Chapter 57 - 57 56 In summary

Words : 1430 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

57: Chapter 56 In summary 57: Chapter 56 In summary The large conference room. The air conditioning whirred, blowing forcefully enough to make the Diao Lan in the corner sway. The Diao Lan seemed unhurried and composed as it stretched out gracefully, its appearance like Zhao Feiyan having found a job in heaven and earth, or Pan Jinlian having discovered her second fortune in a live broadcast room... When the wind changed slightly, the leaves and branches of the Diao Lan experienced less wind, their posture becoming firm and strong, akin to Pan An strutting through the streets, or Wang Xizhi drunkenly calling out over the mic. Liu Jinghui took the report from Yu Wenshu’s hands, only to see it filled with dense numbers and charts. Liu Jinghui flipped directly to the last page and found a paragraph written boldly: “In conclusion, there is reason to suspect that the Apricot Valley Copper Mine, located 25 kilometers west of Changyang City, is the site where the body was hidden.” In that instant, Liu Jinghui felt like he had suddenly become a martial arts master, with his temples throbbing painfully. The Apricot Valley mine was within the search range designated by Liu Jinghui, who had a strong impression of it. Indeed, in today’s meeting, Liu Jinghui had planned to arrange for people to go to the Apricot Valley Copper Mine. He was confident that with one more round of inspections, he would be able to narrow the search area from 25 locations to within ten, and then, at most by the third round of inspection, to within three to five locations. By then, bringing in police dogs or other technical methods would grant a great chance of finding Tan Yong’s burial site. This was an intelligence-storm style advancement, a classic example of solving a case with meticulous thinking. However... Liu Jinghui stared at the thick report in his hands. Those cold numbers and those stiff charts were like crib notes for cheating, causing annoyance and frustration. When had elegant detectives disappeared, only to be replaced by these silly, simple-minded fools! “Talk about this ‘in conclusion’ part,” Liu Jinghui shook the report and couldn’t help but look up at Jiang Yuan. Jiang Yuan didn’t mind Liu Jinghui’s attitude. He had been busy for many days and had just received the report, excitedly saying, “I conducted a thorough inspection of the suspect Tan Yong’s vehicle and reached the following conclusions...” “The suspect’s vehicle is that Pajero, right? Wasn’t it already inspected? A second inspection could be contaminated by the first, couldn’t it?” Liu Jinghui interrupted Jiang Yuan. “I mainly collected trace evidence, mostly from places that would not or are not easily contaminated,” Jiang Yuan said. Liu Jinghui laughed, “What parts are that pure?” Nearly a hundred people were sitting in the conference room, all craning their necks to listen, and naturally, some laughed along. Jiang Yuan didn’t laugh, calmly looking down at the center of Liu Jinghui’s large bald spot, saying, “The first piece of evidence was obtained from the third layer of paint on the left front fender of the suspect’s vehicle. It’s assumed that the vehicle ran over roadside gravel, which hit the fender, embedding tiny particles of stone powder into the paint there. When the suspect later treated the area, a new layer of paint was applied, inadvertently protecting this piece of evidence.” Liu Jinghui paused, asking, “The third layer of paint?” “Yes, I found that Tan Yong’s Pajero had many spots of partial repainting, so I decided to scrape off the layers of paint from these areas, including the topcoat, middle layers, base coat, putty... Some vehicles may have several layers of paint applied, and we collect as many layers as they’ve applied. Then, using a microscope, we search for trace evidence layer by layer.” Liu Jinghui was overwhelmed when he heard this, and the first thought that came to his mind was, “This is far from elegant.” At this time, a leader who knew a bit about scene investigation asked, “Do we really need a microscope? The workload would be enormous. Would it work if we just used tape to pick up the traces?” “Ordinary tape won’t do because we’re searching for trace evidence, which is often measured in milligrams, so the glue from the tape can cause contamination. In the end, the evidence we find may turn out to be unusable,” Jiang Yuan explained. “This...” The leader listening felt a chill run through his scalp. Jiang Yuan saw that there were no further questions, “Page three has a detailed description of this piece of evidence. Its content matches the mineral composition records of Apricot Valley Copper Mine. The trace evidence was analyzed at the Trace Evidence Laboratory of the provincial bureau with a newly purchased fluorescence analyzer, which requires a very small amount of sample for testing...” It was also Jiang Yuan’s first attempt at collecting trace evidence since acquiring the systematic skills, so he carried out the entire process with great meticulousness. As Liu Jinghui listened to Jiang Yuan reciting those technical terms, he felt a mix of impatience and had to admit that the answers he got were extremely tempting. After a few seconds of thought, Liu Jinghui gestured with his hands and said, “So, your conjecture is that when Tan Yong drove past the Apricot Valley Copper Mine, his car’s wheels rolled over the pebbles on the side of the road, splashing up the stones, which were actually ore that hit the front fender of his car and incidentally embedded in the paint surface. Moreover, when Tan Yong got his car fixed, he happened to not handle it diligently and simply painted over it?” Jiang Yuan fell silent for a moment. The conference room with over a hundred people suddenly became exceptionally quiet. It was then that Jiang Yuan had his words ready, “Tan Yong’s car was old, and moreover, he frequently visited construction sites, so he always went to very familiar repair shops for car maintenance, where many areas were handled roughly.” Next, Jiang Yuan addressed the second question, “The roadside of Apricot Valley Copper Mine is littered with pebbles, left behind by trucks that used to haul ore. The bigger pieces should have been cleaned up already, but there’s still a lot of finer ore left, which can be seen at the site.” Then came the third question, Jiang Yuan said slowly, “Apricot Valley Copper Mine is the end point and doesn’t lead to any other place. Therefore, if Tan Yong went to Apricot Valley Copper Mine, it would surely have been his destination.” Compared to the voluminous report, Jiang Yuan’s simple reasoning made Liu Jinghui slightly more comfortable, but only slightly. Liu Jinghui hummed in acknowledgment and asked, “Then why do you think Apricot Valley is the burial site?” “Mineral particles from evidence item 3 were obtained from the rear right door and have a similar origin to evidence item 1. The plant fibers from evidence item 4 are consistent with the vegetation of Apricot Valley. These can all be used as indirect evidence to indicate that Tan Yong went to Apricot Valley multiple times. Furthermore, these pieces of evidence all date back to more than three years ago. Other particles found in the car either came from outside Changyang City or from the construction sites where Tan Yong worked, making them less likely to be from the burial site,” Jiang Yuan spoke at a measured pace. Halfway through Jiang Yuan’s explanation, Liu Jinghui had already begun to accept it. The burial site must be a place visited multiple times, which was a point he had already determined. Moreover, Apricot Valley Copper Mine had been within his scope of consideration, so it was hard to say how much of his questioning was to challenge Jiang Yuan. Nevertheless, solving the case was important, and Liu Jinghui could not help but lower his head to read Jiang Yuan’s report, which took quite some time. Not until there was a buzzing of quiet conversation in the conference room did Liu Jinghui look up and say, “Alright, let’s adjust today’s meeting goal, focusing on Apricot Valley Copper Mine. Gao Qiang, could you arrange that?” Gao Qiang, the third-level senior police superintendent who had been low-key these days, didn’t hesitate when Liu Jinghui called on him. After clearing his throat twice, he stood up and said directly, “Let’s first divide into several groups...”

Chapter 57 - 57 56 In summary

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