Chapter 161 - 161 156 KPMG

Words : 1996 Updated : Sep 19th, 2025

161: Chapter 156: KPMG 161: Chapter 156: KPMG Jiang Yuan and Wen Ming met up in the parking lot, getting into the car with somewhat bewildered expressions. “Are we going shopping together?” Wen Ming asked, “Isn’t that kind of odd?” “We’re working on a case,” Jiang Yuan said. “So our case work specifically involves shopping?” “Um...” Wen Ming sighed, “That’s how I used to pick up girlfriends...” Jiang Yuan and Wen Ming exchanged a look, then said, “Should we find another person to join us?” “Three men out shopping together?” Wen Ming’s expression took on an uncivilized look. “Mu Zhiyang still has a cast on his arm, right? Count him as half a person, so that’s two and a half men...” Jiang Yuan said, pausing to send a WeChat message. “Are you calling Mu Zhiyang?” Disgust was written all over Wen Ming’s face; shopping with two and a half men somehow seemed worse than just two. “I’m calling Wei Yin,” Jiang Yuan said, putting down his phone. Wen Ming was stunned, then his whole body stiffened, “You actually called the Master’s daughter to accompany you shopping?” “Do you know any other female officers?” Jiang Yuan retorted. Wen Ming shook his head foolishly. Female officers—where would male officers come into contact with them on a regular basis? The ones male officers could get in touch with were all tomboys. After a while, Wei Yin showed up in front of the two men in a white T-shirt. The T-shirt had Astro Boy on the front, not looking very formal. She wore khaki shorts that reached her knees. The style was casual, but her calves that peeked out were both white and slender. “Senior Sister,” Wen Ming looked a bit embarrassed but energetically got out of the car to open the door for her. Sitting in the driver’s seat, Jiang Yuan turned and handed Wei Yin a bottle of water, smiling, “Sorry, we just don’t want to go around looking like we’re paired up shopping.” “Are you looking to buy something?” Wei Yin asked casually, then gave Jiang Yuan another look, “I heard you ran into danger yesterday, you okay?” “Maybe I scared myself,” Jiang Yuan admitted with a slight embarrassment. According to Master Wu Jun’s pattern, as a police officer, constantly making judgments, one is bound to guess wrong sometimes. If you guess wrong, don’t feel embarrassed. Most times, aside from you remembering your own previous judgments, everyone else has already forgotten. Jiang Yuan always thought the Master’s words were sensible, but now it seemed others remembered something after all. Wei Yin chuckled lightly, then looked at the time and said, “I can only accompany you for two hours. Where do you want to shop?” “Just searching for sports shoes,” Jiang Yuan replied as he drove, his expression turning a bit more serious as the case was involved. Wei Yin noticed and asked, “Is it for the case?” Footprint analysis wasn’t new to her. Jiang Yuan just grunted affirmatively, then added, “I can’t discuss the details.” “I understand. Just tell me what you can,” Wei Yin replied with a smile, “The more details you share, the more we can narrow down our search.” “Just looking for sports shoes is fine. Once we get there, I want to check the soles of all their shoes.” “That request... is actually not that low,” Wei Yin nodded. Wen Ming interjected, “Should we check online too?” “We’ll look online later. If we can’t find them in the store, then we’ll search online,” Jiang Yuan explained. “Given the suspect’s age, he probably prefers to shop in stores.” Jiang Yuan judged from the footprints that the criminal suspect was between 45 to 49 years old, extending it by two years, that is, between 43 to 51 years old. But this was the safe age range Jiang Yuan set; he was fairly certain that the suspect’s actual age was within this range. However, looking at it more aggressively, Jiang Yuan leaned towards the suspect being on the older side. This was because judging age through footprints was also influenced by the suspect’s muscular strength. From the point of the suspect revisiting the crime scene, Jiang Yuan believed that his muscular strength must be above average. This was because a person’s confidence is undoubtedly affected by their physical condition. A physically weak suspect, or even an ordinary middle-aged man, wouldn’t easily decide to revisit the crime scene. As the three talked, the Cruiser arrived at the county’s commercial street. Wei Yin naturally took the lead, striding ahead of Jiang Yuan and Wen Ming, from Nike to Adidas, from Peak to Hongxing Erke... Inside the stores, Jiang Yuan didn’t lift a finger, letting the other two and the shop assistants bring out various shoes to flip over and check the soles. To facilitate the examination of the soles, Jiang Yuan would just buy two pairs of shoes straight away upon entering each store. Soon, the three were carrying their hands full of shoes. “If we don’t find it, it’ll be time to change shoes for everyone in the squad,” Wei Yin mused with a chuckle. Wen Ming was getting anxious too, saying, “I’ve heard there’s a database for shoe sole patterns, right?” “Yes, using sole patterns to search for shoe models,” Jiang Yuan nodded, “but every year in the country, there are about 600,000 shoe sole patterns. Only a very small portion is entered into the database. Even for big-name sports shoes, not all are recorded.” Wen Ming was astonished, “There’s that many?” “There are tens of thousands of official and unofficial shoe factories nationwide,” Jiang Yuan said, “It’s not possible to rule out those small workshop factories.” Violent crime suspects who are still active today are often characterized by “two lows and one high”—that is, low income, low education, and