Chapter 324: Hell-Level Combine Harvester

With an unsolved murder still pending, a new case emerged, instantly energizing the young detectives of Jiang Yuan's Cold Case Unit.

For middle-aged and older detectives like Meng Chengbiao, the pressure of continuous operations was considerable, especially with mountains of paperwork still pending from old cases—investigating a "gang" alone made their hair fall out just thinking about it.

But for the young detectives of Jiang Yuan's Cold Case Unit, they weren't afraid of too many cases—they feared cases piling up without being solved.

With murders being resolved one after another like peeling bamboo shoots, everyone welcomed even more cases without the slightest resistance.

The current situation was more like a high-level player guiding low-level ones through XP grinding; the low-levels were busy running around and looting gear, but who would complain about too much XP from the high-level player?

The situation was now clear: anyone who thought Jiang Yuan's Cold Case Unit was overworked and wanted to be reassigned could simply say the word and be moved to a better position in minutes—but who would do that?

Zhang Xiang was still in the interrogation room, but on Jiang Yuan's Cold Case Unit's desk, the personnel files of the parking lot security guards from Qingshui Jianyuan Pharmaceutical were already laid out.

"Currently, we've confirmed 18 registered personnel, led by security team captain Bian Benwu. There were probably another twenty or thirty who previously held these positions. Additionally, each of these 18 has followers—some with one or two, others with two or three." Wang Chuanxing and Tang Jia quickly compiled the data.

The young detectives assigned to the brigade were all exceptionally sharp; they didn't need Jiang Yuan to give detailed instructions—they each pursued investigations along their own strengths.

In just two hours, they had assembled a remarkably complete list.

Some obtained off-the-record intelligence to get the current roster and retired lists; others checked Jianyuan's social insurance records; still others directly examined several WeChat groups, meticulously extracting members from the shared "Parking Lot Resources" group—exactly 18 people, matching the lists others had found.

After hearing their summary, Jiang Yuan asked: "Good. Can you extract any information from their chat records?"

"Yes, quite a bit. We're already organizing it," Tang Jia said.

Wang Chuanxing added: "They've had numerous conflicts with departing workers, some even reported to police. Most ended in reconciliation, but a few entered criminal proceedings. I skimmed through them—weapons were rarely used; mostly fists and kicks, with second-degree minor injuries being the worst."

"They're just keeping a gang of enforcers," Tang Jia remarked.

Jiang Yuan glanced at Shen Yaoguo beside him.

Zhang Xiang's interrogation wasn't over, and Shen Yaoguo was still uneasy; feeling Jiang Yuan's gaze, he protested: "Jianyuan is a factory with ten thousand workers, constantly expanding phases one, two, and three—conflicts are inevitable. It'd be strange if they didn't fight."

Shen Yaoguo detailed for Jiang Yuan: "At Jianyuan Pharmaceutical, workers today have no official status. Every day, hundreds leave and hundreds arrive; sometimes thousands. With that turnover, how could conflicts not arise?"

"Their current factory grounds now stretch right up to villagers' homes. The villagers' land was seized—they either work in the factory or run small businesses nearby. Everyone wants to make money off these ten thousand workers—how could conflicts be avoided?"

"Plus, Jianyuan has female workers—quite a few, mostly around twenty years old. Men and women mixed together, jealousy and fights are inevitable. Why call them parking lot guards? Because parking lot incidents are constant—people break heads over parking spots."

"Beyond that, truck drivers grow impatient waiting, refuse to load or unload, complain about parking spots, dispute the quality of delivered materials—good vs. defective, high-grade vs. substandard—when the facility is this large, problems multiply endlessly...

"Finally, the most important point: Jianyuan is a Qinghe City enterprise. Though it has offices in Changyang City, I have virtually no authority over them."

After explaining, Shen Yaoguo added: "Of course, I don't approve of their methods."

"This kind of operation at Jianyuan definitely needs to be dealt with."

Yu Wenshu timely stepped in to assert his presence: "I'll go communicate with Qinghe."

Jiang Yuan nodded, feeling annoyed, then comforted himself: "Fine. If there are problems, we'll lock them up first, then interrogate them thoroughly afterward."

Jiang Yuan already held a prejudice against Jianyuan Pharmaceutical. A tiny factory, yet multiple deaths had occurred—and now there's a systematic gang of enforcers. Any parking lot guard tied to a criminal case, Jiang Yuan planned to lock up.

Lock them up, then interrogate them repeatedly, dig up evidence, and the cold cases exposed might be solved faster than directly cracking new ones.

