The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective-Chapter 561 - 317: One Word—Stable! Far Ahead in the Votes!
Two police cars were driving along the countryside road in single file, their wheels crunching over the gravel.
They first found the victim’s cousin, a middle-aged man in his forties.
"Hello, we are from the Jiangcheng City Criminal Investigation Team."
Jiang An showed his credentials, "We’d like to ask you about something. Is it you who’s cultivating the land around Zhao Jian’s house?"
The man shook his head, a confused expression on his face.
"No, why would I cultivate that land?"
"Besides, it’s not worth much money."
"Do you know who is cultivating it?" Zhang Yean pressed further.
"I really don’t know."
The cousin rubbed his hands, "Anyway, the whole family is gone, if someone else wants to cultivate the land, there’s nothing much to say."
After leaving the cousin’s house, Mr. Chen led them to Zhao Jian’s neighbor’s house.
At that moment, a middle-aged woman was by the sink in the yard doing laundry.
Seeing the officers visit again, she quickly wiped her hands and approached, "Officers, is there something else you need to ask?"
"Sorry to bother you, we’d like to know who is cultivating the land in front of and behind Zhao Jian’s house."
The woman shook her head, water dripping from her hands, "I really don’t know. I’ve never seen anyone come to cultivate the land."
"No one has ever come to cultivate?" Wan asked.
"As far as I recall, no,"
The woman affirmed, "Besides, you can see, their way of cultivating is completely different from ours."
"We all use shovels and hoes to dig bit by bit, but it seems like they’re using machines."
"Wait!" Jiang An sharply picked up on this detail, "Are you saying the cultivation method is different?"
"Yes!" The woman straightened up, pointing to the distant land.
"They use machines, unlike our meticulous manual cultivation."
This discovery made everyone on the scene alert.
Jiang An and Mr. Chen exchanged a glance, Mr. Chen nodded and said, "I’ve worked in the rural police station for many years; I can spot signs of mechanical work in an instant."
Machines cultivating but not planting?
This anomaly spun continuously in Jiang An’s mind.
"Mr. Chen, is there such large-scale agricultural machinery nearby?"
Mr. Chen scratched his chin as he recalled, "We’re in a mountainous area. Even when farming, it’s mainly small terraced fields, large machinery is unnecessary."
"Farmers mostly use hand-held tractors."
"So, are you saying..." Zhang Yean pondered, "The machines are likely brought in from elsewhere?"
"That possibility can’t be ruled out."
Jiang An said in a deep voice.
Suddenly, Wan slapped his thigh excitedly, his eyes lit up.
"Hey! I remember now!"
"I’ve seen a detailed introduction of such large soil-turning machines on the agricultural channel’s documentary."
"They’re mainly used extensively in the plains of Northeast and North China, specialized in cultivating wasteland and deep tillage."
"Are these machines real?" Jiang An raised his eyebrows, a thought suddenly flashed in his mind.
If that’s the case...
Then the suspect is very likely a farm machinery operator or at least someone very familiar with such mechanical equipment.
Moments later, Jiang An looked up and asked, "Mr. Chen, could you please help retrieve the list of personnel in the area engaging in farm machinery operations or agriculture-related industries?"
"Especially those who might have interacted with such large soil-turning equipment."
Mr. Chen looked troubled, "This... is indeed challenging."
"You know, the rural population has been particularly mobile in the past two years."
"Mostly the elderly and children remain in the villages; the young and strong mostly work away."
"We did carry out a population survey at the end of last year mainly for social security management, where some occupational information was recorded..."
"But the data might not be comprehensive, many just vaguely noted as farming or working."
"No problem!" Jiang An waved his hand, "Just provide whatever is possible."
"I need information on everyone in the village who might have contact with farm machinery, including their work locations and specific occupations."
"No problem!" Mr. Chen nodded immediately, "I’ll head back to the station and organize the data, aiming to provide the most detailed list within an hour."
Jiang An then scanned the area and walked to the land surrounding the crime scene.
He bent down, picked up a sturdy wooden stick about 80 centimeters long from beside the field ridge, and inserted it vertically into the soft soil.
This abrupt action left Zhang Yean and Wan stunned.
"Junior brother, what are you...?"
Zhang Yean asked, puzzled.
"I’m measuring the depth of the tillage of the soil."
Jiang An focused on the wooden stick, "Look, the soil here has been turned deeply."
"The nearly 80-centimeter stick went in completely, but hasn’t touched the bottom."
"Ah? You can measure it like this?" Wan asked surprised, leaning in closer.
"Of course!" Jiang An explained, "Ordinary farmland becomes extremely loose after mechanical tillage."
"But normally the tillage depth is around 20 centimeters."
"Situations like this, where 80 centimeters won’t reach the bottom, indicates the land was cultivated exceptionally deep."
Mr. Chen, standing by, observed carefully, his expression turning serious, "This indeed isn’t normal."
"Here, if crop land is even 20 centimeters deep, it’s considered good."
"This 70 to 80 centimeters depth... is too abnormal."
Suddenly connecting the dots, he gasped, "Jiang, are you suggesting... this unusual cultivation depth is connected to that old cold case?"
As soon as these words came out, the scene instantly fell silent.
Everyone held their breath, all eyes turned to Jiang An.
Jiang An slowly stood up, clapping the soil off his hands.
"Right now, it’s just a hypothesis, not certain."
"But one thing is sure, the cultivation depth of this land poses a significant issue."
He looked over the seemingly ordinary farmland, his gaze deepened.
After a long while, Jiang An raised the wooden stick covered in mud, speaking solemnly, "If the tillage depth truly reaches above 80 centimeters, then the cultivator’s purpose can’t possibly be for planting ordinary crops."
At that moment, Zhang Yean’s phone suddenly dinged.
She pulled out her phone to see a message from a college friend.
"Yanyan, I’ve shared the achievements of your unit’s excellent detective Jiang An across all work groups, classmates’ groups, family groups, even the neighborhood owners’ group."
"Everyone’s reacting positively, all voting and endorsing."
"Rest assured, the votes will soon surge!"
Zhang Yean’s mouth twitched slightly as she quickly replied, "Thank you so much."
"I just checked, his votes have shot to first place."
"And he’s leading the second not by a little, but a landslide!"
"It’s just the beginning! I’ll share it in several more large groups of over five hundred people soon, ensuring the votes hit new highs!"
After putting away her phone, Zhang Yean couldn’t hide her joy.
"Jiang, it seems that the ’Most Beautiful Police Officer’ award is locked for you."
"Your votes are not only first, but you’re ahead of the second place by not hundreds or thousands of votes, but tens of thousands!"
"Is it really that exaggerated?"
Wan also pulled out his phone in surprise to check.
On the voting activity’s official website, Jiang An’s distinctive ID photo stood out, along with the introduction "Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau Criminal Investigation Team," and his voting count was indeed far ahead.
"I think we can celebrate in advance!"
Wan laughed, "This advantage is too big for anything to catch up."
Yet Jiang An shook his head, modestly saying, "Now is too early to talk about this."
"Besides, it’s everyone’s effort; I haven’t done anything particularly special myself."
"Haha, you don’t need to do anything!"
Zhang Yean teased, "Just standing there with your face, the votes naturally go up."
Wan couldn’t help but laugh out loud, "If it were that simple, I’d love to show my face every day."
"Sadly, looks wise, I can’t compare to Jiang."
