?529: 487   529: 487                                   Early in the morning.


    Jiang Yuan got up, first made a phone call, then brushed his teeth, washed his face, and took a shower.


    Once he was clean and fresh, the familiar restaurant chef knocked at his door.


    The chef was one of the regrly employed cooks from Jiang Fuzhen.


    Sometimes when Jiang Vige held intricate banquets, or when the people of Jiang Fuzhen were toozy to cook, they’d call a chef from a restaurant toe help out.


    At times, the restaurant chefs would even handle everything, while the hosts of Jiang Fuzhen merely pretended to be executive chefs.


    Having moved to Changyang, Jiang Yuan couldn’t eat the food from Jiang Fuzhen regrly, so he sometimes had it made by the restaurant chefs instead.


    The master chef was quite alert, prepared early, and waited outside theplex.


    When he received the phone call, he came up with two apprentices.


    The two apprentices quickly cleaned up the kitchen—it had been days since anyone had lived in the room, and there was always some umted dust.


    Meanwhile, the chef started preparing breakfast.


    He made a Chinese-style fried egg pancake for the main course, stir-fried potato shreds and eggnt as side dishes, and spicy stir-fried meat as the meat dish.


    All could be wrapped in the egg pancake for eating, but they could also be enjoyed separately.


    For those who liked it spicy, hot sauce was an option, and to further enrich the choices, he also brought crab sauce and beef sauce.


    Moreover, North American maple syrup and condiments like ketchup and mustard were avable to be thered on wildly.


    In short, the pancake was a nd base that could take on any vor depending on what was spread on it, making it perfect for Jiang Yuan’s colleagues whose backgrounds and tastes were unknown.


    As the side dishes were readied, the apprentices also brought out the soup that had been simmered in the restaurant the day before and ced it in beautiful porcin bowls.


    In addition, very traditional fried dough sticks, soy milk, and tofu pudding had all been fetched from the restaurant.


    Several baskets of buns, corn on the cob, and steamed breadpleted thevish breakfast spread.


    The chef himself was mixing a specially seasoned pepper soup, with a slightly adjusted vor profile.


    The spicy aroma bubbled enticingly from the pot.


    Mu Zhiyang and the others emerged, rubbing their eyes.


    They then saw Jiang Yuan sitting at a long table, looking like andlord from an old y, being served by the two young chefs.


    Mu Zhiyang, still rubbing his eyes, couldn’t help saying, “It feels like a scene from a dreaming to life.”


    “You dream about Captain Jiang eating?


    You’re the weirdo,” Wang Chuanxing came out from behind, wielding his own wet towel to wipe his face.


    Police officers who travel a lot develop their own habits, though they may be a bit rough around the edges.


    Humming, Mu Zhiyang retorted, “Then tell me, what should life be like for the people of Jiang Vige?


    Doesn’t this look the part?”


    “This just proves that Captain Jiang is truly fighting for justice and ideals,” Wang Chuanxing earnestly brown-nosed, a bit awkward but well-meaning.


    Shen Yaowei and Meng Chengbiao also came out of their rooms, feeling a tingling in their scalps.


    Shen Yaowei, being cheerful by nature, said with augh, “Captain Jiang is a good man.


    Maupassant said it well: the only way for the evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.


    Captain Jiang is a practitioner of this belief through his actions.”


    “What’s that now?” Wang Chuanxing turned around.


    Shen Yaowei replied seriously, “I thought you only get breakfast if you praise Captain Jiang?”


    Jiang Yuan, hearing this,ughed and waved them over.


    “I didn’t know what you all liked to eat, so I let Chef Liu take the reins.”


    “I know a bit about different regional cuisines, so I prepared a splendid meal that represents a bit of each region’s vor,” Chef Liu, dressed neatly, wasn’t put off by the disheveled appearances of the young men, and introduced everything professionally.


    For Mu Zhiyang and others, this was a very special breakfast experience.


    The young men couldn’t help but take out their phones to take pictures, then made an effort to try every dish.


    Jiang Yuan ate a little of each, then patted his stomach and stopped, asking, “What do you want for lunch?


    Chef Liu will also be preparing that.”


    “Ah…


    then I’ve eaten too much!” Mu Zhiyang was the first to exim.


    Seeing that Chef Liu and his apprentices had already left, he added in a lower voice, “Actually, as long as the chef gets the vors right, I don’t mind.


    Can the servers be bunny girls?”


    “Then I want cat ears,” Wang Chuanxing nced sideways at Mu Zhiyang.


    “I’ll take Bear,” Shen Yaowei looked askance.


    After the three finished speaking, they all looked at Meng Chengbiao.


    Meng Chengbiao, being over forty and not really part of the younger crowd, coughed twice and seriously said, “A male would do.”


    The youngsters all admired him in unison.


    Changing the subject, Meng Chengbiao asked, “Are we not going to report in today?”


    “Yes, let them be busy today.


    Director Liu ns to bring over a couple of drones, so we’ll let the drones search first to see if we can find the car.


    I heard we can alsopare satellite images, and if that fails, we’ll use people,” Jiang Yuan replied.


    Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad was considered auxiliary forces.


    They couldn’t help but rest during busy times, and at times like these, they were definitely told to take it easy.


    Of course, if they needed to be fast, it would be best to conduct drone searches simultaneously with a manual search.


    However, this particr case didn’t demand urgency, and the Panshan Highway in Xin County was truly treacherous.


