Chapter 91 Chapter 91 Do you think we can’t solve the case? …

"Dingwu, dingwu, dingwu—"

The flickering red and blue police lights broke through the cold evening fog, and the dilapidated jeep slid smoothly across the street and turned in the direction of Wisteria Lane.

Several joint defense team members at the alley entrance saw the car lights from afar, raised their hands high, and shouted, "This way—!"

The jeep stopped at the entrance of the alley, the door banged open, and Ji Yinhe jumped out of the car with Lu Zheng and Ge Weidong.

"I'm Ji Yinhe, the captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Tiandu Branch. Where is Captain Yu?" Ji Yinhe rubbed his hands and asked the security guard who came over.

"...Inside." The security guard took off the gauze mask and gave her an awkward smile. "Little... Um, Captain Ji, long time no see."

Ji Yinhe raised her eyebrows in surprise at Che Zhiwen's familiar yet unfamiliar face.

"Long time no see, Lao Che... Wait, weren't you transferred to Hongchang Police Station as a household registration officer?"

"Hmm!" Che Zhiwen, looking several years older, scratched his forehead awkwardly as he recalled the reason he left the Jiangtan City Police Department. "There was a little... minor friction there, and then I... voluntarily resigned to become a joint security officer."

"..." Ji Yinhe didn't know what to say, so he just smiled and quickly walked into Wisteria Lane.

A man wearing a captain's armband came over, tugged at Che Zhiwen's shoulder, and said unhappily, "What are you talking about? Get back to work!"

Che Zhiwen shuddered in fear. "This is Captain Ji from the Tiandu Branch. I used to be at the Jiangtan City Bureau..." "You're still dreaming about the City Bureau? They'd have kicked you out long ago!" The captain laughed. "Look at what you've become. Even the police station doesn't like you. Stop trying to get close to the leaders!"

"..." Che Zhiwen gritted his teeth in hatred, looking at Ji Yinhe's back and muttering, "This little Ji doesn't have any real skills. He only got promoted by relying on connections--"

"The convoy." Lu Zheng's sharp gaze swept over, "Please be mindful of your words and don't spread rumors."

In fact, he had already followed Ji Yinhe, but he heard Che Zhiwen's muttering and couldn't help but turn back.

Che Zhiwen closed his mouth with a snap.

Unexpectedly, the bad luck of the day was not over yet. As soon as I turned around, I saw another familiar license plate.

Tang Ci parked his car behind the tattered jeep of the Tiandu Branch, and pulled Xiao Wu in the passenger seat and hurried into the alley.

When they saw Che Zhiwen, they were also shocked, "Why are you..."

When Che Zhiwen saw Xiao Wu, he thought of the bicycle that hit him right in the heart, and his face turned red and white.

Tang Ci knew he was embarrassed, so he didn't ask any more questions and changed the subject, "Have the people from Tiandu arrived?"

Che Zhiwen: “…coming.”

Tang Ci raised his leg and was about to step over.

"Um, Old Tang..." Che Zhiwen shouted from behind, "Tiandu's new captain...is Xiao Ji."

Tang Ci stopped suddenly.

Xiao Wu was overjoyed. "Is it Ji Yinhe? Did you hear correctly? She went back to Jiangtan?"

"I just saw her, and also Lu Zheng, the guy who always follows her around." Che Zhiwen said with a gloomy look, "If you don't believe me, go in and see for yourself."

Tang Ci held his breath and rushed in.

I actually saw Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng in front of the yard where the family murder happened.

In fact, he didn't care much about this case. Since the 1992 speech in the south, Jiangtan has developed better and better, and has become the second largest city in Handong after Jingzhou.

The current situation at the Municipal Bureau's Serious Crime Squad One was a stark contrast to two years ago, when they wouldn't receive a single case for half a month. People die for money, birds for food—so when the case file was handed to Tang Ci, he looked at the deceased's financial situation and arbitrarily concluded the murderer was simply robbery. He returned the case to the Tiandu Branch, giving them full authority.

However, just after coming out of a meeting in Rao Zhenghao's office today, he heard that not only was no stolen property found in the family massacre, but a corpse that had been buried for who knows how many years was also dug out from the yard.

Tang Ci felt something was wrong.

After calling Lu Jitong, he took Xiao Wu and hurried to Zi Teng Lane. On the way, he heard the news that a new criminal investigation team leader had arrived at the Tiandu Branch.

——I didn’t expect that this person was Ji Yinhe!

Tang Ci suppressed his excitement and took a deep breath.

Xiao Ji is so outstanding, the provincial department asked her to come to the grassroots level for training, which must be for further development.

What about Lu Zheng? He's affiliated with the university and has nothing to do with the public security system. Could it be that...

He calmed himself down and strode towards the two people who were negotiating with Yu Jing.

