Chapter 210: Seizing the Evidence

"He dares not confess!" Hou Lejia's anger lingered longer in this phase.

The several Longli County detectives beside him immediately turned away, heads down, searching for water—no one tried to persuade him.

Hou Lejia cursed his mother for a full minute.

At this point, Jiang Yuan found himself looking at Hou Lejia with new respect: his dialect was excellent—especially authentic. The rhythm of his cursing was sharp, distinctive, and never repetitive; if he were back in Jiang Village, he'd be a natural-born mountain song prince.

At LV3 level, a master of profanity was still a beloved old north-nose in Jiang Village.

Hou Lejia's appearance wasn't bad either—his face was aged, but old north-noses didn't care about that; a bit dark didn't matter, and his height was decent, giving him an edge among the elderly.

But no matter how skilled his cursing, it was useless for solving the case.

Perhaps it was precisely because cursing was useless for solving cases that he'd honed such a high level of profanity.

Jiang Yuan understood why Hou Lejia was furious.

If Li Weibin refused to reveal the whereabouts of the little girl, Liu Yiyi, conventional police investigation would struggle to find her.

Most importantly, it would be hard to locate Liu Yiyi alive within the limited time frame.

The worst fear was that Li Weibin had already killed and disposed of her—this possibility was very high, and it could also explain why he clammed up about the girl's location.

There was a way to handle this: tell him that breaking and entering was an aggravating circumstance, and kidnapping a child was too; tell him he was dead anyway, and he might just talk.

Because interrogating two cases would take longer, some death-row inmates delayed their executions by withholding information, dragging things out for the prosecutors.

But if the girl was still alive—say, abandoned by the roadside or sold off—telling Li Weibin he was dead anyway might trigger defiance.

By the time his emotions cooled and they finally got the location, she might already be gone for good.

"Does Longli County have any detectives especially skilled in interrogation?" Jiang Yuan asked Wang Zhong in a low voice.

Wang Zhong glanced at Hou Lejia and said, "If they had any capable people, would Commander Hou be cursing like this?"

Jiang Yuan understood, and couldn't help saying, "Longli County really has nothing."

"Our Ningtai County has nothing either… oh, now we've got you. Before, we just waited for higher-ups to send support," Wang Zhong said naturally.

"There must be some capable people."

"Those who stayed all had reasons. Those with opportunities left." Wang Zhong looked at Jiang Yuan and added, "You know about the fingerprint companies on the market, right?"

"I know." The fingerprint companies they referred to charged fees for fingerprint services, accepting police outsourcing tasks and running fingerprint comparison businesses under various pricing models.

Regardless of their internal structure, fingerprint companies were essentially the commercialization of forensic fingerprint analysis. Theoretically, the better they performed and the more difficult comparisons they completed, the more money they should make.

Leaving aside specific business models, fingerprint experts within the police system who chose to join these companies would earn far more than their salary.

Wang Zhong continued, "Even if you're not chasing money, capable people prefer big cities. In our county, whether public service exams are hot or cold is crystal clear."

"True." Jiang Yuan nodded, then added, "But I'm from Jiang Village."

"I'm not," Wang Zhong sighed.

Jiang Yuan patted Wang Zhong's shoulder and said, "I'll introduce you to someone later."

Wang Zhong instantly stopped being sleepy.

After he finished cursing, Hou Lejia asked, "How much money did he have on him when you arrested Li Weibin?"

"Around ten thousand yuan. Should I check?" The subordinate pulled out his phone.

"No difference. Don't bother." Hou Lejia frowned, muttering, "Ten thousand yuan doesn't prove anything—whether he sold her or not, it could still be that amount."

In Li Weibin's situation, he wouldn't deal directly with end users. When selling children to traffickers, he'd be heavily undercut; if he met a ruthless buyer, he might get slashed down to just one or two ten thousand yuan.

So if Li Weibin had a lot of cash, it might mean he sold the child for a good price—but with only ten thousand or so, it could just be his own leftover money or proceeds from this burglary.

The victim's stolen items included gold bracelets and other jewelry; selling them off as scrap gold and silver could easily fetch over ten thousand yuan.

"Is Lao She handling the interrogation?" Hou Lejia referred to his deputy.

Like Huang Qiangmin, Hou Lejia wasn't a team leader who liked doing everything himself. They were both types who treated their deputies as high-level investigators.

The subordinate replied, "Yes," then volunteered to check the situation.

After a long while, he returned with a furrowed brow.

