CH 215

Speculations rose one after another while Lin Chen and Xing Conglian remained silent.

Indeed, all the physical evidence was there, but only testimonial evidence was lacking. Lin Chen didn’t even doubt that there could be witnesses who saw Duan Wanshan in the next few days.

The current situation was interesting. Their colleagues and comrades who had always supported them surrounded them, but they couldn’t tell them that Duan Wanshan was really dead, and all their guesses were wrong.

Lin Chen couldn’t help coughing. The feeling of having enemies in the dark and them in the light was really uncomfortable, and the fact that these conspiracies were centered around the dead Duan Wanshan made it even more difficult to accept.

Xing Conglian looked at him with concern, and Lin Chen looked at the dim eyes under the bright light and said, “Shall we go to the forensic room?”

“Okay.”

……

The forensic doctor at Hongjing Police Station was a woman with bright, curly red hair.

When they arrived at the door, the forensic doctor was holding milk tea, carrying a bag, and preparing to leave work. Xing Conglian went over and pressed the door, pushing her back into the office.

“Hey, I like women. Stay away from me,” the forensic doctor shouted.

“It’s okay. I like men,” Xing Conglian said.

Lin Chen pushed open the door and saw Xing Conglian holding the forensic lady in the chair, taking the boba milk tea from her hand, and accurately throwing it into the trash can.

“Xing Conglian, what the hell?!”

“Why are you in such a hurry to leave?” Xing Conglian asked sharply.

“Fuck, brother, it’s already 7 in the evening, and I’ve been working overtime for two hours!” Forensic Doctor Yu was very impatient.

“Then sit for a while longer.”

Xing Conglian dragged a chair over, and Lin Chen sat down and greeted the beautiful lady in front of him, “Forensic Doctor Yu.”

“Consultant Lin.”

“Is there any way to falsify DNA evidence?” Lin Chen asked straightforwardly.

“Consultant Lin!”

The forensic doctor’s face sank. “It’s one thing not to let me leave, but why did you suddenly ask such a strange question?”

Lin Chen said, “We suspect that the DNA sample on the murder weapon in the Tan Kang case belonging to the suspect Duan Wanshan was forged.”

For a long time, the forensic doctor didn’t speak. The smell of formalin and the fresh gel water from the forensic doctor’s red hair floated in the air.

“What do you mean?” The forensic doctor leaned back in her chair and asked seriously.

Lin Chen replied, “Duan Wanshan has been abroad all this time, and there’s no record of him entering Hongjing, so he cannot suddenly appear here and commit murder.”

“You guys are criminal investigators. You should be able to find hundreds of ways and possibilities for him to come back,” the forensic doctor said.

Lin Chen replied concisely, “It’s impossible.”

“Okay, according to what you said, then someone falsely accused him by stealing his blood sample and stained it on the knife handle.” As Forensic Doctor Yu spoke, she crossed her legs.

“It’s impossible.”

“Why not?” The female medical examiner leaned forward suddenly.

“I can’t tell you right now.”

“You’re driving me crazy.” Forensic Doctor Yu leaned back in her chair, looking like she was saying, “Well, it looks like you already tested it, so what do you need me for?”

“So we need a possibility that there’s no relation between Duan Wanshan and this matter, but there is a possibility that the blood sample containing his DNA could appear on the knife handle.”

The red-haired female forensic doctor’s expression suddenly froze, and her eyebrows arched high. “I understand. You want me to tell you if there’s a way to fake DNA evidence, right?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever thought that if a typical case of DNA evidence forgery appears, it will create a lot of pressure on the prosecution in future court debates, and countless defense lawyers will use this to attack the reliability of forensic appraisal?” Forensic Doctor Yu countered.

“But this is an unavoidable problem. In this case, I am very sure that there is evidence of forgery,” Lin Chen persisted.

Finally, Forensic Doctor Yu sighed and said, “In fact, it’s very simple.”

“How simple?”

“Suppose I can get your DNA sample—I don’t need much. Even a single strand of your hair is enough. Amplify a large amount of DNA through certain techniques, then draw a tube of Lao Xing’s blood, separate the white blood cells containing DNA using a centrifuge, and then add your DNA to Lao Xing’s blood…”

Lin Chen looked directly at the medical examiner. “If the blood is subjected to forensic examination, it will only belong to me, not him.”

The beautiful female medical examiner nodded solemnly. “This is just the simplest method that even a biology undergraduate can complete.”

“I understand.” Lin Chen stood up and thanked her.

“You doubted my appraisal results and want to run away after saying thanks?”

Lin Chen lowered his eyes and said to Forensic Doctor Yu, “Actually, there is something else I want to know.”

“You have a very questioning look.” Forensic Doctor Yu crossed her arms and looked at him.

“I suddenly realized that you didn’t explain something to us clearly. Although I’m not sure about the specific division of the gene bank, I’m still surprised that you were able to quickly identify that it was Duan Wanshan’s DNA.”

“What the hell? Are you suspecting me?”

“I’m seeking answers.”

Forensic Doctor Yu stared at him for three seconds, took a deep breath, took off the hair tie from her left wrist and tied up her hair, then took out her laptop from her backpack and opened it with a snap. “Do you know about the Dingyuan Forum?”

Lin Chen frowned. “A medical forum?”

“It’s the largest medical-related forum in China.” Forensic Doctor Yu turned on her laptop. “I’m a sub-forum administrator there, so I basically go there every day to deal with site-related issues.” Forensic Doctor Yu paused. “I’m explaining this to tell you that I’m not looking for trouble.”

