Chapter 44 - 44 44 Former Boyfriends

Words : 1577 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

44: Chapter 44 Former Boyfriends 44: Chapter 44 Former Boyfriends For two consecutive days, Jiang Yuan had been focusing all his attention on processing the fingerprints from the Ding Lan case. Having cracked several cases in a row, including one highly noticeable murder case, the label of “rookie” had nearly been scrubbed entirely clean from Jiang Yuan or, rather, it was shining brightly. Now, at least within the Ningtai County Bureau, most people had heard the name “Jiang Yuan.” The most direct impact of this was that no one would ask Jiang Yuan to do menial chores anymore. Even Wu Jun, seeing Jiang Yuan busy with the fingerprints for the Ding Lan disappearance case, didn’t require him to do other tasks. The attribute of “being able to solve cases” was still very impressive at the grassroots county level, and ordinary police officers, willing to voluntarily work overtime for a case, also would not encroach on the time of “case-solving” Jiang Yuan. As for the Ding Lan disappearance case, the fingerprints could indeed only be handled by Jiang Yuan. There were too many complex fingerprints; the two trace examiners from Ningtai County couldn’t make heads or tails of them, let alone finish them. If they wanted to ask for assistance from provincial or city level trace examiners, the case, by virtue of being a disappearance, wouldn’t qualify. To a certain extent, one could say this problem was a bit of a thankless task. Fortunately, Jiang Yuan wasn’t under pressure, not like Wei Zhenguo or Wang Zhong, who always had daily tasks to deal with and could only occasionally carve out some free time, which wasn’t all devoted to case work. Most humans would take any chance to relax if they could. If everyone liked to seize every opportunity to study and work, there wouldn’t be sweaty crowds in the dimly lit conference hubs of Hongdeng Street, Pink Salons, and Neon Night Clubs, and likewise, if everyone seized every moment to study and work, those places would not exist. Of course, the role of the Forensic Medicine System should not be underestimated. Even without the help of skills, its mere presence made Jiang Yuan more focused. Even Wu Jun, looking at Jiang Yuan’s work, couldn’t help but comment, “If I had been as single-minded as you in dissecting bodies when I was young, I would have been transferred to the city bureau long ago.” “Is being a forensic doctor at the city bureau better?” Jiang Yuan took a sip of tea, giving his eyes a break. Wu Jun pondered for a moment, then said, “Salary’s a few hundred more, at least.” Jiang Yuan didn’t even blink an eyelid, “Then there’s no difference.” “When it comes to welfare housing allocations, the county bureau’s allocation is in the county, the city bureau’s is in the city,” Wu Jun mentioned, glancing at Jiang Yuan and suddenly losing some enthusiasm, waving his hand, “For you Jiang Village people, maybe there’s no difference either.” “My family doesn’t have many houses in the city,” Jiang Yuan clarified. Wu Jun chuckled, finding the conversation quite dull, and pointed to the computer screen, “How’s the fingerprint work going? If you find any clues, let Wei go investigate it. Too much evidence isn’t necessarily a good thing.” “Another day and I should have all the processable fingerprints done. Looks like the timing’s about right, too.” Jiang Yuan glanced at his notebook again, then took out his phone to call Wei Zhenguo. It wasn’t long before Wei Zhenguo ran up. Climbing four flights of stairs in one go, Wei Zhenguo was somewhat out of breath but looked quite pleased as he asked, “Got results?” “Most of them. There are a few I haven’t finished. I’ll work on them a bit more and see how many matches I can get by tomorrow.” Jiang Yuan took a few freshly printed pages, stapled them together, and handed them to Wei Zhenguo. At the top of the paper was the name of a reformed convict. “Inciting trouble, getting into fights... goodness, to have a match with someone like that, and you didn’t call?” Wei Zhenguo stood rooted in place upon seeing the first entry, visibly eager to act. “He’s dead,” Jiang Yuan provided an irrefutable answer. Wei Zhenguo had a different perspective. He glanced through Jiang Yuan’s records, furrowed his brow, and said, “He left his fingerprints when he was still alive. Ding Lan disappeared on March 26th, and he’d just been released from prison not long ago. If this case was committed by him... it could well be an unsolvable case now.” At that moment, Wei Zhenguo felt a bit regretful for having sought Jiang Yuan’s help, having wasted