"Xiao Ji, Teacher Lu, Captain Yu." Tang Ci glanced around, "Everyone is here."

"Captain Tang, Xiao Wu." Ji Yinhe didn't look surprised at all. He smiled and said, "It's also about this case."

Tang Ci nodded, "Xiao Ji, I'm afraid the family annihilation case will have to be handed over to us."

"Captain Ji, you're being too sweet. I think the Municipal Bureau is clearly trying to steal it..." Yu Jing said quickly, "A few days ago, it was you who said you didn't want it. Now that you see the complexity of the case and you can apply for the award, you want to go back..."

"That's not what we meant." Tang Ci touched his forehead, "Xiao Ji, you should know that we-"

Seeing Ji Yinhe smiling all the time, Yu Jing was afraid that he might be on the same page with Tang Ci and the others, so he snorted unhappily, "You keep calling me Ji... Captain Ji, are you here to help the Municipal Bureau too?"

Tang Ci looked at Ji Yinhe as if it was a matter of course, but he didn't expect the young policewoman to shake her head with a righteous look on her face.

"Captain Yu is right. I looked at the previous transfer procedures and it was indeed the Municipal Bureau that returned it first."

"..." Tang Ci was a little at a loss for words, "But the severity of the case is now beyond the capabilities of the branch—"

"Oh, you think Captain Yu and I can't solve the case?" Ji Yinhe blinked and said in a tone that sounded a bit annoying, "Or is it that Teacher Lu can't do the technical work well?"

"Tsk--" Yu Jing, who was standing next to him, felt very proud when he heard Ji Yinhe standing on the side of the branch and even mentioned his name.

"That's not what I meant." Tang Ci waved his hand. "You've been working on this case for almost a week now, and there's still no progress. With so much public attention, I feel..."

Yu Jing smiled sinisterly, "Captain Tang, let me be honest, you haven't responded to the theft case I sent to the Municipal Bureau last month... Even if we give this case to you, you may not be able to find the real culprit."

Tang Ci glared at him with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, "You——"

"Alright, alright!"

Ji Yinhe stretched out his hand to block the two men who were on edge, then turned and looked at Tang Ci seriously, "Captain Tang, do you believe me?"

Tang Ci suddenly recalled the ups and downs they had experienced fighting side by side in the Serious Crime Squad.

In a blink of an eye, she met Lu Zheng's gentle gaze at Ji Yinhe.

"...Of course I believe you." A hint of disappointment slipped through his heart. After a few seconds of pause, he answered seriously, "But your team—"

Yu Jing put his arms around the shoulders of Generals Sang Xiangyang, Niu Dazhi, and Hengha, and came closer. "What's wrong with our team, Team Tang? We have as many people as you do, right? Team Ji is a leader from the provincial department... Oh, and there's also Teacher Lu and Old Ge!"

Tang Ci pursed his lips, and Ji Yinhe opposite him saluted with a relaxed brow.

"That's enough! Please rest assured, city bureau leaders, leave this case to us!"

"..." Tang Ci sighed deeply, and after a long while, he said, "Okay, do your best."

Ji Yinhe gave a thumbs up, "Captain Tang is so generous!"

The two generals Heng and Ha also raised their thumbs up at the same time, but when they saw Yu Jing's eyes, they retracted their thumbs in disappointment.

Tang Ci took Xiao Wu and Ji Yinhe to say goodbye, and reminded them: "Tiandu is not far from the Municipal Bureau. If you need anything, just let me know."

"Don't worry! Aside from the fact that we might not have enough manpower for the arrest operation, there's really nothing else we need help with from the city bureau!"

Tang Ci nodded, jumped into the city bureau's brand new jeep, and drove out of Wisteria Lane in the cold fog.

Captain Ji walked back leisurely, his hands in his pockets, and said with a smile, "Captain Yu, the problem has been solved. Shall we begin the on-site investigation?"

“…”

Yu Jing rolled her eyes and thought that she had just helped get rid of the constraints of the Municipal Bureau, and now it was impossible for her to investigate the case alone.

He lifted the cordon and gestured "come in".

Ji Yinhe quickly pulled Lu Zheng into the courtyard.

Zi Teng Lane is located in the center of the county. It is a self-built small building in very good condition. The brick wall at the entrance of the courtyard shows a bit of age, but the ceramic tiles and floor tiles in the house are obviously the style popular in the past two years.

Yu Jing stood at the doorway, pointing a few times casually. "In the recent family murder case, the female victim was found dead in the kitchen downstairs, the male victim was found dead in the hallway doorway of the second bedroom upstairs, and there was also a little girl on the bed..."

Before he finished speaking, Ji Yinhe nodded and asked, "How old is it?"

"Five years old, and not even in school yet." Yu Jing shook his head. "How cruel."

