Captain Wang also noticed Xu Mo standing nearby.
Earlier, his attention had been entirely focused on Han Fei, and he hadn't noticed that Xu Mo had come along with him.
Now, like Han Fei, he was in a state of complete bewilderment.
Looking at Han Fei, he pointed at Xu Mo, who was crouching next to the corpse.
"Han, is that Xu Mo? Why did you bring him here? And... what is he doing?"
Han Fei only answered the first two of Captain Wang's questions.
"Yes, it's Xu Mo. I convinced him to join the police force. Xu Mo is a promising recruit."
As for what exactly Xu Mo was doing, Han Fei didn't answer.
Because he didn't know either!
Just then, Xu Mo spoke up.
"Female victim, approximately 22 to 24 years old, death occurred about three weeks ago, cause of death: drowning."
Hearing this, Han Fei was stunned for a couple of seconds, then asked.
"How do you know that?"
Of course, Xu Mo wasn't going to tell the truth, so he made up an excuse on the spot.
"I read a book about this subject, that's what it said."
Han Fei couldn't help but roll his eyes.
He could believe that Xu Mo had thoroughly studied a book on the subject.
After all, from his previous interactions with Xu Mo, it wasn't hard to see that Xu Mo was very intelligent. Understanding a book thoroughly shouldn't be a difficult task for him.
But using information from a book to make judgments like this was practically useless!
Examining corpses isn't something you can learn just by reading a book.
The actual situation is much more complex.
Temperature, humidity, storage environment, and so on - there are too many factors to consider.
If one could become a forensic expert just by reading a book, wouldn't everyone be able to do it?
Moreover, Xu Mo had only crouched down to look at the body for a short time.
He hadn't even touched it, just squatted down for a glance. How could he possibly come to the correct conclusion?
However, Han Fei could now understand why Xu Mo wasn't afraid of seeing the corpse.
Books on forensic examination often contain illustrations, so Xu Mo must have seen plenty of them in the book, which is why he was so calm.
Like Han Fei, when Captain Wang heard Xu Mo say that his judgments were based on knowledge from a book, he didn't take Xu Mo's words seriously either.
He just smiled and shook his head.
Thinking to himself that young people are indeed interesting.
Reading one book and thinking they can examine corpses?
If it were that simple, they would have started the examination themselves. Why would they need to wait for a forensic expert?
...
Five minutes later, the forensic expert arrived.
"I'm sorry I'm late, Captain Wang. There was some traffic on the way from the hospital."
"It's alright," Captain Wang waved his hand. "You should take a look at the body first."
"Okay."
With that, the forensic expert put on his gloves and began to examine the body carefully.
While examining, he asked a question.
"When the body was discovered, it was buried in the soil, right?"
The degree of decomposition is also related to whether the body was buried or not.
Bodies exposed directly to air decompose at a different rate than those buried in soil.
"Yes," Captain Wang nodded. "But it wasn't buried very deep, just a thin layer of soil on the surface. When we arrived at the scene, the front of the body was already exposed."
Hearing this, the forensic expert muttered, "No wonder the decomposition isn't uniform on both sides."
Then he stood up and looked at Captain Wang.
"The deceased is female, between 22 and 24 years old. Time of death was about three weeks ago. Preliminary cause of death appears to be drowning."
As soon as he finished speaking, the scene fell silent.
Han Fei, Captain Wang, and the other officers were all dumbfounded.
They all turned to look at Xu Mo, who was standing to the side.
The professional forensic expert's assessment was almost identical to what Xu Mo had said!
No, not almost identical - it was exactly the same.
The age, cause of death, time of death - all matched Xu Mo's earlier judgment perfectly.
It was miraculous!
Could Xu Mo really examine corpses?
Realizing that everyone's gaze was focused on him, Xu Mo smiled awkwardly.
"It's all from the book, just from the book. I must have gotten lucky."
Seeing this, the forensic expert asked, very puzzled.
"What's... going on?"
Captain Wang, still in a daze, pointed at Xu Mo and explained to the forensic expert.
"Before you arrived, he took one look at the body and came to the exact same conclusions as you. But he's not a forensic expert, he says he learned it all from a book."
Forensic expert: "???"
Learned from a book?
What kind of amazing book was that?
Just one look and he could determine all of that?
It's worth noting that even he, an experienced forensic expert, had to examine the body for a while to reach these conclusions.
Could the book Xu Mo read really be equivalent to his decade-plus of experience?
"What book is it? Can you tell me? I'd like to read it when I have time," the forensic expert asked Xu Mo, very curious.
"I think it was called something like... Corpse Examination Guide, or something similar. I don't remember the exact title, sorry," Xu Mo shook his head.
Seeing this, the forensic expert gave up.
Then he turned to Captain Wang.
"This is just a rough examination. I'll take the body back to the station for a more thorough examination to see if there are any more useful clues."
"Alright," Captain Wang nodded. "We'll go back to the station together. We should check the missing persons reports from the last three weeks to see if we can identify the victim."
Before the forensic expert arrived, the officers had already carefully examined the area and taken photos.
There were no valuable clues.
This wasn't the primary crime scene, just a body dump site, so there was no point in continuing to investigate here.
The urgent task now was to check missing persons reports based on the time of death and age range provided by the forensic expert to try to identify the victim.
Identifying the victim would give them a direction for the investigation.
Everyone left the scene and headed straight for the police station.
On the way to the station, Han Fei felt that he needed to reassess Xu Mo.
He had originally thought Xu Mo was just a rookie who didn't know anything.
But now...
Han Fei suddenly felt like he had stumbled upon a hidden gem!
He thought to himself that he really hadn't misjudged Xu Mo.
Xu Mo was indeed a promising recruit!
Right from the start, he had given Han Fei such a big surprise.
Although there was a high possibility that Xu Mo's corpse examination was just a lucky guess,
at least Xu Mo knew a little about examining corpses, which was certainly better than knowing nothing at all.
As the saying goes, it's always good to have more skills!
...
Back at the police station.
The officers immediately checked the missing persons reports from the past three weeks.
Sure enough, they found a case that matched all the criteria.
It was a report filed with a local precinct just over two weeks ago. The missing person was female, 23 years old.
When her parents reported her missing, they said their daughter hadn't called home for three days, and calls to her phone went straight to voicemail. Suspecting she might have been kidnapped, they filed the report.
All the conditions matched perfectly!
There was a high probability that this missing girl was the unidentified female corpse found on the mountain...