Chapter 34 - 34 34 I'll Make a Phone Call

Words : 1293 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

34: Chapter 34: I’ll Make a Phone Call 34: Chapter 34: I’ll Make a Phone Call A sheep was only eaten a quarter of the way through when every person in the room related at least one story of a stolen electric bike, either their own or someone they knew. If you averaged it out yearly, the number wouldn’t be surprising; there had been even more bicycle thefts during the bicycle era. Still, the total number was quite high. “Did the surveillance cameras downstairs capture the theft?” Jiang Yuan asked as he ate the sheep, showing a bit more concern. “They did capture it, and we filed a report, but we couldn’t find anyone. By the way, can you ask someone to do facial recognition?” Jiang Yongxin, who ran a car wash downstairs, was young and quickly thought of new technology. Jiang Yuan was expressionless: “I don’t know; I’ve never seen facial recognition at the station.” Jiang Yongxin was a bit disappointed and said, “The conditions in our county are still too poor.” “They don’t have facial recognition in the city either. In the domestic train stations and airports, with tens of thousands of people flowing through, when would facial recognition be used?” Jiang Yuan said helplessly. “But other countries have it; can’t we learn to develop our own in China?” Jiang Yongxin was incredulous. “We in China are also developing gait recognition... but we don’t have that either, forget about it. Even if we did, it wouldn’t be used to find your electric bike.” Jiang Yuan dipped his lamb in the spicy sauce, feeling a little fed-up. For the police, solving electric bike thefts was slightly more troublesome than solving ordinary thefts. Because electric bikes can move on their own and carry the suspects, disposing of them is simpler than disposing of ordinary stolen goods, and the crimes are generally committed and fled from more quickly. With careful operation, it’s usually very hard to catch someone. Even if someone were caught, securing evidence and successfully prosecuting the suspect is also very hard. In fact, most ordinary thefts end up with no follow-up after the police report is made. This can be proven with a simple description—when the police officers from the station lose their own phones, they just buy new ones. Furthermore, the attitude of the general public towards thefts is different from that of the police. The general public hopes to recover their losses and ideally punish the thief. Therefore, their primary goal is to recover the stolen items, with finding the perpetrator being secondary. Conversely, the police focus on securing evidence first, then locating the suspect, thirdly prosecuting them, and only lastly on recovering the stolen items. If it’s a murder or serious case, securing evidence, which is the primary task, is just about a passable performance. If they can’t catch the suspect, they’ll just have to chase after them—sometimes a suspect may flee after committing a crime, and if they can’t be arrested, there’s nothing that can be done. However, for theft cases, just securing evidence clearly isn’t enough. Not only would the victims be unsatisfied, but the police would be too. It’s like putting in a day or two, maybe three days of effort for nothing. In theft cases, the police must achieve the first three goals all at once: secure evidence, catch the person, and manage the prosecution. Only then is their work begrudgingly deemed complete. Yet even so, it still fails to meet the minimum expectations of the person reporting the theft, which is to recover the stolen items. But even if the stolen items are recovered and all four goals are achieved, such an operation is still of minimal gain for the police. They would have just solved a case worth a few thousand yuan, caught one or a few minor offenders, and recovered a loss of a few thousand yuan. Therefore, in small towns with a perennial shortage of police resources, thefts like these are always considered low-priority cases. Only if there is a sudden spike in reports over a period, indicating a gang operation or a series of related crimes, might there be slightly more enthusiasm in addressing them. This, of course, is provided that there are no new murders or other major cases to deal with. And for the officers directly involved in these cases, thefts are not only unappealing but also annoying. Such cases are not only disregarded by them, but also looked down upon by their colleagues, hence fingerprinting requires waiting, forensic field work needs pleading, watching videos is strictly DIY, everywhere they’re faced with the lowest priority of engagement... Moreover, they can’t complain, because grumbling would be seen as foolish—not knowing one’s place. Fingerprint experts might be working on murders, robbery cold cases, or a series of arson cases. If you try to make demands for a current electric bike theft case, do you really expect to cut in line? Luckily, Jiang Yuan himself could lift fingerprints and also understood crime scene investigation... For these kinds of electric bike theft cases, having these two skills was enough. The smart and cautious, those with executive prowess, go to pursue higher education, commit murder, steal hearts, not pilfer electric bikes. “I’ll ask someone to help later, see if we can recover one or two, maybe a few electric bikes,” Jiang Yuan said cautiously. Nevertheless, he felt it was nice to do something for the people of his village. Relatives should always have some exchange of favors, and since he, a young forensic doctor, couldn’t always expect to contribute in ways that cut to the heart of the matter. The mood in the room lifted. Mrs. Hua even praised, “Being a civil servant is different, isn’t it? You can be of help, unlike my Junye who just loiters without working, doesn’t take exams for civil service jobs, can’t even find a wife...” Jiang Yuan, observing Mrs. Hua’s increasingly spirited demeanor, found it necessary to remind her, “Auntie, the electric bike you lost the year before last won’t be found this year, for sure.” “It doesn’t matter, I’m not short on money.” Mrs. Hua waved her hand nonchalantly and continued, “And it’s not necessarily lost forever. A thief can’t go on thieving forever, nor only for just a year, right? Unless their family also had their property demolished, how else could they afford not to steal?” Jiang Yuan felt Mrs. Hua was wrong, yet not by much. Jiang Yongxin quickly finished off the ribs in his hands, wiped his mouth, and asked more eagerly, “Jiang Yuan, when you get the people together, I’ll go ask the property management to access the footage.” Having lost two electric bikes this year, he still had hope of finding them. More importantly, he not only ran a car wash but also a car and electric bike parts store, so he was doubly frustrated with thefts and the surrounding security situation. Jiang Yuan looked out the window at the sky and said, “It’s too late now, we can’t just summon people whenever we want. Um... I’ll make a phone call first.” Jiang Yuan thought of Wei Zhenguo, and that’s who he called. Wei Zhenguo’s Team Six dealt year-round with property invasion cases related to theft and was thus the proper criminal investigation team. Wei Zhenguo, who had left just a few hours ago and thought there might be unfinished business with an arson case, picked up the phone quickly and cheerfully asked, “Doctor Jiang, you were saying...” A faint smile appeared on Jiang Yuan’s face, “Captain Wei, you mentioned before, if there’s anything I need help with, to come to you...”

Chapter 34 - 34 34 I'll Make a Phone Call

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