Chapter 255: Abilities Are Meant to Be Used

"Understood."

At this stage of the case, Ma Jian and Liu Miao also understood the importance of these two people.

Investigate the two of them thoroughly and find them, and they could set up surveillance in advance.

As long as the suspect dared to make a move, what awaited him would be a dragnet.

Earlier, Ma Jian had been a bit puzzled as to why Yu Dazhang insisted on clinging to the victims' side.

Now he suddenly saw the light.

It turned out that what Yu Dazhang was doing was the same as the suspect's.

Both had placed their attention on the victims' side.

The suspect did this to ensure the success of his revenge—the more information he had, the higher the success rate.

And Yu Dazhang did it to master the full picture, so as to achieve the goal of setting up surveillance in advance.

This was equivalent to getting ahead of the suspect, casting a wide net in advance, and waiting for the other party to walk right into it.

Another day passed, and Xia Bin handed nine portrait sketches to Yu Dazhang.

"Drawn far too finely." Yu Dazhang looked at the drawings in his hand and could not help but praise.

The figures on each sheet of drawing paper were vivid and lifelike.

Not only were their outward features captured, even their inner spirit and bearing were brought out as well,

"Capturing the spirit through form."

The more Yu Dazhang looked, the more amazed he became, and he kept sighing:

"This is what it means to have both form and spirit."

Most remarkably, Xiaobin had also fully blended in the greenness and boyishness that an eighteen-year-old youth should have.

"I need to get some sleep." Xia Bin looked utterly exhausted, constantly rubbing the space between his brows.

"Hold on a little longer." Yu Dazhang put the portrait sketches away:

"Let's head back to the provincial bureau first, I'll give you a day off."

Afternoon, the provincial bureau conference room.

All twelve officers from the six squads, including Captain Xu, were present.

Yu Dazhang sat at the head, the atmosphere solemn and heavy.

"Captain Xu, you go first."

"Alright." Captain Xu acknowledged, then looked up at him:

"The wronged person I met and the one who framed him were complete strangers."

"I showed him the photos, but he had no impression at all—didn't look like he was lying."

"The next day I told him the names of the other eight people in the severed-finger case, and he said he didn't recognize any of them."

Yu Dazhang recalled that, when overturning the cases earlier, there had indeed been such a person.

"That case happened thirteen years ago, right?" he asked.

"Yes." Captain Xu replied:

"His age is similar to those victims, so he's probably a classmate of some of them."

Now that they had a certain understanding of that little group, Yu Dazhang could naturally deduce more.

Thirteen years ago—that was three years after that little group had formed.

By then, they were more practiced and seasoned at cleaning up loose ends, and the scapegoats they picked didn't even know them.

Next, Yu Dazhang heard reports from the other squads.

Just as he had thought, anyone involved in a case from sixteen years ago had at least some impression of the people who had framed them.

Among them, four people had seen that little group gather.

The following two points could now be confirmed:

1. In 1998, a small group of ten students appeared in Xicheng city; they came from different schools and were of similar age.

2. The total number of members in that group was twelve, and the organizer was a short man under 1.7 meters tall.

The figure of twelve was something Yu Dazhang had deduced earlier.

Yesterday, combined with the leads Liu Miao provided, this number could now be confirmed.

Nine of them have now gone mad, and Ma Jian and Liu Miao were investigating the other two.

Only the organizer himself had yet to be found.

After Ma Jian and Liu Miao left yesterday, Yu Dazhang had once made this hypothesis...

That the organizer was the suspect himself.

Only he knew the information of every member in the group.

The motive was also obvious: shut every member of the group up, and he could settle the matter once and for all, without having to live in fear anymore.

But this hypothesis was quickly overturned by him.

First, although the suspect's face had not been captured, his height and build were recorded very clearly.

The suspect was 1.78 meters tall—this had been determined through on-site investigation and comparison with surveillance footage, and there was absolutely no error. Moreover, even if the organizer wanted to silence them by killing, there was no need to drive them all mad.

Wouldn't killing them outright be simpler?

The suspect clearly had a vengeful motive in doing this.

Based on these two points, the possibility that the organizer was the suspect could be ruled out.

Therefore, they had to keep digging deeper!

"These are the portrait sketches of the severed-finger case victims."

Yu Dazhang pointed at the stack of papers in front of him and said:

"To be precise, these are portrait sketches of them at eighteen. I made six copies, one for each group."

Saying so, he pushed the stack of copied portraits toward Squad Captain Xu, who was sitting closest to him.

Squad Captain Xu kept nine, then passed the rest down.

Soon, all six groups had received their share.

!

"You've already been in contact with your respective victims of injustice, and have obtained some information, more or less."

Yu Dazhang looked at them and said:

"I believe everyone now has a certain understanding of the incident from sixteen years ago."

"This time, take these portraits and go meet them again. There's only one objective: dig deeper!"

"Anything related to these nine people — get them to recall it however you can. No matter what they remember, record it down in detail."

The twelve officers nodded one after another upon hearing this.

At the same time, they were all stunned by these nine portrait sketches.

They had all seen the photographs of the nine victims of the Severed-Finger Case.

Once you joined the task force, reviewing the case files to understand the case was a must.

Any one of the portrait sketches before them, pulled out at random, could clearly be matched to the corresponding victim.

These drawings truly achieved vivid likeness and true-to-life realism!

"He… he drew these?" Squad Captain Xu asked hesitantly.

Only he here knew who could possibly have such a skill.

Most of the other officers had been seconded from below; even those who normally worked at the provincial bureau had never handled cases alongside Xia Bin.

Not every case required Xia Bin's involvement.

For ordinary criminal cases, checking surveillance footage was enough.

Only cases complex enough to a certain degree would Xia Bin be brought in.

Yu Dazhang didn't answer, but gave a slight nod.

Seeing him admit it, Squad Captain Xu was somewhat dazed.

Xia Bin did indeed have this ability, but the one who could think of this method was the fatty right before his eyes.

Squad Captain Xu had once heard a leader say: ability is one thing, but how you use that ability is the most important part.

Take the same handgun, the same distance — some people's hit rate is less than one in ten, while others can hit every shot.

In Squad Captain Xu's eyes, Xia Bin was that gun — previously in Ding Feng's hands, he never fired a single shot.

But ever since this fatty got hold of him, the barrel had nearly been shot red-hot.

"Where is he?" A look of worry surfaced in Squad Captain Xu's eyes.

"Exhausted," Yu Dazhang explained:

"He pulled two all-nighters, so I gave him a day off. He's probably sleeping at home right now."

He really works his people to the bone… Squad Captain Xu couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth.

After the meeting ended, the six groups once again split up and went their separate ways.

Yu Dazhang drove with Ye Zhiyu heading toward Xicheng.

He planned to let Liu Jinsong have a look at these nine portrait sketches too — perhaps it would trigger some memories of the past.

But they had barely driven far from the provincial bureau when Yu Dazhang's phone rang.

He glanced at the caller ID — it was from Ma Jian.

"Hello?" After answering, Yu Dazhang asked:

"You've already got investigation results this fast?"

It had only been one day; he was a bit surprised at Ma Jian's case-solving efficiency.

But unexpectedly, Ma Jian on the other end of the line replied directly:

"The person I was in charge of investigating is dead."

"What!" Hearing this, Yu Dazhang slammed the steering wheel and stomped on the brake at the same time, pulling the car over to the roadside.

Once the car had come to a steady stop, he immediately said loudly into the phone:

"Say that again!"

(End of this chapter)