Chapter 154 - 154 149 Danger

Words : 1505 Updated : Sep 19th, 2025

154: Chapter 149 Danger 154: Chapter 149 Danger 6 o’clock in the afternoon. As the workday ended, the off-duty police officers, now in plain clothes, filed out of their offices, getting ready to head home. Breathing in the fresh air still soaked with sunlight, many felt as if they were emerging from another world. The cold murder case had been reopened. According to tradition from past years, whenever such cases came up, everyone in the department needed to run even just to use the bathroom. A task force that couldn’t sleep in the office for two weeks, the various functional units that didn’t work overtime till dawn, they wouldn’t even know how to write their reports later. In a normal situation, when a murder occurred, it would upset the entire unit for a week and the task force for a month—that was standard. It’s not that the case would definitely be solved within a month, but by that time, task force members who were going to collapse from exhaustion had done so, and cases that weren’t cracked basically slid into the file folders of unsolved cases. And in the past, once a case fell into the pile of cold cases, it was very hard to solve. This was one of the reasons why cold murder cases were given special attention. The difficulty was incredibly high. It’s the case that the task force on current murder cases, despite having all the advantages, failed to solve, and it was cracked afterward. If it wasn’t a case that led to another case, which in turn led to solving the case, there were a lot of areas that offered rich material for research. This time, the case was essentially solved in just one day. It wasn’t just the task force that found this unbelievable, ordinary officers did too. Many were prepared to spend the night at the office, only to be told by their superiors they could go home, and some even felt a bit disappointed. Sleeping in the office for a week was undoubtedly a painful experience. But being able to stay away from home for a day, without seeing the wife or dealing with the kids, and sleeping with colleagues instead, was really a rare joy in life. In the end, they got neither the good nor the bad. A group of people, just like they normally would, walked out of the office building, out of the gates, and returned home. Their expressions were strange, inexplicable. Jiang Yuan was feeling a bit smug. Footprint identification wasn’t very distinctive, but it covered a wide scope and was a good complement to the various techniques Jiang Yuan currently mastered. Walking on the street, Jiang Yuan even observed the gaits of passersby. Men, women, young people, and the elderly, each group had a different way of walking. There was a classic story where a footprint expert wanted to write a book solely discussing the relationship between footprints and age. However, he found it difficult to determine the footprints of people around 20 years old. So, this expert specifically watched people’s gaits along a certain path, then he saw a male around 20 years old who, while walking, suddenly leapt up. The expert had an epiphany. Jiang Yuan continuously confirmed his findings through footprints. Approaching the section of the road that led to Jiangcun Residential Area, which was under construction, Jiang Yuan looked at the chaotic footprints on the ground and could even guess the owners of certain distinctive prints. For instance, the one using a cane heading towards Building No. 1 was most likely Grandpa San. And then there was a young woman’s footsteps, heavy and stout, which immediately brought the image of Sister Liutang to mind. There was also someone carrying a heavy load alone, definitely weighing around 100 jin, just like... the weight of a corpse. Jiang Yuan was startled and scrutinized it closely. On the ground, it turned out that more than one person was carrying a load. Jiang Yuan frowned deeply. If it was young folks playing at romance, one set of footprints might be understandable. But two sets of footprints aligned one after the other, what was going on? It couldn’t be a duo committing a slaughterhouse case, could it? The more Jiang Yuan thought, the more he felt the danger. Jiang Village was famously affluent and, naturally, it caught people’s eyes. These days, although it was rare to hear of grand thieves by the river, gang robberies also only happened once in a while. But for Jiang Village, rare seafood was within reach, and so should rare firearms be. Jiang Yuan’s face was stern, and he wasn’t in a hurry to get home anymore. He simply followed the two sets of heavy footsteps. After crossing the excavation area, the footprints of the two people continued for a while. When Jiang Yuan looked up again, he found himself at the building of his home’s front door. At this point, there was no doubt that his home was definitely the most dangerous place. Jiang Fuzhen was the wealthiest in the town, and now Jiang Yuan had also offended some people. At this moment, Jiang Yuan felt the most appropriate action should be to call the police. But he was out of patience and went straight to the elevator, taking a little caution by pressing the button for a floor two levels below his own. When the elevator door opened, Jiang Yuan cautiously stepped out and looked left and right before climbing up the fire escape stairs. At the entrance to his home. There was a hubbub of voices. Jiang Yuan frowned again and carefully poked his head out. The last thing he wanted to see was a scene similar to what had happened at Uncle Seventeen’s house. The door to his place was open. A group of people... seemed to be having a meal. And there was a rather festive atmosphere. Jiang Yuan quietly breathed a sigh of relief and walked out of the fire service elevator, full of suspicion. “Yuan, why did you come up the stairs?” Jiang Yongxin was greeting people at the door when he saw Jiang Yuan and called out to him. “Jiang Yuan is back!” In the corridor, uncles were nodding happily at Jiang Yuan with wine glasses in hand, filled with cola mixed with white wine. If it weren’t for the T-shirts they were wearing, Jiang Yuan might have thought they were at some Western-style cocktail party. It seemed to be just an ordinary feast. Besides, it probably wasn’t his family that was the reason for the feast. Jiang Yuan was a bit skeptical again. Could it be that someone’s wedding brought the bride and bridesmaids up here? But it didn’t seem to be the custom in Jiang Village. “Jiang Yuan, Jiang Yuan!” Uncle Yu Shan and Jiang Fuzhen appeared together, having come specifically to visit Jiang Yuan’s home. Jiang Fuzhen said with a cheerful smile, “Your Uncle Yu Shan was very polite and brought an entire cow for you. I’ve got it cooking.” Jiang Yuan suddenly realized and smacked his forehead hard. He really was scaring himself for no reason. Who would be moving bodies around aimlessly, especially targeting his home? With that in mind, giving the gift of an entire cow seemed utterly normal. Jiang Yuan just had a slight question, “Can our pot even cook an entire cow?” “We didn’t cook the legs and head. We moved those to the storage room.” “I see... so the legs were taken off beforehand?” “Right, we had someone carry them up.” Jiang Yuan heaved a sigh of relief. That made sense. The weight of a large cow’s leg was pretty much like that of a patrol girl. The price was about the same, too. “You didn’t need to bring such a heavy gift, Uncle Yu Shan.” Jiang Yuan thanked Uncle Yu Shan. “I had to,” Uncle Yu Shan said solemnly. “We all got cheated by the same teashop, not just me alone. I shared the news that we caught the crook, and everyone was very happy.” Uncle Yu Shan looked refreshingly hale, not at all like someone who had just been cheated out of tens of thousands. Jiang Fuzhen smiled without saying a word and then asked his son, “Would you like soup or meat?” “I want both soup and meat.” “Wait a moment.” Jiang Fuzhen went back to the kitchen, grabbed a large Da Hai bowl, chopped a few good pieces of meat for Jiang Yuan from the cutting board next to it, then ladled soup into the bowl, poured the soup back into the pot, ladled more soup, and sprinkled it with scallions, minced garlic, sizeable rock salt, and black pepper powder... A bowl of fragrant beef soup was now ready. Jiang Yuan picked up the Da Hai bowl, took a deep breath, and felt every cell in his body clamoring eagerly.

Chapter 154 - 154 149 Danger

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