Chapter 88 - 88 86 The Fruits of Battle

Words : 1686 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

88: Chapter 86: The Fruits of Battle 88: Chapter 86: The Fruits of Battle Li Zemin casually clicked to open the new message alert and, after tapping once more, two fingerprints appeared quietly on the left and right sides of the screen. However, unlike the “identical” fingerprints Jiang Yuan had determined last time, this time the fingerprint on the left could be described as a blur that reached the sky. Li Zemin couldn’t help but rub his eyes and said in surprise, “It’s blurred to this extent?” “Most of the blur is actually noise; once processed, it’s not so exaggerated,” Jiang Yuan simply commented. Li Zemin clicked his tongue twice and leaned closer to the screen on the left, examining it carefully. After a while, Li Zemin raised his head with a couple of more clicks of his tongue and clicked approve on the right side of the new message. He too had identified them as identical purely based on ridge patterns and types, but he hadn’t used this method in a while. Looking up again, Jiang Yuan’s count of victories had already changed to “2,” meaning that 11 experts had already agreed on the match. “Old already,” Li Zemin slapped his forehead and looked around, only to find that Jiang Yuan and the Zhonghua cigarettes were nowhere to be seen, and Jiang Yuan’s main computer was wailing again. Li Zemin hurried out of the office and found a few guys puffing away in the shade on the balcony ahead. “Taking a break, I see,” Li Zemin said with a grin as he walked up to them. “Want one?” Jiang Yuan offered a cigarette to Li Zemin. “Sure thing,” Li Zemin happily accepted the cigarette and said with a smile, “The image you processed just now was pretty impressive. With image processing skills like that and now working in trace evidence, it’s a waste.” “Waste what, image processing is all just smoke and mirrors,” Qian Ming Yu from Miao He County’s trace evidence department, impressed by Jiang Yuan’s recent hit on case 515, said, adding, “Not to say that imaging isn’t good for solving cases, but fingerprints are the king of evidence for solving crimes. If you’re good with fingerprints, there’s no need to waste time on imaging. Plus, staring at a screen all day could ruin your eyesight.” With that, everyone present burst into laughter. Between those who work with fingerprints and those who work with imaging, it’s really hard to say who will ruin their eyesight first. “What was the case Jiang Yuan just cracked? I rushed out so quickly that I forgot to check,” Li Zemin asked again. He had been too focused on the soft Zhonghua cigarettes and hadn’t clicked to see the detailed information. Jiang Yuan said, “It was an arson case, at the Fumin Building in Changyang City.” “No wonder it was a fingerprint from an arson case,” Li Zemin nodded and asked, “How about the suspect? The one who was matched.” “Serving time in prison. For arson,” Jiang Yuan replied. Li Zemin paused, then chuckled, “Well, it seems there’s no problem then.” Jiang Yuan agreed and offered him another cigarette. Li Zemin puffed away and asked, “Aren’t you going to have one?” Jiang Yuan shook his head, “Someone said that passive smoking still absorbs nicotine or whatever, I’ve quit.” “Then the cigarettes you bought are going to be a waste,” Li Zemin said with a hint of regret as he took a deep drag. “That way, there’s more for everyone else. Plus, it’s an excuse to get some fresh air,” replied Jiang Yuan. “That’s the right way to think, broaden your path,” Li Zemin said, looking at Jiang Yuan with admiration. Working as a criminal police officer for so long, one understands human relationships well. The types of people he admired the most were those who were either excellent in business or in handling people and matters. And Jiang Yuan, when offering a Zhonghua, had both qualities. After bumming a couple of cigarettes with the others, Jiang Yuan returned to his office, where the howling of his main computer had ceased. The main computer, which had never done such hard work before, sounded like it was panting, and when Jiang Yuan started to move the mouse, the fans spun wildly as if to say: Can you hurry up? Jiang Yuan ignored the sounds of the main computer, and with focused calm, started to mark the characteristics on the processed fingerprint image. This time, he was dealing with a terribly blurred blood fingerprint, perhaps taken from glass or something, still showing some reflections. To the naked eye, the overall quality was very poor. However, after image processing, it was barely presentable. Yet, even such a fingerprint image would be nearly impossible for an ordinary trace examiner to mark now. The so-called image enhancement is a concept similar to beauty camera apps. Turning a pitch-black fingerprint into a clear and fair fingerprint with distinct lines is fundamentally the same as transforming a pitch-black face into a fair one with clear outlines. However, image