Animal Detective-Chapter 75: Police ID Number

Shen Xin used to watch all sorts of crime dramas. He’d always thought cold cases involved peerlessly clever killers who meticulously plotted and designed their crimes, running circles around the police.

Even if the police found some evidence, they couldn’t connect the dots. With insufficient evidence, there was nothing they could do to the killer.

Then there were the shows that focused specifically on cold cases, where there was a pile of witness testimony and physical evidence, but they were just missing a protagonist to tie all the clues together and find the killer.

But after actually going through these case files, Shen Xin discovered that wasn’t how it was at all.

His most immediate takeaway was that TV shows had to be logical. Reality, however, was just as Chen Chao had said: completely devoid of logic.

Take this one, for example.

On June 4, 2003, the body of a homeless man was discovered in the back alley of Jin Gang Decoration City on Huangtang Street in Tingyang District.

There was a clear blunt-force wound to the head.

The coroner’s report indicated a contused laceration and a depressed skull fracture, suggesting the weapon was something like a hammer.

After the initial investigation concluded, the precinct deduced from the weapon that it was likely a premeditated murder.

Considering the victim was homeless, it was reasonable to suspect a conflict between other homeless people.

The detective in charge of the case at the time was Liu Kaiyuan. He started by searching for and interviewing homeless people in the area, questioning nearly every single one in the entire Huangtang Community.

But he still didn’t find any leads.

With no other choice, he had to expand the scope of the investigation, canvassing the businesses and residents around Jin Gang Decoration City on a large scale.

Still, nothing turned up.

The investigation lasted for nearly five months, but in the end, no useful clues were ever found. It was shelved as a cold case.

Then there was this one.

It happened in ’09. On May 19, the waterlogged body of a woman was found in a flood-control channel south of Xieqiao Garden on Tingyang Street.

It was highly decomposed. The skin on her hands had started to slip off in a "glove-like" fashion, a sign of drowning, leading the coroner to estimate she’d been in the water for five to seven days.

They even managed to lift her fingerprints.

This involved soaking the shed "gloves" of skin in formalin to fix them, then cutting off the finger sections, wearing them over their own fingers, and pressing them to get the prints.

Logically, having a body should have made it much easier to identify the victim.

But they couldn’t find any information on her identity.

They sent out assistance requests to the surrounding towns and counties, but no one had been reported missing.

In the end, the woman’s body remained at the morgue for nearly two years. Left with no choice, they collected key samples like her teeth before cremating the remains.

The case went cold. Even after DNA testing technology matured, the officer in charge still ran her profile against the database a few times every year, but to this day, there had been no hits.

There were many other similar cases.

You couldn’t apply normal logic to them, like trying to deduce a crime of passion or a robbery-homicide.

It wasn’t that the police weren’t trying.

Every one of these files was filled with dense case notes. Looking at the dates, you could see they were often updated periodically.

It showed that the officers in charge still remembered and were still working on them.

He was completely engrossed when someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.

It startled Shen Xin so much he nearly jumped out of his chair.

He turned his head and saw it was Lao Lin.

"Lao Lin, you scared me to death." Shen Xin had just been looking at the crime scene photos in a file.

Lao Lin tapped his watch. "Quitting time."

With that, he ambled away.

Shen Xin took a moment to recover, then glanced at the case files on his desk and felt a headache coming on.

He’d been at it all day, but probably because he was reading too carefully, he’d only gotten through nine files.

And there were still nearly two hundred left.

’At this rate, it’ll take over half a month just to read them all.’

’I’ve really got my work cut out for me.’

But he couldn’t slack off. He’d just have to take it slow.

For the next several days, Shen Xin did nothing but read case files.

「August arrived.」

One day, while Shen Xin was buried in a case file, the door suddenly swung open.

He looked up and saw Chen Chao.

’And behind him is... a young woman?’

She wore a brand-new summer uniform, her hair tied back in a neat ponytail. She had a delicate, oval face with double eyelids and was quite pretty. Her eyes were clear, and as she stood there, ramrod straight, she exuded a calm, tranquil aura.

