National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 617 - 561: Breaking Through the Ceiling

Chapter 617: Chapter 561: Breaking Through the Ceiling

"These past few days, I’ve been working overtime until 10 or 11 at night. Us police officers, we don’t mind working overtime, but overtime should be worthwhile, right? Not just working overtime for the sake of it. Even the cattle back in the village are only worked this hard during the planting season."

"For a day or two, it’s all trivial tasks, nothing pressing. When a mall holds an event, they even dispatch us to be there. To the uninitiated, we might as well be there to tear the place down. Is this how police resources should be used?"

"Moreover, no tasks are assigned during work hours; they wait until it’s time to knock off to assign work. Now, they don’t even go through Director Huang. He just created a WeChat group and allocates tasks directly. You don’t work overtime? Fine, but it counts as leave, and they dock your pay by the day. Everyone relies on their paycheck to live; who can bear this!"

Wu Junhao grew more and more irate as he spoke, grabbing a skewer, wolfing down two in one bite, then guzzled half a bottle of beer with grunts and gulps.

"Don’t get too upset," Jiang Yuan offered, pouring him more beer.

He was a little embarrassed. Chai Tong’s actual target, ostensibly Huang Qiangmin, was actually after Jiang Yuan. To be more precise, Chai Tong wanted the tax collection rights that Jiang Yuan had.

It was Jiang Yuan’s leave of absence that had led to Wu Junhao becoming Chai Tong’s new target.

However, the problem wasn’t caused by Jiang Yuan. Above him was Huang Qiangmin, who was in charge of resource allocation; it wasn’t Jiang Yuan’s place to stand in the line of fire.

Mu Zhiyang picked out two raw skewers, hung them over the grill, and after fanning the flames, said, "Your concern is understandable, Captain Wu. They are the directors after all, and lately, we really have had no choice but to grit our teeth and get on with the tasks we’re given."

"I know, Huang Da... erm, Director Huang also mentioned to me, they’re just trying to provoke me," Wu Junhao sighed. "Eventually, they’ll have their way with me, manipulating me as they please. But it feels like they’re already doing it now."

"True," Jiang Yuan nodded, grabbed a piece of meat skewer, gently chewed the meat off it with his teeth, and then crunched it with his molars.

The slightly lean meat released more juice, a savory taste with a hint of sweetness.

After finishing a skewer of meat, Jiang Yuan added, "What I’m best at is solving cases. If there’s a need in that aspect, I can be of help."

Wu Junhao nodded silently, "I can hold on for a little while longer. I’ll see how it goes. If it really doesn’t work out, I might have to slack off."

Slacking off isn’t that easy, especially when tasks are pressed down; they are usually assigned to the squad as a whole. If one person slacks off, the other colleagues in the unit have to take on more work...

In the following days, the atmosphere in the office was somewhat peculiar, but Chai Tong made no further adjustments. Apart from continuously pressuring Wu Junhao, the situation seemed to have eased somewhat.

Jiang Yuan took a week off and returned to the Criminal Police Team to report back from leave.

He had made some preparations but, unexpectedly, Director Chai didn’t show up all day.

It wasn’t until it was nearly time to clock out that Huang Qiangmin strolled up.

"Jiang Yuan." Huang Qiangmin only knocked on the door after entering the office, then promptly closed it behind him.

"Would you like some tea?" Jiang Yuan had a tea set on his desk, savoring the luxury of one cup of tea per office day.

"The tea is good," Huang Qiangmin acknowledged after taking a sip, then added, "Your pay won’t be complete this month."

Jiang Yuan responded with an "Oh," then realizing what it meant, asked, "Is the entire squad’s pay going to be incomplete?"

"Wu Junhao has been taking leave lately as well, and Director Chai has piled on so much work," Huang Qiangmin didn’t elaborate much but went on to explain the consequences, "Quite a bit is going to be docked. Wu Junhao relies on his salary to feed his family; a lot of people in our squad are like that. After this month, there will be some who get an earful from their wives."

Those referred to as the salaried class are those who live off their wages. Police officers are no exception. Many have probably budgeted their salaries well in advance, so any sudden shortfall would definitely hurt.

Jiang Yuan may have money but he couldn’t subsidize people like Wu Junhao.

Jiang Yuan then inquired, "So, what do we do?"

