National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 907 - 845 - : Circle

Early morning.

A refreshing breeze.

Bright dew still hangs on the flirtatious willow branches, the bluish-white roadbed remains untouched and sleepless, the green grass has just escaped from the mouth of an old cow; Yu Wenshu then gets into the cold-seated BYD car, heading towards Yueyang Village for visits.

The list of over a hundred households is Yu Wenshu’s last hope, if no suspects are identified among these people, Jiang Yuan will have to make use of Xu Taining.

Under such circumstances, even though Yu Wenshu no longer needed to be onsite, he still personally led the team and took the car. The investigation would probably be similar with or without him, but the level of diligence and meticulousness would definitely not be the same.

And now that they have entered the stage of investigative visits, being diligent and meticulous is the most crucial thing.

Yu Wenshu gently pats this newly bought BYD, feeling extremely reluctant.

It is impossible for a police officer not to have a vehicle; you should give up on the cases, buy a good car... Yu Wenshu now naturally dares not to buy a luxurious car. Being a brigade commander and only buying a car costing about one hundred thousand, he fears being targeted by Huang Qiangmin.

But all these are based on the premise that the Criminal Police Brigade still has a budget. Otherwise, once Xu Taining arrives, the budget will be depleted, at that point not to mention buying cars, even maintaining the cost of the vehicle fleet might become a burden.

But to say not to use Xu Taining... Yu Wenshu absolutely wouldn’t agree.

What is the Criminal Police Brigade for? The Criminal Police Brigade is the safety net for all provincial-level criminal police teams. Cases they can’t crack, cases that are difficult to investigate, as well as significant, severe, and highly influential cases, can all be handed over to the Criminal Police Brigade.

It can be said that the Criminal Police Brigade is the deterrent force of the Shannan Province criminal investigation system. A police force without deterrent power is worthless, and all explanations are pale.

Thus, it is essential to ensure the combat readiness of the Criminal Police Brigade. At least in Yu Wenshu’s view, this is the meaning and value of the Criminal Police Brigade’s existence. Even if all the funds are spent, even if all the cars in the team are sold, Yu Wenshu still has ways to rise again, but only the failure to solve cases would truly lead them to a path of dejection.

Snicker...

"Jiang Yuan, how are you feeling? Tired or not?" As they approached their destination, Yu Wenshu felt a bit tired, so he switched on the walkie-talkie to check on Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan, groggy from sleep, opened his eyes to check the location, rubbed his face, and said, "I’m okay, just a bit uncomfortable from staying up late. Where do we start our investigation from?"

"I see you marked grades one to three, so shall we start from the ones with the highest suspicion, grade three?" Yu Wenshu’s tone throughout was consultative.

"As you say." Jiang Yuan underscored the discipline embodied by a disciplined force.

"Then let’s start from ID 301." Yu Wenshu didn’t always have to be polite, and issued a series of orders through the walkie-talkie.

After parking, more than a dozen detectives quickly assembled and followed Yu Wenshu and Jiang Yuan, accompanying them on their mission.

Disciplined forces, naturally, are about maintaining discipline.

These more than ten people were all supposed to accompany Yu Wenshu and Jiang Yuan for the visits.

Conducting visits with so many people naturally seems wasteful; normally visits are done in pairs to maximize coverage—what, fewer households to visit? Then optimize by reducing manpower, not just throwing more people to save time.

However, the standard for the brigade commander is different; the Criminal Police Brigade is already considered a large unit. Yu Wenshu has quite a few office police officers in his command, and this time around, several people accompanying him are also office police officers. Now was the time for those who should take photos for propaganda, those who should play up their parts, and those who display "I also worked on the frontline in my day," to take the lead.

People like Mu Zhiyang who followed Jiang Yuan did their parts, wielding their shields. Mu Zhiyang even immediately inserted the ceramic armor plate into his chest.

These things, reportedly, are not favored by common American soldiers in Iraq because they hinder movement and are heavy, but those who dislike them are usually those who have never been shot at. Ask those who’ve been shot and protected by a ceramic armor plate, and they’ll say they "love it".

Thud thud.

A local police officer from the precinct stepped forward and knocked on the door.

After several shouts, the door opened, and a man wearing a T-shirt stepped out, then froze at the door.

More than a dozen police officers, all in uniform, the impact was undoubtedly excessive.

"This is..." The man couldn’t even manage a smile.

"Li Zhaoxin, is it?" The officer didn’t mean to arrest him but first asked his name.

The man nodded repeatedly: "Yes, that’s me, what’s this about?"

"You drove past this intersection several times in the past few days, do you remember?" The officer didn’t follow up his question but instead asked directly.

ID 301 Li Zhaoxin’s suspicion level was elevated to level three, including reasons like frequent driving occurrences and tendencies to move out at night. Besides, the old Highlander he drove often had two or three persons in it, enough to transport a corpse.

