Can He Do It

The police station.

"What is this? Drawing a portrait from a skull? Is that even possible?" After Li Yunfei explained Xu Mo's method, the other officers expressed their doubts and then turned to look at the only sketch artist in the station.

To everyone's surprise, even the sketch artist looked bewildered.

Drawing a portrait from a skull? Is that even a technique in forensic sketching?

It's already a very challenging task to draw a portrait based on someone's description, let alone reconstructing a face from a skull. The difficulty is unimaginable.

Not only did the other officers not understand, but even the sketch artist had never heard of this method.

At that moment, the sketch artist's thoughts were in perfect alignment with the other officers, all wondering, "Is this even possible?"

In the next second, he shook his head and looked at the other officers, "Don't look at me, I've never heard of this method. I have no idea if it will work."

The officers fell silent.

Wow, even a professional hasn't heard of this method...

"I think Xu Mo can do it. Besides, we don't have any other options, do we? Let's just treat this as a last resort," Li Yunfei said.

...

Half an hour later.

Xu Mo and Chen Ke arrived at the police station.

Under Li Yunfei's guidance, Xu Mo went to the room where the body was stored.

"This is it," Li Yunfei pointed to a very complete skeleton on the dissection table in the room.

Although Li Yunfei had expressed strong confidence in Xu Mo in front of the other officers to boost morale, deep down, he wasn't sure if Xu Mo could really reconstruct the deceased's appearance from the skull.

Xu Mo examined the skeleton on the dissection table and instinctively analyzed the situation of the skeleton.

"Female, between nineteen and twenty-one years old, died about ten years ago, there are traces of blunt force trauma on the skull... this injury on the skull should be the fatal wound."

"Yes, yes, yes, our forensic doctor said the same thing!" Li Yunfei nodded vigorously, "Do you know forensic examination too?"

Li Yunfei had been thinking of getting a copy of the forensic report for Xu Mo to look at, but he didn't expect Xu Mo to be able to figure all this out without it. Just a quick glance and Xu Mo came to the same conclusions as their forensic doctor!

Xu Mo modestly replied, "I know a little."

"This case is too old, it's very difficult to investigate. It took us four days just to confirm the identity of the deceased, and even then, we have no leads to follow. You mentioned that... drawing a portrait from a skull, can it really reconstruct the deceased's appearance?"

"It should be possible, I'll give it a try," Xu Mo didn't dare to guarantee it.

Drawing a portrait from a skull is not an ordinary challenge; the difficulty is worlds apart from drawing a portrait based on someone's description. Xu Mo wasn't very confident that he could definitely draw it.

Li Yunfei found some paper and pencils for Xu Mo and also took the skull out of the room, setting up a well-lit spot for Xu Mo in the office outside.

Once seated, Xu Mo picked up a pencil and started sketching, using the skull on the table as a reference.

The officers gathered behind Xu Mo to watch him sketch.

Among them, the sketch artist was particularly intent on observing how Xu Mo would reconstruct the deceased's appearance from a skull. He was very curious about this technique Xu Mo called "drawing a portrait from a skull."

Xu Mo didn't start sketching directly. Instead, he first outlined the skull on the paper and then gradually added details to it.

This time, Xu Mo's sketching speed was very slow. He would sketch for a few minutes and then stop to think for a while. After thinking, he would either continue sketching, make corrections, or even throw away the partially completed sketch and start over.

This was completely different from his speed yesterday, where he could finish a sketch in just a few minutes.

As time passed, Xu Mo had already discarded more than twenty sketch papers, and the number of officers watching him sketch behind him was also decreasing. The process of Xu Mo sketching from the skull was too monotonous and boring, and the longer it took, the more officers began to lose hope that Xu Mo could actually draw the deceased's appearance.

One hour...

Two hours...

Three hours...

Xu Mo kept sketching, carefully observing every detail on the skull, constantly modifying and redrawing, completely immersed in the process.

What Xu Mo didn't notice was that during this time, a young girl had come to the police station and was sitting behind him, watching him sketch intently.

The girl's skin was very fair, almost translucent, and her big, sparkling eyes were filled with curiosity about what Xu Mo was doing.

She had been watching Xu Mo for over an hour, but Xu Mo was so absorbed in his own world that he didn't notice her arrival and continued to sketch on his own.

...

After six and a half hours, after repeated modifications and redrawing, Xu Mo finally finished.

He took the sketch paper off the drawing board, compared it carefully with the skull on the table, then held the skull in one hand and the sketch paper in the other, aligning them and holding them up to the light to check for any discrepancies. Satisfied that there were no issues, he placed both the skull and the sketch paper on the table.

"Finished?" A pleasant voice from behind Xu Mo asked.

"Yes," Xu Mo replied instinctively, then turned to look at the girl, looking puzzled.

Perhaps seeing Xu Mo's confusion, the girl smiled and extended her right hand, "Zhang Sitong, you can call me Sisi."

Sisi? The daughter of Chief Zhang is also called Sisi. No wonder no one in the police station questioned this schoolgirl's presence. She's the chief's daughter, after all, who would bother to question her... Xu Mo also smiled, "Xu Mo."

"I know who you are. I saw you on Sky Eye Action, and you even made the trending search not long ago. You saved the lives of an entire plane of passengers." Zhang Sitong's eyes sparkled as she mentioned this.

At that moment, Li Yunfei walked over with a plastic bag.

"Xu Mo, I bought some ice cream. Have one and take a break, don't sketch anymore... Oh, Sisi is here too, have one?"

After saying that, Li Yunfei also introduced the two of them to each other.

"This is Xu Mo, here to help us solve the case, the one from your school."

"This is Sisi, Chief Zhang's precious daughter."

"We've already met. Wow, Brother Fei, you're so rich, you bought a whole bag of 'Zhongxuegao' (expensive ice cream brand)!" Zhang Sitong opened her mouth wide, looking at the bag of ice cream Li Yunfei had bought.

When this was mentioned, Li Yunfei couldn't help but feel a surge of anger.

"Don't even mention it, I had no idea it was so expensive. How can ice cream be so expensive? It doesn't look special, but it cost me over four hundred yuan in total! Ice cream assassin... the nickname is really fitting. It really feels like being stabbed by an assassin, my liver is trembling."