Huang Qiangmin also felt somewhat helpless as he spoke, "Really, if there’s an issue, come at me. No matter what, it’s fine. I didn’t expect Chai Tong would cling so relentlessly to Wu Junhao. If this continues, looking back on commendations and awards, distinguishing the outstanding performances, none will fall to the first squad..."

In the workplace, someone wealthy like Jiang Yuan, as long as he is indifferent and desireless, even if he slacks off, the leaders are powerless against him.

Faced with someone soft overcoming the hard, they could even frustrate and annoy the leaders.

On the other hand, men of steel like Wu Junhao, who are the economic pillars and heads of their families, and who dare to struggle and get things done at work, assigning them mindless repetitive labor or seeking out their shortcomings to give them work they’re not good at, like decorative arts, is not just unpleasant, it also causes them actual difficulties.

For young people with mortgages or children, a sudden cut in household income brings immediate pressure.

Take away all those little rewards and opportunities for recognition, and their prospects at work become worrisome.

Among Huang Qiangmin’s former subordinates, Wu Junhao was the most straightforward, the toughest, but also the most fragile.

"Director Chai has a pretty accurate eye." Jiang Yuan believed he must have been experienced.

Huang Qiangmin took a sip of his tea and said, "If you ask me what to do, I really have no good solution. Going to the higher-ups... that’s difficult, it’s not just Wu Junhao’s issue, the first squad all faces similar difficulties. Plus, carrying on this way isn’t a solution... For the moment... I’m considering, is there a way to give Wu Junhao and his team a case?"

"In Captain Wu’s name?" Knowing why Huang Qiangmin put it so tactfully, Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but laugh and said, "That shouldn’t be a problem. We handle cases for other places too, so why not for Captain Wu? What kind of case?"

"The case needs to be impactful, the kind that upper management notices. Also, it can’t be too small; it has to be big enough for the full squad to be deployed. I’ll work on it, try to get through this year." Huang Qiangmin pursed his lips, prepared to struggle, but he had not anticipated Director Chai would target the first squad.

The first squad was indeed Huang Qiangmin’s favored team. During his time in the criminal investigation department, the first squad had been the core attack team and had indeed played no small part. In any case, Huang Qiangmin needed to consider their feelings.

Jiang Yuan agreed immediately, "I’ll start looking at cases, try to find one that’s fairly certain."

"Right, that’s very important," Huang Qiangmin said, reassured yet still apprehensive.

Speaking of reassurance, he had followed Jiang Yuan and witnessed too many miracles, but on his apprehensions, after so many years as a police officer, Huang Qiangmin knew that some cases are unsolvable, truly a matter of chance, or simply too complex.

Typical examples include the Kennedy assassination. There’s so much evidence it could fill a lab, but what’s the conclusion? There are plenty of conclusions, but coming up with one that convinces everyone is nearly impossible, a case structurally difficult to conclude.

In China too, there are similar cases, like the assassination of Song Jiaoren. There’s plenty of evidence, the murderer was caught, but who masterminded it became unknowable after the assassin was silenced.

It’s not that political assassination cases are complex by nature; it’s because the investigation process and evidence for such cases are more public and transparent, highlighting the complexity.

All in all, no matter the size of the case, to do it perfectly, without fault, is far from easy. So-called ironclad cases are either a high-level commendation or just a derived adjective.

After seeing off Huang Qiangmin, Jiang Yuan turned on his computer and started looking through cases.

According to Huang Qiangmin’s intentions, he should find an influential case to counteract Director Chai’s offensive, where the difficulty of the case was also a consideration.

Yet, Jiang Yuan had additional thoughts on the matter.

After all, Huang Qiangmin’s understanding of Jiang Yuan might still be based on the Jiang Yuan from a few months ago, or to say, the amazing skills he could comprehend, up to Level 4 or at most Level 5, were his limit. But now, not only did Jiang Yuan master several Level 6 skills, he could also temporarily enhance their levels.

In other words, Jiang Yuan’s skill level had actually broken through the ceiling.

From this perspective, he could theoretically break through the limitations of any case with a technical breakthrough.

Jiang Yuan even recently acquired a first-class merit and could now choose a Level 6 skill on the spot.

Therefore, Jiang Yuan could be very selective about cases.