CHAPTER 1278: CHAPTER 1205: ESTABLISHING YUAN PEOPLE

Morning.

Jiang Yuan got up to eat the beef soup his father made, then tidied up and went out. In the parking lot downstairs, Mu Zhiyang and others were already waiting.

After Jiang Yuan got in the car, Mu Zhiyang said, "There are several police officers waiting at the gate of the community. They are from Liyuan City."

"Looking for me?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"Yes." Jiang Yuan said as he started the vehicle.

When the car came out of the community, Mu Zhiyang naturally slowed down, and sure enough, at the right side of the gate, there were several well-dressed police officers standing upright in their uniforms.

"Li, what brings you here?" Seeing that one of them was Li Zeming, Jiang Yuan immediately got out of the car.

During the previous fingerprint battle, Li Zeming and Jiang Yuan got quite close, and afterwards they stayed in the same group, often interacting, but it had been a long time since they last met.

Li Zeming smiled and shook hands with Jiang Yuan, then pulled a colleague over and said, "This is our Liyuan City Nangang Branch Criminal Police Team’s Captain Wang Zhihao. Captain Wang heard someone was reviewing Mu Jian Cow Farm’s records, found it was you, and decided to come over immediately."

Wang Zhihao, about 30 years old, looked much younger than Li Zeming. After shaking hands firmly with Jiang Yuan, he said enthusiastically, "Captain Jiang, don’t mind me. I originally intended to attend your lecture, but work has been too busy for me to get away. However, upon hearing that you are interested in Mu Jian Cow Farm, I decided to drive over immediately and check out the situation."

Jiang Yuan was slightly taken aback and hesitantly said, "I’m interested in the Mu Jian Cow Farm case you mentioned, but I haven’t decided whether to work on it here."

"Shall I introduce the case to you?" Wang Zhihao, with no hint of shyness, was good at seizing opportunities.

Jiang Yuan sighed, "Then let’s take my car. Let’s switch to an Alphard and chat while we drive."

As he spoke, a vehicle from his cousin’s company, an Alphard, was driven out of the garage by a driver.

Wen Ming moved over to drive, and Mu Zhiyang sat in the passenger seat, first scanning Li Zeming and the others through the rearview mirror.

Jiang Yuan brought Wang Zhihao and Li Zeming to sit in the back. In respect of Li Zeming, he proactively said to Wang Zhihao, "Is the farm case very important?"

"It’s mainly to get to know Captain Jiang." Wang Zhihao laughed, speaking flatteringly.

Among the three professions of physician, teacher, and artisan, the social status is arranged in order, as is power. Once someone has secured a foothold in a county or district’s criminal police team, they can extend their influence into every corner of the district or county, often achieving a high degree of socialization.

Jiang Yuan just smiled, and while his mind was clear, with full emotional intelligence, he said, "Knowing Captain Li means you know me; let’s add each other on WeChat?"

Wang Zhihao immediately felt comfortable, waking up and exchanging WeChat details while saying, "Captain Li is Captain Li, and you’re you... By the way, why did you become interested in the Mu Jian Cow Farm case?"

Buzz...

Before Jiang Yuan could answer, his phone rang.

Answering it, Huang Qiangmin’s voice came through: "Are the people from Liyuan City here? Let me talk to them."

Jiang Yuan skillfully handed the phone to Wang Zhihao.

Wang Zhihao took the phone with a big smile, responding with "okay" throughout the conversation.

Without needing to observe particularly, Jiang Yuan could tell that Wang Zhihao’s facial expressions were mostly genuine.

After a while, Wang Zhihao hung up the phone, handed it back to Jiang Yuan, and said with a smile, "Commissioner Huang is genuinely responsible. But if our bureau had a Jiang Yuan, I would be even more verbose than him."

Jiang Yuan smiled, "Commissioner Huang is the kind of person who tends to worry."

"As he should be, as he should be." Wang Zhihao said with a laugh, "Actually, we don’t have any other thoughts; we are just overwhelmed. In our Shan Nan Province, the detection rate has become increasingly abnormal over the past two years... forcing us to continuously improve our detection rates. In the combat power ranking, our Liyuan City has fallen quite a bit."

