Chapter 35.1: Stolen Identity
Someone instinctively objected, “No way. That was a university. How could someone possibly impersonate another person and get in?”
People tended to unconsciously put prestigious institutions on a pedestal. Even though everyone present was a criminal police officer, when it came to a university—a higher institution of learning—they still found it hard to believe that such a loophole could exist.
Chen Dong shook his head as well. “Exactly. Jiang Xia, that was a university. Everyone there was educated. If someone got in by impersonating another student, wouldn’t they be exposed as soon as classes started?”
Chen Dong’s reasoning wasn’t wrong, either.
Universities back then weren’t as watered down as they were later. There were fewer students, and teachers were more responsible. Zhou Jingyun had majored in mechanical engineering, too, which inevitably involved mathematics and physics.
Anyone who had been to school knew that you could fool yourself about almost anything, but not mathematics, because you simply couldn’t fake knowing math!
If your level wasn’t good enough, you were bound to be exposed.
But Jiang Xia had never said that Zhou Jingyun’s academic ability was actually that poor.
Jiang Xia spread her hands. “Brother Chen, an ordinary person sneaking into a university would definitely be exposed. But what about someone who missed admission by just one point? Can you really say that their actual ability is worse than that of the person who was admitted with the final passing score?”
“Huh?”
Chen Dong’s impulse to argue instantly came to a halt.
Right. There were also students who failed to get in. If someone with a relatively high level of ability slipped into the university, there might not be much difference between them and a student who had been legitimately admitted. It would be very difficult for a teacher to notice.
He sucked in a breath. “Then it really is possible.”
“However, I suspect the deceased’s actual ability wasn’t that high.”
Jiang Xia added, “When I was visiting the factory today, everyone described him as hardworking and modest. I didn’t think much of it at the time. But just now, when I heard Captain Tan mention that his night-school teacher had called him diligent and hardworking, it suddenly clicked. Those are just stock phrases!”
“After all, people tend to be tactful when they talk. Unless someone is truly terrible, they won’t give them an especially bad evaluation. But if someone is genuinely talented, people will talk about their ability, not their attitude or work ethic.”
At this point, Jiang Xia paused and pointed at herself. “Take me, for example. If people were introducing me to someone else, wouldn’t they all praise me for being amazing at portrait sketching?”
“That’s definitely true.”
Wang Leihu gave a thumbs-up. “You could search the entire city and still not find a second person with your talent.”
His words eased the tension in the room somewhat.
After pondering for a moment, an older criminal investigator said, “If that’s the case, then the deceased must have deliberately made himself appear hardworking so people would overlook his actual abilities. It’s just like those people in the personnel department who always pretend they’re terribly busy so nobody will bother them.”
Everyone laughed at that.
“I think he used this and other methods to fool his teachers and classmates into overlooking their suspicions during his university years.”
Jiang Xia nodded. “But the deceased really wasn’t capable enough. There’s a good chance he couldn’t get into research and development, and he wouldn’t have been able to advance through the technical ranks. That’s probably why he was so desperate to pursue women from better family backgrounds, even to the point of burning bridges. Being a university graduate was when his credentials were at their most valuable, after all. In another couple of years, people would gradually realize that he was all credentials and no substance.”
Chen Dong stroked his chin as he mulled it over. The more he sorted through the reasoning, the more he felt that the theory actually held water.
They were just trying to establish a possible direction anyway, so no matter how far-fetched the idea seemed, nobody bothered to argue against it. Instead, they followed the line of thought.
“Let’s assume for the moment that the deceased really did impersonate someone else to get into university.”
Chen Dong took the initiative. “Then his current identity is fake, meaning we don’t even know who he really is?”
Old Qin waved his hand. “No, no, no. After taking someone else’s identity, this person didn’t completely cut ties with his family. If we investigate his parents, we should still be able to find out who he really is.”
“The deceased came from a fairly ordinary family. Let me think… Five years ago…” He did some calculations. “He would have been around twenty then, so he was probably working as an educated youth in the countryside.”
Zeng Jun estimated his age. “Then the only people he could have impersonated would have been educated youths around him. But now they’ve all gone back to their respective cities. They wouldn’t even have any chance to run into each other, would they?”
Jiang Xia shook her head. “Captain Zeng, you forgot. Right now, university graduates are assigned jobs based on their place of household registration.”
“Right, right!”
As soon as Jiang Xia said this, Old Qin immediately caught on. He slapped his forehead. “It’s not like the old days of ‘from the commune back to the commune, from the factory back to the factory’!”
He was referring to the assignment system for recommended students before 1978. Under that system, children from rural areas were sent back to the countryside, while children from factory families were assigned to factories. The system had since been adjusted somewhat.
