Chapter 371 - 371 338 Stealing Sheep

Words : 1881 Updated : Oct 11th, 2025

371: Chapter 338: Stealing Sheep 371: Chapter 338: Stealing Sheep The new building of the Criminal Police Detachment. Fourth floor. The sign for Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad quietly went up here again. Huang Qiangmin didn’t notify anyone, simply had the clerks hang a sign, set up a few desks and chairs, and considered the space ready. As for who exactly to bring into this Cold Case Squad, Huang Qiangmin was still observing. After all, personnel decisions are key. Having just been promoted to Deputy Director, he didn’t want to make moves too fast or too aggressively, preferring a certain level of deliberation. Furthermore, Jiang Yuan had gone home to rest. Although many in the county bureau got word and were itching to act, everyone was moving slowly. Huang Qiangmin took a leisurely couple of days before choosing Wang Zhong. He sent him to the new building’s fourth floor to be in charge of answering phones and opening doors. Now in Ningtai County, after Jiang Yuan’s two major sweeps, the crime rate had dropped to an exceptionally low level, one of the lowest in the entire province. This meant that the original standard complement of staff, if not excessive, found themselves with a sudden ease in their workload. Forensic junior brother Comrade Wang Zhong was considered surplus labor. Upon receiving his orders, Wang Zhong quickly reported to the fourth floor of the new building. The office of Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad was empty and quiet, spotlessly clean. Since neither superiors nor colleagues had visited yet, Wang Zhong found a cozy corner shielded from the wind and prying eyes and started watching videos that afternoon—documentaries or educational ones beneficial for learning. Just before the end of the workday, Wang Zhong took the initiative to clean the room and water the few pots of devil’s ivy plants inside. The freshly watered devil’s ivy looked even more lush and sweet, delicately entwining with one another. Wang Zhong had even planned out his morning routine for the next day—preparing a bowl of tofu pudding, making a cup of soy milk, buying a set of pancake rolls, and a basket of soup dumplings to eat his fill, the kind that made one slightly drowsy, and then he’d watch an anime...or another educational video to enhance his professional skills, comfortably seeing the morning through. The next morning, Wang Zhong, as planned, went to the East Market specially to buy tofu pudding and pancake rolls, then to the West Market for soup dumplings, and lastly, he got soy milk beneath the police detachment building before happily carrying everything back to his new office. He took out the tofu pudding, spread out the soup dumplings, spoon in the right hand, pancake rolls in the left... Ding-dong. The doorbell seemed particularly inappropriate at that moment. Wang Zhong, not wanting to let go of the pancake rolls in his hand, looked up towards the door. Through the transparent glass, he saw six burly men and a beautiful woman, staring intently at him. If it weren’t for these people’s glistening blue or black trousers, Wang Zhong would have thought they came to arrest him. Wang Zhong glanced at the tofu pudding, then at the pancake rolls, then at the soy milk and soup dumplings, and sighed regretfully. He hadn’t even taken a bite yet. Setting them aside, Wang Zhong went to open the door and asked, “Who are you looking for?” “We are from the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment. Looking for Jiang Yuan,” the young man in the lead, with starry eyes and sword-like eyebrows, and somewhat handsome, said, “We are all members of Changyang’s Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team. My name is Wang Chuanxing.” After introducing himself, Wang Chuanxing pointed to the others, “This is Meng Chengbiao... this is Shen Yaowei... this is Miao Liyuan... this is Tang Jia...” Wang Zhong looked on, a bit overwhelmed by the show of force. Having seven or eight strong young officers in the Ningtai County Criminal Police Detachment was the equivalent of the strength of a whole squad. The detachment had its fair share of the old, weak, and sick; to have numbers, they could easily form full rosters with anyone at hand. And to someone like Wang Zhong, who had spent years working in the technical department at the county bureau, criminal police from Changyang were somewhat mythical. At this moment, Wang Zhong habitually said, “Please take a seat, leaders. Umm... whom should I report to?” Cops at the county level, when they met someone from a higher unit they didn’t know, couldn’t go wrong by calling them “leader.” “Maybe you’d like to find your Captain Huang? We’ll give Jiang a call,” Wang Chuanxing said with a smile, then turned to pull out his phone and started dialing. Tang Jia and the others first looked around the office, quickly choosing their desks and sitting down to get organized. Half an hour later, Huang Qiangmin was the first to arrive. He regarded the group of officers with a gaze meant for examining criminals, noting especially that the group had already arranged their workstations. “Chief Yu didn’t even make a phone call,” Huang Qiangmin complained, then asked, “What’s the purpose of your visit?” “We want to work with Captain Jiang,” Tang Jia was the first to stand and make her position known. Shen Yaowei and the others also stood up, nodding their heads in agreement. Shen Yaowei, even more astute, added, “Captain Huang, if you have any tasks, just command us directly.” Working with Jiang Yuan essentially meant working under Huang Qiangmin; Shen Yaowei understood this relationship well. Of