National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1090 - 1021: Chance Encounter

Several criminal investigation team captains, including Jiang Yuan and the provincial department officials, were constantly communicating in the group chat.

Six different county and city criminal investigation teams searched for traces of the gray van within their respective jurisdictions. If you say it’s simple, it’s incredibly simple—it’s merely a routine task for criminal investigators.

But if you say it’s complicated, everyone was essentially doing similar work. Whether someone finds it or doesn’t, finds it first or later... it really makes no difference, aside from the fact that whoever finds it first feels like they’ve won.

In a male-dominated criminal investigation team, this sense of competition becomes the greatest motivation.

Who can accept losing to a neighboring city’s criminal investigation team? Huang Qiangmin, for example, wouldn’t let Hou Lejia from Longli County overshadow him. Even the police dog squad’s Dazhuang, whose primary benchmark was Longli County’s decorated dog Heizi, felt pressured to surpass Heizi—even post-retirement.

That’s why Huang Qiangmin specifically selected personnel from all sides to form this group.

He hadn’t said a single word in the group chat. Because as long as the right individuals were chosen, the competition would naturally emerge.

Even if the group appeared harmonious on the surface.

You Lixiang: [We’ve swept through the main street and found no clues. What about you?]

Zhang Zhicheng: [We’re also sweeping the main street. Found something, checked it out, then realized it wasn’t a real clue.]

Gaosong Qi: [Pretty much the same. We uncovered a brothel and arrested seven or eight sex workers.]

Liu Wenkai: [Were they good-looking?]

Gaosong Qi: [Decent. But why does that matter?]

Liu Wenkai: [If the women are too attractive, they wouldn’t match the profile of criminals driving a rundown van. So hotels with beautiful women shouldn’t attract van-driving traffickers.]

Gaosong Qi: [Makes sense. But after committing their crimes and making money, wouldn’t they still seek out women?]

Liu Wenkai: [This group seems very cautious. If they look for women, I doubt they’d do it in the crime location. They’re more likely to choose places like Changyang City—convenient and safe.]

Gaosong Qi: [You’re right. By the way, are you the leader of Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team?]

This time, Liu Wenkai didn’t respond.

After a long silence, suddenly another message popped up:

Gaosong Qi: [Why did Liu leave the chat just now? I was going to add him.]

Huang Qiangmin: [His work arrangements have changed; he’s been reassigned.]

Gaosong Qi: [That’s unfortunate. Was he a criminal investigator from Ningtai County too?]

Huang Qiangmin: [He used to be.]

Several hundred miles away, Liu Wenkai stared at the notification reading "You have been removed from the group chat," consumed by a lingering sense of confusion.

...

Jiang Yuan peered through a dusty window at the gray-toned world outside, his mood tinged with gloom.

He had already scouted four crime scenes but hadn’t found anything worthwhile.

Mu Zhiyang noticed his somber mood and turned to look back from the passenger seat. "These traffickers are kind of like gray mice, always skirting along the edges. But they can’t possibly remain hidden forever—we’ll grab them by the tail eventually. I feel like it’s close."

Wang Chuanxing chimed in supportively, "Six crime scenes—you usually see results by the fifth in TV dramas. It feels logical."

"You’re right. There should be findings at the next crime scene," Mu Zhiyang said to encourage Jiang Yuan.

"Hmm..." Jiang Yuan’s mood was only slightly downcast. Talking with them had already lifted his spirits. He even smiled and asked, "What if we don’t find anything?"

"If there’s nothing..." Mu Zhiyang gritted his teeth. "Then we’ll have to call on Director Xu Taining."

Wang Chuanxing couldn’t help but chuckle. "That’d be like a ’beacon fire to summon feudal lords.’"

Mu Zhiyang wasn’t as quick to catch the reference. "What does summoning feudal lords have to do with this? Is Captain Jiang supposed to be King Zhou?"

"Logically speaking, Captain Jiang ought to be Baosi," Wang Chuanxing joked, shrinking his neck back immediately and explaining himself to Jiang Yuan. "Captain Jiang, I’m just kidding around—it’s nonsense."

