Shuangshan Temple is a large temple, located just outside the deserted Dabei Gate, very close to the city gate. However, it is a place that few locals go to. The main purpose of this temple is to store coffins. After the death of their elders, rich families in Guangzhou often spend several years searching for a good Feng Shui burial place, so they temporarily bury them here. When foreign business travelers die in a foreign land and are transported back to their hometown for burial, most of them, in addition to those with guild halls, stay here temporarily. The "street watchers" who detect "fallen on the road" and the unknown corpses fished out of the water are also sent here first. After the Yamen has inspected the body, it will be sent to the official land of Liuhuaqiao for cremation and burial.
This temple existed in the old time and space until the early 1950s, and its interior is eerie and terrifying. The ghosts who invaded Guangzhou City during the Second Crow period labeled this place as "the city of the dead" without exaggeration.
After the Senate entered the city, they became dissatisfied with such facilities, and the police station set up a morgue and a temporary forensic laboratory at Shuangshan Temple to specifically store and examine criminal cases and corpses found on the streets and waterways.
Inside and outside the temple gate, whether it is a young forensic doctor from Lingao, an old widower retained by Guangzhou City, a monk retained by the temple, a widower who carries the body, or family members who come to identify the body... the crowds come in and out, it is lively but not obvious. The busy scene made this dark and deserted place far away from the world seem to be a lively market.
Because this place is already under the management of the police system, there are two policemen holding long sticks standing guard at the door as usual. The police took out their IDs and showed them to the gate guard before they could enter.
Although Shuangshan Temple is large, the buildings inside are very dilapidated. Otherwise, it would not be reduced to an existence close to Yizhuang. After the police department took over the site, it slightly repaired the house and remodeled parts of the building to suit the new use.
In one of the courtyards, Su Wan, the chief medical examiner of the Senate Police System, was wearing a full-length oilskin apron, high oilskin boots, a cylindrical oilskin hat, and a gauze mask, holding hands clasped A large handle with a long handle was carefully stirring the large pot on the high fire - the boiling water in the pot occasionally produced a few oily flowers, and a strange fragrance floated in the air...
In the yard, there are more than a dozen newly built brick stoves lined up in a row, with iron pots on them, each one rolling and steaming. If it weren't for the neatly arranged human bones on the oilcloth sheet on the ground, most people who saw it at first glance would have thought that an old wealthy family hired a chef to work in the shed.
When the little policeman came in, Forensic Doctor Su was picking up a piece of meat bone with a picket and checking the degree of doneness with iron chopsticks. The young man smelled the strong fragrance in the air and couldn't help but salivate in his mouth. But when he thought of what was stewed in the pot... a cold air rushed straight from his back to the back of his head, and the chilling feeling made him feel uncomfortable all over!
Just when he was nervous, Dr. Su, who was next to Leng Buding, was holding a big spoon and patted the young man from the back, "Hey! Get out of the way! What are you doing, crowded here? Didn't you see what we were busy with! What, something happened? ?”
"Report... report! Mu Mu Mu Mu... Chief Mu said..." The little policeman was so nervous that he stuttered, "Mu... Chief Mu said that a... a middle-aged male was found at the scene. Skull, I hope you get a facial reconstruction done soon!”
"What? Did you make a new discovery?"
The young man shook his head, indicating that he was not sure.
Chef Su flipped through the record book at hand, made a mark with a pen, then pointed at a large pot on the edge of the corridor with a big spoon and said, "Here, sample No. 46-1 is removing the meat in pot No. 15. It will be done in a while." It's time to get out of the pot.
The young man secretly licked his lips and suppressed the strange feeling in his heart, "I... I'm going back first, Mu... Chief Mu is still waiting for news!"
Forensic Doctor Su shook his head, "Oh! So nervous? I've never seen a big scene!"
After hearing these words, the old men working in the courtyard sighed to themselves - this Song Dynasty expert has a good psychological quality! There was a big pot set up in the yard, and there was stew in the pot... This kind of horrific scene, even an old guy like me, who has been examining corpses all his life, couldn't stand it!
After the initial chaos, Shuangshan Temple went from the stench of scattered corpse fragments to the sky, to the strange smell of Dr. Liu spraying disinfectant, to the smell of meat from Forensic Doctor Su... the work of forensic doctors and prosecutors The objects—the corpses to be inspected—were numbered one by one according to regulations and underwent preliminary processing. Because there were so many corpses, the temporary cold storage originally built could not accommodate them, so ice cubes had to be temporarily transported from Hong Kong for proper storage. The extra-large iron pot used to remove tissue from corpses is not enough: most people don't have such a big pot, and the foundry will not make such a big pot without ordering it. Su Wan had to call the police station to try to buy it from the cook running the greenhouse.