This was originally one way—and even the primary method—to break cold cases.

Especially at the county level, where detectives like Jiang Yuan, methodically tracing evidence step by step from one case to the next, are rare. Not only is it exhausting, but few detectives even possess this ability.

Only someone like Jiang Yuan—a hell-level combine harvester—equipped with multiple Level 4, 5, and even 6 skills, plus a wealth of Level 3 auxiliary skills, can pull this off.

Replace him with anyone else—even in Qinghe City, if you found one Level 5 expert, you'd call them a super soldier from the mountains. A combine harvester? Impossible.

But county bureaus still need to solve cold cases—what then? Sometimes you follow people to find cases.

For petty theft, brawls, especially outsiders with no local connections—if they commit a crime, investigators will always dig into their past.

The golden age of pre-trial interrogation was before fingerprints and DNA became common—most cold cases were unearthed through pre-trial questioning.

But after DNA became widespread, the value of pre-trial interrogation dropped sharply; many criminals could be identified just by running their prints through the database.

Jiang Yuan planned a cold case sweep targeting Jianyuan's security guards, and Yu Wenshu and the others found it perfectly normal.

Even reviewing records showed this group constantly walked the edge of the law—their likelihood of crossing it was extremely high; it was just a matter of securing evidence.

These hardened social types were masters of opportunism; without sufficient evidence, they'd never easily confess.

Like Zhang Xiang in the interrogation room—he only admitted what he couldn't escape, and refused to speak about anything else. Even if he confessed to murder, he'd never spill details about minor cases—he was an exceptionally stubborn suspect.

Now we just need to see if the rest are equally tough.

After completing their reports, the Cold Case Unit members each picked a lead or a case and went off to work independently—no instructions from Jiang Yuan needed; they were the very model of self-initiative.

Jiang Yuan felt comfortable; the team felt comfortable too.

Everyone genuinely wanted some autonomy. Even if Jiang Yuan micromanaged the entire Cold Case Unit, the team would still cooperate fully—though Jiang Yuan himself would feel more exhausted.

Not long after, the first clever young detective appeared, bringing a stack of injury case fingerprints—all from incidents near Jianyuan Pharmaceutical.

Jiang Yuan took them, his eyes flickered, and he decided: forget provincial, municipal, or national databases—just pull the parking lot security guards' fingerprints and compare directly.

Jianyuan was a big company; all guards had to register and submit fingerprints. Of course, these 18 men had all been to police stations before—fingerprints were everywhere.

Their followers and retired guards' prints were incomplete, but Jiang Yuan didn't care—he first reviewed all the fingerprints he had, then examined each case fingerprint one by one.

When he sensed a possible match, he'd go back and recheck the fingerprints.

This method skipped fingerprint feature marking entirely.

Marking features was meant for computers; humans didn't need it—our brains naturally judged whether two fingerprints looked alike.

Jiang Yuan's speed with this method was far faster; in moments, he'd filtered out three matching cases.

"Pity—only three fingerprints matched," Jiang Yuan shook his head.

Yu Wenshu had just stepped out to make a few calls; now seeing Jiang Yuan finish reviewing the prints, he paused and asked: "Three matches?"

"Direct comparison between fingerprints and suspects' prints," Jiang Yuan said.

"That works," Yu Wenshu's gaze sharpened: "This at least proves one thing—this small gang isn't clean. Hmm... Shen Zhi, why don't we combine forces and arrest the entire parking lot security team?"

Eighteen men, plus their followers, plus uncertain numbers of former guards—arresting this many would normally require hundreds of officers; even the Criminal Investigation Brigade would feel stretched thin. But with the Public Security Brigade added, it'd be manageable.

Shen Yaoguo hadn't expected Yu Wenshu to be so decisive: "On what grounds? Shouldn't we investigate first, set up surveillance, then arrest?"

"They're not the target—just a bunch of lackeys. Even if one or two escape, it doesn't matter. The real issue is what we do after catching them."

"Without evidence, you can't hold them long. Jianyuan Pharmaceutical will react."

Yu Wenshu knew full well Shen Yaoguo didn't grasp Jiang Yuan's strength. He directly gestured toward Jiang Yuan: "How long has Jiang Yuan been working on this murder cold case? These people aren't that cautious—but if we don't arrest them all now, by the time Jiang Yuan gathers the evidence, they'll be long gone."

Shen Yaoguo looked at Jiang Yuan.

The hell-level combine harvester smiled, as if flames radiated from his body.