Chapter 53: Discovery of the Eye of Truth

Ren Qiang had always maintained a high level of respect for Lu Chuan.

No matter where you go, seniority-based hierarchies are common, but there are always those who exist essentially outside of such rules.

And to have that privilege, the prerequisite is the ability to break the rules.

Lu Chuan's performance in recent cases had led the members of the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Detachment to gradually acknowledge his capabilities.

Just like the camera Lu Chuan had just discovered.

It first answered Zhao Ming's doubts: it wasn't that they had been careless and exposed themselves, but rather that the opponent had been prepared all along.

In fact, if Zhao Ming and the others hadn't done such a good job of staking out the location and disguising themselves, the opponent would have discovered traces through the surveillance camera long ago.

And there wouldn't have been this visit to the mistress's house.

Furthermore, the surveillance footage at least revealed the direction in which the suspect fled.

"A footprint!"

Lu Chuan opened his phone and showed a photo to Ren Qiang. "This is a photo of the floor mat inside the suspect's mistress's house."

"There is half a footprint on the edge. I checked, and there are no other men's shoes in the room; this footprint should have been left by the suspect."

After taking a glance, Ren Qiang handed the phone to Zhao Ming. "It should have been left by the suspect, but..."

Ren Qiang paused. "The suspect's identity has already been confirmed. This footprint..."

Ren Qiang didn't say it explicitly; he knew Lu Chuan had expertise in the forensic analysis of footprints.

However, given that the suspect's identity was already certain, the value of footprint analysis was no longer significant.

Lu Chuan, of course, understood Ren Qiang's meaning. Taking back the phone from Zhao Ming, Lu Chuan zoomed in on the image. "It's the soil carried within the footprint."

"Soil?"

Ren Qiang was slightly stunned. He took the phone again and looked at the enlarged photo.

Lu Chuan continued to explain, "The Jingyuanli community is an old residential area. There are no parks nearby, and green spaces are quite sparse."

"Therefore, the possibility of the suspect picking up soil near the community is relatively low."

"Additionally," Lu Chuan looked at Zhao Ming, "according to Group Leader Zhao's analysis, the suspect has likely kidnapped Liang Qi."

"Since it is a kidnapping, the likelihood of the opponent being in a busy downtown area is low. It is more probable that they are in the suburbs or the urban-rural fringe, in an area with a mixed population."

"And the soil in the footprint is a dark reddish color. In Haizhou City, only the Huilong Mountain area to the northeast has this kind of red soil."

"So, I believe the suspect's hiding place is very likely in the Huilong Mountain area."

In the hallway, Ren Qiang and Zhao Ming looked at each other, then looked back at the photos on Lu Chuan's phone several times.

Zhang Hui's eyes widened as he looked at Lu Chuan in amazement.

It was as if he were meeting him for the first time.

Since when did forensic technicians possess such strong deductive reasoning skills?

"Xiao Lu, have you considered joining Action Group Two?"

Ren Qiang felt that for Lu Chuan to do forensic evidence collection and such was a bit of a waste of talent.

A real man should work on the front lines.

In the public security system, there are many types of police forces: criminal investigators, traffic police, narcotics officers, and so on.

Within each major category, there are further sub-specializations based on the nature of the work.

But whether between different branches or within the same category, there is an invisible hierarchy of prestige.

For instance, criminal investigators are absolutely at the top of the prestige chain among all police branches.

And among criminal investigators, front-line detectives are considered even more important.

Thus, even though Lu Chuan had achieved merit in forensics multiple times, in Ren Qiang's eyes, it couldn't compare to this moment of deductive analysis regarding the footprint.

Naturally, Lu Chuan rejected Ren Qiang's proposal without a second thought.

*Ding!*

"Advanced Mission: Assist Action Group Two of the Criminal Investigation Detachment in capturing a criminal suspect who attacked and injured a police officer."

Once the direction of action was determined, everyone split into two groups.

One group continued to conduct door-to-door investigations around the community to look for witnesses.

The suspect had fled right after stabbing Han Chao in broad daylight; someone must have seen something.

Following these clues would surely lead to a discovery, though it would likely take some time.

