Chapter 54.1: Could She Have Seen Her Before?
After thanking him, Rong Zhenhai hurried off with the portrait to find Xu Changsong and discuss the matter.
Meanwhile, after finishing the portrait, Jiang Xia finally felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
Everyone at the Municipal Public Security Bureau knew she was exhausted. Though they were curious, they refrained from bothering her any further. The staff from the Police Affairs Support Office arranged two new sets of bedding and quickly prepared two bunks, then led each of them off to rest.
The Quzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau’s dormitory building was newly constructed. It had three floors, with fresh-looking walls and hallways painted green.
Its layout was somewhat similar to that of a university dormitory, with rooms lining both sides of the corridor. As a result, there was barely any natural light in the hallways. Even in broad daylight, they were pitch-dark, and the occupants had to rely on the little light spilling in through the doors and side windows to see where they were going.
“This building isn’t just for unmarried officers. Some employees whose families don’t have enough room at home have also applied for unit housing, so everyone lives together here. Housing is a little tight, too. Families can have a private room, but most single officers have to share a room with three other people.”
The female officer leading the way was no longer young. Silver strands were already mixed into her hair, and she looked as though she had worked here for many years. She spoke warmly as they walked:
“Still, after such a long journey, Comrade Jiang, I’m sure you’d like somewhere quiet. So we arranged this room for you on the end. Only Forensic Doctor Hu is staying here. Um… I hope you don’t mind. After all, it’s one of the few double rooms we have, and Comrade Hu has a good personality too. I’m sure it’ll be more comfortable for you to share with her.”
In those days, housing was tight everywhere. The fact that Jiang Xia had to share a bedroom with her elder sister at home already counted as fairly good living conditions. Since she’d agreed to stay in the dormitory, she’d naturally expected to share a room with someone.
She just hadn’t expected her roommate to be a female forensic doctor.
“A female forensic doctor?”
Jiang Xia asked curiously, “That’s really quite uncommon.”
“Can’t be helped.”
Seeing that Jiang Xia wasn’t bothered by it, the female officer breathed a sigh of relief.
“Comrade Hu was originally a medical orderly. Back then, our bureau didn’t have a forensic doctor, but several cases happened to require autopsies. There was no other choice, so she bit the bullet and stepped in to perform the examinations. She kept doing it, and before long, she became a full-time forensic doctor.”
“After all, you’re dealing with the dead. Quite a few people feel that… well, it’s not exactly a good thing.” The female officer smiled at Jiang Xia. “I was a little worried you wouldn’t want to share a room with her.”
“As long as I have somewhere to sleep, I’m fine,” Jiang Xia said. “I’m not that particular.”
“Exactly. We’re police officers—we’re full of righteousness. We don’t worry about that sort of thing.”
The female officer chimed in with a couple more words of praise before counting the doors and stopping.
“This is the one.”
She raised a hand and knocked.
“Comrade Hu, are you in?”
A slightly hoarse voice came from inside.
“I am. Just come in.”
The female officer pushed the door open.
Jiang Xia looked inside.
The room wasn’t very large, perhaps only twenty-odd square meters. A single bed and a desk had been placed on opposite sides of the room.
Forensic Doctor Hu was sitting at the desk on the left. She looked to be in her forties, with wavy hair falling to the ends of her shoulders. In her hands, she was holding a section of folded plastic tubing.
There was also a large roll of colorful plastic tubing on the desk in front of her. Most conspicuous of all was a glass jar in the middle, already half-filled with little stars of various colors.
Jiang Xia blinked in surprise.
Was she folding little five-pointed stars?
And she’d even gotten a perm… She seemed to have quite a flair for enjoying the little things in life. She was completely different from the forensic doctor Jiang Xia had imagined.
“You must be Comrade Jiang, right?”
Forensic Doctor Hu looked up as well and beckoned to her.
“Thank you so much for coming to help us. Auntie Tong has already changed your bedding for you. It’s all freshly washed, so you can get a good rest these next few days. And don’t worry—I sleep pretty quietly. I don’t snore or grind my teeth.”
This roommate seemed pretty nice.
“I don’t either.”
Jiang Xia answered as she set down her suitcase. After seeing off the female officer who had brought her there, she was still a little curious about Forensic Doctor Hu, but she didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, she lifted the bedding and lay straight down on the bed.
Sleeping on an overnight train was simply too exhausting. And on top of that, she’d been catching pickpockets at every stop along the way, leaving her with practically no chance to rest. Right now, what she desperately needed was a good nap.
She had one good habit: she could sleep anywhere and never had trouble adjusting to a new bed. The moment her head hit the pillow, it took less than ten minutes for her to sink into deep, peaceful sleep.
