Chapter 18: Chapter Eighteen: Gang Theft Case

Jiang Yuan sat in the chair, carefully savoring his newly acquired skill.

Unlike fingerprints, crime scene investigation was a basic skill every police officer needed to master; virtually every officer would encounter it to some degree.

But all criminal investigation skills shared one trait: the more deeply you dug, the faster the difficulty and requirements soared.

For instance, the crime scene investigation skill required of ordinary police officers at precincts leaned toward small-scale, comprehensive scenes, while traffic police or detectives needed distinctly different skills. Large-scale crime scene investigations often demanded professional command—like raiding a telecom fraud office, where the hardest part was securing evidence before suspects destroyed or hid it. Cases occurring in public spaces presented even greater challenges.

Theoretically, crime scene investigation should resemble scenes from movies and TV: professionals equipped with specialized gear meticulously examining the scene—labeling evidence as one, two, three, four, five; planning entry routes in advance; even laying down transparent investigation boards to minimize contamination.

But in reality, only city-level bureaus could afford professional crime scene teams and equipment. It wasn’t just about funding—some southern county bureaus had decent budgets, but unless enough deaths or major incidents occurred, even the most skilled personnel couldn’t improve; they’d either be transferred or stagnate.

Moreover, getting other colleagues, including superiors, to cooperate with crime scene investigation demands for ordinary small cases was no easy task.

Jiang Yuan’s previous crime scene skills focused mostly on forensic autopsy scenes—common cases like homicides or bodily injuries. In terms of case types, there might be specialized research for scenes involving illegal medical practice, but his level could only be called beginner-tier suitcase-level proficiency.

In Uncle Shi’s case, Jiang Yuan could do very little.

But this newly acquired skill gave Jiang Yuan tremendous confidence. Think about it—egg fried rice that tasted so good and saved so much effort was Level 3; wouldn’t Level 4 crime scene investigation be abalone egg fried rice?

“What’re you thinking about?” Wang Zhong nudged Jiang Yuan, then said: “I found a case for you—take a look, is it suitable?”

“Still within our county?” Jiang Yuan looked up and asked first.

Wu the forensic doctor smiled approvingly: “Little Jiang is doing well—he’s started showing initiative.”

Wang Zhong sighed enviously: “After all, there’s a ten-thousand-yuan reward. Honestly, in all my years working, this is the first time I’ve seen a forensic team member win a reward. Last time, when the director ordered a cold homicide case solved, they gave the detective squad a hundred thousand.”

For any cold homicide case with a lead, both the detective squad and the county bureau responded actively. The most typical example: camping outside a fugitive’s door on New Year’s Eve—exhausting yet full of hope.

Most cold cases were cracked using this brute-force method. For the detectives of Ningtai County, technical methods were always just a secondary aid at best.

Jiang Yuan didn’t really care about the ten thousand yuan. But he loved this sense of honor.

As a Jiang Village native, trying to genuinely increase family wealth was extremely difficult and offered terrible ROI—perhaps after years of struggle, your land would just get requisitioned again. Especially when your father was Jiangfuzhen, this difficulty and poor ROI only grew worse. “Fuzhen” wasn’t a joke.

But as a Jiang Village native, gaining honor was equally difficult. Do your job well, and people accuse you of leveraging family wealth and status. Do it exceptionally well, and they assume you bribed your way through.

In schools and workplaces, simple rewards had become precious.

“First, let’s talk about the case. When the reward comes, I’ll cook fried rice for everyone,” Jiang Yuan said, deciding that money didn’t matter—he’d repay them with his own cooking.

Wang Zhong shook his head helplessly, pulled up the case file, and said: “Take a look at this one.”

Wang Zhong often scanned the database, paying special attention to cases solvable directly by fingerprints or where fingerprints were the key clue.

But his ability was limited; he could only produce results on a few cases. Now that Jiang Yuan had appeared, he felt like he’d gained a cheat code.

Jiang Yuan glanced briefly at the case and said: “It’s a theft?”

“Don’t look down on theft cases,” Wang Zhong said, catching Jiang Yuan’s tone. “In our county, this is a major case. A gang uses modified vehicles with fuel tanks to siphon oil from passing trucks at highway service areas. Reports came in not just from our county but also neighboring counties—it’s a series. Solving this one case means solving over a dozen.”

Jiang Yuan now understood a bit and smiled: “If you don’t catch them red-handed, thieves won’t admit a thing.”

“At least it connects several cases. And I suspect their vehicles are modified—they won’t stop after just a few crimes. They probably operate nationwide. A gang theft case—how’s that?” Wang Zhong spoke with slight unease; he’d chosen this case for a reason. He’d compared the fingerprints for a long time and never matched them. He felt regret, but also wanted to see how Jiang Yuan would match them—whether he could succeed.

But as he said, gang theft cases offered relatively high ROI.

According to the power ranking system, a single recent theft case was worth about 0.1 points—seemingly low—but add “gang theft,” and the score doubled or even tripled, equivalent to solving a 0.2 or 0.3 case.

Moreover, gang theft meant multiple thefts—solving one case meant solving many. With good luck, you might crack dozens at once. That further increased the ROI.

Further still, arresting each suspect added roughly 1 KPI point per person; if the gang was large enough, the contribution was significant.

Finally, for units like the detective squad, annual performance targets included clear case-solving quotas—usually filled by series theft cases.

For Jiang Yuan, he had no inherent preference or goal. Whether it was a major or minor case didn’t matter much.

After a few casual remarks, Jiang Yuan sat properly and pulled out five loop-pattern fingerprints from the many in the case file: “This is the only thing I’m good at right now—I’ll leave the rest for now.”

“Then start with those,” Wang Zhong said, unsure why Jiang Yuan only handled loop patterns—he assumed it was just a quirk. He now stared wide-eyed, eager to watch Jiang Yuan’s exact process.