Jiaru’s favorite snack at the school gate used to be salt-baked quail eggs. Before Fang Zhenyue arrived, she was already sitting in the stall, meticulously peeling each quail egg and placing them in a thermos to keep warm, waiting for Fang Zhenyue to come and eat.
Jiajun’s favorite, however, was the crisp and flaky butterfly pastry, so fresh from the oven it could scald. Jiajun, with his mouth agape, would bring them all the way back to Yi Ji’s house in his car, then keep them warm in the oven, fearing they would cool down and lose their crispness. He anxiously waited at the doorstep of Yi Ji’s house, eagerly looking out for Fang Zhenyue and Jiayi as they slowly approached. Jiajun immediately dashed out like a bullet, grabbed Fang Zhenyue’s arm, and started running towards the oven.
Finally, having brought Brother Yue to the oven, he watched as the other bit into the pastry, its crispness bringing a smile to his face.
“If Brother Yue could try these fresh out of the oven at our school gate, now that would really be delicious,” Jiajun leaned contentedly against the counter, his face filled with satisfaction.
In that moment, he somewhat resembled a family elder waiting for a child to come home for a warm meal.
After eating two butterfly pastries, Fang Zhenyue turned to see Jiajun’s expression and felt a mix of emotions.
After Jiajun’s offering, it was Jiaru’s turn.
As Fang Zhenyue tasted three or four savory and tender quail eggs, he nodded enthusiastically under Jiaru’s expectant gaze, giving a thumbs up and praising, “Delicious, delicious!” Jiaru chuckled and then took some peeled quail eggs from the small bowl and handed them to Yi Jiayi and other family members.
Even Ding Baoshu, busy passing by, received two shiny, bouncy eggs from Jiaru. Reluctant to chew and swallow them quickly, Ding Baoshu stuffed one egg in each cheek, savoring the flavor slowly, looking very much like a fish puffing its cheeks and blowing bubbles.
After dinner, Fang Zhenyue bid farewell to the Yi family but did not go home. Instead, he headed back to Team B’s office to organize the existing clues of the case on the whiteboard until midnight.
When leaving the police station, he ran into forensic scientist Chen Guangyao at the entrance.
“Got a case?” Fang Zhenyue raised an eyebrow.
“A suicide case where the body was cut into pieces by a propeller. Without a detailed autopsy report, how can we explain that the dismembered corpse was a suicide?” Chen Guangyao ran his hands through his short hair and took a deep breath of the fresh outdoor air, feeling a bit relieved after being cooped up in the autopsy room all day.
Walking towards the garage, he casually chatted with Fang Zhenyue, “Are the interviews scheduled for next week or next month?”
“Next month,” Fang Zhenyue rubbed his nose and bid goodbye to Chen Guangyao, then drove his large Jeep home.
Driving up Shixun Road towards the mountain top, he deliberately slowed down, hoping to spot any suspicious individuals on the road, imagining that perhaps the killer in this case was someone who liked to hunt for wealthy individuals on Shixun Road.
But even as he turned into his own garage, he hadn’t encountered any unusual cars.
Even after washing up and lying in bed, he was still pondering where the body had been discarded.
And why had the killer murdered Mr. Zhao from the villa at No. 6 Shixun Road?
….
….
Outside, the chaos gradually quieted down, and the rest of the Yi family had gone to sleep, leaving only a light on in the small study.
Yi Jiayi sat at the desk, with sheets of A4 paper spread out in front of her, much like the whiteboard at the police station, useful for free-form scribbling to help clear her mind.
The large desk she had made before moving was to her liking, although Yi Jiayi felt it could be bigger, but given the size of the room, it was already quite satisfactory.
She had several books open on it, one on top of another, each page containing potentially useful knowledge points.
This case was different from all the others, and Yi Jiayi cherished such learning opportunities.
Because she couldn’t perceive a flow state, once the panic and anxiety faded, she rationally reflected and thought of the phrase “troubles are Bodhi.” When faced with difficulties, in order to escape them, one must think deeply, and this process of thinking is actually a rare opportunity for growth.
Yi Jiayi wanted to grasp this well and also truly understand the perspective and thinking of ordinary detectives entrenched in cases.
So far, the police had not yet confirmed whether the victim was dead.
However, the forensic officer at the Central District Police Station had issued a report suggesting that the victim was deceased, and the victim’s wife had also filed a missing person report and opened a case.
