Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 29 The Jin Yiwei is coming

Jia Chuan walked to the crime scene with steady steps.

This is very different from what Gao Yuntian thought, which was to walk quickly.

"I ordered someone to call you, you should have come as soon as possible, why are you so slow?" Gao Yuntian was waiting at the gate of the courtyard, and he became furious when he saw Jia Chuan.

"You are the captain of the police, they are constables, what am I?" Jia Chuan asked seriously.

Gao Yuntian was stunned for a moment and said, "It was Old Zheng who said you would definitely find the real murderer. I didn't believe it, so I sent someone to call you over."

"You win, I can't find it." Jia Chuan turned and was about to leave.

"Since you don't have the ability, why are you rushing to the front in the Huangluling case? Even if the prince has promised you something, shouldn't you wait until the imperial decree arrives before you can act properly? Aren't you just trying to show off in front of me..."

Jia Chuan had already stepped over the threshold. He advised himself not to argue with this man, thinking it was too childish. However, after hearing what he heard, he withdrew his foot and turned around to ask:

"Have you never seen what a rotting corpse looks like? If I don't investigate in advance, I'll be clueless when the imperial edict arrives. You're even more clueless. The county magistrate can't wear the black sha on his head anymore, so how can you still wear this dark blue work uniform?"

Gao Yuntian opened his mouth and uttered "hmm" twice, and then said nothing more.

"Call me Master, I'll help you investigate this case."

Gao Yuntian's face was brimming with veins after hearing this. Who doesn't have some self-respect? Is it so easy to recognize a master?

Old Zheng was not far behind Gao Yuntian. When he heard this, he immediately became interested. Without waiting for Gao Yuntian to speak, he took two steps forward and said excitedly, "If you can't figure it out, you can recognize me as your master and work with me in the future..."

"He'll either go to jail or get a promotion. No matter how you calculate it, there's no way he'll end up in your shabby yard!"

"How do you know he only has those two options?"

"Of course I know. This is a matter of officialdom. What do you know?"

"Even if you haven't eaten pork, have you seen a pig run? I've heard a lot of what you guys say in private every day."

"So what if you listened? You're still a coroner after all."

"You're only a constable in the end, aren't you?"

……

Jia Chuan watched the two of them bickering in silence. Just considering the social class they were in and the officialdom...

"You two are arguing, I'm going back to catch up on some sleep."

"Don't!" Gao Yuntian reacted quickly, grabbing Jia Chuan who was turning around again and saying anxiously, "If you can find out the truth in this courtyard, I'll call you Master, so what?!"

"Yes, yes, you check it first, and then we can talk about it after you finish." Old Zheng added.

Gao Yuntian asked unhappily, "What is there to discuss between you two?"

Seeing that the two were about to quarrel again, Jia Chuan waved his hand and said, "Come on, let me help you take a look."

Jia Chuan was not so confident in his business. This was not his style. On the way here, he had already asked the constable about the case and listened to some gossip outside the crime scene.

Not to mention this life, even in the 1980s and 1990s of the previous life, there was no surveillance and lack of detection technology. The difficulty of investigating cases can be imagined, and the crime-solving rate was difficult to increase, let alone here.

Jia Chuan learned the basic details of the case on the way. It sounded like a murder in a closed room, so when he arrived near the crime scene, he first looked around carefully. There were a total of ten households in this alley, and those who were at home might all come out and block the door of the courtyard where the crime occurred.

Jia Chuan strolled back and forth in the alley several times, listening to the whispers of the onlookers and looking up at the gates of every household.

The people living in this alley are not wealthy. Two of them even use adobe to build their houses. Since they are small families, the houses and courtyards are naturally narrow, the roofs are not steep, the courtyard gates are not big, and the walls on both sides are short but very high. It is difficult to climb over them and one needs to use a ladder or help from others.

Moreover, after climbing over the wall beside the courtyard gate to commit the crime, he would have to climb out from here as well. The chances of being seen would be very high. Jia Chuan learned the approximate time of death from the constable. Since it was before dusk yesterday and the weather was so hot, there must have been people walking back and forth in the alley or staying in front of their own courtyard gates. Who would dare to do this?

If someone sees you sticking your head out, you might be caught by Gao Yuntian right now.

Jia Chuan looked at the gates of the neighbors on both sides of the courtyard where the crime occurred, then looked at the anxious constable who followed him, and the two of them entered the courtyard where the crime occurred.

If Jia Chuan had not been wearing the uniform of a yamen official, he would have stayed outside for a while longer. When investigating a case, sometimes clues can be found in rumors. Unfortunately, his attire made the people at the door a little afraid. They would lower their voices when passing by, and Jia Chuan had to prick up his ears to eavesdrop on some of it.

Even so, Jia Chuan felt it was enough.

……

Gao Yuntian was naturally happy to see Jia Chuan agree, but he did not take the initiative to introduce the case and waited for Jia Chuan to ask.

