Chapter 66 - 66 65 Commendation

Words : 1839 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

66: Chapter 65: Commendation 66: Chapter 65: Commendation Monday. Upon arriving at the office, Jiang Yuan could see Wu Jun wielding a feather duster, cleaning the place. Bowing his head, he unlocked his phone to check the ancient almanac; indeed, today was auspicious for “offering sacrifices, traveling, and cleaning the house.” Jiang Yuan felt that at this rate, by checking the ancient almanac every day, he would know Wu Jun’s movements. Of course, even knowing what Wu Jun was up to was of no use after all. “Master, let me help you,” Jiang Yuan offered proactively, ready to work. Wu Jun uttered an “aiyo” as he hopped off the chair, waved his hand, and said, “I can do my own work; you don’t need to busy yourself. If you have spare time, you should read some books. You’re so good with fingerprints and can handle crime scene investigations, but you’re still not familiar with our main business. If it gets out, people might think I’m holding you back.” Jiang Yuan laughed and said, “Fingerprints and crime scene investigations can be self-taught. Autopsies and the like aren’t something I can just find opportunities for.” “You have a point. When I first started working, there were a lot of bodies. In our Tai River, bodies would often float down from upstream, hard to tell whether they were accidental falls, suicides, or murders. Back then, resources were scarce, and counties along the river would squabble endlessly...” Wu Jun said, a nostalgic look on his face as his grip on the feather duster relaxed. Jiang Yuan sat at his desk, pressed the power button on his computer, and contentedly waited for it to boot up. These past few days, he hadn’t had many tasks, mostly writing reports. Fortunately, with Wang Zhong’s help in daily tasks, it wasn’t too challenging. Wu Jun also made a cup of tea, kicked back leisurely, and quietly contemplated the relationships between people and the world, society, and the ancient almanac. Just as the office atmosphere had shifted to a relaxed state, a person walked in, interrupting Wu Jun’s contemplations. “Old Wu, Jiang Yuan,” the squadron leader, Huang Qiangmin, stepped inside, beaming with a smile. “Captain Huang,” Jiang Yuan and Wu Jun both stood up. “Good news.” Huang Qiangmin emphasized his joyful demeanor before turning to Jiang Yuan, “Your team’s investigation into the Ding Lan case has been remarkable, and everyone is actively applying for rewards. Here at the Ningtai County Bureau, Wei Zhenguo is getting a third-class merit, and you are receiving a commendation.” He kept it simple, not mentioning the Provincial Department or the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment, merely announcing the commendations for Wei Zhenguo and Jiang Yuan. Jiang Yuan was momentarily stunned before quickly expressing his thanks, “I didn’t expect to receive a commendation.” Huang Qiangmin’s smile stayed fixed at a warm 55.5 degrees as he regarded Jiang Yuan. A commendation is the lowest level of formal recognition within the police system, but it is still not easy to come by. Ordinary detectives might take many years to receive one, which is often the result of accumulation over time. Every step in a case, from responding to reports to sentencing—whether finding clues, collecting evidence, deducing investigative directions, making arrests, interrogating, or conducting additional investigations—requires teamwork and a step-by-step process from the police officers. Some know exactly who deserves credit for what, and which steps were particularly praiseworthy, while others may feign ignorance. Seeing that Jiang Yuan wasn’t trying to claim undue credit or quibble over merits, Huang Qiangmin held him in even higher regard and said with a smile, “Whether a commendation or a third-class merit, for us right now, the impact is almost the same. The most important thing is to receive it. Once you get it once, there can be a second time, and next time, you might have another opportunity...” After leaving that possibility open, Huang Qiangmin called for Lu Jianfeng, the head of the criminal investigative squad, saying, “Let’s have a ceremony together. Make it formal.” Lu Jianfeng cheerfully agreed and continued to summon people to help. In no time, the small meeting room was adorned with banners, artificial flowers arranged, and the photographer stationed with a large camera. Shortly after, Wei Zhenguo and Jiang Yuan, both neatly dressed, arrived in turn. All three donned their dress uniforms, the rarely used formal police attire. Compared to the more commonly seen service uniform, the dress uniform for men featured a sash over the right chest, giving a sharp and proper appearance. Even Wei Zhenguo, with the enhancement of the formal attire, seemed less out of place when he smiled. “Yes, that’s nice,” Huang Qiangmin said as he straightened the buttons on Jiang Yuan’s neck and patted Wei Zhenguo on the shoulder, adding, “This time, you took initiative and uncovered key clues and evidence, caught the criminal suspect, and found where the murderer hid the body. It’s truly rare. Just wait a moment; the chief will be here soon, and we’ll all take a group photo...” The ceremony for the award of the third-class merit and commendation took place in the small meeting room. The police system, unlike the military, doesn’t excessively indulge in fanfare or elaborate ceremonies. If there’s a chance occurrence like a major conference or a motivating assembly, typically, they’ll schedule the awards then. Most of the time, for awards like third-class merit or commendation, gathering just a small group counts as a celebration. Huang