National Forensic Doctor

"Jiang Yuan felt there was something wrong with the time of death. If we start counting from when the last eyewitness saw the victim... that means the body was not discovered until 8 days later. Such a time difference is too long."

In the meeting room, Captain Ma Jiyang of the Criminal Police Brigade’s Second Squad was doing the math, frowning heavily.

This case was originally assigned to the Second Squad for investigation, and as a star performer in the Changyang City Criminal Investigation Detachment, Ma Jiyang was rarely faced with forensic doctors drastically changing their estimation of a victim’s time of death.

"It won’t be as long as 8 days," Jiang Yuan made a slight correction. "I estimate it was more like five or six days before the victim’s body was discovered."

Although the exact reason was not yet fully determined, Jiang Yuan had tentatively adjusted the time of death from 3 days to around 6 days.

Ma Jiyang said, "Based on what we know now, on the evening of the 4th, the last patient left Li Yanmin’s clinic. The victim, Li Yanmin, did not open his doors on the 5th, only notifying everyone via a WeChat group that he would be resting for a few days and temporarily closing up. After that, no one saw Li Yanmin again. In the following days, Li Yanmin did communicate with people over WeChat, but he didn’t make or receive any phone calls."

"Has this kind of situation happened before? The clinic closing for several days, what would the villagers do if they needed medical attention?" Liu Jinghui inquired.

"There’s another clinic in the town, less than 10 kilometers away from the village," the responding police officer replied, then continued, "Li Yanmin often closed his clinic for short periods; he liked to travel abroad, taking off to have fun two or three times each year during the off-season. Sometimes he would close the clinic for a day or two as well. The villagers are used to it."