Chapter 245: Another Use for the Sketch Artist

Xia Bin had prepared long ago.

Seeing Yu Dazhang call him, he stood up and walked over.

"Sit here and take your time looking."

Yu Dazhang gave his seat to Xia Bin, and after waiting for him to sit, pointed at the computer screen and said:

"The suspects on these nine images are from different time periods."

"Look carefully to see if there are any changes in his physique during different time slots, and sort them according to the degree of change."

What he said might not be fully understood by Ma Jian and Ye Zhiyu, but Xia Bin could grasp the meaning.

The title "human camera" is not given for nothing.

When it comes to observing people, no one is more meticulous than a criminal sketch artist.

It is no exaggeration to say that not a single tiny detail on a person escapes their eyes.

Many people have artistic talent.

But very few can achieve "extreme subtlety."

Freezing a person in a single glance and memorizing every detail in the brain is the terrifying aspect of a criminal sketch artist.

It is also the reason why there are so few people in this profession.

After hearing Yu Dazhang's words, Xia Bin merely nodded, then immediately focused his attention on the computer screen.

Without even a transition, he switched directly into a state of concentration, observing the images on the screen with total focus.

Afraid of disturbing him, Yu Dazhang turned and walked to the door.

Before stepping out, he waved to Ma Jian and Ye Zhiyu.

The moment the three of them stepped outside, Xia Bin's eyes remained fixed on the images on the screen, never leaving them.

Outside, Yu Dazhang took out a pack of Huazi and handed one cigarette to each of them.

He intended to smoke one himself, but after bringing the cigarette to his lips, he put it down again.

This stuff, once you smoke the first one, you'll want a second, and after that it's hard to quit.

Especially for someone like Yu Dazhang who already had a smoking habit.

"It has to be this cigarette; one puff is one puff, it's just so good to smoke."

Ye Zhiyu took two drags, looking thoroughly enjoying it.

"What about the cigarettes I gave you earlier? Why haven't I seen you take one out to smoke?" Yu Dazhang asked.

Earlier, he had given Ye Zhiyu a carton of Huazi.

But Ye Zhiyu still smoked his Changzheng brand, costing only a few yuan per pack.

"If I get married in the future, that carton of cigarettes will be the wedding cigarettes for my wedding."

Ye Zhiyu squinted his eyes and exhaled a cloud of smoke with a look of pure contentment.

He was almost driven mad by poverty... Yu Dazhang looked at him speechlessly, truly not knowing what to say.

Some people are really like this; even with good cigarettes, they can't bear to smoke them themselves.

They keep them at home to serve guests when visitors arrive, or to save face when holding family events.

"What do you plan to do next?" Ma Jian asked.

In such a short while, the cigarette in his hand was nearly finished, showing how irritable his mood was at that moment.

"This is just the beginning." Yu Dazhang smiled, looking very relaxed:

"Keep your mindset steady, don't be affected by the deadline set by the leadership. Rest assured, I won't wait until the deadline ends."

Hearing this, Ma Jian's eyes immediately lit up:

"You are confident you can solve the case within a month?!"

"You are overthinking it." Yu Dazhang glanced at him:

"What I mean is, if it really doesn't work out, I'll take you back to Songhai. Losing face would be losing face here in S Province; at worst, we just never come back to this area again."

Ma Jian was stunned by these words.

Go back to Songhai?

Wouldn't that make us deserters?

But then again...

This really is a good plan.

From Songhai's perspective, Yu Dazhang's backlog task force was originally there to assist with the case; even if the case isn't solved, it has no impact.

Thinking of this, Ma Jian suddenly widened his eyes and looked at Yu Dazhang in disbelief.

No wonder the provincial department leaders didn't remove Ding Feng's special task force; they were actually leaving a way out for Yu Dazhang.

If the case is solved within a month, everyone is happy.

If the case isn't solved, let Yu Dazhang withdraw to Songhai, and Ding Feng will continue the investigation. Regardless of the outcome, it won't affect Yu Dazhang and the others.

This one-month deadline is actually the time given for the Songhai colleagues to withdraw.

What shocked Ma Jian was that Yu Dazhang had actually guessed the leaders' intentions long ago and seen the escape route they left for him.

"No need to make a big deal out of it."

Seeing Yu Dazhang's slightly strange look, he smiled and said:

"We'll just do our best. Even if we have to return to Songhai, I will first seek the opinions of the leaders on both sides."

Just as they were speaking, the office door opened, and Xia Bin stood inside, saying to Yu Dazhang:

"Done."

So fast... Yu Dazhang had thought it would take him at least an hour to finish.

Who would have thought it would be finished in the time it takes to smoke one cigarette.

Once inside, Xia Bin pointed at the image on the computer screen and said:

!

"Nine images. I divided them into three groups, three per group."

"Judging from the build and posture, the suspect's body is gradually losing weight. It's not obvious, but you can still tell the difference."

"The area of the soles making contact with the ground, and the swing range of the arms and shoulders, all corroborate this."

Yu Dazhang sat down in front of the computer and carefully went through the images Xia Bin had sorted.

Then he renamed each image with the surveillance date.

The three groups of images were arranged in chronological order.

This proved Xia Bin's judgment was correct.

He had cropped out the surveillance timestamps earlier so as not to influence Xia Bin's analysis of the images as a whole.

For that purpose, Yu Dazhang had even shuffled the order of the images.

In the end, Xia Bin had restored them again.

The suspect had lost weight!

That was the reason for the decline in his stamina… Yu Dazhang reached that conclusion in his mind at once.

Isn't it true that the thinner you are, the better your stamina?

That depends on what you're doing.

If it's running, then the thinner person definitely has the advantage.

But if it's weightlifting, just try sending a skinny person up there.

If they don't even weigh as much as the barbell, it'd be a miracle if they could lift it.

And those who do hard physical labor — the ones who really have strength are the ones who get rounder and rounder the more they work.

Getting thinner and thinner the more you work means your nutrition isn't keeping up, and over time that leads to organ failure.

Yu Dazhang stared at the image of the suspect attacking Li Yong, lost in thought.

The explosive power hadn't changed, but because of the weight loss, his strength had weakened compared to before.

"Can you estimate roughly how much weight was lost?" Yu Dazhang looked up at Xia Bin.

"It can't be estimated by weight." Xia Bin shook his head and said:

"I can only give an approximate ratio. Over the last three months, the suspect has probably lost about fifteen percent of his body weight."

That ratio… Yu Dazhang did the math in his head.

Suppose the suspect weighed 150 jin — that would be a loss of 22.5 jin.

That's not even as much as he himself had lost.

He had weighed himself at home recently and was already up to 260 jin.

At this rate of losing weight, in a few more months he'd drop below two hundred.

When that really happened, his clothes wouldn't fit anymore, and he'd have to buy new ones.

"Brother Ma, I've sent you the surveillance footage." Yu Dazhang said in a commanding tone:

"Set up a work group, then upload the footage. When you've got nothing else on, you guys watch these nine clips."

With no leads for the moment, Yu Dazhang simply let them familiarize themselves with the case first.

He had only just gotten his hands on the case file and the surveillance footage himself, and there was a lot of content that also needed time to sort through.

But before that, he still had one more thing to take care of.

The cold case unit wasn't just him and Ma Jian.

Liu Miao had been in Songhai investigating Li Yong's income sources and the background behind him for over a month now.

(End of chapter)