National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 837 - 778: Practical Combat

Chapter 837: Chapter 778: Practical Combat

Jiang Yuan, Cui Qishan, and Liu Cheng, along with five stray dogs, shared a large pot of dog food and then dispersed, each satisfied with their meal.

Before leaving, the stray dogs nodded to Jiang Yuan and sniffed around Cui Qishan and Liu Cheng before contentedly leaving the central flowerbed of the residential complex to roam around their familiar haunts.

"You Jiang family folks have quite a bit of compassion," said Cui Qishan as he let out a contented belch. "Your dad likes cooking for people, and you like cooking for dogs."

"I only do it occasionally, as a way of fulfilling a wish," responded Jiang Yuan. He had received many legacies, but such a strong one as cooking dog food only occurred twice.

Once it was from the prostitute Chen Manli and another time from Professor Zhou Xiangyang.

To some extent, the legacy from Chen Manli was both heavy and passionate. So, like Chen Manli, Jiang Yuan would cook dog food when in a bad mood. The act of feeding stray dogs was a form of extreme self-identification as part of humanity, something that a police officer sometimes particularly needed.

However, Jiang Yuan’s frequency of feeding the dogs was too low and too random. To the stray dogs, Jiang Yuan might have seemed more like a Santa Claus-type myth.

The next day.

Huang Qiangmin showed up at the doorstep of Jiang Yuan’s home, carrying fried pancake wraps, dough sticks, and tofu pudding from the entrance of Ningtai First Middle School.

Both Jiang Yuan and Jiang Fuzhen were somewhat surprised.

Although it was common for goods to be sent over from Ningtai, it was the first time they had seen such a thoughtful gesture as the one from Huang Qiangmin.

Huang Qiangmin smiled proudly; this move was something he had learned from a certain entrepreneur.

"I happened to be coming to Beijing, so I brought some things along," Huang Qiangmin said with a light smile. Entering the room, he added, "You guys eat while it’s hot; just make some tea for me. I have some work later."

"What work?" asked Jiang Yuan as he placed the various foods on the table before grabbing a fried pancake wrap and tofu pudding for himself, quite excited.

In his heart, Huang Qiangmin thought, my main job in making this trip was to appease you.

Of course, Huang Qiangmin did have actual work to attend to.

Sitting next to Jiang Yuan and seeing that Jiang Fuzhen was happily taking his tofu pudding and soy milk to the dining room, Huang Qiangmin smiled apologetically and then said, "I’ve come to see a real-world operation of a surveillance vehicle they have here."

"A Beijing Bureau surveillance vehicle?" asked Jiang Yuan as he scooped up a mouthful of spicy tofu pudding, its smooth and tender texture coupled with complex seasoning instantly awakening the taste buds.

Foods suitable for breakfast were like the taste champions of a place. Ordinary people usually chose only one or two, maybe three varieties for breakfast. To be able to enjoy eating the same one or two dishes over and over and still find them delicious, places high demands on the food.

From this perspective, morning porridge or rice noodle rolls in Guangzhou, spicy soup in Henan, rice noodles in Guangxi and Hunan, and the fried pancake wraps in Tianjin are regions with very characteristic foods, carrying the banner of tradition. Beijing with its fermented mung bean juice seems to have given up on treatment somewhat.

Huang Qiangmin slurped his tea and said, "Yes, they’ve gotten a new batch of surveillance vehicles. They say we can have one for a price of 7 million."

"That expensive?" exclaimed Jiang Yuan in surprise.

"It’s probably worth five or six million at least. The stuff is good, but indeed, it’s also very expensive," said Huang Qiangmin, extending an invitation to Jiang Yuan. "Come take a look with me; if it’s not worth it, we won’t take it."

"Okay," agreed Jiang Yuan, quickening his pace of eating.

Criminal Police Brigade.

Beijing Bureau technologists had already arrived and were exchanging thoughts with the technologists from Ningtai County in a corner.

It’s said that technologists worldwide are one family. They communicate very well with one another and have their own ways of interacting. As for how exactly they communicate, Jiang Yuan didn’t know the details.

Even for ordinary police officers, the Technical Surveillance Unit is like a black box: they can input questions and receive results, but the specific process within is unknowable.

Jiang Yuan wasn’t actually curious and just waited patiently.

Meanwhile, Wu Junhao and Liu Wenkai had also arrived from Beijing. The technical surveillance vehicle worth several million yuan was unheard of not just in Ningtai County, but also in Qinghe City. Naturally, everyone was eager to see it.

"Come on over, Commissioner Huang, Captain Jiang is here too. Have a seat, and take a look at the case that Old An has picked out for you," said Tao Lu, signaling the start of the formal exchange.

