Chapter 37.1: Picking Locks
Over the next few days, Jiang Xia had a fairly leisurely time.
She did want to hurry up and draw the “map” (pick the lock), but unfortunately, circumstances didn’t allow it.
For one thing, although Master He had managed to find someone selling a two-section table, the table was in fairly bad shape overall and would require major repairs. He also still had an unfinished order on hand, so she would have to wait a few more days.
For another, although the case had been solved, it hadn’t officially been closed yet. There were still plenty of follow-up tasks to handle, such as identifying the crime scene, filing the case records, analyzing the case, and writing the final report.
The First Squad had been running at full intensity for two days and two nights, and everyone was starting to reach their limit. Now that the case was solved, they had immediately shifted into a low-intensity recovery mode. They simply didn’t have the manpower to help her investigate which labor-reform farm might have a suitable “talent” who could be transferred over.
On top of that, the storeroom still hadn’t been organized, among various other things.
So Jiang Xia could only suppress her impatience, use the time to get herself back into shape, and make some preliminary preparations.
…
Technical Division.
2:30 p.m.
Jiang Xia pushed open the door and walked in carrying a bulging bag.
She dropped the bag onto the desk. The heavy objects inside hit the tabletop with a dull clang.
It was the middle of the workday. Everyone except Section Chief Liao was there. Even Photographer Zhao wasn’t reading the newspaper. Instead, he was holding a stack of photographs that looked like they had just been developed, apparently preparing to deliver them to the First Squad.
“I was just about to come looking for you.”
When Photographer Liu saw Jiang Xia, he stopped and turned around. He pulled several photographs out from underneath a book on the desk.
“These are photos of the victim’s wounds. I developed an extra set this time. Do you want them?”
Wow. Who would’ve thought Brother Liu was actually pretty nice?
He might have objected verbally, but when the right opportunity came along, he still went ahead and made her an extra copy.
“Of course I want them!”
Jiang Xia immediately stepped forward and took them. As she flipped through the black-and-white photographs of the wounds, she remarked, “The appearance of this blunt-force injury is pretty textbook. It could practically go straight into a textbook.”
At that, Huang Xueling raised her head, looking like she wanted to say something but didn’t know how.
How strange.
Neither of them was a forensic pathologist, and they had only recently started working here. So why was it that every time Huang Xueling looked at a wound, she felt like throwing up, while Jiang Xia acted as though it were nothing at all?
“It’s useful, so that’s what matters.”
Photographer Liu nodded in satisfaction.
A complete reference guide to trace evidence was a good thing—everyone knew that. But putting one together was also extraordinarily expensive. He still thought Jiang Xia’s idea was impractical. Still, whenever a case came up, developing a few extra copies of the wound photographs wasn’t a bad idea. The department could afford that. If they accumulated enough over the course of several years, perhaps they really could put together a “textbook.”
As he thought about it, Photographer Liu’s gaze shifted to Jiang Xia’s bag.
“You went out to buy things again at noon?”
Jiang Xia nodded. “Yeah. I bought some rosin and alcohol.”
Sketches were made by graphite powder adhering to the surface of paper. The material could easily come loose through friction or fade through oxidation—hence the familiar problem of rubbing against a drawing and ending up with graphite dust all over your hand. To prevent that and preserve the drawings for a long time, a special fixative was needed, and these two substances were the ingredients for making one.
“Oh, right. I bought a few other things too.”
As she spoke, Jiang Xia opened her bag. She took out several lock boxes with green packaging, each printed with the logo of three interlocking rings, and placed them on the table with a series of clunking sounds.
“Come on, come on. These are all brand-new locks. Brother Liu, Trace Examiner Li, Forensic Examiner Sun, support my research, will you? Take a new lock home, and bring me one of your old locks from home.”
Huh?
“You really are going through with this, Jiang Xia? You even bought the locks? And they’re Three-Ring brand?”
Photographer Liu was rather puzzled. He walked over to the desk, set down the photographs, and looked at the logo on the lock boxes with some confusion.
