Chapter 424 - 424 391 Search

Words : 1950 Updated : Oct 15th, 2025

424: Chapter 391 Search 424: Chapter 391 Search Jiang Family’s kitchen. Uncle Qiang was chopping the filling with a kitchen knife, and once he finished, he piled it into the stainless steel basin. Jiang Fuzhen came holding an ostrich, expertly deboning it. Jiang Yuan stood in front of the stove, looking like a master chef as he prepared a secret marinade for meatballs using sweet potatoes, pumpkin, chicken eggs, duck eggs, duck meat, ostrich meat, and fish. Everyone was bustling about, only Jiang Fuzhen, with a touch of concern, wiped off some sweat and said, “Jiang Yuan, if the police dogs don’t eat this dog food, just feed it to the stray dogs, okay? Don’t bring it home, I’m afraid it might stuff our Doberman to death.” “There might not even be enough to go around. Tomorrow, I reckon there’ll be at least a dozen or twenty dogs,” said Jiang Yuan as he stirred the minced meat, ensuring it was evenly heated, “this is going to keep us busy for several days.” “If it tastes good, of course there won’t be enough. But if it doesn’t taste good, it’ll be hard to finish it all,” Jiang Fuzhen remarked with a deep sense of experience while looking at the ostrich under his knife: “When I first tried this thing, I nearly paid someone a hundred bucks to eat a bite.” Jiang Yuan let out an amused laugh, “Don’t worry, dogs like to eat flavorful things, and as long as the ostrich meat is cleaned thoroughly, there won’t be any problems.” “Wild dogs couldn’t catch an ostrich to eat out there, could they? They wouldn’t win in a fight, I guess,” Uncle Qiang remarked, looking disdainfully at the plucked ostrich. It seemed like an oversized chicken, but with a longer neck and rougher pores, it was hard to look at it and get hungry. There was also a slight feeling of fear, perhaps an ancient fear stemming from the age of dinosaurs. With his LV5 dog food preparation skills, Jiang Yuan confidently went about making the dog food, casually adding, “Wild dogs can’t get beef either... I’m using ostrich meat mainly to enhance the flavor. The dogs coming tomorrow have varied diets, some regularly eat beef and mutton, while others eat chicken and pork. They have different perceptions of taste. Giving them ostrich meat, something they’ve never had before, will provide novelty.” As Uncle Qiang worked, he suddenly developed a doubt, “Is being a forensic doctor these days about doing such miscellaneous tasks? Back in the army, the main forces didn’t have to help out in the kitchen at all.” So, Jiang Yuan scooped up a spoonful of the minced meat from the pot and held it under Uncle Qiang’s nose. ... By the national road. The aroma of the dog food excited the police dogs, who were even more eager than Uncle Qiang. If not for the officers holding them, they would’ve gone straight for a buffet. Jiang Yuan patted the heads of familiar police dogs like Dazhuang and Heizi, signaling to the handlers that they could help themselves to the dog food, before leaving the area where the dogs were assembled. Soon, under Xu Taining’s command, the dogs started following their handlers, setting off or getting into vehicles, each searching their assigned area. A large number of officers also boarded vehicles, heading for their designated sectors. Wearing a white shirt with the collar button fastened tightly, Xu Taining walked up to Jiang Yuan and said with a smile, “Where did you learn this dog cooking technique from?” “I didn’t specifically learn it, but dogs enjoy my cooking,” Jiang Yuan replied with a smile, considering that an exchange of pleasantries. “What you feed them, dogs are always happy with. However...” Xu Taining changed the subject, “I can’t promise you that everyone will be pleased with this sweep you’ve asked me to carry out.” “Yeah, you mentioned that before,” responded Jiang Yuan. “What I said before was that it might be labor-intensive and costly without finding anything. Now, I’m cautioning you, if we don’t find anything, we might be stuck here indefinitely,” Xu Taining had a very good impression of Jiang Yuan. In addition to the 805 case and the work being done by the Luyang City Bureau, Xu Taining thought Jiang Yuan’s cases were quite reliable. At this moment, Xu Taining was reminding Jiang Yuan, “The Luyang City Bureau sought the support of the provincial hall leaders, so we did receive a degree of backing. Consider it an extra incentive for us.” Jiang Yuan paused, then laughed, “Luyang has spent so much money and mobilized so many people; wanting some assurance is quite reasonable.” “The approach is correct, keep on searching until we find something. That’s the current stance of Luyang Bureau, and we should be prepared. They only talked to the leaders just before we set out, so they’ve certainly put their minds to it,” Xu Taining mentioned as an aside. Over the years, the results haven’t always been smooth in his experience. Sometimes, when the search yields no results, or the desired results aren’t found, the financiers and the spenders are naturally discontent, and it’s just something that can’t be helped. Luyang City Bureau reluctantly invited Xu Taining, and the same was true for other districts and cities when they invited him. In this era, poor units lacked funds, and wealthy units were just as much in a state where “the landlord’s family doesn’t have any surplus grain.” Squeezing out some funds might be easy, but was Xu Taining someone to spend only a tiny bit of money? Looking at today’s scenario, one could understand. The initial search area was 110 kilometers, extending 30 kilometers beyond Site 1 and 2. It sounded effortless, but think about securing a marathon race, which only covers about 40 kilometers; the cost for the additional 30 kilometers