Chapter 157: Bi Ma Wei

Jiang Yuan and Wen Ming met in the parking lot, both looking slightly bewildered as they were about to get in the car.

"Are we going shopping together?" Wen Ming asked. "That's kind of weird."

"We're on a case," Jiang Yuan said.

"So our case involves shopping?"

"Hmm…"

Wen Ming sighed. "I used to lure girlfriends this way…"

Jiang Yuan and Wen Ming exchanged glances again, then Jiang Yuan said: "Maybe we should bring someone else?"

"Three guys shopping?" Wen Ming's expression turned downright vulgar.

"Mu Zhiyang still has a cast on his arm—count him as half, so that's two and a half…" Jiang Yuan paused, then pulled out his phone to send a WeChat message.

"You're calling Mu Zhiyang?" Wen Ming's face twisted with disgust. Two and a half guys shopping sounded even worse than just two.

"I'm calling Wei Yin," Jiang Yuan put his phone away.

Wen Ming froze, his whole body stiffening. "You're asking your master's daughter to go shopping with us?"

"Do you know any other female cops?" Jiang Yuan shot back.

Wen Ming shook his head dumbly. Female cops? Male cops rarely even interacted with them.

The only women male cops ever encountered were tomboys.

Soon, Wei Yin appeared before them, wearing a white T-shirt.

The front of the T-shirt featured a cartoon image of Astro Boy, looking slightly unprofessional. She wore khaki shorts that ended at her knees—casual in style, yet revealing slender, pale calves.

"Senior sister," Wen Ming said, slightly embarrassed, but quickly got out to open the car door for her.

Jiang Yuan, seated in the driver's seat, turned and handed Wei Yin a bottle of water, smiling. "Sorry—we didn't want to go shopping together."

"Are you looking to buy something?" Wei Yin asked calmly, studying Jiang Yuan. "I heard you were in danger yesterday—are you alright?"

"Maybe I just scared myself," Jiang Yuan admitted, a little embarrassed.

According to Master Wu Jun's philosophy, police officers constantly make judgments—and sometimes they're wrong.

When you're wrong, don't feel ashamed. More often than not, only you remember your earlier mistake; everyone else has already forgotten.

Jiang Yuan had once thought his master's advice made perfect sense. But now, it seemed someone still remembered something.

Wei Yin smiled lightly, checked the time, and said: "I can only spare you two hours. Where do you want to go?"

"Just look for sports shoes," Jiang Yuan said, starting the car. His expression grew slightly more serious now that the case was involved.

Wei Yin noticed. "Is this related to the investigation?"

She'd seen cases solved by footprint analysis before.

Jiang Yuan merely grunted. "I can't reveal specifics."

"I understand. Just tell me what you can," Wei Yin said with a smile. "The more detail you give, the better we can narrow the search."

"Just find sports shoes first. When we get there, I want to examine the soles of every pair."

"That's… actually not easy," Wei Yin nodded.

Wen Ming chimed in: "Should we check online first?"

"We'll check online later. If we can't find it in stores, then we'll go online," Jiang Yuan explained. "Given the suspect's age, he's more likely to shop in physical stores."

Jiang Yuan had estimated the suspect's age from the footprints as between 45 and 49, extending the range by two years to 43–51. But this was his safety margin—the suspect's true age was almost certainly within this range.

Yet from a more aggressive perspective, Jiang Yuan leaned toward the suspect being older.

Age estimation from footprints is also influenced by the suspect's muscular strength. Given that the suspect returned to the crime scene, Jiang Yuan believed his physical condition was relatively strong.

Confidence is unquestionably affected by one's physical state.

A weak suspect—or even an average middle-aged man—wouldn't easily decide to return to the crime scene.

As they talked, the Land Cruiser arrived at the county's commercial street.

Wei Yin naturally took the lead, striding ahead and dragging Jiang Yuan and Wen Ming from Nike to Adidas, from Peak to Hongxing Erke…

Inside each store, Jiang Yuan didn't touch anything—he let Wen Ming and the clerks pull out shoes and flip them over to examine the soles.

To make sole inspection easier, Jiang Yuan always bought two pairs of shoes as soon as he entered a store.

Soon, all three were carrying armfuls of shoes.

"If we still can't find it, we might as well replace everyone's shoes in the unit," Wei Yin found it amusing.

Wen Ming was growing anxious. "I heard there's a database for sole patterns, right?"

"Yes, you can search shoe models by sole patterns," Jiang Yuan nodded. "But nationwide, there are roughly 600, 00 different sole patterns each year. Only a tiny fraction are entered into the database—even major brands aren't always included."