Jia Chuan opened his mouth but only asked: "Where is the body?"

Old Zheng happily took him straight to the backyard.

Jia Chuan stayed in the backyard house for quite some time. Gao Yuntian, impatient to wait, called out at the door, "Old Zheng has checked. Why don't you ask him? Come out and tell me your conclusions."

Gao Yuntian shouted twice before Jia Chuan took off his gloves and walked out of the room. He looked at the honest man who was slumped on the ground, looking like he had lost his soul. He walked over, squatted down and asked:
"You must have spent quite a bit of money to marry this girl, right?"

The honest man looked up at Jia Chuan, shook his head, and said with a wry smile, "My family is in decline, my parents died young, I have no brothers to help me, and no sisters to look after me. But no one competed with me for this house. I was over 30 before someone was willing to marry me, so I was naturally sincere to her. Now she's gone before me, I don't know how I'm going to live."

"No children?"

The honest man shook his head.

"How long have you been married?"

"Three years."

"She's quite a bit younger than you, isn't she?"

"Eleven years younger."

"Stranger?"

"Who in the city is willing to marry their daughter to me?"

“How long are you away from home in a year?”

"More than half a year."

“Do the neighbors get along well?”

"Although I come from a miserable family, I know how to be kind to others and have never had an argument with my neighbors."

Gao Yuntian became impatient and interrupted, "I've already ordered people to check the walls on both sides. There's no sign of climbing over them. What's the point of asking these nonsense questions? Right now..."

"Shut up right now!" Jia Chuan stood up and, imitating the way the captain in his previous life had lectured him, lectured Gao Yuntian: "Every detail of the crime scene must be examined. You must learn to use the traces left at the scene to infer the circumstances of the crime. Now that you've seen the scene, tell me about the incident."

"How would I know? I wasn't there at the time." "I wasn't there either, so how would I know? It was you who allowed me to call you Master and take advantage of you. I wouldn't teach you even if others begged me to!"

"You know? Humph, could it be you who did it?"

Jia Chuan became serious and pointed at the door and said, "The deceased was wearing underwear when he was killed, but he didn't die at night..."

"He said the deceased was unwell yesterday. It's so hot today. Why did he need to dress properly when he was lying down to rest?"

"When did the deceased begin to lie down?"

Gao Yuntian pointed at the honest man and said, "He said he came back halfway and saw the deceased still lying there. He knocked on the gate for a while, and then the deceased opened the door, wearing his coat."

"What time was it then?"

The honest man hurriedly said, "The beginning of the afternoon."

"The deceased was unwell and didn't have breakfast? Because he wasn't feeling well, he didn't have lunch either?"

"It's useless. I saw it was getting late, and even offered to make some porridge for her, but she was afraid I'd be tired, so she didn't let me."

Gao Yuntian didn't understand again and asked, "What's the purpose of asking this?"

Jia Chuan said:
"If you want to eat, you have to cook. If you want to cook, you have to light a fire. Why would the deceased light a fire in her underwear? The coarse cloth dress is on the hanger in the room. Have you seen the style? You can put it on with just your hand. But he said the deceased was wearing an outer coat when she opened the door, and she hadn't eaten all day... Even if she was so sick, she would still let her husband leave? Isn't she afraid of some emergency?"

Gao Yuntian stared at me with clear eyes, thought for a moment, and asked, "Can you be more straightforward?"

"The deceased had lunch."

"How did you know?"

"Deep under the bed there were spilled grains of rice and vegetable soup."

"Ah?" Gao Yuntian's eyes widened as if they were his peers.

"In this kind of weather, it will get moldy in one more day. You want to catch the real murderer without carefully checking the crime scene?" Jia Chuan lectured again.

Gao Yuntian spoke faster than he could think, and hurriedly asked, "How could there be food under the bed?" He immediately answered his own question, "There's someone under the bed!"

Jia Chuan looked at the honest man sympathetically and said, "Think about it now. When you came back yesterday, was she different from before?"

The honest man stared at Jia Chuan blankly, his eyes slowly changing from confusion to fear, and then he whispered, "She, she put on powder."

"Oh!" Gao Yuntian was furious: "Why are you telling me such an important thing now?!"

"Even if he had told you earlier, you wouldn't have guessed anything! He only cared about his wife. She had suffered so much with him, so naturally he wouldn't have thought about anything else. Perhaps he thought the deceased loved beauty and felt that he looked haggard due to his illness, so he applied some powder."

"I, that's what I thought, but you said... there was someone under the bed."

"The deceased didn't struggle at all before his death, and there were no wounds on his body. Apart from the bed, there was no mess in the room. He died on the bed, blood splattered all around, and he didn't even struggle. There were drops of blood by the bed, which must have been from the murderer standing by the bed with the weapon after the murder, leaving several drops of blood. If he had killed someone for money, why would he have stood by the bed after the murder? If it was a revenge killing, why would he have only stabbed him with one knife? And the deceased was alone in the house, so why would he have easily opened the door to his enemy?"

