Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 756 On-site Inspection
"Are they so casual about this?" Chen Chuan took a step forward, like a shy schoolboy, and whispered behind Chen Shu.

After all, it was a murder scene. Although there was a possibility of suicide, it was still against the rules to let other police officers from other provinces in without permission.

Out of a desire to help Huang Mao, Chen Shu didn't care about these details.

"Me? I carried a gun for our country more than ten years ago." Presumably having heard Chen Chuan's mutterings, Old Tang, who was walking ahead, turned around and chuckled as he talked about his past as a soldier. "I've never run into any of my own people at work, and I have a lot of stories to tell, but no one to talk to."

So that's why they were so enthusiastic when they mentioned Huang Mao's family was coming!
Huang Mao and Zhu Yiba were both retired border police officers. In Yunnan Province, a border province of China, which is adjacent to the Golden Triangle, known as the most dangerous region in the world, they naturally had an unusually close relationship.

Chen Shu didn't expose this thin veil to explain that he was a graduate of the police academy, thus leaving Huang Mao with such an experienced mentor, so that Huang Mao would have a place to go in the Criminal Investigation Department in the future.

Chen Shu had a few brief exchanges with Huang Mao. Although they were only a few words, it was enough for him to be convinced that, based on Huang Mao's personality, he was indeed not very suitable for front-line criminal investigation work. He and Huang Mao's captain agreed on this point.

However, people with this kind of simple personality are actually quite suitable for technical work.

Thinking about it that way, the criminal investigation department in the public security system would be the best place for Huang Mao. That place is full of technical experts with terrible tempers, and everyone is used to coaxing them to do their jobs. There's no chance of them being deliberately made difficult or isolated.

"Captain Chen! We've been waiting for you!" Huang Mao, who was already inside, shouted enthusiastically and expectantly when he saw Chen Shu enter.

Chen Shu smiled. Perhaps because of Zhu Yiba, Huang Mao was extremely enthusiastic and trusting of Chen Shu. He must have trusted his platoon leader back then.

After entering, Chen Shu exchanged a few words with Lao Tang and found that this forensic doctor had basically not delved into the field of trace evidence. He could understand the general idea, but it was probably impossible for him to personally conduct an on-site investigation.

It seems that forensic doctors in the southwestern border region of China and those in the eastern coastal region hold the same status within the system; they are both considered ancestors and superiors.

"With toes pointing to the ground, it must have been suicide," Old Tang concluded, glancing at the corpse that Chen Shu had previously placed beside him.

Upon hearing this, Huang Mao, who had been on tenterhooks, breathed a sigh of relief.

After a person dies, the body stiffens and the feet become fixed. If the person dies lying on the ground, the toes will point towards the ceiling. If the person is then hoisted up, the stiffened toes should be parallel to the ground.

When a person commits suicide by hanging, because they can no longer exert any force, their toes will naturally droop down, so shortly after death, the toes of the corpse will still be pointing towards the ground.

Chen Shu agreed with Lao Tang's statement, but according to procedure, the necessary on-site inspection still needed to be carried out.

Not wanting to leave it to Huang Mao, Chen Shu rolled up his sleeves, ready to inspect it himself. This was also Old Tang's original idea when he invited him in.

He had Huang Mao send someone to retrieve the investigation kit from the trunk of the police car and take it upstairs, then he began to work.

It's been almost an hour since we arrived at the scene, and Huang Mao still left his survey kit in the car. With that level of dedication, Chen Shu really didn't feel comfortable letting this kid go into battle.

Chen Shu first closed the door, then turned off the lights in the room, and then turned on the footprint light. Using the principle of light emission, he photographed the numerous shoe prints in the room one by one.

In this process, Chen Shu was not only an investigator, but also a teacher, teaching Huang Mao a few simple but necessary on-site investigation techniques.

Because the room was small and many shoe prints overlapped, and because it was a hotel room with many guests coming and going, the investigation value was not high.

However, this is just part of the investigation process, and Chen Shu has already ingrained it in his bones.

Sometimes, unexpected surprises, and even the key to solving a case, often appear in these unnoticed corners.

Although he had never worked in the criminal investigation team, Chen Shu had handled so many cases in the station over the years that he had learned some basic investigation techniques.

Sometimes, if there are no obvious signs of damage, bloodstains, sweat stains, or other valuable physical evidence at the scene, the criminal investigation department will directly have the police officers from the dispatched police station conduct the on-site investigation.

As the officer with the highest number of arrests in the entire operation, Chen Shu was among the best. When the criminal investigation department was too busy to handle the workload, he would personally collect fingerprints and take photos of the crime scene.

Why is it said that there are thousands of threads above and a single needle below?

Grassroots work is multifaceted and complex. It requires not only implementing various policies from different higher authorities but also performing and completing one's own duties. This is a true reflection of how police officers at police stations often juggle multiple roles.

