Chapter 1191

Early morning.

Jiang Yuan got up, ate the beef soup his father had cooked, and then got ready to go out. In the parking lot downstairs, Mu Zhiyang and the others were already waiting.

Once Jiang Yuan got into the car, Mu Zhiyang said: "There are several police officers waiting at the entrance of the compound. They're from Liyuan City."

"Looking for me?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"Yes." Mu Zhiyang said, starting the vehicle.

As the car left the compound, Mu Zhiyang naturally slowed down. At the gate on the right, there were indeed several police officers standing with their hands at their sides, wearing uniforms and standing straight.

"Old Li, why are you here?" Jiang Yuan saw that one of them was Li Zemin and immediately got out of the car.

Previously, when participating in the fingerprint battle, Li Zemin and Jiang Yuan had become quite close, and later they were in the same group, interacting frequently, but they hadn't met in a long time.

Li Zemin shook hands with Jiang Yuan with a smile, then pulled his colleague over and said: "This is Wang Zhihao, the captain of the Criminal Police Brigade of our Liyuan City Nangang Branch. Captain Wang heard that someone was reviewing the data on the Mujian Cattle Ranch and discovered it was you, so he immediately decided to come and take a look."

Wang Zhihao was only about 30 years old, looking much younger than Li Zemin. After shaking hands firmly with Jiang Yuan, he said with full emotion: "Director Jiang, please don't mind. I originally intended to come and attend your lectures, but I was truly too busy with work and couldn't get away. However, hearing that you were interested in the Mujian Cattle Ranch, I said, 'Don't even sleep tonight, just drive over and see the situation.'"

Jiang Yuan was stunned and said with slight hesitation: "I am interested in the Mujian Cattle Ranch you mentioned, but I haven't decided yet whether to take on the case here."

"Then may I introduce the case to you?" Wang Zhihao was not shy at all; he was someone who knew how to seize an opportunity.

Jiang Yuan sighed: "Then sit in my car. Let's switch to an Alphard and chat while we drive."

As they spoke, a driver from his cousin's company drove an Alphard out of the garage.

Wen Ming switched cars to be the driver, and Mu Zhiyang sat in the passenger seat, first scanning Li Zemin and the others through the rearview mirror.

Jiang Yuan pulled Wang Zhihao and Li Zemin to sit in the back. Out of respect for Li Zemin, he took the initiative to ask Wang Zhihao: "Is this ranch case very important?"

"The main thing is that I wanted to get to know you, Director Jiang." Wang Zhihao laughed and said with flattery.

In the three professions of teacher, doctor, and public servant, the social hierarchy is ranked, and so is the power. Those who can gain a firm foothold in a county or district criminal police brigade can, if they are willing, extend their reach into every corner of that district or county; their socialization is often very high.

Jiang Yuan just smiled and, while his mind was clear, used his emotional intelligence to the fullest: "Since you know Captain Li, you know me. Shall we add each other on WeChat first?"

Wang Zhihao felt comfortable for a moment, then immediately sobered up, added him on WeChat, and hurriedly said: "Captain Li is Captain Li, and you are you... By the way, how did you come to pay attention to the Mujian Cattle Ranch case?"

Buzz...

Before Jiang Yuan could answer, his phone rang first.

Picking it up, Huang Qiangmin's voice came through: "Are the people from Liyuan City there? Let me talk to him."

Jiang Yuan skillfully handed the phone to Wang Zhihao.

Wang Zhihao took the phone with a face full of smiles, using "Yes" as his main response throughout the conversation.

Jiang Yuan didn't need to observe particularly closely to be certain that Wang Zhihao's body language was basically genuine.

After a long time, Wang Zhihao hung up the phone, handed it back to Jiang Yuan, and smiled: "Political Huang Zhengwei is truly responsible. However, if our bureau had a Jiang Yuan, I would be even more long-winded than him."

Jiang Yuan smiled: "Political Huang Zhengwei is the type of person who worries quite a bit."

"It's only right, it's only right." Wang Zhihao smiled and said: "Actually, we don't have any other motives; we're just being pushed too hard. In our Shannan Province, the case-solving rate over the past two years has become increasingly abnormal... forcing us to constantly improve our case-solving rate as well. On the combat power leaderboard, our Liyuan City has already slid to the point where it's unwatchable."

