Regarding this, Jiang Si explained, "It's because of the lighting."
"Lighting?"
"Yes. On the day of the incident, the weather in Capital City was clear."
"Under side lighting, a person's nose bridge appears elongated, and their eye sockets look deeper than usual."
As she spoke, Jiang Si opened the second sketch. "This is the suspect from the elderly witness's perspective. Here, you can clearly see the suspect's nostrils flaring outward, with an indistinct nasal columella and no visible nose bridge. This means the person definitely has a flat nose."
Jiang Si didn’t just determine that the suspect had a flat nose. By calculating the nasofrontal angle and the width of the nasal alar base, she made another startling discovery.
The suspect's nasofrontal angle was an astonishing 146 degrees, indicating that their nasal bone had likely suffered a comminuted fracture in the past.
There weren’t many hospitals in Capital City capable of performing such a surgery.
Following this lead would likely yield further clues.
As for why the nose and lips were deliberately exaggerated in the sketches, Jiang Si also provided her reasoning.
Unless someone has received professional training, people tend to remember the most prominent facial features of others.
Especially traits like a bulbous nose or thick lips.
Anyone who’s seen such features would remember them.
So exaggerating these proportions wouldn’t hinder identification—it would actually make the suspect more memorable.
Hearing this, Huo's fourth uncle immediately understood.
Even with people they saw every day at work, if asked to describe someone’s exact appearance, most wouldn’t be able to.
But if asked who in the office had a flat nose, everyone would know.
With this realization, Huo's fourth uncle couldn’t contain his excitement.
But what he didn’t expect was that Jiang Si had another surprise in store for him.
…
It was only today that Jiang Si learned the police system in this era still relied on paper-cut silhouette templates for facial features, and the variety was extremely limited.
For example, there were only four eye shapes in the database.
Five nose types.
And five mouth shapes.
No wonder the two eyewitnesses at the scene had only given statements and left—there was little point in trying to reconstruct the suspect’s face with such limited options.
Fortunately, they now had a detailed sketch of the suspect’s features, and the police were aware of the suspect’s past nasal surgery.
As long as the suspect remained in Capital City, it was only a matter of time before he was caught.
But even if he were eventually executed, the ten lives he had taken could never be restored.
Not to mention the countless women indirectly affected by his crimes.
In her past life, Jiang Si had drawn over eight thousand detailed facial feature sketches, and in this life, she had practiced for more than a decade.
Creating a completely new facial feature database wouldn’t be too difficult for her.
Of course, her decision to volunteer wasn’t purely altruistic.
While the case had moved her, she also had her own reasons.
Though she wasn’t employed yet, she had a clear plan for her future.
She didn’t intend to take the college entrance exam.
It was 1968, and by the time the exams were reinstated, she’d be in her thirties—too old to participate.
So she preferred to focus on building her credentials now, accumulating experience for future opportunities.
That way, when she returned to Capital City, she’d have more freedom to choose her path.
Still, these were just her personal thoughts. Whether the police would accept her proposal was uncertain.
But since Huo's fourth uncle was family, she spoke openly without hesitation.
Huo's fourth uncle thought he’d misheard and took a moment to process her words. "You’re saying you can help us redesign an entire facial feature database?"
Jiang Si wasn’t sure how to interpret his reaction. "Well, I have some free time lately and wanted to give it a try. Once it’s done, you can test it out. If it works, then you can decide whether to adopt it."
Without hesitation, Huo's fourth uncle declared, "No need for testing."
He could already foresee how this new database would significantly speed up criminal investigations once implemented.
The police had long wanted to replace the current system.
Take this case, for example.
With a better facial feature database, they could have narrowed down the suspect’s appearance on the day of the crime.
They wouldn’t have had to wait this long.
The issue was that the Ministry of Public Security hadn’t found the right person for the job.
Given the current political climate, they couldn’t force anyone to take it on.
Now that his niece-in-law was willing to shoulder the responsibility, it was a boon for the nation. Anyone who dared criticize this would have to answer to the Huo family first.
Huo's fourth uncle said, "We’re well aware of your artistic skills. Don’t worry—I’ll submit a report right away."
After a pause, he added, "Do you have an estimate of how many sketches the database will include? If it’s extensive, we might need to bind them into manuals.
"And we’ll also need to discuss pricing in detail."
Pricing?
Jiang Si was taken aback. She’d been focused on building her credentials and hadn’t considered payment.
"Fourth Uncle, there’s payment for this?"
"Of course! Did you think we’d make you work for free?"
Huo's fourth uncle laughed at her reaction. "This will be rolled out across the entire public security system. Just think—there are over fifty thousand police stations nationwide.
"Add county, district, city, and provincial units, and we’re looking at nearly sixty thousand manuals. Higher-level offices will need five to ten sets each—fewer wouldn’t be enough.
"Then there are the security departments of state-owned factories—they’ll need copies too.
"All in all, we’re talking at least a hundred thousand manuals."
Since they were family, Huo's fourth uncle gave her an inside scoop. "The current set we’re using cost this much when it was commissioned."
He held up three fingers.
Jiang Si thought three hundred seemed too low, so she guessed three thousand.
"Three thousand? No—it was thirty thousand!"
Even now, the thought made Huo's fourth uncle wince. The entire set contained fewer than fifty templates, yet they’d been charged thirty thousand in foreign currency.
When it came to extortion, no one did it better than Old Su’s country!
And the worst part? It wasn’t even effective.
Hearing the price, Jiang Si was equally stunned.
After some quick mental calculations, she shared her ideas.
The Su Country templates only had male and female categories. Jiang Si planned to add classifications for elderly and children.
Child abduction was a serious problem in this era.
Cases like Huo Tingzhou and Eldest Brother Huo, where missing children were actually found, were exceedingly rare.
Among the facial features, the eyes alone can be categorized into roughly 20 different types, primarily distinguished by shape, size, depth of the eye sockets, and so on.
The remaining features include 25 types of noses, 20 types of mouths, 15 types of eyebrows, and 12 types of face shapes.
Other customizable options, such as skin tone, wrinkles, hairstyles, etc., amount to around 60 variations.
All in all, she would need to create over 150 templates.
There’s no need for too many—having too many options might just make the selection process overwhelming.
One thing’s for sure: as long as the witness’s memory isn’t faulty,
the initial composite sketch should bear at least a 70% resemblance to the actual suspect.
Hearing the mention of a 70% match, Huo's fourth uncle grew so excited that his voice rose with enthusiasm: "Leave the pricing to me—just tell me roughly how long it’ll take to complete the sketch—"
