National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 524 - 524 482 Licking the Room

524: Chapter 482 Licking the Room 524: Chapter 482 Licking the Room The drug trafficking situation in some regions of China remains incredibly severe, so much so that the armed police at highway checkpoints carry glaring long guns.

On the other side, drug dealers in the cities generally keep a low profile, like rats living underground, only startling people on rare occasions, and not appearing within the view of the general public.

Even for criminal investigation teams, if they don’t develop special informants, it’s common to have no drug-related cases to report when it’s time to complete their tasks.

Therefore, the detectives from Changyang City were slightly excited upon hearing information about drug traffickers.

Bai Jian, however, couldn’t care about that and immediately said, “The focus of this case still lies in the murder.

We currently have two main directions for investigation.

First, we need to uncover as much as possible about Wang Xingzhai’s network of social relationships.

Second, Wang Xingzhai should have at least two mobile phones, probably registered under different names, which we also need to find.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Nowadays, mobile phones, in a sense, have taken on the properties of their owners.

Through mobile phones and verification codes, one can almost modify and control all of a person’s information, as well as their channels of communication with the outside world.

With the help of the Network Security Brigade, it was easy to secure the information of the mobile phone number registered under Wang Xingzhai’s name, including text messages, as well as information within chat applications like WeChat, Momo and Tantan.

The contents were basically sexting…

Regarding Wang Xingzhai’s consumption patterns, he must have some source of income.

If Wang Xingzhai really was a drug trafficker, then him having a second or third phone wouldn’t be surprising at all.

If they could find his other mobile phones, the case would relatively be easier to solve.

Seeing that everyone agreed, Bai Jian immediately began assigning tasks.

Jiang Yuan volunteered to go to Wang Xingzhai’s home for investigation.

Crime scene investigation was originally his forte, and as for other tasks like investigating hotels, looking for prostituting females, or checking night clubs for “hot chicks” and “rich brothers” based on WeChat contacts, Jiang Yuan wasn’t that interested, so he left those to others.

Renheng Binhu.

The landlord of the apartment rented by Wang Xingzhai arrived earlier than the officers and stood in front of his property, not daring to enter.

The officers had already alerted him with a phone call, and the middle-class with assets, as always, were quite obedient.

Mu Zhiyang asked a few routine questions, took a simple statement, and then came to report to the neatly dressed Jiang Yuan, saying, “The landlord doesn’t seem to be a problem.

He’s an employee of a local state-owned enterprise.

Four years ago, he sold the welfare house allocated by his previous employer and bought a new one from Renheng, rented it out after renovations for 180,000 yuan a year.

That’s higher than my salary!”

“The rental yield here is quite good,” Jiang Yuan commented with a professional eye.

Mu Zhiyang, remembering Jiang Yuan’s background, abruptly stopped the complaint that was almost blurted out, cleared his throat twice, and said, “Wang Xingzhai probably only intended to live here a year.

After visiting night clubs, he would go to hotels, and only a few familiar bed buddies were brought over.

It’s likely that he would have moved somewhere else after breaking up.”

“If his identity is confirmed, without the hassle from bed buddies, he would also change places intermittently,” Tang Jia, who was originally from Changyang City’s police force, also came to the scene.

Jiang Yuan just nodded and then allowed the residential community’s security guards to act as witnesses.

He himself, accompanied by two Changyang City trace evidence investigators, began the crime scene investigation.

The home of a bachelor, at first glance, appeared to be quite simple.

A bachelor who remains single six times a week is also a bachelor.

Wang Xingzhai also employed a domestic helper, but that was mainly for sweeping and mopping floors, tidying things up, nothing more.

Toothbrushes and combs in the bathroom easily yielded DNA, and bedsheets, floors, and nightstands were also the focus of the search.

Jiang Yuan also carefully wiped down all the hanging cabinets.

His work was slow, his markings precise, which to the other two trace investigators seemed a bit too meticulous and time-consuming.

Jiang Yuan wasn’t phased.

He didn’t come from a traditional forensic background nor had he been guided by a forensic master.

His approach was purely technical thinking, or rather, he relied on strong technique, a flurry of standard attacks, and because of his high output, even the trace investigators following him, with ten or twenty years of experience and special techniques, could only silently follow suit without speaking.

They said nothing and had no desire to talk.

A blitz might sound somewhat weak, but carpet bombing is a bit more impressive.

When Jiang Yuan conducted his forensic investigation, it was akin to carpet bombing, sweeping from start to finish, with no technique, no emotion, just pure output after output.