high age. And these people, when they buy shoes, don’t chase after brand stores all day long. Speaking of which, it’s the people from the era when violent crimes were rampant in the past years, who are still willing to commit violent crimes today. Meanwhile, the new generation of young people prefer non-contact crimes like telecommunication fraud when they get involved in criminal activities. The serial rape cases, which used to be common, have become rarer since the new century began. There was a pause before Wen Ming asked, “If it’s not in the database, how do we check?” “Just like we’re searching now, if we can’t find it, then there’s no way to identify the person through the shoe print,” Jiang Yuan admitted frankly. Footprint evidence, in fact, is the largest volume of physical evidence managed in the country, already surpassing fingerprint evidence in quantity. But in terms of database management, footprint evidence is much weaker. Wen Ming sighed helplessly. He had been very hopeful about cracking another major case. Jiang Yuan and Wei Yin exchanged a smile, knowing that solving cases is never all smooth sailing. “There are quite a lot of people over there, mostly elderly, I think,” Wei Yin pointed ahead, signaling a discount store. Nowadays, a store that perpetually has customers is definitely thriving. Several groups of people browsing inside instantly drew the attention of Jiang Yuan and the others. As they approached, they saw that it was a small shop replete with clothes, pants, and shoes. There were athletic shoes as well, mostly in black, white, and gray color schemes, with some in dark blue, matching the aesthetic preferences of the middle-aged and elderly. Seeing no one to greet him, Jiang Yuan didn’t hesitate to start looking through the shoes himself. After going through seven or eight pairs, a sports shoe with gray and white coloring ended up in Jiang Yuan’s hands. The pattern on the bottom perfectly matched the shoe print Jiang Yuan had extracted from the crime scene. Jiang Yuan discreetly glanced at the brand: Bimawi. It felt trendy, but he guessed it probably wasn’t a shoe factory in dire need of auditing. “Has someone bought this pair of shoes before?” Jiang Yuan asked, suddenly thinking of how new the shoe print at the crime scene was, and how obscure the brand was... The shop assistant frowned, “So many people come in every day, how am I supposed to remember everyone.” “Are you the only person here?” Jiang Yuan continued to inquire. “Another one is in the storeroom,” the assistant replied, busy at the cash register. Then she asked, “What do you do?” Wen Ming then looked at Jiang Yuan for confirmation with an inquisitive gaze; seeing Jiang Yuan nod, he stepped closer and said, “Call your colleague back here.” As he spoke, he showed his police badge. The assistant panicked upon realizing it was the police, then quickly became excited and asked, “Can I take a photo?” Wen Ming frowned slightly and said, “You can take a photo, but call your colleague over first.” “Okay, sure thing,” the assistant agreed, asking again as she did so, “Did she do something wrong? What did she do? I always thought that girl was up to no good, getting herself involved in a case...” “Where’s the surveillance video for your store?” Jiang Yuan interjected, cutting off the assistant’s stories. “Just... right here,” she pointed to the cash register area. “Do you remember when you last sold these shoes, or do you remember the day?” Jiang Yuan verified the surveillance footage was recorded on the main computer’s hard drive before continuing with his questions. The assistant took a look at the Bimawi shoes and said, “I’ll have to check the records.” “Please check,” Jiang Yuan stood and waited. The assistant pulled out a notebook from under the cash register and started flipping through it quickly. This store’s sales were quite good, able to sell dozens or even hundreds of items each day, making it one of the most successful shops in the area. But the assistant was quick and with a point of her finger, she said, “Sold one the day before yesterday, along with a set of clothes, pants, and socks. It’s rare to see someone buy a whole outfit...” “You didn’t make the sale?” Jiang Yuan asked. “Uh, it was my colleague,” the assistant replied. Jiang Yuan then patiently waited for the assistant’s colleague to return, asked similar questions, and had her point out the person on the surveillance video. The colleague, slightly prettier and dressed more stylishly, fiddled with the surveillance on the computer for a while, then suddenly slapped her forehead and recalled, “He was sitting right at the door, asking me to fetch the shoes for him. He didn’t come inside.” “How did he pay?” Wei Yin chipped in with a question. “Cash, now I remember, that guy was pretty strange,” the prettier assistant admitted with an attractive smile. Jiang Yuan and Wen Ming exchanged looks, sensing a lead. Jiang Yuan was the first to ask, “Did he touch anything when he was here? Did he have gloves on?” “He wasn’t wearing... I think, I can’t remember where he touched,” the prettier assistant said, tilting her head apologetically. The other assistant glanced at her dismissively and remarked, “When trying on shoes, you have to hold onto a stool or something.” “I don’t remember that. So many people sit on that stool every day,” the prettier assistant shot back unapologetically. Jiang Yuan looked at the red stool by the door, knowing there wouldn’t be any trace left to find. But... “There should be surveillance in the mall as well,” Wen Ming mentioned, without needing a reminder from Jiang Yuan.

Chapter 161 - 161 156 KPMG

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