As Wang Zhihao spoke, he looked at Jiang Yuan with a serious expression. On his uneven, loosely structured face, weathered by years of wind and sun, his expressive eyes blinked, making it easy for one to read him clearly.

Most cases are ordinary cases. Although many cases are earth-shattering events in the eyes of the perpetrators and victims, in the eyes of criminal police, they are nothing more than that.

However, there are always some cases that might have ordinary origins, ordinary natures, and ordinary fates, yet for some reason, they become twisted into another dimension.

And the criminal police spend most of their time, energy, and struggle on these kinds of cases.

Every city has at least one or two, or even two or three, special task forces that return empty-handed every year. What does this mean? At the very least, it means a dozen criminal police officers have spent two or three months or more on it.

If all that time could be released for other cases, the case-solving rate and everything else would improve significantly. And the cases behind the special task forces are themselves a huge deduction item.

This is how Ningtai County's public security intensity was raised, and it is also how Liyuan City slid down the combat power leaderboard in Shannan Province. Especially after the Taihe working group was established, the criminal case detection rates of other cities rapidly improved, and public security levels rose, making Liyuan City look like a lagging student.

Therefore, the Liyuan City Bureau had long since started contacting Huang Qiangmin and had provided several cases, but Jiang Yuan had never had the time to fulfill the agreement.

This time, Jiang Yuan took the initiative to review the data on the Mujian Cattle Ranch. Even if Liyuan City hadn't treated it as a major case before, it was now.

Wang Zhihao had searched for the data almost overnight and then driven over.

Li Zemin, as one of Liyuan City's few trace evidence experts, was asked by his leaders to send him over overnight because he was familiar with Jiang Yuan.

"Our characterization of the Mujian Cattle Ranch case is a theft," Wang Zhihao said once the topic was opened, describing the case: "The Mujian Cattle Ranch is located in the suburbs. If you go another 40 or 50 kilometers west, you'll reach the border of Pingzhou Province. The local area has a century-old tradition of cattle raising. This family at the ranch has also been professional cattle raisers for several generations. By over 20 years ago, when the previous generation was in charge, they had basically made it big, expanded the ranch, bought foreign stud bulls, and started doing their own cattle breed crossbreeding. At the same time, they also bought cattle and engaged in fattening, earning quite a bit of money."

Wang Zhihao gave a brief background and then continued: "As for the paintings stolen from the ranch, we initially considered it an inside job. There are mainly three reasons. First, the ranch is in a remote location; if you aren't an acquaintance, you wouldn't be able to find it. Second, what was stolen from the ranch were works of art, and only works of art were stolen, which is different from typical random theft. Third, the ranch also has surveillance—not much, and it was set up by them themselves—but there were still several surveillance cameras, and the perpetrator avoided all of them. This requirement is a bit high."

"What were the investigation results?" Jiang Yuan asked specifically, to avoid Wang Zhihao glossing over it.

Wang Zhihao shook his head and said: "We didn't collect any usable fingerprints at the scene. We collected a few footprints, but it's currently unclear which one belongs to the perpetrator. Regarding acquaintances... we mainly investigated the victim, that is, the interpersonal relationships of the ranch owner, and didn't find anything."

"How many people are at the ranch?"

"There are 25 permanent workers; it's a medium-to-large cattle ranch. They have their own veterinarians and such. We checked everyone, but we were a bit short on manpower before."

Investigating the interpersonal relationships of a single person can be done by two or three criminal police officers. With 25 people, the difficulty is truly a bit high.

Jiang Yuan looked at the case file on the spot, then closed it before arriving at the Criminal Police Brigade, saying: "Please wait for me. I'll handle the case here, and then I'll handle the case in my hands."

"No problem." Wang Zhihao and the others nodded immediately.

Normal criminal police work is multi-threaded, and the ranch case could barely justify a special task force, but it certainly didn't reach the level of needing to invite Jiang Yuan to do it.

Wang Zhihao and Li Zemin followed Jiang Yuan's footsteps and walked all the way into the auditorium.

The moment they entered, the noisy sound inside the auditorium instantly dropped to zero.

Those who were talking and chatting, or those shouting with their necks craned, all quieted down and turned their attention to Jiang Yuan, Wang Zhihao, and the others.

Wang Zhihao and Li Zemin only felt a "Boom—" in their scalps.

So many people, and they were mostly young and middle-aged police officers. They had heard many such training sessions, but this was their first time walking to the podium.

(End of chapter)