Chapter 255: Portrait Artist

In the afternoon, Zhou Dafu came by.

The case at the police station had been closed, and the seven hundred yuan could now be retrieved.

Zhou Yimin took Zhou Dafu to the station to get his money back. But as soon as Zhou Dafu received it, he handed it over to Zhou Yimin. After all, he had already asked Sixteenth Uncle to help him find a job—sooner or later, the money was going to be spent on that anyway.

“You head back and wait for me,” Zhou Yimin said to Zhou Dafu.

“Alright!”

Zhou Dafu didn’t ask questions. He just did as he was told.

It was clear that Director Zhang had something to say to Zhou Yimin.

He’d meant to bring it up a few days earlier, but Zhou Yimin had said he was busy and hadn’t come by the police station, so it had been put off until now.

“Yimin, we really have you to thank for last time. That theory of yours—there’s been a lot of discussion about it lately,” Director Zhang said.

That theory had been something of a bombshell.

Being able to predict the general location, timing, and even the methods of an enemy agent—it had left many people in disbelief. It seemed almost magical.

Like a fortune-teller hitting the mark.

Of course, in this era, people didn’t exactly take kindly to talk of fortune-tellers.

Zhou Yimin smiled. “Director Zhang, I was just throwing the idea out there.”

“No, no. Your method is actually workable. Over the past couple of days, experts have been looking into it and concluded that it’s a highly effective and feasible tool in criminal investigation.

Maybe—just maybe!—it’ll become one of our standard methods of solving cases in the future.

If that happens, your theory will become very important.

Yimin, would you be interested in working at the station? I could arrange a position for you—nothing involving patrols or front-line action, just behind-the-scenes work. It wouldn’t be dangerous.” By the end, Director Zhang couldn’t help but extend the invitation.

What he wanted was to hire Zhou Yimin as the station’s case analysis expert. Just like last time, he could drastically boost their case-solving efficiency.

In fact, it was exactly what Zhou Yimin had called a “profiler.”

Zhou Yimin couldn’t help but laugh.

He quickly waved his hand. “Director Zhang, it’s better to leave professional work to professionals. I’m sure there are experts in Beijing who specialize in psychology—you should be looking for them instead.

Such a person, which I’ll call a ‘profiler’ for now, would use evidence from crime scenes, patterns of behavior, and so on, to deduce a criminal’s psychological traits, personality, environment, occupation, upbringing, and character profile.”

Profilers use criminal psychology. Their work helps the police narrow the search scope and stop crimes from escalating.

“Besides that, to further improve case-solving efficiency, you could also add a portrait artist,” Zhou Yimin added.

“A portrait artist?” Director Zhang was momentarily confused.

Of course, he wasn’t shocked. Portrait artists had long existed and had a deep history in China.

The profession of portrait artists could be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period. According to records, King Ping of Chu had portraits made of Wu Zixu and posted them at city gates to catch him. That was one of the earliest uses of portraiture.

In the past, officials often used portraits to identify and capture fugitives.

It wasn’t until the early Republican era that portrait artists began to fade out due to the rise of photography. After that, portraits were mostly done as sketches, oil paintings, or watercolors—mainly as art.

Director Zhang just didn’t see the point anymore. Now that cameras existed, were portrait artists still necessary?

“Director Zhang, you might not know this, but top-tier portrait artists can sketch a person’s face just from a few verbal descriptions. Some can even look at a childhood photo and draw what that person would look like as an adult,” Zhou Yimin explained.

Director Zhang was stunned.

He’d been in this line of work for over ten years, and he knew there were artists out there who could sketch people based on a glance or from descriptions.

But to draw what someone would look like as an adult based on a childhood photo—that was something he’d never heard of.

So naturally, he was a bit taken aback.

“Is that even possible?”

“The world is full of wonders. Stories of ‘drawing a person at three to see how they’ll look when old’ have always existed. It just depends on whether you can find that kind of talent. Maybe try looking into art schools,” Zhou Yimin said.

Director Zhang was intrigued. He nodded slightly and didn’t bring up the job offer again.

It had just been a casual suggestion anyway. Zhou Yimin already had a job—and a leadership position at that—so the chance of him changing jobs was slim.

Since he’d turned it down, there was no need to be annoying and push further.

After chatting for a while and giving the station staff a bit of a “lesson,” Zhou Yimin left with the reward they’d given him.

That’s right—the police station had awarded him something for his help in the last case.

But Zhou Yimin didn’t care much. It was just supplies, and to him, supplies were the least valuable thing these days.

Back at the courtyard, he saw Zhou Dafu bragging to Zhou Dazhong.

Zhou Yimin was speechless.

This kid always seemed to run into some kind of bad luck every time they crossed paths. But calling him a jinx didn’t seem right either—he actually brought good fortune to those around him.

The folks who went hunting with him never really encountered any serious danger, and they always came back with something. It was just that Zhou Dafu always ended up getting unlucky himself—but never fatally so.

Over time, people started liking to have him along on hunting trips.

“Stop bragging. Go get ready—you’re reporting to the steel factory in a couple of days,” Zhou Yimin said.

Zhou Dafu was stunned at first, then overjoyed.

“Sixteenth Uncle, it’s settled?!”

Of course he was thrilled.

His dream was to work in a steel factory, to become a proud industrial worker!

Zhou Yimin nodded. “The day after tomorrow, go find Dazhong and have him take you to report in. I won’t be going.”

By now, all the steel factory’s management knew Zhou Dazhong was his guy. If anything came up, they could just pass messages through Dazhong. Because of that, even though Zhou Dazhong was just an ordinary worker from the countryside, people still treated him with respect.

“Okay! Thank you, Sixteenth Uncle,” Zhou Dafu said excitedly.

“Sixteenth Uncle, what position will Dafu be taking?” Zhou Dazhong asked.

Zhou Dafu immediately perked up, eyes fixed nervously on Zhou Yimin.

Even in the same factory, the level of difficulty and the benefits varied widely depending on the job. Workshop laborers and movers had it the hardest—especially the movers. But movers didn’t need any skills—just physical strength.

“I know Captain Li from the transport department. I had a word with him. You’ll go over and train with him—learn to drive. You’ll be on the transport team from now on,” Zhou Yimin said.

He had his own plans—having someone close who could drive would be handy. He wouldn’t have to go everywhere himself anymore.

Zhou Dafu was stunned.

So was Zhou Dazhong.

Nowadays, being a driver was one of the most sought-after jobs. They never expected Sixteenth Uncle to pull strings and get him into such a great position.

(End of Chapter)