The room had clearly been cleaned, and the body had already been sent to the precinct's forensic office. Ji Yinhe circled twice along the chalk outline of the human figure drawn on the ground, observing the marked physical evidence around him and nodded, "Captain Yu is really professional!"

Yu Jing felt a little embarrassed by the compliment, so he followed her steps out of the house and into the backyard.

Lu Zheng had already squatted down and began to examine the skeleton on the ground.

The open toolbox was placed at his feet. He tilted his head slightly, rolled up the cuffs of his fine jacket to his elbows, put on gloves, and straightened his back as he selected a few instruments that were obviously not capable of being equipped by the branch office and handed them to Ge Weidong next to him.

Ji Yinhe didn't dare to disturb them and stood quietly by the side watching their actions.

"Captains, judging by the degree of decay of the remains, they've been buried underground for at least a decade." Ge Weidong, though prone to slacking off, possessed considerable skill. "Could it be related to the family extermination case? Perhaps it was just a random burial by our ancestors? I heard that during the previous national treasure theft, a lot of burial mounds were unearthed in Shuangdun Town..."

"No." Ji Yinhe, who was familiar with the details, shook his head. "Shuangdun Town used to be a mass grave, but Ziteng Lane is in Chengguan Town. It has been the center of the county since ancient times. It can't be a mass grave... But you are right. There were more than ten years between the murder and the discovery of the bones. The two may not necessarily be connected. We still need to investigate the owner of this courtyard——"

Ji Yinhe pointed at the slightly contradictory styles of the courtyard wall tiles and said, "It's obvious that the couple involved in the murder case must have moved in later and redecorated the house."

Yu Jing also felt that what she said made sense, so she took out a notebook from her bag and hurriedly wrote it down.

"The time of death should be summer." Lu Zheng, squatting on the ground and peeling off the fragments of clothing from the corpse with tweezers, said softly, "He was wearing a polyester shirt and trousers, wait -"

Tweezers picked up a crumpled piece of oil paper from the dead man's trouser pocket.

This kind of kraft paper brushed with tung oil is usually used to package food and is rarely eroded by water and air. Therefore, it is not surprising that it can be buried underground for more than ten years.

Ji Yinhe and Yu Jing squatted down together and observed the pattern on the oil paper.

"It looks like some kind of pastry..." Yu Jing muttered.

"It's peach pastry." Ji Yinhe narrowed his eyes slightly.

As a native of Jiangtan, she remembered very clearly that when she was a child, there was such a peach cake shop at Sipailou in the city center. Lian Qiao took her there several times and even wanted to pay to ask for the recipe.

Of course, the boss rejected Ms. Lian’s request with the excuse that “this was passed down from our ancestors and will not be passed on to outsiders.”

Captain Xiao Ji took out his mobile phone and immediately decided to call his dear mother.

"...Ah, there is such a shop. It's very famous in Jiangtan. I went to their house three times to get the recipe, and I tried to persuade them even though my mouth was broken. But I couldn't convince them."

Ji Yinhe quickly described the pattern on the oil paper to Lian Qiao.

"Yes, that peach cake pattern. It's their signature dish. They're the only one of their kind in Jiangtan." Lian Qiao paused on the other end of the phone. "I remember the owner was from Tiandu."

Ji Yinhe's eyelids twitched. "Was the boss a man or a woman? How old was he at the time?"

"He was a man, probably in his forties," Lian Qiao said. "That peach cake shop was incredibly popular back then, but unfortunately it closed after just two years... Yes, I remember it clearly. On your seventh birthday, there was a long line outside the shop, but it never opened. Your dad and I were really puzzled!"

"I was seven years old..." Ji Yinhe calculated silently in his mind, "That's 1980, seventeen years from now. A male shop owner in his forties..."

Just as she was muttering to her mobile phone, Lu Zheng and Ge Weidong had already completed the preliminary autopsy.

"—The deceased is a male, approximately 45 years old. No obvious external injuries were found. We need to bring him back to the precinct for further examination."

Same gender, same age. Ji Yinhe swallowed his saliva, "This person is very likely the owner of the Taosu shop!"

She told everyone the information Lian Qiao had said on the phone. Yu Jing thought it was a coincidence, but this was the most likely possibility they had found so far.

So he had to stubbornly say, "It might not be possible to match the number...but if he disappeared suddenly, his family might have reported it to the police, and the industrial and commercial department might have registered the relevant information. We can find out with a simple check."

Ji Yinhe raised his hands and clapped his hands excitedly. "Captain Yu, we've got the clue! The technicians, please finish the finishing work. Everyone else, please call it a day. Go back and organize the evidence and start the investigation. Let's show the leaders of the Municipal Bureau what we have in the Tiandu Branch Criminal Investigation Team!"