National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 935 - 871: Even Closer

Crack crack crack crack.

In the meeting room of the Ningtai County Bureau, a group of police officers of all ages were frantically cracking sunflower seeds.

A few were chatting softly, but most of the officers, coming from the criminal police background, had minds more complex than ant nests. Today, they were all here because of Jiang Yuan; they couldn’t really converse with each other and were crazily trying to fish for information. It was like a meeting of people who made a fitness pact, where everyone was eager to drag the one who had lost even a tiny bit of weight to eat hotpot.

The rustling sound...

Liu Wenkai poured a bag of seeds onto the table.

Hou Lejia, the captain of the criminal police brigade of Longli County, often visited Ningtai County and was very familiar with Liu Wenkai. Half-joking, he said, "That looks like you’re feeding pigs."

"In the middle of the day, everyone has gone off to sleep, it’s hard to find anyone working. I asked an intern to fetch some plates, they’ve been searching for ages and still can’t find any, who knows if they went off to rest somewhere." Liu Wenkai feigned complaint and said, "I’ll fetch another bag once the plates are found."

"Alright, alright, we know we’re interrupting your work. Captain Jiang just came back for such a short time, everyone is rushing to see him. Next time, I’ll bring my own people and plates for eating seeds," Hou Lejia hinted between the lines.

"You might as well bring the seeds over as well," Huang Qiangmin entered, greeted by a chorus of welcomes.

Hou Lejia remained seated. He and Huang Qiangmin were from the same batch of criminal police captains and worked in neighboring counties. Their relationship wasn’t exactly friendly, it was more of a familiar competitive one, yet because of their proximity, they often had to work together...

So, for Hou Lejia to suck up to Huang Qiangmin, it was not what he liked, though he would still do it. Sometimes being reluctantly sycophantic might even be more thrilling.

Apart from county criminal police captains like Hou Lejia, there were also brigade captains from other cities in the room, whose ranks were much higher than Hou Lejia’s. Without any differentiated competition, Huang Qiangmin wouldn’t pay them any more attention.

Huang Qiangmin gestured with both hands as if to signal ’at ease’, then spoke "I was just discussing an issue with Jiang Yuan, and I’d like to communicate with everyone here about it."

"Please, go ahead."

"Commissioner Huang, you’re too polite."

Everyone courteously put down their seeds.

Huang Qiangmin continued folding his arms and said, "At present, it’s mainly an idea. We will report to the leaders after we prepare a plan. What I want now is to hear everyone’s thoughts because it may involve several districts..."

After the preamble, Huang Qiangmin explained the issue of river basin management proposed by Jiang Yuan, then said, "I’m not sure what everyone thinks. If there are strong objections, we’ll drop it. If there’s a consensus, then we can discuss specific allocations."

Huang Qiangmin’s words were somewhat vague, but the matter of receiving bodies and criminal cases from the Tai River Basin was clearly stated.

Everyone present was astute; if Captain Lu Jianfeng of the criminal investigation squad could think of it, surely the crowd here could too.

Almost immediately, someone asked, "If funding is provided, what will be the allocation ratio?"

"That hasn’t been decided yet," Huang Qiangmin replied vaguely.

"You should at least have a basic mode of distribution to discuss the ratio, right? What are you thinking of basing it on? The area of the river basin, the length of the river flow, or the historical crime rate? Or maybe the historical case clearance rate?" Huang Qiangmin didn’t need to say anything, as someone immediately listed several distribution methods.

After taking a sip of tea to moisten his throat, Huang Qiangmin added, "Since it’s brought up, I’m mainly thinking of basing it on the number of homicide cases. It’s a bit more flexible this way."

"The number of homicide cases? From which year? Last year’s? Or should we take an average? Median?" someone asked.

"Based on the current year," Huang Qiangmin said.

"How do you determine the current year’s figures? If it’s settled case by case, won’t there be disputes again? Or are you considering setting a baseline?"

Waving his hand, Huang Qiangmin responded, "It doesn’t need to be that complicated. For now, our idea is this: for every case Jiang Yuan works on, the local police bureau will contribute a sum of money to the Taihe Working Group. That’s the working name for now."

"Is the area in question the location where the body was found?"

"Just like this, wherever Jiang Yuan solves a case, that place pays the Taihe Working Group. It’s that simple," Huang Qiangmin said, before adding, "Forget the rest, whatever proportions, base values, local issues, don’t worry about them. We’ve got all cases on the Tai River covered."

Hou Lejia’s eyebrows twitched upon hearing this: "Does that mean we now pay the Taihe Working Group when we get Jiang Yuan to take a case?"

"The Taihe Working Group hasn’t been established yet. Once it’s approved, then we can work it out that way. If everyone agrees, I’ll start working on the plan," Huang Qiangmin explained, making his point very clear.

Everyone present understood. What’s the connection with the Tai River? Naturally, there was one—Jiang Yuan’s handling of Tai River cases meant they were providing benefits not just to the provincial office, but potentially to the various cities and localities as well.

On the other hand, Ningtai County could start making money from this. The group exchanged glances, and it started to dawn on them why Huang Qiangmin was now driving an A6 sedan with a Beijing plate—he was gunning for a more substantial quid pro quo.

"I think we should bring in the Economic Crimes Division to handle the cases from the Tai River!" Hou Lejia was falling deep into envy. They were all bureaus under Qinghe City, neighbors no less. With this setup, you’re bound to make a fortune—how would that look to our brothers?

"How much is it?" Impatience grew among those already rolling up their sleeves.

Everyone’s situation was different; some city districts were wealthy, while some counties were poor. The nature of case management varied as well. Those who couldn’t wait any longer were from Jianjiang City.

"Don’t worry about that for now. I’ll report it to the leadership first and we can discuss it after the approval. Before getting the clearance from leadership, let Jiang Yuan first handle cases for the nearby districts and counties. Qinghe City Bureau’s operation to clear the backlog of major pending cases isn’t finished yet; we need to help our brother districts and counties complete their tasks first," Huang Qiangmin hurriedly said.

Hou Lejia heard this and immediately beamed with joy: "That’s our old brotherhood..."

"There should be some cases you’ve almost finished, right?" Huang Qiangmin looked around and said, "If there are any recent cases, let’s start with the new ones."

"We had a major case last week!"

"We have a case from within this week!"

"We have one from three days ago!"

Huang Qiangmin slapped the table, "Litang County has a three-day-old homicide case, is that confirmed?"

"Confirmed!" The deputy director from the Litang County Bureau felt as if he had won something.

"Are there any more recent cases?" Huang Qiangmin looked around.

Silence.

The current homicide rate was already low and although so many places would have had incidents, cases that had occurred within three days were truly hard to come by.

Huang Qiangmin slapped the table again, "Then let’s start with the Litang County case. The rest of you can go back and rest."

He repeated himself, but nobody paid him any mind.

Huang Qiangmin shook his head and said, "Please prepare the documents from Litang County, I’ll call Jiang Yuan."

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the deputy director from Litang County Bureau hurriedly made a phone call.

Soon after, Jiang Yuan arrived.

"Captain Jiang, I’ve already printed out a copy," Deputy Director Ruan Tianyang from the Litang County Bureau quickly handed over a document.

Jiang Yuan nodded and opened it.

Everyone present crowded around, and although they missed out on the first case, it clearly did not diminish everyone’s enthusiasm.