Chapter 157 - 157 152 Clearing the Site

Words : 1880 Updated : Sep 19th, 2025

157: Chapter 152: Clearing the Site 157: Chapter 152: Clearing the Site Huang Qiangmin didn’t go anywhere else and just followed Jiang Yuan, collecting trace evidence from the body at the crime scene before climbing up the building to collect trace evidence from the fall site. He neither worked nor spoke, merely following Jiang Yuan, watching him work. Older detectives like Wu Jun watched Huang Qiangmin’s figure and gradually felt the pressure mounting. Huang Qiangmin was one of the more idealistic detectives. Although the word “idealistic” might seem too sentimental when used to describe a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, it occasionally found its place within the police force. Without such ideals, the position of head of the criminal police detachment could become extremely painful. Both mentally and physically. Like at this moment, with the mobile phone video in hand, Huang Qiangmin could have proceeded with the case as a suicide. Because it was not merely a suspicion of suicide, there was concrete evidence to prove it was a suicide case. If subsequent evidence proved it to be homicide, it was simply a matter of reopening the case. Legally, both approaches were compliant. If one lacked any ideals and considered only worldly gains and losses, closing the case would be the most normal and advantageous decision. Especially since, if this case weren’t a suicide, it would either be a crime committed by someone with a high IQ or a case where the criminal was incredibly lucky and the victim extremely unlucky. Regardless of which, the difficulty of solving the case would be formidable. And if the case remained unsolved, then all the numerous old cases solved this year and all the hard work done for Lin County and Lin City would be in vain. For an unsolved current homicide case, losing 300 points and getting a passing evaluation would already be a huge concession from the department. However, Huang Qiangmin’s idealism didn’t allow him to do that. Thus, in the eyes of several experienced detectives, Huang Qiangmin was nearly recklessly waiting for Jiang Yuan to gather evidence. “Captain Huang, shouldn’t we go back and discuss this first?” a policeman suggested, approaching him. A homicide was a very serious matter, and decisions about whether to file a case or initiate an investigation weren’t ones that the head of a criminal police detachment could make alone. And by now, if Huang Qiangmin didn’t make a decision, the director and the vice-director in charge of criminal investigations were likely to show up. A high fall was automatically classified as an unnatural death. But if the situation was complicated, the director and the vice-director would customarily arrive as well. By then, Huang Qiangmin would have to make a decision and report to the director. Huang Qiangmin naturally understood his subordinates’ implications, but after glancing at Jiang Yuan, he said only, “You all go to the opposite building, check every office, and get the surveillance video from the public rest areas. Do the same here at Wanghe Building; every high-level office must be checked.” This still indicated he was treating it as a homicide case. Seeing Huang Qiangmin’s firm stance, the policemen no longer argued and turned to their tasks. After all, when the sky falls, there’s a tall one to hold it up. Huang Qiangmin then took out his phone and sent several messages in quick succession, continuing to follow Jiang Yuan’s pace. In the final analysis, he still trusted Jiang Yuan. If one were to count the number of cases solved, Jiang Yuan had solved more homicide cases on his own than an entire squad of policemen. If the timeframe was narrowed down a bit, the Ningtai County Criminal Police Detachment had definitely solved more old homicide cases in the past ten years, but in the past five years, Jiang Yuan had solved even more. Despite doubts from others about Jiang Yuan’s age and experience, Huang Qiangmin had seen everything first-hand. He had lived through the DNA boom of 2003. Back then, when the ministry first began promoting DNA, what was the result? Many police stations could solve a homicide case or an old case in a week. With DNA evidence particularly easy to obtain in rape cases, solving one every day was not an exaggeration. Countless serial rapists were thus caught. The power displayed by technological innovation at its initial burst was enough to stun anyone and compel belief in the impact of reality. In Huang Qiangmin’s eyes, Jiang Yuan’s technical prowess was potentially explosive, at least in Ningtai County. If this case turned out to be a suicide, then so be it. But if it truly was a crime committed by someone of high intelligence, Huang Qiangmin believed that Jiang Yuan’s abilities could set them straight. “Captain Huang, Director Guan Xi has arrived,” a policeman came to report. Huang Qiangmin glanced back at Jiang Yuan, who was still intently examining the scene, then turned and headed for the entrance. Upon arrival, Director Guan Xi and the vice-director in charge of criminal investigations had just reached the scene. “What’s the situation?” Guan Xi asked immediately upon arrival, wanting to understand the scene first. “A 27-year-old male named Li Jiangshu, death by high fall. Based on the information we’ve collected so far, he worked at a travel company in Wanghe Building, a private sector employee...” Huang Qiangmin spoke quickly, but briefly. Guan Xi listened closely and then asked, “And the manner of death?” “It’s still not quite certain,” Huang Qiangmin replied, adding, “We have video showing