could easily aggravate a few leaders. However, this was merely the beginning. Xu Taining had also mobilized over 40 pieces of construction equipment, mostly excavators, as well as flatbeds and small cranes. In his words, if someone doubted a particular spot, allowing them to dig on their own meant there would be far fewer suspicious locations. Additionally, using engineering machinery is also cheaper than hiring manual labor to excavate. Besides, the more than 40 police canines from various places, the initially invested over 800 police officers, more than 100 vehicles, various metal detectors, walkie-talkies, high-power flashlights, gloves, raincoats, shovels, hoes, drones... even the supplies and equipment needed for eating and resting, could be overwhelming for a regular city bureau. Without experience, such a large-scale search could easily waste millions. What Jiang Yuan feared most was missing something. Based on Jiang Yuan’s current experience and understanding, the majority of difficult cases were closely tied to initial investigative errors. The killer couldn’t eradicate all traces; that would only lead him to create even more traces. The only thing that could really wipe out traces of a crime was mistakes by the investigators. There’s no need to use domestic examples; the famous Simpson wife-murder case is a case in point, regardless of how dreamy Simpson’s legal team was, the prosecutors indeed messed it up. The JonBenét Ramsey murder case, which involved a 6-year-old beauty pageant queen, also became difficult to investigate later on due to the crime scene being compromised. “It’s started.” Dr. Mei Fang approached as Xu Taining got into the car to check on the operation and greeted Jiang Yuan, saying, “Now, we just hope the two of us, as forensic doctors, can be of use soon.” “Indeed.” Jiang Yuan was also a bit nervous. This case was ultimately being pushed forward by him. Now, apart from Xu Taining conducting a search here, Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Team was still continuing to investigate the social relations of victim number one, Li Yuan, while the nail salon lead was being pursued by people from Luyang City. Everyone’s united efforts and hard work were all in hopes of seeing results. Dr. Mei Fang looked at the grand scene before him and couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed, saying, “As long as it’s there, we’ll definitely find it.” Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but smile. The search for Liu Jinghui back then had been even bigger than this, and they’d still almost failed. “I just fear the criminal won’t cooperate with us,” Jiang Yuan said. Dr. Mei Fang looked at Jiang Yuan surprisingly and said, “I thought you were quite certain before organizing the search.” “Rationally speaking, yes, emotionally...” Jiang Yuan shrugged. “There must still be bodies buried,” Liu Jinghui said as he came over from the other side, handing Jiang Yuan and Dr. Mei Fang each a bottle of water. After taking a sip himself, he said, “The disposal methods for the first and second bodies are clearly different; the second one was dismembered. This indicates that the killer’s method is escalating, and during this process, it’s impossible for him to have killed just one person. If you’re only slaughtering two chickens at home, would you need to change your slaughtering methods? Upgrades and optimizations are made to cope with a large number of similar situations.” “That makes sense.” Dr. Mei Fang listened and nodded repeatedly. Jiang Yuan had already heard Liu Jinghui express similar theories before, and they had consented to this theory through mutual discussions, which led to the current search operation. In comparison, Dr. Mei Fang had many more questions. Seizing the opportunity, he asked, “If the killer commits crimes along the national highway, like a truck driver, and the bodies are beyond this 110-kilometer range, is that also possible?” Truck drivers and prostitutes are practically a cliché in crime dramas, and in reality, there are indeed many cases involving murdering truck drivers and murdered prostitutes. Liu Jinghui shook his head, saying, “Our country’s truck drivers travel nationwide. If they wanted to bury bodies, there’s no need to bury them just within the borders of Luyang City, and similar cases haven’t been discovered elsewhere.” “That’s true...” Dr. Mei Fang was a pretty good forensic doctor, but he wasn’t directly involved in the investigation, so he could only make some generalized speculations. But talking to Jiang Yuan for a bit, Dr. Mei Fang gradually calmed down. “Director Liu, shall we go have a look up front?” Jiang Yuan brought Liu Jinghui into the car and they drove slowly forward. To search a distance of 110 kilometers, even with a speed of 80-something kilometers per hour, they would need to drive for nearly an hour and a half. A full-line search was a daunting spectacle. “It takes someone like you, ordinary people from other departments wouldn’t make such a decision,” Liu Jinghui said while looking out the window. Jiang Yuan, looking ahead, said, “There must be something. It’s just a matter of how quickly we find it.” As they were speaking, Jiang Yuan’s phone rang. The two exchanged a glance, and Jiang Yuan immediately answered, announcing, “This is Jiang Yuan, I’ve put you on speaker.” “We’ve found a bag of remains,” came Xu Taining’s voice on the other end of the line. “A bag? How big a bag?” “About a quarter or a third of a body. It looks like there’s at least one leg, no clothing, wrapped in a tarpaulin bag. The body is badly decomposed, almost skeletonized,” Xu Taining sighed, “I think it’s time to call in more manpower.”

Chapter 424 - 424 391 Search

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