Chapter 238 - 238 229 Monkey

Words : 1970 Updated : Sep 27th, 2025

238: Chapter 229: Monkey 238: Chapter 229: Monkey Afternoon. Jiang Yuan strolled leisurely down the stairs, feeling completely relaxed. Suddenly, he was struck by the joyful sensation of getting out of school early during his schooldays. Looking back now, the joy of skipping school was the truest joy of all. Once you’re an adult and spend thousands to buy moments of leisure, they’re worth jack compared to those days. Jiang Yuan swung his arms as he walked, even considering twisting his body this way and that. “Heading out?” Huang Qiangmin’s voice came from behind. Jiang Yuan jumped, for a moment almost thinking he’d been transported back to the age when he was under the tight grip of his homeroom teacher. “Um... just stepping out for a bit,” Jiang Yuan said. “Need a car?” Huang Qiangmin offered a 55.5-degree smile – the epitome of amiable. If there were a world ruled by crocodiles, a crocodile carrying a chicken to his mother-in-law and wearing such a smile would meet the average social expectations perfectly. After deeply contemplating the potential aftermath of nodding or shaking his head and with the calm of someone who’d performed autopsies on double digits, Jiang Yuan nodded: “I’ll need a car.” “Take the new car from our team,” Huang Qiangmin said, handing over the key to the Great Wall Cannon. At that moment, if viewed from above, Huang Qiangmin’s thick and stubby arm sticking out was like an olive branch overly nourished with fertilizer. Jiang Yuan, his hand in his pocket, felt the key to his own Mercedes G-Class, hesitant. “No need...” “Isn’t it only right for you to enjoy the car you’ve earned?” Huang Qiangmin emphasized, “It’s really nice to drive. Step on the gas, and the car will leap forward.” “If you press hard on the gas pedal, the car will indeed...” “It’s a new car from four years ago; it gets serviced every year. You know we don’t skimp on such expenses in our department,” Huang Qiangmin insisted, pushing the car key into Jiang Yuan’s hand. “When you’re done with your errands, just leave the keys with the logistics department or drop them off with me. Don’t hinder others from using the car.” Jiang Yuan didn’t really want to keep others from using the car; he raised his hand in acceptance. “Don’t use the department’s car to pick up girls. Don’t park at nightclubs, KTVs, or other nightspots—avoid their parking spaces. If there’s no space, just park further away, and when you’re making arrests, pull up right in front of their doors, but don’t take up a parking spot,” Huang Qiangmin added a few more words of caution. Jiang Yuan looked down at the key to the Great Wall Cannon. He had ridden in it once when he went to Pingzhou with Liu Jinghui. While the performance on the highway wasn’t all that impressive, it handled well off-road. And, regardless, in comparison to imported pickup trucks, the price was very competitive. But using this truck to pick up girls at bars... Frankly, if a girl was willing to be charmed by someone driving this vehicle, at least it showed she wasn’t shallow. “By the way, how’s that new cabinet for ketamine working out?” Huang Qiangmin steered Jiang Yuan to the vehicle. The four-year-old new pickup was parked right in front of the detective squad’s entrance, and was even a bit in the way. As he walked, Jiang Yuan said, “Haven’t used it yet. That’s generally for retrieving fingerprints during investigations, more commonly used in active cases.” “Try it out once you’re back, and if there are any issues, we can deal with them sooner,” Huang Qiangmin advised. “Sure thing.” “No need to worry about having no cases. In such a big county, how could there be no disputes? Just, homicide cases... ptui, ptui, ptui... go have fun, and call if there’s anything...” Huang Qiangmin waved goodbye to Jiang Yuan, turned back around, and saw two young police officers entering, chatting and laughing, holding milk teas as thick as porridge. “Ahem.” Huang Qiangmin squinted at them, lips pursed flat. The two officers nearly spilled their milk teas on the spot. “Captain Huang.” “Captain Huang~” With a grunt, Huang Qiangmin pointed at the milk teas. “Next time you really need to drink them, put them in unmarked bags before bringing them in.” “Yes...” the two said, clutching their milk teas as they left. ... Jiang Yuan met up with Wei Zhenguo at the intersection and then drove to Qinghe College in the suburbs. Qinghe College was a technical college. Not large in scale, but with plenty of students, it was the foundation of Qinghe City’s prosperity. Every year, thousands of young students poured into Qinghe City like fresh blood. If each of them started just one business, it would be impossible to calculate how many people they sustained. Zeng Zhuohu was a veterinary professor of zoology at Qinghe College—thin, fit, and clearly kept himself in shape. Though the school was somewhat inferior, Zeng Zhuohu had his own office and laboratory and was quite content. Additionally, being adjacent to Mount Wulong, a zoology professor like Zeng Zhuohu only needed to visit the reserve and similar places annually to collect a wealth of material for publishing papers, making for a pretty comfortable life. Zeng Zhuohu’s research method seemed simple: he regularly placed cameras in the wild, retrieved them periodically, and analyzed the animal behavior captured to formulate ideas and write papers. To process the masses of image data, they also purchased relatively high-end computers. Upon learning of Jiang Yuan’s need, Zeng Zhuohu immediately made arrangements for him. All the necessary software, too, were installed by students according to the version numbers Jiang Yuan had requested, ready for his arrival. Jiang Yuan wasn’t pretentious; he opened the video, glanced