Chapter 237: Chapter 237

Opening the drawer, Old Bai picked out a pack of five-yuan Hongmei cigarettes and tossed it to Yang Sen, simultaneously sharing a different perspective.

Lu Chuan actually didn’t know that when he wasn’t around, Liu Guodong and the others basically didn’t smoke the Chunghwa cigarettes he left on his desk.

Unless people from other offices came over.

Most of the time, they either smoked Hongmei or Honghe.

As a newcomer to the Crime Scene Investigation office, Lu Chuan proactively shared expensive cigarettes, and everyone had no objections.

Back then, when they just started working, they also went through this, but unlike Lu Chuan, they still couldn’t afford Chunghwa back then and offered Camel cigarettes to their mentors.

Yang Sen rolled his eyes at Old Bai with indifference.

He took Old Bai’s cigarette, lit it, and coughed.

"This cigarette is harsher than Chunghwa."

"No kidding, how much does this cost?"

Old Bai didn’t realize that Hongmei was stronger than Chunghwa and rough on the throat, but it was cheap, after all.

Yang Sen nodded, agreeing not only with Old Bai’s comment about the cigarettes but also with his own assessment of the case; the probability of something happening at the scene was the greatest.

Whenever a case occurs, each office actually discusses the case.

The Crime Scene Investigation office was relatively okay since they were technically inclined. Although they hadn’t been directly handling cases in recent years, all speculations and deductions were based on crime scene findings.

It wasn’t the same in other offices.

Clerical police tended to gossip more.

"I remember it being a crime of passion; I heard that the underwear on the corpse alone cost over a thousand!"

"Not necessarily, the outer clothes on the corpse were only worth a few dozen bucks. Anything’s possible."

"Group Leader Sun had a grim face today, probably found nothing again."

"Hey, it’s been a week for the case, right? I heard from Brother Hui that there still hasn’t been much progress..."

Even police officers are human; clerical police officers also enjoy gossiping during work.

And given the limitations of the police industry itself, or rather the nature of the job, their gossip inevitably revolves around cases.

That being said, everyone has their specialty; frontline investigations still require the action team.

Most of the time, what they can think of, the action team won’t overlook.

Soon, another day passed without much progress.

In the initial two to three days following the onset of the case, everyone was tense and extremely busy.

But after a week without any advancements, everyone resumed their usual duties, tackling other tasks at hand.

In the Crime Scene Investigation office, besides Lu Chuan being busy, the others didn’t have much important work; the workload for the crime scene investigation in this case was relatively small.

Of course, Lu Chuan wasn’t busy with the crime scene investigation work.

In recent days, everyone knew that Lu Chuan was actually raising insects in the Crime Scene Investigation laboratory.

Many people would take the time to come and have a look.

They came in high spirits but left looking pale.

You can’t really blame Lu Chuan; this group of people had nothing better to do and came to watch maggots. Isn’t that just asking for trouble?

Moreover, most of the visitors were clerical police officers.

They’ve never even set foot on a crime scene, let alone seen maggots?

Lu Chuan recalled that two policewomen from another office seemed to have vomited after leaving.

In this regard, Forensic Doctor Shen had a natural advantage.

After all, across the entire Criminal Investigation Team, it’s only Forensic Doctor Shen who could discuss maggot breeding topics with Lu Chuan while sipping coffee.

The next morning, Lu Chuan, upon arriving at work, headed straight for the crime scene investigation lab in the basement.

Today was the day his cultivated intermediate larvae would pupate.

By combining the pupation time of earlier larvae with those still developing, Lu Chuan could determine how long these larvae had been parasitic on the body.

Which would accurately pinpoint the victim’s time of death.

Arranging over fifty petri dishes in sequence, Lu Chuan documented the growth status and pupation time of the different-sized blowfly larvae inside each dish.

The optimal rearing temperature for blowfly larvae is between twenty-four and twenty-eight degrees Celsius, with a relative humidity of sixty to eighty percent.

They require fourteen hours of light daily and can typically hatch within a week.

In circumstances where the external temperature and relative humidity do not meet the hatching requirements, blowfly eggs can enter a dormant state.

They can even be preserved for a week or longer under low temperatures.

However, they should not be exposed directly to temperatures below minus ten degrees Celsius.

According to Lu Chuan’s experiments, the longest growth cycle for blowfly larvae on the body was actually thirty-six days!

In thirty-six days, a regular blowfly’s entire lifecycle is typically just one to two months.

That’s why Lu Chuan suspected that the eggs had been frozen.

Lu Chuan collected humidity data at the location where the corpse was initially disposed of and, together with recent temperature fluctuations, reconstructed the external environment at that time.

If the suspect disposed of the body immediately after committing the murder, the blowfly eggs should have hatched in eleven days.

In reality, however, the eggs hatched in thirty-six days.

With this conclusion, Lu Chuan was able to decisively conclude.

After the victim’s death, the suspect did not immediately dispose of the body.

The body disposal took place eleven days ago, whereas the victim died thirty-six days ago!

Back at the Crime Scene Investigation office.

Liu Guodong appeared grave.

"Are we certain the body was refrigerated?"

Lu Chuan nodded affirmatively: "Without refrigeration, the blowfly eggs parasitic on the body couldn’t possibly have a thirty-six-day incubation period."

"But, if the body was refrigerated, wouldn’t the eggs be frozen to death?"

"Low-temperature refrigeration, even not below zero, isn’t the same as freezing."

"This is why Forensic Doctor Shen probably didn’t find any signs of freezing during the autopsy."

Low-temperature refrigeration is essentially what’s commonly referred to as preservation.

Preservation periods usually aren’t very long, but since it’s not completely frozen, there aren’t any blatant signs.

Moreover, by the time the body was discovered, it was already heavily decomposed.

Inside Qin Yong’s office.

"You suspect that the body was refrigerated?"

Liu Guodong nodded: "It’s a possibility."

He handed Lu Chuan’s analysis report on the parasitic eggs from the corpse to Qin Yong, explaining.

"This is Lu Chuan’s forensic entomology analysis report based on the blowfly eggs parasitic on the body."

Even though Qin Yong had been a criminal investigator for a long time, it was his first time seeing something .

"Blowfly eggs generally hatch within one to two weeks."

"Based on the temperature, humidity, and other conditions at the initial scene, the hatching time should be eleven days."

"To verify this estimate, Lu Chuan has conducted several experiments this week, and it’s most likely accurate."

"However, the eggs on the actual body show the longest incubation period was thirty-six days!"

"Only within low-temperature refrigeration, during the egg dormancy period, could such a prolonged incubation time be achieved."

"Thirty-six days... so precise?"