At present, graduates were first assigned according to the country’s needs, and only then according to their place of household registration. However, when the state made assignments based on national needs, it selected top students, and there were very few such positions. As for assignments based on household registration, students’ personal preferences were generally not taken into consideration. Unless a student was particularly outstanding or had connections, it was difficult to get transferred elsewhere.
The deceased clearly had neither of those advantages.
Apart from these two options, the deceased actually had one more path available to him. The country was currently developing its western regions, and anyone who volunteered could be assigned there. If he had gone, the chances of being exposed would have been practically zero.
But the deceased clearly wasn’t the type who wanted to go to Tibet and eat sand while suffering hardship. With no other choice, he could only come here.
“Those policies are still fresh in the minds of recent graduates,” Zeng Jun remarked.
But then he raised another question. “But if that’s the case, the deceased must have known about the assignment system too. He should have realized that coming here might mean running into the educated youths he used to live with. Wouldn’t he be afraid of being exposed?”
“Being afraid wouldn’t have helped. He didn’t want to suffer, after all.”
Jiang Xia explained the assignment rules in greater detail before continuing, “The person whose identity was stolen definitely had no idea they’d been impersonated. Naturally, the deceased would have counted on luck. Just because he was assigned to this city didn’t necessarily mean he would run into the other person. If they never met, there was no way he’d be exposed.”
“Besides, he knew in advance that he was going to be assigned here, so he would certainly have made some preparations beforehand. For example, he could have changed his name again. That would make the chances of being discovered even lower.”
“But there was still a chance he’d be exposed.”
Tan Bingyi, who had been listening until now, finally spoke. “So, Jiang Xia, you suspect that the victim discovered the truth—that his identity had been stolen—and sought revenge?”
Though he put it that way, there was still a hint of doubt in Tan Bingyi’s voice.
The reason was simple. Discovering that the one opportunity they had to change their fate had been taken away by someone else could certainly inspire tremendous hatred. But surely it wouldn’t be enough to drive the victim to murder.
Besides, judging by the victim’s age, he had probably already married and had children.
Killing the deceased might provide an outlet for his anger, but what then? His own life would be over, and so would the lives of his wife, children, and family.
As a rational adult, the best course of action would be to report the matter to the police or the government. Even if he couldn’t return to university, he could at least have the deceased’s identity and job revoked. That would be enough to vent his anger.
“I did think of the victim at first, but his motive for murder isn’t particularly convincing.”
Jiang Xia shook her head. “Having your life stolen from you is certainly hateful, but it shouldn’t be enough to drive someone to murder. Unless the hatred runs deeper than simply having one’s identity stolen.”
“There are two possibilities, then. One is that after the victim returned to the city, he couldn’t find a job and went down the wrong path, leaving his life in complete ruins. His hatred could have reached such an extreme point that killing the deceased was the only way he could vent his anger.”
“But someone with no job and no proper place in society would have had very little chance of crossing paths with the deceased. The possibility of him discovering that his identity had been stolen would be even smaller.”
Tan Bingyi’s expression remained unchanged as he continued questioning her. “And what’s the other possibility?”
Jiang Xia sighed, her voice growing heavier. “There’s actually a default assumption underlying all my theories: that the victim whose identity was stolen is still alive. But what if… he’s dead?”
“What?!”
Wang Leihu was startled. “Jiang Xia, are you saying the deceased killed someone, then impersonated that person and used his identity to attend university?”
Zeng Jun was startled as well. He immediately shook his head. “That’s impossible. Someone died—that would definitely attract the police’s attention. Besides, once someone dies, their household registration has to be canceled. How could a dead man use that identity to go to university?”
It certainly sounded unbelievable, but sometimes people really could pull off something like this. After all, although household registration management seemed strict at the time, the information systems were not interconnected. Different government departments operated in their own silos, and verification was still largely conducted by mail. The time lag involved—or even the person receiving the correspondence—could potentially be exploited.
“He could have forged identification documents, or transferred his household registration to the university beforehand.”
Jiang Xia said, “Everyone, don’t forget the Li Wanming case.”
Quite a few of those present had heard of it.
Li Wanming was the biggest political con artist in the early years of the People’s Republic. By forging documents and carving counterfeit official seals, he deceived his way from a section chief all the way to becoming a deputy division chief at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in the capital. It wasn’t until 1955, when he forged orders transferring him to become a military-region commander, that he was exposed while talking with a provincial Party secretary along the way.
If even appointments for officials at such a high level could go awry, then perhaps it wasn’t so strange that a student could successfully use the identity of someone whose household registration had already been canceled to attend university.