"What's wrong?" Hou Lejia asked first.

"He says he sold her. The child."

Hou Lejia's heart tightened, then eased slightly. Better than dead—at least they could still keep searching.

Hou Lejia immediately asked, "Who did he sell her to? Where?"

"He won't say."

"Why won't he say? Sold to family?" Hou Lejia immediately dismissed it: "Even if it was family, there's no need to hide it now… What does he want?"

"He has no demands from us, but from what he implied… Li Weibin seems more concerned about his reputation."

Hou Lejia was confused: "What reputation?"

"On the streets… reputation? Gang honor?" The subordinate was just as confused—he was only relaying the message.

Hou Lejia rolled his eyes.

What kind of nonsense was this? But even Hou Lejia knew you couldn't expect much from a man who made his living breaking into homes.

Even a sane person, facing death or execution, would develop extreme, twisted thoughts.

But in this day and age, what even is "street reputation"?

"Did Lao She really talk to him like this?" Hou Lejia felt physically ill.

"They just keep going in circles," the subordinate said, equally frustrated.

Jiang Yuan pulled Wang Zhong aside, silently exiting the meeting room.

"Can't you help?" Wang Zhong looked at Jiang Yuan—he saw him as surrounded by a halo.

In his eyes, Jiang Yuan truly could accomplish investigations no ordinary person could.

But Jiang Yuan now shook his head and changed the subject: "Let's go check the footage."

Hou Lejia's personality was domineering; staying in the meeting room wouldn't let Jiang Yuan contribute.

Of course, if Hou Lejia were willing to delegate authority and let Jiang Yuan take command, he might have some solutions—but such a request was unreasonable. Every team leader wanted to control everything; none would easily give up power.

The other Longli County detectives wouldn't necessarily listen to Jiang Yuan anyway; everything would still need to be relayed twice.

…

Video Analysis Office.

Xiao Miao sat at her desk busy, and upon seeing Jiang Yuan, immediately smiled: "Forensic Jiang, did you rest well yesterday?"

"Fine. A bit too many snorers, but otherwise okay." As a forensic pathologist, Jiang Yuan had exceptional tolerance for odors.

He could sleep in an autopsy room—what was foot odor?

Wang Zhong cleared his throat twice: "Good morning, Officer Miao."

"Hello," Xiao Miao replied, then turned to Jiang Yuan: "Forensic Jiang, need to use the computer?"

"Yes, I want to review Li Weibin's previous cases," Jiang Yuan said.

"Then use mine," Xiao Miao said, vacating her seat, then added curiously, "Didn't you say they caught him?"

Her implication: previous cases didn't need reviewing.

Outsiders thought image analysts just clicked a few buttons like watching a movie, pulling out a few images.

Only those who did image work knew how tedious the process was—and how stringent the requirements were for evidence-grade footage.

Jiang Yuan pulled up the old video, recalled the images of Li Weibin pushing his bicycle or e-bike out, and extracted each frame.

Then he performed image enhancement—but this time, focused on objects.

As he processed each photo, the computer's main unit groaned as if its throat were raw.

Xiao Miao frowned: "You could ask the victims for photos of the stolen items—they should be able to provide some, at least…"

"You have to prove these items were stolen by Li Weibin. Though simultaneous burglaries are rare, the possibility exists—and what if the victim gives you fake photos?" Jiang Yuan stood with his hands on his hips, waiting for the computer to respond.

Xiao Miao was puzzled: "Why would they give fake photos? Don't they want their bike back?"

Wang Zhong, gifted in this area, guessed: "Maybe the owner bought an 8, 00-yuan bike but feared his wife's wrath, so he reported it as 800. Now it's stolen, the police come knocking, and his wife demands the model and photo—he probably won't dare send the real one…"

Xiao Miao then understood.

Jiang Yuan said: "To be safe, if we're asking everyone to identify items from images, we must first confirm the images are accurate."

"You want everyone to find the person who helped Li Weibin fence the goods?" Xiao Miao realized.

Jiang Yuan nodded: "If Li Weibin sold the girl, either this fence bought her, or he knew him—or at least knew of him. Either way, catching him is the right move."

"But can we catch him? We never caught him before…"

Jiang Yuan and Wang Zhong both smiled.

Wang Zhong said: "We never caught him before because we were chasing thefts. Now it's a murder case—how could we possibly miss him? If Li Weibin's 'street reputation' guy finds out Li Weibin dragged him into a murder, he'd probably eat his heart."