Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 759 The Twists and Turns in Jianghai (Part 1)
When everyone saw Ma Rongcheng's lips, which were almost touching the deceased's nose, they realized that something extraordinary had definitely been discovered.

"Expert Ma, have you discovered something?" Huang Mao approached and asked in a low voice, afraid of disturbing the expert's discovery.

Ma Rongcheng hummed twice, and although his answer was vague, it was enough to arouse everyone's curiosity.

Everyone gathered around, examining it for a long time, but found nothing.

Chen Shu followed Ma Rongcheng's gaze to the deceased's neck, where a deep mark encircled halfway around the neck, clearly a mark left by the thick rope tightening when the person hanged themselves.

Chen Shu stared at the marks, and the scene of the deceased hanging from the toilet door frame flashed through his mind: standing on a chair, putting his head into the noose, then kicking the chair away and hanging up.

It's wobbly and unsteady.

She struggled at first, but because her throat was tightly constricted by the rope, her pupils slowly lost focus, and her hands, which were originally gripping the rope, fell limply to her sides.

The final frame of the image shows the tongue sticking out extremely long.

And bulging eyeballs that are about to burst.

This is a scene of fierce struggle, both desperate and lonely, until everything returns to silence.

Instantly, Chen Shu's eyes flashed with light as he realized, "A ligature mark! This ligature mark is abnormal!"

Zhu Yiba, who prided himself on being the best in martial arts, had been wearing a bitter face the whole time. Now, he took a deep breath, as if he had been waiting for this moment, and said excitedly, "Master Chen, you really did see the problem!"

Jiang Hai trembled uncontrollably, as if excited to witness a great scene.

Huang Mao also looked at Chen Shu with extremely expectant eyes.

"Our Conan books aren't just for show." Chen Chuan chuckled, slowly taking out yellow cigarettes from his pocket and handing them out one by one to the group, his expression proud.

Forensic doctor Lao Tang smiled with satisfaction, feeling that it was indeed the right thing to do to involve these people in the case. Now he was just waiting for his colleague from another province to reveal the secret behind it.

Ma Rongcheng straightened up, ready to listen to what this young man had to say. Although he had noticed something unusual earlier, the provincial expert's composure made him feel that remaining silent was also a good form of self-cultivation.

At this moment, everyone's eyes were focused on Chen Shu. Chen Shu, who had been somewhat hesitant, was now quite certain and said frankly, "This ligature mark is too clean."

"Clean?" Jiang Hai's eyes sparkled. He found the scene of standing next to a corpse and applying what he had just learned incredibly exciting, much more thrilling than the bespectacled teacher in his criminal investigation techniques class who always made everyone sleepy. "Brother Shu, you mean the victim's neck was too clean? Did she take a shower before hanging herself? Wait, a shower first... could it be that she was preparing to do 'that' with a man? The murderer is her boyfriend!"

Jiang Hai became more and more excited as he spoke, almost as if he wanted to shout out the last breath from his chest.

Chen Chuan couldn't help but laugh, and scoffed, "I didn't expect you to know so much about this kind of procedure. Tsk tsk, I thought you were a virgin. I underestimated you, I underestimated you." Jiang Hai, who was extremely excited, was suddenly brought to a standstill by Chen Chuan's blunt comment, like a car speeding on the highway being abruptly slammed on the brakes. His face turned red and he suddenly felt a little breathless.

"Hmm, to put it another way, clear, the marks are very clear." Chen Shu stopped their playful banter, his expression serious, and made a hypothetical statement, "Imagine, if someone hangs themselves, even if it was voluntary beforehand, the process of hanging themselves must be extremely painful, so there will be some degree of struggle."

"Hmm!" Jiang Hai closed his eyes, imagined a scene of someone hanging themselves, and then nodded emphatically.

Chen Shu pointed to the deceased's neck and said thoughtfully, "Look at these ligature marks. There's no overlap or displacement, indicating that the deceased didn't struggle violently before death. In the few hanging suicide cases I've seen before, the marks on the neck where the rope was attached would always overlap, not be this clear. Therefore, it's very likely that she hanged herself unconscious, meaning..."

"Brother Shu! You mean there was a second person at the scene who hanged the deceased? Or that the deceased was hanged after death!" Jiang Hai's eyes gleamed, his hands rubbing together in agitation. "A murder! A murder!"

Chen Chuan deliberately put on a stern face and slapped Jiang Hai on the back of the head, scolding, "So happy that someone died? Is this how a policeman behaves?"

Having been labeled with such a heavy moral accusation, Jiang Hai immediately shut up, smiling sheepishly and ceasing his commotion.

Chen Shu subconsciously looked at Ma Rongcheng, who had first noticed the abnormality in the neck, and the others followed Chen Shu's gaze.

Ma Rongcheng chuckled and nodded: "Officer Chen, your explanation makes some sense, but there are still some doubts. The problem is that you've seen too few people commit suicide by hanging. With such a small sample size, your generalizations will be biased."

"If the deceased struggled before death, the ligature marks will be more complex to retard, but if the person died immediately upon hanging, the ligature marks will resemble those on the corpse."

Ma Rongcheng paused briefly, pointed his right hand straight at the corpse on the autopsy table, and said calmly, "Very clean, and very clear."

"Die instantly?" Jiang Hai was taken aback, catching the key point of Ma Rongcheng's explanation, but he still couldn't understand how hanging could lead to instant death. In movies, people always struggled for a while before sticking out their tongues and dying.

Ma Wing-shing thoroughly enjoyed teaching this kind of role model, patiently explaining, "Some people lose consciousness the instant they hang themselves, their limbs become immobile, and during this process, they experience no pain whatsoever, so they don't struggle."

Ma Rongcheng paused for a moment as usual, giving everyone enough time to think, and then slowly said: "There is another possibility. In that half-second of hanging, if the person hanging exerts too much force and gets caught on the rope, it can cause the cervical joint to dislocate suddenly. In that case, the heart and breathing will stop immediately."

"In addition, if the rope happens to press on the carotid sinus, it will cause increased vagal nerve tension and trigger a reflex cardiac arrest, and the person will die immediately. In other words, the situation of no struggle will still occur as Officer Chen described."

"Huh? Teacher Ma, do you mean suicide?" Jiang Hai suddenly felt an emptiness in his chest, as if most of his strength had drained away, and he felt quite lost.

Ma Wing-shing nodded: "Very likely."

"Sigh." Jiang Hai sighed deeply, his eyes gradually dimming. For some reason, his legs went weak and he slumped into the chair.

Chen Chuan couldn't stand it anymore, so he went up and kicked him, laughing and cursing, "You little brat, what a scoundrel you are!"

(End of this chapter)