Chapter 904

Three paths of attack, and all three returned empty-handed, but the spirits of the criminal police in Jiang Yuan's cold case task force did not seem to be affected.

Jiang Yuan, having come out of that "urban primeval forest," had long since calmed his mood and took the initiative to greet them: "I'll treat everyone to dinner tonight. Let's eat first and wait to see the feedback from the other departments."

Lively expressions thus appeared on everyone's faces.

Su Shanming observed the members of Jiang Yuan's cold case task force with some curiosity. Strictly speaking, he was the captain of the Changle City Criminal Police Detachment, with a rank similar to that of Huang Qiangmin before. Of course, he only had twenty-some people under him, but in terms of seniority and rank, he was much higher than Jiang Yuan. However, now that he had to follow Jiang Yuan's command, Su Shanming couldn't say he was unconvinced, but he still had some thoughts in his heart.

At least in this case, Su Shanming had not seen Jiang Yuan display any particularly special strength. Unless this ability to not be discouraged by defeat also counted as part of his strength?

As Su Shanming thought this, he watched Jiang Yuan make a right turn ahead and enter the "Xingyue Building" in front of them.

Su Shanming couldn't help but reach out forward, intending to call Jiang Yuan to a stop.

How could a place like the Xingyue Building be something a criminal police officer could afford to treat people to? Moreover, one couldn't let Jiang Yuan treat people at such a place; wouldn't that be fleecing him?

But in the moment of hesitation, Jiang Yuan and the others had already entered the Xingyue Building, chatting and laughing.

Su Shanming sighed and could only follow, taking the opportunity to send a message to the detachment captain, thinking to himself that if it really came to it, the detachment would just reimburse the meal. In fact, given the current income levels, ordinary eating and drinking were no longer a big deal; it was just that every city always had one hotel that wanted to carve out a unique path, giving those who wanted to "bleed" for their health a place to go.

Su Shanming entered the Xingyue Building in two or three steps and saw various fierce-looking seafood in the temporary holding tank at the entrance, waving their claws and shouting "Eat me, eat me," and couldn't help but shake his head to himself.

Walking two steps inside, Su Shanming was just thinking about what to say when he saw Jiang Yuan and his group coming back out, chatting and laughing again.

Su Shanming nodded secretly to himself. Jiang Yuan and the others knew when to turn back and were flexible; that was quite a good psychological quality.

Su Shanming stepped forward and said with a smile: "Actually, I know a few good places where the taste is excellent; there's no need to head for this kind of place."

"It's already been ordered; let's go back and eat." Jiang Yuan smiled, not letting Su Shanming finish his sentence.

Su Shanming was stunned: "Ordered?"

"Yes, I only realized after coming in that it's a high-end restaurant, and it's not appropriate for us to eat inside while wearing uniforms. I had them prepare it and send it over; it's just right to invite the criminal police from the other teams who are working overtime to eat together." Jiang Yuan paused and said: "I'm treating everyone to this meal. This case has been delayed for so long; everyone has worked hard."

Everyone expressed:

"It's no trouble, no trouble."

"It's nothing..."

"No need, Captain Jiang..."

Jiang Yuan just waved his hand; he was a leader of some standing now. As for how to be a leader, he naturally didn't know, but based on his limited experience and personal ability, spending money to treat everyone to a meal was at least not wrong, and the cost of trial and error was very low.

The social expenses his father gave him were so high that the bank manager had to call him; ordering a meal from the "Xingyue Building" was just a drop in the bucket.

Returning to the criminal police detachment, Jiang Yuan and the others set up shop in the cafeteria and invited the detachment captain and others.

Shortly after, the bureau chief and the leaders in charge also arrived at the cafeteria automatically. In the past, this would have been a level that required the entire detachment to clean up the place at least once.

Huang Qiangmin was forced to appear to accompany them. Fortunately, everyone's case had reached a stalemate, making it unsuitable for drinking, and without the addition of alcohol, the table where the leaders sat was very oppressive.

The meal was eaten quickly. Detachment Captain Lang Heng was responsible for adjusting the atmosphere, but soon there were no more topics, so he simply brought up work and said: "Captain Jiang, what is the plan for the next step?"