Qiangmin took out the red leather-bound certificates from his briefcase, handed them to the chief, who then passed them to Wei Zhenguo and Jiang Yuan, respectively. Third-class merit came with both a medal and a certificate, while a commendation only included a certificate, not a medal. Jiang Yuan opened his certificate to find his name, “Jiang Yuan,” clearly written, with “Personal Commendation” inscribed as the award level, and a large red seal stamped on the right side. At the same time, a semi-transparent system interface popped up before Jiang Yuan: Reward: Personal Commendation Reward Details: One optional reward (upgradable) Taking advantage of the time when everyone was following the procedure for the photo shoot, Jiang Yuan clicked to see the “optional reward.” At that moment, a list of options appeared: Criminal Image Technology (Level 2) Document Inspection Technology (Level 2) Trace Inspection Technology (Level 2) Biological Evidence Inspection Technology (Level 2) Audio-Visual Material Inspection Technology (Level 2) Electronic Data Inspection Technology (Level 2) Lie Detection Technology (Level 2) Toxin Inspection Technology (Level 2) ... Jiang Yuan looked at the long list and first curiously opened Lie Detection Technology (Level 2). At that moment, a new row of options appeared: GKT (Guilty Knowledge Test) (Level 3) CQT (Control Question Test) (Level 3) POT (Peak of Tension Test) (Level 3) R/IR (Relevant/Irrelevant Question Test) (Level 3) Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but almost clicked on one. Lie detection, when you talk about it, is really cool. It just doesn’t seem very useful at the county bureau. He thought about how these lie detection techniques still needed to be paired with corresponding polygraphs, and the supporting technology wasn’t very accurate, not to mention even lower admissibility in court... Jiang Yuan thought for a moment, then clicked on Criminal Image Technology (Level 2). Sure enough, upon opening, a host of image technologies was listed: Scene Photography (Level 3) Evidence Photography (Level 3) Image Enhancement Technology (Level 3) Image Analysis Technology (Level 3) Forged Image Inspection Technology (Level 3) ... Frankly speaking, whether it’s Criminal Image Technology or Document Technology, these are skills that can solve cases, and in Jiang Yuan’s hands, they could definitely play a considerable role. However, as Jiang Yuan looked from top to bottom, what he wanted the most was image technology. Using surveillance and visual technology to solve cases is the simplest and most direct method currently, and is almost the best investigative model. Compared to that, technologies like lie detection or electronic data inspection that either have not yet been developed in Ningtai County or are more easily supported, are also quite good. But in Jiang Yuan’s view, the utilization rate of image technology would clearly be higher and easier for other colleagues to accept when developed. Jiang Yuan selected Image Enhancement Technology (Level 3). The so-called image enhancement can be understood as making a blurry image or video clearer. Image analysis, on the other hand, is the capability of extracting numerical data from images, such as measuring a suspect’s height. Jiang Yuan already had some skills in image enhancement after acquiring fingerprint abilities, but what he now received was clearly much more professional. This skill is somewhat similar to the technology in movies and TV shows, where the video isn’t clear enough to see the license plate, and the beautiful or handsome character shouts, making the blade clear. However, despite how in movies and TV shows, a beautiful or handsome character just has to shout to achieve this, in the real world, especially places like the Ningtai County Bureau, not a single person could do such a thing. Even if the chief yelled until he was hoarse, no one could... heh heh heh... Of course, now that Jiang Yuan had learned the image enhancement skill, he could not make out a license plate just by shouting, nor could he make it clear after shouting a few more times. What he could do was to use Photoshop or the WBY Criminal Investigation Image Processing software, among others, to de-noise, sharpen, filter, etc., making the image somewhat clearer. To move beyond existing software to the stage of algorithms, it would take Level 4 or even Level 5 knowledge. “Work hard, and if there’s anything you need me to do, just come straight to me...” Huang Qiangmin saw that Jiang Yuan was a bit distracted and couldn’t help but feel pleased, his mouth corners rising up to a 66.6-degree angle. While the difficulty of receiving a personal commendation is indeed the lowest level in the awards system, in all fairness, to receive an award like this is not easy. Without Huang Qiangmin’s effort, whether the higher-ups would give the commendation and when was hard to say. Huang Qiangmin saw Jiang Yuan’s expression and felt that he understood his hard work, which left him immensely satisfied. After a bit more conversation and some photo-taking, along with applause, the chief added, “Send a copy of the photo to the Honor Room later to hang on the wall... Your team should also pay more attention to the young police officers. Young people nowadays have access to a lot of information, they value individuality and focus on personal development; we need to adapt our thinking in a timely manner...” “Yes,” Huang Qiangmin agreed. The chief said a few more words, urging everyone to continue working hard and achieve new merits before his expression turned serious, and he left.

Chapter 66 - 66 65 Commendation

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