Gao Yuntian didn't understand and was about to ask, "What are the blood droplets?" Jia Chuan didn't give him a chance and continued:

"There were no projectiles or bloodstains on the floor, which means the murderer stood there for a moment and then quickly wiped the murder weapon clean. He didn't walk around or swing it around. What did he use to wipe it? There are no signs of wiping blood, so he must have wiped it with his own clothes. The murderer committed the crime at close range, so he must have been splashed with blood. Only rice, vegetable leaves, and soup were found under the bed. Where did the utensils containing these foods go? Did your people find them?"

Gao Yuntian no longer cared about the blood drops and just shook his head.

"That means the murderer took the dishes and left after killing someone, but the door was locked. How could he leave with the dishes in his arms, covered in blood, without being discovered?" Jia Chuan asked Gao Yuntian.

Gao Yuntian's stunned expression lingered on his face for a quarter of an incense stick before he finally understood. His voice trembled as he spoke, "The murderer lives next door! But, I didn't find any signs of climbing over the courtyard wall."

Jia Chuan waved his hand and said, "No need to look for him. Just go to his house and search. You should be able to find bloodstained clothes and broken dishes. Oh, that's the one on the left. He seems to be a widower, right?"

Gao Yuntian didn't bother to ask Jia Chuan how he knew it, and hurriedly took his people to the next door.

The honest man stopped crying, but his face was extremely pale and looked even uglier than before.

Old Zheng shook his head and walked to Jia Chuan's side, whispering, "This matter is more painful than death, but I admire you even more. You can actually deduce this far..."

"I wandered around outside for a while longer and heard it."

"what?"

Jia Chuan looked at the honest man, sighed softly, and whispered to Old Zheng: "Outsiders always see things more clearly."

Old Zheng snorted and said to the man, "You, you're still thinking about her good things. She just thinks you're in the way and wants to kick you out as soon as possible, but you still think she's thinking about you. When you left early yesterday morning, she didn't even bother to see you off. Was it because she wasn't feeling well? It was because she didn't like you and was thinking about the secret meeting later... She'd rather die, die... Hey, why did the adulterer kill her? And after that idiot left?"

Jia Chuan shrugged and said, "We'll have to wait until we catch that guy and interrogate him to find out. I'm not a fortune teller."

Just as Jia Chuan finished speaking, he heard shouting from the next courtyard. Expecting violence, he pricked up his ears to listen, but all he heard was human voices, nothing else. The voices soon died down, and then a constable entered the courtyard, shouting excitedly, "The bloody shirt and broken dishes have been found. There are also two ladders by the wall, and the criminal has confessed. You can go home now!"

……

Jia Chuan didn't expect this person to admit it so quickly, and thought he would make some excuses.

Old Zheng breathed a sigh of relief and quickly ordered the constables to transport the body.

Jia Chuan looked at the honest man with pity, shook his head and said, "Life must go on. Everything has its cause and effect. Since she is like this, you must learn to let go. There are still good women. Don't think about finding a young and beautiful one who is considerate and can manage the household. Then have two children, a son and a daughter to be your children. You will have a good life. God will compensate you for the loss you have suffered."

The honest man raised his head and looked at Jia Chuan. Even Old Zheng, who was making gestures with the constable, stopped and turned to look at Jia Chuan.

Jia Chuan, however, walked towards the front yard with his hands behind his back and his head held high, as if he was ready to leave after the incident.

The honest man and Old Zheng were both trying to figure out what Jia Chuan meant. Jia Chuan then came back and said, "Hey, how do we get back to the government office?"

……

Jia Chuan followed the corpse-carrying vehicle toward the county government office. From a distance, he saw Cui Youzhi pacing back and forth at the door, looking very anxious.

The car carrying the corpse had to go through a side door and turn into an alley at the intersection ahead. Old Zheng glanced at Jia Chuan, as if asking, "Are they waiting for you?"

Jia Chuan took a deep breath. If that was the case, he felt that it was definitely not a good thing.

Sure enough, when Cui Youzhi saw Jia Chuan, he ran over holding his lapel as if he had seen some treasure.

"Hurry, hurry, the people from the Northern Pacification Division are here."

Jia Chuan frowned and stopped. He thought about it and thought, Northern Pacification Division...Jinyiwei.

　Good luck comes on the first day of the new year, and peace and joy are always with you!
　　Firecrackers have been ringing all night long. Has the ban been lifted this year? I went to bed very late and was woken up very early by the blast of firecrackers. Many people play mahjong, and when they get sleepy, they go downstairs to light a string of firecrackers to wake themselves up and get the neighbors to pee.

　　At this moment, there are still sounds of cannons far and wide... It's the New Year, and February would like to say to everyone: Happy New Year!
　　Stay safe, keep warm, pay attention to your interpersonal relationships, and then be happy!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)