Chapter 378: Request for Breach

After ending the call, Zheng Tianxin quickly opened his phone to read Jiang Yuan's data, reading it aloud to the prosecutor beside him: "Tian Xiang, male, 47 years old, from Luyang City, sentenced to one year and eight months for indecent assault... his broadband address is in Tianshang Village, near the property management company... his home was also demolished..."

Zheng Tianxin finished reading the file and added: "Let's head to Tianshang Village now, Prosecutor Li?"

"I'll go with you," said Prosecutor Li, who had little faith in the interrogation of Chen Youdi and didn't want to wait any longer—he decided to join them.

Zheng Tianxin nodded, assembled his team, and headed straight for Tianshang Village.

A convoy of seven or eight vehicles, all blaring sirens, sped forward recklessly.

The distance wasn't far—just over ten kilometers from the city bureau—another village situated beside the national highway. Inside, there were many self-built houses of four or five stories, each ground floor only about a hundred square meters, with no courtyards.

Most house exteriors had no tiles—just exposed cement, its color and texture *** in the air.

Occasionally, some houses had tiles, but only on the side facing the road, not even on the sides. Worse still, some had no windows at all, or only on the first and second floors, with all upper floors left empty.

"Isn't this a demolished village?" Li asked as he stepped out of the car, glancing around.

"They're all like this. Now, demolitions only cover necessary areas. In unfinished zones, they build hoping for the next demolition—since compensation is per square meter, building well is useless, and few people live here anyway." Zheng Tianxin occasionally did fieldwork and was quite familiar with his jurisdiction.

As they spoke, the sound of "Five-Five" sirens came from behind—it was Jiang Yuan's cold case task force arriving.

Both sides thought alike: at this moment, stealth arrest was out of the question; instead, they needed to intimidate the suspect and deter him from violence.

Four hours had passed since Chen Youdi's arrest; the chance of information leaking was high. If Tian Xiang, as an accomplice, was holding the victim captive, the victim was already in grave danger. But on the positive side, Tian Xiang might be asleep—or drunk under the table.

Moreover, even if Tian Xiang learned the news, whether he chose to kill the victim was uncertain. Ordinary people, if fleeing, usually delay such critical decisions until last.

That is, Tian Xiang would normally choose to first pack his bags, gather valuables, take his ID, phone, keys, wallet, make all preparations, then kill to eliminate witnesses...

As for whether Tian Xiang was normal or not, those who had never met him could only guess. The village party secretary, whom they'd contacted earlier, hurried out.

The lead detectives gave him no time to chatter—they ordered him into the car and had him guide the convoy to Tian Xiang's house.

After wasting a few minutes, the detective squad drove straight to surround Tian's residence and its surroundings.

Police officers drew their guns; others pulled shields, bulletproof vests, and stab-resistant suits from their car trunks and put them on. Several traditional assault specialists moved to the front and back doors and windows of Tian's house.

Jiang Yuan's cold case task force pulled up behind, and its members adopted similar tactics, though better and more fully equipped. "Jiang Team has arrived," Zheng Tianxin greeted Jiang Yuan politely, then introduced him to Prosecutor Li. Compared to Zheng Tianxin's complex feelings toward Jiang Yuan, Prosecutor Li displayed more of an outsider's curiosity and asked Jiang Yuan: "I heard it was hard to match Tian Xiang's fingerprints?"

People in the judicial system often speak with purpose. Prosecutor Li's first question sounded like casual chat, but he was actually gathering information for the future prosecution.

Jiang Yuan had dealt with many prosecutors before, so he didn't speak lightly. While observing Tian's house, he thought for a moment before saying: "There are certainly difficulties, because from the fingerprint distribution, it's clear Tian Xiang deliberately erased his traces."

"How can you tell?" asked Prosecutor Li, bluntly.

He was genuinely confused, and also knew judges and lawyers would ask similar questions in court.

Jiang Yuan paused, then said: "It became apparent during fingerprint scanning. In the granary, I found only four people's fingerprints. That was clearly abnormal—there were at least five corpses inside. At the time, I wasn't certain, but there were at least seven victims, plus two perpetrators, Zhang Hai and Chen Youdi—nine people had been in the granary. Yet only the two perpetrators' and two surviving victims' fingerprints remained, indicating someone had previously cleaned the granary of fingerprints and other traces."

