Wang Yang hunched closer to the console, lowering his voice, "Mr Li, there's a suspicious fracture line in the back of the victim's skull."

Mr Li raised his hand to press his brow, rubbing the crease between his eyebrows with his fingertip.

"If it happened before death, it's likely the fatal wound; if it formed afterwards, we'll have to revisit the entire investigation direction."

As he spoke, he nodded, and involuntarily gazed at the figure in the center of the console, even softening his breathing.

At this moment, the laboratory was so quiet that the echo of one's own heartbeat could be heard.

The ventilation fan above the console was the only sound, tirelessly running and emitting a continuous yet soft "buzzing" noise.

Everyone's eyes were fixed intently on the skull in Jiang An's hands.

Jiang An held the base of the skull steadily with one hand, avoiding the tiny fissures with his fingertips, while the other hand held a magnifying glass, its edge reflecting specks of light.

He leaned slightly forward, his shoulders tensed straight like a focused sculpture, his gaze locked firmly on the crack at the back of the skull.

Under the magnifying glass's reflection, the jagged traces around the crack were magnified, each ridge clear as if engraved at the base of his sight.

To the right of the sagittal suture, two cracks traversed it horizontally; the marks were apparent yet made an impression that's deep horizontally and shallow vertically.

Jiang An slowly moved the magnifying glass away, his fingertips gently brushing over the center of the crack where there was a barely noticeable dark brown trace, like dried blood seeping deep into the bone.

After observing for a full five minutes, he slowly raised his head and glanced at Mr Li and Mr Wang beside him.

"Mr. Jiang, do we have results?"

Wang Yang couldn't hold back any longer, and his voice carried an unmistakable urgency.

As soon as he spoke, everyone's gaze "swished" from the skull and uniformly landed on Jiang An.

Air, as if solidified at that moment.

Jiang An nodded lightly, his Adam's apple moving as he was about to speak.

Mr. Wang had already jumped in with a question, "Was the fracture caused carelessly while handling the body or did it happen before death?"

"Fractured before death."

Jiang An's voice wasn't loud, but it carried undeniable firmness.

The four words hit everyone's heart like four heavy stones.

Instantly, everyone froze in place, especially Wang Yang, Chen Biao, and Mr Li.

They stared at each other, a solemn expression creeping across their faces.

Mr Li cleared his throat, breaking the suffocating silence.

"Mr. Jiang, you're a seasoned forensic expert and have absolute authority in this field."

"However, I still want to ask, is the judgment based on sufficient evidence?"

His tone carried barely discernible probing, but his gaze firmly locked onto Jiang An's eyes.

Jiang An's expression showed no displeasure; instead, he flashed a patient smile.

"Good question, Mr Li."

He spoke as he gently held the skull up to the light, pressing the magnifying glass steadily along the fracture line.

"Look at this crack, it's shaped like a cross, with the widest gap at the intersection in the center."

"According to the principles of physics about force transmission, the skull is roughly spherical, so when a point is hit by external force, the force spreads radially around."

"Therefore, the victim's skull formed this pattern where the crack becomes gradually shallower and the gap narrower from the intersection towards the surrounding area."

He paused for a moment, his fingertip pointing to the center of the crack, "Hence, this crisscross intersection should be where the force concentrates most."

"It must have suffered from severe impact or blow."

Just as he finished, Wang Yang abruptly cut in, "Mr. Jiang, could it be accidentally caused by a hoe?"

Jiang An shook his head, rotating the skull to show the side of the crack to everyone.

"That possibility is close to zero."

"Though it's a fracture crack, the bone fragment in the center hasn't fallen off in halves."

"The small shovel we use on the mountain is sharp enough along the edge."

"If caused by a shovel impact, the force would be highly concentrated, surely creating a localized depressed fracture in sheet form."

"Under such circumstances, it wouldn't form this radiative fracture due to force."

Finally, Jiang An paused for a while and said deeply, "The skull fracture at hand likely resulted from a one-time impact."

After hearing this explanation, everyone instinctively nodded.

As the saying goes, though not understanding the specific principle, it somehow made sense intuitively.

Two intern forensic scientists standing nearby exchanged a subtle "Ah, I see" glance and nodded slightly.

Mr Li's eyebrows furrowed even tighter.

While his understanding of forensic knowledge was limited, his long years in the criminal investigation field honed his sensitivity to deductive logic far beyond ordinary.

A forensic expert's skill often lies hidden in these layers of progressive analysis.

This young man before him can juxtapose evidence from morphology, physics, and cranial anatomy, demonstrating terrifyingly profound competence.

He was about to ask further when Jiang An, as if reading his mind, continued, "Besides morphologic characteristics, the crucial evidence is here."

He circled the dark brown patch in the crack with his magnifying glass.

"Mr Li, look at this dark brown change, it's essentially ironclad evidence of bleeding before death."

"Dark brown change?"

Mr Li leaned in closer, momentarily setting aside his usual bureaucratic demeanor, "What does this mean?"

"The inner side of a human skull is intertwined with dense blood vessels, and in some places, forms web-like venous sinuses with countless minute capillaries invisible to the naked eye."