＊
While Jiang Xia rested, Rong Zhenhai also got busy.
For particularly serious cases with exceptionally grave circumstances, the police generally had no upper limit on the budget allocated to solving them.
Right after the case occurred, Rong Zhenhai had already mobilized several hundred local patrol officers to search the surrounding area for suspicious individuals. Unfortunately, the building where the victims lived was rather isolated. There were no residential neighborhoods nearby, and the workers were all at the factory during working hours. Aside from the old man with the handkerchief and the curly-haired middle-aged woman, they hadn’t been able to find a single new witness.
Given this, Xu Changsong and Rong Zhenhai both decided to expand the search area and conduct a citywide search.
An intuition was one thing, but now that they had actually decided to go through with it, Rong Zhenhai couldn’t help feeling a little uncertain.
For one thing, they didn’t even know whether this person was actually the murderer. For another, they had no idea whether the suspect was still in the city. They could distribute the composite sketches throughout the entire city, but who knew whether that would actually lead to an arrest?
Xu Changsong felt more or less the same way. But as the saying went, doing something was better than doing nothing. Besides, they still had plenty of budget left to burn.
So they might as well put it to use!
With that in mind, Xu Changsong followed the experience Jiang Xia had shared with them. He contacted the railway authorities in advance and once again tightened controls at all the major entry and exit points.
Meanwhile, Rong Zhenhai contacted a printing plant and asked them to find an experienced old craftsman who could make printing plates, then had the composite sketches printed through the night.
After confirming that they could have five thousand copies ready for distribution first thing the following morning, he sent one criminal police officer to deliver the sketches and left another person behind to keep watch at the office. Then he drove the other criminal police officers, who had also been working for several days straight, off to get some rest.
The case had stalled here with no new leads. Continuing to investigate would only be a waste of time. It was better to let the officers get a full night’s rest, recover their energy, and be ready to throw themselves into tomorrow’s citywide search.
A good night’s sleep.
The next day.
A little after eight.
After sleeping to her heart’s content, Jiang Xia lay in bed for another half hour or so before finally getting up.
Her roommate, Forensic Doctor Hu, was already gone. She had gotten up at seven-thirty and quietly gotten herself ready before heading to work.
After washing up, Jiang Xia locked the door and went looking for breakfast at the place Hu had told her about.
Commerce was clearly more developed in Quzhou. Vendors had already set up at the intersection near the Municipal Public Security Bureau, selling breakfast without requiring ration coupons. There weren’t many of them, though—only three stalls—and they were already nearly sold out. The vendor selling youtiao had even begun packing up.
Jiang Xia glanced over the other two stalls. When she saw that the bun vendor’s own child was sitting nearby, happily munching on one of their buns, she immediately pulled out some money and bought two with radish filling.
She didn’t let the vendor wrap them in the free newspaper. Instead, she took them directly with her hands and bit into one.
To her surprise, it actually tasted pretty good.
As luck would have it, Chen Yongyi hadn’t gotten up early today either. He arrived at around the same time to buy breakfast.
“Comrade, give me five meat buns. Pack them up.”
He strolled over to the bun stall as he spoke, handing over the money. He then casually glanced at Jiang Xia and said, “Looks like you got a good rest, Comrade Jiang. You look much better than you did yesterday.”
“Really? Then I guess the train ride must have just worn me out.”
As Jiang Xia replied, she remembered that Lu Yixing hadn’t gotten much rest over the past couple of days because of her. She had no idea whether he’d eaten yet, so she added,
“Give me three more meat buns. Put them in a paper bag.”
As she spoke, she took out another cent.
The vendor quickly pulled the buns from the basket, packed them up, and handed the two packages over separately.
The buns here weren’t freshly steamed. They looked as though they’d been steamed at home and then carried over to sell. Fortunately, they had been kept under a quilt, so they were still warm.
They were just right for eating.
Chen Yongyi took out one of the buns and bit into it, then walked back alongside Jiang Xia.
Although their acquaintance had been brief, Chen Yongyi could already tell that composite sketching was immensely useful in criminal investigations.
And at his level, when he encountered a new type of talent, he didn’t just think about how to make use of it. He also thought about whether the skill could be replicated and taught to others.
After all, there were countless cases across the country. With only one forensic artist, even if she worked herself to death, she probably couldn’t draw composite sketches for all the criminals in a single province. But if composite sketching could be standardized and taught as a regular technical discipline, like forensic medicine and trace examination, then things would be entirely different.
