National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 572 - 519 Chaos of War

Chapter 572: Chapter 519 Chaos of War

Everyone’s expressions grew complex.

Everyone understood that a chemical plant explosion was something that no party could tolerate.

Accidents like these in production were hard to bear, let alone a criminal case like this.

A tremendous pressure bore down on them, and even Jiang Yuan, who was skilled in every way, couldn’t simply dispel it.

"There was a time I didn’t go home for three months. When my wife called, as soon as I saw that phone number, I’d get this panic attack. My heart rate would be about the same as it is now—really," Yu Wenshu suddenly laughed, telling an anecdote that wasn’t exactly a joke.

Everyone forced a small laugh in response.

"Pull back the officers up front, leave two behind, get the surveillance set up, and let the snipers get into position," Yu Wenshu continued, issuing a string of commands, before adding, "Check the previous records to see what they stored in their warehouses."

Several people immediately sprang into action.

Yu Wenshu went on, "Later, let’s ask Yuan Jiansheng what he’s up to, and see if his demands are more absurd than my wife’s. You guys..."

He beckoned three more people over and whispered a set of instructions to them.

Seeing the methodical way that Chief Yu was handling the situation, everyone’s emotions gradually peeled away from fear.

Whether or not they trusted Chief Yu was one thing, but there was no doubt that when it came to handling such incidents, Chief Yu was the most experienced.

As for the others, seeing a sturdy figure taking the lead, they all bowed their heads and got down to work.

Working under pressure was like a required course for the police. Even the most routine beat cops could get scolded like dogs by upset elderly, middle-aged women, toyed around like dogs by young couples, or even chased by actual dogs...

Tackling such a major drug trafficking case, they were all prepared for danger and pressure. It’s just that many hadn’t expected the situation in Jianyuan to deteriorate so quickly.

The task force’s strategy of ’sitting on the fence and jabbing the pig’ appeared to be executed, and the pig looked to be bleeding profusely. However, no one anticipated the pig would suddenly pull out explosives and threaten to blow up both itself and the task force’s villa.

By any measure, this situation had gone beyond the scope!

Chief Yu turned back, called over Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui, and without discussing, asked, "Yuan Jiansheng has only one person with him; what about his family? And the gang members, you two find them."

Usually, Chief Yu was very courteous towards Liu Jinghui and Jiang Yuan, but today he was too anxious to care for such formalities.

Liu Jinghui nodded and moved back with Jiang Yuan, chuckling wryly, "The core mission hasn’t changed, just the timeline has gotten more urgent."

Mu Zhiyang had been following Jiang Yuan around, standing behind and listening to Chief Yu’s orders. He cautiously said, "It seems Chief Yu didn’t set a time limit either."

"Yuan Jiansheng is the time limit. If he becomes tired or can’t hold on, will he press the button? Or what if they’ve agreed on a time?"

"This..." Mu Zhiyang wanted to say that such a time limit was impossible to deal with.

But it was indeed true; crime does not aim for fairness, and certainly, Yuan Jiansheng was not about to tell a story like a noble thief.

Perhaps when his trigger point was reached, he wouldn’t even bother to laugh before pressing the button.

Liu Jinghui stroked his chin, no longer paying attention to Mu Zhiyang, as he entered rapid thought, muttering to himself, "I wonder how big the blast radius would be. If the radius is large, then maybe there’s still hope..."

Mu Zhiyang was shocked, "A large radius... that gives hope?"

"First off, Yuan Jiansheng orchestrating an explosion isn’t simply for venting rage. If it were just to vent, he would have blown it up already," reasoned Liu Jinghui, "Based on this, with Yuan Jiansheng currently in possession of explosives, he’s either looking to negotiate or cover someone else’s escape. No matter his reason, if the blast radius is big enough to cover half, or even most, of Jianyuan’s factory area, doesn’t that suggest that the person Yuan Jiansheng wants to protect is no longer within the range of the explosion?"

