National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1115 - 1046: Visiting

Wu Junhao walked with a swift stride, leading the fully equipped patrol and riot squad, knocking on the doors of cubicle spaces in the office building one by one.

Qinghe City’s economic industrial level was average. Ever since the collapse of the former pillar industry, Jianyuan Group, related companies have been struggling to survive, and smaller businesses in the city have had it even worse. One by one, they were downsizing to boost efficiency, the result being that office cubicle spaces were getting increasingly cramped.

This office building was no exception. Room next to room, some of the small businesses might only occupy a few dozen square meters, relying on the 5.7-meter ceiling height to build a two-story layout. But with this setup, the space inside felt particularly oppressive.

Wu Junhao and his squad followed the registration records from commerce and taxation departments, visiting each company one by one. The workload wasn’t heavy—if not for the gravity of the case, they could have even conducted inquiries by phone.

However, seasoned officers knew well that while companies might be officially registered, entrepreneurs were always daring, and with all sorts of business secrets at play, lying was commonplace. Even if no one lied intentionally, it wasn’t unusual for the person answering the phone to be unaware of the situation, and many cared little about police inquiries over the phone. Therefore, investigations and interviews had to be conducted in person.

Overall, this task was trivial and complicated, but not particularly difficult, so Wu Junhao felt relatively at ease.

During the breaks between interviews, he was already considering how to convert the steps taken into aerobic workout time, and what resistance training exercises he could modify or add later.

Just as he was calculating, a subordinate came to report: "Big Wu, we’ve finished asking everywhere!"

"Eh? We’re down to the first floor already?" Wu Junhao only then realized. freēwēbnovel.com

They had taken the elevator to the top floor and swept downward floor by floor.

The subordinate nodded. "There are still a few stores left on the first floor. We’ve finished asking the rest upstairs."

"Alright, take a break, grab some water for everyone, use the restroom if needed, and then we’ll head to the next building." Wu Junhao sighed. These office buildings were at least fifteen stories tall; sweeping through one was indeed exhausting.

The subordinates quickly went off to handle it.

Wu Junhao followed them into a supermarket, grabbed a bottle of Pulse, and then said to the deputy squad leader behind him, "For the next building, let’s split into two teams. I’ll start from the bottom and sweep upward."

The deputy squad leader chuckled. "Got it. Afraid going downstairs will hurt your knees, huh?"

"Let’s just call it exercise," Wu Junhao shook his head. Their workload was considerable; for buildings like these, sweeping three to five in a day definitely wouldn’t cut it. In the first few days, they might even have to sweep eight to ten buildings. That adds up to over a hundred stories’ worth of height—Wu Junhao figured it was best not to waste the effort.

The deputy squad leader agreed. After paying the supermarket owner, he then asked: "Have any employees quit recently, especially those who left without notice and can’t be reached?"

"Our store staff comes and goes all the time. Recently..."

"Within the last 20 days or a month, any employees who left?" the deputy squad leader added.

"Within the past month, we did replace two stock clerks," the supermarket owner answered quite earnestly. Confronted by so many police officers, he definitely didn’t want trouble.

Upon hearing this, the term "intermittent heavy lifting" immediately sprang to Wu Junhao’s mind. Frequent gym-goers knew this well—any sort of labor job was the lifelong nemesis of bodybuilders with big muscles. Stock clerks at supermarkets occasionally had to exert serious effort.

"What’s their name? Age? Approximately how tall are they?" Wu Junhao started verifying the information.

In the beginning, they hadn’t explicitly mentioned conditions like age and height because staffing at small supermarkets was often unregulated; falsifying ages or wearing height-boosting shoes was routine. Laying out these conditions right at the start could easily lead to mistakenly excluding potential suspects.

The proper approach was to ask about possibly suspicious candidates first, then cross-check with these details for security.

"Little Xu. His name is Xu Li, I think. In his twenties, a little over 170 centimeters tall. I’ll check the information I recorded at the time. I kept a copy of his ID card." The supermarket owner huffed and puffed, crouching in front of the computer to search.

"Is he from Shannan Province?" the deputy squad leader asked simultaneously.

"Yes, from Qinghe City."

"Is this the person?" The deputy squad leader had already pulled up a matched profile of Xu Li on his phone.

A young man with a square face and short hair, appearing quite spirited.

The supermarket owner nodded upon seeing this and said, "He worked here as a stock clerk for two months. Just after receiving his wages, he said he didn’t want to continue and left."

The deputy squad leader furrowed his brows. "He didn’t come to work the day after he got paid?"

"No, he worked two more days, I think."

"So, he didn’t ask for those two days’ wages? Does your store withhold money?" The deputy squad leader, having worked in a police station before, cornered the owner with just a few questions.

The owner coughed twice, glanced at his other staff first, then explained: "He messaged me asking me to transfer those few days’ earnings via WeChat. I called him out on it, but he didn’t respond. I figured that was the end of it."

"So, you didn’t transfer that money to Xu Li, and he never brought it up again?" Wu Junhao, following the train of thought, clarified.

The owner grunted and said, "He’s shy. I couldn’t exactly chase him down to pay him."

"You didn’t find it odd that he left so suddenly?" the deputy squad leader pressed.

"Stock clerks quitting all the time is normal," the owner initially replied, but seeing that Wu Junhao and the others were itching to speak up, he quickly continued: "Our supermarket has tons of sales and a lot of work. The workload for stock clerks is heavy, with long hours. It’s normal for them to quit within a month or two."

The deputy squad leader: "Low pay, heavy workload, long hours?"

The owner completely gave in: "If you insist on putting it that way, there’s not much I can say."

"Since Xu Li quit, have you contacted him by phone or any other means, like voice messages?" the deputy squad leader asked one last time.

The owner responded firmly: "No. Situations like this, I wouldn’t call him first. If he chooses to message me, I’ll reply accordingly."

The deputy squad leader and Wu Junhao exchanged a glance. From their perspective, not only was Xu Li highly likely to be a victim, but the person who had sent a message to the owner post-resignation also had a strong chance of being the perpetrator.

It was essentially killing two birds with one stone.

Finding the victim was primarily about uncovering information or cross-referencing details with another case. Meanwhile, the usage of a phone or WeChat to directly point to the suspect was even better.

"I’ll make the call," Wu Junhao saw that everything had been clarified and immediately searched for Jiang Yuan’s number on his phone.

Investigations don’t always yield conclusions quickly, so getting results this fast left Wu Junhao quite enthusiastic.

Even though the golden investigative window had already passed, casework is always easier to crack the faster it’s carried out. Only when everyone strives their hardest can investigations proceed at lightning speed.