Chapter 375 - 237 Kiss
In forensic medicine, there are mainly two methods to determine a person’s appearance: one is skull reconstruction, which is what Ran Yan mentioned, and the other is skull-photo superimposition.
Skull-photo superimposition is primarily used to determine whether the skull and a suspected person’s photo belong to the same person. It requires a camera, so it is not of much use in the Great Tang.
"Alright. However, there are too many outsiders at Ran’s residence; it would be more convenient at my place," Xiao Song suggested.
Whether in the past or present, there was no reason to carelessly mishandle crucial evidence from a case. Ran Yan quickly nodded in agreement.
The two scheduled a detailed time and went over the case: it began with Lady Wenxi and her husband Liu Yingdao encountering bandits in Zizhou; amidst a life-and-death situation, they met Chai Xuanyi and his group, but Liu Yingdao succumbed to severe injuries and soon passed away. Shortly after the mourning period, Lady Wenxi, arranged by the Empress, remarried Chai Xuanyi. Less than a year later, Chai Xuanyi and a few others encountered bandits in the east of the city. Four people went missing, one skeleton was currently found, the whereabouts of the other three were unknown, and both Chai Xuanyi and his maid rolled down a hillside—with the maid dying and Chai Xuanyi sustaining severe brain injuries causing memory loss.
Xiao Song felt this case was full of doubts. First, they were said to encounter bandits, but nobody saw the bandits’ faces or knew their numbers. Second, the Imperial Physicians diagnosed Chai Xuanyi with memory loss, but whether he truly had amnesia was still questionable. Third, Lady Wenxi’s behavior—said to be reclusive and avoid strangers—came personally the first time he invited her. Fourth, concerning the motive, the perpetrator seemed uninterested in wealth, so what was his/her motive for killing.
These were the most suspicious points, among many others that simply did not connect well. Xiao Song considered Lady Wenxi might have a motive for murder, but the clues were too scarce to be conclusive.
"What are the identities of the three missing persons?" Ran Yan asked.
"One is a scholar from a humble family, named He Yan, nineteen years old, without any title. Another is a son born out of wedlock in the Dou family; he is called Dou Chengfeng, styled Yu Rong, twenty-one years old. And the third person’s identity is unknown," Xiao Song said without hesitation while holding her palm, reciting these details. "He Yan’s family is no more. I had people search his temporary residence thoroughly; the items were limited and initially had nothing suspicious. Dou Chengfeng... he’s just a dissolute scion. It’s said that he was familiar with Pei Jing. I had asked Pei Jing, but he claimed that they merely knew each other casually and weren’t close."