Chapter 232: Downward

After the meal.

Dazhuang and Heizi had their own respective tasks and went off to work.

Jiang Yuan, however, stayed behind, having nothing he absolutely had to do.

There were quite a few reinforcements arriving from various places now, and at the very least, they were all operating in squadron-sized units. Only police dogs remained scarce, and every location was putting in requests for them.

Jiang Yuan wasn't too keen on going back to sleep on the large shared platform bed in the dormitory either.

He drove straight to the local vegetable market, found a produce stall, bought a large amount of vegetables and meat, and then asked the landlady about renting a house.

The landlady looked at him uncertainly and said, "You're only staying for a few days, aren't the Mining Bureau already finding houses for you all?"

For those still working in this small town, basically everyone had relatives or friends in the government or state-owned enterprises, and the speed at which internal news traveled was faster than internet porn.

Jiang Yuan didn't answer her question and said directly, "I'll rent for two months at the market rate, and I'll pay an extra month's rent."

Jiang Yuan might not know much about other businesses, but he knew too much about being a landlord.

Increasing the rent by 50% or so was already a "big killer" in the rental market, and especially with the offer of paying an extra month, it felt very satisfying.

The landlady hesitated for a moment and, as expected, asked, "What kind of house are you looking for?"

"One with a courtyard, where I can cook, where there's a place to sleep in the rooms, the kind that can be slept in after a little tidying up," Jiang Yuan said, then added, "The location shouldn't be too far from town. The price can be flexible."

With that last sentence, the landlady said, "My relative has a house, shall I call and ask for you?"

"Good." That was Jiang Yuan's goal.

Judging from yesterday's reconnaissance results, Jiang Yuan estimated he would have to stay here for several days.

Pumping out the water wasn't something that could be finished in a day, and as for the subsequent investigation, there was no telling what the results would be.

As for Liu Jinghui...

The only thing that could be done now was a dragnet-style search, which was work Xu Taining was relatively skilled at. He just hoped he could maintain his state.

The market landlady communicated on the phone for quite a while before returning to tell Jiang Yuan, "My relative's old house is empty. The location is good, and it's spacious. He prepared it for his parents, but the old folks think the town is too noisy and aren't very willing to live there..."

Although he felt Zifeng Town was already desolate enough, Jiang Yuan still nodded.

"The furniture and appliances inside are all complete. The rent is 6,000 yuan a month. With a two-month deposit, as you said, staying for two months and paying for three, that's five months total, which comes to 30,000 yuan..."

The landlady stared at Jiang Yuan, fearing he would think it was too expensive.

In Zifeng Town, not only were there very few people renting, but rents couldn't be set high either.

6,000 yuan exceeded the monthly income of many people.

"That works." Jiang Yuan, however, had no intention of haggling at all.

Seeing Jiang Yuan was so easy to talk to, the landlady instantly understood: "You're renting this for your leaders, right? Should I use your name or the unit's name? We only have receipts, actually, if you're willing to report a bit more..."

Jiang Yuan responded casually. After seeing the house, he found the living conditions were indeed acceptable; not only was there a courtyard of over a hundred square meters, but the privacy of having a detached house was also very good.

Additionally, this place had a structure similar to a Sihe Academy, meaning there were two-story small buildings on all four sides, and just the rooms of several dozen square meters each numbered over a dozen.

Moreover, at the entrance of every room, there were wooden boards hanging with their uses: Rice Granary, Noodle Pressing Li Jianfang, Miscellaneous Grain Li Jianfang, Cured Meat Li Jianfang, Entertainment Li Jianfang, Mahjong Li Jianfang, Poker Li Jianfang...

There weren't many fancy furniture styles, focusing mainly on practicality.

The Mahjong Li Jianfang was just an automatic mahjong table with four chairs. The Poker Li Jianfang was just an ordinary mahjong table with six chairs. The Noodle Pressing Li Jianfang was just a bare folding table with a noodle press...

This courtyard seemed to be demonstrating one thing to Jiang Yuan: Chinese people could live just as wantonly as Americans, as long as our houses were big enough.

There were five bedrooms that could be lived and slept in, each with an area comparable to a house in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou. Jiang Yuan picked one with a bathroom, signed the agreement with the landlord on the spot, and transferred four months of his salary.

Following that, Jiang Yuan remembered what the landlady had said earlier and called Huang Qiangmin, Liu Wenkai, and the others.

The house here was big enough; if they were willing to have two or three people per room, fitting the entire Ningtai County team in wouldn't be a problem.

Jiang Yuan suggested just that; it was just a matter of buying a few beds, and it would be more comfortable than staying in a guesthouse.

After finishing the calls, Jiang Yuan reported his safety to his father on WeChat and described his experience of renting the house.

Father Jiang felt extremely proud and proved his mood with a transfer of 【amount】 yuan.

Jiang Yuan sat peacefully in the courtyard waiting for people to arrive, opened his memo, and took notes, recording today's expenses:

Expenditure: Groceries, 380 yuan; Rent, 30,000 yuan (3 months rent, 2 months deposit).

Received: Father's subsidy of 【amount】 yuan (for maintaining good relations with colleagues).

Daily surplus: 【amount】 yuan.

An hour later, Huang Qiangmin arrived at the small courtyard Jiang Yuan had just rented with the criminal police.