For example, the Criminal Investigation Brigade will delegate criminal cases such as arson, robbery, and murder to the local police station and will assign a quota for criminal detention each month; the Public Security Brigade, in the same way, also has a quota for fines and confiscations; the Economic Crime Investigation Brigade, in the same way, has a quota for criminal detention of property-related cases; and the Narcotics Control Brigade, in the same way, has a quota for compulsory drug rehabilitation and drug users.

The branch office's business teams, to put it nicely, play a guiding role in business operations. In reality, they just issue targets and tasks to the police stations, then do nothing but wait for the end-of-month statistics and summaries.

Therefore, police officers who have worked in police stations basically know a little bit about everything.

They may not be as knowledgeable as the veteran officers in the various business teams, but the police officers at the police station can still do a few things and are true know-it-alls.

While working, Chen Shu also took the opportunity to observe Lao Tang and Huang Mao.

Old Tang remained calm, likely because as a forensic doctor he had seen countless corpses, much like a slaughterhouse worker who had seen countless pigs chopped into pieces.

In contrast, Huang Mao seemed much more uneasy. He appeared to be busy doing things on the spot, but he probably didn't even know what he was actually doing.

"Yellow Hair, help me straighten this footprint light," Chen Shu said, unable to bear it any longer.

After receiving instructions from Chen Shu, Huang Mao visibly breathed a sigh of relief, quickly came over to take the footprint light, and carefully set it up.

After taking the photos, Chen Shu collected everything in the room and put it in a transparent evidence bag, including items such as a toothbrush, a teacup, and used toilet paper from the toilet bowl.

While items like toothbrushes and toilet paper may look disgusting, they are actually powerful tools for evidence collection, containing the DNA of the people who used them, making them easy to trace.

Interestingly, a cigarette butt was found under the toilet counter, as if someone had casually smoked it while using the toilet and then tossed it away.

The deceased was a woman, so it's unlikely she was a smoker.

If this thing is found accurately, it's like the murderer voluntarily providing the police with their ID card.

These are all basic operations, with no difficulty or skill involved; it just requires a bit of care.

However, the blond-haired man standing to the side was extremely excited. The moment he saw the cigarette butt, he immediately concluded that there was another male person present at the scene, and that this man must be the murderer.

Chen Shu was calm, but when he saw the cigarette butt, he suddenly thought of Zhang Yang for some reason. He wondered if Zhang Yang, when under great pressure, would also huddle on the toilet and smoke to relieve her worries, just like him.

Shaking his head, Chen Shu refocused his attention on the scene.

As a provincial department, the Yunnan Provincial Public Security Bureau's compound is solemn and elegant, at least that's how Ma Rongcheng, who has been working there for a year, thinks. From the gate to the building entrance, a distance of more than 200 meters, apart from a highly automated circular fountain, there is almost nothing that can distract him. All that remains is the hissing sound of the flowing water and the imposing presence of the spacious grounds.

Walking along this corridor of power, Ma Rongcheng, who had walked back and forth countless times, could only hear the sound of his own heartbeat. This feeling was somewhat captivating.

Of course, don't be blinded by these magnificent buildings. At present, the total number of staff in the Yunnan Provincial Department is only six or seven hundred, which is the result of years of hard work.

After the staff were assigned to leaders at all levels and administrative personnel to maintain the normal operation of the provincial public security system, there were actually very few people left when it came to the specific operational level.

This is why most of the work of provincial departments is guidance-oriented; there simply aren't enough positions to accommodate those who actually do the business.

Therefore, apart from having high-tech equipment and absolute authority over the use of equipment far exceeding those of prefecture-level and county-level public security bureaus, most of the guidance teams from provincial departments are basically not as professional as those from local areas.

However, the bigwigs in the department still had their methods, which involved drawing "human laborers" from lower-level municipal and county public security bureaus. These transfers were unofficial, purely for manual labor, and when the time came, the laborers had to obediently return to their original units.

This is not just an optimization of human resources, but also an absurd comedy about humanity, fantasy, and reality.

However, this approach achieves multiple benefits: it solves the problem of manpower shortage in the provincial department and gives grassroots colleagues the opportunity to move up to a higher level and breathe a different kind of air.

Although the air was mostly filled with dust from documents and the sweltering heat of working overtime.

The most ruthless aspect of this tactic is that it allows those who briefly enjoyed the high-class atmosphere of the provincial government to naturally spread the word about how wonderful the provincial government was after returning to the grassroots level.

Therefore, many more grassroots police officers will continue to rush over in the future.

Most of them will be young people, such as those who are full of enthusiasm and ready to make a name for themselves, those who come to higher-level departments to get to know the leaders with ulterior motives, those who feel that they have a chance to stay in the provincial department, and some who just want to escape from the grassroots police station to catch their breath.

However, regardless of their purpose, they will eventually have to face a harsh reality.

In the provincial department, unless they are given a permanent position, they are still treated like livestock, just on a more advanced pasture.

