125: Chapter 123: The Same World 125: Chapter 123: The Same World The portraits of the five thieves had been extracted and printed into a booklet, which was handed over to Wei Zhenguo.

Wei Zhenguo let out a sigh, took it, and left.

His visage, weathered and indescribable, resembled a regular customer who watched a familiar and charming young lady get married, slightly sentimental, a bit heartbroken, and somewhat provocative, but that did not interfere with his care for the other young ladies.

Speaking of which, all five thieves had been personally apprehended by Wei Zhenguo.

He didn’t have a strong recollection of them, but now that they were mentioned again, their memories came flooding back.

Lao Juan had naturally curly hair, quite handsome when he was young and shared a vague, unclear relationship with the widow twenty years his senior living next door.

Now he was older, his looks had declined sharply, and there were no more rumors about his affairs.

Another was a miscreant from the village, with three older brothers.

As the youngest, his wife ran off with someone else after marriage, and he became idle and turned to petty theft.

Another one was an orphan, lacking elder guidance in the family.

The other two also had their fair share of family issues.

Thinking back on the information about these five, Wei felt a headache coming on.

They kept making mistakes and never changed, always harboring a sense of blind luck.

He had caught many thieves, and with his extensive experience and deep qualifications, Wei Zhenguo now mostly dealt with burglaries or gang theft, as well as itinerant thieves.

Petty thieves like pickpockets were usually left for rookies to practice on.

Because the value of the cases was too low, investigating such cases often turned out to be more complicated than others—if it’s said that murderers always lose out during interrogations, then pickpockets belong to the profiting side in interrogations.

Unlike murderers who lack training, pickpockets are all too familiar with police stations and investigative centers.

Many pickpockets started thieving at a very young age, would take a few years off, then resume stealing, rest again, and keep stealing.

Having experienced many interrogations and suffered a fair bit, they often could weigh the pros and cons very well.

Prison was inevitably in their future, but they always found ways to make their jail time shorter and more comfortable.

This kind of experience is truly foreign to most murderers—their stint in prison is for life, similar to married people, for whom it’s hard to get out and even harder to start over.

However, this time with Jiang Yuan collecting evidence, Wei Zhenguo felt much more at ease.

With Wen Ming and several other criminal detectives in tow, Wei Zhenguo went on a spree of arrests, eventually heading straight to a pickpocket’s home and taking the person into custody.

The last pickpocket, Guo Jingbao, was at home eating watermelon.

The condition of his home was quite good, with a color TV, refrigerator, computer, and even a crystal candle holder and a shaggy carpet in the bedroom.

Although the style of the items at home was diverse, it was arranged comfortably.

This was a thief who cherished his home.

The stolen goods were well-kept, and the disparate items were arranged together in a way that looked quite appealing.

The arriving police officers were somewhat speechless.

With the skill he had for arranging and matching things in the bedroom, couldn’t he do something honest instead of stealing?

…

After returning, Wei Zhenguo chatted with Jiang Yuan and the others, “That last one surnamed Guo, his home was quite comfortable, and when he saw us, he even insisted that police don’t have the right to come into a house to arrest someone.”

Jiang Yuan expressed his admiration.

It was mainly because at his home it was just him and his dad, two grown men, and instead of any sense of artistry, the place wasn’t any neater than a pigsty if they managed to keep it somewhat tidy.

“This thief seems to know a bit about the law, but not quite,” Jiang Yuan remarked.

“They don’t know shit about the law!”

Wei Zhenguo expressed his contempt: “Smart thieves should at least steal in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou.

Lurking in a county to steal, what kind of smart person would that be?

Moreover, if they were really smart, after hanging around bus stations and train stations for thirty or forty years, watching people do business, shouldn’t they have learned something?

Why continue stealing?”

Wang Zhong happened to stroll over and laughed, “Maybe he just enjoys a carefree and unrestrained lifestyle.”

“A lazy and gluttonous lifestyle is more like it.”

Nevertheless, recalling the arrest scene, Wei couldn’t help but laugh.

“When I got to his house, this fifty-year-old thief had everything clean and tidy, and the home was so warm, we almost thought we had the wrong person.

There was watermelon on the table, with desserts spread generously around, living a more comfortable life than us.”

He even took photos, and as the others looked at them, believe it or not, it did look like a popular photo spot on social media.

He seemed to be living earnestly.

Stealing with effort, then acquiring furniture, as if living a clear and simple life.

…

“I’m off to interrogate,” Wei Zhenguo waved his hand and headed down to the investigation center to get busy.

The conditions in the criminal investigation team’s center were quite good, renovated a few years ago with the purpose of allowing anyone inside, once the big iron door closed, to have food, drinks, and work without needing to go out.

This included both the criminals and the detectives.

Wei Zhenguo pulled over Wen Ming and others, two of them interrogating one thief, aiming to dig up more cases.

Interrogating petty thieves is just a bit of pursuit and pleasure.

Otherwise, just charging for a small case with a few thousand yuan involved would be too troublesome for the prosecutor’s office.

Even petty thieves have their experiences, moments when they can’t hold out, when they would cooperate a little and give up one or two small cases.

Although this would increase their sentence, factors like “good attitude of confession” and “proactively confessing criminal facts” could lead to a reduction in their actual sentence, so it wouldn’t increase by much.