Chapter 75.1: Recruiting ‘Artisans’ Through a Special Process?
“I also find that place name and that name familiar.”
Listening to their conversation, Yang Yaqin, who was in the office, looked up.
“Why do I feel like I saw them somewhere recently?”
As she tried to recall, she continued, “I think it was in some document… No, wait, it was a journal. It should have been last month’s issue of Criminalistics. Let me look.”
With that, Yang Yaqin stood up and walked over to the bookshelf, where she began searching for the latest issue of Criminalistics.
“Criminalistics?”
At those words, Chen Yongyi didn’t even have time to finish examining the fingerprints in his hand. He turned around and looked at Yang Yaqin, who was searching for the journal, in surprise.
How could Jiang Xia’s name appear in there?
Had he submitted something about the techniques related to composite sketches based on verbal descriptions?
No, that couldn’t be it. If that were the case, Meng Tiefeng wouldn’t be acting as though he had absolutely no idea. It had to be some other technique.
This was strange. He hadn’t heard of any particularly talented forensic technicians over in Changning. So what kind of research could they possibly be conducting with Jiang Xia?
Chen Yongyi was full of questions.
There were quite a few things on the bookshelf, but they were arranged fairly neatly. Yang Yaqin quickly found last month’s newly arrived issue. She pulled it out and flipped through the pages, searching for the name.
The rustling of pages suddenly stopped. Looking at the name before her, Yang Yaqin raised her head and said with a smile, “I knew I wasn’t mistaken. I saw it in the journal. Jiang Xia is the lead author, and it’s a research paper on the characteristics of tool marks left on locks when different tools are used to pick them.”
“Oh, right, right, right! That’s it! Now I remember where I heard the name!”
The moment he heard the keyword lock-picking, the relevant memory immediately surfaced in Meng Tiefeng’s mind. He slapped his thigh and pointed toward an empty seat nearby, saying:
“It was just recently. Liu Guochang said he’d come across a new technique for identifying tool marks on locks in a journal. Apparently, it was pretty easy to learn. We’d been wondering all along who had picked the lock in that March 14 case from last year, so now we could finally take it apart and examine it. He was chatting away while dismantling the lock, and mentioned that the technique had actually been developed by someone from our own province.”
“That’s right. I heard him mention it too.”
As she spoke, Yang Yaqin handed the journal over to Chen Yongyi. “Director Chen, take a look.”
Chen Yongyi still had the fingerprint samples in his hands, so he couldn’t take it just yet. Meng Tiefeng reached out and accepted the journal on his behalf. After glancing at the name, he remarked with admiration,
“Someone who can both draw composite sketches and conduct research? That’s quite an impressive skill set.”
But come to think of it, if this person was that talented, why had he never heard of them before?
That didn’t make sense.
“Wait, the lead author?”
Realizing what those words implied, Chen Yongyi was momentarily stunned. He leaned forward and nudged Meng Tiefeng with his elbow, urging him, “Old Meng, stop looking at it. Turn it around and let me see.”
“Hm?”
Meng Tiefeng turned the journal around so Chen Yongyi could get a better look at the name. He teased him, “Haven’t you already met this person? How come you didn’t know about this? …Hey? Old Chen, why do you look so shocked?”
Chen Yongyi could hardly believe it.
His lips pressed together and his brows drew tight as he leaned almost halfway across the table, carefully examining the name and the paper’s contents.
Hearing Meng Tiefeng’s question, he replied without even looking up, “She’s not even twenty yet! The fact that she’s so good at drawing already makes her a rare genius. How could I possibly have imagined she also knows forensic trace examination? She’s already conducting research and submitting academic papers!”
“What? Not even twenty?!”
Meng Tiefeng’s voice shot up several octaves. “Old Chen, you’re joking, right?”
At twenty, even someone who’d been practicing drawing since they were in the womb might not be able to produce likenesses that accurate!
And drawing wasn’t all she could do. Judging by this paper, her forensic trace examination skills weren’t bad either… How could someone so young know how to do so many things?
“Not even twenty?!”
Yang Yaqin was equally dumbfounded.
She had assumed Jiang Xia was at least thirty-five years old. Who would have thought she was actually so much younger than that?
What had she been doing at twenty?
Ah, right. Following her master to crime scenes, still completely clueless about pretty much everything.
“Why would I make something like that up?”
Seeing how astonished the two of them were, Chen Yongyi curled his lip. He had completely forgotten how shocked he’d been when he first heard the news himself.
