Chapter 325: Mechanics

A squad of security guards was arrested in full, and this move first shocked Yuan Jiansheng.

Immediately after, Yu Wenshu began frantically answering calls.

Yu Wenshu had anticipated this; he showed no expression, calmly picked up the phone, gave a few standard replies, then hung up and waited for the next round.

Shen Yaoguo was much the same, but he wasn't as composed as Yu Wenshu—he found a hiding spot, smiling broadly as he answered and hung up calls.

The two of them were like two operators, their phones growing hot from constant use, until the call frequency gradually slowed.

"From outside the office, you'd think the team leader was strategizing from afar; come inside and you realize he's just a messenger, a phone-answering machine," Yu Wenshu said, finally exhaling after nearly three minutes without a new call, smiling and shaking his head at Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan understood: "Relaying orders up and down is part of the middle link in strategic planning."

When he ate meals from a hundred households in Jiang Village, he still paid attention to people's expressions. It was only after the demolition made him rich and he went to college that he gradually let this skill atrophy.

Yu Wenshu burst out laughing—he was perfectly happy as long as Jiang Yuan didn't step on his face.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan saying one kind word felt like healing Yu Wenshu's overheated ears from all the calling.

"It doesn't matter—just proceed as usual. When it comes to these provincial and municipal key enterprises, someone always comes to plead for leniency. Those who plead are fine; some even want to understand the situation… but it's all useless. Once a criminal case is filed and arrests begin, pleading and seeking information are just formalities in my view. I'll go through the motions too." Yu Wenshu muttered these words mainly to ease Jiang Yuan's state.

The parking lot security team of Jianyuan was rounded up in significant numbers, but the next step requires Jiang Yuan to lock down certain evidence.

Of course, Yu Wenshu believed that with threats and deception, they might still catch a few more people—but seeing how Zhang Xiang never acted without seeing the rabbit, he knew this approach would be difficult and couldn't hope to catch everyone.

"Now it's up to you," Yu Wenshu said, fully prepared as a cheerleader.

Jiang Yuan had also been preparing all along; he nodded and said: "Then follow the plan—first examine the equipment and tools they brought back."

Jiang Yuan himself was also experimenting with different techniques to solve cases.

Even a combine harvester has an operational sequence.

For today's case, Jiang Yuan felt he should fully utilize his Level 6 Tool Trace Identification skill.

At Level 6, Tool Trace Identification offers superlative accuracy and speed when analyzing ordinary tools—basically, a single glance tells him whether the trace matches the current case.

Moreover, due to his extreme familiarity with tool traces, Jiang Yuan could memorize dozens of tool-trace records at once—though only temporarily, this greatly improved his work efficiency.

A regular trace examiner would typically begin by observing—not just with the naked eye, but also using a magnifying glass and microscope.

The goal was not only to find distinctive features, but also to record the dimensions, size, shape, outline, etc., and the most standard practice required sketching a feature diagram.

Jiang Yuan skipped all these intermediate steps entirely, memorizing multiple traces simultaneously and comparing them against multiple tools.

At this time, the Criminal Science and Technology Center under Wan Baoming had also sent three trace examiners to assist—three young men in their early twenties, at the age when they were learning new techniques and methods—watching Jiang Yuan's approach, their faith nearly collapsed.

"Team Leader Jiang, there are still many tool traces in these case files—why don't we start with just these?" One trace examiner flipped through the files, showing Jiang Yuan several photos of tool traces, unable to hold back his words.

After showing Jiang Yuan over a dozen cases' tool traces in one go, he began doubting and becoming uncertain.

Could anyone possibly remember this many?

Jiang Yuan didn't bother explaining: "Then sketch some feature diagrams to reinforce memory."

Feature diagrams differ from fingerprint minutiae—fingerprint minutiae are for computer software and courts, while tool trace feature diagrams are for personal use.

So, feature diagrams could be drawn very simply, without needing to be pretty or realistic—just a few quick strokes to indicate the trace's features, or even if they didn't fully represent it, as long as the drawer understood.

Thus, the three trace examiners from Changyang City witnessed Jiang Yuan's wild, freehand script.

Jiang Yuan did have a sketching skill, but for drawing feature diagrams, the only useful part of sketching was the lines.

By the end, Jiang Yuan even began drawing entire feature diagrams with a single line.

The three young trace examiners dared not speak, didn't understand, just stared dumbfounded at Jiang Yuan's actions, trying desperately to hold up their crumbling skill trees.

"Found one. This A27 indentation mark was made by B109 wire cutters. Let's see what case this is."

When Jiang Yuan began truly working the case, the three young trace examiners were completely stunned.

A27 was Jiang Yuan's own designation—the A-series represented traces appearing in case files; B109 was a tool brought back by detectives, labeled with B and numbered sequentially with photos—B109 also referred to the photo's number.

Hundreds of traces, hundreds of tools—forcing memory of them all seemed like a joke.

But for a Level 6 skill, categorizing and memorizing was child's play.

One trace examiner quickly fetched the photo of A27 and the physical tool corresponding to B109.

Seeing that A27 was a sliding window latch with clear pry marks on both sides, they knew Jiang Yuan wasn't guessing.

All three involuntarily crowded forward, joining Jiang Yuan to compare A27 with the B109 wire cutters.

The width of the cutter's top matched, the number of side teeth matched, and upon closer inspection, the protrusions and depressions seemed identical too—though they examined slowly and couldn't yet confirm identity, the absence of any discrepancy almost confirmed the answer.

"How did you find this?" The youngest trace examiner couldn't help but reveal a look of longing. This was a martial arts manual—if anyone mastered this skill, they'd truly fear nothing in the world.

Jiang Yuan, while making notes, passed the case file to Wang Chuan beside him for the interrogators, and explained: "There are many possible interpretations for this pry mark. I first saw the pry mark, then considered which of the collected tools could have made it, then thought about which traces were similar in size. Also, one point worth extra attention is the issue of static load…"

The first half of Jiang Yuan's explanation, everyone listened carefully and tried to memorize.

The second half, the three young trace examiners slowly lost all light in their eyes.

Delving deeply into tool trace examination meant studying the physics of force—common forces and reaction forces, stress, external forces… and critically, the direction of force, magnitude, and contact relationships between points, lines, and surfaces.

But as everyone knows, once mechanics is involved—whether theoretical mechanics, materials mechanics, structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, elasticity mechanics, plasticity mechanics, damage mechanics, fracture mechanics, vibration mechanics, explosion mechanics—

none of it is good.

"I'll go get the photos," said the youngest trace examiner, offering a knowing smile.

"I'll go get the case files," said the slightly younger one, following right behind.

"I… will get you some water," said the adult trace examiner, bowing his head, face filled with reverence and obedience.