Chapter 76 - 75: Miss Xu, More Ruthless Than the Murderer (Part 1)

Chapter 76: Chapter 75: Miss Xu, More Ruthless Than the Murderer (Part 1)

After estimating the time of death, Xu Jing began to estimate her age.

Knowing her approximate age would make it easier to determine the victim’s identity.

She pried open the victim’s mouth, leaned in to examine carefully for a while, and said, "The victim has grown wisdom teeth, with only light wear on the tips and edges, estimating the victim’s age to be nineteen to early twenties."

Deng Youwei couldn’t hold it in anymore, taking a deep breath, he asked, "How, how did you estimate the, the victim’s age? What, what are wisdom teeth?"

Xu Jing slightly frowned, thought for a moment with some frustration, and said, "Wisdom teeth are true teeth, the few at the very back of everyone’s mouth, usually emerging between eighteen to twenty-five years old.

And at different ages, the wear of teeth differs. Judging from the wear of the victim’s teeth, she is very young, not over twenty-four."

Seeing that Deng Youwei still wanted to ask something, Xu Jing said impatiently, "I’ll submit a detailed explanation on how to deduce age from tooth wear when we return. If County Magistrate Deng doesn’t believe it, you can test with people of different ages. But now, solving the case is the most important thing.

I’ll take full responsibility for my judgment."

Deng Youwei was caught off guard, his face turned red again.

Although Vice Minister Xiao was correct, he should not dismiss her just because she was a woman.

But this woman was indeed too arrogant and overbearing, as if she completely disregarded his authority as County Magistrate!

Xu Jing couldn’t be bothered to engage with him further.

This was where having an open-minded leader showed its importance. When she partnered on cases with Xiao Yi, he was not so troublesome, simply stating that solving the case quickly was the most important, saving her a lot of hassle.

She continued to carefully examine the injuries on the victim’s body, finally fixing her gaze on the neck.

There were obvious strangulation marks on the neck, but considering the victim struggled intensely before death, these marks could have been made by the perpetrator during the assault.

She quickly made a decision, picked up the scalpel, and cleanly and deftly performed a Y-shaped incision on the body, avoiding the neck to not compromise the examination of the neck injuries later.

As she dissected, Xu Jing quietly sighed, relieved that her left hand was the injured one and not the right, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to perform the autopsy.

Although Chen Hu could assist her, he couldn’t help with the dissection.

A sudden intake of breath resounded around.

All those present were trusted by Xiao Yi and had heard about Miss Xu’s previous autopsy case.

But hearing about it and witnessing it were entirely different experiences!

Seeing the slightly pale faces around, Chen Hu felt an inexplicable sense of pride well up—

Tsk, such fuss over nothing.

It was already the second time he watched Miss Xu dissect a body.

As the competent assistant of Miss Xu, he had the closest view!

Completely immersed in her work, Xu Jing ignored her surroundings, examining every part of the body for anything suspicious.

Xiao Yi thought he had grown accustomed to Xu Jing’s autopsy methods after the last incident.

Yet as she removed the stomach and laid it on a white cloth to cut open, his face couldn’t help but turn slightly pale.

Some operatives with weaker stomachs couldn’t hold back and ran to the side, vomiting uncontrollably.

The contents of the victim’s stomach could reveal valuable information to investigators—such as when the victim had their last meal, even what they ate if they were lucky.

However, the stomach contents were half digested, and after so many days, the odor was expectedly pungent.

Even Chen Hu, who kept up the facade of "Miss Xu’s capable assistant," nearly fainted from the stench.

Xu Jing also subtly frowned, adjusted for a moment, and then leaned in with tweezers to stir the stomach contents, saying, "The stomach contains a large undigested meal, with most of the food not yet reaching the duodenum, suggesting the victim ate roughly half an hour before death, and quite a lot at that.

Thus, I conclude, the victim must have eaten in a relatively safe environment and then went out, where she encountered the perpetrator and was assaulted and slain."

Since Xu Jing said "I will take full responsibility for my judgment," even if Deng Youwei was shocked, he said nothing more.

Most importantly, Vice Minister Xiao remained silent, treating this gruesome method as entirely normal, leaving him no grounds for doubt.

Yet, he couldn’t help but ask, "Even if the victim ate about half an hour before death, how do you know she was eating in a relatively safe environment? Who’s to say she wasn’t already under duress from the perpetrator, forced to eat?"

After speaking, his heart pounded, bracing for this insolent woman to snap back at him.

Surprisingly, she looked up with a bit of admiration, saying, "County Magistrate Deng has a point, but my reasoning is that the victim’s stomach was quite full. If she had been captured by the perpetrator early on, under such high pressure, it’s unlikely she would have the appetite to eat so much.

Of course, there’s another scenario—the perpetrator could have forcibly fed her or coerced her to eat, but these situations would likely leave injuries in her throat or mouth..."

As she spoke, she picked up the scalpel and deftly cut open the victim’s neck.

Deng Youwei: "..."

He was unsure if it was the perpetrator who was more ruthless, or if Miss Xu was even more so.

After cutting open the victim’s neck, Xu Jing habitually felt the hyoid bone, her eyes narrowing slightly, "The hyoid bone is fractured, along with the neck’s ligature marks, indicating the victim likely died from asphyxiation due to strangulation by the perpetrator."

Moreover, Xu Jing had already noticed significant internal bleeding in the victim’s organs and the spleen showed signs of ischemia, all consistent with asphyxiation symptoms.

Had the victim’s organs not been so severely decomposed, it would have been clearer.

"But the victim’s throat and mouth have no obvious wounds or swelling, thus I doubt she was forced to eat."

Chen Hu, having somewhat recovered, couldn’t help but mutter, "This suggests the victim likely had her meal at home, then left for some reason and met the scoundrel.

The perpetrator seized her using some method, committing unspeakable acts, and when the victim fought for her life, throttled her, bringing about her demise..."

A young woman in her prime, her life just beginning, was lost just like that.

Even the hardest of hearts would sigh at this tale.

Xiao Yi abruptly spoke in a low voice, "The more it is so, the sooner we must catch the perpetrator.

Now that we know the victim likely disappeared around four days ago, aged between nineteen and early twenties, we can significantly narrow down the search for her identity.

An He, immediately list the names of women aged between nineteen to early twenties who disappeared in the past five days around here; extend the timeframe as needed."

"Yes!"