He instructed, “Turn the page for me. I want to see what’s next.”
Meng Tiefeng flipped to the next page.
Although his mind was still buzzing as if someone had just whacked him over the head, he was gradually beginning to believe Chen Yongyi.
There was no reason for Chen Yongyi to lie to him about this, after all.
Besides, whether someone had real technical skills became obvious the moment they demonstrated them. There was no way to bluff one’s way through it.
Looks like a genius had emerged from the ranks below!
No wonder he’d never heard of this person before. She’d only just appeared on the scene. How could he possibly have heard of her?
“She really is young.”
Having recovered from her surprise, Yang Yaqin quickly managed to convince herself as well.
“She must be exceptionally gifted. Just like that child in the newspaper who was exceptionally good at mathematics, knew calculus, and was specially admitted to Tsinghua University’s gifted youth program. If I remember correctly, he was only twelve.”
She returned to her seat, sighing as she sat down.
“Honestly, how are people like that even made? They’re so ridiculously smart, it’s almost monstrous. Everything they can do is more astonishing than the last.”
“Guess they’re just born with a gift.”
Chen Yongyi gestured for Meng Tiefeng to turn another page. Looking at the page full of hand-drawn illustrations, he gave a slight nod before turning his attention away.
At first, the idea had sounded rather far-fetched. Drawing and forensic trace examination seemed to have absolutely nothing in common. But now that he was looking at it, he realized they were essentially the same thing: observation, illustration, and analysis.
It was still within the realm of what he could understand. It wasn’t nearly as extraordinary as Yaqin made it out to be.
“People like that aren’t worth trying to figure out. You could rack your brains all day and still have no idea just how capable they really are.”
Seeing Chen Yongyi return his attention to the fingerprints, Meng Tiefeng put the matter out of his mind.
“By the way, Old Chen, how much longer are you going to need to examine those fingerprints?”
Chen Yongyi shook his head slightly. “I don’t know who took these fingerprints, but they’re terribly smudged. It’ll take at least two or three days to examine them properly.”
If ordinary people looked at a genius like Jiang Xia and couldn’t understand how someone could be so capable, then Chen Yongyi looked at the criminal investigators handling cases on the ground much the way Jiang Xia looked at ordinary people: How could they make such a huge mess of something so simple?
These fingerprints had clearly been lifted from the surface of a smooth object. The extraction hadn’t been particularly difficult, and there hadn’t even been any bloodstains to interfere with the process. Yet somehow, they’d managed to smudge everything together during extraction. Just looking at them was enough to make him angry.
It was as if someone had deliberately gone out of their way to make his life difficult.
But no matter how frustrated he was, there was nothing he could do. The technical proficiency of criminal investigators varied wildly from one place to another. It was even commonplace for investigators to damage evidence while examining crime scenes. Simply being able to locate and successfully lift fingerprints was already worthy of praise.
“Two or three days, huh?”
In that case, he couldn’t stay here waiting for the results.
Meng Tiefeng straightened up and said, “All right, Old Chen. You carry on with your examination. I’ll head back instead of waiting around. Come find me once you’ve got the results.”
“Sure.”
Chen Yongyi kept his eyes fixed on the fingerprints and replied without looking up.
“By the way, about Jiang Xia I mentioned earlier. What do you think about inviting her to participate in this year’s cold-case crackdown?”
Hm?
Meng Tiefeng furrowed his brows slightly and considered the suggestion.
“Her verbal-description composite sketches aren’t really suited to solving cold cases, are they?”
It didn’t take much thought to see why. Jiang Xia drew portraits based on eyewitness descriptions, but people’s memories of a suspect’s appearance inevitably grew hazier as time passed. Some people might not even remember someone they’d seen just the day before, let alone someone from a case that had been dormant for at least a year. Who knew how much the witnesses could still recall? Bringing her in for this kind of work probably wouldn’t accomplish much.
However…
She would certainly be useful in some new cases.
“I know.”
Chen Yongyi was naturally aware of that too. His expression remained unchanged as he replied, “But you never know. There might be witnesses who still remember. Besides, composite sketching isn’t the only thing she knows how to do. Even if she can’t contribute much directly, coming here and learning from the more experienced investigators would still be better than staying in Changning, where there aren’t many cases to work on.”
Experts become experts through years of accumulated experience. No matter how talented someone is, without enough cases to study and learn from, their potential will remain limited. They had to take advantage of the fact that she was currently at the peak of her eagerness to learn and expose her to as many cases as possible. Otherwise, once she got a little older, learning new things would become much more difficult.