The other group, following Lu Chuan's analysis, headed straight for Huilong Mountain in Haizhou City.

The area belonging to Huilong Mountain was originally called Huilong Town. Due to urban expansion ten years ago, it had gradually become an urban-rural fringe area.

The entire area contained many clusters of self-built housing, mostly inhabited by migrant workers.

Consequently, the population situation was extremely complex.

At this moment, Ren Qiang's experience and ability as an action group leader were put to use.

"The opponent came from Tianzhou City and is carrying a kidnapped person."

"Therefore, the possibility of them choosing a shared rental is basically zero."

Ren Qiang spread out the map of the entire Huilong Mountain area and began his analysis. "In the entire Huilong Mountain area, most self-built houses are five to seven-story buildings."

"According to what the suspect's mistress said, their economic condition is average, so it's impossible for them to rent an entire building."

"Few people... convenient economically... soil nearby..."

Zhao Ming had worked in the Tianzhou Criminal Investigation Detachment for over twenty years; the cases he had experienced were more than enough to match Ren Qiang's.

At this moment, he was also frowning, staring intently at the areas on the map. "Is the possibility of a small warehouse higher?"

Ren Qiang nodded. "There are many warehouses in the northwest part of Huilong Mountain... but the opponent needs to eat, and warehouses don't have the facilities to cook..."

"The possibility of the suspect cooking for themselves is very low; they would likely choose food delivery. If so, they wouldn't be too far from populated areas."

"Right, if it's too far, it's easy to attract attention... so..."

Ren Qiang's eyes narrowed slightly, like a civet cat that had spotted a mouse. "Scattered small warehouses within the self-built housing areas are very likely to be their hiding place!"

Zhao Ming nodded in agreement. "That direction has a higher probability, but within the entirety of Huilong Mountain, there must be a significant number of similar warehouses..."

Both were experienced veteran detectives.

They knew that the reasoning and speculation just now were only narrowing down the suspect's hiding place within a certain range.

But to truly find the opponent was still like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"There's no choice but to use the old method."

Ren Qiang sighed. The "old method" he referred to was the human wave tactic.

At a time like this, there was no other way but to flood the area with personnel.

Next came the deployment of troops.

Soon, dozens of plainclothes officers were scattered throughout the Huilong Mountain area.

Lu Chuan was also involved.

He was following Zhang Hui from Action Group Two.

"Lu Chuan, although our assigned area is only two streets, we are unfamiliar with this place. We want to conduct a sweep without alerting the suspect, so we have to find a way."

Lu Chuan merely nodded; his experience in this regard was essentially zero.

This time, Lu Chuan was participating with a learning attitude, following Zhang Hui to experience the daily work of a front-line detective.

Zhang Hui didn't specify a method; he simply saw a food delivery rider cycling past and narrowed his eyes. "Let's go, follow him."

Follow a delivery rider?

Lu Chuan might have lacked experience, but he wasn't stupid.

As soon as Zhang Hui mentioned following a delivery rider, Lu Chuan understood what was happening.

Sure enough, as the two trailed the delivery rider from a distance, Zhang Hui began to explain, "When it comes to knowing every nook and cranny of the streets, these days, only delivery riders are the most familiar."

"The suspect just stabbed someone at noon; they likely won't dare to show their face. If they want to eat, they can only order delivery."

"We'll follow him; we might find something."

In fact, detectives with Zhang Hui's line of thinking were not rare.

Many teams operated this way.

Lu Chuan also discovered that there was a technique to this kind of tailing.

When to run a few steps, when to stop—it all had to be done inconspicuously and required learning.

In this aspect, Lu Chuan indeed lacked experience.

However, Lu Chuan had his own advantages.

While he lacked front-line investigative experience, he possessed the "Eye of Truth" rewarded by the system.

Within his field of vision, a light screen floated above everyone's head.

The suspect had already been placed on the wanted list, and the relevant information had been updated within the Eye of Truth.

As Lu Chuan patrolled the streets with Zhang Hui, he kept a watchful eye.

It didn't take long; after about ten minutes, a young man with a light red light screen above his head entered Lu Chuan's field of vision.