"How’s the reading coming along?" Chen Chao asked with a broad smile.

"It’s fine."

Shen Xin’s reply was far from heartfelt.

’Never mind the mental exhaustion; the main problem was that reading so much was giving me nightmares.’

"Tough work, tough work." Chen Chao handed him a Red Bull. "I know you’re looking at these all by yourself, and the workload is massive. So, I brought you some help."

"Come on over, Xiaoding!"

He beckoned to the female officer behind him.

"This is Ding Yuwei, a new colleague. And this is Shen Xin, who just transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division."

The officer stepped forward and extended her hand.

"Hello, I’m Ding Yuwei."

As Shen Xin shook her hand, he keenly observed the police ID number on her chest.

’Police ID numbers were six digits. The first two represented the city or county, and the last four were personal. Combined with the chest emblem, the numbers were recycled, but it was enough to give every officer a unique, non-repeating ID.’

’But there was something off about Ding Yuwei’s ID number.’

’She was wearing the two-bar insignia of a probationary officer, which meant she was a rookie fresh out of the police academy.’

’It was early August, the time when new officers were typically onboarded.’

’So her ID number should have been like his, starting with 03, followed by her personal code.’

’But hers started with 01.’

’That didn’t make sense.’

’01 was the code for the provincial capital.’

’There was only one possibility: she had inherited the number.’

Shen Xin raised an eyebrow slightly. He’d heard of this happening before, but this was the first time he’d encountered it.

Ding Yuwei pulled her hand back.

Shen Xin snapped back to reality, secretly speculating about Ding Yuwei’s circumstances.

Chen Chao said, "Shen Xin, Xiaoding here is new, but she’s a top student, an outstanding talent the bureau specifically said to take special care of. We were lucky to get her assigned to our precinct. You’d better take good care of her, you hear?"

Shen Xin nodded quickly, picking up on Chen Chao’s hidden meaning.

’He was clearly being told that Ding Yuwei’s background was unusual and that he should handle her with care.’

’Looks like Chen Chao isn’t too happy about her being here.’

’He’d been complaining about being short-staffed before. Now that a rookie had arrived, he should have been happy.’

’It made sense, though.’

’Ding Yuwei was a girl.’

"It’s not that there were no female detectives, but being a detective meant being exposed to the elements, working like a superhuman workhorse. It really wasn’t a job for a girl with delicate skin."

"Xiaoding, for now, just help Shen Xin organize the case files. If there’s anything you don’t know, just ask him," Chen Chao instructed before hurrying off.

The two of them were left alone in the room.

Remembering Chen Chao’s warning, Shen Xin quickly gestured for Ding Yuwei to have a seat.

Ding Yuwei glanced around the room, her expression seeming to ask, "Where?"

The room wasn’t large to begin with, and it was crammed with miscellaneous items and massive stacks of case files.

There was barely any room to even set one’s foot down.

"I’ll get you a chair."

Shen Xin immediately ran out the door to find a chair for Ding Yuwei.

When he returned, Ding Yuwei had already started tidying up the case files on the floor.

"Don’t touch those!"

Shen Xin shouted.

"What’s wrong?" Ding Yuwei asked in return.

Shen Xin sighed, frustrated. "My job right now is to sort and categorize these cold case files. The ones on the floor, I arranged them according to the nature of the cases. You’ve stacked them all together, so now I have to sort them all over again."

"Ah, forget it. It’s fine. I think I can remember how they were."

Shen Xin put down the chair and motioned for Ding Yuwei to sit.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t realize," Ding Yuwei apologized quickly, then added, "But I remember them all. I can put them back for you."

As she spoke, she immediately began placing the files she was holding back down.

She put each one back exactly where she had picked it up from.

She even restored them in the reverse order she’d collected them.

"There. See if that’s right."

Shen Xin’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

’That memory of hers is insane.’