Chapter 9

The sun set, the evening glow faded.

After running outside all day, the veteran police dog Blackie dragged his weary body back to his doghouse and lay still, waiting for tonight’s beef, chicken leg, and vegetable stew.

He was a decorated dog, awarded Second-Class Merit, entitled to meal subsidies and community-police support, with a daily meal standard of 75 yuan, rain or shine.

Hou Lejia patted Blackie’s head, then dragged his own tired body back to the Criminal Investigation Team office, boiled a pot of water, made a bowl of instant noodles, tore open a ham sausage, and wolfed it down.

Halfway through his meal, his phone rang.

“Hello?” Hou Lejia frowned.

On the other end, a flat female voice said: “Chief Hou? This is the Fingerprint Unit of the Provincial Criminal Investigation Headquarters. We’ve got a match on your county’s fingerprint inquiry. I’m sending you the details now—please accept.”

Hou Lejia numbly replied, hung up, then quickly opened his police terminal to check the message.

After reading just two lines, he dropped his noodles, strode out the door, and called out: “Old Ping, gather a few men—we’re making an arrest.”

He had the habit of leading from the front—when he was a squad leader, he did it; as team captain, he still did it.

Old Ping shoved two more mouthfuls of noodles into his mouth, shouted for the team to move out, grabbed his jacket, and asked as he walked: “What case?”

“The July 15 robbery. The provincial feedback came back—the suspect’s at Tuoshan Forest Farm, a forest worker, had a clock-in record this morning.” Hou Lejia walked as he spoke: “The roads there are rough—take the pickup.”

“Got it!” Old Ping replied, then muttered: “This kid’s playing hide-and-seek under our noses. Did this forest farm just get linked to the fingerprint system this year or something?”

Many mining and manufacturing enterprises are now required to install and network biometric systems—coal mines, for example, even up to iris scanners.

But Hou Lejia shook his head: “The fingerprints were already in the system long ago—only just matched today. Arrest first, ask questions later.”

The group jogged down the stairs. Old Ping, exhausted from the day’s work, started the pickup, sighed, and asked: “Should we take Blackie? Might be useful at the forest farm?”

Hou Lejia glanced toward the doghouse—Blackie was chewing a chicken leg, enjoying it thoroughly. He hesitated: “Nah, Blackie’s tired. Let him rest. We’ll go check things out first.”

Old Ping rubbed his aching lower back and chuckled, turned the key, and drove off.

The pickup raced up the mountain.

Men ran up the mountain.

Dawn.

By then, the suspect had signed his interrogation record.

The young forest worker had only the vaguest idea of how to avoid detection, learned from movies and TV; once his false sense of luck disappeared, he was completely led by the nose by the detectives for the rest of the time.

Hou Lejia, who had stayed up all night, exhaled in relief. Amid his exhaustion, a flicker of optimism finally emerged.

Robbery is one of the eight major crimes under criminal law—the very reason “Major Case Unit” exists. The police always treat such cases with the highest priority. Last year, to solve it, Hou Lejia had run nonstop for days without sleep—and found no useful leads…

Solving this case now, and successfully arresting the suspect, gave Hou Lejia, the Criminal Investigation Team Captain, a deep sense of accomplishment.

He thought for a moment, pulled out his phone, and called Huang Qiangmin of the neighboring Ningtai County Criminal Investigation Team.

Three rings.

“Thank you, Chief Huang,” Hou Lejia said sincerely.

Huang Qiangmin was stunned: “What did I do to you now?”

“No, seriously—I mean it. Thank you.” Hou Lejia’s tone grew even more sincere. This was a thank-you call; no need to fall into their usual banter.

Huang Qiangmin chuckled: “Thank me for what?”

“You don’t know?” Hou Lejia blinked, then suddenly laughed. After laughing, he explained: “We solved the robbery case. The fingerprint match came back—we caught the guy. Funny thing about this case: the victim didn’t report it until the next day. That night it rained, so most evidence was washed away. Of course, the suspect relaxed, thought we’d forgotten the case. Huh…”

This time, it was Huang Qiangmin’s turn to fall silent.