Even so, everyone still found it difficult to accept. Even Chen Dong, who usually tended to support Jiang Xia, rubbed his forehead.
“I just can’t figure it out. I really can’t. Jiang Xia, how on earth did you come up with the idea that the deceased killed the victim?”
Good question.
It required a crime scene, plus just a tiny bit of imagination.
Jiang Xia paused for a moment before saying, “It’s simple. The killer’s desire for revenge was extremely strong, while the deceased’s behavior was also somewhat abnormal.”
“He borrowed a large amount of cash from people around him, claiming that his parents were seriously ill. So after figuring out that he had stolen someone else’s identity to attend university, my first thought was that he intended to flee with the money. After all, once he left, it wouldn’t matter if someone exposed his identity.”
“But that raises one question. If the deceased was determined to escape, how did the killer manage to stop him and murder him?”
“What we found was the body-dumping site, not the actual murder scene. But we can be certain that the murder didn’t take place anywhere near the train station. There are too many people there, making it far too easy for someone to be noticed. It should have been somewhere remote and deserted, far from the station.”
“If the deceased was already planning to flee, then if the victim came to intercept him, he wouldn’t have wanted to go along with him. He would have made up any excuse he could think of and hurried away. So if he went to such a remote place to meet the victim, he could only have gone there because he wanted to.”
“Then why would he go there? Did he intend to give all the money to the victim in exchange for being let off the hook?”
“Impossible. The victim knew his biggest secret. As long as the victim was alive, he could come back and threaten him again at any time. Unless… he decided to go all the way and eliminate him once and for all!”
“With such a ruthless mentality, it would be hard to believe he had no prior crimes. So I let my imagination run a little wild and guessed that he might have already killed the victim.”
“In other words, there’s a very good chance the killer is a member of the victim’s family, and he killed the deceased to avenge his loved one.”
“Hiss…”
Chen Dong couldn’t help sucking in a sharp breath.
That was what you called letting your imagination run wild?
The criminal investigators present said nothing. They all silently went over Jiang Xia’s line of reasoning in their heads.
From nothing more than the location of a wound, some suspicious behavior, and a hypothesis about the murder scene, she had managed to deduce all that?
It was simply unbelievable!
After a moment of silence, one of the criminal investigators couldn’t resist playing devil’s advocate.
“I’ll admit, if you treat this like a detective novel, it’s pretty interesting.”
He laid his pen horizontally across his notebook, leaned back in his chair, and regarded Jiang Xia skeptically. “But it’s all just speculation, isn’t it? We don’t have a shred of evidence. How can we be sure the deceased really stole someone else’s identity, let alone that there was a victim and a victim’s family?”
“That’s true.” The criminal investigator beside him nodded in agreement. “It sounds good, but it’s all speculation. How could any of it actually be true?”
After all, these were nothing more than deductions, so it was only natural for someone to question them. Jiang Xia didn’t mind at all. She simply said,
“Whether it’s true or not is easy enough to find out. I believe the killer is a relative of an educated youth from our city, and there’s a good chance he works at either the machinery factory or the night school. All we have to do is pull up the deceased’s file, find out where he was sent to the countryside back then, whether he changed his name, and what his name was before the change. Then we check whether any children of employees from the machinery factory or the night school were sent to the same place as educated youths. If we find a match, we’ll basically have our answer.”
That could turn into a rather bizarre amount of work.
The machinery factory alone had more than five thousand employees. With that many families, finding someone who had been sent to the same place as an educated youth six years ago—or even earlier—would take who knew how long. It wasn’t even clear whether those records still existed.
But if the records had been properly maintained and there happened to be an archivist who regularly kept them up to date, they might be able to find the answer simply by asking.
Tan Bingyi lowered his head and went over Jiang Xia’s reasoning again. Although he felt that some parts were based a little too heavily on assumptions, it was indeed a possible direction to investigate.
“We can look into it, but there’s no need to go all out just yet. Let’s send two people to check the deceased’s records first. If there really is something suspicious, then we can put more manpower into investigating it.”
That seemed like a reasonable investment of resources, and Zeng Jun quickly agreed. “I think that works. It’s just a trip to the machinery factory.”
“I have no objections either.”
Chen Dong immediately voiced his agreement. He glanced at Jiang Xia, then thought about how she had performed from the first time they met until now. He decided to take a gamble.
“Besides, I probably won’t be able to sleep when I get home anyway. How about I go after we break up?”
One of the criminal investigators laughed. “Old Chen, you trust her that much?”
“It’s just one trip.”
Jiang Xia had only joined them recently and was still relatively inexperienced. Besides, all of this was based on deductions, so saying he trusted her completely would be a little embarrassing for a veteran investigator like himself.
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