However, some middle-aged people who have seen through the ways of the world still prefer the provincial government. At least working here means not having to work night shifts, and their meals and accommodations are taken care of by a dedicated high-end property management company. It is said that the head chef of the provincial government's canteen was even brought in from a five-star hotel.

Ma Rongcheng was just like that. In order to escape the endless housework and tutoring his children after meals, oh right, and taking his children to tutoring classes on weekends, he resolutely accepted the transfer and came to the Yunnan Provincial Department from the local branch.

It's been a year since then. I joined a special task force for an anti-fraud project, whose main task was to target several companies in the KK Industrial Park in Myanmar.

Doesn't that sound really high-class?

In reality, unlike the investigators working on the front lines overseas, the daily work of the task force members remaining at the provincial department consisted mostly of drinking tea and chatting in the office, occasionally processing case files. They were more focused on discussions about promotions and gaining more power, rather than placing as much emphasis on specific professional skills as outsiders might imagine.

As long as there are people in a place, they will inevitably be divided into Heavenly Dragons and Humans, and Oxen and Horses.

In the office, Ma Rongcheng had just sat down when he heard several colleagues who had arrived earlier discussing a murder case that had just occurred in the provincial capital. They said that a naked female corpse had been found in a hotel, and after initial investigation, it was discovered that it was a locked-room murder.

"A locked-room murder? You've been watching too many movies and reading too many novels." Ma Rongcheng, who came from a grassroots background, muttered to himself, shaking his head with a different kind of disdain for these colleagues who held positions in the provincial department and only knew how to discuss cases in their offices.

Of course, Ma Wing-shing himself would not think that this was a kind of jealousy towards them. Just like when they faced Ma Wing-shing, who was transferred from the grassroots level just to do the work, they had an oily pride buff.

Ma Rongcheng lit a cigarette, listening to his colleagues gossiping beside him. He thought to himself that it was still more comfortable in the hall. If he were at the branch office, there would be no time for idle chatter.

At 8:30 in the morning, they either hand over the shift to the colleagues who were on duty last night, or they rush to handle cases or interrogate people who have just been arrested. They even drink water while walking, for fear that if they are a few seconds late, the detention center will not have a room for interrogation.

After finishing his cigarette and tea, Ma Rongcheng methodically began organizing the case files from the previous days. He could work on this amount of work for a week without repeating himself.

After all, he was known as a "super detective" in his old workplace, having handled countless cases. In that small county town, he was someone who could shake the ceiling with a stomp of his foot.

Even so, his colleagues in the task force still laughed at him, calling him a "king of nitpicking," saying that everyone from the grassroots level is a "king of nitpicking."

In Ma Rongcheng's mind, the title "King of Rolls" is both an affirmation of his work and an honor, as well as a helpless self-deprecation.

"Get your act together! With your half-hearted approach, all you think about is getting promoted, instead of seriously honing your professional skills. Once we get a more pragmatic boss, he'll probably strip away all your arrogance." Ma Rongcheng, who didn't have a provincial-level position, thought to himself.

Just as he was lost in his thoughts, a murder shattered his peace.

"Old Ma." A policeman wearing a white undershirt walked over and greeted him, "There's been a murder downstairs, and they're asking us for help. As you know, this time, in order to mess with the special task force, they've transferred all their experienced criminal investigators here, so some of the smaller squads can only maintain the most basic duty shifts and emergency response."

"It just so happens that I've sent several people from their team to Myanmar on official business, and there really aren't any suitable replacements in the group right now. Why don't you go and help them out? No need for help, just leave them there."

This task force is a major project; if it succeeds, it will be far more promising than solving a murder case.

If it were me, I wouldn't have time to go back to my old workplace to take on cases either.

In the end, he could only shoulder the burden of both the special investigation and the murder case, and then fail to accomplish anything significant in either, becoming nothing more than a tool.

But as someone who was transferred from the grassroots level, he was bound to take the blame for this kind of thing.

call!
The kettle in the office had boiled, and the hissing steam interrupted Ma Rongcheng's thoughts.

"Yes, Captain."

In a flash, Ma Rongcheng had many thoughts, but at this moment, facing the deputy head of the task force, a white-shirted big shot with the title of criminal investigation chief, he could only stand up, pull out the heavy investigation kit from under the table, and take over the task.

"Okay, then I'll have Xiao Chen from the motorcade take you to the branch office in a bit."

The chief captain knew that at this crucial moment when the task force was about to solve the case, transferring Ma Rongcheng, who had been working diligently for a year, was temporary, but it might mean missing the last chance to reap the rewards.

He patted Ma Wing-shing on the shoulder and said sincerely, "If you encounter any problems down here that you can't solve, just give me a call."

Could you please provide a stall in the living room?
Hey, I guess it's not possible either.

Ma Rongcheng forced a look of deep gratitude and nodded heavily: "Thank you, President Zheng!"

(End of this chapter)