Chapter 214: Special

Case Processing Center.

Jiang Yuan, Wu Jun, and Wang Zhong came down to watch the spectacle, only to find several people already seated in the surveillance room.

"Forensic Wu."

"Captain Liu…"

"Big Brother Jiang…"

Everyone exchanged chaotic greetings, then Wu Jun harshly pried open the lid: "Are you all just sitting around with nothing to do?"

"Lately it's been quiet—no cases at all," said Liu Wenkai, captain of the Second Team, primarily handling major cases; he sighed deeply: "The girls at Shang K have gone four or five months without being rotated. If this keeps up, I'll be wasting my informant fees."

"What's the problem with not rotating them?" Wang Zhong asked, confused.

"If you don't rotate them, fewer big shots come around, and you get less information from Shang K. Soon everyone will be committing crimes in Ningtai, spending money in Qinghe—where will we find leads then?" Liu Wenkai sighed, glancing at Wang Zhong: "No wonder those online dating scammers tricked you."

Wang Zhong's face turned red: "She didn't trick me—I told Captain Wu, and didn't that get the whole operation shut down?"

Liu Wenkai sighed even more deeply, pointing at the monitor: "A girl that beautiful chatting with you online, going out to eat with you—didn't you think that was wildly unreasonable? And in the end, the bill was 6, 00. You get it?"

"8, 00. The bill was 8, 00." Wang Zhong corrected Captain Liu.

A detective nearby snorted with laughter; when Wang Zhong turned to look, he grinned: "Usually it's 6, 00. If it's 8, 00, maybe they thought chatting with you was exhausting?"

"Chatting with me exhausted them? I've been on dozens of blind dates, okay?" Wang Zhong was slightly rattled.

Getting scammed in an online romance was bad enough; now having the entire unit watch the footage felt even worse.

Wang Zhong couldn't stay any longer—he turned and walked out.

Captain Liu watched Wang Zhong's retreating back and gave a solemn lecture to those around him: "You have to tease him slowly, like petting a cat—ah, wait until he gets used to you stroking his head, then move to his belly. Don't just go straight for the crotch." ωω

Under Captain Liu's guidance, the conversation in the surveillance room gradually turned vulgar.

Not long after, Jiang Yuan grew bored watching the interrogation and was about to leave when the surveillance room door clicked open.

In walked Wang Zhong, face cold, holding two printed pages of fingerprints: "Big Brother Jiang, Captain Liu—I matched one fingerprint."

"Whose?" Liu Wenkai took it, slightly puzzled.

"The leader kid's," Wang Zhong smirked. "I ran all their fingerprints through the system. At position 27, I matched the leader's."

Jiang Yuan glanced at Wang Zhong—he'd seen Wang Zhong's backend settings; the guy set his candidate fingerprint pool to twenty per page.

A match at position 27 meant Wang Zhong had finally learned to flip pages.

Congratulations!

Normally, when matching full fingerprints against full or mostly complete clear prints, twenty is about enough.

But criminals' fingerprints aren't always complete.

This time, Wang Zhong matched a full print against a partial one—position 27 was a solid result, exceeding his usual performance.

Liu Wenkai didn't understand fingerprints, but after glancing at the result, he couldn't help laughing: "Damn, this guy's a wanted fugitive with cases elsewhere—perfect, now Old Wu can dig deep."

Liu Wenkai sent a message to Wu Junhao inside the interrogation room.

Holding concrete evidence is a completely different thing from shouting into thin air.

In domestic interrogations, there's no right to remain silent—you can say you don't know if you truly don't know, but if the police have evidence against you and you claim ignorance, that's inappropriate.

Wu Junhao, inside the interrogation room, also gave the leader kid a legal lecture—and soon broke him down.

"Seven years," Liu Wenkai chuckled from the surveillance room.

Wang Zhong rubbed his face: "We're supposed to verify every fingerprint that comes in anyway."

"Good job. Keep this work ethic," Liu Wenkai lectured Wang Zhong. "Hate evil like poison—do you understand? That's hating evil like poison!"

Wang Zhong truly looked like a student being taught.

Everyone laughed and chatted as they left the Case Processing Center.

In the afternoon, they finished updating the previous report—perfect day over.

