Chapter 23: Your Eyes Are Too Sharp

The car stopped in front of a residential building.

"This is the place." Qian Cheng pointed to a window on the third floor:

"After the owner reported the case, our technical section arrived at the scene immediately. I was responsible for photographing and preserving the traces we extracted."

Qian Cheng even regretted telling the other party that he was from the technical section.

All the way here, he had been bombarded by Yu Dazhang with various questions, asking him about his judgment and investigation results regarding the crime scene from every possible angle.

Now he could confirm that this fat man had truly come to find clues.

"Do you have the crime scene investigation report?" Yu Dazhang asked.

"Yes, it's in the car."

As Qian Cheng spoke, he got out of the driver's seat, opened the rear door, and took a folder out of a cardboard box on the back seat.

Yu Dazhang also got out of the car. After seeing Qian Cheng take out the report, he waved at him:

"Come on, let's go upstairs with me."

Go upstairs with you? Qian Cheng almost dropped the report on the ground.

Does this fat man think he's my superior?

It was indeed me who suggested accompanying you, but you are the rookie, okay?

Even if we are going to see the crime scene, you should be following behind me.

Yu Dazhang walked a few steps, saw that Qian Cheng wasn't following, and urged again:

"Come on, don't dawdle."

He even complains that I'm dawdling... Qian Cheng's forehead veins bulged wildly, and he wanted to throw the report.

But for some reason, his legs seemed to have their own consciousness and obediently followed behind.

His brain said no, but his body was very honest.

He wanted to see what useful clues this fat man could still find.

If he can't find anything...

Heh heh~

Just wait to be insulted!

Arriving upstairs, Yu Dazhang followed Qian Cheng's guidance to a room that had been partitioned off.

This is a characteristic of Songhai rental housing: one house is divided into several single rooms, rented out separately to different tenants.

Compared to renting the whole place out, this allows the landlord to earn more rent, and some tenants with tight finances can rent cheaper rooms.

Killing two birds with one stone.

After all, it is a super-first-tier city where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold; low-income workers who want to live here can only rent these small partitioned rooms.

Yu Dazhang first glanced at this empty room of over ten square meters, then fixed his gaze on the single bed against the wall.

"After the body was removed, the bed wasn't touched, right?"

Investigating the scene is the technical section's job; Yu Dazhang wasn't particularly familiar with it, as each department has its own responsibilities and areas of expertise.

"Of course," Qian Cheng explained with a confident expression:

"The principle of scene protection is: maintain the original state and prevent any changes."

"The most basic requirement is that nothing can be added and nothing can be missing."

"Any facility at the scene could retain traces related to the crime."

Once the topic of scene investigation came up, Qian Cheng seemed to become a different person; his previous casualness vanished instantly, replaced by focus and seriousness.

"Then that's fine."

Yu Dazhang didn't argue with him, after all, the other party was a professional in this area.

Arriving in front of the bed, he crouched down, positioning his head and the bed at a ninety-degree angle, then started from the head of the bed and moved inch by inch toward the foot of the bed.

At the same time, his eyes observed every detail on the bed.

Qian Cheng stared at every move Yu Dazhang made, thinking this fat man was simply doing something unnecessary.

The investigation report is right here in my hands; you can just look at it directly.

Your actions right now clearly show that you don't trust the professionalism of our technical section!

After watching for a long while, Qian Cheng could no longer hold back.

"What are you looking for?"

"Don't speak for now."

Yu Dazhang raised his hand, signaling him not to make a sound and disturb him.

A while later, Yu Dazhang moved to the position at the foot of the bed and stayed there for two full minutes. It was as if something at the foot of the bed was attracting him, making it hard for him to leave.

But in Qian Cheng's eyes, there was clearly nothing at the foot of the bed.

"Show me the footprint extraction," Yu Dazhang stood up and turned to look at Qian Cheng.

"Oh, okay."

Qian Cheng quickly flipped the report in his hand to the specified page, then pointed to the picture on it and said:

"Based on the investigation and extraction, it is determined that all footprints at the scene were left by one person. Judging from these footprints, this person is an adult male and should be the suspect, Kong Lingjie."

After hearing this, Yu Dazhang nodded, then asked as if seeking confirmation:

"Are you sure there are footprints of only him?"

Qian Cheng was stunned by the question, not understanding what Yu Dazhang meant by asking this, but he still answered:

"There are footprints of another person at the entrance. After comparison and verification, it was confirmed to be the landlord's."

What's the use of confirming this... Qian Cheng became more and more confused by the questions.

He originally thought this fat man in front of him was pretending to be diligent, but looking at his serious expression, he didn't seem to be faking it.

Please... please... bookmark 6... 9... book.... bar....!

"Alright, next is your job."

Yu Dazhang gestured for Qian Cheng to come over to the single bed, then pointed to a spot slightly left of center at the foot of the bed:

"See that little black speck? Extract it and send it for testing."

"Where?"

Qian Cheng followed the direction of Yu Dazhang's finger, shifting to several different angles, but still couldn't see that little black speck.

"Right there, isn't it!"

Yu Dazhang was getting a bit anxious too.

These days, anyone can do criminal investigation — with eyes like that, and you still want to examine a crime scene?

Really holding things up.

"There's nothing there!"

Qian Cheng pressed his face almost against the foot of the bed and still couldn't see it.

"Look at my finger — right at the tip of my finger." Yu Dazhang extended one finger and gently pressed it against the bedsheet.

"I see it, I see it, ahhhhhh, it really is a little black speck. Your eyesight is way too good — you could even spot this."

Qian Cheng shouted excitedly.

He kept his face pressed against the bedsheet, like a child who had just spotted a favorite toy.

"At this distance I can barely make it out myself — it's almost blending into the pattern of the bedsheet. How did you spot it?"

This must be the legendary tech nerd... Yu Dazhang noticed that this Qian Cheng got especially excited whenever it came to anything professional.

At the same time, he also realized that compared to ordinary people, his eyesight wasn't simply a matter of seeing farther.

In observing the fine details of objects, he was also far superior to ordinary people.

"That's not important — hurry up and get to work."

Yu Dazhang simply ignored Qian Cheng's question; such a thing was genuinely hard to explain.

"Give me a moment."

After speaking, Qian Cheng quickly ran downstairs, and in no time at all came back up with an examination kit and a camera.

He took out his tools and finished the extraction, then placed the extracted material — now inside a glass container — back at the spot it had been.

After taking photos for the record, he stood up and gave Yu Dazhang a nod:

"All done. We'll have the test results by tomorrow noon at the latest."

Seeing Yu Dazhang looking thoughtful, Qian Cheng continued asking:

"Did you come here just to look for traces our technical division missed?"

Qian Cheng didn't think this was an oversight by the technical division.

Such a tiny black speck was already at the limit of what the naked eye could catch — even searching with a magnifying glass might not have found it.

This had nothing to do with professional skill anymore; it was purely a contest of who had sharper eyes.

"No." Yu Dazhang shook his head and denied it:

"Our starting points are different. What you look for are traces that already exist, but what I'm looking for..."

"... are traces that should have appeared, but didn't."

(End of chapter)