Chapter 1072 - 549: Let’s Go Again

Soon, Jiang An and Qin Feng pushed open the iron door of the interrogation room one after the other.

Li Xu—the man sitting in the fixed interrogation chair, was frowning deeply at this moment, constantly adjusting his posture, trying to rid himself of the metal handcuffs on his wrists.

He had been here for nearly twenty hours of continuous questioning, his eyes bloodshot, hair disheveled, his whole demeanor exuding a stifling frustration and anxiety on the verge of eruption.

Li Xu abruptly raised his head, his gaze like a hook catching the two who entered. Before they could fully stand still, his hoarse and urgent voice collided against the walls: "When exactly are you going to let me out? I’m telling you, once I’m out, I won’t let you off! Complaining and reporting are nothing; I’m going to sue you for coercive interrogation and malicious slander!"

Qin Feng and Jiang An exchanged a brief glance.

In that exchange of glances, both noticed a barely perceptible twitch at the corners of each other’s mouths.

Qin Feng stepped forward half a step, his voice steady yet piercing with a cold sternness: "If you could actually get out, maybe your ’grand plans’ could really have a shot. Unfortunately..."

He deliberately paused, letting the silence swell in the room, "You might not have that chance."

"What do you mean?!"

Li Xu’s body jerked forward, "You dare to deal with me privately without a court trial? How bold!"

"I don’t have the guts, nor the authority." Qin Feng’s gaze was unwavering, "But the fact that you’re the culprit is solid as a mountain, you can’t run from it."

At this point, Jiang An, who had been silently observing, took a step forward without a hint of expression.

His gaze swept over Li Xu’s body with the precision of a meticulous instrument, ultimately focusing steadily on his right hand—more precisely, the ring finger of his right hand.

There was a subtle yet unmistakable anomaly: a rectangular, old healed scar, its edges so regular it didn’t seem like a typical bruise, with the scar tissue showing slight contracture, affecting the natural shape of the finger.

Jiang An spoke, his voice not loud, yet clearly directing all attention to that detail: "What’s with your right hand?"

"Right hand?" Li Xu instinctively retracted his right hand towards his chest.

"You have a rectangular healed scar on the ring finger of your right hand, accompanied by local scar contracture."

"I need to know, how did this injury occur?"

Li Xu lowered his eyelids, avoiding eye contact, "What does this have to do with your case?"

"Whether it’s related is determined by law and facts, not by you."

Jiang An’s tone suddenly became severe, "You are currently a suspect and have an obligation to answer our questions truthfully."

"The police have their own procedures and directions for handling cases, no need for your guidance."

"The only thing you need to do is cooperate."

"Cooperate?... Cooperate?!"

The word "cooperate" was thrown out thrice by Jiang An with a resonant force, causing Li Xu to recoil slightly as if pushed by an invisible force.

A tough silence stretched for two seconds, and he seemed to realize that resisting was futile, throwing out an explanation: "I fell when I was a child."

"A fall injury can cause such a precisely shaped fracture scar?" Jiang An immediately questioned, leaving no room for vagueness.

"Why can’t it?" Li Xu lifted his eyes, "When I was a child I fell from a tree, and my finger got stuck right in a crack in the ground between some benches, it broke. That’s it."

Listening to this explanation, Qin Feng remained with an expression that showed no excessive skepticism.

But Jiang An was different. Being an experienced, sharp-eyed forensic pathologist, he dealt with human trauma all day, studying the mechanisms and characteristic manifestations of various injuries.

Ordinary lies might deceive the layman but are hard to escape the scrutiny of a forensic expert—their duty is to speak for the silent dead and uphold the rights of the living seeking truth.

Jiang An suppressed the rising turbulence in his heart, making his tone steadier yet more pressing: "What you described is theoretically possible."

He paused momentarily, exerting an undeniable pressure, "Now, if you please extend your hand, I need to examine it carefully."

Perhaps Jiang An’s words acted as some kind of catalyst, and Li Xu’s tense body finally showed a slight relaxation.

He appeared to abandon his last resistance, slowly extending his right hand, spreading his fingers under the light—the ring finger of that hand was clearly twisted and deformed, the joints visibly bent unnaturally, with distinct contracture marks on the skin surface, resembling a dried branch forcibly twisted and set in place.

Jiang An’s gaze rested calmly on that finger, as moments ticked by.

About a minute later, clarity gradually formed in his mind: This kind of injury likely originated from severe trauma at the distal interphalangeal joint, potentially accompanied by structural damage to the bones or ligaments;

Additionally, there was probably an infection post-injury, or the healing process was interrupted by improper handling, leading the tissue, during its rebuilding process, to go in the wrong direction, ultimately solidifying into the current deformed state.

In fact, had standardized treatment been received in the early stages of injury, there’s a good chance the finger could restore normal function—given this, why did it end up like this?

What aroused Jiang An’s suspicion even more was the scar’s appearance.

Li Xu claimed this was an old childhood injury, but decades of time are enough to soften and fade any scar, blending it gradually into the surrounding skin.

The body’s skin metabolism and repair have their rhythm: after trauma, there’s first inflammation and granulation growth, followed by scabbing on the surface, and when the scab falls off a new scar is left.

Over time, the scar typically transitions from red to brown, from hard to soft, with texture and color slowly aligning with normal skin—unless the individual has a peculiar pigment metabolism anomaly, such as keloids, pigment loss, or deposition.