A suit with blood holes hanging on the cliff slope outside the big turn on Shixun Road, some footprints, some bloodstains, some fragmented clues.
The splattered bloodstains in the villa at No. 6 Shixun Road, the broken fingerprints on the shattered glass, the footprints in the courtyard, the forensic science team’s judgment on the model of the car driven by the assailant…
After recording all known clues, Yi Jiayi bit her pen, ready to start brainstorming.
But she suddenly felt worried, because Uncle Jiu had once said that it’s best not to make random assumptions in the early stages of a case, as this is a major taboo for detectives.
The method often used by criminal investigation detectives is actually inductive rather than deductive reasoning.
It involves gathering all clues and using an overall impression to induce conclusions from the clues. Not to jump to conclusions, but to openly verify all known evidence. In this process, it’s even necessary to avoid any imagination.
There’s a fear that detectives might be led astray by boundless and limitless imagination, causing the police to engage in excessive and needless efforts.
In contrast, deductive reasoning, known as the logical reasoning method often used by detectives, is considered by some professional police officers as a novelist’s fantasy, and they believe that observing and hypothesizing first, then seeking evidence, is a waste of police time.
After all, the real world is not a novel world. Conclusions based on observation and hypotheses in novels might not face many surprises and reversals. But the real world is far more complex than the world of fiction, and the amount of information that might be encompassed by each person or object can be astoundingly complex.
To truly understand a phenomenon in the real world, the knowledge required might encompass all disciplines.
In fact, there are hardly any such ‘erudite’ polymaths in the real world.
Thus, every wrong assumption can lead the entire team in the wrong direction. In novels, it might just cost a few pages to start over, but in the real world, it could mean months of wasted effort for a team of several or even more than a dozen people.
Detectives have often been burnt by deductive reasoning, which has led them to harbor reservations about it and to trust the seemingly foolish but reliable method of induction.
For instance, if an officer drinks a latte and then needs to determine what kind of coffee it is.
Using induction, one might study ten thousand cups of coffee to find out what they contain, discovering that lattes include milk and water brewed with coffee powder, while a Frappuccino has brewed coffee, ice cream, milk, and ice blended… Ultimately concluding that all coffees share the common feature of having water brewed with coffee powder, and defining that as coffee.
Deductive reasoning, on the other hand, would start from drinking the latte and through taste and visual analysis, assume that coffee is a drink made from water brewed with coffee powder mixed with milk and sugar. Then, it would seek evidence for this hypothesis, which could potentially lead to a complete overturn of the assumption.
However, after days of experience accumulation and study, Yi Jiayi has realized that in reality, all human thought cannot be separated from both induction and deduction.
Even inductive detective work contains elements of deduction.
For example, suppose an officer observes that on China Road, Zhang San has yellow skin, Li Si has yellow skin… and Wang Erma also has yellow skin.
By observing and inductively analyzing a hundred people, one could deduce a conclusion: Everyone living on China Road has yellow skin.
It is clear that induction merely starts with collecting clues and then comparing them in preparation for deduction.
Deductive detective work, however, might involve an officer seeing a person with yellow skin living on Chinese soil and reasoning that everyone on this land has yellow skin, then seeking Zhang San, Li Si, and Wang Erma with yellow skin as evidence.
It shows that what’s called deductive reasoning is just deduction followed by induction.
Of course, both methods can have reversals, such as finding a white-skinned person in China, or Tom playing a parachute game and by chance being blown by the Pacific winds to Stanley Peninsula and so forth.
After thinking over these, Yi Jiayi relaxed again, not suppressing her imagination anymore.
Mrs. Zhao says Mr. Zhao often doesn’t come home, so the most likely deductions are: 1. He’s having an affair, which likely means he was killed in a crime of passion; 2. He is truly a workaholic, killed in a dispute over interests.
Because temporary clues don’t point to other possibilities, she temporarily refrains from diverging hypotheses.
So tomorrow, when everyone meets, if no special clues come up during the information gathering, these two possibilities can still serve as references.
What would Brother Yue do to arrange the team’s next tasks?
Jiayi swiftly flipped through her notes, checking her records of Brother Yue’s previous work. She then pressed her notebook down and made some quick notes on an unfolded A4 sheet:
“1. Thoroughly investigate all connections of Mr. Zhao, especially any inappropriate interactions he may have had with women—both confirmed and unconfirmed close contacts need to be gathered and followed up. Cast a wide net to record all leads.”