"Don’t worry. Relaxing a bit is good. Okay, after this round of site investigations, let’s stay back at the station and patiently wait for results from other directions. There’s still a lot of work ahead, and running around like this isn’t sustainable." Jiang Yuan rubbed his aching waist, feeling an intense weariness. Though he was young, fatigue had set in deeply—and the older team members were surely enduring even worse.

Wang Chuanxing and Mu Zhiyang had long been ready to stop running around. They caught each other’s eye and quickly agreed.

Compared to Jiang Yuan, their physical endurance was worse, and their workload heavier—they had more physical tasks and had been running continuously for days on end, utterly exhausted.

Jiang Yuan nodded at their reaction. "If you don’t object, let’s finish these last two investigations and then take a break."

"Hand the next steps over to other teams?" Mu Zhiyang twisted his body, feeling unaccustomed to the idea. "We haven’t been this passive before."

"Let the mice face their pursuers. Once we’ve rested up, we’ll catch the heads of the operation," Jiang Yuan clarified, reassuring himself as well.

After all, the chain of human traffickers was incredibly long. It wasn’t necessary to fixate on capturing its top leaders.

Of course, the leaders were undoubtedly the most valuable targets, but in Jiang Yuan’s mind, the priority was recovering the five kidnapped children. Achieving that might only require capturing the mid-level criminals—not necessarily the heads.

"I’m going to sleep for a bit." Jiang Yuan relaxed completely.

Previously, he had been accustomed to tackling cases solo—even when teaming up with other units, he insisted on being the primary force.

But this time, the traffickers’ rudimentary counter-detection methods proved startlingly effective.

The crime scenes were already sparse in evidence, and the group maintained an ongoing pattern of sticking to back routes. Inspecting the sites made it obvious—they were a hardened group, used to hardship. Substitute them with pampered white-collar criminals, and there’s no way they could sustain a few dozen kilometers per day, let alone weeks of intense work—it wouldn’t be worth the money.

Conventional forensic methods had failed, and even technical investigation yielded no useful clues. It wasn’t that they didn’t use mobile phones, but their dependency on them appeared low. Frequent changes of phones and numbers—or even refraining from carrying phones during crimes—were all plausible scenarios.

People like this were either exceptionally trained criminals or marginalized tough-as-nails individuals.

The latter, if decent people, might be labeled as the lower strata of society. If they were criminals, though, they’d just be called social outcasts—precisely fitting the profile of traffickers. However, in this day and age, such resilient outcasts were rare; those with both grit and execution capability, even rarer.

From people who endure hardship to those who exploit others’ hardships, sometimes, it’s just a fine line.

The fifth crime scene yielded no results either.

The sixth scene was also fruitless.

The police officers accompanying Jiang Yuan grew somewhat anxious, though Wang Chuanxing and Mu Zhiyang reassured them.

Wang Chuanxing: "Captain Jiang anticipated this would be the pattern with the case—it’s just an additional check to cover all bases. So, it’s no big deal if there are no leads."

Mu Zhiyang: "Think of Captain Jiang as Baosi—he’ll wake up from his sleep looking radiant."

The team naturally accepted Wang Chuanxing’s explanation. By the time Jiang Yuan announced the break and woke up rejuvenated, many couldn’t help wondering if Mu Zhiyang was indeed the Emperor’s closest confidant.

...

Yuwan City.

Two police officers shuffled into a Quanji Hotel with a tired demeanor, asking questions for some time before checking the surveillance footage. Leaving the hotel, their heads hung low once more.

Investigating a gray van from over a month ago was nearly impossible for a bustling hotel. Only after thorough questioning could definitive eliminations be made.

This created significant pressure for the officers conducting the knock-and-check routine.

"Call the boss," the older officer said, stretching lazily. "If today doesn’t pan out, let’s stop here. We’re worn out."

"Alright." The younger counterpart, similarly exhausted, picked up his phone and dialed.

After making the call, he habitually lit a cigarette to smoke. Halfway through, he remembered his partner but turned to find no sign of him.

He walked around for a hundred meters but still couldn’t see him anywhere. Now slightly anxious, his pace quickened into a jog. That’s when his partner’s voice reached his ears: "Over here!"

Looking in the direction of the shout, he saw his partner squatting behind a metal fence, tangled in overgrown weeds. Beyond the weeds lay a dirty-gray van.