Chapter 345: Wrapping Up

When Jiang Yuan arrived at the scene, a crowd had already gathered outside the cordon.

There were villagers come to gawk, passersby eager for more drama, and parents wailing in despair.

"Officer, officer, please check— is my child inside?" A tricycle pulled up at the intersection; a couple sprinted over, clutching a photo of their child.

The officer grabbed was a patrolman on the outer perimeter; he'd faced this before, and after a troubled glance at the photo, he muttered something under his breath.

The two immediately burst into tears, hugging their heads.

Jiang Yuan and the officers accompanying him acted as if they saw nothing. By protocol, case details were not to be disclosed before the investigation was closed; any public release required approval from senior leadership. Thus, in cases drawing public outcry, the police still kept silent.

But grassroots work had never been run by regulations, and Jiang Yuan and the other technicians had no authority to teach others how to do their jobs.

Jiang Yuan walked silently into the youth hostel.

A stale odor of human sweat hit him—like a male dormitory.

Everyone disliked the smell, so they clustered in the courtyard to talk, hold meetings, and issue orders. In fact, this was the heart of the hostel; normally, Li Huaqiang observed incoming groups and backpackers right here.

Occasionally, when the reality of a group clashed with a backpacker's ideals, Li Huaqiang earned a little extra income.

Of course, they were now locked up in detention, and if they ever got out again, they'd likely never return to the front lines.

"Expert Jiang," Gao Changjiang exhaled hot air, his spirits slightly elevated.

The case was essentially solved—at least most of it. The five extra children had made things more complicated, but Gao Changjiang wasn't overly worried; after breaking such a difficult case, following the trail was nothing.

Of course, who followed the trail mattered—following a brilliant person meant catching a big melon; following a fool meant chasing a wild boar.

Jiang Yuan glanced around, confirming: "I heard five more children were found?"

"Yes. Two were stolen on the spot by them; the other three were bought from another gang, who'd kidnapped them from two nearby cities—the local police have already arrived." Gao Changjiang nodded. "These people are trafficking children and making profit from the price difference."

"How?"

"If someone needs to offload fast or has no channels, they sell for one or two ten thousand. People like them can sell for three or four ten thousand, buy for two or three, or even hold for a few days until someone offers five ten thousand." Gao Changjiang frowned. "With places to hide and sales channels, they make money."

"So many people are involved?"

"Mm."

"A child sells for four or five ten thousand. At five ten thousand each, nine children are worth 450, 00?" Jiang Yuan suddenly started calculating.

Gao Changjiang, confused, replied: "If you treat them as goods, the average is about four ten thousand—maybe 350, 00 gross at most."

"Then over thirty people are involved—each gets less than ten thousand on average…" Jiang Yuan continued calculating. "That means they'd need to pull off several such cases a year, each person trafficking four or five children, just to match the income of manual labor?"

"Mm." Gao Changjiang gave a heavy nod. If you did the math, it really was that simple.

For such chain-structured gangs, even if a child's final sale price reached seven or eight ten thousand—or even seventeen or eighteen ten thousand—the average profit per link in the chain was around ten thousand.

In other words, professional child traffickers had to commit multiple cases annually just to earn as much as a day laborer.

Gao Changjiang shook his head. "We've extracted several leads and plan to follow them. Expert Jiang, what's your plan?"

He no longer dared give direct orders, letting Jiang Yuan operate freely.

As long as the case got solved, how tasks were assigned didn't matter much.

Gao Changjiang's willingness to delegate made Jiang Yuan feel at ease. For him, solving the case offered countless approaches, especially with so much evidence and so many witnesses. After brief thought, he said: "I'll start by sweeping the scene. After that, I'll decide."

Interrogation wasn't his strength, but crime scene investigation was well within his expertise. The sooner the scene was processed, the better; other leads could be pursued later. Besides, Jiang Yuan's scene examination was itself the process of securing evidence.

Expecting members of such criminal gangs to confess was nearly impossible. To secure heavy sentences, the evidence had to be rock-solid.

Jiang Yuan called two people over to accompany him and began wiping down traces in the youth hostel.

Such a large space, constantly occupied by new people, made finding usable traces difficult. Yet Jiang Yuan worked with unusual meticulousness.

At the same time, he didn't neglect using the nearby Liu Expert—whose expertise in reconstructing crime scenes gave him valuable insight into analyzing movement patterns and spatial relationships.

The night passed without incident.

The next morning, Jiang Yuan went to rest; Wu Xia had finished matching all the fingerprints he'd lifted.

By noon, the DNA lab began releasing reports one after another.

At this point, information surfaced on multiple ex-convicts, and simultaneously, DNA and fingerprints of several missing persons were matched.

Indeed, the traces in the youth hostel were extremely complex—so numerous, theoretically unusable.

But among those who'd left traces in this black-market hostel, the proportion of trafficked victims and ex-convicts was astonishingly high.

When these findings were compiled, many officers—including Gao Changjiang—fell silent.

"This place has become a transit station for trafficked people," Gao Changjiang said, his tone grim, devoid of any triumph from cracking the case.

Trafficking women and children differed from ordinary crimes in one key way: the crime was ongoing.

Murder was terrifying, but death occurred in moments; robbery, arson, theft, even rape—all had limited durations.

Trafficking was different. Unless the case was solved or the victim died, the victim remained in a state of violation, trapped in pain and helplessness.

This made solving the case profoundly heavy and solemn.

Gao Changjiang returned home for a few hours; when he came back to the bureau, he began assembling teams and preparing to move out.

This was a ministry-designated case—it could be closed quickly, or pursued deeply. Gao Changjiang clearly chose the latter.

Over a hundred criminal investigators split into six teams and set out to apprehend the matched ex-convicts.

Victims were hard to find, but perpetrators rarely hid. Their violence and crimes were usually aimed at bettering their social lives—for comfort and enjoyment, not the opposite.

Jiang Yuan stayed at the bureau, constantly cross-referencing people and cases.

More and more trafficked children and women were being rescued.

Jiang Yuan remained until year's end, then quietly returned to Ningtai County.