“You already have locks. Can’t you just work on them? Why do you need to exchange new ones for old ones?”
“New locks and old locks aren’t the same.”
Trace Examiner Li immediately understood what Jiang Xia was thinking.
“Most locks that burglars break into houses are old locks, so naturally, using old locks would be more representative.”
“Okay, I’ll take one.”
Getting a brand-new lock in exchange for an old lock at home without losing anything in the process was obviously a great deal. Photographer Liu immediately slipped the lock he was holding into his pocket.
“I’ll bring you an old lock from home tomorrow.”
“Sure,” Jiang Xia agreed.
Trace Examiner Li also volunteered, “I’ll take one too.”
Click.
Just then, the door to the Technical Division suddenly opened.
Liao Zhongsheng walked in and asked curiously, “What are you taking?”
“Chief?”
Seeing Liao Zhongsheng come in, Jiang Xia explained naturally, “I bought some locks, but they’re all too new, so they’re not suitable for experiments. I was planning to exchange them with everyone for the old locks they have at home.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is about.”
Liao Zhongsheng nodded. He didn’t find anything strange about it. Instead, he stepped forward and took a lock himself.
“Then I’ll take advantage of you too and replace the lock at home with a new one.”
After all, this was for accumulating experience in trace examination, so he ought to show his support.
With Liao Zhongsheng taking the lead, the locks Jiang Xia had brought were quickly distributed among everyone.
With yet another matter taken care of, she took the rosin and alcohol to the portrait room next door. Following a specific ratio, she mixed up the fixative and tested it with a pressurized spray bottle. Once she confirmed that everything worked properly, she headed downstairs and stopped in front of the room Lu Yixing had told her about earlier.
It was actually a row of several connected single-story buildings. The one on the far left had been converted into a cafeteria, the middle one was a storeroom where the cafeteria kept its food supplies, and the two rooms on the far right had been turned into storage rooms for miscellaneous items.
Through the glass, Jiang Xia could see things piled up inside.
There were confiscated bicycles, shovels, and all kinds of knives. Broken and battered tables and chairs were stacked inside, with military-style overcoats and quilts piled on top. In one corner were rusty hand-cranked telephones, along with kerosene lamps that had apparently been painted over and over again.
Most of the glass shades on the kerosene lamps had already shattered, yet they were still sitting in the storage room instead of being thrown away.
This was all too familiar.
For a public institution, going through the procedures to write off fixed assets was such a hassle that it was easier to find somewhere to store them instead.
These things were still state-owned property, so Jiang Xia couldn’t simply get rid of them. Fortunately, there were two storage rooms. Once they were both cleared out and reorganized, everything in the smaller storage room on the left could be moved into the larger one on the right.
Once she decided to do it, Jiang Xia got right to work.
It wasn’t as though she had anything else to do anyway. She borrowed the key, opened the room, put on a pair of gloves, and started moving things outside.
The smaller items inside were quickly carried out and piled up in the open space in front of the building. The larger pieces were much harder to move. In particular, there was a solid-wood table inside with two of its legs broken off. It was ridiculously heavy, and Jiang Xia could only grab one corner and drag it toward the door. But when she finally got it there, it was too wide to fit through the doorway and became stuck.
Jiang Xia was starting to get a headache.
Just as she was wondering what to do, a voice suddenly came from behind her.
“I’ll move this one.”
The voice was familiar, with a slightly deep, resonant quality.
Jiang Xia instinctively turned around.
It was Lu Yixing.
He didn’t say anything else. Instead, he quickly rolled up his sleeves, revealing lean, well-defined, sun-tanned forearms. He stepped forward, grabbed the edge of the table with both hands, and heaved. The table tipped onto its side. He then turned sideways, stood beside it, lifted it from underneath, and carried it straight outside.
Wow.
Jiang Xia’s gaze swept over his exposed arms.
The muscles in his forearms flexed slightly as he exerted himself, like taut bowstrings—smooth and full of strength. They looked remarkably good.
She wanted to poke them.
