Chapter 1440 - Autopsy Report
The Chief sipped her kvass and laughed aloud at her own words.
"Though I don't know what she actually looked like, the simple fact that she refused to accept her fate tells me she must have been more beautiful than Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao combined. A woman who can still hold her head high after being sold by her own brother to a wretched old man—that's a woman worth looking at."
Seeing Sun Shangxiang's entranced expression and sparkling eyes, the female Chief reached out and patted her head.
"Never mind. Those idiots actually recognized quality for once—let's keep calling you Sun Shangxiang. It's a good name."
She smiled warmly.
"And remember mine: I'm Cheng Yongxin. From now on, you'll serve me. Temporarily."
Sun Shangxiang blinked, startled.
"Temporarily? Chief, are you dissatisfied with Shangxiang?"
Cheng Yongxin shook her head.
"No. Once I figure out how to navigate the life secretary system, I'll transfer you out of that establishment entirely. With male Chiefs, it's one thing—but I'm a woman. If I marry someday while you're still my life secretary, what then? Am I supposed to give you away as part of my dowry? I couldn't stand that."
Sun Shangxiang's face went pale. Cheng Yongxin realized immediately what misunderstanding had taken root.
"Don't think nonsense. I'm not some vicious First Wife—you're the same age as my youngest cousin."
She ruffled Sun Shangxiang's hair and spoke seriously.
"I can't control what those men think. But I refuse to let a smart, capable girl become a plaything who earns her keep through beauty. I promise you: I'll wait until you find a good young man, and I'll let you marry him wearing a red skirt."
—Niuniu, don't be like Mother.
Sun Shangxiang clutched the kvass bottle tightly. Tears mingled with the cold condensation on the glass as she nodded frantically.
Su Wan descended the brick steps to the underground dissection room, heels clicking against the stone, her expression grim. The terrible seasickness from her voyage had not quite released its grip.
Returning to Lingao from Kaohsiung was never easy; the crossing was, as always, agony. She had been carried off the cargo ship and practically deposited in her dormitory.
After barely convincing herself she had "returned to the living," she had resolved to rest properly and entertain her mind. She had even spent an hour chatting on her Little Smart phone with a certain someone from the Young Officers Club.
She knew the morgue in the basement was undoubtedly stuffed with corpses awaiting autopsy reports, but nothing was truly urgent. A day earlier or later would make no difference.
That vacation plan was ruthlessly interrupted by a phone call from Police Headquarters. The caller was Police Chief Ran Yao himself—Ran Yao rarely contacted her directly. Their business was usually conducted through secretaries, messengers, and official documents.
On the phone, Ran Yao demanded she perform an immediate forensic examination of a particular corpse in the morgue.
Su Wan's initial instinct was that a building-fall case—very likely an accident—could wait. But the urgency of the call gave her pause. The situation became clear only when a messenger delivered the case report: the accident had occurred inside the Elder residential area.
The deceased was a Maid School student still in training, and she had died within the Elder compound. No wonder Ran Yao was desperate for a precise forensic report.
The Police Headquarters' Forensic Center had its own dissection room and attached morgue. A portion of Lingao County's many unnatural deaths ended up here for autopsy. Because sources were so abundant, this facility also supplied the Ministry of Health with cadavers and specimens for teaching and research.
Su Wan grabbed the woolen overcoat from the rack by the iron gate and draped it over her shoulders. Though Lingao during the Little Ice Age had cold spells, only this underground chamber could make a person shiver year-round. For Su Wan—a Gansu native who had endured the "tests" of northwest winds—this was nothing.
"Teacher Su, you're here." Several young men and women in matching uniforms hurried over the moment she entered. They were all her students.
She changed into a light blue dissection suit alongside them, then addressed the taller boy beside her: "The body's arrived, correct? Good. Now repeat the case details. Let me see how you handled the scene independently—first time Officer Mu and I didn't lead the team."
The boy picked up a document and began reading aloud:
"At approximately 7:00 AM on September 1, 1633, Lin Xiaoya, a student of the Maid School, was found dead after falling from the roof of the Comprehensive Service Building in the Bairen City Elder Residential Area. After receiving the alarm, the forensic doctor arrived on scene at approximately 8:30. The body was located about 10 meters to the right of the building's main entrance. The deceased wore a black dress, white apron, white cotton socks, and black cloth shoes. Body was in supine position... Based on body temperature, time of death is estimated between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM on September 1. After preliminary on-site inspection, the body was transported to Police Headquarters Forensic Center at 10:17 to await autopsy."