After having stayed on the large shared platform bed, this two-story house with multiple rooms made everyone exceptionally satisfied.

Huang Qiangmin had Jiang Yuan take out the lease and immediately called the team's administrative staff to have the rent and grocery money transferred to Jiang Yuan.

For public matters, private funds definitely couldn't be used.

Jiang Yuan followed suit and accepted it, returned to the large bedroom he had chosen first, and revised today's expenses:

Daily surplus: 【amount】 yuan.

As a forensic expert, this could be considered a very high income.

Another day.

A water rescue team found by Xu Taining brought over a dozen water pumps in one go and began pumping the water inside the mine shaft.

The Zifeng Mountain Mining Bureau was a state unit, and they had to handle abandoned mine shafts within their jurisdiction; the usual plan was filling or blasting.

Otherwise, if left unattended, the large amount of stored groundwater would cause changes in the geological structure. If production were to continue, it could create new dangers. For example, in a certain mine disaster at a ridge, the excavation of a new mine shaft breached an abandoned one, and the resulting influx of groundwater led to the deaths of many people.

As for the detailed mapping of mine shafts that some people imagined, those were actually just stories that existed on paper.

The excavation of mine shafts was done by specialized excavation teams. But specialized excavation teams were still just blue-collar miners and didn't possess the ability to map on paper.

Of course, with the current level of internal competition, there might be some engineers in high-spec coal mines. However, expecting everyone to work seriously and map accurately was still a very high-spec requirement.

The mine shaft near the parking lot couldn't even be talked about in terms of records.

Of course, the police had no demands regarding this either.

It was just that water dozens of meters deep wasn't easy to pump at all.

The mine shaft here wasn't really like a well, poked straight down like a bucket.

From the outside, it was first a large rectangular pool, square and upright, with all four sides cut out, and the cross-section was the size of a playground.

The groundwater that seeped in had been gushing out for years, so the pool was almost in a state of overflowing.

Over a dozen water pumps were pumping hard around the large pool, and under the huge noise, the water level was dropping very slowly.

The water rescue team that came over saw this and immediately found Xu Taining, approved another 10 water pumps, and transported them up as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, the mine shaft gradually narrowed; at a depth of forty meters, it was estimated to be the length and width ratio of a room.

Huang Qiangmin brought a few people, set up a tent directly, and guarded the side of the mine shaft.

He also agreed with the judgment of Jiang Yuan and Xu Taining. With so many people recruited here for auxiliary work, who knew if the criminal wouldn't join in.

Asking himself, if anyone had committed such a serious case and discovered that an investigation team had moved into the local area, how could they not get involved?

In order to prevent the mine shaft or equipment from being damaged, Huang Qiangmin began arranging duty personnel after the water rescue team came up.

The civil police of the second team were still idle for the time being, which was just right for them to investigate around the mine shaft.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan appeared slightly anxious instead.

The mine shaft in front of him was indeed what he considered the place most likely to hide a corpse.

Not only because many other places had been searched, but also because he associated it with the reservoir corpse-hiding case.

The reservoir corpse-hiding case killer Wang Guoshan chose to hide the corpse in the reservoir, which certainly had childhood memory points.

At the same time, it might also be because he had a reverse memory that hiding a corpse in water was safer.

Criminals' behavioral patterns all had traces to follow.

Or rather, human behavioral patterns all had traces to follow.

Many people, during the process of committing a crime, would deliberately create unconventional behavioral patterns, but there were always some behavioral patterns that couldn't be changed.

Even scholars from the Chinese Academy of Sciences or generals in the military had certain rules for doing things.

Criminal psychology studied this aspect of content.

Jiang Yuan's understanding of this was very superficial, but seeing the large water surface here, what came to his mind was the reservoir.

He was pinning his hopes on this now.

If no corpse or evidence came out of the mine shaft, Liu Jinghui would really be in danger.

If things went wrong, he might really be lost.

Jiang Yuan thought this without a word, just silently watching the water level getting lower and lower.

The next day, the water finally receded completely.

The "water ghosts" began to go down to search.

Jiang Yuan, on the other hand, cooked personally, using a cassette stove to make a meal for the police dogs.

This time, there was a portion not only for Dazhuang but also for Heizi.

Heizi ate with such excitement. If it weren't for its remaining reason, it would probably have laid down in front of Jiang Yuan and exposed its belly.

Dazhuang was slightly unhappy, but after Li Li's soothing, it obediently finished its meal.

By the afternoon, the water level was below 8 meters, and even Xu Taining couldn't help but run over to take a look.

Under the simultaneous roar of the water pumps, large concrete blocks and old-time trash appeared at the mine shaft.

From Jiang Yuan's layman's perspective, this place looked like the Mining Bureau's landfill, and seven or eight out of ten were illegal.

But the things everyone was looking forward to more didn't float to the surface.

"Continue digging downward." Huang Qiangmin didn't wait for Jiang Yuan's feedback and directly found Xu Taining to make a suggestion.

Having reached this step, not continuing to dig was impossible.

The leaders of the Mining Bureau silently mobilized several of their unit's vehicles.

Also coming to help were several miners from the Mining Bureau.

Everyone worked together to move the concrete blocks at the bottom, and before they had moved two, a smell began to waft up.

Neither of the two police dogs had a chance to go into action before they began barking. ===== CHAPTER 233 =====