Chapter 346: Publicity

The old cases were things Jiang Yuan had done before.

Of course, in solving cases, there's no need to seek novelty or strangeness—any method that solves the case is a good one; who cares if it was used before?

In fact, ordinary police officers always reuse methods they've already employed; otherwise, if you tried some new, strange, bizarre technique on a major case, it might look impressive if it succeeded—but what if it failed? The bosses of criminal investigators really can be vicious when they yell—crude and brutal.

Jiang Yuan himself upgraded his skills quickly, but his subordinates didn't have such conditions.

People like Wang Chuanxing, even when reopening old cases, were trembling with fear, terrified of making mistakes or overlooking something that might cause problems in this case under central ministry supervision.

But after the first half of the night passed, by the second half, Wang Chuanxing and the others had calmed down—or rather, their anxiety had been exhausted, leaving only numbness and persistence.

Jiang Yuan also sat there, staring dumbly at case after case.

The most exhausting part of criminal investigations is the feet, hands, and eyes—running endless miles, writing endless reports, reading endless case files.

Most cases can be handled step by step, turning detectives into something like corporate salespeople, just running errands and writing documents every day.

Only a tiny minority of cases truly demand mental effort—and those are excruciating.

For instance, this current case: finding a similar child abduction case is still extremely difficult.

What's the simplest standard for similarity?

No one can define it. Since the criminals differ, investigators can only guess without prior knowledge of the offender.

Child abduction in a vegetable market? That's definitely an A-level similarity. Too bad no identical case exists.

Child abduction in a busy place, using non-violent methods? Roughly C-level. But the few cases found all had obvious differences.

Abducting multiple children over a short period? That should be B-level. Too bad no similar case was found.

"No more cases." When dawn's first light appeared, the last case file had been read.

Gao Changjiang also looked disappointed, sighing: "Looks like this path leads nowhere."

"Look at case files from a few more provinces," Jiang Yuan showed no intention of giving up.

Gao Changjiang frowned. "Is it necessary?"

"You can pursue other plans if you have them—I'll lead my team in searching old cases." Jiang Yuan's confidence came from his comprehensive skills. He had reviewed every possible clue from the Guqi case—fingerprints, traces, footage—all of them essentially unbreakable.

Given Jiang Yuan possessed so many skills, including multiple Level 3, Level 4, and even Level 6 abilities, persisting blindly on current case clues was unwise.

From Jiang Yuan's own perspective, searching old cases was the smarter approach, not a clumsy one.

Or rather, when no smarter method exists, a clumsy one at least has a chance of working.

Gao Changjiang lacked Jiang Yuan's technical ability and still held hopes for the experts—though experts in other fields might have alternative breakthrough methods, that was beyond Jiang Yuan's reach.

With his own capabilities and skill range, Jiang Yuan believed he had chosen the most appropriate approach—and he was still far from hitting a wall. Seeing this, Gao Changjiang couldn't force Jiang Yuan to follow orders. He saw he had brought eight people with him and assumed Jiang Yuan was just naturally independent.

Thinking this way, Gao Changjiang gained two more points of respect for Jiang Yuan—after all, he was at least an experienced team leader.

"Alright, you go through the files yourself. As for us…" Gao Changjiang turned to the other experts.

"If all else fails, let's scan the surveillance footage from the time of the incident again," suggested the video expert, naturally proposing a video-based solution.

"We could further analyze the footprints—track the gait—but it's too chaotic…" The footprint expert offered a footprint-based suggestion.

Jiang Yuan watched silently. Honestly, he understood a bit about video and a bit about footprints; based on the photos and scene conditions, he felt neither would work.

The offender chose the simplest, most effective path: leave all traces on the children and the environment, then flee into areas hard to track, taking the children with him.

Such a mature criminal method requires not only extensive experience from the offender, but also environmental adaptability and considerable proficiency. That's why Jiang Yuan had limited his search for case files to neighboring provinces and within the past two years.

Based on Jiang Yuan's current experience, these two judgments were nearly spot-on.

Jiang Yuan rubbed his head and returned to his room to continue reading case files.

This time, he didn't spend long.

An old case from a neighboring province caught Jiang Yuan's attention.

The crime occurred at a rural market fair—somewhat similar to a vegetable market, but that alone meant little; the key was how the child was taken: the trafficker first located a child out of parental control, then claimed to take them to their mother.

The child, hearing they were going to find their mother, followed willingly. Then one walked ahead, one behind, no need for hugging or coaxing.

But this time, because the child was slightly older—a six-year-old—he started calling out for his mother while walking, drawing attention from bystanders. Still, the trafficker fled decisively.

Jiang Yuan recalled the four Guqi cases. Two mentioned children losing parental control and sight; two did not.

Jiang Yuan immediately found Gao Changjiang: "Call the victims' families and ask if they've hidden any details."

"You want them to admit the children were first out of control before going missing? That's difficult," Gao Changjiang immediately sensed the challenge.

Jiang Yuan said: "This is a critical factor for case linkage. And it's not about legal 'loss of control'—if a child isn't holding hands and is out of sight for a few seconds, even ten or fifteen seconds, that counts as loss of control."

Gao Changjiang thought for a moment, then sighed: "Alright, I'll ask."

It must be said that Jiang Yuan's approach had real merit—Gao Changjiang, despite fearing reprimand, contacted both victim families and obtained the results smoothly.

"They really all lost sight of their children," Gao Changjiang said after hanging up, sounding oddly puzzled: "So the trafficker is just picking up stray kids?"

"It's also filtering out the easiest targets," Jiang Yuan paused, then added: "If so, we can start by solving old cases."

If you can't solve the new case, search old ones—that's a normal approach.

The key is finding old cases and linking them to the new one.

At this point, Gao Changjiang began to realize Jiang Yuan's strength. Without another word, he followed Jiang Yuan's lead.

pt.

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