Medical Examiner Dr. Qin Episode 1 Recap
> Medical Examiner Dr. Qin Recap
Qin Ming sat at his desk, meticulously measuring fabric with a ruler, an anatomical skeleton standing beside him. A "Postmortem Examination Report" from the Longfan Municipal Public Security Bureau lay beside his hand. Meanwhile, in a bustling snack street, police officers photographed and gathered evidence at a stall selling illicit oil, surrounded by a crowd. An officer confronted the vendor, asking if he expected others to cook with oil he wouldn't consume himself.
The vendor defiantly retorted that his oils were for expensive restaurants, claiming the public wouldn't encounter them unless they participated in corruption. The police ordered his arrest. As officers continued examining items recovered from the gutter oil, one noticed a large object, initially thought to be a chicken foot, and questioned if it might actually be a human hand.
News reports highlighted the public's concern over food safety following the police's "Cracking Down the Four Pests" operation that uncovered the gutter oil manufacturers. At the police station, Lin Tao briefed his team on an imminent night operation to apprehend Zhao San, a suspect linked to at least three murders. He emphasized the need for swift and precise action, reminding his subordinates to be thorough during the search and to prioritize safety. Just then, his phone rang.
Lin Tao cautiously answered, addressing the caller as "baby" and explaining he was interrogating a suspect, implying he couldn't talk freely. The call was abruptly disconnected. The Director General, standing behind him, questioned who he was calling "baby." The Director General then informed Lin Tao about a new case at the snack street, which the Deputy Mayor was personally supervising, urging Lin Tao to stay focused.
Qin Ming, who was still sewing, received a call from Lin Tao and promptly arrived at the snack street. A police officer explained they found a food waste truck filled with gutter oil but were unsure of the death toll, only instructed to conduct the "Cracking Down the Four Pests" operation. Qin Ming sarcastically asked if they needed forensic experts to identify gutter oil. Reporters also questioned why a forensic examiner was needed for a gutter oil case.
Qin Ming ignored them, and upon reaching the scene, the police asked him to identify if the object was a chicken foot or a human hand. Qin Ming knelt, donned gloves, and picked up the object. Lin Tao remarked it was too large for a chicken foot but too small for a human hand. Qin Ming, however, suggested it could be a woman's hand that had contracted to that size after being deep-fried.
Lin Tao, alarmed, asked if this meant murder and cooking. Qin Ming concluded that none of them would be sleeping that night. During the dissection, Lin Tao proposed DNA testing given the "odious" nature of deep-fried fingers. Qin Ming dismissed the idea, citing their tight 48-hour deadline and the six hours required for DNA results. Lin Tao expressed concern about the difficulty of separating soft tissues from such a small, non-fixed object.
Qin Ming, undeterred, quickly separated the bone and confirmed it was a human finger. When another officer expressed disbelief, Qin Ming explained it fell under forensic anthropology, stating that phalanges are uniquely shaped human bones that evolved to be shorter with larger joint surfaces for greater flexibility, making this a typical human phalange. With the identification confirmed, Lin Tao instructed his officers to thoroughly inspect all gutter oil containers.
Qin Ming requested a specialized forensic examiner to differentiate food waste from human remains, asking about the new recruit. Lin Tao mentioned the new person would arrive the next morning, but Qin Ming insisted they appear within twenty minutes, that night. Meanwhile, Li Dabao sped to the scene, stopping to save a small boy stranded in the middle of the road from an oncoming truck.
She asked the child for his family's whereabouts and name, but he only replied he didn't know, so she brought him along. Qin Ming continued his examination, noting the fingers were deep-fried and severely dehydrated, causing them to contract and appear small. The neat cuts suggested a kitchen knife was used, indicating the perpetrator possessed great physical strength. Da Bao encountered traffic congestion, and to avoid further delay, she continued on foot with the child on her back.
Upon reaching the snack street, she handed the boy over to a police officer and rushed to find Qin Ming. Officers tried to prevent her from entering the crime scene, but she identified herself as a forensic examiner from the Longfan Criminal Investigation Branch, Forensic Examination Section. When asked if "Dabao" was a man, she clarified she was Li Dabao, the newly transferred forensic examiner, not Zhao Dabao, who had left.
Qin Ming met Da Bao with disapproval, stating his strong dislike for tardiness, equating it to a lack of attitude rather than ability. He cut off her attempts to explain, asserting that if she couldn't even manage herself, she couldn't be a forensic examiner. He then questioned her gender, having expected a male, and declared the task unsuitable for a woman. Offended, Da Bao challenged him to name a job a man could do but a woman couldn't.
Qin Ming pointed to the gutter oil bins, and Da Bao, grabbing a strainer from an officer, began sifting through the foul contents. As Da Bao continued her work, Qin Ming observed, offering her a chance to rest if she couldn't handle it. She declined. Lin Tao reiterated that women might not be suited for forensic work, seemingly agreeing with Qin Ming. Qin Ming then pointed out that all the human remains were concentrated in containers #1 and #13.
Lin Tao expressed concern that failure to solve the case within 48 hours, especially with a crowd gathered at the snack street, would cause public panic. Qin Ming assured him that within the next two hours, the forensic department would provide DNA profiles and a preliminary body reconstruction. Lin Tao agreed to their usual division of labor: Qin Ming would "question the dead," while he would "interrogate the living."