Mu Zhiyang was startled, "Now that you mention it..."

"There are many prerequisite conditions," Jiang Yuan had worked on many cases by now and knew that not everything could be judged by appearances. Even piling up probabilities was meaningless, as the most likely possibility did not necessarily equate to the truth. Crimes were often a stack of low-probability events.

Despite this, Liu Jinghui’s reasoning was very thorough and could be considered useful.

Liu Jinghui didn’t stop there; he continued, "The prerequisite condition that can be confirmed is that Chief Yu is already investigating the explosives. If the blast range of the explosives is small... If the range is large enough, we can eliminate a lot of possibilities. In fact, even if the blast range is small, I think we can still proceed as if it were a large range, considering this is a chemical plant; who can definitively state the extent of an explosion’s impact?"

Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but nod in agreement at this.

Indeed, during an explosion, the environment could trigger many reactions that wouldn’t normally happen, so even if a chemical expert were brought in, it would be difficult to ascertain the full impact range of a chemical plant’s explosion.

Better to estimate on the larger side.

Yuan Jiansheng probably had the same thought.

"With that said, we can first rule out the possibility that Yuan Yushan and the others are still within the plant area. With so many people, I doubt they could disguise themselves and leave with the workers," Liu Jinghui emphasized, "This point is crucial. Once we confirm they’re not among the workers, we can speed up the worker inspection and evacuate the people."

Liu Jinghui paused for a moment before continuing, "If they’ve already left, since yesterday, all the vehicles leaving the plant have been held back. That leaves only going to the heavens or into the earth."

He looked up at the sky and then at the ground.

In the distance, the horizon was lined with the massive pipelines characteristic of chemical plants, not just sprawling across the ground, but also mounted up to the second, even third-floor height, with diameters as large as one or two meters, noticeably conspicuous...

"The surface pipelines and underground sewers make digging tunnels needless," Liu Jinghui pointed forward, indicating the conclusion of his deduction.

Stories of people escaping through underground tunnels weren’t new to the police. Back when thieves were more common, many had gained experience, and after the stories of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, many lamented how the domestic urban construction was too backward every other day.

But now, the underground pipelines are all monitored by surveillance, so they’re obviously unsuitable for thieves’ regular paths, but for Jianyuan members to occasionally use them seems quite plausible.

"It’s indeed a possibility," Jiang Yuan didn’t deny the feasibility, and after thinking for a moment, added, "I’ll go check Yuan Jiansheng’s and Yuan Yushan’s offices and see if there can be any clues found there."

"Okay, I’ll check on how the interrogation room is doing," Liu Jinghui thought about how to gather intelligence, turned his head, and then asked, "Have the police dogs arrived yet? See if they can find anyone."

A police officer took the command and left.

Jiang Yuan called over Mu Zhiyang and Lu Tongda, thought about it, and also brought two members of the Bald Strike Team before heading out.

The office building was already full of police officers, so taking two people was already very safe, but considering this was still a drug trafficker’s office building, Jiang Yuan decided to bring two more people.

After all, another possibility was that Yuan Yushan and others hadn’t left but were hiding in a safe house somewhere inside the office building, waiting to slip out after some time had passed.

However, this method was still too passive. In theory, if such a safe house existed, surely others would know about it.

Furthermore, if the safe house was so secure that only Yuan Jiansheng knew about it, then it wouldn’t be worth setting off explosives; they might as well have moved in together.

Jiang Yuan treated Yuan Jiansheng’s office as a crime scene and began a new search.

Outside, the world was in turmoil.

Jiang Yuan had no choice but to continue his thorough search patiently. Yuan Jiansheng could certainly hold out for a while; the police had a certain response rate, and since Yuan Jiansheng hadn’t detonated the explosives immediately, it indicated he still had plans.

After inspecting Yuan Jiansheng’s office, Jiang Yuan moved on to investigate Yuan Yushan’s office.

Upon entering this office, Jiang Yuan just glanced around before a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.