Chapter 139: Go Release the Person

Upon learning the importance of the matter, that team member immediately said solemnly:

"After the meeting, we'll go investigate right away."

Yu Dazhang nodded, then looked at the team members present:

"Everyone's clear on the current progress of the case, so let's all pool our ideas and discuss."

With so many experienced veteran criminal investigators here, Yu Dazhang trusted that each of them had their own investigative approach.

After a brief silence, one team member spoke first:

"Last night I pulled the road surveillance footage for the section in question."

"The van arrived at the section first; the body transport vehicle didn't show up until ten minutes later."

"Because the parking spot was in a surveillance blind spot, we couldn't see the footage of the two vehicles meeting up."

"Eighteen minutes later, the body transport vehicle reappeared and drove toward Qingpuer Academy."

"The van only reappeared within surveillance range five minutes after the body transport vehicle left."

Solving a case is like facing a tangled mess of threads — once you find one loose end, naturally someone will help you keep pulling it.

This team member's investigation was very targeted.

Using surveillance to track the suspect vehicle — if things go smoothly, they could find that van directly.

Yu Dazhang listened carefully to every word he said, afraid of missing any detail.

Seeing that no one raised any questions, that team member continued:

"That van headed south the whole way, left Qingpu District, and eventually turned onto a rural road."

"Since that stretch of rural road has no surveillance, we couldn't track the van's final location."

"It's a Jinbei minivan, with a cloned plate — already checked. The real owner drives a Nissan."

They really know how to play this game… Yu Dazhang rubbed his temples.

The rest goes without saying — the suspects switched vehicles.

On a rural road with no surveillance, they transferred the body to another vehicle, making it impossible to trace where the body ultimately went.

And the police could only end up finding that abandoned Jinbei minivan.

Since they used a cloned plate, it means from the very start they had no intention of driving the van off the rural road.

"Go find that van," Yu Dazhang said to that team member:

"Then have the traffic police department cooperate and look up the vehicle information."

Looking up vehicle information doesn't necessarily have to rely on the license plate number.

It can also be traced through the engine number and the VIN.

Once the car is found, the traffic police department has plenty of ways to look up that information.

He's watched plenty of movies… Yu Dazhang couldn't help but grumble inwardly.

Admittedly, the other side was clever — but only clever, nothing more. They were underestimating the police.

After agreeing, that team member asked one more question:

"Should we check the vehicles that passed through that rural road?"

"Well…" Yu Dazhang thought for a moment, then shook his head:

"Forget it, the workload would be too heavy."

With no information on the target vehicle and no specific departure time, going through surveillance one vehicle at a time would be far too exhausting.

And it would also be very hard to pinpoint that exact vehicle.

After all, surveillance doesn't have X-ray vision — it can't capture which car has a body inside.

This kind of brute-force method is only used when there's truly no other option at the very end.

"You said earlier the van left Qingpu District?" Yu Dazhang asked.

That team member immediately nodded and replied:

"That's right, that rural road is the only way out of Qingpu District."

Yu Dazhang quickly thought of another detail and asked carefully:

"Where does the direction the vehicle left toward lead?"

"Hongkou District." The team member answered readily — clearly he'd confirmed it earlier.

The only way out, Hongkou District… Yu Dazhang repeated silently to himself.

Since it's the only way out, once they came off the rural road, the next stop had to be Hongkou District.

Was there a chance they turned back?

There was, but the likelihood wasn't great.

If the destination was within this district, there'd be no need to go all the way out of the urban area to switch cars — any random township would do. Given how clever they were, they wouldn't pull such a pointless, stupid stunt.

And even if the vehicle went to Hongkou District, the police had no way to keep investigating.

Investigate and investigate, and it loops right back to Hongkou District… Yu Dazhang suddenly found it rather laughable.

Originally, he'd been seconded over from Qingpu Branch.

And now look — the trail leads right back there. Chances are Hongkou Branch will end up taking over the case.

After that, more team members spoke up, but they were all just analyzing around the existing clues — no new discoveries.

The discussion went on for twenty minutes. Seeing that no one had any leads, Yu Dazhang suggested adjourning.

One group would go to the hospital to investigate the doctor, another group would go to the rural road to find the van.

The rest would stay with Yu Dazhang on standby.

"Has the reporting person been released?"

Please... save.... 6... 9.... book.... bar....!

Yu Dazhang suddenly remembered that the duty officer who had taken the report had also been detained earlier.

"Not yet," one of the team members answered.

"Go release him now," Yu Dazhang ordered.

"We've already confirmed someone's behind this, so why keep holding him?"

Once the suspect is cleared, the person should be released immediately; continuing to detain him would mean wronging a good person.

In the nineties, there was a special period when the person who filed the report was kept as a backup.

Later, many cases were overturned, and many were just left to drop like that.

Why was it like this?

It was because of the habit of making military pledges.

"I give you ten days…"

What if the case couldn't be cracked?

There's an old saying: of two harms, choose the lesser; of two benefits, choose the greater.

This was the moment to make a choice.

Was it about keeping the job, or holding on to conscience?

And so…

Later, when the requirement for a complete chain of evidence came in, and a conviction could no longer be based on testimony alone, such things naturally became fewer and fewer.

Leaving the meeting room, Yu Dazhang went again to re-examine the surveillance footage from the morgue.

Anyway, there were no new leads at the moment, so he would keep looking for details in the surveillance.

Perhaps he might spot some clue or trace.

And this time, his mood while reviewing the footage was completely different from last time.

Last time, watching the surveillance had been a bit creepy.

Although Yu Dazhang didn't believe in ghosts and spirits, encountering one out of nowhere inevitably felt strange.

It's like watching a horror film — you know it's fake, but you're still scared.

This time was different; since he already knew it was a person in disguise, there was nothing to fear.

Sitting in front of the computer, Yu Dazhang opened the surveillance footage and first cued it up to the time point when the body had just been brought in.

This time, he fixed his gaze tightly on the white cloth on the body.

When it was being wheeled in, because of the bumps, the white cloth really did show no sign of rising and falling.

Only after the body had been pushed all the way into the morgue, and the duty officer had returned to the duty room outside.

"Impressive!" Yu Dazhang couldn't help exclaiming.

From the surveillance video, one really couldn't see anything unusual about the white cloth.

That was deliberate control of slow breathing.

With normal breathing, not only would the white cloth over the face move, but the chest area would also show obvious rise and fall.

Having guessed their method, Yu Dazhang couldn't help laughing.

How stifling that must have been~

(End of chapter)