Chapter 4: How on earth did you figure that out?
Old Lu, whose full name was Lu Fusheng, had been a neighborhood police officer for more than twenty years.
As the saying went, a middle-aged man had elderly parents above him and children below him to support. He was at the perfect stage of life to be squeezed dry by his superiors—or, put more politely, the age when he ought to be working his hardest.
But Lu Fusheng was different.
Having already achieved his own version of “enlightenment,” all he wanted was to coast through life.
His favorite way to spend the day was sitting in the office with a cup of tea, a cigarette, and a newspaper, letting the hours drift by.
As for solving cases?
Ha.
That kind of exhausting work—running around outdoors, conducting endless interviews until the soles of your shoes wore through?
Not even a dog would do it.
This burglary, in particular, looked especially troublesome, and Lu Fusheng wanted no part of it. He was perfectly content to wait for detectives from the Municipal Public Security Bureau to take over.
Yet this new recruit had absolutely no sense.
With a few words, she’d managed to create a mountain of extra work for everyone.
If they really followed her line of thinking, there was no way he’d be getting off work on time that afternoon.
“You’re just a rookie. You don’t know anything yet. Stop trying so hard to show off!”
Already irritated, Lu Fusheng immediately slapped that label onto Jiang Xia. Then, turning to Chief Wu, he added ingratiatingly,
“If you ask me, Director, your judgment is the right one. We should check through the area’s known repeat thieves first.”
Jiang Xia frowned slightly.
What an insufferably condescending attitude.
If she really were a fresh graduate with no experience, getting chewed out so publicly by a senior officer would probably have left her too intimidated to say another word.
But before transmigrating, Jiang Xia had already survived seven or eight years in the workplace.
She wasn’t about to be bluffed by someone like him.
He’s talking this much because he doesn’t want to do any extra work.
Jiang Xia rolled her eyes inwardly.
Police officers were human too. Wanting an easier workload was understandable.
But there had to be priorities.
Three people in the hospital were waiting for this money to save their lives, and he could still stand there trying to push the case onto someone else without batting an eye.
At that point, it wasn’t just laziness—it was a complete lack of conscience.
As a newcomer, it generally wasn’t wise to offend the veterans at the station.
But someone who only knew how to hide behind the director and throw his weight around?
Offending him didn’t matter.
“With all due respect,” Jiang Xia said, “are you suggesting we just stop investigating because the case is difficult?”
Jiang Xia answered him directly.
“Besides, what they teach at the police academy is how to solve cases. My conclusion is based on standard crime scene analysis. Chief Wu hasn’t objected to it, so why are you getting so worked up?”
“You haven’t even officially joined the force yet!”
Being contradicted by a rookie made Lu Fusheng feel humiliated. His expression darkened even further.
“People are lying in the hospital waiting for that money to save their lives! If we follow your approach and fail to catch the thief, who’s going to take responsibility if something happens? You? Do you have that kind of ability?”
So you do understand that lives are at stake.
“Enough!”
Before Jiang Xia could fire back, Chief Wu barked at Lu Fusheng.
“We haven’t even started investigating, and you’re already making a scene! Let me tell you something, Lu Fusheng—if we don’t catch the thief, even after the Municipal Bureau takes over, you’ll still be working this case!”
The moment those words left his mouth, Lu Fusheng froze.
Wait… wasn’t Chief Wu against bringing this new policewoman on?
How had his attitude done a complete one-eighty in such a short time? Why was he defending her now?
Lu Fusheng had completely misunderstood what was going through Chief Wu’s mind.
A pragmatist by nature, Chief Wu’s dissatisfaction with Jiang Xia had originally come from the fact that he couldn’t work her like a pack mule.
But if she had genuine ability—if she could serve as a spotlight that uncovered investigative leads—then she was almost as valuable as a pack mule anyway.
As for someone like Lu Fusheng, who barely did any work…
He wasn’t even as useful as a dog.
If Chief Wu hadn’t been stuck with him, he’d have gladly kicked him as far away as possible.
Now that this useless “dog” was baring its teeth at his new “spotlight,” even trying to take a bite out of it, of course Chief Wu was going to chew him out.
“Report!”
After questioning the bystanders, Hu Wei hurried back at a run.
