Chapter 40.2: Counterfeit Coupon
Trace Examiner Li quickly found Liao Zhongsheng and told him that Jiang Xia had already reached some preliminary conclusions.
Liao Zhongsheng was quite surprised when he heard this.
He had thought they would need at least a month before they could get anywhere, perhaps even an entire quarter before they could establish a direction.
He hadn’t expected them to have preliminary conclusions so quickly. From here, all they needed to do was verify them.
Seeing that there really was hope, Liao Zhongsheng immediately took the matter seriously. He personally confirmed the details with Jiang Xia and once again clarified what they would need going forward.
She needed a large number of locks—but they couldn’t simply be random locks taken from people’s homes. They needed to know the exact length of time each lock had been used and its usage history so that they could classify and compare them properly.
Old locks were easy enough to obtain.
The difficult part was knowing their history.
After thinking it over, Liao Zhongsheng decided that the best approach was to mobilize the entire bureau.
Borrowing Jiang Xia’s idea, he used department funds to purchase a batch of locks and arranged a lock replacement program at the municipal Public Security Bureau, replacing old locks with new ones.
Of course, he didn’t tell anyone that they were trying to establish identification standards or submit a paper to Forensic Science and Technology.
He simply said that he’d suddenly remembered the burglary-and-murder case from three years ago and thought they might be able to investigate it through lock marks. Since there were no precedents to draw upon, they needed a large number of locks for reference and comparison.
The same story was told internally as well. Liao Zhongsheng even emphasized it with an unusually serious attitude.
After all, matters were more likely to succeed when kept confidential. If the true purpose got out, not only would the pressure on Jiang Xia suddenly increase, but there was no guarantee that someone wouldn’t get jealous and deliberately cause trouble. And even if they didn’t cause trouble, people would still find a way to claim a share of the credit.
That wouldn’t do.
The credit had to be firmly secured by the Technical Division. No one was allowed to take it!
This suited Jiang Xia perfectly.
Trace Examiner Li and Huang Xueling, who were responsible for dismantling the locks, naturally agreed wholeheartedly. Photographer Zhao jokingly extracted a promise from the section chief for a good meal once they succeeded. Forensic Doctor Sun and Yang Lihua weren’t the meddlesome sort either, so the entire department quickly settled on the same story.
Even so, people from other departments couldn’t help muttering about it behind their backs.
On the way home after work, the newcomers from the Second Squad walked together.
Cheng Tao tossed the lock in his hand and couldn’t help complaining.
“This new Jiang Xia really knows how to stir things up.”
“Wouldn’t it be enough for her to just draw her portraits properly? First she’s messing around in the warehouse making all kinds of forensic trace diagrams, and now she’s doing some kind of lock-mark analysis. What, does she have nothing better to do?”
Calling her idle was obviously unfair.
Over the past few days, he had occasionally seen Jiang Xia, and she was almost always busy. She was nothing like Photographer Zhao, who spent his time drinking tea and reading the newspaper.
It was just that they were all newcomers who had graduated from the police academy. Cheng Tao was still struggling to adjust to his new job. Then he’d turn around and see someone who had initially been assigned to a police station but had subsequently been transferred here, and was now doing so well for herself.
Naturally, he couldn’t help feeling somewhat resentful.
“Exactly!”
Zhou Yiping beside him was in much the same frame of mind. Hearing Cheng Tao, he immediately chimed in, “Every squad only gets one room for an office. Not only did she get to occupy an entire room by herself as soon as she arrived, now she’s taken over a warehouse downstairs too. How is that reasonable?”
“Even Section Chief Du doesn’t put on airs like she does. She doesn’t know the meaning of humility at all.”
There was a hint of displeasure on Cheng Tao’s face. “And Captain Zhao, too. So what if she can draw a portrait? Does he really have to bend over backward to curry favor with her? Now he’s even making all of us go home and change our locks.”
Zhou Yiping curled his lips. “It’s just making everyone run around for nothing.”
Cheng Tao snorted. “Making such a huge fuss, too. Who knows if they’ll even come up with anything useful!”
Guo Xiaofang frowned slightly.
As a fellow newcomer, she couldn’t understand why these two had such a strong hostility toward Jiang Xia from the department next door.
She has the ability, and all she wants to do is improve their technical capabilities and help solve cases. Isn’t it a good thing for the department to support her? Do you really have to insist on seniority before you’re satisfied? What a joke. Everyone in the bureau is your senior—who exactly do you think you can pull rank over?
