National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 992 - 928 Selling People

The order was swiftly conveyed and within a few minutes, feedback came: "The manager has been controlled. The clerk involved has already resigned."

"Search for them," Jiang Yuan commanded naturally.

Searching for people within the police system, in fact, there are established methods, such as fugitive tracking. Some police officers and divisions adept in this regard would even organize specialized fugitive tracking teams dedicated to the task.

Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad is generally of average expertise in this aspect, but it’s all relative. In Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad of over 20 members, only a handful are involved in core decision-making. However, managing numerous cases is not just about decision-making; police are not judges, after all.

Therefore, without the need for Jiang Yuan to explicitly delegate tasks, members of the Cold Case Squad naturally coordinate to focus on tasks they excel in and enjoy. Officers like Meng Chengbiao with a background in preliminary interrogation tend to focus on questioning, whereas detectives like Shen Yaowei, long immersed in the field, excel at taking initiative, doing reconnaissance-type of work, enduring hardship, capable of advancing or holding the line, much like a mini project manager. This might also be the role he has carved out for himself.

Jiang Yuan doesn’t usually delve deeply into adjusting these detectives’ work. Technically speaking, the practical policing skills of members of Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad are highly likely to surpass Jiang Yuan’s own. Even based on the joint exam scores, these young talents, mostly from the Criminal Police Brigade of Changyang City Bureau, should not be underestimated. Moreover, since they are on loan, there’s no need for Jiang Yuan to chart their career paths.

However, Jiang Yuan does indeed provide the team with abundant opportunities to get involved in major cases.

With so many cases being tackled day after day, it’s akin to students brushing through exam questions, where ordinary cases can be approached with a mere glance. Moreover, unlike exam questions, criminals in the real world rarely consider repetition. Most criminals do not seriously examine the current level of police work, relying solely on instinct.

The clerk involved in the case was evidently one such individual.

In just over ten minutes, Miao Liyuan, who excelled in technology and communication, slapped his thigh and said, "Found him, he’s run off to the countryside, using someone else’s identity card."

"How did you find him?" a local detective asked with a grin.

Miao Liyuan smiled proudly: "Although that clerk bought an ID and a mobile number, what he couldn’t afford was a gaming account. At least not one that has been played for seven or eight years with microtransaction skins. I followed this lead and discovered he had logged into his old game account from an internet cafe. Following up on the ID he used to go online, I traced it to his hotel stay, checked the facial recognition photo, and confirmed it was him."

This series of operations, simple to speak of, could indeed be challenging to execute without certain experience and authority.

Everyone hence showered him with praise.

Jiang Yuan then signed the order and dispatched officers to apprehend the suspect.

Meanwhile, Meng Chengbiao, who had just gone upstairs for a sudden interrogation, called in, saying, "Ever since this escape room business started, they’ve engaged in the act of sexual harassment of women. From the owner to the clerks, they’re all ruffians. Having found they could command female customers through scripts, they haven’t been short of misdeeds."

Wang Chuanxing was shocked: "Is that even possible? I’ve also played escape rooms."

"You probably weren’t commanded to take off your coat and change into a uniform on the spot," Meng Chengbiao retorted, then added, "They also like to improvise certain actions, such as making a woman perform moves that accentuate her figure. Plus, drinking is common too, they force drinks and then grope around; it’s what they’ve been doing a lot over the past year."

"What about Chen Nuan?" asked Jiang Yuan.

"Still unclear. The owner probably doesn’t know Chen Nuan’s circumstances, otherwise, they wouldn’t have kept it till now," said Meng Chengbiao who had just conducted a surprise interrogation, still quite a distance from getting the suspect to spill everything.

"If the entire store is problematic, why would they keep the videos?" Jiang Yuan frowned slightly.

Meng Chengbiao paused before responding, "They share the videos taken inside among themselves. They have a group."

"Sharing... criminal evidence?"

"Just like some idiots who boast by sharing videos of picking up drunk women at bars. A bunch of ruffians, all doing the same thing. They share scripts that make it easy to stir up trouble, including the organizers," Meng Chengbiao explained without being asked. "Escape rooms are renovated every so often; their catchphrases and gameplay are all pre-designed, with people making money specifically off this."

"Indecent assault is a jailable offense. Multiple indecent assaults, and with an organized nature... are they out of their minds?" Tang Jia’s anger surged upon hearing this.

"They think they’re just taking advantage, having a free grope. It probably started out that way. The ones selling scripts and doing renovations probably didn’t think too much about it in the beginning. If their scripts couldn’t achieve such an effect, they likely wouldn’t sell, at least not for so much money," Meng Chengbiao continued. Though he hadn’t interrogated for long, he had already unearthed the basic framework.

