After a thorough external examination of the corpse, the dissection of the corpse officially began. "What do you think of his technique?" asked Xiaotao.

"He’s quite professional,” I admitted. “The rib removal and evisceration were smoothly done. He looks like a coroner with at least 10 years of experience."

"Really, Great Detective Song?!" teased Xiaotao.

"Stop being so dramatic!" I laughed.

Coroners had to examine many corpses and eventually formed a fixed pattern. First, they examined the eyes, the mouth, the body, then the internal organs. This made for a neat and methodical process, but it was easy to overlook certain details.

Corpses weren’t cars on an assembly line, so how could they all follow a similar pattern? After examining corpses for some time, most coroners became numb to it and conveniently conformed to this sequence.

“You hit the nail on the head!” nodded...