She quietly moved a little farther away from the two of them.
Stupidity is contagious. Better to have as little contact with them as possible.
Guo Xiaofang reached into her pocket and felt the two new locks inside.
A straight-up old-for-new exchange!
What a great deal. If only they could do this more often.
…
First Squad
Back in the office, everyone was gradually getting ready to leave.
Chen Dong had two locks in his hand. He glanced at the remaining box of locks on the desk and asked, somewhat puzzled, “Hey, Xiaolu, aren’t you going to take a lock and exchange it?”
Lu Yixing spread his hands slightly. “The locks at my place have already had replacement keys made and have been used for quite a long time. They’re not the kind Section Chief Liao is looking for.”
“That’s a shame.”
As he spoke, Chen Dong simply picked up the locks. “If you don’t need them, I’ll take them to exchange, then.”
There were a lot of people in his family, so they had plenty of locks. Even the locks on their cabinets had been in use for years. This was a perfect opportunity to replace another one with a new lock.
“Sure.”
Lu Yixing agreed readily.
He already had a plan.
Old locks with a known period of use were easy enough to find. He happened to be off duty the next day, so he could buy a few boxes of locks and exchange them with people in the neighborhood.
With that in mind, Lu Yixing first stopped by the supply and marketing cooperative and bought two boxes of locks before heading home.
His family lived in the municipal government residential compound.
There weren’t many people in the Lu family. Apart from Old Master Lu, there was only Lu Yixing’s second uncle and his family of five, making seven people in total.
Old Master Lu had retired by then and spent most of his time at home. His second uncle and aunt both worked at the municipal government and usually got home fairly early. Lu Yixing, on the other hand, didn’t get home until it was almost dark.
This left Old Master Lu, who had been waiting for him, in a thoroughly foul mood.
“You little brat, so you do remember you have a home?”
“I’ve been busy with work.”
Lu Yixing gave him a perfunctory reply. As he walked toward the house, he quickly changed the subject. “What’s for dinner tonight? It smells great.”
But Old Master Lu wasn’t falling for it at all.
“Don’t go into your room. Xiao Xing, you’re off tomorrow, and there haven’t been many cases these past few days. You’ve had plenty of time to recover. It’s about time you went to meet that girl your grandaunt introduced you to, isn’t it?”
Lu Yixing stopped in his tracks.
He stood there and took a deep breath.
Blind dates were probably a fate that no young person could escape.
Ever since he’d returned from military service, his grandfather had automatically taken up the role of matchmaker. Every day, he mobilized relatives and friends to introduce Lu Yixing to potential partners, doing his best to fill every one of his days off.
He practically wanted Lu Yixing to meet someone in the morning, hold hands by the afternoon, introduce her to the family three days later, register their marriage within a week, and have a baby within a year.
It felt like he was breeding livestock.
All Lu Yixing felt toward the whole thing was irritation. He put it off whenever he could, and when he couldn’t, he used overtime as an excuse to dodge it.
He hadn’t gone on a single blind date so far.
This time was no different.
He said, “I’m not actually free tomorrow. I’ve got something to take care of in the morning, and in the afternoon I have to go visit my mom at Uncle Li’s place. So I won’t be going.”
“What?”
Old Master Lu waved his cane.
“You little brat, you’re doing this just to annoy me, aren’t you?! What could you possibly have to do? That girl is quite pretty, her family background is good, and she has a job. What’s wrong with going to meet her once? It’s not like she’s going to eat you!”
“I’m not interested.”
Lu Yixing didn’t bother continuing the conversation. He pushed open the door and went into his room.
“This is going to kill me!”
Old Master Lu angrily thumped his cane against the floor.
“He’s twenty-three by actual age, twenty-four by traditional reckoning, and practically twenty-five if you round it up! At this rate, he’s almost thirty! How can he not be worried at all?”
“Oh, Dad, you can’t rush these things.”
Cao Yuehua couldn’t help laughing at her father-in-law’s convoluted calculations. She came out of the room and comforted the old man.
“Xiao Xing just started working. This is the time when he should be focusing on his career. Give him a little more time. Once he settles down, he’ll naturally start thinking about finding someone.”
“Go back inside and get some rest. I’ll ask him later what kind of girl he likes, and then we’ll find someone suitable for him.”
Old Master Lu sighed.
“Ah, his mother isn’t around, so I can only rely on you, his aunt, to handle this for him.”