"Let's first see if your image investigation and technical investigation teams can find anyone." Jiang Yuan said with a smile, looking at the captain of the image investigation detachment next to him with an appearance of having high emotional intelligence and no ulterior motives.

The bureau chief and others naturally cast their gazes over.

"This case is now our main target!" The captain of the image investigation detachment slapped his chest with a loud thud.

"Thank you all for your hard work." Jiang Yuan thanked them and added: "Actually, I also understand that image investigation is limited by the density of equipment and may not necessarily find clues. However, once image investigation can find clues, they are often decisive and have the effect of settling the matter with one hammer blow, so I have to trouble you to look a bit more."

"We understand." The captain of the image investigation detachment breathed a sigh of relief. He was also afraid that Jiang Yuan would be ignorant and keep pushing and chasing time, or even set a time limit for solving the case, which would be difficult.

Setting a time limit for solving a case is like setting a time limit for getting married; it is not a goal that you can definitely achieve just by working hard. Sometimes, if you can't do it, you can't do it. It's not something you can solve just by having more funds, being willing to spend money, or risking your life. It's even harder for people who are poor, stingy, and lack courage—and that's talking about solving cases.

Liu Jinghui had discussed it with Jiang Yuan in advance. At this moment, he applied a little pressure and said: "After the victim Chen Nuan left the restaurant, she should have had no awareness or necessity for counter-reconnaissance. If we can find Chen Nuan's movements, this case will have new clues. Well, in this regard, we can also link it to the location of Chen Nuan's mobile phone."

He spoke somewhat lightly, causing a bitter look to appear on the face of the captain of the image investigation detachment, who could only agree.

From his professional perspective, most cases were naturally as Liu Jinghui said, but one would always encounter different ones. If one really encountered them, what should be done?

Jiang Yuan, seeing that they had reached this point, put down his chopsticks and said: "From the start of this case to now, we can say we have mobilized a large force and spent a huge amount of time to get to this step. However, from now on, this case is actually equivalent to a case restart; it can even be viewed as a brand-new case. Starting tomorrow, we will continue to organize Chen Nuan's contacts; she couldn't have gone missing for no reason."

Everyone agreed in unison.

Jiang Yuan smiled again, looked at Liu Jinghui, and said: "We can say we started with the difficult and moved to the easy. Now that the time of disappearance is basically determined, if there are no accidents, it shouldn't be difficult to obtain clues."

A girl in her early 20s working away from home goes missing at her workplace, is killed, and then her body is dumped. Although it sounds cruel, this basically belongs to a relatively common type of homicide, and its difficulty cannot be mentioned in the same breath as a drowning case.

Liu Jinghui nodded slightly: "Although other possibilities still exist, considering that the killer went to the trouble of using the deceased's mobile phone to send messages, the probability of this case being committed by an acquaintance is still very high."

Liu Jinghui: "In addition, Chen Nuan should not have had any strong connections locally, and might not even have had any acquaintances; otherwise, she wouldn't have been left without a place to stay and had to work at that restaurant. Considering the factor that Chen Nuan herself had no possessions, the possibility of a conflict occurring due to money is almost zero. If it's not money, then it's love."

"What about rape?" Detachment Captain Su Shanming had followed the case for a while and had some understanding of the case, but he only raised it as a thought.

Jiang Yuan shook his head first: "Rape is unlikely. The underwear is still there, and there are no traces of the victim being raped. Under normal circumstances, beating her to this extent should have been enough to complete a rape."

"Impotence, or premature ejaculation?" Su Shanming wasn't being argumentative; he could only say he had seen too much.

Liu Jinghui shook his head first: "There was no need to take the mobile phone, and even less need to deceive Chen Nuan's husband."

"Indeed, a rapist wouldn't go that far." Su Shanming nodded in agreement.

Liu Jinghui hesitated for a moment at this time and then asked: "Here in Changle, are there many cases of human trafficking?"

Compared to rape, Liu Jinghui was even more worried about human trafficking. Especially if it was unplanned trafficking that led to accidental or intentional homicide, the participants would have the motive to use WeChat to deceive the deceased's husband in order to hide information such as the time of the crime.

Su Shanming glanced at Detachment Captain Lang Heng and said: "As for trafficking cases, in recent years, they have indeed shown an upward trend."