Chapter 201: Major Breakthrough on Another Front—Uncovering the Priest’s True Identity?

At the same time—

In the Qingyang Criminal Investigation Division of Taicang City.

Lin Tian and Huang Qiang were personally using the sketch drawn by criminal portrait artist Tang Yong—based on Fang Yuwei’s memory of the Priest—to conduct a detailed comparison in the household registration database.

Given how cautious the drug trafficking organization had proven to be so far,

Every lead could be severed at any moment, so digging out as many points of entry as possible was clearly of utmost importance.

Not to mention,

Judging from the intelligence gathered so far, the Priest was undoubtedly a high-ranking figure in the organization—likely even one of the founding members.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been allowed to impersonate K and meet with Bomber and his sister.

So trying to identify and unearth the Priest was without question a critical part of the investigation.

At the very least…

It was currently the only possible lead to get close to K.

…

At this moment—

After going through five rounds of facial comparison, Huang Qiang rubbed his aching brow in frustration and said helplessly,

“Chief Lin.”

“This round still turned up no matching suspects.”

“To be honest, I feel like trying to find this Priest based solely on a memory-based sketch is… almost unimaginable.”

“It really makes you wonder… what kind of special techniques those old squads used back in the day to actually match suspects using just Senior Tang’s portraits and the household registry.”

Clearly,

After multiple comparisons and still failing to uncover the Priest’s true identity,

Huang Qiang was starting to give up on using criminal sketches for database matches as a viable method of tracking suspects.

Sitting beside him, Lin Tian also frowned slightly, a weariness in his expression that words couldn’t describe.

Over the past two days,

He had barely rested, working non-stop at the frontlines of the investigation, all to bring down this massive drug network as soon as possible.

After a few moments of silence,

Lin Tian pulled two cigarettes from his pocket, handed one to Huang Qiang, and lit the other for himself.

Taking a deep drag, he let the smoke fill his mouth and nose. As the nicotine spread through his bloodstream, even his dazed eyes seemed to brighten a little.

Blowing out a thick cloud of smoke, he said seriously,

“Let’s run it again.”

“This time, expand the range to include all household records from the past ten years—whether cancelled or still active. As long as there’s a seventy percent resemblance to the sketch, bring it in for review.”

“If even that doesn’t help us determine the Priest’s identity, then we’ll have no choice but to abandon this lead and try another angle.”

Just as he finished speaking,

Lin Tian’s phone, which was resting on the desk, rang urgently.

He glanced at the number before decisively answering the call, but didn’t put it on speaker. Instead, he held it to his ear and spoke calmly,

“Xiao Ming, how’s the situation?”

“I just got word from Chief Liu that you’re about to move in on the Butcher. Has anything gone wro—”

Before he could finish,

Lin Tian suddenly fell silent, as if someone on the other end had interrupted him.

But just a few seconds later,

He suddenly jumped up in excitement, even knocking over his chair, and asked anxiously,

“What?”

“The arrest was successful, and the Butcher has already been transferred to our Huaihai Criminal Investigation Division?”

Hearing this,

Huang Qiang, sitting beside him, finally exhaled a breath of relief along with a puff of smoke.

The Butcher, another elder of the drug trafficking organization, has already been escorted to the Huaihai Criminal Investigation Division. Even if there’s no progress on the Priest line, the pressure shouldn’t be too high now.

However,

Huang Qiang didn’t consider giving up on the investigation into the Priest. Instead, he proceeded with the sixth round of screening based on the criteria Lin Tian had just suggested.

This round of screening even included household registration information of deceased individuals, expanding the scope more than twice that of the previous five rounds.

With a light click of the compare and search button,

Thousands of household registration records appeared before Huang Qiang.

These records were generated by a big data system, comparing the portrait sketch by Tang Yong to household registration photos that were at least seventy percent similar.

Since many of the household photos overlapped with the previous five rounds, Huang Qiang didn’t choose to go in chronological order. Instead, he started with the household registrations that had been canceled for over five years.

But this time,

In less than ten seconds, Huang Qiang’s gaze was drawn to a household record that had been canceled for seven years. He began examining it with great care.

The reason?

The person in the household registration photo looked at least ninety percent similar to the criminal portrait drawn by Tang Yong, and Huang Qiang could even boldly say it was almost identical!

Lin Tian, who had excitedly stood up, was still on the phone but could tell from the conversation that they were discussing the same matter.

Shaking the ash off his half-burnt cigarette into the ashtray, Lin Tian said with a deep sense of emotion,

“As long as you’re not hurt, that’s good.”

“But next time, try not to go solo on such a dangerous capture. While taking down this drug trafficking organization is important, your own safety must come first.”

“Alright, enough said.”

“Xiao Ming, hurry up and interrogate Butcher. Extract as much valuable information as you can, and avoid letting those drug traffickers flee in a panic, which would make the capture even more difficult.”

“I’ll rush back to the Huaihai Criminal Investigation Division as soon as possible to discuss the next steps for the operation.”

After hanging up, Lin Tian, feeling somewhat relieved after hearing the news of Butcher’s capture, felt the pressure of having no breakthrough in the investigation easing a bit.

He snuffed out his cigarette and turned to look at Huang Qiang, who was about to say something.

But Huang Qiang’s voice had already sounded ahead of time.

“Chief Lin.”

“I think you should hold off on heading back to the Huaihai Criminal Investigation Division for now. You can leave the Butcher case to Team Leader Su.”

“Because… we might have just uncovered the Priest’s true identity…”