Sneaking a glance at Jiang Xia, he pretended not to have heard the earlier argument and reported,
“I’ve finished asking around. The people outside all work at the enamel factory. They were on shift earlier and only came over after someone went to borrow a telephone to call the police, so they don’t know what happened. The neighbors have all been home the whole time, too. I asked them as well, and they all said they haven’t seen any suspicious people hanging around the area these past few days.”
Given Jiang Xia’s earlier deduction, the result didn’t surprise Chief Wu in the slightest.
“That makes this difficult.”
Chief Wu’s brow furrowed deeper.
“There are a lot of people in this neighborhood. Even if we exclude those currently at work in the factory, along with the elderly, children, and the infirm, we’d still be left with over a hundred potential suspects. Interviewing every one of them would take at least two or three days. By then, it’ll be far too late.”
He pondered the situation.
Based on his years of experience, he simply couldn’t think of a faster approach than conducting a door-to-door canvass.
“Jiang Xia.”
He looked up at her.
“Do you have any other ideas?”
Time wasn’t on their side. All he could do now was hope his “spotlight” could shine a little brighter.
“Give me a little more time.”
Jiang Xia took a deep breath.
“I need another look at the scene. Please make sure no one else walks around the courtyard.”
“All right.”
The request was simple enough, and Chief Wu agreed immediately.
“Go ahead. Just don’t disturb the scene.”
With his approval, Jiang Xia first plucked a handful of wheat stalks from beside a stack of firewood and held them in her hand. Then she walked over to the wall beside the courtyard gate.
At its core, solving a case was simply a matter of using experience and physical evidence to narrow the pool of suspects.
The smaller that pool became in the early stages of an investigation, the less time and manpower the police had to spend, and the sooner they could catch the culprit.
But if they narrowed it down incorrectly, all that effort would be wasted.
After examining the interior of the house earlier, Jiang Xia had formed a suspicion.
Judging from the way everything had been searched, she believed the culprit wasn’t merely a local resident.
There was a strong possibility the burglar was someone familiar with Dong Aihua’s family.
Compared to Chief Wu’s assessment, that would reduce the suspect list from more than a hundred people to perhaps only a handful.
But drawing that conclusion based solely on the pattern of the search wasn’t enough to guarantee it was correct.
She wasn’t completely certain.
After all, she had only just arrived at the station. First impressions mattered.
If she guessed the right suspect, everyone at the station would see her in a different light, making future work much easier.
But if she was wrong, she’d immediately earn a reputation as a show-off who liked grandstanding.
Not only would she end up with someone like Old Lu lording it over her and the rest of the station looking down on her for a long while, she’d also have wasted the precious window of time when the thief was most likely to be caught.
She couldn’t rely on luck.
She needed stronger evidence.
For example… a complete footprint left by the suspect.
Jiang Xia fixed her gaze on the chaotic footprints scattered across the ground, studying them carefully.
Hu Wei, equally new to the job, watched her movements with obvious curiosity.
“What’s she pretending to do now…”
With his arms folded across his chest, Old Lu muttered under his breath.
Watching Jiang Xia crouch on the ground with a deep frown, he couldn’t help sneering inwardly.
Burglary cases have always been hard to crack. What could a fresh graduate possibly find?
She just got lucky with that padlock—a blind cat stumbling across a dead mouse.
Now that she’s actually expected to produce something… see? She’s out of ideas.
Look at that miserable expression.
Serves you right.
Maybe next time you’ll think twice before trying to show off.
Dong Aihua still hadn’t stopped sobbing.
She looked from Chief Wu, who remained standing where he was, to Jiang Xia crouching by the wall.
Fresh tears welled up in her eyes.
The experienced officer isn’t doing anything, and they’re leaving it to the young one… How could they possibly catch the thief?
Unaware of what everyone else was thinking, Jiang Xia devoted all her attention to the footprints.
There were a great many of them.
At a glance, she could distinguish at least four or five different types of shoe prints, all hopelessly jumbled together. Most overlapped with three or four others, if not more. The earliest impressions at the bottom had been trampled so thoroughly that they were impossible to make out.
A scene like this was practically worthless.
Even an experienced detective trained in footprint analysis would be at a loss.
The suspect’s prints would have been the earliest ones left behind—and therefore the ones at the very bottom. After so many people had walked over them, they had been almost completely destroyed.
Where could anyone possibly find usable traces now?
After examining the ground carefully, Jiang Xia decisively abandoned the idea of identifying the footprints directly.