Officers without overtime duties went home or made dinner plans, blissfully at a loss for what to do next.

This rhythm of life was something the Ningtai County Criminal Investigation Team hadn't enjoyed in a while.

The next few days passed peacefully.

Only Da Zhuang had been recruited to the Zifengshan Coal Mine, but no results were visible in the short term.

Monday.

Jiang Yuan sat in his office, watering plants, chatting, processing last week's paperwork. No new cases had appeared, so he opened the backend again, planning to run a few fingerprint matches for fun.

He hadn't worked long when Huang Qiangmin entered the office.

"I'm going for a smoke," Wu Jun, familiar with Huang Qiangmin, saw his expression and didn't want trouble—he picked up Jiang's Zhonghua cigarettes and left.

Huang Qiangmin gave Wu Jun a smile, pulled over a chair, and sat across from Jiang Yuan: "Jiang Yuan, I've got a case—could you take a look?"

"What case?" Jiang Yuan knew it wasn't simple—if it were normal, the team captain would just issue an order; there'd be no need to ask. Even if Huang Qiangmin valued Jiang Yuan, a polite nod would suffice.

So Huang Qiangmin's serious inquiry meant Jiang Yuan needed to understand the situation.

"Er… it's a theft case, not complicated, but the victim's situation is unusual—I'm afraid of offending someone…" Huang Qiangmin paused again, then continued: "The victim is the CEO of Jianyuan Pharmaceuticals."

Jiang Yuan nodded, then looked at Huang Qiangmin with suspicion: "Do you know the CEO of Jianyuan Pharmaceuticals?"

Jianyuan Pharmaceuticals was a well-known enterprise in Qinghe City, a major taxpayer and extremely powerful. Jianyuan had been founded twenty years ago—meaning the CEO's status back then had already far surpassed Huang Qiangmin's rank as Ningtai County's Criminal Investigation Team captain.

But Huang Qiangmin had apparently been team captain even then.

Huang Qiangmin understood Jiang Yuan's implication: "I met him during a few past cases. But this time, Director's guidance is probably involved."

"Oh… right." Jiang Yuan had been about to ask where the director stood, but instantly realized the man was staying completely out of it.

Huang Qiangmin cleared his throat: "Don't overthink it—the case itself has nothing to do with us. Jianyuan just wants to keep it quiet. They're preparing for an IPO, and Yuan Jiansheng doesn't want this incident drawing outside attention, so they came to us. Jianyuan is a key enterprise in the city."

Jiang Yuan grunted: "Go on."

Huang Qiangmin chose his words carefully: "Around eight this morning, Yuan Jiansheng noticed his study door was open. Inside, he found documents, cash, and collectibles missing. Around ten, he reported it. After some back-and-forth, it ended up here."

"Is it specifically asking for you to solve it?" Jiang Yuan wanted clarity.

Huang Qiangmin grunted: "Otherwise, it wouldn't have reached our county bureau."

"Alright. Shall we go to the scene now?" Jiang Yuan paused, then added: "I'd like to bring Master."

"Bring him. Old Wu's clever," Huang Qiangmin said, slightly displeased—it meant Jiang Yuan trusted Wu Jun more than him.

Jiang Yuan didn't care. He called Wu Jun, summoned him over, and had Huang Qiangmin repeat the whole story.

Wu Jun didn't change expression—he asked as if it were routine: "What doesn't he want seen? Documents? Cash? Collectibles? Or something else?"

"Honestly? I don't know, and I don't care," Huang Qiangmin said, no longer putting on a front in front of Wu Jun: "Let's find the thief first. We'll deal with the rest later."

"Inside job?"

"Probably. At IPO time, demons run wild," Huang Qiangmin said—he'd never seen it, but he'd heard how many glittering companies, right before or after going public, suddenly spewed out strange rumors—more than they'd produced in the past ten or twenty years.

"Should we call Economic Crime?" Wu Jun asked.

Huang Qiangmin: "Not an economic case—not yet, anyway. No need to bring them in."

"No body at the scene yet—we'll go two strong," Wu Jun handed Jiang Yuan a cigarette. Jiang Yuan didn't have time to smoke, waved it off—and Wu Jun happily tucked it behind his ear.