Chapter 309 - 309 277 Scoring

Words : 1682 Updated : Oct 3rd, 2025

309: Chapter 277: Scoring 309: Chapter 277: Scoring “How about this case? There are many footprints at the scene, and although there’s not much blood, it happened outdoors with plenty of traces.” Liu Jinghui handed a file to Jiang Yuan. Jiang Yuan glanced at it twice and confirmed it was a case he had seen before, then he said, “70 points for this one.” “I’ll give it 80, so that’s 150 points. It’s now in third place.” Liu Jinghui made a note on the side and then properly put the file back. Meanwhile, Jiang Yuan handed a case to Liu Jinghui, saying, “I give this one 75 points.” “I’ll give it 60. It’s another mountain case, you’d run yourself to death just getting to the site, and since there are no eyewitnesses and evidence collection, I guess, won’t be too good.” While speaking and recording, Liu Jinghui said, “135 points, now it’s ranked sixth. Our scoring range is a bit tight, huh?” “Most cases are actually doable,” Jiang Yuan said. “Let’s look at two more cases and then get started.” “Sounds good.” ... When Yu Wenshu arrived, he saw Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui whispering to each other on the other side of the conference room. The group of self-proclaimed elite police officers from his own team were sitting at the other end of the conference room, eagerly watching the two. “What are they doing?” asked Yu Wenshu. “Selecting cases,” Wang Baoming replied. “I hear them giving scores?” “Yes, they’re scoring the backlog of cases based on personal preference and their own assessment of the difficulty of the cases. Then, they’ll take on the case with the highest combined score,” Wang Baoming explained. Yu Wenshu nodded upon hearing this and looked around, then said, “Those with phones, place them on the table. No video recording or audio recording is allowed in the conference room. You all know the confidentiality rules, right?” “We are all aware, wouldn’t do such a thing,” Wang Baoming said, standing up. “Let me check for you.” After inspecting each phone that was placed on the table, he smiled and said, “Nothing to do here but review the files. Don’t touch your phones needlessly.” Everyone then obediently nestled in their chairs, watching Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui estimate scores. After going through a stack of files, Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui paused and picked up the top-ranked file again for confirmation. Liu Jinghui called out, “Captain Yu, we’ll start with this case, the one from two years ago, the July 2nd aggravated rape and murder case under Shengli Bridge.” A murder case from two years ago is still a backlog, but compared to much older backlogs, the probability of solving such cases is slightly higher. Yu Wenshu couldn’t wait for someone to help work on cases. No matter which case Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui chose, he only had a supportive role. Now coming over, Yu Wenshu took a look at the case file and said, “This pervert, we toiled over it for three months... Do you have any ideas?” For a provincial capital city like Changyang City, the concept that all murder cases must be solved is possible in theory but not so much in practice. As for this case from the year before last, Yu Wenshu was also curious why both Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui had given it a high score. In his memory, this case seemed more like a random act of violence. The scene had not left behind any crucial physical evidence like fingerprints or DNA. Plus, the victim was killed so brutally that few leads were found afterward. Of course, unsolved backlogs definitely have their complexities. In a place like Changyang City, they only scale back manpower and other resources when all leads have gone cold. Liu Jinghui and Jiang Yuan looked at each other, with Liu Jinghui saying, “I’ll go first.” “Okay.” Jiang Yuan moved the other files aside, then placed the file for the July 2nd case in the middle. Some clever young people had already come over to help clear space for the new file. Liu Jinghui opened his notebook, glanced at it, and said, “The time of the incident for this case was around 1:20 a.m. on July 2nd. The victim, Liu Juan, a female, was robbed, raped, and killed on her way home from work. According to the forensic report, she suffered multiple injuries to her chest and back. Additionally, there were obvious marks of bites or suction on the victim’s chest, perineum, and the root of her thighs...” After briefly describing the situation, Liu Jinghui paused and said, “Based on the perpetrator’s actions, I think the primary purpose of the crime was forcible rape, which is a ‘sexual’ crime. Furthermore, the criminal appears to have certain sexual psychological disorders. I think we could start from this perspective.” Liu Jinghui tapped the file and continued, “Firstly, there are 32 knife wounds on the victim’s body with 11 being fatal. This is