Wang Zhihao spoke seriously, looking at Jiang Yuan, whose rough, sun-tanned face was full of expressive eyes blinking, making it easy to understand what he meant.

Most cases are ordinary; while many cases seem significant in the eyes of the perpetrators and victims, to detectives, they’re often just so-so.

However, some cases, though they might start off ordinary with a common nature, for some reasons become twisted into another dimension.

A large portion of a detective’s time, mental energy, and entanglement is consumed by these types of cases.

Each city has at least one or two, even up to three, task force groups that end up unsuccessful every year. What does this mean? At the very least, it’s over a dozen detectives spending two to three months or more entirely dedicated to this.

If this amount of time could be released for other cases, rates of case-solving would increase significantly. Meanwhile, the cases that task force handles are themselves a huge negative factor.

That’s how the law enforcement intensity in Ningtai County improved, and that’s also how Liyuan City’s ranking fell in the combat power ranking of Shan Nan Province. Especially after the establishment of the Taihe Working Group, the case-solving rates in other cities rose rapidly, and security levels increased, making Liyuan City seem like a slow performer.

Thus, Liyuan City Bureau had already started contacting Huang Qiangmin and had provided several cases, but Jiang Yuan had not found the time to oblige.

This time, Jiang Yuan took the initiative to review the Mu Jian Cow Farm’s records, so even if Liyuan City hadn’t treated it as a major case before, now they did.

Wang Zhihao almost spent the night gathering information, then drove over.

As one of the top fingerprint experts of Liyuan City, Li Zeming was entrusted by leadership due to his familiarity with Jiang Yuan, delivering the car at night.

"The Mu Jian Cow Farm case is classified as a theft case by us." Once Wang Zhihao started to talk, he described the case: "The Mu Jian Cow Farm is in a suburban area. If you go another forty to fifty kilometers west, you’ll reach the boundary of Ping Zhou Province. The area has a tradition of cattle farming for over a hundred years. The family owning the cattle farm has specialized in cattle farming for several generations. About 20 years ago, during the previous generation, they prospered, expanded the farm, bought breeding bulls from overseas, and engaged in cattle cross-breeding themselves. They also raised cattle, fattened them, and made quite a profit."

Wang Zhihao described a bit of the background before continuing, "Several paintings were stolen from the farm. Initially, we suspected it was an inside job for three main reasons. First, the farm is located in a remote place only familiar people would know. Secondly, the stolen items were artworks, and only artworks were stolen, which doesn’t align with random theft behavior. Thirdly, although the farm’s surveillance system isn’t extensive, it’s their own setup, comprising several cameras, all of which the culprit managed to avoid, which is quite difficult."

"What are the results of the investigation?" Jiang Yuan specifically asked to avoid Wang Zhihao glossing over it.

Wang Zhihao shook his head and said, "We didn’t obtain usable fingerprints at the scene, though we took some footprints, it’s still uncertain which ones are the culprit’s. As for acquaintances, we’ve primarily investigated the victim, the cow farm owner’s relationships, but found nothing."

"How many people work at the farm?"

"There are 25 permanent staff, considered a medium-to-large cattle farm. They have their own veterinarians, everyone was checked, but previously we were a bit short on manpower."

Investigating one person’s relationships can be done with just two to three detectives. For 25 people, the difficulty is quite significant.

Jiang Yuan examined the files on the spot and then closed them before arriving at the Criminal Police Team station, saying, "Please wait a moment. I will handle this current case first, then I’ll work on the one in hand."

"No problem." Wang Zhihao and the others immediately nodded.

Routine detective work is often multi-threaded, and while the farm case barely qualifies for a task force, it’s certainly not something warranted for Jiang Yuan to personally take on.

Wang Zhihao and Li Zeming closely followed Jiang Yuan’s lead and stepped into the grand auditorium.

The moment they entered, the noisy sound within the auditorium dropped to zero instantly.

Those who were talking or shouting fell silent, all eyes on Jiang Yuan, Wang Zhihao, and the rest.

Wang Zhihao and Li Zeming felt a "boom" in their heads.

So many people, mostly middle-aged and young police officers; they had heard of such training sessions many times, but following up to the podium was a first.