[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner":3,"chapter-the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-160":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Nation's Forensic Medical Examiner",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2326855,4551,"Chapter 160: This Man!","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-160",160,"\u003Cp>3:00 a.m.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wind howled outside the police station, sweeping through the large pine trees and thick shrubs, sounding like a hundred ghosts pounding on the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But tonight, the criminal investigation team was awake, lights blazing like a vigil—the wind halted just before the courtyard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fourth floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The forensic office’s light was on, the door open, empty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun had gone downstairs to help in the cafeteria; Jiang Yuan sat in the video surveillance office, staring until his eyes glowed with every color of the rainbow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ningtai County had only a few hotels, yet the surveillance footage retrieved was overwhelming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike some places where surveillance was half-hearted, hotel cameras were multi-angle—two cameras might cover a single bar counter, making it feel like you were watching without seeing, yet you couldn’t afford to look away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan and several other technicians drank goji tea, eyes glued to screens, soon losing all desire to chat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the suspect came to collect a debt, he was likely an outsider—and highly likely to leave immediately after.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially after seeing a man dead, the odds of him just walking away were very high.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, to minimize the difficulty of the manhunt, identifying the suspect as soon as possible was critical.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, this assumed the suspect could be found.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, Jiang Yuan and several technicians each had multiple spreadsheets before them, listing cash deposit time windows extracted from the hotel’s ledgers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Naturally, everyone focused first on these time windows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the suspected male—medium build, aged 45 to 49, possibly wearing “BPM” athletic shoes—never appeared during any of these windows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Several slightly suspicious targets, later even pairs or trios matching the age and build, had already been followed up on by detectives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hotel check-ins now required ID registration and phone numbers; with this baseline, questioning guests was not overly difficult.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet no encouraging reports came back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan himself was growing anxious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Take a break,” Wu Junhao entered with a tray of roujiamo. After watching for a while, he urged everyone to eat. “Night snack’s ready.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thanks, Captain Wu.” Jiang Yuan was hungry too—he grabbed a roujiamo and devoured it greedily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Buns are unlimited—eat as many as you want. Lamb soup’s coming next.” Wu Junhao had used official funds to buy the buns and was being generous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he spoke, two young men pushed a cart in, carrying a stainless-steel barrel brimming with lamb soup.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The cafeteria’s meal delivery gear is pretty well-equipped,” Jiang Yuan remarked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The cafeteria usually delivers meals to inmates,” Wu Junhao tapped the barrel with his ladle, producing a crisp clang that instantly evoked the feel of iron bars and barred windows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan chuckled: “Inmates use it by day, cops use it by night. Maximum efficiency.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That was the past. When I was an apprentice, arresting people was so satisfying. Now? Staring at surveillance footage half the night and finding nothing.” Wu Junhao was clearly dissatisfied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d played bodyguard and babysitter and still got nothing—no wonder he was impatient.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But his mood shifted instantly—he apologized: “I’m just ranting. Arresting people sometimes needs luck. Maybe he didn’t even stay at a hotel.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then Wu Junhao had a sudden thought: “Could he have gone to a brothel? Or some place that rents by the night?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Captain Liu’s already checked those places,” a detective beside him reminded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Junhao sighed regretfully: “Old Liu still has the experience.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan didn’t dare laugh—he ate roujiamo and sipped lamb soup alternately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At 3:00 a.m., fast carbs and fat were absolute kings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No Michelin, no intangible cultural heritage master could compete with a barbecue stall at 3:00 a.m.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or put another way: why do people say barbecue tastes better than any other food? Because the body is cheering for fast carbs and fat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The same food eaten at noon simply isn’t as delicious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This scientific experiment supports repeated trials for verification.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan was starving, and watching videos was physically draining.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After wolfing down one roujiamo, Jiang Yuan finally paused to scrub the progress bar, planning to watch surveillance while eating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They’d already reviewed the time windows on the log three or four times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan reset the timeline: start from the afternoon of the day of the murder, focus on the lobby of Ningtai County’s largest Crown Holiday Hotel, then play at double speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was still watching the shoes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The earlier strategy had been to trace the flow of money, looking for guests who paid in cash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this era, guests paying in cash were extremely rare—if their age and build matched, they were flagged for further screening.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet after repeated screening, the suspect list now held no names at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Reviewing the footage a third or fourth time wouldn’t change anything fundamentally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps their entire assumption about the suspect was wrong—he might not have stayed at a hotel, might have left Ningtai County outright, might have checked in without cash…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Any possibility existed, but deep down, Jiang Yuan believed the suspect sought a more comfortable lifestyle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because a suspect who returned to the crime scene was inevitably arrogant and conceited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He dared return to the crime scene—even dared watch Jiang Yuan wipe evidence for so long—would he really flee Ningtai County that night?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan thought this, sipped lamb soup, then fast-forwarded the video to nighttime.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If his guess was right, the suspect had spent the afternoon watching Jiang Yuan mop the floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So if he checked in, he’d only do so at night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Logically, he wouldn’t change clothes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Taking the crime-scene clothing away to dispose of it was safer—and more arrogant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan tried to guess the suspect’s mindset, chewing roujiamo, when a pair of gray-and-white athletic shoes appeared in the video crowd.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan didn’t even see the man’s face—but those shoes didn’t need magnification; he recognized them instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>BPM!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A shabby pair of shoes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shabby naming, shabby design…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the past few days, Jiang Yuan’s mind had been haunted by these shoes—and now he saw them again—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan dropped his roujiamo, paused the video, then switched to normal playback speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Others noticed Jiang Yuan’s action and gathered around.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Tour group? Right! Tour groups check in collectively,” Gao Jiansheng, watching with Jiang Yuan, smacked his thigh—excited, then in pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This man—height, weight, age—all match. He’s alone. He’s wearing BPM shoes, and his clothes and pants are from that discount store,” Jiang Yuan pointed out the suspect on screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was an ordinary middle-aged man—his face looked aged, eyes small, mouth small, short haircut—he looked like a retired security guard from an old residential compound, heading home in casual clothes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He appeared calm. After entering the hotel lobby with the tour group, he handed his ID to the guide, stood among the crowd, listened quietly, and even spoke once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He came with the tour group,” Wu Junhao said, a chill running down his spine—no one had considered this entry method. Without Jiang Yuan spotting the shoes, they’d never have identified him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This is footage from the day of the murder. The tour group must have already left Ningtai County,” Wu Jun said, voice low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ningtai County wasn’t a tourist destination—it was merely a transit stop. Some tour groups spent the day sightseeing in Changyang City, then brought their members to Ningtai County for overnight stays to save on the huge price gap between the two cities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To this end, Ningtai County had developed a few artificial and semi-artificial attractions, occasionally attracting tour groups.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But no matter how good the service, no tour group ever stayed two nights in Ningtai County.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They’d leave the next day—maybe travel elsewhere on the third.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Jiang Yuan, call Captain Huang. Everyone else, secure evidence, pull the suspect’s ID, and trace the tour group’s itinerary…” Wu Junhao pointed at one person, gave an order, and the video surveillance office snapped into action.\u003C\u002Fp>",1306,"2026-06-20T18:55:00.150Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","48a6f7b5039117d4929dd46756c0bb3e361d407d3cb50e5b6f32716cfa46f04e","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-161","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-159",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-cover.jpg"]