Chapter 29 (1/2)
Chapter 29: Old Friend
Between cases, on aone weekend the officers’ basic law enforcement examination passed by in a flash The roo Chi eyed the sunlight outside the , then went back to the familiar topic on his paper He put down his pen and handed in his exam early
Exiting the spacious education building and outside into the shade out of direct sunlight, a cardboard box had been placed on a flower bed Inside were three newborn kittens so on each other and sleeping, snoring lightly, charly innocent He was just about to reach his hand out to pet the from not far off He turned and left
Maybe the air of s out by drawing these stray cats to the caht It had been there so long there was no telling which generation the police acadeed to
He had spent two years of his young adult life here It wasn’t that Zhang Chi had never thought to go back, it’s just it was rather far away He remembered the first time he came here The campus was tucked away in an unmarked corner of the ht a few years ago he was running on the track when he suddenly saw a dazzling, resplendent sight, which turned out to be a large shi+p arriving, coht fro half of the ca in the dark, who hurriedly got up and straightened their clothes Zhang Chi didn’t envy theirlfriend, and even when he was it was because he had chosen to take a break from them
Back then he never thought that one day, because of a sketch pencil, he’d become a police officer Now, it see hio down that path Luckily, that path was perhaps better than the one he had chosen for himself
Zhang Chi followed the unfah the square by the flagpole, and the basketball court, skirting around the swie he heard sounds of gunfire he had not heard in a long time, which was muffled as soon as he passed behind a soundproof wall He felt a surge of e in to the instructors’ office at the other corner of the campus He knocked on the door and entered
The coot up as soon as he saas his student He s”, then affectionately took him into a side office and had him sit down
They had not seen each other in two years, but looking at each other now it seeed
“You haven’t co you” The commander handed him a bottle of salt soda water
“I’hed and twisted the cap
“Lately I heard you transfered to the cri used to it?”
“I don’t know about that All I can say is I’et broken in It can be pretty stressful”
“Your unit really found a treasure Composite sketches shouldn’t be difficult for you After all, you have art training I heard there’s no more than thirty in the whole country in the public security sector who can draw, and some provinces don’t have any portrait artists at all Andlad like you just taking up a post, the sky’s the limit”
“Commander, there’s a reason I don’t have much competition It’s too difficult If your portrait has a 60 resemblance to the suspect it’s counted a success, but you need at least 80 rese a lot And I just started When it comes to experience or results I’ their whole lives You kno it is; public security work cares a lot about efficiency Instant results are best If the sketch fails to help the investigation once or twice, you et another chance”
Though the cos He knew about new societal trends before the young people did At the acade Chi had opportunities to have a lot of work contact with hiraphy, travel, or drawing, he found the two could talk endlessly about many topics, so they naturally becae
The commander nodded “I had a little experience with that before A lay, but actually co the study of investigation, genetics, anatoy But I believe in you You’re a fast learner who’s willing to i quickly that would take someone else a lifetime The key is, you have to have a plan for what you do Everything requires so to be successful”
“A lot of people don’t know that using portrait sketches to catch criminals has existed since ancient times; it’s just that no one ever putEspecially now, since there are so ations, and science and technology has developed so much, a pure sketch doesn’t have much use”
“But you don’t think so?”
“The way I see it, everyhas some irreplaceable application The question is, will you be adept enough when it comes time to use it? There’s not as much use for composite sketches for cases now as there was before 2005 because that’s when video surveillance started to get popular, Still, so cases with unfavorable conditions for forensic techniques still can’t do without that option”
“Kid, I never realized you could talk like that I heard about this recent case overseas involving the kidnap of a Chinese exchange student Our police used a blurry ie to uys overseas couldn’t believe it That’s what’s unique about composite sketches” The commander stuck his thumb out in approval
Zhang Chi shook his head “I’ Lately I’ve been polishi+ng ”