Chapter 21: Chapter Twenty-One: This Hair

As the forensic team arrived on site, Criminal Investigation Team Captain Huang Qiang, Deputy Director Zhang Tao, and Director Guan Xi all arrived in succession.

These three leaders rarely appeared in person; especially Director Guan, who, despite working daily in the office building, was virtually unreachable to ordinary police officers—except in homicide cases.

For a county bureau, homicide was almost always the most important case.

For all other cases, the director could stay away entirely, even skip listening to reports in his office—but once a homicide occurred, the director had to appear on-site and sign the crime scene investigation report.

Thus, he could not avoid learning about the case.

In the past, Ningtai County typically saw only one or two homicides per year. Now, with two occurring in succession, the director’s brow furrowed even deeper.

“What’s the situation now?” Director Guan asked Huang Qiang as he put on his gear.

As captain of the Criminal Investigation Team, Huang Qiang’s daily work was now mostly management rather than field operations—but in homicide cases, he was the designated on-site commander.

And without question, the first person to be pressured was the Criminal Investigation Team captain.

Huang Qiang spoke without hesitation: “The victim, Xue Ming, is 36 years old and a manager at a logistics company. He is single; the house where the crime occurred belongs to his parents. Around 11 p.m., his sister returned home from work, stopped by to pick up a package left there, and discovered the body. She called 110. Officers from the Second Detachment arrived and found signs the scene had been cleaned: the wardrobe had been rummaged through, and the victim’s phone was missing. But based on the remaining property at the scene, we believe robbery or burglary can be ruled out—it was likely someone the victim knew…”

He spoke in great detail and immediately voiced his own hypothesis. This was Huang Qiang’s habit. The director and deputy director had long left frontline work; vague reports only invited misjudgment by superiors.

Director Guan merely nodded, finished dressing, and stepped ahead into the room.

After a brief observation, Director Guan approached the body and asked Wu Jun: “Old Wu, what do you have? Tell me.”

Unlike other technical officers who rotated frequently, Wu Jun had served as a forensic pathologist for nearly thirty years and was familiar to every level of leadership.

And in homicide cases, the pathologist’s role was unquestionably critical.

Wu Jun was prepared. After a moment’s thought, he said: “The victim was stabbed in the chest, rupturing major blood vessels, leading to fatal blood loss. The volume of blood lost was substantial. I specifically checked the bathroom—there were signs of bathing, but large quantities of cleaning fluid had been used to rinse everything…”

Director Guan listened, nodded, and after Wu Jun finished, ordered: “Extract all evidence as thoroughly as possible. If necessary, expand the scope of the investigation…”

After a pause, Director Guan turned to Huang Qiang and said: “The bureau will provide full logistical support—don’t hold back.”

When the director finished, the deputy director added: “Secure the scene. This neighborhood is complex—preserve the option for re-examination. The forensic team must also conduct a re-examination based on the initial findings, identifying gaps and omissions…”

Huang Qiang listened carefully to both the director and deputy director, then turned and issued orders, specifically assigning a team to combine with the full K-9 unit to expand the search for the murder weapon.

Meanwhile, officers investigating the victim’s social circle and those searching nearby surveillance footage also dispersed.

Huang Qiang stood stiff-backed, face tense, constantly communicating with each detachment.

To ordinary people, solving crimes seemed like a battle of intellect, full of danger and mystery. But to detectives, solving cases was mostly about burning budget and burning physical energy.

Those mysterious locked-room murders, notorious serial killings—perhaps they occurred somewhere, sometime—but for police in small towns, they only learned of such cases through movies and TV.

For ordinary officers, the hardest homicides were random killings. With their high degree of chance, if the killer was lucky enough, there were indeed cases with no leads and no resolution. But beyond that, whether most homicides could be solved depended not only on luck but also on resources.

For today’s case, Huang Qiang had scanned the crime scene once. He couldn’t claim absolute certainty, but he felt confident.

A crime by someone known to the victim meant tracing his social connections offered a strong chance of finding leads. Second, the body was discovered early—only hours after the murder—so reviewing nearby surveillance footage might yield leads. Third, the victim’s phone was missing, likely because it contained incriminating information. Based on Huang Qiang’s experience, remotely retrieving the victim’s WeChat messages or texts could provide crucial leads…

Huang Qiang’s investigative approach was extremely clear—but his tension did not lessen because of it.

Every veteran cop knows: solving the case is never the problem. The hardest part is always the investigation—finding the suspect, arresting and interrogating them is merely the baseline. The real challenge, the more critical and difficult part, is securing evidence and building a complete chain of proof. Especially in homicide cases: long before reaching the death penalty review stage, even the preliminary appeals and the prosecution’s own review process demand impossibly strict standards.

Precisely because of this, Huang Qiang’s first priority was finding the murder weapon.

Besides, luck was something unpredictable and inexplicable.

Those unsolved homicide cases—were they truly complex? Perhaps they were. But to say they were utterly unsolvable? That didn’t seem right either.

And from another angle: were the solved homicide cases simple?

Huang Qiang maintained calm, focused, and tense command.

As captain of the Criminal Investigation Team, he oversaw hundreds, even thousands of cases each year—but homicide still brought crushing pressure.

“This hair isn’t the victim’s,” Jiang Yuan said, plucking a single hair from the corpse’s groin area, his voice carrying to Huang Qiang’s ears.