not a normal method of murder but is more consistent with sexual sadism. The multiple bite marks on the victim’s body also suggest the same, characteristic of lover’s bites, lover-biter.” Yu Wenshu nodded and added, “This line of thinking matches the conclusions drawn by the special case group at the time. I roughly remember that the group concluded that sexual sadism was the perpetrator’s main means of deriving sexual excitement through inflicting abuse and violence on female victims, wounding women and humiliating individual victims leading to disability and death...” Everyone cast sideways glances at Yu Wenshu’s performance. The fact that the branch chief had a good memory was already clear to everyone, but he seemed to be the only one who’d forgotten about this detail. Liu Jinghui coughed twice and continued, “I think that a behavioral profile of the perpetrator based on these actions might be helpful in solving the case. Jiang Yuan?” Behavioral profiling is similar to the criminal profiling seen in American dramas like that of the FBI, though not as extensive. It typically involves making judgments about some characteristics of the perpetrator, which can aid in subsequent elimination or investigation efforts. Liu Jinghui clearly needed some time to do this, but he was evidently confident. So Jiang Yuan took over, “Based on some of the photos from the scene, I feel the perpetrator’s footprints could be of certain help.” Yu Wenshu’s memory immediately stirred, and he asked, “The perpetrator was wearing a pair of slippers?” “Right. And they were cheap slippers.” Jiang Yuan laid out the recent photos he had extracted on the table and said, “The shoe prints at the scene had striped patterns, and there were small injection-molded holes. The soles were severely worn, with damages and cracks. This suggests that the soles were likely made of PVC material and that the slippers had been worn for a long time.” “It indicates that the perpetrator might be living in poor conditions,” inferred Yu Wenshu. Jiang Yuan nodded, then added, “During the commission of the crime, the perpetrator stepped into a flower bed by the roadside. Combining this with the blood footprints found at the scene, it’s evident that at the time of the crime, the perpetrator was about 25 years old and light in weight...” Liu Jinghui, who had begun to jot down key points, looked up and said, “I agree with this. The formation of sexual sadism is mostly related to family factors, often growing up surrounded by the opposite sex, in households where the atmosphere is dominated by females, with poor or overprotective mother-son relationships. Such individuals typically start forming sexual psychological disorders around the age of 16, and their crimes occur about 8 years later. That would be around the age of 24, which matches Jiang Yuan’s estimate quite well.” The mood among the people there was also stirred up. Jiang Yuan said, “The footprints at the scene can provide another valuable piece of information. I preliminarily judge that the perpetrator is less than 160 cm tall, most likely around 157 cm...” Everyone’s spirits were lifted at this insight. “That height eliminates a lot of people,” Tang Jia murmured under her breath, then added, “But many men wear shoes with thick soles, don’t they?” “The perpetrator was wearing slippers at the time,” Wang Chuanxing reminded her. Liu Jinghui suddenly stood up, gesturing with his hands, and said, “I had a hunch that the crime scene being in Changyang City’s old district, a place not short of pedestrian traffic, shows that the criminal is audacious enough to commit crimes in slippers, under less than ideal conditions. I believe there’s a strong possibility he has a criminal record, and taking his background into account, it’s likely that he’s a recidivist and might not have been released for very long.” Looking at Jiang Yuan, Liu Jinghui said, “If the perpetrator’s height really is below 160 cm, taking into account the factors of previous convictions and age, as well as the time of release, I suspect the list won’t be very long.” As Yu Wenshu listened, he nodded repeatedly, and after Liu Jinghui finished speaking, Yu Wenshu clapped his hands and addressed the group, “What are we waiting for? One person take responsibility for one province, and start compiling the list. The current age range is 23 to 28, height below 160 cm, and released within the previous year.” The lists from all the provinces combined might be lengthy, but Yu Wenshu believed that the actual number of people who met the criteria would not be many, and moreover, it was likely that the perpetrator came from Shannan Province or a neighboring province. Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui exchanged glances, both surprised that cross-verifying each other’s perspectives had yielded such remarkable results. They hadn’t even begun their earnest efforts yet.

Chapter 309 - 309 277 Scoring

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