Thinking about this, Chen Yongyi walked alongside Jiang Xia and took the initiative to ask, “Comrade Jiang, how long have you been studying drawing?”
“I have a bit of a talent for it.”
Jiang Xia answered modestly, “I’ve only practiced for three or four years.”
“That short?!”
Chen Yongyi was completely taken aback. He said in astonishment, “I thought you’d been practicing since you were a child!”
“Not really.”
Jiang Xia explained, “I’m basically self-taught. I used to draw random things as a child. When I was in school, there was a library, and I came across some textbooks from the Leningrad Academy of Arts. I practiced by following those, and gradually learned.”
Chen Yongyi was speechless.
He continued asking, “So you figured out how to draw composite sketches from witness descriptions on your own too?”
Jiang Xia gave a slight nod. “Yes.”
Chen Yongyi rubbed his forehead helplessly.
She had taught herself to this level in less than four years. This was clearly a genius among geniuses!
He’d been trying to analyze what she said and see whether her methods could be turned into something teachable. But now there was simply no point.
Someone with this kind of extraordinary talent was probably like Qian Lao in her own field. She might look at an ordinary person and think, ‘Even if you’re a little slow, you should still be able to learn calculus by fourteen.’
How could anything someone like that said be a useful reference for ordinary people?
But composite sketching really was useful, and Jiang Xia was the only person here who knew how to do it. Chen Yongyi had no choice but to steel himself and continue asking.
“Jiang Xia, do you think an ordinary person could learn to make these composite sketches?”
So that’s what he was asking.
If someone else had asked her, it might really have been difficult to answer.
But for Jiang Xia…
What a coincidence.
He’d just happened to ask about her specialty.
The art entrance exam is all about getting students up to speed quickly. It’s essentially intensive, cram-style teaching, and after teaching students for so many years, Jiang Xia was practically an expert at it!
Jiang Xia genuinely hoped that forensic artistry could be developed sooner. After all, serious crimes were becoming increasingly common. Every additional technique for catching criminals meant another chance of solving a case.
After thinking for a moment, she said:
“The principles behind turning a witness description into a composite sketch aren’t difficult. Drawing a person is basically drawing their outline and facial features. Eyes can be large or small, long or narrow; eyebrows can be thick or short; lips can be thin or full; faces can be round or square. So as long as you draw those specific shapes according to the eyewitness’s description, you can usually get a likeness that’s about sixty to seventy percent accurate.”
“There are two difficult parts. First, how accurately did the eyewitness actually see the person, and how clearly do they remember what they saw? Second, the artist needs to have good drawing skills. It’s not enough to be able to draw a person accurately from life. They also need to have a thorough understanding of all kinds of facial features and how those features differ according to sex and age.”
“Drawing itself can be learned fairly quickly. Focus exclusively on head portraits at first. Start by learning basic light and shadow, then practice drawing a few dozen geometric objects. After that, you can move straight into drawing portraits from life, while studying the structure of the head, bones and muscles, facial proportions, and the fundamentals of sketching. Practice around a hundred portraits, then do extensive practice drawing people of different appearances and ages, repeatedly drawing them from memory. After five or six hundred portraits, people with a decent amount of talent should basically have mastered portrait drawing and can gradually move on to composite sketches based on witness descriptions.”
Jiang Xia paused after finishing.
The art entrance exam was designed for testing purposes. The subjects were standardized, and there were all sorts of shortcuts students could use to muddle through. Composite sketching was different. It wouldn’t do to be even slightly off. If they encountered a particularly difficult case, the resulting portrait could easily fail to resemble the suspect at all. They needed to have a sufficiently comprehensive grasp of every kind of facial feature.
Jiang Xia recalculated the amount of practice needed and said:
“Altogether, though, that’s still quite a lot of practice. Even if someone draws for eight hours a day, they’d probably need about a year of practice.”
Chen Yongyi was rather conservative.
He simply multiplied both the amount of practice and the required time by five.
That wasn’t a short amount of time, but neither was it especially long. It was roughly comparable to the time needed to formally train a forensic doctor. The difference was that forensic medicine had already been repeatedly tested and had established examples and a complete system, whereas composite sketching was only just beginning to spread. Its effectiveness wasn’t yet enough to convince the provincial Public Security Department to spend that much time training people in it.
Chen Yongyi fell into thought, his brows drawing together.
“That is quite a long time. Our provincial department does organize training courses every year, but they usually last no more than two months. Spending an entire year teaching people… would be difficult.”
Jiang Xia thought so too.
Besides, she wasn’t famous enough yet for the provincial department to organize a training course specifically for her.
She hadn’t even been recognized as an expert yet!