enhancement in criminal investigation is a bit more special, with specific requirements for the distortion and changes in lines. After processing the image, marking the feature points requires avoiding certain special areas. Jiang Yuan had to be extra careful with his markings because of this. Li Zemin rubbed his ears with a somewhat amused look at Jiang Yuan beside him, then at the computer that occasionally emitted a noise as if it hadn’t yet recovered its strength. Truth be told, the noise is really annoying, but if it actually leads to a fingerprint match, then even if the director came, he’d have to put up with it with cotton in his ears. Of course, the most direct solution should be to switch computers or to provide a dedicated space. Someone was probably already complaining, maybe even someone who would call the director directly. Li Zemin thought that Jiang Yuan probably didn’t care too much about this. After all, everyone is serving the people. If the machine is worked to the bone, doesn’t that show the depth of the person’s dedication? As long as results are produced, calling the director over to take a look might be even better. As he was thinking this, he saw the head of the fingerprint department, Yang Ling, entering the office. The Fingerprint Department of the Shannan Provincial Department is a section-level organization with single-digit staffing, mainly playing a role in transmitting information up and down the chain. Activities such as fingerprint competitions are also organized and arranged by the Fingerprint Department. Yang Ling, the head of the Fingerprint Department of Shannan Provincial Department, in her thirties, is a high-achieving graduate of the Criminal Police Academy. She is skilled and capable, with a solid grasp of social niceties, and she easily commands a team of nearsighted middle-aged and elderly trace examiners. As she entered the office, Yang Ling wore a full smile on her face, and upon reaching Jiang Yuan, she whispered, “Jiang, do you have a moment?” Using the title “Teacher” was a sign of utmost politeness. Looking up to see it was Yang Ling, Jiang Yuan also returned the smile, but hesitating briefly, he said, “I’m really sorry, could you wait for a minute? This looks promising.” “Understandable, understandable,” Yang Ling immediately nodded. During the fingerprint competition, reading fingerprints was of utmost importance, and she didn’t need to rush every second. Out of politeness, Yang Ling simply walked around the desk to stand beside Jiang Yuan. From her position, she could also see the fingerprint image on Jiang Yuan’s screen. The two images on the left and right did indeed bear a striking resemblance to each other. Yang Ling’s expression became much more serious. The cases here, if taken outside, are each capable of affecting many people’s hearts. Even situated within the department, seeing various cases every day, Yang Ling could not dare to take them lightly. Moreover, despite the department holding a fingerprint competition every few months, bringing together several dozen fingerprint experts to work day and night for half a month, only managing to solve over 50 cases was still worth noting. Divided amongst each fingerprint expert, on average, it was about one case per person. And everyone with an averaged-out wage should know that averaging one case per person means that many experts end up with nothing. Not getting results isn’t an issue; if an expert could be assured of success after 14 days of effort, there wouldn’t be so many unsolved cases piling up in the department. Correspondingly, the fact that the fingerprint Jiang Yuan was working on looked promising meant that Yang Ling would neither dare nor wish to interfere with his work. Jiang Yuan continued to check back and forth, eventually opening the original bloody fingerprint for a closer look. About two to three minutes later, Jiang Yuan finalized his submission for “confirmed as the same,” heaved a sigh of relief, and looked at Yang Ling, saying, “Sorry about that, I was just at the last step.” “No problem, no problem,” Yang Ling waved her hands dismissively, glancing once more at Jiang Yuan’s screen from the corner of her eye. At that moment, she saw the number of experts “agreeing” with Jiang Yuan’s “same identification” rising swiftly in the lower right corner of his screen. Many people noticed that the head of the fingerprint department, Director Yang, had arrived, and it was only natural for them to take a glance at the newly updated message. After seeing the new message, agreeing with Jiang Yuan’s “same identification” was a matter of course. On the wall in front of the office, projected by the projector, the ranking of results showed Jiang Yuan leaping to second place, just one result behind the first-ranked Zhu Huanguang. “Earlier, were you looking for me regarding something?” Jiang Yuan asked Yang Ling.

Chapter 88 - 88 86 The Fruits of Battle

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