This was something ordinary forensic investigators found challenging to achieve; they couldn’t keep up with the efficiency and actually lacked the meticulousness—what Jiang Yuan did to one wardrobe, what he sampled, might take a level 2 forensic investigator covering an entire two-bedroom apartment.

In addition, it would require the cooperation of a laboratory.

Jiang Yuan worked on serious and cold cases, where multiple times the normal demand for testing is quite standard.

Naturally, an average forensic investigator wouldn’t have such clout.

It took Jiang Yuan just over four hours to complete a sweep through Wang Xingzhai’s home.

Before leaving, Jiang Yuan stopped and called the landlord over, asking, “I remember you said that after the renovation, it was rented to Wang Xingzhai and there were no previous tenants, right?”

“None.”

“The dining table and chairs in there seem to show quite a bit of wear,” Jiang Yuan pointed out, referring to a table with six chairs.

The dining area was connected to the living room, with the kitchen right next to it.

The table was positioned lengthways, backed up to the kitchen.

There were three chairs on one side, adjacent to the living room, which were very conveniently placed and could be used at any time.

The side against the kitchen was a bit more cramped—in case there were no guests, the two chairs furthest in would likely go unused.

However, the two outermost chairs at the table clearly appeared to be frequently used, with significant dragging marks on the chair backs and legs, which were also one of the focuses of Jiang Yuan’s earlier evidence collection.

It was probably due to Wang Xingzhai’s daily dining habits.

But the innermost chair also showed excessive signs of use, which was a bit illogical unless Wang Xingzhai had a particular favorite posture that often required the aid of a chair—even so, to frequently use the innermost chair was a bit too peculiar…

Concerned only about his own involvement, the landlord glanced over and quickly said, “The dining table and chairs were bought by himself.

The kitchen and dining room stuff, they were all brought by him.”

“Take them out and examine them again,” Jiang Yuan signaled the camera to move forward and keep filming.

When the two innermost chairs were taken out, it was clear that the inner chair had been used more frequently.

While the middle chair still had some frayed edges, the legs of the inner chair were already worn.

During the earlier evidence sweep, Jiang Yuan and his team had noticed this, but after careful observation, they found no issues and conjectured that it might be due to changing the positions of the chairs, without looking too deeply into it.

However, after scouring the four-bedroom, two-living-room house and finding nothing illegal, it was time to circle back and start suspecting the earlier minor discrepancies, like this set of table and chairs.

Two trace investigators, along with Mu Zhiyang and three others, turned the chairs over and studied them for several minutes, but they did not find any hidden compartments or mechanisms.

“Seems like nothing’s wrong?” One of the trace investigators, after twisting and turning the chair, decided it was time to give up.

In the meantime, Jiang Yuan was also observing the marks on the chairs, growing more and more convinced something wasn’t right.

Without attempting to locate any mechanisms himself, he simply said, “Split it open.”

Some devices are so cleverly disguised that even high-level trace investigators may not be able to find them.

Not to mention the intricate and beautiful woodwork of ancient China, just take a child-proof pill bottle or a Listerine mouthwash bottle; many people would struggle for minutes unable to figure out the correct way to open them.

For more sophisticated devices, like certain special models of Zippo lighters, it’s normal for someone unfamiliar with them to fumble around for a long time without knowing how to light them.

But a search is not simply a game of puzzles; it’s a truly open-world game.

If Jiang Yuan felt something was off with the chair, he could split it open to look inside.

The best outcome would be finding something; if not, then so be it—it wouldn’t matter.

It’s harder to say for modern units with a positive image, but back in the day, whether it was the Japanese military, the puppet soldiers, or spymasters conducting searches, they did much the same.

One of the trace investigators fetched a chisel for trace evidence and with a few cracks, smashed open one of the chair’s legs.

It was empty.

Without a word, he continued to smash the second leg.

With a crack, the leg split open, revealing a metal structure inside and more significantly, several bags of white pills.

“Take pictures, collect evidence, make a call,” Jiang Yuan ordered, feeling a touch of relief.

At least there was some payoff.

From his perspective, this indicated that the murderer’s main cover-up effort was indeed on hiding the body; once the body was found and the source confirmed, the erasure of upward-tracing clues wasn’t as meticulous.

At the same time, the system page updated again:

Mission Progress: 352/X

It had increased by two points since Jiang Yuan last checked.

Jiang Yuan’s gaze towards the two trace investigators softened quite a bit.

The two trace investigators were filled with high spirits and excitement.

The investigator holding the chisel even showed off a bit of flair, taking it as a new discovery that pleased the leader and recognition of his own professionalism.