course, after a while, they would ultimately have to return to Changyang City, as they couldn’t work for Huang Qiangmin for free indefinitely. However, the duration of this period could be long or short, which, on closer consideration, was not too different from a normal leadership relationship—if Huang Qiangmin was willing to assume such a leadership role. “I’ll give Chief Yu a call,” Huang Qiangmin hesitated. Reverse secondment was quite satisfying, but the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment wasn’t so easy to push around... He was flipping through his contacts when he heard the sound of the elevator arriving. Several unfamiliar detectives walked up. “Old Meng.” “Even Little Tang is here.” The unfamiliar detectives greeted Tang Jia, Meng Chengbiao, and the others, indicating that they were also from the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment. At this, Huang Qiangmin involuntarily paused his dialing fingers and inquired, “You all should know that our county’s conditions are not as good as those in the provincial capital, not just in terms of food and lodging. The cases we encounter may not be taken as seriously as those in Changyang City. Our equipment, the conditions of our laboratory—they just can’t compare with those in the capital...” “Captain Huang, rest assured. We’ve all been on assignments before, and we all have a very simple desire—to solve as many cases as possible in our lifetime,” stated Meng Chengbiao, speaking on behalf of the group. Huang Qiangmin chuckled. “The case-solving efficiency of the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment is indeed high...” “But it can’t compare with Jiang Yuan.” Meng Chengbiao paused before adding, “I’m not expecting any promotions. I just want to solve cases.” For police officers, the path to promotion is quite narrow. It’s actually quite similar to that of teachers. Basically, even if an ordinary grassroots police officer does well, the best they can aspire to is an instructor at a police station or a squad leader in the detective team. Reaching the position of a station chief takes an incredible amount of effort and luck. Of course, police ranks can be increased—one rank every three years. Approaching his fifties, Meng Chengbiao also wore two bars and three stars, the same rank as Huang Qiangmin, but it wasn’t much help. Eager to join Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team, or even chasing after it—Meng Chengbiao’s intentions were very straightforward: he wanted to solve more cases and, incidentally, earn a few more commendations to boast to his grandson someday. Whether the younger officers were looking to forge their way across a single-log bridge or shared similar thoughts as Meng Chengbiao, they were also focused on solving cases. From this perspective, detectives at least were relatively straightforward. “I’m going to make a call,” declared Huang Qiangmin, stepping out to communicate. When it was just about promoting Jiang Yuan, he did so with full confidence. But now with the adoption of a new model, he was still adjusting. Jiang Yuan was confident, the Director had ideas, but it was only Huang Qiangmin who felt slightly overwhelmed. After several calls, Huang Qiangmin, massaging his temples, returned to the office of Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team. He was surprised to see a group of people sitting in a circle in the office, with a PowerPoint presentation displayed on the wall. “Director Huang,” Jiang Yuan had arrived and greeted, “They called me, so I came over.” The advantage of a small county town was that a press of the gas pedal could get you anywhere. “Oh... is this your PowerPoint?” Huang Qiangmin looked up at the screen, vaguely remembering the case it featured. Jiang Yuan shook his head: “They made it.” Huang Qiangmin looked around at the circle of people. Aside from Wang Zhong, everyone else was from the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment; Ningtai County’s own selection had not yet been finalized. However, the cases on the screen had already been mapped out in a mind map for Ningtai County... “This is a... sheep theft case, right?” Huang Qiangmin focused on the screen for a few seconds before realizing, Are you a team of more than a dozen people focusing on a case worth just a few thousand yuan? “I chose a few cases that are particularly suitable for becoming acquainted with the local area. The key to this sheep theft case is that it has occurred repeatedly over the past three years, and all incidents centered in Wen Township,” Wang Chuanxing rapidly clicked through several pages and explained, “I’ve compiled the data from the past three-plus years, and the sheep, dogs, and geese lost in Wen Township alone amount to twenty or thirty.” Twenty or thirty animals lost over three years—if all were stolen by the same person, it still pertained to a case of only a few tens of thousands of yuan... Huang Qiangmin asked, “Are you going to take on this case?” Everyone turned to look at Jiang Yuan. “Let’s treat it as team-building,” Jiang Yuan thought, solving any case would do. However, Wang Chuanxing and the others began to think deeper. With the Jianyuan Warehouse murder and arson case from their last operation still in the process of being wrapped up, could Jiang Yuan be dissatisfied with it? As a participant in the previous team-building activity, might Jiang Yuan consider ousting certain individuals from the team? Cognition wouldn’t falter, and so fear would not diminish. As they fortified themselves mentally, they also began to seriously contemplate the sheep theft case.

Chapter 371 - 371 338 Stealing Sheep

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