so much of his time. If the result was a dead end, it would be quite embarrassing. Jiang Yuan, inexperienced, didn’t think too much about what would follow, but simply said, “Look at the following.” “Hm... inciting trouble, assault... another one?” Wei Zhenguo only then noticed the second person among several short segments farther down who matched the description. “He’s also dead,” Jiang Yuan added. “That’s not right!” Wei Zhenguo cried out, saying, “On just one lousy bike, the fingerprints of two dead men, and both are career criminals?” As a detective, Wei Zhenguo’s mind raced through a string of cases. Gang crimes, unequal division of loot, silencing by murder... “This man died of cancer. Acute pancreatic cancer, he had surgery and chemotherapy, stayed in the hospital for half a year, endured a lot of suffering,” Jiang Yuan stated. “I specifically called, his mother said so.” Jiang Yuan was not entirely insensitive, and his detailed explanation was also meant to prove that, at least regarding the death of the second person, there was not much doubt. Wei Zhenguo sighed, feeling the same worry. If this person had led to Ding Lan’s disappearance, it could just as likely have resulted in a death case. The third person on Jiang Yuan’s list seemed relatively normal, a young man who had only received administrative punishments and was currently still alive. Seeing this, Wei Zhenguo couldn’t help but shake his head, “How did she, a young girl, get to know these people.” “Social media, I guess.” In this regard, Jiang Yuan adapted much better than Wei Zhenguo, and continued, “I looked at the statements you took before, and several of Ding Lan’s ex-boyfriends, they all met through social media.” “This...” Wei Zhenguo seemed to be taken back to the beginning of the case when one ex-boyfriend after another popped up, making the case instantly complicated and confusing. Just one bicycle toppled over in the greenbelt was simply not enough to track so many leads. Even more worrisome, if a crime did occur, the suspect might not have left fingerprints on the bicycle. As for social media... Although social media does keep records, extracting those records could be more trouble than one might imagine. It’s feasible if you can get information through the internet or phone, but many companies do not offer such convenience. Instead, police officers need to travel to their jurisdiction, apply for records through the local police, and because of the queues, it usually takes a week or two per trip. If you want to check all the mainstream social media platforms, a criminal investigation squad wouldn’t be able to handle any other cases for that month. Starting with the fourth person, the fingerprints belonged to people who were relatively ordinary, at least without criminal records. Jiang Yuan pulled out as much information as he could from the police database, his access wasn’t high, and some was queried through Wu Jun’s phone, but the problem remained the same. Hoping to find conclusions from such simple information, perhaps Sherlock Holmes could, but Jiang Yuan could not. Wei Zhenguo also felt his forehead heat up from reading so much, and said helplessly, “When I opened this case, there were no leads, so it was set aside. Now there are too many leads, and I don’t know where to start. They say fortune comes in cycles; it seems we’re stuck today.” “If there are no particularly prominent leads, then just investigate them one by one,” said Jiang Yuan, who dealt with fingerprints in just such a way. In fact, forensic technology was generally quite crude, hardly ever the sort of genius method that would amaze onlookers at first glance. Many forensic technologies are second- or third-hand, or even fourth- or fifth-hand, starting from the halls of science to university labs, then to private companies and eventually becoming popular in the industry, before someone might introduce them to the forensic field. There are many reasons for this, one of which is that the forensic field has a high cost of trust, demanding technologies that are more mature and stable. In short, it’s okay to be a bit slower; technologies that can steadily get the job done are what the forensic field prefers. Wei had just started accepting the technology of Jiang Yuan, experienced his direct approach to suspects, and now, when he spoke of the “one by one” strategy, he seemed somewhat stunned. “Investigating is the bread and butter.” Wei grinned, rubbing his greased hair, his gaze turning fierce: “Fine, I’ll go have some dealings with these ex-boyfriends.”

Chapter 44 - 44 44 Former Boyfriends

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