Miss Truth
Chapter 346 - 218: A Hero’s Shortness of Breath

Chapter 346: Chapter 218: A Hero’s Shortness of Breath

Although somewhat puzzled, Ran Yunsheng felt that nothing would go awry at the Ministry of Criminal Justice Office, so after giving Ran Yan a few instructions, he went with Liu Qingsong to rest in the side hall.

Xiao Song and Ran Yan then went to a small room in the southeast corner of the courtyard. As soon as the door was opened, Ran Yan immediately smelled the strong scent of burning atractylodes and soap nuts, accompanied by the sight of smoke filling the room.

The room was brightly lit; two figures ran out of the smoke and stood firmly in front of Xiao Song, bowing, "Assistant Minister Xiao, we have burned the atractylodes and soap nuts as you instructed and prepared the ginger slices."

It was only then that Ran Yan could see clearly; the two men were both around thirty-five years old, their skin showing an unnatural pallor— a symptom of prolonged exposure to corpses without adequate protective measures.

Forensic Doctor was a despised profession, and those who practiced it were often of low status. They understood basic medical knowledge but lacked self-protection awareness, usually just covering themselves with a cloth when working closely with bodies. Sometimes they might not even use that thin layer of cloth, directly facing the corpses. Prolonged exposure to decaying gases led to their sickly appearance.

Xiao Song waved his hand to disperse the smoke and asked, "Is everything prepared?"

"Everything is ready," the two men answered in unison, sneaking glances at Ran Yan, thinking it strange enough that the Assistant Minister of Ministry of Justice was personally observing the autopsy, but even stranger that he brought a woman along. Weren’t they afraid she would get scared?

As they thought this, their hands were already dragging over the prepared chests, opening them in front of Xiao Song.

"You have injuries; will it be improper to come into contact with unclean things?" Xiao Song turned his head to look at Ran Yan.

Ran Yan shook her head, "It’s now just bones left, not much decaying gas is present, it’s not a big deal."

The Forensic Doctors listened to their conversation and couldn’t help but look at Ran Yan again, feeling amazed.

Xiao Song took out a mask, a protective gown, and gloves from the chest. He handed the gloves and mask to Ran Yan, then shook the gown open and helped her put it on.

Ran Yan was not bothered; since the ties for the gown were at the back, she had always helped her assistant or was dressed by Wan Lu in the past, and it had become a habit. But the two Forensic Doctors were staring with wide eyes, forgetting their manners, incredulous at Xiao Song’s actions.

Xiao Song gave them a sharp look, making the Forensic Doctors shiver and hurry to shrug their shoulders.

After helping each other put on their gowns and taking the ginger slices, they both put on their masks and entered the room together.

Only then did Ran Yan see the room’s setup; it wasn’t large, with something resembling bookshelves on two sides displaying several small chests. The room had exceptional lighting, with the wall facing south not built of bricks but instead constructed with wooden frames and covered with highly translucent Korean paper.

The low wooden platform for holding the corpse was right under the window. Ran Yan crouched down, lifting the white cloth that was covering it.

The skeleton on the platform was, as Ran Yan had initially deduced from the piece of tibia she saw earlier: approximately five feet five inches tall, female, with no marks of childbirth around the pubic bone.

The bones appeared complete, and the skull was indeed the one Ran Yan had discovered in the tree hollow. However, the skin and flesh that had once covered the piece of tibia found in the snow were entirely gone, and the bone was whitened, starkly contrasting with the surrounding dark bones. Was it because they were located in different places that the degrees of decay and weathering varied? Or did they belong to two different skeletons?

Ran Yan shared her doubts with Xiao Song, then proceeded with the examination.

With Xiao Song present, the Forensic Doctors naturally didn’t dare to stop her actions. But seeing Ran Yan unfazed by the sight as she uncovered the burial cloth, they started to grasp her profession, feeling more astonished, for they had never seen a wife working as a Forensic Doctor, and it was even more peculiar how Assistant Minister Xiao seemed to treat this female Forensic Doctor so differently!

After carefully examining the entire condition of the body, Ran Yan began a more detailed examination.

"The sutures on the limbs have mostly entered the epiphyseal fusion stage, I preliminarily judge the age to be above sixteen years old," Ran Yan said as she took a well-sized knife from the toolbox, deftly shaved off the hair on the skull, peeled away the remaining desiccated flesh, and fully exposed the skull. Pointing to the sagittally positioned suture between the two parietal bones with her knife, she continued, "The sagittal suture hasn’t started to heal, so she should not be over twenty-two or twenty-three years old."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.