Moving out at night, needless to say, means avoiding public eyesight and decreasing exposure frequency, but for some people, it’s they only use cars at night, which can only be part of the suspicion.

Frequent driving carries a higher level of suspicion; from the police point of view, such instances most often occur when the suspect is staking out or tailing someone. Image Investigation’s current software, drawing out the crime target area and the address of the victim among other target areas, would automatically analyze vehicles with unusual activities based on set parameters like traffic frequency threshold and time period.

Therefore, it was not without reason that Li Zhaoxin became the first person to be visited.

Li Zhaoxin was somewhat flustered, but still managed to say normally: "Are you talking about the nights of the 7th and 8th? I went to pick up the brothers."

"Elaborate a bit."

"Just drinking some alcohol, having a barbecue in the yard, I drove to the high-speed rail station to pick them up..." Li Zhaoxin’s psychological quality was good, and as he spoke, his tone stabilized: "The high-speed rail station is not far away, it’s just that people arrived at different times, after eating and drinking, they rested in the guest room for a night, then I took them away the next day after eating something..."

Yueyang Village is quite close to Changyang City East Station, less than a 30-minute drive away. The area is lively partly due to the high-speed rail station, as many small factories can hire people more easily. Some workers whose homes are along the high-speed rail line can leave home in the morning and be back in a couple of hours, making them more willing to work here.

The officers at the police station felt that Li Zhaoxin’s description matched the local lifestyle, they asked another question but subtly glanced aside.

The criminal police waiting on the side took over the questioning for a few minutes before stepping back under the gaze of the superiors.

"Don’t leave the city recently," the squadron leader Ma Jiyang warned Li Zhaoxin before leaving. After all, he had accumulated several suspicions, and was even ranked high on the list this time; there might still be a possibility that they’ll need to find him again.

If he disappears by then, the suspicion towards him would be even higher.

The group then proceeded to visit suspect number 204, as other investigators had already inquired suspects number 302, 303, and number 2.

Visiting was tiring and bothersome, yet everyone still had to remain alert and handle it.

Yu Wenshu hadn’t been on the front line for a while, but he had no intention of backing down either. Compared to meetings, this work was relatively easier. Visits were often just walking from one house to another, and many suspects who didn’t seem as suspicious on paper often slipped up during these visits.

In general, visiting investigations and screenings are similar; the only difference is that screening has a clear purpose and a defined direction, while visiting investigations are still in the preliminary stage of investigation, requiring a lot of initiative.

Jiang Yuan was also learning along. Forensic doctors normally don’t do this basic groundwork. In fact, at the county bureau level, a forensic doctor’s job is considered the most comfortable position; technical police officers cannot say the same - they need to handle their specified tasks and when manpower is short, they also have to do the most basic tasks. Most of the time at the county bureau, there is a lack of manpower.

However, Jiang Yuan, had fewer opportunities to engage directly at the front lines, hence his mindset was different.

As they continued house-to-house, it was noon by the time they reached house number 135, which was towards the end of the list.

The elderly man who opened the door looked stubborn. Seeing the police, he first frowned, then asked irritably, "What do you want?"

The station officer, maintaining his image in front of his superiors, smiled at the old man before asking: "We noticed you have a utility vehicle that went out the other night. What were you doing then?"

"Which other night?"

"The 8th."

"What day of the week was that?"

"Wednesday."

"That was when I went to handle manure." The old man pursed his lips: "You young people nowadays don’t understand farming at all. The stuff grown with chemical fertilizers just doesn’t taste the same..."

"Do you often handle manure?" This was also a question indirectly verifying the authenticity.

The old man grunted, "Occasionally, I take some to fertilize the vegetables I grow for myself."

"There was another person in the car, right? Who was it?" While asking, the officer took notes.

"My son!"

"Do you have a phone number? Please tell us."

"I can’t remember the number; it’s in my phone."

"Then please find it for us, we’ll leave a number to verify later."

"You’re still going to call my son?" The old man said, becoming a bit upset, taking out his phone and flipping through it while muttering in the local dialect: "The real culprits aren’t caught, just bothering us common folk day by day..."

"Who should be caught?" Ma Jiyang, understanding, asked.

The old man scornfully said, "Don’t act dumb, what about those whorehouses, why aren’t they caught?"

"Prostitution? Where?" Ma Jiyang frowned.

"What are you acting for, don’t the police know?" The old man didn’t believe.

"We are from the city bureau." Ma Jiyang could only explain so, and said: "Exactly which one, tell me, and we’ll go right away."

The old man chuckled twice, then muttered: "That one next to the ’Beautiful Countryside’ slogan, shameless..."

Before Ma Jiyang and others could respond, Yu Wenshu, with his photographic memory, quickly stood up: "It’s house number 301!"