Boiling in water is a traditional method to remove human tissue from bones. However, DNA will be destroyed after boiling. Forensic doctors in the old days rarely did this anymore, and often used scavenging insects to remove it. She can't do a DNA test now, so she doesn't need to worry.
The most difficult thing is that there are too few technicians. Including Liu San and his apprentices who came to help, they can only complete the autopsy examination of a few corpses every day. At this point, Forensic Doctor Su could only urge everyone to work harder while picking up the more suspicious "artifacts" to start investigating.
As the investigation deepened, the identities of several adult corpses, including the suspicious middle-aged man, became the focus of the task force's investigation. However, the messy crime scene, brutal crime methods, and "artifact" samples that had been highly deteriorated at the time of the crime, coupled with the fact that the victim's social network was not clear at all, made it difficult to realize the traditional identification of the corpse by acquaintances.
Fortunately, there is skull restoration technology, also called facial reconstruction. It is a technology that restores the basic appearance of the victim based on the shape of the human skull. The basis of this technology is that at a specific location, the thickness of the soft tissue of the human face is basically constant. The shape of the skull will, to a certain extent, reflect what the person looks like. Coupled with anatomical evidence, such as pre-mortem health status, nutritional status, life experience, etc., these factors can bring about certain changes in the appearance, and are combined to make corrections to the simulation model, and finally form the simulated appearance of the victim.
Skull recovery was initially done by hand by experienced forensic scientists. After removing the remaining tissue, cleaning, turning the mold (sometimes done directly on the original bone), shaping, trimming, coloring and other steps, the fitted restored avatar is finally formed. Among them, shaping is the most important process that requires the most experience. The specific method is to use plastic lines to paste on each major part of the skull to mark the specific muscle height and shape, and then fill in the soil according to the rough outline formed by these plastic lines. Shaping, of course, depends on the forensic doctor's personal experience and mastery of human anatomy. If this step goes wrong, it will have a huge impact on the final image.
A more advanced method is the computer-assisted craniofacial restoration system. With X-ray scanning and a 3D printer, a three-dimensional simulated head can be printed directly without destroying the original "workpiece". There are many ancient human skulls discovered by archeology, and their appearance in life was simulated and reconstructed through this method.
Forensic doctor Su brought a set of computer-assisted craniofacial reconstruction system software before traveling through time, but there was no X-ray machine here, nor was there a 3D printer. So the forensic doctor chose a method that combines manual work and computer work - first remove the remaining tissue, then scan the skull shape, combine it with computer simulation, and manually shape and trim the model.
According to Su Forensic Doctor, firstly, it can practice hands to prevent them from feeling rusty after not practicing for many years; secondly, it can train newcomers, and a group of apprentices can mature through practice; thirdly, it also shows the omnipotence of Song Dynasty Forensic Doctors and can effectively deter lawbreakers. disciples.
In order to save the service life of electronic equipment, especially 3D scanners, Su Wan generally does not use these equipment. He mainly relies on his own apprentices to teach him step by step. Although the accuracy is not very good, I can still get a rough idea of it.
However, there were too many corpses to be examined this time, and the case was extremely important, so she decided to sacrifice this artifact.
The trouble is that the battery on this artifact is basically at the end of its life. So she had to carry a black suitcase that resembled a large trolley suitcase: it also had trolleys and casters. However, it is much heavier than a suitcase. This thing is the so-called "Zhong's No. 5 mobile power pack".
The original intention of manufacturing this kind of power pack was to power mobile electronic devices. After all, even under the Senate, only Lingao had a stable power supply. So "mobility" was considered.
Despite its astonishing size, the amount of power it provides is really impressive. In order to ensure the continuity of electricity consumption, Su Forensic Medical's system consists of two sets of "mobile power packs" and a "hand-cranked generator". Mu Min specially sent a few police officers to charge her shaker generator.
Since Mu Min requested that No. 46-1 be dealt with first, she would do the skull restoration work first.
At this time, the little apprentice responsible for observation came over and reported: "Master... the heat of pot No. 15 is almost done!"
"Okay." Su Wan waved his hand, "Take it out and prepare to turn it into molds!"
The young apprentice picked up the fence, lifted up the tumbling bones in the pot, drained the water, and spread them out on the large oilcloth on the table. Wu Zuo watched from the side and put the undressed clothes back into the pot to cook. The skeletons were all hung with small iron pieces with serial numbers on wires, and the young apprentice quickly found skull No. 46-1.
When the skull was fished out of the pot and stewed over a high fire, the remaining tissue had separated from the bones, and the skull was completely revealed.
"Come! Let me see what you are like!" Forensic Doctor Su held up the wooden tray and looked carefully at the semi-finished product in front of him, "Work has started! The task force is anxious to get the results!" (To be continued. )
