The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective

At 8:50 the next morning, the morning light was just right.

Political Commissioner Li and Mr. Qin came by private car and arrived on time at the hotel where Jiang An and Director Hou were staying.

The hotel lobby was spacious and bright, with morning light streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the fine dust motes in the air.

Political Commissioner Li lowered his head, took his phone out of his pocket, glanced at the time on the screen, then deftly found Director Hou’s number and dialed.

The call was answered almost the moment it rang.

”Hey, Political Commissioner Li, this early?”

Director Hou’s voice came through the receiver, with a trace of sleepiness that hadn’t fully dispersed.

”Morning! Mr. Qin and I are already in your hotel lobby, we’d like to invite you to have breakfast together.”

Political Commissioner Li’s tone was warm, his voice carrying a hint of laughter.

Hearing this, Director Hou sounded a little surprised: ”No need to go to all that trouble, Political Commissioner Li.”

”We can just grab something casual in the hotel cafeteria, simple and convenient.”

”That won’t do, we can’t just make it simple.”

Political Commissioner Li raised his voice slightly, with an enthusiasm that brooked no refusal. ”Didn’t we have a few drinks together last night? This morning we’ve got to take you to try the most distinctive local breakfast, count it as us doing our duty as hosts.”

Director Hou was still hesitating, so Political Commissioner Li continued: ”We haven’t eaten either, we’re just waiting downstairs.”

”Once you’re ready, come down and we’ll go together.”

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end before Director Hou finally relented: ”Then... all right, we’ll be down in a bit.”

”Okay, no rush, we’ll wait in the lobby.”

After hanging up, Director Hou quickly finished washing up, changed his clothes, then walked to the door of the room next door and raised his hand to knock lightly.

”Dong dong dong—”

The sound of running water came from inside the room, and a moment later Jiang An’s voice came through the door, slightly drowsy: ”Who is it?”

”It’s me, Director Hou.”

Jiang An soon opened the door. He had a bath towel wrapped around him, water still dripping from the ends of his hair, and the room was filled with the scent of body wash and a misty humidity.

”Mr. Jiang, how did you sleep last night?”

Director Hou asked with a smile.

Drying his hair with a towel, Jiang An replied, ”Not bad, just not used to a strange bed, still getting used to being on a trip.”

”Ah, once you travel a lot you get used to it. When I first started working I was like that too; now I can sleep anywhere.”

”You’re here this early, is something up?” Jiang An asked.

”Political Commissioner Li and Mr. Qin are already downstairs, they’ve specially come to pick us up for breakfast.”

Jiang An was stunned for a moment, then broke into a smile: ”Isn’t that a bit too polite?”

”They were already enthusiastic enough last night, and now they’re even coming especially to accompany us for breakfast, I’m really a bit flattered.”

Director Hou also laughed, his tone carrying some understanding: ”Mr. Jiang, you’re their superior leader; this is their way of showing respect, they’ve got to crank the sense of ceremony all the way up.”

Jiang An shook his head with a smile, walking over to the wardrobe to take out his clothes as he said, ”Brother Hou, we’re all in the same special task force now, don’t put me on a pedestal like that.”

He swiftly changed into a shirt, then turned back and said half-jokingly, ”When you come to Jiangcheng in the future to give us guidance, I’ll definitely arrange the full sense of ceremony for you too, won’t lose out in the slightest.”

Director Hou waved his hand, his face showing a helpless yet amused expression: ”No, no, no, next time I go to Jiangcheng, just don’t wake me up this early, let me sleep until I wake up naturally and that’ll be enough.”

”I actually wanted to sleep a bit more this morning too, but look, they’re already downstairs; we can’t really keep them waiting too long.”

”That’s true,” Jiang An straightened his collar and picked up his phone. ”Then let’s hurry down, we shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

”Let’s go, I heard there’s a local specialty breakfast place that’s pretty good, let’s go try it together.”

Five minutes later, the two of them went down the stairs one after the other and stepped into the hotel lobby.

Political Commissioner Li and Mr. Qin were sitting on the sofa by the window, talking in low voices. As soon as they saw them coming, they immediately got up to greet them, faces beaming with enthusiastic smiles.

”Good morning, you two. Did you sleep well last night?” Political Commissioner Li asked with concern.

Director Hou and Jiang An nodded and smiled in unison: ”We did, thank you for taking the trouble.”

”That’s good,” Mr. Qin picked up the conversation. ”Shall we head out now? We’ll take you to try the most authentic breakfast we’ve got here.”

Director Hou and Jiang An exchanged a glance and replied with a smile:

”No problem, we’ll follow your lead.”

Twenty minutes later, Mr. Qin’s car slowly pulled up in front of a well-known local breakfast shop—Qingxing Soup Dumpling House.

By this time, although the most crowded part of the morning rush had passed, there was still a steady stream of people at the entrance. Quite a few customers had even parked their cars a hundred meters away and walked over.

Through the car window, Director Hou looked at the endless flow of people and couldn’t help sighing: ”Has business always been this good here?”

”More than just good,” Mr. Qin said, unfastening his seat belt with a smile. ”You should see the scene when they open at seven, the line runs all the way from the door to the street corner. It’s like that every day; they don’t really get a breather before ten o’clock.”

Director Hou opened the door and got out, nodding thoughtfully: ”Looks like we really picked the right place.”

”With this level of customer flow, they’re probably making more money than a lot of proper Chinese restaurants.”

”Exactly,” Mr. Qin lowered his voice. ”I heard from some old regulars nearby that this unassuming little shop can clear one to two million in net profit a year.”

”One to two million?” Director Hou stopped in his tracks, his face full of surprise. ”An ordinary salaried worker only makes a bit over a hundred thousand a year.”

”Their annual profit is equivalent to other people’s ten or twenty years of hard work, isn’t it?”

Just then Political Commissioner Li came up and picked up the thread: ”But I’ve heard that doing breakfast is especially tough. They have to get up at two or three in the morning every day to knead dough and prepare the filling; one person simply can’t handle it all.”