After Tao Lu’s introduction, An Xibing from the equipment department brought over some case files. He laid them in front of Huang Qiangmin, Jiang Yuan, and the others, smiling as he said, "The case I’ve picked for today was just filed three days ago. Commissioner Huang wanted to do a demonstration, so we asked our colleagues from technical and criminal investigation to select a case. This is the one we chose, and we began the investigation on the same day..."

An Xibing’s main purpose was to clarify that there was no deception involved, although some pre-operation was inevitable. Once he made that clear, he asked the case officer to come over and explain.

The case officer was an officer from the Zhengguang Bureau. He saluted and presented his report formally:

"...This case involves a home burglary... In one night, the perpetrator burglarized six households, all in the same apartment building in the same complex. The stolen items include over forty thousand yuan in cash, eighteen pieces of gold and silver jewelry, three mobile phones, one iPad, one pair of women’s silk stockings, four pairs of men’s sneakers—all collector’s Air Jordan models—and fifty-seven figurines, valued at 80,000 yuan."

The officer paused after explaining the case in one breath and looked at Jiang Yuan and Tao Lu before continuing, "The crime scene investigation has been completed. The criminal entered the victims’ homes by climbing the drainage pipes and accessing their balconies. Considering that six households were burglarized on the same night and the quantity of the stolen items, we suspect the culprit is a habitual offender. Therefore, we first considered the possibility of a series of linked crimes..."

After the case officer finished outlining the situation and progress of the investigation, An Xibing stood up with a smile and said, "We basically have a clear picture of this case. Next, we can start discussing the direction of the investigation."

Everyone laughed and stayed silent, waiting for An Xibing to show off his skills. Only Jiang Yuan watched more seriously.

His nature was always cautious. On the other hand, as the reputation of "Ningtai Jiang Yuan" grew, Jiang Yuan himself became increasingly mindful of his own influence.

This was also something that Huang Qiangmin had admonished him about numerous times. If, like others, he casually passed the case files along, and people later said, "This is evidence reviewed by Jiang Yuan," how would he explain that?

An Xibing obviously didn’t expect Jiang Yuan to read through such a lengthy case file, so he invited another officer to join them.

"I’m from Technical Surveillance," said the newcomer with a chuckle. "Let me discuss our solution."

He glanced around at everyone, then at Jiang Yuan, before continuing, "In typical burglary cases, we often rely on footprints, fingerprints, and the like to solve the case, or even better, surveillance footage. This case had footprints but no fingerprints or surveillance, so we chose to prioritize locking onto mobile phone signals."

The technical investigator continued: "We initially searched for mobile phone signals but did not find any suitable suspects. We suspect that the criminal planned ahead and turned off his phone before committing the crime. Consequently, we chose to reverse engineer the process and listed mobile users who turned off their phones after 10 p.m. and turned them back on after 4 a.m. as suspects."

"In the base station range of the complex on the day of the incident, there were two individuals who displayed this behavior. One had a criminal record, and the other was a high school student who secretly got up to play on his phone at night. Home surveillance proved he was still doing homework at 12:30 a.m., and thus was ruled out."

"With that, we focus on the male with a prior record for a detailed investigation. We found he was highly suspect of the crime. Next, we need to ascertain his exact location. Traditionally, we have many options, but today, we’ll choose to deploy the technical surveillance vehicle to directly find the location of the mobile phone used by this man. Let’s board the vehicle."

After concluding, the technical investigator beckoned everyone onto a Coaster bus while he himself got into a van styled like a technical surveillance vehicle. Along with a police car, the three-vehicle convoy set off.

On the Coaster, Wu Junhao exclaimed, "They’re pretty swift and efficient."

"Well, of course. Deploying the technical surveillance vehicle even once can cost some places up to ten thousand yuan," Huang Qiangmin remarked enviously.

"Ten thousand yuan for what?" Wu Junhao didn’t quite understand.

"Some places, like X location, have bought technical surveillance vehicles, and they find them expensive. If police from other areas come over and need to use the technical surveillance vehicle, they charge ten thousand per deployment; Beijing’s counties have to pay up without exception," Huang Qiangmin explained with a sigh, "I don’t have the nerve to do that. Even if I had a technical surveillance vehicle, I wouldn’t dare charge. At most, I’d lend it out to people from other areas."

"They’re definitely charging too much; that’s the price of six chickens right there," Liu Wenkai shook his head.

"The technical surveillance vehicle is loaned out for a day," Huang Qiangmin’s gaze flicked towards Liu Wenkai as if to say: What nonsense are you spouting?

Liu Wenkai defensively replied, "I’m talking about renting it for the whole night too."