Meng Tiefeng nodded slightly. “That makes sense.”
After all, a genius was much quicker to develop than an ordinary person. Give them a little fertilizer, and they might grow into a towering tree in no time, ready to be put to work like a combine harvester.
“Then I’ll discuss this with Director Xue when I get back and see how we can arrange to bring her over.”
Hmm…
Before having that discussion, though, he needed to get a clearer picture of the situation.
Meng Tiefeng rubbed his chin again.
Come to think of it, Old Chen didn’t seem to know all that much about Jiang Xia either. He only knew she could draw composite sketches, and hadn’t even realized she was skilled in forensic trace examination. Could she have other abilities they still didn’t know about?
He’d have to call and ask…
No, that wouldn’t do.
What kind of department head would go around bragging to his superiors about the star talent under his command? Wasn’t that practically asking for someone to snatch them away?
He’d have to find another way to sound things out.
For example…
A skills assessment?
＊
Changning City, Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Technical Division.
After writing the final character, Huang Xueling took a deep breath. Then, she suddenly sprang to her feet and cheered excitedly.
“I’m finally done! Aaaaaah!”
“Half a month! An entire half-month! I’ve finally made it through!”
“I can go home today!”
Her words sounded rather miserable, but Yang Lihua, sitting beside her, was already looking over with envy.
His chin was covered in short stubble, and his hair was so messy and greasy it looked like a bird’s nest. His eyes, set in dark circles, were utterly lifeless.
He wanted to go home tooooo!
Unfortunately, he still had a little more work left to finish.
“I’ve finally finished too.”
Jiang Xia put down her pen and leaned back in her chair, slowly letting out the last breath she’d been holding.
During this period, no one had escaped being worked like a beast. They’d all nearly drowned in a sea of paperwork.
If only she’d known, she wouldn’t have gone after those pickpockets…
Forget it. She still had to catch them, after all. Having your money stolen was pretty upsetting for ordinary people too.
“There’s only this little bit left. Once we wrap it up, things should be much easier for the next few months.”
Trace Examiner Li of the Forensic Trace Examination Division was standing beside his desk, twisting his waist to stretch. He was getting on in years, and sitting for too long made his back ache, so he had to get up and move around every now and then.
“Whenever I go home lately, I hear people around me saying things are much safer outside than they used to be. There are hardly any pickpockets or street fights anymore. People even dare to go out alone at night now.”
Trace Examiner Li was already too old to pull all-nighters, so he hadn’t been doing much overtime. He still went home at his usual time every evening.
“That’s right.”
Photographer Zhao squeezed his right shoulder with his left hand.
“My wife has been saying the same thing these past few days. You hardly see any street hooligans hanging around outside anymore.”
Jiang Xia liked hearing that. It meant their efforts over the past month had paid off tremendously. In fact, the results had been almost immediate!
And besides…
“So does that mean our bureau will have a much easier time over the next few months? We might even get a few extra days off?”
“Definitely.”
Zhao, who was quite well-informed, said, “I heard the deputy director has already started discussing how to arrange rotating days off. Oh, right! Our section chief went to attend that very meeting. If everything goes as expected, we’ll get at least three consecutive days off.”
“Three days?”
Hearing that, Huang Xueling’s eyes lit up.
“That’s amazing!”
With six days of work followed by just one day off, she’d only get two days of rest after working herself to the bone for half a month. If she could get three consecutive days off, that would be absolute bliss!
Huang Xueling quickly mapped out her holiday plans. First, she’d sleep through the night before her break. After waking up, she’d have a meal, then enjoy a long, satisfying nap to recharge. After that, she’d treat herself to an afternoon nap whenever she felt like it, then have dinner before settling in for a leisurely night’s sleep.
Just thinking about it made her happy.
As for the remaining two days… she’d figure those out after she woke up.
Three whole days off!
Jiang Xia couldn’t help getting excited too. Having time to rest really was wonderful. But…
How many days off would Captain Tan’s team get? And when would their break start?
She’d already postponed the treat she’d promised to buy them three weeks ago. They’d even been working so much overtime in between that she’d nearly forgotten about it entirely, her head spinning from exhaustion.
What a joke. If they kept working overtime like this, there’d be no need to even discuss treating anyone anymore.
She’d ask him about it later and see if they could arrange to take their leave at the same time.
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