night. The truth is, we’ve run into a major problem and we need your help."

Yan Feifan asked directly, "What do you need me to do?"

Li Songzhu spoke up. "Mr. Yan, here’s the situation. Back in May, we received a public tip-off and discovered half a human skull on the banks of the Yangtze River."

"Half a skull?" Yan Feifan couldn’t help but ask.

Li Songzhu confirmed with a hum. "It was basically split in half, from the crown of the head down through the brow and upper jaw. The marks clearly indicate it was done with an axe."

"We conducted a thorough search of the scene and the surrounding area, but we only found this one half of the skull."

"In the lab, our analysis determined the bone age to be twenty-three years, and the time of death to be within the last year."

After a brief pause, Li Songzhu continued, "We performed a facial reconstruction based on the half-skull using our current technology. We then ran it against the national missing persons database and posted it online, asking for public assistance."

"However, to this day, we still haven’t been able to identify the victim."

Zheng Libin chimed in, "We suspect that the facial reconstruction our technicians produced might be severely distorted."

"We were thinking, Mr. Yan, since you’re one of the top cosmetic surgery experts in the country, your understanding of the relationship between cranial structure and facial features is unparalleled."

"Mr. Yan, would you be able to help us refine the reconstruction of this person’s face?"

Zheng Libin added expectantly, "We won’t get a breakthrough in this case until we can figure out who this person is."

"I can give it a try."

Yan Feifan agreed, his gaze turning with great interest to the small case Li Songzhu had brought. "You brought it with you?" he asked.

Li Songzhu glanced at Yu Suye, who was standing nearby, and asked worriedly, "Do you two mind?"

Yan Feifan smiled. "We’re both surgeons. We aren’t superstitious, and things like this don’t bother us."

"Dr. Li, please, go ahead and take it out."

"My apologies for the intrusion, then."

With a word of apology, Li Songzhu opened the case he had brought with him. He took out two pairs of rubber gloves, put one on, and handed the other to Yan Feifan.

He then took out a paper-wrapped bundle from the case and carefully unfolded the layers of paper, revealing half a skull.

Just as Li Songzhu had described, it was a dark gray skull, split in two from the brow, through the nasal bone, and down to the upper jaw. The lower jaw was missing.

Yan Feifan could clearly see the clean, smooth edges where the skull had been cleaved apart.

What was even more shocking was that Yan Feifan could also see a dozen or two additional hack marks on the front of the facial bones.

’Damn,’ Yan Feifan thought. ’What kind of deep-seated hatred would drive someone to do this? Not just splitting the head in two, but also hacking the face to a pulp.’

With his gloved hand, Yan Feifan picked up the half-skull and ran his fingers over the cheek and brow areas.

"This girl had facial contouring surgery... bone shaving and reshaping."

Li Songzhu interrupted, "Mr. Yan, are you certain those are marks from surgery and not from the attacker’s hacking?"

Yan Feifan said confidently, "It’s quite easy to distinguish between the marks left by a surgical instrument and those from a brute-force chop."

He brought the skull closer to examine it. "There are signs of reshaping on the cheeks, brow ridge, and eye sockets. Judging by the smoothness of the curves and contours, the plastic surgeon who did this was quite skilled."

"The girl must have gone to a legitimate and reputable cosmetic surgery clinic for the procedure."

"You can start your investigation at the major cosmetic surgery clinics in the big cities."

Li Songzhu nodded. "Mr. Yan, I will report your findings to the criminal investigation team."

"Mr. Yan, have you found anything else?"

Just then, Zheng Libin spoke up. "Mr. Yan, we never said the skull belonged to a girl."

"You could tell with just one look?"

Yan Feifan chuckled. "There are significant differences between male and female skulls. Telling them apart is quite simple."

"Su Ye, why don’t you explain it to Mr. Zheng."

Yu Suye, who had drawn closer, began explaining in a textbook-like manner, "Mr. Zheng, generally speaking, male skulls are larger, with a rougher bone surface, greater bone density, and more pronounced muscle ridges..."

Pointing to the half-skull in Yan Feifan’s hands, Yu Suye continued her detailed explanation, "A female’s cranial capacity is smaller, and the frontal bone is less sloped. The brow ridge and arches are less prominent, the eye sockets are smaller and shallower, and the upper orbital margin is thinner..."

Zheng Libin cut her off. "Alright, alright, Dr. Yu, please stop. I don’t understand a word you’re saying anyway."

Yu Suye gave a little laugh. "In short, it’s just a matter of experienced judgment."

"To an expert’s eye, the difference is as obvious as night and day. They can tell at a glance, without any difficulty at all..."

Yan Feifan carefully examined the half-skull for nearly ten minutes, then spent close to an hour hand-drawing a facial reconstruction sketch.

"Dr. Li, this girl’s skull shows multiple signs of surgical cutting and reshaping. It’s likely her facial muscles and features were also altered by cosmetic procedures."

"I can only do my best to reconstruct what she looked like before any cosmetic surgery. I hope this will be of some help to you."

Li Songzhu looked down at the sketch in his hand. It was of a girl with slightly prominent cheekbones, giving her a somewhat harsh and severe appearance. He said gratefully, "Mr. Yan, thank you!"

"Putting aside everything else, just the lead about the cosmetic surgery clinic alone will help us narrow the scope of our investigation significantly..."

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