After a few seconds, Huang Qiangmin slowly said: “So you solved a cold robbery case?”

“Yes. I arrested him myself. Thanks to your fingerprint unit—let me buy you all dinner sometime.” Hou Lejia ended the call with a grin.

Huang Qiangmin shoved his phone hard into his pocket, turned, and marched up to the fourth floor where the Forensic Science Squad was based.

He wanted to see how those constant complainers in the fingerprint unit had managed to pull off this catch.

Fingerprint Room.

Yan Ge held a steaming teacup, sipping the scalding tea, and commented on the fingerprint before him: “Too blurry. Powdered on leather? Who even thinks to do that these days for fingerprint collection…”

“Yan Ge! Wang Zhong! You’ve gotten fancy, haven’t you!” Huang Qiangmin scanned the room, his gaze sharp as a stray cat’s.

“Chief Huang!” The two fingerprint technicians jumped to their feet in alarm.

“Are you two just too bored these days?” Huang Qiangmin’s tone was stern.

The two technicians panicked. What did we do wrong? We do this all the time—never got yelled at before…

The forensic officers who’d spent years in fingerprint work had received less of Huang Qiangmin’s “military training,” but precisely because of that, they were even less prepared for his harshness.

“Finding a match is good—but didn’t you report it to your superiors first? Where’s your organizational discipline?” Huang Qiangmin’s brow furrowed, his expression fierce as if ready to kill a rat.

Yan Ge and Wang Zhong stared blankly, then shook their heads in unison.

Yan Ge whispered: “What fingerprint did we match?”

Huang Qiangmin was genuinely puzzled. He thought for a moment, then said: “Longli County solved a robbery cold case—found the suspect through fingerprint comparison. Old Hou called to thank us. Wasn’t that you two?”

“No.” Yan and Wang shook their heads again, slightly uneasy.

“Go ask around.” Huang Qiangmin sat down.

He now felt the thrill of solving a case—he urgently wanted answers, or at least a clear path.

Yan Ge and Wang Zhong each picked up their phones.

Fingerprint techs often handled cross-unit inquiries—it was normal.

Soon, they hung up and returned to Huang Qiangmin.

Huang Qiangmin studied their expressions—his face grew serious. Their demeanor was too grave, forcing him to imagine all sorts of possibilities.

“I got word,” Yan Ge cleared his throat, stepped forward, and his eyes unconsciously drifted toward the forensic pathology office: “The one who did the fingerprint match? It was Xiao Jiang—Jiang Yuan.”

“Jiang Yuan… which unit?” Huang Qiangmin couldn’t place the name. He was captain of the Criminal Investigation Team, overseeing multiple squads—criminal investigation, police dog, forensic science, narcotics—and hundreds of officers and dogs; he didn’t pay attention to newcomers.

Wang Zhong said: “The new forensic pathologist—tall guy, really tall.”

“Now I know who you mean.” Huang Qiangmin finally matched the name to the face. He had over a hundred criminal investigators, but forensic pathologists were always scarce—just one or two. Besides, Jiang Yuan’s height was unforgettable.

Once the person was identified, the three fell silent again.

Yan Ge and Wang Zhong, veteran fingerprint techs, were utterly baffled—helping other units with fingerprint inquiries was one thing; solving a fingerprint that other units couldn’t crack was another.

In short, a fingerprint match didn’t necessarily mean the print was difficult—it could simply mean the other unit’s database was incomplete. In fact, there’s no nationwide fingerprint database—not even at the provincial level—only partial databases.

So most fingerprint techs first check their own city’s criminal fingerprint database; if nothing, they check DMV or ID databases; if still nothing, they escalate to the provincial bureau, issue an inquiry, and ask other units for help.

Fingerprints that failed to match due to database gaps were familiar to Yan and Wang. Fingerprints matched purely by brute-force comparison? They’d rarely seen those.

“Let’s go see him.” Huang Qiangmin stood and walked out. Yan Ge and Wang Zhong followed without hesitation.