Chapter 997 - 933: Issue Identity Card Number
Finding the right direction is more important than completing any number of tasks.
Before stumbling upon that leather shoe, Jiang Yuan wasn’t actually sure of the next direction of the investigation—such is the nature of forensic anthropology: you don’t know what you might find on the bones; therefore, you can’t presuppose any stance.
Of course, information such as age, gender, and height are the basics of forensic anthropology, things that can be determined as long as you find the bones. They don’t really indicate any particular direction.
The appearance of the shoe at least proved one thing: the murderer did not meticulously handle the victim’s belongings.
At the very least, lacking the confidence to take off the shoes likely means they wouldn’t have emptied the pockets either—the killer was probably panicked, especially if it was their first murder, and the body was dumped at a village pond. Logically, if they wanted to minimize the body’s personal items, they should have done so beforehand, not at the time of dumping the body.
Of course, since the cause of death was not certain, the killer might have killed the victim right by the pond. In this case, it would be practically impossible to meticulously clean the victim’s belongings, which could become a breakthrough in the case.
For an investigator, solving a case without the perpetrator making any mistakes indeed demonstrates ability. But if one can seize upon a mistake made by the killer and make a breakthrough, that too can achieve the goal.
Reality is no competition; even for the "master detective" Jiang Yuan, solving the case is the top priority. Expecting a highly intelligent opponent, wanting an equally matched enemy—that’s just self-indulgence in European and American culture. Chinese people don’t need such things to prove themselves.
If one must aspire to greatness, the Chinese way of aspiring to greatness involves conquering the world, reforming society, not defeating an individual.
After discovering the shoe, Jiang Yuan didn’t rush to trace its origin, waiting until Shen Yaowei had turned out all of the shoes from the "evidence pile" and inspected them all before handing this task over to Shen Yaowei.