Animal Detective-Chapter 76: Classification

He stepped forward and flipped it open. Sure enough, it was the same case file he had just been reading.

"Impressive."

Shen Xin gave her a thumbs-up.

’My memory is pretty good, but it’s nothing compared to Ding Yuwei’s.’

Ding Yuwei didn’t seem to smile much. She just gave a slight nod, then hesitated for a moment before asking, "Can I make a suggestion?"

"Of course, go ahead. And you don’t have to be so formal. I’ve only been on the job for a year myself."

Shen Xin grabbed a bottled drink from nearby and handed it to her.

Ding Yuwei accepted it and said, "If we’re supposed to be sorting these by category, laying them out like this will get them all mixed up. We should get some storage boxes and write the categories on them. That way, we can stack them without getting them confused."

Shen Xin paused for a second, then nodded quickly. "There are evidence boxes next door. I’ll go get them."

’Working alone, I just didn’t think of it.’

Ding Yuwei came along and helped him carry some of the evidence boxes. Then she asked Shen Xin how he wanted to classify them.

"I was sorting them by homicide, assault, robbery, arson, and theft."

The basic criminal case classifications.

Ding Yuwei understood. She started writing the labels. Her handwriting was quite nice—elegant and neat.

After writing a couple of labels, Ding Yuwei asked, "Shen Xin, isn’t this classification system a little too simple?"

"What do you mean?"

Ding Yuwei said, "Every case is already recorded and digitized. If all they wanted was to sort by basic case type, they could just pull the data from the computer. They wouldn’t need us to go through each file by hand."

"So?" Shen Xin prompted.

Ding Yuwei thought for a moment. "What I mean is, the bosses assigned us to go through these cold case files. I’m sure it’s not just for simple organization. They probably want us to identify which cold cases now have conditions that make them solvable, so they can be reopened for investigation."

"That’s the only reason we’d need to go through each file in such detail."

"So, shouldn’t we establish some criteria? For example, which cases are missing physical evidence, and which are missing both physical evidence and witnesses."

"We could define a set of standards to separate the cases, maybe even considering factors like the potential for reinvestigation or the degree of difficulty in solving them."

Her analysis was methodical and crystal clear.

Shen Xin sucked in a sharp breath.

’Damn, girl. When you’re this brilliant, you put a lot of pressure on the rest of us.’

But when he recalled Chen Chao’s exact words, Shen Xin realized Ding Yuwei was absolutely right.

Lv Youwei had mentioned it before; it was because the Wu Jiawang case had been solved that they were now digging up old cold cases, hoping to re-examine them and see if any others could be solved.

It matched Ding Yuwei’s theory perfectly.

"You’re right. We’ll do it your way."

’But in that case, does that mean I’ve wasted the last few days? I was just looking at the case type and didn’t really think deeply about any of them.’

’And I’ve read so many, I can’t even remember the details well enough to re-sort them now.’

"I’ll start reading then, and I’ll try sorting them based on my ideas. If any issues come up, we can discuss them together," Ding Yuwei said, immediately shifting into work mode.

Shen Xin was secretly amazed.

’At the very least, I believe the part about her being a top student.’

’Her skills are the real deal.’

He’d been thinking that with someone else around, he’d at least have a person to chat with.

But Shen Xin quickly discovered that Ding Yuwei wasn’t much of a talker. She was the workaholic type.

She didn’t leave her seat for a second, except to use the restroom.

She also flew through the case files, taking notes on key points as she read.

It made Shen Xin feel like he’d been completely slacking off for the past few days.

"Time’s up. Lunch?"

Ding Yuwei nodded and followed him.

"Are you from around here?" Shen Xin asked, trying to make conversation.

Ding Yuwei nodded, and that was the end of that.

That left Shen Xin tongue-tied, unsure of what else to say.

But he could tell she wasn’t the cold and arrogant type who intentionally ignored people.

After they got their food, she didn’t go off to find her own seat. She followed Shen Xin and sat down across from him.

She was silent, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence.

’It’s only the first day, we just met. I’m not that curious anyway.’

After the Zhang Qin case, Shen Xin genuinely felt his interest in women had dropped significantly.

For instance, lately—perhaps because of Zhang Jian—Zhang Qian had been much friendlier toward him.

But Shen Xin didn’t really have much of a reaction to it.

He just felt indifferent.

The two ate their meal in silence. Ding Yuwei finished first and even took Shen Xin’s tray, putting it in the return rack for him.

Back in the storage room, Shen Xin felt like slacking off for a bit, but she was already back to reading the files.

Shen Xin thought for a moment and figured he had no choice but to get back to it as well.

But now that he had to actually think, his reading speed slowed down considerably.

He only got through four case files the entire afternoon.

When it was quitting time, Shen Xin told Ding Yuwei they could leave.

"You go ahead. I’ll stay and read a bit longer," Ding Yuwei said, full of drive.

Shen Xin felt a little bad.

’She’s basically shouldering my work for me.’

As if guessing his thoughts, Ding Yuwei said, "It’s fine, you can go. I don’t have anything to do at home anyway. If I read a bit more, we’ll finish this job sooner."

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

Shen Xin thanked her and headed out.

As he returned to the main office to clock out, he heard voices coming from the small conference room.

They were probably discussing a case.

He sighed.

Shen Xin really wanted to be working on an active case.

But thinking about what Zhao Tianxing had said—he’d waited so long—Shen Xin knew he just had to be patient.

Leaving work on time every day had reset his biological clock.

The next day, he arrived at the archives on time. As he walked through the door, he froze.

He backed out and looked around.

’This is it, this is the storage room.’

But now, the miscellaneous junk was gone. The floor had been swept and mopped clean. A whiteboard stood against the back wall, and near the door, two desks had been set up facing each other. In the corner, the evidence boxes were stacked in neat piles.

Shen Xin stood there, stunned. ’Don’t tell me Ding Yuwei did all this.’

Just as he was thinking that, Ding Yuwei walked in carrying a large thermos of hot water and greeted him.

"Did you do all this?" 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Shen Xin asked, astonished.

Ding Yuwei nodded and said she was free after work yesterday, so she tidied up.

Shen Xin drew in another sharp breath.

’This woman is something else.’

’If you keep this up, you’re going to make me look completely useless.’

"Why didn’t you just do it during the day? I could have helped," Shen Xin said, feeling awkward.

"It’s fine. I wanted to do it, and I didn’t want to impose on your personal time."

Ding Yuwei had even prepared a cup for him and now proceeded to pour him some water.

It made Shen Xin feel like he was her superior.

"Oh, right."

Ding Yuwei sat down, pulled two case files from a desk drawer, and said, "I was thinking about it after I went home yesterday, and I have a few more ideas."

"I think the bosses want us to do this for two reasons. One is to find cases that now have the potential to be solved. The other might be to find cases that are high-impact—for example, cases where the victims’ families are putting on a lot of pressure."

"I picked two files from the ones I read yesterday. Take a look and see what you think. If it makes sense, we can add another category."

A grin spreading across his face, Shen Xin took them and opened the first file.

The crime occurred on September 7, 2013.

The crime scene was Room 1402 of Jinhui Mansion in Tingyang District.

The victim, Liu Laibin, was found dead in his office. The case was reported by the company’s cleaning lady, Sun Min.

She came in an hour early every day to clean the office.

The reason Ding Yuwei had singled out this case was because the victim’s, Liu Laibin’s, wife came to the sub-bureau to raise a fuss every so often. Later, she started doing the same at the district government offices, which would then call the sub-bureau to deal with her.

For four years, she had done this, rain or shine.