Jiang Yuan, upon hearing this, didn’t bother with pleasantries and simply said, "Confirm the identities, then make the arrests."

"How many?" Wang Chuanxing started to record.

"Arrest the whole group," Jiang Yuan replied, as if he were ordering dishes at the Xing Yue Building.

In terms of difficulty or complexity, it was probably about the same.

Wang Chuanxing didn’t say much else, acknowledging with a sound before instructing the people upstairs to collect mobile phones, take screenshots, gather account information, and so on.

For a case of this level, there was no need for a special taskforce to take action. After confirming the identities of the group members, they would simply ask the local Criminal Police Brigade for assistance in making the arrests. If the local criminal police were too busy, they could even have the local police make a phone call, asking someone to voluntarily report to a specific police station or police bureau at a specific time on a specific day.

Except for a very small number of people, most people, even those who frequently commit crimes, would show a remarkable level of compliance when faced with real forceful authorities.

As for the very few who don’t comply, it’s not much of an issue—just chase and capture them. Most of these very few, even if they manage to escape, often choose to turn themselves in after a few years on the run.

Meng Chengbiao led the people back to the police bureau, and Jiang Yuan’s team went upstairs to start the investigation.

Early the next morning, the runaway clerk Xia Zhongshu was brought back.

The twenty-something year-old blond Xia Zhongshu looked a bit panicked and somewhat arrogant, his whole being radiating a spirit of resistance.

It took Meng Chengbiao half an hour to deflate his puffed-up demeanor.

By the time work hours rolled around, the Director of Changler City Bureau and the head of the Criminal Police Brigade arrived in succession.

Pointing at the PPT report that Wang Chuanxing had worked on overnight, Meng Chengbiao succinctly said: "Chen Nuan met this room escape clerk Xia Zhongshu through online chat. However, the latter concealed his identity and lured Chen Nuan to this escape room with the purpose of selling her off. But not in the sense of human trafficking." novelbuddy.cσ๓

"What do you mean?"

Meng Chengbiao explained: "It’s ’room escape accompaniment.’ It’s also a way this shop makes money. The owner would post paid accompaniment announcements, each for 200 or 300 yuan. However, sometimes they can’t find girls for accompaniment, or they happen to encounter a girl coming to play alone, so they would sell her off to clients as an accompanist. Inviting women through online chats is also one of their strategies for acquiring customers."

"The buyers, these clients for accompaniment, they don’t know about this?"

"Sometimes they don’t, sometimes they do. Because the accompaniment for two or three hundred yuan typically doesn’t allow touching. Instead, in this kind of arrangement, the shop’s NPCs would cooperate, giving both sides an opportunity for contact... Compared to contact with waitstaff, the contact between customers themselves is less likely to evoke strong disgust from women, especially when there’s a collaborating male partner. This shop has its own customer group."

Tang Jia said coldly, "They’re selling the right to molest women to their customers?"

"That’s about the gist of it," Meng Chengbiao sighed and continued to explain: "This time it was more special. The clerk Xia Zhongshu specifically arranged for Chen Nuan during the store manager’s absence, and sold her to an old customer with the username ’Braised Fish Tail’ with the initial intention of pocketing the 300 yuan himself. Consequently, Xia Zhongshu conspired with his colleague, had ’Braised Fish Tail’ wait in a room without surveillance, and after getting Chen Nuan to drink, let a fellow shop employee acting as an NPC take her over."

Meng Chengbiao: "’Braised Fish Tail’ participated as an NPC this time, and his intentions were not pure right from the start. Coupled with Chen Nuan’s inability to hold her liquor, ’Braised Fish Tail’s’ actions were very excessive, provoking Chen Nuan’s resistance and her declaration that she would call the police. But due to the nature of room escape, one cannot simply leave at will, and the conflict between them escalated further, eventually leading to a fight... Xia Zhongshu claims it was ’Braised Fish Tail’ who accidentally killed Chen Nuan. He was forced to help ’Braised Fish Tail’ transport the body in a suitcase and then dumped it into the Tai River separately."

"No matter who killed her, has ’Braised Fish Tail’s’ identity been confirmed?" Jiang Yuan still thinking with technical precision.

"Confirmed, he ran away after the incident. But we have locked onto his identity, he’s currently selling fruit in Shanpu City."

"Good," Jiang Yuan felt relieved upon hearing this, and let out a long sigh.

The special case team was previously unaware of the existence of this suspect, "Braised Fish Tail," or rather, they spent most of their time on this case on a wild goose chase. Nevertheless, with the massive resources deployed, the case was eventually revealed in a different light.