His younger son had passed away far too young. He couldn’t possibly expect his young daughter-in-law to remain a widow for the rest of her life. Remarrying was a good thing too. But once she’d started a new family, she naturally had her own household to take care of, so there were limits to how much she could do for this family.
Cao Yuehua patted her father-in-law’s arm.
“Dad, don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten.”
After helping Old Master Lu back inside to rest, Cao Yuehua picked up the food and walked over to her nephew’s door. She gently knocked.
Lu Yixing came over and opened it.
“Auntie, what brings you here?”
“You haven’t even eaten. How could I not come over?”
Cao Yuehua placed the bowl directly into his hands.
“Don’t be angry with your grandfather. He’s getting old. He just wants to see you get married and have children while he’s still around, and have someone by your side who can care for you and share the warmth and coldness of everyday life.”
“I know he means well.”
Lu Yixing returned to his room. He placed the bowl on the table, his expression unchanged.
“But that can’t come at the cost of sacrificing my life.”
“He’s already made that mistake once. I don’t want him to make it a second time.”
“Of course.”
Cao Yuehua sighed softly.
When it came to what had happened back then about not letting him go to the battlefield, everyone had their own reasons, and there wasn’t much she could say about it either.
She simply pulled over a chair and sat down beside Lu Yixing, speaking slowly.
“This is something that affects you for the rest of your life. Naturally, your wishes have to come first. Tell your aunt—what kind of girl do you like?”
What kind of girl did he like?
Lu Yixing was just about to refuse when a vague image suddenly flashed through his mind: a figure working intently beneath the sunlight.
He paused for a moment.
His voice remained calm.
“I don’t know.”
Cao Yuehua fell silent.
No, wait.
Her own son was only fifteen, yet he was already writing love letters to girls. This nephew of hers was twenty-three already, so why was he still completely clueless?
Could there be something wrong with him?
＊
The Next Day
Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Lu Yixing arrived at the Technical Division office.
By now, Trace Examiner Li and Huang Xueling’s desks were already piled high with old locks. The two of them were struggling to sort through and verify the usage histories of all the locks.
“Shoot, I should’ve labeled them!”
Huang Xueling grabbed her hair. “How many years had these two been used again? I can’t remember at all!”
A makeshift operation was bound to run into problems in unexpected places.
Trace Examiner Li and Huang Xueling were responsible for dismantling the locks. They had successfully collected the old locks through the exchange program, but neither had thought to label them when they brought them back.
By the time they remembered and tried to fill in the information, it was already too late.
They couldn’t remember how long the first few locks had been in use, nor could they remember who had exchanged them.
Hearing the chaos, Jiang Xia didn’t even raise her head as she said, “Xueling, don’t worry about those for now. Verify the usage periods of the other locks first.”
“Oh, okay.”
Huang Xueling nodded. When she looked up, she saw Lu Yixing, who had just entered.
“Brother Lu? Did you need something?”
“I was off yesterday, and I happened to have some free time, so I exchanged some locks from people around the neighborhood and brought them over for you.”
Lu Yixing took two steps forward and placed his bag beside Trace Examiner Li.
“They’re all new locks that have been in use for roughly three or six months.”
As he spoke, he took the locks out of the bag.
There were more than a dozen of them, each secured with a different-colored string.
“The white ones have been used for three months. The red ones for six months. These five black ones have been used for about a year. None of them have ever had replacement keys made. Take a look and see if they’re useful.”
“Huh?”
Jiang Xia immediately looked up.
Locks weren’t replaced very often. Old locks that had been in use for a long time were easy enough to find, but locks that had only been used for a short period were much harder to come across.
Collecting this many would hardly be possible by simply making a quick trip around the neighborhood. It probably would’ve taken at least half a day.
She frowned slightly.
“Did Captain Tan ask you to do this?”
“Working is one thing, but how can you also take up someone else’s time off?”
Lu Yixing paused.
He didn’t answer the question. Instead, he asked, “I figured you probably needed these. Don’t tell me you’ve already got enough?”
Huang Xueling hurriedly waved her hands.
“No, we don’t! This is actually the one thing we’re missing. We were almost going to have to use the locks ourselves for three months before we could bring them in and take them apart!”
“Anyway, I’ll take these over first and get them labeled.”
As she spoke, Huang Xueling picked up the locks from the desk and carried them away.
“We were just missing these. We really have to thank you for helping us find the complete set.”
Only then did Jiang Xia remember that Lu Yixing obviously couldn’t badmouth his superior in front of outsiders.
She smiled at him.
“I’ll treat you to dinner once I’m finished with this!”
Lu Yixing gave a slight nod.