In the forensic department, Qin Ming instructed Director Zheng to expedite DNA profiling for the deep-fried remains. Director Zheng, seeing Da Bao, asked who she was. Qin Ming simply referred to her as "Late One." Da Bao introduced herself as Li Dabao, the newly transferred forensic examiner. Director Zheng complimented Da Bao's beauty but warned her about working under Qin Ming, then noticed Da Bao's pungent smell, which Da Bao attributed to trash and gutter oil.
Director Zheng urged her to go home, shower, and change, but Da Bao refused. Qin Ming, impatient, called out to her. In the autopsy room, Da Bao, observing Qin Ming in his protective suit, asked for her own. Qin Ming pointed to it. Once equipped, she asked for instructions. Qin Ming explained he needed to peel off the deep-fried tissues to extract any undamaged epidermal or dermal layers.
Da Bao began, but Qin Ming redirected her to categorize the body remains based on muscle fiber thickness and orientation. After strenuous work, Da Bao, though tired, persisted, inspired by Qin Ming's unwavering focus. Eventually, they reconstructed the available remains. Da Bao noted that only the hips and limbs were present, with the torso still missing. She speculated that the perpetrator might have used small tools or chosen a disposal site that precluded larger cuts, such as a sewer.
Qin Ming concurred. Da Bao then revealed that all the found remains were covered in feces, a detail observed consistently in containers #1 and #13, while her own container, though smelly, contained no feces, explaining why she found no remains. Qin Ming explained that gutter oil is sourced either from restaurant waste or from grease floating in sewers.
Da Bao quickly grasped the implication: the vendor had lied, and the oil containing the remains was likely extracted from a sewer, not from snack street waste. Lin Tao confronted the gutter oil vendor again, who initially claimed the oil was merely recycled cooking oil, not gutter oil.
Lin Tao, angered by the feces discovered in the oil, accused the vendor of lying and emphasized that what began as a food safety violation was now a homicide investigation for the Criminal Investigation Branch. Under pressure, the vendor confessed that he had collected the waste from the sewers on the east side of Lihua Neighborhood, behind the snack street. Lin Tao led a team to Lihua Neighborhood. Qin Ming, Lin Tao, and Da Bao descended into the foul-smelling sewers.
Qin Ming instructed them to search specifically for the pelvis, explaining that it is composed of the sacrum and hip bones, the hardest bones in the human body, making it nearly impossible to fragment. He stressed the pelvis's forensic value. Lin Tao cried out in fear upon encountering a rat, which Da Bao calmly threw aside. Amused by her bravery, Lin Tao playfully offered to call her "Buddy Bao" or "Master Bao."
Though Qin Ming wanted to proceed in one direction, Da Bao, relying on her heightened sense of smell, insisted the scent of decay emanated from another. She ventured off alone, calling out excitedly that she was correct. The water in the sewer reached their ankles, and more rats scurried about, but Da Bao ultimately located a pelvis near a pipe. Its shape and weight confirmed it belonged to a female.
She continued searching, finding a femur and tibia, noting they were unusually long for a female, suggesting the victim had very long legs. Driving back, Qin Ming remarked on Da Bao's keen sense of smell, which she confirmed was a natural gift, playfully adding that she had to plug her nose in restrooms to avoid fainting. Qin Ming then dubbed her a "human dog" due to her "highly developed sense of smell."
Lin Tao playfully challenged Da Bao to use her nose to figure out what Qin Ming did the previous night, to which she retorted that she wouldn't dare, as he had "no human smell." Back in the forensic lab, Da Bao successfully reconstructed the skeleton. She reported that the right femur measured 47. 4 centimeters, and using the regression equation for female height estimation (21-30 years old), calculated the victim's height to be approximately 175 centimeters.
Qin Ming agreed with the equation but found the victim's long legs "strange." He instructed Da Bao to relay all the findings to Lin Tao, including that the time of death was within a week based on decomposition, the pelvis's weight, and the slow sewer current indicating the disposal site was not far from the discovery point.
Da Bao then asked about her next task, to which Qin Ming simply told her to "go out," explaining that her breathing was distracting him and she should return in an hour. With less than 28 hours remaining in the 48-hour deadline for the headless case, Lin Tao expressed his frustration over the limited clues and unknown victim identity.
Da Bao asked if her breathing was indeed loud, and Lin Tao confirmed it was "a bit," but advised her to get used to Qin Ming's personality. An officer reported that after searching Lihua Neighborhood, they found no missing women, nor any residents, over 175 centimeters tall. Da Bao asked if the victim might be an outsider, but that too yielded no matches.
However, they did find a 25-year-old woman named Lian Qianqian, known for chatting with elderly women in the neighborhood, who had been missing for two weeks. Her husband, a former catering manager at the International Grand Hotel, had also quit his job two weeks prior and was now missing. Lin Tao pondered a possible connection between the hotel, deep-frying, and the case. Da Bao inquired about Lian Qianqian's height, which was reported as approximately 160 centimeters.
Da Bao quickly pointed out that this significantly differed from their calculated height of 175 centimeters, arguing that the victim's long femur made a 160-centimeter height impossible from a forensic perspective. Qin Ming then concluded that their entire approach was flawed, making any further inquiries based on Lian Qianqian futile.
