Chapter 133

"Tired, gonna smoke a cigarette." After digging for a while in the yard, Wu Jun felt his back and waist ache, and immediately stood up to step outside and light up.

This time he smoked his own Liqun cigarettes—strong, half a stick at a time, enough to numb himself.

Jiang Yuan came out and shared a quick smoke, then said, "Why don't you rest outside? We'll handle everything inside."

"Fine." Wu Jun surprisingly agreed right away.

Jiang Yuan was slightly surprised; in his memory, Comrade Wu Jun was always hardworking and rarely lazy—had seeing the miserable state of the scavenger made him suddenly reevaluate life?

Wu Jun saw Jiang Yuan's expression and laughed. "Honestly, I'm just along for the ride this time. Why work so hard?"

"Not at all—you've got so much seniority," Jiang Yuan said, offering hollow reassurance to Old Wu.

Wu Jun took a drag and smiled. "Including you, we've got three forensic experts. Do you really think I was called here to cut DNA?"

Jiang Yuan didn't press further—he had to admit, given the scene before them, though there was plenty of work, it definitely didn't require two forensic experts.

DNA samples could be collected by the on-site investigators; if the county's resources were inadequate, they could request support from the municipal bureau. For a case of this severity, they'd usually get as much backing as possible.

Of course, right now, Jiang Yuan and Wu Jun were that "as much as possible."

Jiang Yuan was likely brought in because his fingerprint expertise was valued—the provincial fingerprint competition champion, who had cracked ten cold homicide cases in one go. It was obvious that in the future, people would keep inviting him.

Longli County was just too familiar with Ningtai County—they knew Jiang Yuan and Wu Jun's relationship, so they couldn't invite Jiang Yuan without inviting Wu Jun too.

Of course, Wu Jun still had his role—more forensic experts meant more hands, which was always better.

But originally, what they really wanted was for Jiang Yuan to handle fingerprints and crime scene investigation.

Wu Jun was just dragged along.

Wu Jun understood this clearly, and had no intention of proving himself.

His skills were already mature; from now on, they'd only keep declining. Coming to another county to do basic labor—why work so hard?

"The Immortal Wood's Miracle"

"I'm going to grab some pig intestine, pork stomach, and chicken. If you've got time, come join me. The county's probably just serving a simple meal—maybe a buffet at best." Wu Jun finished his cigarette, carefully tucked the butt away, and strolled toward the restaurant.

Jiang Yuan hurried after him. "I'll try to come. Can I walk there?"

"According to the map, it's just a few hundred steps. Driving would mean finding parking—just take a walk." Wu Jun waved him off, nodded to the Longli officers, and shuffled off on his own.

It was already off-duty time. Though police didn't get overtime, Longli County still couldn't properly manage Ningtai's forensic experts.

Before Jiang Yuan could even blink, Wu Jun had reached the end of the alley—like a small, soothing girl easing worries.

Jiang Yuan returned to the yard and kept working.

All blood-stained items had been wiped clean; objects suspected of contact with the killer had already had samples collected. Jiang Yuan's next task was fingerprint extraction.

Fingerprint collection and DNA collection sometimes conflicted. For example, latent fingerprints formed by sweat weren't visible like blood prints—they required UV lamps to detect.

But sweat could also be used for DNA extraction—a technique developed only in the last decade or so.

If you wiped away the sweat to extract DNA, you'd lose the fingerprint.

Though some methods allowed non-destructive latent fingerprint recovery, overall, they were harder. Longli County's technicians had virtually no idea how.

It wasn't that they didn't know the techniques—they'd heard of them, but hearing and doing, doing and mastering, were worlds apart. Especially in a homicide case—this wasn't a place for technicians to practice.

So technicians who hadn't trained properly wouldn't attempt anything on a homicide scene.

The technicians present still relied entirely on dusting powder.

Or put another way—if they'd regularly tried new methods, attended training, and actively improved themselves… their positions and abilities would be different.

In Longli County, Jiang Yuan wasn't even in a position to give guidance.

He just did his own fingerprints, photographed them, then moved on to DNA.

This slowed things further. Night fell, bright floodlights came on, and Jiang Yuan's work became even harder. UV lamps were interfered with; capturing clear ridge patterns and papillary details in photos was nearly impossible.

Jiang Yuan stretched, then fell into thought.

Looking at this utter chaos!

Even seven days wouldn't be enough to finish this—not in 72 hours.

To gauge how many items a scavenger's yard contained, think of news stories about hoarders.