“Sure. But we’ve agreed beforehand—it has to be up to the standards of a state-run restaurant.”
“Deal.”
Jiang Xia readily agreed.
It would be a good opportunity for her to eat out, too.
As the locks were gradually collected, Jiang Xia’s daily routine became extremely regular.
At work, she examined lock cylinders and drew diagrams.
After work, she went home.
Then she repeated the cycle.
Drawing the diagrams inevitably took time. However, as more and more samples accumulated, the characteristics they could identify became increasingly obvious.
Even Trace Examiner Li, who originally couldn’t make sense of anything he saw, was now able to identify quite a few patterns.
They were getting closer and closer to establishing a definitive identification standard.
Jiang Xia steadily pushed the work forward.
＊
Supply and Marketing Cooperative
“Comrade, give me a pair of size 42 shoes.”
“Comrade, I’d like one jin of brown sugar.”
“Comrade, I’d like five chi of cloth. Here’s my cloth ration coupon.”
…
Customers waiting to buy things kept surging toward the counter.
Wang Chunfang couldn’t even keep up with putting the shoes on the counter. She had no choice but to slap the counter and shout loudly:
“Everyone, stop pushing! Get in line!”
That barely restored some order. The crowd in front of the counter thinned slightly, no longer as chaotic as before.
Wang Chunfang quickly began searching for the items the customers wanted.
She weighed out the brown sugar, took the ration coupon and money, glanced at them, then quickly stuffed them into the cash drawer.
A somewhat thin, wiry man stepped up to the counter.
His hand was slightly clenched, and he seemed a little nervous.
“I’d like six chi of cloth. Here, six cloth coupons.”
As he spoke, he handed over the cloth coupons along with the money.
“All right.”
Wang Chunfang took the coupons and money.
The cloth coupons were somewhat crumpled, making them feel a little rough to the touch. The patterns printed on them were also slightly faded, but she didn’t think much of it. After counting them and confirming that the quantity was correct, she simply placed them on the counter.
“Wait a moment. I’ll cut the cloth for you.”
The wiry man immediately relaxed.
Wang Chunfang quickly measured the fabric with a tape measure, then made a cut with her scissors and tore the cloth apart. She folded it up and handed it over along with the change.
The wiry man took the money and cloth and hurried out.
Wang Chunfang continued serving the next customer.
Evening
The supply and marketing cooperative finally quieted down.
“Time to close the cash boxes! Time to close the cash boxes!”
The counter-group leader clapped her hands and said, “Everyone, lock up your money and ration coupons, then take the boxes to the finance office together.”
The supply and marketing cooperative had fairly strict financial procedures.
The cash and ration coupons from that day’s sales had to be delivered to the finance office immediately after closing, where the cashiers would count and verify everything to make sure the day’s cash matched the accounts.
Wang Chunfang rubbed her aching arms, locked up her box, and carried it to the finance office together with the employees from the other counters.
After having the counter-group leader stamp and confirm the handover, they returned the transfer receipts. The two cashiers in the finance office then sat facing each other and began their daily task of counting the cash.
It was tedious work and particularly mentally exhausting.
Cashier Wu Hongmei was always extremely careful when counting, afraid that she might make a mistake.
She first counted all the money, sorted it by denomination, secured each stack with a rubber band, and set them aside.
Then she began sorting through the various ration coupons.
There were all kinds of ration coupons—soap, cooking oil, salt, sugar, cloth, and more—and they came in different denominations as well. This made Wu Hongmei’s counting even slower.
She sorted them one by one when, suddenly, a cloth coupon with a completely different texture from the others caught her attention.
Why does this feel a little too thick?
Wu Hongmei rubbed it between her fingers twice more.
It was definitely different. The cloth coupon seemed thicker, and the paper was rougher too.
They were all the same kind of coupon. At most, one might become rougher from being crumpled or accidentally washed after being left in someone’s pocket.
But how could it become thicker?
And its color also seemed slightly darker.
Wu Hongmei’s heart skipped a beat.
She quickly smoothed out the cloth coupon and examined it carefully under the desk lamp.
As the paper flattened out, the flaws that had been concealed by the wrinkles were completely exposed under the bright light.
Wu Hongmei quickly spotted tiny sawtooth-like edges faintly showing through along the patterned border of the coupon.
A genuine coupon wouldn’t have anything like that!
Wu Hongmei immediately looked up and shouted to everyone else in the finance office:
“Something’s wrong! We’ve received a counterfeit coupon!”
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