National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1007 - 943: Pursuit

In the moment of battle, taking the lead in a charge is definitely risky.

In ancient siege warfare, being the first to ascend the walls was considered the highest of military honors. Of course, now, breaching a house cannot be equated with capturing a city, but for soldiers in peacetime, this is the very objective they strenuously train for, even to the point of enduring blood in their urine.

"Open up. Police!" Officer He Daxuan shouted with a strong voice.

The second floor of the guesthouse was silent.

"Shotgun!" Officer He Daxuan waved his hand, almost without hesitation.

The scenes in TV shows where doors are kicked in single-footedly always come with a prerequisite. To put it simply, if you can see inside the door from outside, even make out the brand of the lock, then kicking it might work. Otherwise, it is better to resort to a locksmith.

In reality, because of the prevalence of security doors in China, kicking doors open is nearly impossible, as security doors open outward. To break one open, you would essentially have to kick out the door along with its frame, and that requires more power than a mere leg can provide.

The shotgun is the most direct approach. With a solid slug, one shot can completely obliterate the entire lock mechanism, which is more effective than a specialized door breaching hammer. In other words, a door breaching hammer held in both hands is essentially a substitute for a shotgun, a safer solution.

But for today’s situation, both the human breach and the locksmith approach are impractical. Waiting would take too long, with no guarantee of success.

While He Daxuan certainly could employ other flanking tactics, they would be too time-consuming. The purpose of this mission is to find missing persons and track suspects like Jiang Yuan; for these two charges alone, they cannot afford to take lightly.

The crucial factor is that there are firearms in Jiali Village, which gets a soldier like He Daxuan quite charged up.

"Attention!"

The solider holding the shotgun was tall and sturdy. He lowered the barrel forward and shouted something in an unclear dialect, then without further ado, pulled the trigger!

Bang!

With a sound akin to a loud firework, the lock of the second floor’s security door was blasted into the door.

A police officer next to him, wearing gloves, yanked the security door open.

He Daxuan, with his pistol and a small round shield in hand, didn’t hesitate to rush in.

"Police, hands up!"

As he shouted, He Daxuan surveyed his surroundings.

The interior of the guesthouse resembled many others in Jiali Village, with plain rural self-built house style as its base. The ground floor served the spiritual needs of the villagers and tourists alike.

From the second floor up, it followed the layout typical of a common living room and house.

The rooms He Daxuan breached into on the second floor consisted of a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen. It was a transparent layout from north to south, with sofas, a dining table, a television, and was adorned with many green plants and decorative paintings, essentially the usual appearance of a burgeoning guesthouse.

"Police!" He Daxuan faced the empty living room and shouted again.

Inside, all was eerily quiet.

"Move to the third floor." He Daxuan tapped his helmet with his shield, continuing forward.

The tall and sturdy soldier with the shotgun followed close behind him, with a few more armed with pistols and submachine guns. Ironically, those carrying the more powerful rifles fell to the rear.

In buildings like those in Jiali Village, some walls were made of just two layers of red bricks. Whether using a Type 81 or Type 95 rifle, the bullets had enough power to penetrate those walls.

Comparatively, the shotgun loaded with buckshot, and the submachine gun using pistol rounds, were somewhat safer, preventing excessive power. They could ensure instantaneous neutralization of unarmored targets without the risk of over-penetration causing collateral damage and were more than capable against weapons of shotgun caliber.

Jiang Yuan followed behind the armed police soldiers under Mu Zhiyang’s protection.

He actually possessed Level 3 CQB (Close Quarters Battle) skills, which equate to Level 3 urban warfare proficiency. Given the current state of actual combat in China, he could indeed be called an urban warfare expert.

Yet, Jiang Yuan wasn’t in a hurry to take command. Precisely because of his Level 3 CQB skills, he knew that such techniques demand practice and teamwork. Using them alone was not ineffective, but it was limited.

After all, in a real-world scenario, even if an urban warfare expert is capable of taking on ten by himself—assuming he has such ability—a captain of any criminal police unit could immediately deploy hundreds of officers to reinforce. If the opposition still possessed the ability to fight off hundreds, the armed police have even heavier equipment.

Take, for example, the Ruan Qiang Gang, which was armed with Type 56 submachine guns and Type 54 pistols, and had multiple hand grenades. The provincial office later dispatched two Type 82 recoilless guns and two Type 40 rocket launchers, which completely obliterated the building where they made their final stand.

In the 2007 case of Zhang Hongbin, who had only a Type 56 submachine gun and four magazines, he was proficient because he worked in an armory and was skilled in weaponry with some tactical literacy. The police called in a Type 92 infantry fighting vehicle, using its 25mm cannon to blast the robust bluestone house to ruins, killing the man within.

Jiang Yuan thought, if necessary in the future, he could indeed train a team. A small one, seven or eight, maybe eleven or twelve people, would suffice to handle most criminals, not only domestically, but potentially abroad as well.

"We’ve found something!"

The shout upstairs immediately heightened everyone’s attention.

Jiang Yuan followed Mu Zhiyang to the third floor.

In the three bedrooms, two had people squatting, and one had someone sleeping.

"Are they dead?" Mu Zhiyang asked.

