CH 214

When Xing Conglian loosened his chopsticks, the chicken leg that he just picked up fell down with a loud bang. Soup splashed all over, leaving Wang Chao stunned and Zheng Xiaoming confused as he looked at them.

Lin Chen felt uncomfortable, but he still comforted Zheng Xiaoming by patting his head, stood up, and instructed Wang Chao, “We may not be able to come back for a while. Please wait for Zheng Xiaoming’s parents to come and pick him up.” Even after Lin Chen finished speaking, Zheng Xiaoming still held onto his hand.

Lin Chen touched the little fatty’s face and said, “Your mother has my phone number. If you want to see me, you can ask her to call me.”

Saying so, Lin Chen and Xing Conglian left the cafeteria and headed for the forensic department together.

As they walked side by side, the officer who came to deliver the test report was very excited and kept saying, “Captain, this is a major discovery. The forensic doctor suspects that the suspect accidentally cut himself while committing the crime, leaving his blood sample on the weapon. Although it was wiped clean, DNA samples can still be found.”

“Uh-huh.” Xing Conglian had no reaction and just faintly responded.

The officer was even more excited, “So the reason he had to dispose of the weapon was also because it had his blood on it, and he had to destroy it to get rid of the evidence?”

Xing Conglian remained silent, and the officer continued, “Speaking of which, Duan Wanshan is also very strange. I just briefly looked at his personal information. He used to be a famous university medical professor, but he resigned and went abroad. There has been no record of him since. He is still a citizen of our country, but why did he suddenly enter the country and want to kill Dr. Tan Kang? I’ll go check his entry records later.”

Xing Conglian was still silent, while Lin Chen followed behind.

The sky outside the window had already turned dark, and the air conditioning in the corridor was turned up high, making it very cold. Lin Chen couldn’t help but cough lightly.

Seeing that he looked unwell, Xing Conglian asked, “Is your wound hurting?”

“No,” Lin Chen said.

“I’ll take you back to the hospital first. As soon as we find out, I’ll let you know the results,” Xing Conglian said, looking worried. If there weren’t other officers around, Xing Conglian might have stopped and hugged him.

Lin Chen knew that he wasn’t in very good condition right now, but he still insisted, “We’ve been here for so long. It won’t matter if we go to the forensic department first.”

Xing Conglian reached out and placed his hand on Lin Chen’s forehead, frowning. “It’s a little hot.”

“I feel okay. I just finished eating, so my body temperature is naturally a little high.”

“Have you had your X-rays taken yet?” Xing Conglian asked.

“That’s the only test left,” Lin Chen said.

“Let’s take it when we get back. I’m afraid you have a lung infection,” Xing Conglian said seriously.

Lin Chen nodded.

The officer who was leading the way ahead turned around again and said, “Consultant Lin, you need to stay in the hospital if you’re not feeling well. The case has made a breakthrough now, and you don’t have to be so tightly focused. Take care of yourself. Your health is the foundation of everything.”

Lin Chen shook his head, not knowing how to respond.

……

The entire forensic department still had more than half of its staff working, and the lights were on in the office.

Because the results had just come out and a DNA sample match had been found, many people had heard the news and were in good spirits.

Xing Conglian greeted the officers inside, found a chair to sit down on, and asked, “What’s the progress?”

The forensic officer replied, “The DNA results from the forensic doctor have come out, and we are now preparing to compare the fingerprints on Tan Kang’s notebook and those extracted from the tape with the fingerprints of the suspect, Duan Wanshan.”

“Weren’t the fingerprints on the notebook unidentifiable from the beginning? And since we don’t have Duan Wanshan’s fingerprints in our database, where did we find the comparison object?” Xing Conglian asked.

“We just called Duan Wanshan’s former employer, Yongchuan Medical University, to see if they have any relevant records.”

“After so many years, can Yongchuan Medical University still keep fingerprint records of former employees?”

“You never know, right Captain?” the officer chuckled.

Suddenly, the fax machine in the forensic department rang.

Someone picked up the contents of the fax and shouted, “Comrade Xiao Zhang, your fingerprints are here!”

Lin Chen and Xing Conglian looked at each other.

Officer Xiao Zhang ran excitedly to the fax machine, took a look at the content, and turned to say, “Captain, Yongchuan Medical University still has the fingerprint records of Duan Wanshan’s laboratory that he used to lead. It’s only the thumbprints, but that should be enough.” As he spoke, Xiao Zhang opened his own email, and an email lay quietly there.

Officer Xiao Zhang quickly operated his computer to compare the fingerprints in the email with the two sets of fingerprints found on the notebook and plastic bag.

Lin Chen lowered his head, and for some reason, his heart was beating a little fast.

The results soon came out, and the printer made a crunching sound as Officer Xiao Zhang took out the paper and walked toward them.

“How is it?” Xing Conglian asked.

Officer Xiao Zhang smiled, showing his teeth, and happily reported, “Captain, 14 characteristic points matched. It can be determined that the fingerprints found on the victim’s notebook and the bag containing the murder weapon belong to Duan Wanshan himself!”

Lin Chen suddenly raised his head as his heart trembled.