Lu Yixing found an empty spot and set the table down. When he turned around, he looked at Jiang Xia with some confusion.
“Why are you cleaning out the room by yourself? Why didn’t you call a few people over to give you a hand?”
“Everyone’s busy.”
Jiang Xia stood where she was, catching her breath. “I figured I’d clear out the easy stuff first, then call some people over to move the bigger things. By the way, why did you come down here?”
At that, Lu Yixing couldn’t help sighing.
“I saw you moving things, and I didn’t want to write the case closure report, so I came downstairs.”
Now that was an honest reason.
Most criminal investigators didn’t particularly like writing those things. They were tedious enough as it was, and if you didn’t write them properly, they’d be sent back for revisions. One of the reasons many veteran officers took on apprentices was so they could hand the reports off to their apprentices to write and avoid doing them themselves.
“Huh?”
Jiang Xia tilted her head slightly.
“But isn’t this case different? The higher-ups are paying more attention to it this time. Aren’t you going to take the report seriously?”
An ordinary case closure report was merely tedious, but major cases—and cases that had attracted the attention of the leadership—were different. If you wrote one well, the higher-ups might remember you, which could be quite helpful for future evaluations and promotions.
“But I didn’t really contribute anything to this case.”
As he spoke, Lu Yixing walked into the room and picked up a cabinet to carry outside. He looked at Jiang Xia somewhat helplessly.
“You were the one who solved this case. I don’t even count as having assisted you. Even if I made the report sound amazing, no one would care.”
Well, what could you do? It was because he hadn’t been there at the time.
After setting the cabinet down, Lu Yixing said seriously, “Next time there’s a major case, I’ll follow Brother Chen’s example and investigate alongside you. That way, once you figure out who the culprit is, I can be the first to go arrest them. At least then I’ll get to share some of the credit.”
Jiang Xia couldn’t help laughing.
“You really trust me that much? And you’re that eager to earn some credit?”
“What kind of question is that?”
Lu Yixing brushed the dust off his hands.
“Who becomes a police officer without wanting to earn some merit?”
As he spoke, his eyes were filled with seriousness.
A strange feeling suddenly arose in Jiang Xia’s heart.
It was strange. When other young people said things like this, she always felt there was a hint of restlessness in them. But the man in front of her was completely different. It wasn’t merely that he was composed and steady. He seemed more like… a soldier waiting for his battlefield.
Interesting.
“You weren’t just doing the standard two-year term of military service, were you?”
Jiang Xia suddenly asked, “Why did you suddenly leave the army and become a police officer?”
Lu Yixing was silent for a moment before answering calmly, “Back then, I wanted to take part in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, but they wouldn’t let me go. There wasn’t much point in staying in the army after that, so I left when my term was up.”
They wouldn’t let him go?
Jiang Xia frowned slightly.
If she remembered correctly, she recalled that many recruits who had only trained for a few months had been sent into combat back then. Lu Yixing’s marksmanship was so good that his skill level certainly couldn’t have been low. He should have been even more qualified to go to the battlefield.
He could have gone, but they wouldn’t let him…
Who had stopped him? His superiors, or his family?
Jiang Xia’s eyes swept over Lu Yixing’s clothes once more, and she understood.
She shook her head. “Then I don’t think your plan to earn merit by making arrests is going to work. Captain Tan won’t assign dangerous missions to you.”
“Huh?”
Lu Yixing froze.
He quickly understood what Jiang Xia meant, and a trace of disbelief rose in his heart.
“Did someone tell you about my family?”
“No, I guessed.”
Jiang Xia asked, not entirely certain, “You’re the child of a fallen soldier? An only son?”
“More or less. I’m a posthumous child.”
Lu Yixing gave a slight nod.
“Your deduction was pretty accurate. I’d better watch what I say around you from now on, or you’ll figure everything out.”
No, I only bother thinking when I’m interested. If I’m not interested, I won’t waste the mental energy.
That said, she really should make fewer deductions about her coworkers in the future. Otherwise, she might end up without any friends.
“Just a lucky guess.”