The area is quite remote from the village, and the gully is even more deserted. It's unlikely that the perpetrator walked out on foot after abandoning the car.

It's highly possible they drove or rode away.

If they did take a car, there would be tire tracks left behind. Lu Chuan hopes to find those tracks.

All the work is proceeding in an orderly fashion.

While Lu Chuan and his team are examining the scene, the traffic police are starting to check the surrounding road surveillance, using the gully as a center point.

Yuan Shaokang didn't come over; he's at the High-tech Zone's Criminal Investigation Team, screening all major cases that Song Kun handled.

Of course, petty thefts don't count, only the kind that gets people put away do.

6:30 PM.

Lu Chuan returned to the gully where the car was burned. By this time, the car frame had cooled down, and all the fragments had been collected.

"I don't think we can do the crime scene investigation today."

As darkness started to fall, the conditions no longer met the requirements for an outdoor investigation.

Even with lighting, there will still be shadows.

According to crime scene investigation protocols, results obtained under such conditions are not recognized.

Looking at the sky, Liu Guodong shook his head: "We'll come back early tomorrow. Lu, what have you found so far?"

Lu Chuan nodded: "There are some findings—dozens of footprints and some tire tracks."

"The footprints are relatively clear, but the tire tracks are less so. I collected four sets of tire tracks that need to be analyzed."

From a crime scene investigation perspective, tire tracks on asphalt are relatively easy to collect.

But roads are not made just for criminals; many vehicles pass through.

Lu Chuan collected four sets of tire tracks, all left by different vehicles.

Which car the suspect might have taken, or whether they even took a car, is unknown.

Work at the scene had to be paused due to the darkness.

But this doesn't mean everyone can rest.

The consequences of a soon-to-retire detective being killed in a staged car accident are unimaginable for anyone.

Police work is inherently a high-risk job; no one can guarantee they'll make it to retirement.

Even in the Haizhou Criminal Investigation Team, every year there's one or two who posthumously receive top honors.

That's the reality every officer must face.

Within the police force, detectives and narcotics officers have the highest likelihood of not making it.

This is why these positions sit at the top of the hierarchy among police roles.

Because they earned it with their lives.

Song Kun's murder is even worse.

With three months left to retire, Song Kun could have retired with honor.

Just three months!

If this case remains unsolved, morale within Haizhou's public security system will plummet.

The entire Criminal Investigation Team is brightly lit, everyone immersed in a tense atmosphere that grips them from the inside out.

Not just the Criminal Investigation Team; the traffic police team isn't idle either.

Using the gully as a center, they are registering every vehicle within a ten-kilometer radius.

Any vehicle present at the time must be checked.

This is a huge workload.

However, based on the time the crashed vehicle caught fire, if the culprit left by car before Li Kai and the others arrived, the time difference would be enough for them to leave Haizhou.

It's even possible they've reached Tianzhou by now.

So ten kilometers sounds vast, but it's just a small part of the overall investigation.

The traffic police set this limit due to manpower constraints.

In the crime scene lab.

Lu Chuan is studying the footprints collected from the scene.

Today, all the footprints from police officers who visited the scene have been collected by Old Bai and Yang Sen.

Now, Lu Chuan's first task is to eliminate these footprints.

While Liu Guodong, Yang Sen, and Bai Wenhai are not experts in footprint analysis, they can handle basic identification.

"This is Li Kai's shoe print... This pattern... belongs to the short traffic policeman..."

The differentiation is not difficult. With target prints for comparison, distinguishing them by pattern is straightforward.

Finally, Lu Chuan was left with only two sets of unknown footprints.

On the light board, photos of the two sets of footprints were displayed.

"Were there two perpetrators?"

Liu Guodong stood with his arms crossed, his brows knit tightly, and the deep wrinkles on his forehead could probably catch a mosquito: "Was someone aiding them, or is it a coincidence that someone left footprints in the gully?"

Old Bai shook his head: "Aiding is more likely."

Yang Sen nodded in agreement: "The clarity of the two sets of footprints is similar. The gully where the car was abandoned is rarely visited, making it unlikely for someone to coincidentally enter."

"Besides, it rained four days ago, but these two sets of footprints show no water traces."

Footprints left in soil generally won't quickly disappear in rain unless it's torrential.

However, rain would smooth and round the footprints.

The difference is, how to put it—one is like an unmarried girl, untouched.

The other is like a well-rounded woman, smooth and curvy everywhere.

"Let's analyze first; the likelihood is highest that there were two."

While identifying the footprints, Liu Guodong and others have already discussed.

The suspect faked the car accident, abandoned the car after the hit-and-run, and drove it into the gully to burn it.

This was certainly premeditated, not spur-of-the-moment.

So if walking away isn't likely, being picked up by someone in a car suggests that another person was involved.

Of course, the suspect could have parked a getaway car near the gully beforehand, then used a stolen car to hit Song Kun, returned to the gully, abandoned it, set it on fire, and left in their vehicle. That's also possible.

All detectives love to deduce.

What Liu Guodong and others can think of, those on the front line like Ren Qiang have no reason to overlook.

Moreover, their analysis is certainly more in-depth, with more potential deductions.

For example, the suspect might not be acting alone or in a pair.

Could there be three?

Surely a possibility.

Who says only one person was in the vehicle that hit Song Kun?

If there wasn't just one person during the crime,

Song Kun's death may not be so simple.

One person killing Song Kun out of hatred is possible.

What about two people?

Or even three planning revenge on Song Kun together?

Have all the people Song Kun arrested over the years gathered to orchestrate revenge?

Some thoughts, when you ponder them closely, are terrifying.

However, such concerns are what first-line investigators like Ren Qiang and Yuan Shaokang deal with.

For Lu Chuan, the task now is to analyze and identify the two sets of shoe prints.

And he must complete it in the shortest time possible, as tougher tasks await him tomorrow.

In the lab, Liu Guodong and others are assisting Lu Chuan.

In reality, the three aren't much help; they're just watching Lu Chuan analyze while holding enamel cups.

Measuring the length of footprints, the width at different points, pattern data, and edge width.

Then there's a set of formulaic calculations.

Tap Tap Tap!

Lu Chuan's fingers danced rhythmically over the calculator, the sound rapid.

Then conclusions appeared one by one on the scratch paper.

9:28 PM.

Lu Chuan took a deep drag of his Chunghwa cigarette: "Finally done."

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