Wen Ming stared in shock. "That many?"

"There are over a hundred thousand formal and informal shoe factories in China," Jiang Yuan said. "We can't ignore the small workshops."

Most suspects still committing violent crimes belong to the "two lows and one high" group: low income, low education, high age. These people don't shop exclusively at brand stores.

In fact, the people who still commit violent crimes today are often those from the era when such crimes were common. The new generation prefers non-contact crimes like telecom fraud.

Serial rape cases, once frequent, have become increasingly rare since the new century.

Wen Ming fell silent, then asked: "If it's not in the database, how do we find it?"

"Like we're doing now. If we can't find it, we can't trace the suspect through the sole pattern," Jiang Yuan said honestly.

Footprint evidence is actually the most numerous type of physical evidence in China, far exceeding fingerprint evidence in volume.

But in terms of database management, footprint evidence remains severely underdeveloped.

Wen Ming sighed helplessly. He'd been hoping to solve another major case.

Jiang Yuan and Wei Yin exchanged a glance and smiled. Solving cases never goes smoothly.

"There are a lot of people over there—mostly elderly," Wei Yin pointed ahead to a discount store.

Nowadays, any store that never runs out of customers is thriving. This one had several groups browsing, immediately catching Jiang Yuan's attention.

Up close, they saw a small shop crammed with clothes, pants, and shoes.

There were sports shoes too—mostly black, white, gray, or dark blue, matching middle-aged and elderly tastes.

Seeing no one attending them, Jiang Yuan didn't hesitate—he started flipping through the shoes himself.

After flipping through Qiba pairs, a pair of gray-and-white sports shoes landed in his hands.

The sole pattern matched exactly the print he'd collected from the crime scene.

Jiang Yuan glanced silently at the brand: Bi·Ma Wei.

It sounded vaguely Western, but it didn't seem like a company that needed serious auditing.

"Has anyone bought this pair before?" Jiang Yuan asked, because he suddenly realized: the crime scene sole was brand-new, and this brand was so obscure…

The clerk frowned. "So many customers every day—I can't remember them all."

"Are you the only staff here?" Jiang Yuan pressed.

"There's another employee in the warehouse," the clerk said, busy with the register. "What do you do?"

Wen Ming glanced at Jiang Yuan for confirmation. When Jiang Yuan nodded, Wen Ming stepped closer and said: "Call your colleague back."

Then he showed his police ID.

The clerk panicked, then brightened. "Can I take a photo?"

Wen Ming frowned. "You can take a photo, but first call your coworker."

"Alright, alright," the clerk said, then added: "Did she do something? What did she do? I always thought she was too flirty—now she's caught up in a case, huh?"

"Where's your store's surveillance footage?" Jiang Yuan interrupted.

"Right… here," the clerk pointed to the register.

"Do you remember the last day you sold this shoe?" Jiang Yuan confirmed the surveillance was stored on the hard drive, then continued.

The clerk looked at the Bi Ma Wei shoes. "I'll need to check the ledger."

"Do it," Jiang Yuan stood and watched.

The clerk pulled out a notebook from under the register and flipped through it quickly.

The shop did excellent business, selling dozens to hundreds of items daily—the best-performing store in the area.

The clerk flipped rapidly, then jabbed a finger at an entry. "We sold one pair the day before yesterday—along with matching clothes, pants, and socks. Buying a full set is rare…"

"Wasn't you who sold it?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"No, my colleague did," the clerk replied.

Jiang Yuan patiently waited for the colleague to return, asked similar questions, and asked her to identify the customer on the surveillance footage.

The colleague was slightly more attractive, dressed more stylishly. After scrolling through the footage for a while, she suddenly slapped her forehead. "He sat right by the door and asked me to bring him the shoes. He didn't even come inside."

"How did he pay?" Wei Yin asked.

"Cash. I remember now—he was kind of strange," the attractive clerk smiled pleasantly.

Jiang Yuan and Wen Ming exchanged glances—they both sensed progress.

Jiang Yuan asked first: "Did he touch anything? Wear gloves?"

"I don't think he wore any… I can't remember what he touched," the clerk said, tilting her head apologetically.

The ordinary clerk scoffed. "When trying on shoes, you always grip the chair."

"I don't remember. How many people sit on that chair every day?" the attractive clerk shot back.

Jiang Yuan looked at the small red stool by the door—he knew no usable prints could be recovered.

But…

"The mall probably has surveillance too," Wen Ming said, already thinking ahead without Jiang Yuan prompting.