Li Jiangshu jumping from a window on the upper floor by himself. But we still have our doubts.” “What doubts?” Guan Xi asked directly. Huang Qiangmin was silent for two seconds before replying, “I’m also waiting for the report.” “Hmm...” Guan Xi actually had his own sources, and seeing that Huang Qiangmin wasn’t speaking, he couldn’t help but smile, asking, “Raised by Jiang Yuan?” “Yes.” “You seem to trust him quite a bit.” “I have to,” Huang Qiangmin said, revealing a wry smile. Guan Xi was taken aback and then laughed too. Being a leader himself, he suddenly understood Huang Qiangmin’s mindset. In fact, the scene can be simply translated. Huang Qiangmin is a Chinese language teacher, proctoring a math exam. At this time, the strongest student in the class raises a question that there’s an error in the third question of the math paper, and none of the ABCD options are correct. Although it’s a very low-probability event, could you not report it? If you can’t understand it yourself, you just have to wait for more information from the top, right? “Let’s proceed as if it’s a homicide case then,” Director Guan Xi felt actually less pressure than Huang Qiangmin. Huang Qiangmin was responsible for all the criminal cases in the county. The investigation of a current homicide case was his duty, the eight major types of serious crimes were his responsibility, and the county’s crime-solving rate was also his accountability. But for the director, his most important duty was actually to maintain stability. Since Huang Qiangmin had decided to support Jiang Yuan, Guan Xi accepted it and further helped him to sort things out. Huang Qiangmin appeared grateful and said, “Then we’ll expand the investigation first, if we can confirm it’s a homicide we will file the case...” Setting aside the judgment of whether it was suicide or homicide, this case was just a high fall. As for cases of high falls, even if it’s a homicide, they had dealt with many of them before. The officers from the Criminal Police Detachment acted swiftly. Those who needed to be questioned were questioned, those who needed to write down their report did so, and for those who didn’t have time, they just took down their mobile numbers and took pictures to follow up later. The three squads spread out and facing the four buildings and the surrounding annexes, quickly disappeared without any trace. Jiang Yuan, oblivious to outside distractions, focused solely on collecting physical evidence. He didn’t even know what he had collected; modern technology hadn’t developed to the point where various micro-evidence detection instruments were portable. But like Huang Qiangmin, he was also somewhat aware that he might be facing a windmill, or indeed, a well-armored formidable adversary. So-called high-IQ crimes are actually rare in the domestic criminal investigation environment. Guys like Tan Yong were already very meticulous criminals. And for someone like the Baiyin case culprit, at most, the complexity of the case was around 60 or 70 percent. There were many loopholes, yet they were hard to grasp. But from another perspective, if a person plans a crime, they must think it over carefully and be well-prepared. Though most criminals’ thoughts are laughable, resulting in their capture during their amateur stages. But is there someone who escaped by luck in their first or second premeditated crime and gained experience, thus continuing to commit crimes? Perhaps, the real problem lies in the rarity of catching such people. Jiang Yuan had no criminal investigation experience. If he were to assess his own criminal investigation skills, a rating of LV0.5 would already be considered very high. If we were also to include arrest ability and case handling level, it couldn’t go more than LV0.3. In this area, he was virtually useless. But Jiang Yuan knew that for any criminal, even a true high-IQ criminal, cleaning up the crime scene was very difficult. Especially in a public setting. The more time you spend, the more information you leave behind. The classic Locard’s Exchange Principle speaks to this: the criminal process is essentially a process of material exchange, where the offender, as a material entity, in the process of committing a crime, always comes into contact and exchanges with various other material entities... A crime will inevitably produce physical evidence, and in crime scene investigation, if no trace evidence left by the offender is found, it can only indicate a failure to find trace evidence, not that there is no trace evidence at the scene. Jiang Yuan had very strong crime scene investigation abilities, and precisely for this reason, he preferred to use a comprehensive check to prove the nature of the case, Rather than make a definitive conclusion then and there. Wu Jun finished his tasks and, following Jiang Yuan, soon felt a stiff neck from looking down too much. Seeing how diligently Jiang Yuan was wiping at the fall site, Wu Jun said, “How about I take the body to the funeral home first?” “Sure, I’ll come later,” Jiang Yuan replied curtly, burying his head back into his work. Wu Jun coughed twice and reluctantly asked Huang Qiangmin for a more robust police officer to accompany him as he left. Jiang Yuan continued wiping until it got dark, only leaving the scene when most people in the building were gone. As Jiang Yuan and the accompanying officer stepped into the elevator, the corridor lights began to turn off one by one due to the lack of people, leaving only the yellow light of the emergency exit glowing, which looked somewhat eerie.

Chapter 157 - 157 152 Clearing the Site

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