QTIMP -Chapter 301 Character Persona – Violent (Part 29)

Si Qiu looked up at her master and pointed at herself. “Me?”

Section Chief Song coughed lightly. “Well… if you can’t do it, just go ask Rongrong for an old one and copy it. I’ll review it after you finish it. Don’t worry.”

Then he picked up his belt and walked out.

Rongrong watched him leave completely, gently patted Si Qiu’s hand, and whispered, “He’s not deliberately making things difficult for you. It’s just that when Chief Song writes reports, the director said he has a talent for drawing symbolic marks.”

Si Qiu couldn’t help but laugh.

The report wasn’t difficult. Si Qiu finished it in just one afternoon, but she wasn’t in a hurry to submit it and decided to wait a few days.

That day, another spy-related incident occurred. New machinery at the factory had been sabotaged. Although the saboteur had been caught, the person behind him had not been identified.

The investigation initially belonged to the factory’s security department, but since they found nothing, the case was finally reported to the public security bureau.

At this time, any incident was first handled by the factory’s security department before deciding whether to report it to the police.

It must be said that security departments nowadays were mostly made up of retired soldiers and were even equipped with some firearms. Their capability and combat strength were not low.

After arriving, and listening to the security department’s account of the investigation, Section Chief Song re-questioned the two saboteurs and a witness who had accidentally seen them meet.

The first person said, “That man was a little taller than me, very thin, with a pointed chin.”

The second person described, “Yes, that man was quite thin, and his eyes were especially big.”

The third person hesitated. “His eyes were indeed big, but I don’t think he was that thin. His neck looked quite thick.”

The first person thought for a moment. “Maybe that’s right… was he actually fat?”

The second person quickly objected, “No, I think he was thin.”

The third person also objected, “From the way he was dressed, he should’ve been fat.”

As they argued back and forth, the three of them were led astray. The first and second began insisting the man was fat, while the third insisted he was thin.

Assistant Sun sighed. Si Qiu suggested to her master that they question them separately.

In any case, they first recorded everything at the scene and then brought the people back to the bureau.

Back at the bureau, when it came time for individual questioning, Si Qiu said to her master, “Master, I can draw a little. I want to try drawing the suspect’s appearance based on their descriptions. But I need to state first that I can’t guarantee the accuracy of the portrait. I just want to try.”

Comrade Song Tingyu looked her up and down. “Alright, Xiao Qiu, you have this skill? Why didn’t you say so earlier? Come on, let’s try it—whether it works or not, we’ll see. Don’t worry about anything else. Your master will back you up.”

The master eagerly provided her with paper and pen and personally took her to the interrogation room, repeatedly saying, “Don’t worry. If it works, it works; if it doesn’t, it’s just practice. Anything happens—I’ve got you covered as your master. No pressure.”

Because of Song’s support, Si Qiu felt confident enough to try. In previous cases too, whenever something happened, he would take responsibility and personally guide her step by step.

They first questioned the two operatives—the people who carried out the sabotage.

Neither of them had seen the person directly. Their descriptions were limited to the man’s jawline, eyes, skin tone, and some physical or clothing features.

But without others interfering, their memories became more subjective. The first person clearly confirmed the man’s height, unclear body shape, and the outline of his chin.

The second person confirmed the person’s slightly clearer body shape and facial features.

The third person clearly identified the neck, as well as the skin tone, hair color, and the general outline of the face.

Holding the final composite sketch, Si Qiu asked the three of them to confirm it one by one. They all said it looked somewhat similar, but not exactly.

Si Qiu studied the sketch for a long time, then suddenly took out another sheet of paper and began revising and redrawing it. After finishing, she showed the updated sketch to the three of them again.

The first two only said it seemed similar, but the third person slapped the table and confirmed it outright—it was indeed the person he had unintentionally glanced at.

Chief Song quickly took the sketch to the bureau director. The director then arranged for officers to conduct covert investigations across various streets, and the suspect was soon identified.

After surveillance and inquiries, it took a full twenty days of work before they finally uncovered the suspect’s entire network.

The bureau director personally met Si Qiu and asked about the sketching process.

“Back then, I drew a basic composite based on the descriptions of the three witnesses. But they all said there were differences, yet none of them could explain exactly where the differences were. I studied the sketch carefully.”

“I suspected this person might have hyperthyroidism—commonly known as goiter. It’s usually caused by insufficient iodine intake.”

“The symptoms include protruding eyes and an enlarged neck.”

“So I increased those proportions. After the third witness confirmed it, we were sure it was him.”

“You really are impressive, even knowing this kind of medical knowledge,” the director praised.

Si Qiu replied a bit shyly, “After following my master on so many cases, I always felt like the more I learned, the less I actually knew. In investigations, I often felt constrained.”

“Because of missing knowledge, I used to overlook clues, so I started actively learning more on my own.”

“Good, good,” the director said approvingly. “Young people should be energetic and eager to learn. If you have any ideas in the future, you can directly talk to your master.”

“We’re short on talent right now. It’s a good thing that you’re willing to learn, and as your leader, I fully support it.”

Within a year, Si Qiu’s abilities—both in combat and talent—had been fully proven. Occasionally, she was even seconded elsewhere for training, which made her master quite proud.

“Wow, Si Qiu, we used to be classmates, and now in such a short time, you’ve become our teacher.”

Zhang Aihong came over first to shake her hand. She had responded to a notice to attend training in forensic sketching and had actively signed up.

Only after arriving did she realize that the instructor was actually Si Qiu, who had come from their own training class. Out of the twelve people in that cohort, four were classmates.

Besides her, there were Li Jing, Zhao Jianguo, and Wang Hongqi. The rest were either the most educated officers from various branches or those with special talent in the field.

When Si Qiu arrived to teach, she had searched through some materials in her “space.” Although there were no specialized references on this subject, related knowledge still gave her a lot of inspiration.

“Alright, everyone, I need to clarify something first. In my own view, I’m actually still a beginner at this.”

“At the very least, I haven’t reached my own ceiling yet. So we can all discuss and improve together.”

“Now I’ll go over my previous experience. First, when drawing composite sketches, artists tend to unconsciously beautify small imperfections.”

“This is something we must overcome.”

“Another common issue is that witnesses often don’t know how to describe a person.”

“So I broke facial features into categories—eyebrows, eyes, lips, nose. Each category has template types.”

“When this situation arises, I let them choose from the templates to describe what they saw, and then I refine the sketch…”