National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 67 - 66 Floating Corpse

“This…” Jiang Yuan was a bit taken aback, “Are you worried someone might slip into the water?”

“Anything’s possible, anyone too.

Culverts can drown people, sewers can drown people, flash floods can drown people, sometimes crossing the street can drown people,” Wu Jun shook his head, pausing before adding, “On rainy days, people tend to get depressed easily.

In small places like ours it’s not so bad, but in Changyang City, people fall from heights all the time; no idea what they’re all thinking.”

Jiang Yuan also sat by the heater to warm up, mentally preparing himself.

Outside the window, the pitter-patter of rain was hitting the panes with a constant snap.

Through the glass, visibility was less than 20 meters.

The heavy rain lasted all morning.

By noon, the rain had lightened a bit, but no one was keen on going out.

Jiang Yuan decided to shut the door and just cook fried rice on the heater, boil some instant noodles, and then ate them with Wu Jun, alternately spooning fried rice and slurping noodles.

They had only eaten half when the phone in the office rang.

“A body’s been washed up by the Tai River,” Wu Jun got up, showing no particular emotion.

“It’s actually happened?” Jiang Yuan was still somewhat surprised.

“Sooner or later it was bound to happen; it’s the same every summer,” Wu Jun sighed, slipping into a raincoat right there in the office, muttering, “Trouble never starts in Ningtai County, but upstream cities always have their share of misfortune.

Everyone knows when there’s heavy rain, yet they all think it won’t be them who dies.”

Jiang Yuan quickly shoveled a few more bites of fried rice, sipped two mouthfuls of soup with a hissing slurp, reluctantly put down his chopsticks, and began to put on his raincoat.

With a corpse, you have to go immediately; it’s the hardest part of being a forensic doctor, even more annoying than the foul smells.

Especially for the older forensic doctors, this aspect is loathed and endured without remedy.

The raincoat Jiang Yuan received was slightly small; he awkwardly put it on, but luckily it was still quite effective, at least keeping his clothes underneath dry.

By the banks of the Tai River.

Underneath a highway bridge.

There was a sharp curve here, and at the same time, the river widened and the current slowed down somewhat.

The highway bridge was built here, casting a vast area of flat land.

With no wind or rain, it was a precious spot during a storm.

“The body is still soaking in the river; we can’t pull it out; afraid it’ll slip off the hook,” the only two police officers present pointed towards the riverbank.

Wu Jun hurried over for a look and saw a pale body, half-wrapped in some unidentified aquatic weeds, with its lower half submerged in water, bobbing up and down, caught in a cove on the riverbank.

The water in the cove flowed slowly, with reeds and other aquatic plants in front as a barrier, making it relatively stable.

The main reason the body remained there was due to a fishing line that was hooked onto it.

The other end of the fishing line was tied to a fishing rod, now locked onto the ground.

“Discovered by two fishermen.

They reported it immediately,” a police officer pointed to an SUV not far away, where two men were each holding their arms across their chests, looking gloomy as they sheltered behind the vehicle.

Only when the officer beckoned did they, somewhat unwillingly, run over.

“Such heavy rain and you guys came out to fish?” Wu Jun looked at the two men shivering with cold and shock, and couldn’t help asking.

The man who ran over first wiped his face and said, “The time I’ve set for fishing has been agreed upon with my wife since last month, not even wind or rain, not even if knives were falling from the sky, could keep me away.”

“Can you actually catch any fish?” Wu Jun asked.

“Occasionally.”

“Even if you don’t catch anything, you still come.”

Their answers were quite resolute.

Wu Jun sighed, took another look at the body in the river, and asked, “How was the body discovered?

Did you fish it out, or what?”

“It floated down onto the surface and got tangled up in my fishing line,” said the angler, a slightly fat man who dared not glance at the body.

“With such a large body floating down, you didn’t see it coming beforehand?” Wu Jun pressed on.

“With such heavy rain and the wind blowing, it’s hard enough to keep an eye on the float, let alone anything else,” the angler said confidently.

Wu Jun actually found his explanation quite reasonable.

In such heavy rain and strong wind, not watching the float would mean the trip was in vain.

“Come help me with the hook, let’s get the body out of the water first,” Wu Jun called to Jiang Yuan, taking an extendable rod from the trunk of the car, screwing it tight, then attaching a large iron hook to the front end.

They carried it, front and back, slowly hooking the body from the riverbank.

Wu Jun at the front made sure the hook was firmly attached and gave it a gentle tug, then shouted, “One, two, three…”

Jiang Yuan exerted force from the back, Wu Jun pushed from the front, and together they pulled hard, revealing half of the body.

There was only half a corpse!

The pants on the corpse were also only half-intact, the grayish-white lower legs and feet were wrinkled, having been soaked for a long time.

As for the upper half, because of the break, the remaining bit of the abdominal cavity had already been washed clean.

A gust of wind blew, sending waves of foul odor directly into the nostrils of Jiang Yuan and the others.

The eyes of the two fishing men widened as if they had caught a fish, and after several seconds, they ran away with a retch.

“I don’t want the fishing rod anymore!” said the angler with a painful pout.

His companion also frowned and confirmed, “Are you sure you don’t want it anymore?

You just said…”

“I didn’t know it was half a corpse before,” the angler almost shouted.

The two police officers from the local station also retreated to a distance.

Jiang Yuan and Wu Jun had nowhere to go.

Donning masks and gloves, they silently moved the body onto the bank, where a plastic sheet had been prepared.

Wu Jun stepped forward to remove the iron hook from the body, then straightened the corpse out a little.

Jiang Yuan and Wu Jun first looked at the upper half of the body, that is, the severed part of the corpse.

The cut edges were not very smooth, but there were also some even cutting marks.

Wu Jun and Jiang Yuan looked at each other, their expressions turning solemn immediately.

If there were cutting marks, it was very likely a homicide.

“I’ll notify Captain Huang,” Wu Jun said as he took off his gloves, stood upwind for a while, then finally took out his phone to make a call.

Jiang Yuan changed his gloves and began taking photos of the body and the surrounding environment.

The difference between an ordinary unnatural death and a homicide was too great, especially now in the pouring rain and wind.

Despite the fact that the river’s edge was currently one or two meters above the water level, who knew when it might become submerged.

Soon, Wu Jun finished the call, put on new gloves, and came back, saying, “Captain Huang and his team are on their way.

These next few days are going to be tough.”