National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 348 - 348 315

348: 315 348: 315 “Captain Jiang, wait a bit after work; I have something to tell you.” Tang Jia whispered as she walked past Jiang Yuan, her hair brushing against him before she quickly moved away.

“What…” Jiang Yuan started to say but she was already far away.

12 noon.

Officers with nothing pressing gradually said their goodbyes and headed home.

After a big case, everyone would typically feel justified in taking leave or finishing work early.

Although this big case hadn’t taken much time, effort, or late-night overtime, the habit persisted.

Jiang Yuan also got up to leave.

Tang Jia would naturally text him if it was important; he wasn’t really going to wait for her to finish work.

When he arrived at the underground parking lot, right by his car, he heard a “Wow” shout.

Tang Jia emerged lively, dancing around and stretching, showing off her figure.

“I’ve learned wrestling,” Jiang Yuan said, stopping a few steps away.

“Me too, I’ve even done Greco-Roman wrestling.

Want to practice together?” Tang Jia challenged, unafraid.

Greco-Roman wrestling is the kind where you grapple and go for the groin; if men and women practiced together, the gym would likely close down quickly.

“I do freestyle.” Jiang Yuan immediately chickened out and suspected Tang Jia was showing off her tea art prowess.

He asked, “You didn’t find me just to show off your skills, did you?”

“Captain Jiang, you won’t get a girlfriend if you talk like that.

Forget it, I brought you something; help me with it,” Tang Jia said, pointing towards the elevator area.

Jiang Yuan followed and saw Wang Chuanxing, Shen Yaowei, and Miao Liyuan each pushing a flat cart.

The carts were piled with several cardboard boxes.

“These are all community-police cooperation gift packages sent by various units, along with some small gifts.

Captain Yu personally ordered these to be picked out for you,” Tang Jia explained and added, “It’s all inexpensive stuff that we also get for holidays.

Captain Yu said to give you all of this year’s share.”

“This batch is from the Public Security Brigade,” Shen Yaowei said.

“And the Image Investigation team’s Captain Changsun sent some too; he also wants you to come over and provide guidance when you’re free,” Miao Liyuan said.

“I’m not qualified to give guidance to other brigades.

Don’t find me more trouble every day,” Jiang Yuan said, channeling his Jiang Village big brother demeanor to cut off Miao Liyuan’s persuasive talk.

Tang Jia hurriedly said, “What I brought represents Captain Yu’s regards, and doesn’t break any rules.

Mainly, Captain Yu thought about how long it’s been since you went home and that you ought to bring back some things for friends and family, warming relationships.”

She opened the top few boxes and said, “Look, there are nuts, Wang Wang snacks, candies, chocolates, and also face masks, gloves, towels…”

The others opened their boxes as well, saying similar things.

Jiang Yuan: “This is too much…

one box is enough for me.”

“Captain Jiang, at least one box per person,” Shen Yaowei said quickly.

“It’s just a small gesture so you can take it home and show your family our regard.

There’s no other meaning.”

Jiang Yuan didn’t listen, checked the top box of gifts from Captain Yu, picked it up, and left.

“What about the rest?” Tang Jia asked quickly.

“Return everything.

I’ll call Chief Yu later.”

“Don’t forget to call Chief Yu, he said he’s available 24/7,” Tang Jia said.

Jiang Yuan grunted in agreement, suddenly feeling like a lady from an ancient wealthy family who had been sold off but still had a scholar pining for her, occasionally sending little gifts through the back garden.

However, the suggestion Tang Jia made about the little gifts was actually pretty good.

Jiang Yuan felt no remorse taking Yu Wenshu’s gifts.

When he got back to Jiangcun Residential Area, he started from the local grocery store, handing out candy bags to any kids he saw.

As for those who said their kids don’t eat sweets, the Jiang Village People wouldn’t concern themselves with that.

The children were quite happy with the treats.

Soon, a group of kids gathered around Jiang Yuan, rapidly dividing up the entire box of snacks and various items, then disappeared without a trace.

For Jiang Yuan, this was like completing a session of relationship building; in less than half an hour, the whole neighborhood knew he was back and had brought gifts.

In fact, it took less than ten minutes before the neighborhood’s surveillance system broadcasted his return on several large screens around the community.

Only inside the area did Jiang Yuan notice that around the property management’s monitoring room four 100-inch screens had been set up, currently showing various surveillance points of the community entrance, including the gate, wall top, and several key street views.

In the center of the space, the village elders were exercising while watching the screens around them, occasionally pointing out and scrutinizing the appropriateness of those captured by the cameras.

Jiang Yuan felt dizzy watching it all and couldn’t help asking Xiang Geng who came to greet him, “Is this even legal?”

“Of course, it’s legal.

We only record the front gate surveillance, and these street views, which are also our community’s fire access routes,” Xiang Geng said in a low voice.

“This was the third uncle’s idea, otherwise people would have to come to the monitoring room every day to check.”