Her Level 2 Footwear Impression Analysis was roughly on par with that of a seasoned criminal investigator—not yet at the level of a true expert.
Faced with such a chaotic mass of overlapping footprints, there was simply no way she could sort them out in a short amount of time.
She would have to approach the problem from a different angle.
Jiang Xia stood up and took two steps back.
At some point, a coin had appeared in her right hand, flipping rapidly between her fingers.
Think… think…
If I were the thief…
Her eyes followed the directions of the footprints scattered across the ground.
Suddenly, inspiration struck.
I’ve got it!
The direction of the footprints!
The people who had entered the courtyard afterward were simply curious onlookers. Naturally, they would have stood with their backs toward the wall, facing into the courtyard. Their toes would point inward, their heels toward the wall. Even after they left, the orientation of their footprints would remain roughly parallel to the wall.
But the thief had climbed over the wall.
When he landed inside the courtyard, the direction of those footprints would be the same as everyone else’s, making them impossible to distinguish.
However, when he climbed back out, he would have had to stand close to the wall and brace himself to climb. At that moment, his toes would be pointing directly at the wall.
That was the distinguishing feature.
It was like spending ten agonizing minutes staring at the final problem on a math exam, only for the solution to suddenly click into place.
Jiang Xia’s heart began to race.
Her entire body surged with renewed energy.
Her eyes swept over the brick wall before her, quickly identifying several spots that were easiest to climb.
Starting from those locations, she examined the ground beneath them, focusing on the distance someone would naturally cover in a single stride.
Now that she had a direction to work with, the jumble of overlapping footprints that had seemed impossible to interpret suddenly became remarkably clear.
She searched rapidly.
Not this one…
Not this one either…
This one… Yes! This is it!
A partial footprint finally emerged from the chaos.
Most of it had been trampled over by footprints heading in different directions, leaving only about three centimeters still visible.
It showed the middle section of the forefoot, along with part of the tread pattern—a design resembling a broad W.
Perfect.
Jiang Xia felt even more energized.
She stuck one of the wheat stalks into the ground beside the footprint as a marker, then continued searching farther into the courtyard.
Now that she had an identifying tread pattern, she estimated the suspect’s stride length and quickly located a second footprint.
This one was much clearer.
Only about two-thirds of it had been stepped on.
She marked it with another wheat stalk and continued looking for the next one.
She moved faster and faster.
In just two or three minutes, the wheat stalk markers extended from the base of the wall all the way to the doorway. Then she headed toward the side room on the south side of the courtyard.
After walking about two meters, Jiang Xia suddenly stopped.
A complete, perfectly preserved right footprint left by the suspect came into view.
Jiang Xia shot to her feet and called out loudly to Chief Wu.
“I found it!”
Lu Fusheng had been waiting to see Jiang Xia make a fool of herself. Hearing those words, his entire face twisted into an ugly expression.
She actually found something?!
“You found the suspect’s footprint?”
Chief Wu instantly perked up.
Carefully avoiding the footprints marked with wheat stalks, he hurried over to Jiang Xia and crouched beside her to examine the print.
“It’s this complete?”
“And it’s a broad wave-pattern sole… Looks like a rubber-soled shoe. That’s going to make things much easier.”
In those days, many families still made their own cloth shoes with layered fabric soles. Those soles were all fairly similar, making them difficult to distinguish, and practically every household wore them.
Rubber-soled shoes, however, were a different story.
You had to buy them with money or ration coupons, so they were much less common. On top of that, different manufacturers used different tread patterns, making them far easier to identify.
If they traced the shoe, they might be able to narrow the suspect list down to only a handful of people.
Excited, Chief Wu instinctively reached out, intending to give Jiang Xia a hearty slap on the shoulder. But seeing how slight she was, he quickly held back, settling for two gentle pats instead.
“Just what you’d expect from a police academy graduate. You’ve really got talent!”
“We don’t even have to rely on the shoe alone.”
Jiang Xia smiled faintly.
She hadn’t gone to all this trouble just to find a single footprint.
With quiet confidence, she declared,
“Chief Wu, I can tell you that the suspect is between 1.73 and 1.78 meters tall, weighs around 135 jin—about 67.5 kilograms (149 pounds)—and is between twenty-four and twenty-eight years old.”
“Huh?”
A giant question mark practically appeared over Chief Wu’s head.
Now how on earth did you figure that out?