Lin Chen nodded.

“I wouldn’t be pursuing this if it wasn’t for this kind of situation.” Forensic Doctor Yu clicked open the forum, typed in “Tan Kang plagiarism” into the search bar, and hit enter. “About a month ago, someone posted a thread implying that Tan Kang had plagiarized Duan Wanshan’s research results. Because both of them are academic giants, there was quite a heated discussion. But the original poster didn’t provide any conclusive evidence, so it was dropped.”

Lin Chen’s heart trembled, finally realizing where his unease was coming from. If the other party had designed to falsely accuse Duan Wanshan, they would have made a complete chain of evidence, including not only physical evidence but also the motive for murder. And now, with this thread’s existence, the motive for murder was becoming apparent.

Duan Wanshan, harboring a grudge against Tan Kang’s plagiarism of his research results, returned to China and murdered him.

“After Tan Kang’s death, someone else resurrected this thread,” Forensic Doctor Yu said with a meaningful look. “You know what I mean…”

Xing Conglian leaned over to look at the various conspiracy theories on the webpage and shouted, “Wang Chao!”

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Lin Chen asked Forensic Doctor Yu. “You knew about this thread’s existence, so you deliberately searched for Duan Wanshan’s DNA in the citizen’s gene bank, right?”

“Hey, hey, don’t give me that look!” Forensic Doctor Yu widened her eyes. “Obviously, I was standing on Duan Wanshan’s side, which is why I concealed this thread. It’s an obvious motive for murder. But if I really found his DNA, how could I not report it?”

The young man quickly pushed open the door and seeing the three people in the forensic doctor’s office, especially the red-haired woman, he took a step back. “Do you want to talk first?”

“Come over here,” Xing Conglian said.

Wang Chao also walked over to the forensic doctor and saw the laptop on the table and the contents on the computer screen. He quickly rushed over to move the mouse and carefully checked everything.

Finally, the young man apologized to them. “I’m sorry, Boss A’Chen. I didn’t realize this involved an online debate.”

Xing Conglian didn’t joke with him and only said, “Check the IP.”

Wang Chao nodded and quickly got to work. For a while, there was only the sound of rapid typing and the clicking of the mouse in the office. Lin Chen looked at the constantly changing computer screen and had a worse suspicion.

“I found it,” Wang Chao said, pulling off a slip of paper and writing down a string of numbers.

“The specific address of the poster,” Xing Conglian said.

Wang Chao turned back to continue working, and before long, his brow furrowed tightly. “The poster’s address is in Hongjing, very close to our home…”

Lin Chen raised his eyes suddenly.

Wang Chao stared at the screen and read, “At 7 Yanjia Lane, the Guai Guai Pet Shop.”

As soon as he heard the words “pet shop,” the blood drained from Lin Chen’s face, and he began coughing violently. Xing Conglian noticed and quickly patted his back. Holding Lin Chen’s hand, he felt the heat in his palm and said, “I’ll take you to the hospital first, and then we’ll go to the pet shop.”

“No need.” Lin Chen interrupted him, suppressing the discomfort in his lungs, and looked up at Forensic Doctor Yu.

“So can I get off work now since it seems you have some private matters to discuss?”

“I’m sorry.” Lin Chen nodded.

Forensic Doctor Yu pointed to her laptop. “Don’t use it to look at porn.”

“You can take it with you,” Lin Chen said.

“You should have said that sooner.” The beautiful forensic doctor glared at them, picked up the laptop, and walked out. When she was near the door, she turned back and gave them a worried look.

The door closed.

“What happened?” Xing Conglian asked.

Lin Chen took a deep breath. “It’s a post written by Duan Yang.”

Lin Chen couldn’t describe how he felt right now. Perhaps because he was running a fever again, he felt chills all over his body.

In fact, after experiencing everything in the rainforest, he would never doubt Duan Yang’s feelings for Duan Wanshan. If possible, Duan Yang would be willing to die for Duan Wanshan.

So since Duan Yang had no intention of framing Duan Wanshan—perhaps a long time ago—this matter had turned into a scheme that someone had been deliberately using Duan Yang to frame Duan Wanshan.

Every step that Duan Yang took to avenge his teacher and every trace he left on the Internet may have been designed by the mastermind behind the scenes to push Duan Wanshan into the abyss.

If Duan Wanshan hadn’t died, all of this would have happened as planned, and Duan Yang’s well-intentioned actions would have harmed his teacher.

Unfortunately, Duan Wanshan died…

This kind of arrangement may be small malice, but it was as strong as ink, and the smell was extremely fishy.

Lin Chen’s mind was in chaos for a while, but no matter what, there were some things that had to be done. “We need to confirm two things.”

Xing Conglian nodded.

“First, in order to confirm the true purpose of the person who forged the DNA evidence, we need to confirm with Duan Yang whether there are other people besides us who know about Professor Duan’s death.” Lin Chen paused, then continued, “Second, we must ask Duan Yang about the entire process of Tan Kang’s plagiarizing Professor Duan’s academic research results. If the murderer didn’t improvise to frame Duan Wanshan after seeing Duan Yang’s post, then this is a deliberate conspiracy. In my opinion, the latter is more likely.”

“But… But do we have to tell Duan Yang about this?” Wang Chao started with difficulty. “How much pain will he feel?”

“He has the right to know,” Lin Chen said, looking at the teenager’s conflicted face.