briefly, and then ran the software. Zeng Zhuohu and several students gathered around to watch, apparently also wanting to update their skills and strive for self-sufficiency in the future, not to be held back. Jiang Yuan let them watch but didn’t offer any explanations. The matter of image enhancement cannot be explained in a sentence or two. If it were possible to understand just by listening, there wouldn’t be any need for Jiang Yuan’s explanations; one could just read a book. Run a video once, if there’s an effect run it again, if not, switch to another algorithm and run it again. Essentially, this is the process of video enhancement, but in practice, there are lots of troublesome issues to handle. Most of the time, it’s not the naked eye that judges if there’s an effect; instead, different quantitative judgments need to be made based on the algorithm used. Zeng Zhuohu quickly caught on, given his age and qualifications, it was unlikely he could teach himself to this level. As a result, Zeng Zhuohu’s expression became happier. Nothing is difficult if you’re willing to give up. Give up buying a house, financial freedom. Give up getting married, personal freedom. Zeng Zhuohu was like the previous generation’s “lying flat” crowd; he didn’t join the competition among undergraduate institutions but instead returned to the hometown Qinghe College, married, had children, got promoted, and received a raise. Biology was too competitive, so he turned back to dealing with animals; if that was also competitive, he’d just take pictures, shoot some videos, and focus on local, unique academic research. Others carried out ecological surveys in places like Shennongjia; he did ecological surveys on Mount Wulong. If others had pretty data, he’d embellish his own. These animal videos were the same. A decade earlier, when they had just started setting up outdoor cameras in China, capturing snow leopards, Northeast tigers, and the like, the footage could lead to top journal publications. Even though it’s not worth much now, the biological interest in Mount Wulong is low, but Zeng Zhuohu’s requirements are low as well. He just needed to be able to publish articles. SCI is fine, and the domestic core journals are also satisfactory. However, speaking of it, Zeng Zhuohu may be considered a “lying flat” type of scholar, but having immersed himself in a mountain for many years, the material he filmed was quite impressive. Jiang Yuan couldn’t help thinking that if the scenes of the poaching or murders by that group of hunters had been captured by the cameras, it would have been interesting. “Do you ever capture people? Like, poachers?” Jiang Yuan suddenly asked, looking a bit curious. “We’ve captured people before, but it’s of little use,” Zeng Zhuohu explained with a shrug, “Our cameras are mostly placed in protected areas, where ordinary people aren’t allowed, so anyone we capture is definitely problematic, but we can only notify the forest police.” His student chimed in from the side, “Villagers nearby sometimes enter the forest too, not necessarily for poaching, some just to gather medicinal herbs.” “There are also hikers who sneak in for fun,” another student added. “You can’t imagine how bold they are.” “I know, I’ve done autopsies.” Jiang Yuan reminisced about the days he trekked the old hunting trails in Mount Wulong and couldn’t help feeling sentimental, “I’ve collected quite a few hiker’s bones, some of them are pretty hard.” The student who had just spoken was taken aback and then laughed out loud, “You’re really humorous.” As a teacher, Zeng Zhuohu felt the need to protect his students, so he whispered softly, “Jiang Yuan’s official job is a forensic doctor.” “Oh... then...” The students behind Jiang Yuan all took a step back in unison, displaying their military training results. “Well, this video is done,” Jiang Yuan got up to stretch his limbs and then gave up his seat to Zeng Zhuohu. “That fast?” Zeng Zhuohu asked. He sat down and could see that the previously blurry image of a wild chicken suddenly became clear, and every detail of its exterior was distinctly visible. “With this skill, you could make big money if you opened an image enhancement company outside,” Zeng Zhuohu commented with admiration, speaking his true thoughts. He was also going to pay Jiang Yuan, favours aside, costs are costs. However, the price offered by the school was still somewhat lower than the market rate, but as far as Zeng Zhuohu knew, there was a high demand for talents capable of image enhancement. Just the face-swapping tasks for so many sub-par celebrities alone could keep someone busy forever. Not to mention that sub-par celebrities might need face-swapping for filming before they are banned, with high-tech support. Unfortunately, Jiang Yuan wasn’t very interested in money. With a calm smile, Jiang Yuan proceeded to work on the next video. Completing one video after another like this, time quickly reached evening. Zeng Zhuohu was about to offer to take Jiang Yuan out for dinner, when a colleague came hurrying over, speaking in hushed tones. After listening, Zeng Zhuohu turned around with furrowed brows and first whispered to Wei Zhenguo, “There’s been a theft at our place.” Wei Zhenguo asked calmly, “What was stolen?” A theft in such a large college was hardly uncommon, after all. Yet Zeng Zhuohu didn’t feel relaxed at all and said seriously, “Four macaques used for experiments.” “The value of the case... well, how much is one monkey worth?” “150,000 each,” Zeng Zhuohu explained, “They used to be around seven or eight thousand each, but the prices have skyrocketed now...” “I’ll report it for you!” Wei Zhenguo was the first to react; a theft involving 600,000 was already a major case.

Chapter 238 - 238 229 Monkey

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