“You’re not looking at it now?” Jiang Yuan couldn’t believe it; he grew up eating meals at every household in Jiang Village and was all too familiar with these uncles and aunts.

Xiang Geng chuckled, “Nowadays, people just come in to check if the screens are synchronized.

After coming a few times, most people can’t be bothered to come again.”

Jiang Yuan made a noncommittal grunt, said no more, and prepared to go back to persuade Uncle Three even though there wasn’t much point in talking to Xiang Geng, who was just doing his job.

Since he was already there, he strolled around the monitoring room, saw that everything was working normally, and then went home.

Along the way, he was greeted in various ways.

The atmosphere in Jiang Village now was different from before.

When Jiang Yuan was a kid, following his dad from house to house for meals sometimes meant getting the cold shoulder.

But after three rounds of demolition, harmony within the village had improved to an unprecedented level.

Plus, Jiang Yuan and his father had jumped to the top of the social ladder, so now the villagers mostly greeted them with smiles.

Jiang Yuan could still recall some villagers’ expressions from those days, but he rarely did.

Those gathered here were just ordinary folks from Jiang Village, many of whom were no more than a backdrop.

Jiang Fuzhen continued working in the kitchen as always, but unusually, it was filled with relatives, at least a dozen of them.

“Dad,” Jiang Yuan called out as he entered, which finally got Jiang Fuzhen’s attention.

“Oh, you’re back so soon?

I thought it would be a few more hours.

Didn’t you have afternoon work?” Jiang Fuzhen said, wiping his hands and coming over, no longer paying attention to the others.

Jiang Yuan responded with an “Mhm” and said, “Finished a case, and the boss even gave me some stuff.

I kept a bag of pine nuts, gave the rest away…”

As he spoke, Jiang Yuan took out a tin of pine nuts and handed it to his father.

“That’s great, that’s great.” Jiang Fuzhen happily accepted it, popped open the lid, tasted one, nodded, and said, “Tastes good.

Uncle Three called people over for a meeting, there’s an election coming up in a few days, and we need to discuss how to handle it.”

At that moment, Uncle Three beckoned and called out, “Jiang Yuan is back, perfect for joining the discussion.

You’re grown up now, and it’s time for you to get involved in the election.”

Uncle Three had always hung around Jiang Fuzhen, mainly because Aunt Three’s cooking was terrible, which forced him to find alternative options.

Uncle Three was also the relative who most often brought food to Jiang Fuzhen and Jiang Yuan, and they had a pretty good relationship.

Jiang Yuan acknowledged him and walked into the kitchen, offering, “What do you need me to do?”

“You’re the young one here.

You tell us, which of these two cell phones would be a better gift?” Uncle Three took out two shiny, top-end flagship phones.

Jiang Yuan’s eyelids twitched as he said, “Uncle, this seems illegal.”

“What’s illegal about an uncle giving village folks a little gift?” Uncle Three laughed and then added more seriously, “What if the other side gives gifts?”

“With such a large amount, it could land you in jail,” Jiang Yuan said, his tone growing serious as well.

“Yeah, that’s what Jiang Yuan said, right!” Uncle Three’s voice suddenly rose, “Just tell him what Jiang Yuan said.

If he wants to go to jail, let him go.

It wouldn’t be the first time our Jiang Yuan sent someone to jail.”

The few people in the kitchen immediately became agitated.

Jiang Yuan quietly left the kitchen area.

Uncle Three’s dog also crawled out from under the feet of the crowd.

The atmosphere in the kitchen was too heated for both people and dogs.

…

The next day.

Jiang Yuan was squatting on the balcony, loosening the soil and watering the winter melons.

Planting winter melons at LV3, when you think about it, was quite a formidable skill.

So even if the season wasn’t quite right, with a bit of high-tech help, the winter melons were growing well.

He was still engrossed in his balcony farming when the doorbell rang.

“Jiang Yuan, you can farm?” The visitors turned out to be Shen Yaoguo and Shen Yaowei.

Shen Yaowei still looked rather dandy, but wore a sweet, compliant smile.

Shen Yaoguo, being older, simply smiled steadily.

“Chief Shen,” Jiang Yuan stood up in slight surprise.

“Yes, it’s about a case, I wanted to have a chat with you,” Shen Yaoguo walked into the balcony and casually sat down on a stool.

Jiang Yuan hesitated for a moment before sitting down, asking, “What case?”

“Ah…

this…

I’ll just come straight out with it.

There’s a case I handled before that was never solved.

So I was thinking, if you don’t have plans for your next case, maybe you could take this one on,” Shen Yaoguo said more smoothly as he went on.

“Hmm…

why?” Jiang Yuan asked the reason before inquiring about the case itself.

In his view, the fact that Shen Yaoguo was seeking him out at his home in Ningtai County was out of the ordinary.

The directness of the request evidently indicated it was not business as usual.

“Jiang Yuan is quite sharp,” Shen Yaoguo forced a compliment before continuing, “It’s a case I botched in the past, and now thinking back, I’m worried it might have some lingering effects.

It would be best if we could solve it.”