"No. We’ve brought the people from upstairs down as well," Officer He Daxuan listlessly waved his gun, engaged the safety, and said, "Didn’t find any firearms, nor any other contraband."

"Who’s the boss?" Meng Chengbiao stepped forward and began to inquire.

Without further evidence, it is not yet clear whether these people can be called suspects.

"I am. My name is Xie Wenyi." The honest-looking man in his fifties or sixties squatting in the inner room said, "We just run a guest house in a self-built home, that’s not against the law, right..."

"No one said you broke the law." Meng Chengbiao replied, and asked, "Have you had dealings with the police before?"

"No... no..." Xie Wenyi quickly said.

At this time, Jiang Yuan holstered his 92 pistol and went to the room with the sleeping person first, checking the pulse on their neck, and said, "So many people, and they are actually asleep. What did he take?"

"Didn’t eat... anything..." Xie Wenyi once again revealed an honest smile.

"Then it’s an injection?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"No, wouldn’t dare, drug trafficking is lethal." Xie Wenyi shook his head hurriedly.

"If it’s not an injection, it’s something eaten. What was used?" Jiang Yuan’s forensic doctor background allowed him to make judgments without needing to dissect a body.

He bent over to smell the person’s breath, turned their eyelids, and asked, "A new type of drug? What kind?"

The expressions of everyone present lit up.

Meng Chengbiao assisted, "We can send him for testing at any time, find out what you fed him."

Xie Wenyi shook his head repeatedly: "It’s not drugs, really not drugs, just... just ate some mushrooms, might be poisoned."

Jiang Yuan raised his eyebrows and asked, "Mushrooms?"

Xie Wenyi hesitated, then whispered, "In the bag under the bed."

Wang Chuanxing, carrying a camera, took photos first, then took out a bag from under the bed.

Inside two layers of black plastic bags, there was a small Lock&Lock container which contained a chunk of mushrooms the size of a quarter of a Chinese cabbage, with knife marks on them.

"You ate them raw?" Jiang Yuan asked.

Xie Wenyi carefully hummed in affirmation.

"Hallucinogenic mushrooms, right?" Jiang Yuan sniffed it, not very knowledgeable about mushrooms, but it was just basic knowledge after all.

Xie Wenyi chuckled twice again: "I don’t know about that, it’s just mushrooms from the mountains, we’ve been eating them since we were kids."

"Chinese don’t eat mushrooms raw," Jiang Yuan paused, then said, "Eating raw mushrooms is aimed at seeking hallucinogenic effects, it’s the same as doing drugs."

Xie Wenyi glanced at the village chief and his face changed slightly, then said, "But eating mushrooms, that’s not illegal, right?"

This statement did indeed stump the detectives present.

The effects of hallucinogenic mushrooms are like those of drugs, but they are not highly addictive. In many European and American countries, consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms is illegal, similar to drug use. Of course, in some countries like the Netherlands, it is regulated in the same way as cannabis.

In China, which boasts the strongest drug enforcement, hallucinogenic mushrooms can be freely consumed and sold, not only legally, but also unregulated. The most famous indigenous hallucinogenic mushroom is the Blue Bruiser.

The so-called Blue Bruiser poisoning is, to put it bluntly, the achievement of hallucinogenic effects or getting high. Its main components are Psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide, the former being the main ingredient in American hallucinogenic mushrooms, and the latter being the main ingredient in the new drug LSD (stamps).

When the United States Secretary of the Treasury, [Firstname] Yellen, visited China, she ordered four dishes of Blue Bruiser in one go, obviously not because she was fond of Chinese cuisine. Someone who likes Chinese food wouldn’t order the same dish four times.

And compared to consuming it cooked, eating raw hallucinogenic mushrooms is clearly a more economical and direct method of inducing hallucinations.

Jiang Yuan picked up the mushrooms to take a look, then looked at the knife used to cut the mushrooms, and said slowly, "Cut very carefully, not a large amount, but as far as I know, consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms doesn’t usually lead to people passing out. What else did he eat?"

Xie Wenyi remained silent.

Jiang Yuan bent over to put down the mushrooms and said, "If you’re not going to talk, let’s take a look at your overbearing green car registration downstairs. If it’s stolen, we’ll confiscate it."

"That won’t do!" Xie Wenyi suddenly jumped up, then was easily subdued.

"Besides mushrooms, what else was eaten?" Jiang Yuan asked again.

"Gave him some tranquilizers, those that the village doctor prescribed to my mother before. I saw the police coming, and he was laughing and crying..." Xie Wenyi said, then explained, "I fed him two pills at first with no effect, so I gave him a few more, might have taken too much."

"Send two people to the hospital for a stomach wash, keep a close watch on him and perform a physicochemical test," Jiang Yuan turned his head and instructed Wang Chuanxing, then looked at Xie Wenyi and asked, "What’s your relationship with him?"

"Him? He’s just a guest, no real relation." At this point, Xie Wenyi became honest and straightforward again.

Jiang Yuan had someone check the ID documents and did facial recognition, and indeed, the person was a tourist from another province.

Now that the identity was confirmed, the expressions of the detectives present became more solemn.

A visitor from afar staying in a guest house that charged around a hundred yuan a day, consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms provided by the owner – the whole story sounded a bit hallucinatory.