Prosecutor Li nodded. At that moment, several forensic technicians and crime scene investigators from Luyang City, who had followed Jiang Yuan from the granary, approached. Prosecutor Li waved them over and asked Jiang Yuan: "I don't understand the tech, but I'm curious—doesn't a person have ten fingerprints? Add toe prints, since they lived in the granary—couldn't four people leave eighty fingerprints? And not all are full prints, right? Can you really distinguish how many fingerprints were there?"

"Of course."

"Under normal circumstances, no!"

"That's what I'm saying!"

While Jiang Yuan answered matter-of-factly, the other forensic technicians chuckled and mocked themselves. Zheng Tianxin stared at the laughing techs—he recognized them from the phone call.

Prosecutor Li finally caught on, looking at Jiang Yuan: "So you're the only one who can distinguish so many fingerprints? I'm not doubting you—I mean, will this hold up in court?"

"First, foot patterns differ greatly from hand patterns. The issue of barefoot prints is another matter entirely. So we're analyzing forty fingerprints, not eighty." Jiang Yuan paused, then added: "Second, there are many ways to determine whether a print belongs to the index finger, thumb, or pinky. So we don't need to count every single print—once we confirm only four types of thumb and index finger prints, we can conclude only four people were present."

The thumb plays a vital role—nearly all gripping motions require it. Theoretically, without a thumb, most hand functions are lost. Try this yourself—tape your thumb, don't cut it off.

Forensic medical evaluations provide another example. If the thumb is disabled, it's classified as serious injury level two, punishable by up to ten years. But if only the index or middle finger is injured, it's minor injury level one—a vast difference in severity.

Prosecutor Li nodded vaguely and asked: "But aren't fingerprints often incomplete?" "All fingerprints have a central region—look there first," Jiang Yuan said. Prosecutor Li turned to the other techs: "We rarely hear this. What do you say?"

"Prosecutor Li, Jiang Yuan of Ningtai—he's terrifying. That's no joke. Do you know how they identified the third accomplice?" One technician laughed louder, instantly drawing Zheng Tianxin's attention.

Prosecutor Li: "How?"

"Through bloodstain analysis—the blood spatter speed exceeded that of the two known suspects. We were almost able to estimate the suspect's age." The techs' shock far exceeded the prosecutor's—this description also eased their own tension.

Sometimes, knowing someone can do an hour of piston motion like a pile driver is very different from doing it with them in bed for an hour.

The forensic techs had scanned fingerprints in the granary with Jiang Yuan for four hours—normally a one-hour job, but due to the complexity, it took three to four times longer. That kind of agony is beyond laymen's understanding.

Prosecutor Li finally grasped the logic and repeated: "So Jiang Yuan, you confirmed a third killer first, then used fingerprints to confirm his existence?"

Jiang Yuan corrected slightly: "Initially, we confirmed a third killer was in the room. Then we found only two perpetrators' and two victims' fingerprints. After careful searching, we found a fifth person's fingerprint—and confirmed it belonged to a male with a criminal record."

. 」

The technician who had laughed earlier gave a simpler explanation: "Jiang Team had us scan every fingerprint in the entire granary."

Recalling the scene, several techs grimaced.

A gunshot rang out clearly in their ears.

Zheng Tianxin yanked Prosecutor Li behind a car. Alert officers reacted instantly.

A head appeared on the second floor of Tian's self-built house, followed by a waving handgun. A voice shouted: "Fall back! Back a hundred meters! Guns and knives don't recognize anyone—your life is yours. Don't risk it for your few thousand yuan salary!"

Honestly, under these circumstances, Tian Xiang's actions and voice genuinely had a bandit-like edge—more like a criminal than the fleeing Zhang Hai or the pitiful Chen Youdi.

Before Zheng Tianxin or others could respond, Mu Zhiyang burst out laughing.

He sprinted back to his car, pulled out a shield from the trunk, checked his bulletproof vest, and said: "Leaders, I'm fully equipped—I request a breach!"

"Breach what?" Zheng Tianxin blinked. "That's a real gun!"

"A bullet doesn't hurt that much," Mu Zhiyang tightened his helmet, then said seriously: "I've been hit—I know."