For example, an elderly man in a two-bedroom apartment hoarded countless packages and junk; after neighbors reached their limit, property staff sent over a dozen people, who still needed two full days just to clear the items out.

Note: those dozen people only moved the items out of the room.

Now imagine replacing those dozen people with forensic technicians, each tasked with dusting every single item for fingerprints, wiping for DNA, collecting samples—not just once, but multiple times. How long would that take?

After working a full day and night, Jiang Yuan finally understood:

The Longli County investigators handling evidence collection were kind of stupid.

Whether they preferred stupid methods or were genuinely stupid, Jiang Yuan couldn't take it anymore.

Only then did he remember his master, who'd gone for the pig intestine stew. He quickly called.

"Hmm, tastes good. If you want, go eat it yourself—they serve it as late-night snacks. I'll nap a bit, come help tomorrow morning." Wu Jun mumbled, then hung up.

Jiang Yuan realized now it was past midnight.

He'd never endured this in Ningtai County.

But thinking about it, it made sense—he wasn't from Longli County, so they'd naturally push him to exhaustion.

"Aren't you guys taking a break?" Jiang Yuan asked the other technicians beside him.

The technicians present were all older than him—they all stared at him like a naive child. One finally said, "We've already switched shifts."

"Oh… yeah, that's true." Jiang Yuan felt vaguely called, yet also not called…

So overall… he was the one who was stupid.

"Take a rest. We'll have late-night snacks together soon." Everyone here were regular technicians; anyone with even a sliver of authority had already gone home to face their wives' scolding. Only powerless technicians could stay at the scene—too lowly even to be scolded by their wives.

This also proved another point: the base structure of a regular county bureau was made up of monk temples.

Though female officers joined these monk temples every year, considering the constant homicides and higher-priority economic cases, by the time their hair started falling out, even female officers would be driven to panic.

Jiang Yuan was truly exhausted.

He stepped out of the yard, removed his mask and gloves, and sat across from the courtyard, staring blankly at the mess.

When people are utterly drained, their minds shut down completely.

Jiang Yuan was no different—he didn't want to think about why a scavenger had been beaten to death—

Was it a conflict arising from scavenging? Then why did it happen inside his home? And no property was stolen; not a single room showed signs of being ransacked.

More likely, the killer targeted the man himself.

But still—a poor old scavenger, worth a murder? Why go this far?

This was the hardest part of the case—and why Longli County had urgently called for reinforcements. Unless they used technical means to directly pinpoint the killer, conventional investigative methods wouldn't work.

Common motive analysis? No motive. Greed for wealth? No stolen property. Lust? No signs of sexual assault.

Jiang Yuan stared at the courtyard gate, recalling the bloodstains he'd seen, and unconsciously began analyzing.

The killer likely followed the scavenger into the yard, then immediately knocked him down—the initial bloodstains were mostly splattered on the ground, indicating an overhead attack.

Afterward, the scavenger didn't resist further—he only fled, and in his panic, knocked over many objects, which then covered the ground, forming a second wave of beating…

Then came a third wave.

Jiang Yuan slapped his forehead. Sustained beating was mostly about revenge and venting—who had this scavenger angered?

Jiang Yuan picked up his phone, then put it down.

This was such an obvious investigative path—the Longli investigators wouldn't miss it. Though they were clumsy scientifically, they weren't that clueless on basic investigative logic.

Jiang Yuan extended his thoughts into his own area of expertise…

A prolonged beating and outburst of rage would likely leave abundant traces.

During violent motion, sweat drips, hair falls, dandruff flies, and if the attacker was furious, he might even snivel, sneeze, or scream, "I've avenged myself!"

But where were these traces?

Or rather, with so many traces here, how could they prove which belonged to the killer and which came from the scavenger's own belongings?

The weapon and bloodstains!

These two things absolutely couldn't have come from the scavenger's possessions.

The weapon hadn't been found yet—so the prime candidate was the bloodstains.

Most bloodstains on objects had already been sampled, some even by Jiang Yuan himself.

But bloodstains on walls and floors fell outside his previous scope of work.

The question returned to the scene Jiang Yuan had seen upon arrival: he'd been staring at the spatter patterns on the walls, when Wang Lan, the forensic expert from Qinghe City, had said, "The bloodstains have been sampled."

Now, recalling that moment, exhaustion flooded his mind—and a thought rose: given Longli County's technicians' skill level, did it even matter whether they sampled those bloodstains?

Better to do it himself again.

Anything was better than wiping down every single item in this scavenger's yard.