Chapter 13 - 13 13 Banquet

Words : 1229 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

13: Chapter 13 Banquet 13: Chapter 13 Banquet “Excluded.” “Exclusion...” Jiang Yuan occasionally clicked the mouse, removing the fingerprints he reviewed from the list. By doing so, the next wave of matches provided by the software wouldn’t be repeated. Despite this, the complexity of fingerprint matching remained unchanged. Every time Jiang Yuan re-marked characteristic points, he had to review 150 fingerprints, an average of 30 seconds each, which meant an hour for each set. This complexity was due to the fingerprints themselves. For unrelated prints, a glance would be enough to turn the page, but the computer-matched prints had relatively higher similarities, and excluding them required more scrutiny. However, such is the nature of the fingerprint matching task, especially with complex prints, always wavering between “Did I mark the characteristics correctly?” and “Does the fingerprint database contain this print?” Jiang Yuan was no exception. On the fourth adjustment of the prints, he couldn’t help but pause. “I should make a major adjustment,” Jiang Yuan unconsciously blurted out. Initially, he made minor adjustments within a 20% range, but as he excluded more prints, by the third batch of 150, the prints matched by the system were greatly exaggerated. Many, to the naked eye, appeared entirely unrelated—after two transformations, one couldn’t expect the system to sort them accurately, otherwise Jiang Yuan wouldn’t have to review up to 150 fingerprints. At that moment, Jiang Yuan thought of his colleagues. They surely knew how to make fine-tuning adjustments. In terms of patience, police officers working with fingerprints were no less capable. Spending several hours looking at fingerprints was nothing; during fingerprint battles, officers involved would analyze prints for 15 to 20 days. Expert analysts might review hundreds of thousands of prints, so reviewing a few thousand for a single case was standard procedure. Jiang Yuan gently moved his fingers, shrinking the suspect’s fingerprint inwards by 30%. This proportion was certainly exaggerated. Normal deformations wouldn’t reach that extent, but considering the 150 candidate prints, with the probability of a match significantly decreased in the latter half, Jiang Yuan decided to go with a ratio that a regular fingerprint expert wouldn’t choose. Of course, the 30% wasn’t arbitrarily chosen; Jiang Yuan still made the adjustments based on the more stable central areas. After swiftly marking new characteristic points and clicking confirm, Jiang Yuan waited briefly before seeing the refreshed list of candidate prints for review. As usual, he looked from the top down. Not surprisingly, the first prints lacked sufficient similarity. Jiang Yuan quickly clicked “Exclude” and continued scrolling down. Having seen the suspect’s fingerprints many times, he had memorized them, allowing him to make judgments just by looking at the matched prints on the right. If proving a match required broad consideration, proving an exclusion was relatively simple. The presence of apparent dissimilarities was enough to click exclude. This time, it took Jiang Yuan only twenty minutes to reach the 90th print. As he habitually right-clicked, he paused. The 91st fingerprint, particularly the upper middle section, gave Jiang Yuan a sense of déjà vu. He sat up a bit straighter and began a more meticulous verification. The degree of difference between two fingerprints could be vast or negligible. In fingerprint identification, to declare identity, you first need to find at least 8 matching characteristic points, and secondly, there must be no discrepancies, or the discrepancies must be explicable. In Jiang Yuan’s case, meeting the two standards for declaring identity was extremely challenging, but including fingerprint correction to reach the count of eight—he finally achieved it. Jiang Yuan efficiently uploaded the edited images, added an explanation for declaring identity, hit confirm, and then took a long, relieved breath. He had actually found a match. Moreover, finding a match at the 91st position among a set of candidate prints made the low probability success all the more gratifying. Leaning back in his chair, Jiang Yuan grabbed his cup and gulped down a full glass of water, feeling as refreshed as if he had drunk an entire bottle of chilled beer on a bitterly cold day, his forehead twitching with the sure signs of cognitive overload. “Any results?” Wu Jun looked over from the opposite office, and judging by Jiang Yuan’s expression, he had a hunch. Jiang Yuan smiled proudly and humbly added, “Just uploaded it, waiting for expert verification.” “Then there’s a decent chance,” Wu Jun said genuinely surprised, then looked intently at Jiang Yuan again and remarked, “Actually, since this case is our county’s own, if you found the person, you should report directly to Captain Huang, no need to go through expert verification.” “A check would be reassuring, the fingerprint deformation is quite severe,” Jiang Yuan replied, pausing before saying with a smile, “And there’s no rush for this one day.” “That makes sense,” said Wu Jun, sighing with emotion, “If you’ve found a match this time, it’s like solving a serious injury cold case.” Jiang Yuan chuckled obligingly. While an injury case’s gravity couldn’t be compared to a homicide, it was still one of the eight serious crimes under the Criminal Law. Coupled with being a cold case, any officer who solved such a case would, at the very least, be the shining star in the detective squad for several months. Wu Jun, a mere forensic doctor, had had his moments of glory relying on his extensive experience and the tag as the only one in the county. But seeing Jiang Yuan now, he couldn’t help but feel envious—if only he had had such a level of expertise in his youth, and if only he had been so tall, wouldn’t he have been able to marry a wife who never cursed, never hit anyone, didn’t ask for a salary, and cooked delicious food, willing to clean the house? “Let’s go home,” Wu Jun suggested, glancing at the time and rising listlessly. It was now half-past six in the evening, past the regular quitting time, but in the detective squad’s floor, officers in their respective offices were still working in silence. The two men emerging from the forensic office looked at each other, tiptoed, and locked the door behind them. “No bodies to inspect means we’re off work for today. Need to go home and do laundry,” Doctor Wu said lightly, speaking in a low voice as he walked away. Jiang Yuan nodded and replied, “I’m heading back for a banquet.” “Shh,” Wu Jun pulled Jiang Yuan down the stairs before relaxing and chatting, “What banquet?” “Uncle Seventeen’s banquet.” Jiang Yuan glanced back at Wu Jun and invited, “Do you want to come?” “Why would I go... it’s your Uncle Seventeen...” “It’s because of your expertise.” “Even so...” Wu Jun stopped mid-sentence, then after a pause said, “I’ve been a forensic doctor for half my life, and this is the first time a client has invited me.” “Are you going?” Wu Jun shook his head helplessly and dug into his pocket, saying, “Help me contribute a share, just give him half a pack... half a pack of cigarettes will do.” Jiang Yuan took the half-pack of Yuxi cigarettes Wu Jun handed him, waved goodbye, and headed for the parking spot to ride his electric bike home.

Chapter 13 - 13 13 Banquet

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