The image shows a middle-aged man dressed in a navy blue old labor cloth work uniform.
His hairstyle is the most common labor youth style of this era, with fine bangs on his forehead and a square face.
Due to the suspect's left hand covering his face, the eyewitness could only see a rough outline of his features through the gaps between his fingers.
The most notable features were the suspect's bulbous nose and thick lips, which Jiang Si emphasized, while she sketched the remaining parts quickly.
Seeing the eyewitness staring at the image without speaking for a long time, Jiang Si didn't rush him but gave him plenty of time to think.
After a moment, the eyewitness spoke with a tone of doubt.
"I remember his nose wasn't that big, and his lips shouldn't be that thick. But strangely, from this angle, it looks quite similar, just feels a bit off."
"You're right, I deliberately exaggerated the nose and lips."
Huh?
Upon hearing this response, the eyewitness was momentarily stunned, "But if that's the case, won't the image look different from the real person? Will we be able to catch the suspect?"
The same question arose in Huo's fourth uncle's mind. When he saw the first version of the image Jiang Si handed over, he was also puzzled.
After all, with Third Master Yan's previous version being so exceptional, looking at the one in hand now seemed lacking in some way.
However, time was tight, and Jiang Si didn't have time to explain.
She asked Huo's fourth uncle to wait, while she went to the second room, intending to explain once the second image was completed.
The second eyewitness was an old man. On the day of the incident, he went to the nearby food station at around five in the morning to queue for meat, and on his way back, he happened to run into the suspect.
"He was flustered and even knocked the meat I was holding to the ground. I scolded him, and the rascal just took off running."
"I chased him for two blocks, but eventually I couldn't keep up, and he got away."
Talking about this, the old man felt not only regret but also a deep sense of discomfort.
His eldest grandson attended the same school, and he heard that the little girl died tragically, her face smashed and her clothes stripped by that beast.
It's already tough for girls, and getting an education is not easy.
Because of this, many families in their residential compound were planning not to let their daughters go to school anymore.
"Ah, it's simply a sin!"
The old man sighed, "Young comrade, ask whatever you need, but there's one thing: you must catch this beast as soon as possible, or who knows how many more children will suffer."
Jiang Si felt heavy-hearted after listening, "Don't worry, sir, we will."
Once the old man calmed down, she began a new round of questioning.
Besides the previously confirmed single eyelid, bulbous nose, and thick lips, the old man repeatedly described the suspect as having a face full of misery and a gaze filled with indescribable gloom.
Originally planning to draw a frontal portrait, Jiang Si immediately changed her approach after hearing this.
Expressing gloominess isn’t too difficult; you just need to deepen the eye sockets or elongate the philtrum to achieve the effect.
However...
She was about the same height as the elderly man, and the suspect was roughly a head taller than him, which meant his height was approximately 185 cm.
In this era, men who reached this height were quite rare.
Out of ten people, there might not even be one.
Upon realizing this, Jiang Si immediately asked the police officers to find her a small stool of roughly the same height and bring over a large mirror.
“Sir, please step up onto the stool. Be careful!”
“No problem, no problem.”
Once the elderly man was steady, Jiang Si instructed, “Sir, there’s a mirror behind me. In a moment, I want you to look at me with the same expression and gaze the suspect had when he looked at you.
“If you feel something isn’t quite right, you can adjust it by looking at the mirror.”
The elderly man nodded immediately. He might not be able to describe the shape of the suspect’s eyes or the exact height and width of his nose.
But when it came to mimicking the suspect’s menacing glare, the elderly man was confident he could manage.
In less than five minutes, the elderly man adjusted his facial expression and then looked at her with a gloomy, intense stare.
“It’s roughly like this, but his gaze was probably even fiercer than mine.”
Jiang Si understood and quickly picked up her sketching pencil, swiftly outlining on the drawing paper.
The second portrait was completed in about an hour as well.
If the first sketch offered a rough outline of the suspect’s appearance, the second one left Huo's fourth uncle utterly baffled.
This was because the entire second sketch was a close-up.
Since the person in the portrait was squinting, it was impossible to tell whether his eyes were large or small.
At first glance, all that stood out were the suspect’s two prominent nostrils.
Additionally, there was a very distinct furrowed crease between his eyebrows.
As he mulled over it, Huo's fourth uncle couldn’t help but pull out the first portrait Jiang Si had drawn.
Noticing the perplexed look on Huo's fourth uncle’s face, Jiang Si offered a simple explanation.
The reason Third Master Yan’s portrait was so highly detailed and accurate was because—
Aside from Huo Tingzhou’s ability to vividly and accurately describe every detail of the man’s facial features—
The most crucial factor was that his memory hadn’t deviated in the slightest.
This allowed her to carefully refine every single detail of the suspect’s face.
But the two witnesses in this case were different.
Jiang Si explained, “When I arrived at the police station this morning, I reviewed the previous four versions of the portraits. I noticed that aside from the first two sketches showing some common features, the later versions increasingly diverged from the original.”
“This suggests that the witnesses likely can no longer clearly remember the suspect’s facial features.”
Huo's fourth uncle didn’t refute Jiang Si’s speculation. In fact, this was the very issue that worried him the most.
But right now, aside from these two witnesses, they had no other leads.
As he was fretting, Jiang Si added, “It’s not a big problem.”
“Not a big problem?”
“Exactly!”
Jiang Si explained, “Since it’s impossible to confirm the details of the suspect’s facial features, we shouldn’t focus on the specifics anymore. Instead, we should emphasize the suspect’s distinctive features, especially his habitual expressions.”
“For example, the suspect seems to have a habit of squinting and frowning when looking at people.”
Huo's fourth uncle understood the reasoning, but he found it incredibly difficult to convince himself.
He unfolded the first twenty portraits one by one, especially focusing on the first four.
From what he could tell, the suspect did indeed have a somewhat fleshy nose.
However, the bridge of the nose was still quite high.
No matter how he looked at it, this person didn't resemble the man with the flat nose and garlic-shaped nostrils depicted in Jiang Si's drawing.
