Chapter 1000

“Next up…” Jiang Yuan chuckled at Qiao Shengli’s question and lowered his head. “Next one’s probably still Qingshi City. Since we’re already here, there must be some backlog cases that need clearing out.”

“Aren’t you supposed to only take the hardest cases?” Qiao Shengli looked up curiously.

Jiang Yuan smiled. “Cases don’t compete against each other. No one knows which one’s the hardest. Some cases get solved simply because the investigators picked the right direction; others go harder the longer they’re pursued because they started down the wrong path.”

“So picking the right direction is most important?”

“Maybe. Not necessarily.” Jiang Yuan glanced at Qiao Shengli. “It’s a bit like your research work—between direction and execution, which carries more weight?”

Qiao Shengli suddenly understood. “So you’re the kind of person who can turn any garbage direction from your advisor into a top-tier publication?”

“Not quite.” Jiang Yuan didn’t feel the need to be modest or manage his emotional intelligence—he spoke lightly. “Some directions are just too garbage. Wasting time on them isn’t worth it. You still need to correct your own course.”

Qiao Shengli understood. She looked up at Jiang Yuan, her eyes full of envy. “I wish I had your ability. Sometimes I even want to change my advisor’s research direction…”

“Professor Su?”

“Don’t you dare tell the professor!” Qiao Shengli shook Jiang Yuan’s arm.

“Professor Su assigned you the Taihe project?” Jiang Yuan had been a detective for years, and in this world, detectives were the most skeptical by nature.

Qiao Shengli blushed but held onto Jiang Yuan’s arm tighter as she explained: “The professor doesn’t do experiments herself—not for any grant-funded or industry-funded projects. If I’m sure I can secure the Taihe project, I plan to shift my entire research direction toward it.”

Biology majors had few project options. Even without the Taihe project, if she could just get another few dozen kilometers of survey segments, Qiao Shengli felt she could write a solid paper.

Of course, for her doctoral thesis, superficial involvement wouldn’t do—the longer the project, the better.

Jiang Yuan didn’t want to interfere with Professor Su’s team’s internal dynamics. He simply said: “The Taihe project is confirmed, but in this project, you’ll be cooperating with me—not the other way around.”

“Of course.” Qiao Shengli looked up at Jiang Yuan, her excitement rising. Jiang Yuan’s condition posed no difficulty—it set no barrier at all. By contrast, the project’s funding and scale were substantial hurdles.

…

Evening.

The suspect Xu Juan finally gave up resisting and confessed everything.

It was her first murder. She had no experience, wasn’t professionally trained. The strategies she’d imagined in her head sounded one way in fantasy, but when spoken aloud, they were laughable.

Whether it was the method of killing, the motive, or the reason for disposing of the body, Xu Juan always had something to say—but none of it was legal or believable. And during police interrogations, officers could be extremely harsh.

After crying twice, Xu Juan, under the prosecutor’s gaze, pulled her hair back and began recounting her story again.

She wanted to preserve some dignity. But before a criminal case, as she detailed the dismemberment, and as the prosecutor asked, “What did you use for the first strike? Where did you cut?” and “Where did you use the scissors after picking them up?”, all pretense of dignity vanished.

By this point in the interrogation, the special task force members all relaxed.

The seasoned detectives had mostly gone home. The younger ones weren’t carefree—they’d just been left behind to finish up, so they had to keep working.

Jiang Yuan was invited into the director’s office.

Compared to Fang Gang, the captain of the criminal investigation brigade, the director held a much higher rank, clearly demonstrating the importance placed on Jiang Yuan.

After hearing a flood of praise and drinking a large pot of fine tea, the director still didn’t let him go. He glanced at his watch and smiled: “You must be hungry. I’ve prepared hot pot. I heard Jiang Yuan likes hot pot, right?”

“I do like it.” Jiang Yuan didn’t know how this reputation had spread, but on matters like this, police never questioned anything—they didn’t investigate, didn’t gather evidence.

The director nodded to the side. Fang Gang immediately went out to arrange it. Soon, a hot pot was brought in.

Several people sat around the director’s coffee table and began cooking the hot pot.

Huang Qiangmin glanced around uneasily. “Hot pot smells strong. Don’t let it ruin the calligraphy and paintings on the walls.”

