One man and one woman, a well-handled low-riding car.

In one week, over a hundred criminal investigators and police officers had already swept the area around Xinjian Village.

A man approximately 1.76 meters tall, weighing around 70 kilograms, aged between 32 and 37, with a slightly outward gait, was everyone's focus in the investigation.

To be honest, any crime scene investigator who can deduce the above physical details from a set of footprints deserves admiration from anyone.

And there's also the woman, approximately 1.65 meters tall, weighing around 50 kilograms, aged between 25 and 30, who habitually wears high heels.

This information was deduced from footprints left when she wore a man's shoes.

To achieve this level of detail in Footprint Identification and Analysis, one must be highly skilled.

Of course, there are stories of even more skilled experts.

It's said that legendary experts can deduce the occupational traits, personality traits, even facial features of the owner from a series of footprints.

But no one's ever witnessed such feats.

The investigators on this case were relying on the analysis made by Lu Chuan.

The analysis was quite detailed, but the problem was that a 1.76-meter man and a 1.65-meter woman aren't exactly rare.

Among ten people on the street, at least half would fall within this height range.

Ren Qiang had been sleeping in the police car for three days.

"Zhang, go buy another pack of cigarettes."

Sighing, Ren Qiang found himself missing Lu Chuan.

Because every time he was with Lu Chuan, they smoked high-end cigarettes together.

When with Zhang Hui, even a basic Hongmei would suffice, and he still had to spend his own money.

The Traffic Police Department also didn't have good news.

From the tire treads, Lu Chuan identified specific vehicles to focus on, but only twelve were found in the entire Haizhou City.

Among them, six were registered under the Qiangsheng Group.

The other six had already been investigated, belonging to some young master or mistress of a family.

At the very least, they were gifts from some elder sister to a younger brother.

All twelve vehicles had alibis for the day of the incident.

Thus, the car with narrow front and wide rear wheels seen in Xinjian Village's ravine on the day was unlikely to be a locally registered vehicle.

Haizhou City has over a million vehicles.

Finding an unregistered vehicle among so many...

Even if you diced the Traffic Police Department staff into pieces, they wouldn't find it.

The investigation into Song Kun's social relations made some progress.

However, the results were disheartening.

Song Kun, aged 59, had been a criminal investigator for nearly forty years, and his social connections weren't complex. Most people he knew, besides relatives, were in the High-tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team.

From Song Kun's phone and bank transactions, some unusual transfer records were discovered.

Every month, Song Kun would transfer out 1,000 yuan, typically on payday.

After investigation, it was found that this money was sent to an orphanage on Longjiang Road.

The same orphanage where Song Kun delivered apples.

The reasons were also clarified—due to health reasons, Song Kun and his wife didn't have children.

Their current daughter was adopted from the Longjiang Road orphanage.

The day of the incident happened to be the anniversary of their daughter's adoption.

The criminal information on all individuals Song Kun had apprehended was reviewed.

Yuan Shaokang conducted a review on recently released personnel.

There were 73 in total, with five already deceased due to illness, traffic accidents, or other reasons.

The remaining individuals were older, with the oldest being 82—a robber apprehended by Song Kun 38 years ago.

The youngest was a 20-year-old thief, only released from prison last month.

But the majority had alibis.

Thirteen no longer lived in Haizhou City.

Those contacted were questioned, but no issues were found.

Seven people couldn't be reached, and are the focus of pursuit by Yuan Shaokang and his team.

A week's time isn't long, just the usual time for a period.

But for a murder case, a week is already too long.

The golden 72 hours for solving a murder had long passed, and Qin Yong had reported to the municipal bureau four times.

Essentially, he went once every day for the past four days.

Each time he returned, the team of investigators would face a dressing down.

"A week!"

Qin Yong's roar echoed again in the meeting room: "Neither the people nor the car have been found!"

"Weren't all of you usually so proud? Why is nobody speaking up now?"

Ren Qiang, Sun Jun, Yuan Shaokang, and the core criminal investigators hung their heads in silence.

Like the under-watered pothos on the window ledge of the meeting room, drooping and listless.

Qin Yong let out a heavy sigh.

He knew, of course, it was not these officers' fault that the case wasn't solved.

The perpetrators were indeed tough, executing their plans flawlessly.

The hit-and-run was meticulously planned.

The vehicle was stolen, no cameras were at the theft location, and there were no witnesses.

Even when they left the theft scene until they appeared on Longjiang Road, there was no road surveillance capturing the vehicle.

This indicated they had thoroughly planned out all possible routes.

Closing off all possibilities of a trace back.

Burning the vehicle had also erased all biological traces that might have been left inside.

The Crime Scene Investigation office found itself with nothing substantial to work on.

Fortunately, the perpetrators left some footprints and possible tire tracks of the vehicle they escaped in.

But these alone were far from enough to crack the case.

Having been scolded by Director Jiang for half an hour, Qin Yong vented and gradually calmed down.

Leaders have their own difficulties too.

It's customary for the ground-level investigation officers to be scolded by their captain—no big deal.

It's not like it's the first time being chastised.

Like the flamingo-lily in the Crime Scene Investigation office, used to being meddled with by Lu Chuan, became increasingly resilient every day.

The meeting room's pothos, however, wilted without attention.

But Qin Yong getting scolded by the director was not just a simple reprimand.

Because it meant that Song Jiangguo also got scolded from above.

The leaders rarely lose their temper, and when they do, it means the matter is significant.

After calming his emotions, Qin Yong twisted his stiff neck and looked at Yuan Shaokang: "Shaokang, tell us what new findings your team has."

Song Kun was a member of his Criminal Investigation Team, and in truth, Yuan Shaokang bore more pressure than anyone.

Not only did he need to solve the case, but he also had to face Song Kun's family.

Sun Changmei, Song Kun's wife, was also a police officer in the High-tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team, the same age as Song Kun, and retired from the personnel department five years ago.

Yuan Shaokang was recruited by her back then.

So, the pressure Yuan Shaokang faced when dealing with Sun Changmei was imaginable.

Ahem.

Clearing his increasingly hoarse throat due to heat, with eyes bloodshot, Yuan Shaokang began his report: "Most of the released personnel from Old Song's previous cases have been investigated."

"Currently, there is no evidence suggesting any involvement, and no individuals matching Officer Lu Chuan's footprint analysis have been found."

"There are still seven people we haven't contacted; we are working on it."

"How about the cases Song Kun was following before he died? How's the investigation going?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.