"Not bad—better than my first crime scene." Su Wan nodded approvingly. "Keep it up. Now we begin the autopsy. I know you've built immunity looking at all those disgusting photos in your textbooks, but actually operating is a first. This corpse isn't too bad. Don't run away screaming when you see a decomposed one or a dismemberment case later."
She turned and approached the dissection table.
The corpse of a young woman lay before her. In Su Wan's estimation, the girl was probably only fifteen or sixteen. Medium build, body shape considered basically acceptable by old-world standards.
Sigh, poor little sister. Who knows what you suffered before being sent to the Maid School? At least you would have had food and security—even if you'd have been a sex slave for those bastards. Now you've left just like this. I hope wherever you are, you find some peace and suffer no more.
For reasons she could not quite name, Su Wan—who had approached this case with professional detachment—felt a sudden surge of sympathy.
She grabbed the corpse's limbs and rotated them. "Mm, rigor mortis has already eased." She turned the body over, pressed the lividity with her fingers, and after completing other external examinations, picked up a scalpel from the tray.
She cut slowly downward from the upper edge of the neck, separating the chest and abdominal skin like a boat parting water. The blade curved around the left side of the navel and continued down to the upper edge of the pubic symphysis.
A male student used a larger scalpel to gradually separate the muscles and skin to either side, exposing the ribs.
"See that? Extensive hemorrhaging in the sternum and ribs, with scattered bleeding points elsewhere." Su Wan pointed with a small stick, then pressed the sternum and ribs with a finger. "Fractures of the sternum and ribs are obvious. Separate the sternum."
The tall boy rubbed his hands and cut through the sternum one section at a time with heavy scissors. "Teacher, there's extensive hemorrhaging beneath the sternum, approximately 6 by 15 centimeters... there's also a hematoma in the retroperitoneum..."
"Very good." Su Wan forced herself to maintain composure in front of her students, even though she had been an immature junior forensic doctor in the old time-space—one who vomited from the smell of corpses. "Separate the organs."
After the male student clumsily removed the internal organs from the body cavity with the help of two female students, Su Wan bent close to the empty abdominal cavity. "Mm, quite a lot of accumulated blood—at least 200 milliliters. The thoracic and lumbar vertebrae are severely fractured..."
After examining the thoracic and abdominal cavities, she moved to the head. She made a coronal incision on the scalp and flipped it open to the front and back. Extensive hemorrhaging was visible under the scalp. After sawing open the skull, she found the brain was a bloody mess. She removed it and drained a substantial volume of accumulated blood from the skull base.
"Alright, the conclusion is clear. Lin Xiaoya died of traumatic hemorrhagic shock caused by falling from a height. Stitch her up." Su Wan removed her gloves and turned to her students, feeling somewhat relieved.
After the suturing was complete, the students left to attend to their respective tasks. Su Wan remained, meticulously cleaning and arranging the remains of this poor girl named Lin Xiaoya. She had been an orphan with no one to rely on, taken in from the mainland. Naturalized citizens like her who died in various accidents without family members were sent directly to the charity cemetery under the civil affairs department for cremation and burial. Such "surplus" care was normally nonexistent. But today, Su Wan was stubborn about organizing her remains—just as she would have done in the old time-space.
She washed her hands, changed clothes, gave instructions to the students and the duty officer, and returned to her office to complete the standard autopsy report. She had returned from Kaohsiung only yesterday. Though her primary purpose there had been to dissect Hao Yuan's corpse, she couldn't simply leave afterward—teaching and training personnel was part of the job. Giving anatomy lessons to Kaohsiung's medical officers had become one of her main responsibilities there.
Day after day of repetitive labor grew tedious. Kaohsiung was small and offered nothing in the way of scenic spots. Dr. Zhong, his daughter, and that Dutch lady were interesting company, and Su Wan used to visit Dr. Zhong's studio in the customs building frequently. But the three of them were obviously a tight little circle. Whenever they tinkered with various components and discussed problems, Su Wan felt like an outsider with no reason to exist.
She was not as knowledgeable as Zhong Lishi, nor as eager to learn as the two young women. Gradually, she stopped going.
Miss Creetia really is a beauty—her skull is so perfectly standard. Su Wan couldn't help imagining. A typical long oval shape...
She signed her name at the bottom of the autopsy report with a dip pen. The urgent matter was now concluded. As for the case itself, Mu Min and Ran Yao could worry about that. She was going to the Farm Tea House to have a proper meal and finally relax.