“All these calligraphy and paintings are mine—I wrote and painted them myself. If they get ruined, fine. I haven’t hung enough yet.” The director laughed heartily, as if tickled.

Huang Qiangmin quickly joined in the laughter.

The director then realized something and waved his hand. “These are just trivial skills. When I was young, I didn’t know what to do, so I learned them. Now I regret it deeply. If I’d studied fingerprint analysis or something useful back then, I’d have been more effective.”

Huang Qiangmin thought: Finally, you’ve brought up this topic. He quickly said: “If the Qingshi City Bureau still needs our help, just give the order.”

“Try this beef slice—it was slaughtered this afternoon. The meat was cut and delivered immediately.” The director first pointed to the beef on the table, then said to Huang Qiangmin: “We’re out of funding.”

“Huh?” Huang Qiangmin’s mouth dropped open.

“Have some beef.” The director sighed, then smiled. “You probably guessed this already. Shan Province isn’t wealthy. Our budget is what it is. It’s year-end now—we’re clearing backlog cases, running the Taihe task force, and our clearance rate for current cases is already high. Funding’s always insufficient.”

Huang Qiangmin paused, stuck his chopsticks into the pot, fished out a green vegetable, and placed it on his plate. “I knew this day would come. I just didn’t expect it so soon.”

“Right?” The director smiled. “Social stability requires cracking down on criminal activity. Economic development also needs social stability as its foundation. But raising our criminal clearance rate from 90% to 95%, or murder case clearance from 99% to 100%—that improvement might not matter much.”

Huang Qiangmin couldn’t accept that. “That’s not true. The harm caused by crime is real. Compared to the cost of solving a case, protecting the public is absolutely valuable. And solving high-value cases means removing dangerous, highly skilled, or professional criminals from society. It also greatly improves the environment around ordinary people, promoting fair transactions and a rule-of-law society…”

“Huang Zhengwei’s got some substance.” The director laughed.

Fang Gang beside him immediately chimed in: “We should learn from Comrade Huang Zhengwei.”

After laughing, the director continued: “Take ourselves. This year, Shan Province’s criminal investigation system has achieved remarkable results. That’s truly thanks to Jiang Yuan and the Ningtai County Bureau’s help. But this year’s budget was set last year…”

He stopped there.

The Qingshi City Bureau’s rank was equal to that of Qinghe City Bureau, while Ningtai County Bureau was one major level lower. Huang Qiangmin wasn’t even the top official, so he’d always followed the director’s lead.

But now, after eating a bite of vegetable, Huang Qiangmin felt his appetite return. He bared his teeth and said: “Even borrowing next year’s grain is acceptable.”

The director, who had been happily nodding, nearly choked on a piece of beef: “You say that… Hey, don’t be so confrontational.”

Huang Qiangmin gave a faint smile.

“What if we do an inter-provincial case?” the director proposed. “Qingshi borders Liangzhou. Their budget this year must have surplus.”

Huang Qiangmin shook his head. “Even landlords don’t have leftover grain these days.”

The director said: “Borrowing next year’s grain is still an option.”

Huang Qiangmin looked into the director’s sincere eyes. “What case? Is it difficult?”

“Difficult.” The director put down his chopsticks, growing serious. “Child trafficking. We just linked cases—five confirmed kidnappings across both provinces, plus one attempted. All targets are children under five, all incidents occurred in rural towns.”

Such cases could indeed shake a city-level bureau and absolutely required serious attention and resolution.

Huang Qiangmin looked at the director. “No leads?”

With leads and sufficient resources, the case had a high chance of being solved. Now that they were turning to Jiang Yuan, they must be facing serious difficulties.

The director picked up a piece of meat and ate it. “In any case, state your requirements. I’ll raise them with Liangzhou. Let’s work together to bring back those five children.”

“Arresting the perpetrators isn’t the hard part. Finding the children—that’s tough.” Huang Qiangmin glanced at Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan fished out several slices of beef and let them cool in his dipping sauce. He looked up at the director and Huang Qiangmin. “Since we’re talking about it, let’s do it.”

As for Qiao Shengli and others—he couldn’t worry about them now.