    In these dense, undeveloped mountains, even professionals might only cover a few kilometers a day, and it was normal for non-professionals to just wander in circles before ending up back in the hospital.


    Pure human search efforts were almost impossible to achieve, and if truly necessary, one would still need to engage professional guides and search teams, and it wasn’t excessive to seek help from the forest police and other departments.


    Meng Chengbiao hade up through the ranks during an era of manual searches and understood the difficulty of finding objects in such expansive mountains.


    Recalling the few images they had casually searched for yesterday, with their endless stretches of verdant green, Meng Chengbiao felt his legs go weak.


    He couldn’t help saying, “I hope the drones will yield results because even one trip down there would be extremely challenging.


    The reason criminal investigators from Qi Province didn’t continue the pursuit is not without cause.”


    “I just hope the truck didn’t explode or catch fire when it fell,” Jiang Yuan thought more to the point.


    As difficult as the search was, it wasn’t his job to do it in person, but if this lead was cut off because of that, then all the hardship everyone had recently endured might have been in vain.


    The primary scene of the second victim was no longer findable: clues from the body itself had been cleared before it was moved.


    Therefore, besides searching for clues at the burial site, the most promising breakthroughy with that medium truck belonging to the second victim.


    Driving a medium truck from Shannan Province to Pingjiang Province, and then dumping it off the mountain road, was an act ofplicity in itself.


    And over such a long distance, would the person leave traces in the vehicle?


    He was ackey for a professional hitman, not the hitman himself, so even if he had a certain ability to clear traces, it likely wasn’t especially strong.


    At the very least, Jiang Yuan, with his crime scene investigation LV4, stood a chance at unravelling it.


    The only concern was an explosion following the truck’s fall.


    The others also understood; their pace of eating slowed somewhat.


    “The driver probably wouldn’t ignite the vehicle on purpose,” Wang Chuanxing thought for a moment and said, “Driving the truck off a cliff is already risky, adding fire to it increases the risk.


    And besides,pared to the evidence in the truck, hiding it was more imperative at the time.”


    “Indeed.


    If it had been set on fire, the ze would’ve been more likely to draw attention if it caught on in the valley.


    Better to let the truck fall and over the years, vegetation would erode much of the evidence…” Shen Yaowei began, and as he spoke, he realized it was not quite right and hastily added, “It should not have eroded everything yet…”


    “There’s no such thing as a perfect crime, they simply used what seemed like a reasonable method at the time,” Jiang Yuan was quite sanguine about it all, having dealt with so many cases, he held no expectation of criminals.


    In the end, it was the rich array of tactics at the police’s disposal and the inevitability of criminals slipping up that was the norm; otherwise, people capable of scoring 100 wouldn’t need to resort to crime!


    …


    In the following days, themand center represented by Liu Jinghui began moving towards Pingjiang City.


    The two drones they’d brought were flown from dawn to dusk without a moment’s rest.


    Two officers, led by local guides, began to venture deeper into the dense forest.


    More equipment and supplies were also being assembled.


    Organizing search operations wasn’t just a matter of talking; if indeed manpower was needed, at the very least, issues of food and restroom facilities needed to be resolved.


    Even if officers were to bring their own rations, a sufficient and clean supply of drinking water had to be provided.


    Furthermore, toilets and toilet paper were not trivial matters.


    Smaller-scale searches with hundreds of people could be managed by local means, but withrger numbers of participants, more specialized solutions were necessary, such as digging a temporary toilet or bringing a portable toilet vehicle.


    Liu Jinghui, experienced with searches involving less than a thousand people, prepared for a 500-person scale operation.


    Anything more, and he wasn’t willing to take charge.


    Such work already carried a heavy load of resentment, and if it were poorly managed, the organizers would truly be med to death.


    Even if Liu Jinghui had no ambition for promotions or pay raises, he was unwilling to y the viin.


    His direct and simple thoughts were expressed and demonstrated to Bai Jian.


    Bai Jian had nothing to say, he could only walk around with his hands behind his back, pacing all day long, pondering things like a duck that had sold all its down feathers, a path seemingly unreachable yet attainable in front of him.


    Over the weekend, Captain Jiang led his team to Xin County.


    By then, the drone operators had grown weary.


    Day in, day out, all they saw were countless shades of green foliage, and the fact that they weren’t depressed already spoke to their good nature.


    The police officers summoned did not have an easy time either.


    They began descending the mountain in shifts to verify whether the discovered vehicr remains were indeed the target vehicle.


    Yes, below the Panshan Highway of Xin County, there wasn’t just one vehicle’s remains.


    Jiang Yuan was exempt from these tasks, and so was Dazhuang.


    Li Li brought it over, and though it temporarily had no work, she did not dare to rx, maintaining a low-intensity training every day.


    Jiang Yuan turned to making dog food, a fine skill that would be wasted if not used…


    Dazhuang’s mouth watered as it ate when suddenly someone ran quickly over from Dazhuang’s temporary training field.


    It was Bai Jian, his face flushed, clutching his cell phone, appearing as if he had just finished a call, bubbling with the desire to share.


    “Captain Jiang?


    Did they find the truck?” Jiang Yuan asked proactively.


    “We found it, we found it!” Bai Jian had underestimated the difficulties of working out of province, but fortunately, the search was proceeding exceptionally smoothly.


    Jiang Yuan stood solemnly straight, knowing this was the real test for forensic professionals.


    The hard-found remains of the medium truck were merely the prelude to the actual crime scene investigation.