Duan Wanshan was already dead in the Dana Rainforest. He had witnessed it himself. Now, his DNA sample and fingerprints had reappeared. What is going on?

There was a whisper in the forensic department, as if they were overjoyed to have identified the suspect.

“Captain, what should we do next?” Officer Xiao Zhang asked.

Xing Conglian rarely had such moments when he was tongue-tied, and the surrounding eyes seemed to be waiting for him to give the command to arrest the suspect. “Wait a minute, I have a few questions.” Xing Conglian sorted out his thoughts and then spoke.

“The first question is, why were there two DNA samples found on the murder weapon?” he asked.

“The second DNA sample was found on the handle of the knife,” another person answered, “so we suspect that the suspect accidentally cut his hand while committing the crime…”

“I know this.” Xing Conglian interrupted the other person. “Are you sure the DNA sample is from blood, and not from any other tissue?”

“Yes.” The officer who brought the report nodded.

Xing Conglian turned to the other person and asked, “The second question is, why do we have a DNA sample from Duan Wanshan and quickly got a comparison result? Did he commit any previous crimes?”

“It seems not…” the person answered. “I’ll go check again later.”

Lin Chen frowned. It was indeed very strange because citizen DNA samples were considered personal privacy, and the testing cost was high. Unless there was a crime or some special circumstances, they couldn’t be recorded. Thinking about the possibility of Duan Wanshan’s DNA sample appearing in the citizen gene bank, he asked, “Or is he a victim of some case?”

“That’s not clear. I’ll go and ask now.”

“No need!”

There was a light sound at the door, and Lin Chen looked over and saw Wang Chao standing at the door with his phone.

After the teenager said “no need” very handsomely, he bent over and trotted over. He first reported to him, “A’Chen Gege, Xiaoming’s father has taken my little brother away.”

“Thank you,” Lin Chen said.

“Oh, A’chen Gege, you’re being too polite again. That’s my little brother,” Wang Chao said. He grabbed the test report, took out his phone, and quickly answered Xing Conglian’s question just now. “The reason why Duan Wanshan’s DNA sample appeared in the citizen gene bank is because…” He suddenly looked up, “The Thousand Genome Project?”

“Say it in plain language,” Xing Conglian said.

“I don’t quite understand it myself.” Wang Chao was unusually humble. He licked his finger and began to tap the screen of his phone quickly, and then read word for word, “On January 22, 2008, the ‘International Collaborative Group’ composed of scientists from various countries, announced that the international ‘Thousand Genome Project’ was officially launched. This grand plan will determine the genomic DNA sequences of at least 1,000 human individuals selected from around the world and draw the most detailed and medically valuable human genome genetic polymorphism map to date.”

Xing Conglian interrupted him. “So it means that Duan Wanshan’s DNA sample appearing in the gene bank has nothing to do with any case. It is only because of a medical plan.”

“It should be like this.” Wang Chao nodded, still looking at the messages on his phone. “It seems that Professor Duan was one of the first medical experts to respond to the plan. At that time, some people opposed the plan, saying that genetic information is the privacy of citizens and that large-scale scientific investigations by the government are a violation of citizens’ privacy. So Professor Duan took the lead in participating in this plan.”

“Sounds like something Lao Duan would do,” Xing Conglian said.

The officer who came to deliver the information earlier and had been standing next to them suddenly seemed to have guessed something. He suddenly said, “Oh, Captain, do you know each other?”

“I do. We used to be…very good friends,” Xing Conglian calmly said.

“Oh… it’s your friend.” The police officer couldn’t help but lower his tone. After all, he had already identified Duan Wanshan as a criminal suspect, and now he was thinking about how to pivot. He awkwardly said, “So… do we need to invite your friend to assist in the investigation? There are actually quite a few possibilities for why his blood sample appeared on this knife, like if he accidentally got some blood on it and gave it to someone…” He began to try to explain some other possible reasons.

“I can’t bring him here,” said Xing Conglian.

“Why not?”

“Because I know he’s been abroad for many, many years and hasn’t come back to the country.” Xing Conglian spoke lightly but didn’t mention that Duan Wanshan had already passed away.

Lin Chen lowered his eyes.

The police officer next to them gasped. “This… This can’t be, with the bloodstains and fingerprints, the evidence is relatively substantial.”

“Is there any recent record of Duan Wanshan’s entry into the country?” Xing Conglian asked.

Wang Chao had already found a computer in the forensic science department and logged into the entry and exit management center to search for Duan Wanshan’s name.

He turned the computer at an angle and said to everyone, “Come take a look.”

Xing Conglian and Lin Chen didn’t move, but many people around them gathered.

“The last time Duan Wanshan entered the country was on August 10, 2007…” someone read, “and he exited on September 1st of the same year. There have been no entry records since then…”

“That’s strange.” Someone touched their nose and said, “Did the entry and exit management make a mistake? That shouldn’t be…”

“This can only mean that Duan Wanshan didn’t enter the country through regular channels, and it’s possible that he snuck in,” someone else said.

“But if Duan Wanshan has been abroad all this time, how did he become enemies with Tan Kang, and why did he kill him?” Finally, someone asked this question.