Then Jiayi imagined Fang Zhenyue’s stern appearance, stood up, and pointing to the small bookshelf behind her, whispered softly, “Sanfu, take Jiaming and Gary to inquire Mr. Zhao’s driver, secretary, assistant, close subordinates, and friends to see with which women—and men—he may have had improper relations.”
At that moment, Sanfu, Jiaming, and Gary should immediately stand up straight in front of Brother Yue, salute loudly with a ‘yes, sir’, then turn around and leave to start their inquiries.
Once Sanfu and the others get the list of people involved in Mr. Zhao’s extramarital affairs or those who have had overly close interactions, they should then call these individuals to the police station for an interrogation.
Of course, inviting someone to the station over the phone might allow the person to think ahead about how to respond, making the interrogation more challenging.
Worried about this situation, they could instead directly seek out these people’s addresses and conduct the interviews and note-taking at their doors.
After figuring these out, Jiayi bit her lip, looked at the small bookshelf, smiled for a while, patted the bookshelf, and said contentedly, “Good boy,” then sat back at her desk and bowed her head to write down the second point:
“2. Visit Mr. Zhao’s company, speak to his subordinates, partners, and assistants to see if there are any competing companies, projects, or personnel, and then follow up based on the list obtained from the inquiries.”
After putting down her pen, Jiayi stood up again, facing the opposite wall, and mimicked Brother Yue’s imposing manner, speaking in a low voice:
“Uncle Jiu, Jiayi, and the new guy Xu Shaowei, the three of you go to Mr. Zhao’s company to find people who are in competition with Mr. Zhao. Also, investigate Mr. Zhao’s financial status to see if he has borrowed money externally, or if there are issues with the company’s cash flow, such as loans from banks or high-interest lenders.”
After imitating Brother Yue, Jiayi took a step to the base of the wall, turned around to the spot where she had stood as Brother Yue, saluted respectfully and politely said:
“Yes, sir.”
Then she picked up a pen from the desk, tucked it behind her ear pretending it was a cigarette. She then slouched lazily like Uncle Jiu, nodding and saying, “No problem, Brother Yue.”
After speaking, she took the pen from her ear, put it in her mouth but didn’t light it, because Uncle Jiu was recently trying to quit smoking. Even though he might still keep a cigarette behind his ear, he could only hold it in his mouth to satisfy the craving without actually smoking.
A few seconds later, Jiayi threw the pen back on the desk, reminiscing about the new guy, Xu Shaowei.
Medium to tall stature, standing straight with a slightly duck-footed stance, his large feet gave him a stable base. His hands often rested on his hips, over his holstered gun, through his clothes.
His round, wide eyes were very expressive, sparkling with vitality. When making eye contact, he would instinctively smile, as if eager to leave a friendly impression on others.
With a curve of the eyes, several laugh lines squeeze out at the corners.
Even though he tries to lessen his aggressiveness, whether it’s because of his piercing gaze or something else, Jiayi doesn’t feel that he has a good temper.
Even if a smile can deceive, the eyes never lie.
Jiayi stands up straight, her hand on her hip, back arched and chin slightly raised, she puts on a smile. Yet, when her eyes curve into a smile, they still remain wide open, like a boy with a forced smile facing forward, pretending to be Xu Shaowei, she says, “Yes, sir!”
Feeling that she has mimicked him accurately, Jiayi chuckles to herself, quite pleased with her performance.
She’s quite observant of others, truly a promising detective in the making.
Just as she’s feeling proud of herself, her sister Jiaru, who got up to use the bathroom, suddenly looks around the study with wide eyes and a face full of horror, tremblingly asks:
“Big sister, who are you talking to?”
Caught off guard by being discovered conducting her solo performance in the study, Jiayi also gets a fright.
Covering her chest, Jiayi and Jiaru stare eye to eye for a while. Jiaru then suddenly understands, lowers her eyebrows sympathetically, and comes over to embrace Jiayi:
“Big sister, being a detective must be really stressful, right? Let’s go to sleep, stop thinking about it. After a good sleep, oh? When you wake up, tomorrow will be better, okay?”
Jiayi, embraced by her sister, was just about to explain that she was imitating a member of Team B. She even wanted to perform it for her sister to see and get her feedback on her imitation based on her observations.
But just as she opens her mouth, after replaying her sister’s words in her mind, she suddenly realizes—
Ah, Jiaru must think I’m losing my mind due to work stress, right?