Thirty minutes later, a team of firefighters in red uniforms walked over with tools.
Li Jian hurried up, shook hands and said, "Captain Xiao, thank you for your strong support."
Xiao Feng said, "You’re welcome, it’s all for the safety of this city."
Soon after, the two walked to the edge of the mountain cliff and looked into the valley.
Xiao Feng frowned slightly and said, "This valley is very deep."
Li Jian said, "Exactly! It might be hard work for the firefighters."
Immediately, Xiao Feng turned his head and said, "Choose fixed rivets, prepare the ropes."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang An said, "Mr. Li, I also apply to go down."
Captain Li Jian was taken aback upon hearing this.
He said with concern, "This valley seems very deep, and you don’t have climbing experience. You should not go down easily, lest there be danger."
Xiao Feng also said, "Young brother, this cliff is very steep. Don’t easily try without professional climbing training."
The persuasion of the two leaders did not deter Jiang An’s determination to go down.
He said, "This mountain formed naturally and is a tourist area, which has been around for many years. There must be garbage thrown down by tourists under the cliff."
"Without purposeful evidence searching, it’s difficult to distinguish which items are related to the case."
After a brief contemplation, Li Jian suddenly felt Jiang An was making sense.
He then asked, "Have you had climbing experience before?"
Jiang An replied, "I had climbing experience during university."
After hesitating a bit, Captain Li Jian raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder.
"I agree, but you must be very careful."
"Don’t worry, Captain, I will."
Actually, captain Li Jian didn’t know that before coming here, Jiang An was the vice president of the local rock climbing association.
He often organized everyone to search for mountains and cliffs to climb.
The cliff at Zizhu Mountain in front of him was not difficult for him.
Then Jiang An turned and walked over to the firefighters, picked up a vest and ropes, and put them on himself.
Seeing Jiang An’s proficient appearance, Captain Li Jian’s mouth slightly curled up. He said to the old forensic expert Wu You beside him, "I feel Jiang An is more skilled at wearing gear than the firefighters over there."
Wu You smiled and said, "Maybe he is familiar with the human body’s structure."
Five minutes later, 3 firefighters and 1 criminal police officer wore climbing protective gear and held onto ropes at the edge of the cliff.
Captain Li Jian took out his phone and snapped a photo as a memento.
He said, "Today is an important day. Jiangcheng’s criminal investigation and firefighting will remember your bravery."
"Please keep safety in mind while climbing down the cliff."
"Solving the case is important, but life safety is more important."
"If any unexpected situation occurs, make sure to send out a distress signal immediately."
The four replied in unison.
Everyone raised their arms together, clenched their fists, and placed them in front of their chest, saying, "Go for it!"
Then Jiang An and the 3 firefighters turned together, pulling ropes down the cliff.
Instantly, many climbing techniques flashed in his mind, like relaxing the body, and stabilizing support points.
Jiang An’s gaze was sharp, searching for grip points, exerting force with his wrist, using both hands and feet, coordinating upper and lower limbs, rapidly moving down.
During Jiang An’s descent, he also particularly paid attention to any important trace evidence on tree branches and weeds along the way.
Compared to Jiang An’s skilled climbing techniques, the actions of the 3 firefighters appeared somewhat clumsy.
Jiang An had already distanced himself from the 3 firefighters.
Fifty minutes later, Jiang An was the first to descend to the bottom of the cliff.
The bottom of the cliff was filled with many unknown trees, like a primitive forest.
Just because the valley was very deep, the light seemed a bit dim.
Jiang An took out a high-beam flashlight from his body, searching around for trace evidence. Follow current novᴇls on NovᴇlFire(.)nᴇt
Looking around, within his sight, Jiang An saw some beverage bottles and food garbage bags.
These items looked aged and were not recently thrown down, inferred likely unrelated to the case.
Next, he raised his head and noticed with a corner of his eye a white transparent plastic bag on a low branch to the right.
From a distance, this bag seemed fairly new, as if it had been thrown down not long ago.
Jiang An quickly walked over with the flashlight, getting closer to observe.
Suddenly, his heartbeat accelerated.
Heaven doesn’t disappoint those who work hard.
This was the tool used in the crime.
In the transparent handbag were one small syringe and a pair of used latex gloves.
Jiang An immediately took out a mini camera and photographed this key evidence for recording.
Afterwards, he extracted the evidence and placed it in a kraft paper evidence bag.
Just then, the other 3 firefighters also came down together.
"Brother, you’re too fast; we can’t keep up with you,"
One of the firefighters said, panting heavily.
Jiang An grinned and said, "You’ve worked hard."
"Next, please help search for the deceased’s phone."
Compared to the white plastic bag just found, the phone’s size is obviously much smaller.
Twenty minutes later, the firefighters located a white phone in the gap between two tree trunks. The phone’s appearance was quite new but seriously damaged, likely also thrown down recently.
Jiang An looked at it, nodded, and said, "This phone is likely the deceased’s."
After finding these two key pieces of evidence, the four began to climb up together.
Generally speaking, climbing up is harder than going down.
However, for Jiang An, it wasn’t much different.
He moved agilely, using his hands and feet, coordinating his movements like a monkey in the mountains.
Discovering such important evidence was the best stimulant.
He wanted to get up quickly and good news with others.
Forty minutes later, Jiang An climbed to the edge of the cliff.
Then, he exerted force with his palm, kicked down with both feet, and instantly came up.
Seeing Jiang An come up, Mr. Li, Chen He, Wu You, and Zhang Yean quickly walked over.
"No injuries, right?"
Captain Li Jian asked sincerely.
Jiang An smiled and said, "All good."
Then he retrieved the evidence bag from the hook at his waist.
"Mr. Li, I found the crime tool and the deceased’s phone."
Li Jian took the evidence bag, glanced at it, and said, "Good job!"
Then he turned to Chen He and said, "Immediately try to recover data from the deceased’s phone; this clue is very important."
Chen He took the evidence bag, took out the phone, glanced at it, and saw the exterior was heavily damaged.
He tried pressing the power button.
The familiar ringtone sounded, and surprisingly, the phone still switched on.
A moment later, he said, "Mr. Li, this phone is set with a password."
Li Jian asked, "Can it be cracked?"
Chen He frowned tightly, "It’s a bit difficult. I’ll try immediately after returning."
At this time, the other 3 firefighters gradually climbed up too.
Compared to Jiang An, they were already sweating profusely and looked exhausted.
After thanking and bidding farewell, Li Jian, Chen He, Wu You, Jiang An, and Zhang Yean left together.
In the speeding police car, Captain Li Jian said, "Mr. Chen, notify in the working group; 30 minutes later, all members of the criminal investigation unit gather in the meeting room."
Chen He asked, "What’s the theme of the meeting?"
Li Jian said word by word, "Characterization of the suspect in Li Yan’s murder case."