Chapter 90 - 90 88 See the Outcome Tomorrow

Words : 1714 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

90: Chapter 88: See the Outcome Tomorrow 90: Chapter 88: See the Outcome Tomorrow “Jiang, do you think this computer will do?” Yang Ling led Jiang Yuan directly to a workstation in the Intelligence Department’s office. The work station had been cleared, the drawers locked, and everything on the desk taken away, leaving only a computer including the mouse, keyboard, and other items. “I’ve installed all the software you mentioned earlier. Do you want to give it a try? If it doesn’t work... we’ll discuss further,” Yang Ling said with a hint of concern. The Intelligence Department was quite serious about their very expensive computers. It took quite some talking from Yang Ling to borrow one. If Jiang Yuan said it wasn’t good enough, she really didn’t have a way to get a better one on short notice. It’s true that the provincial department’s funding was sufficient, but purchasing such electronic devices, especially expensive ones, required going through many procedures. During the fingerprint operation, it definitely wasn’t possible to acquire one. A few police officers from the Intelligence Department were also casting sidelong glances at Jiang Yuan. From their perspective, whatever image enhancement Jiang was up to, it was all like showing off in front of Guan Gong. A few of them even looked at Jiang Yuan as if he were a clown. Jiang Yuan completely ignored the gazes of others. Based on his life experience, when poor, the only people who would look him and his father in the eye were the relatives in his village. When his family became wealthy due to some uncontrollable forces, those who would look him and his father in the eye were still only the relatives in his village. To other unrelated people, their judgement and actions were also unrelated. Jiang Yuan turned on the computer, opened the software, then went on to access the folder specifically for the operation, selected a blurred fingerprint, and began preliminary processing in Photoshop. The so-called blurred fingerprint, to put it elegantly, looked as sloppy as crap. The purpose of using the software was to find the lines within the messy crap, wipe away what was not needed and, ideally, clean it thoroughly. The process was quite complicated, and had to be done in layers. The main concern was not to be too aggressive, lest the important details get washed away with the unwanted elements. Photoshop had features like layering, as well as sharpening and noise reduction, but it still fell short for dealing with the sloppy mess of a fingerprint. Fortunately, there were many other image enhancement techniques and even various algorithms for further enhancement. Jiang Yuan rolled up his sleeves and got to work, causing the new mainframe to start whirring. No matter how good or expensive a microcomputer was, it could only groan when processing complex images. This was like a 50-kilogram young lady, no matter how well trained or highly configured she was, if she faced a 150-kilogram opponent, she could only wail. “It looks like it’s working. It might still take a while though,” Jiang Yuan stood up and said to Yang Ling, who was next to him. As Yang Ling heard the loud roaring sound coming from the computer’s mainframe, she rubbed her ears and asked, “Is this okay? The noise is pretty loud.” “This is normal for image processing.” The surrounding Intelligence Department technicians, who had gathered at some point, seized the opportunity to speak up, “Our machine is admittedly loud, but it’s a normal kind of loud. Your machine is old, its sound is probably cracked.” “There is a screeching noise,” Yang Ling acknowledged, recalling the sound. “Also, when it comes to time, this machine saves quite a bit of time compared to yours. It is less likely to crash. If needed, you can multitask and look up something else... though I wouldn’t recommend it... If Jiang needs, he could open another computer, one for processing images and another one solely for office work...” The technicians from the Intelligence Department smiled, not at all bothered by the whistling sound of the computers. Yang Ling had been a bit displeased with the technicians’ lack of regard, but on hearing “Jiang,” she looked up to see that all their faces, which had been as dung before, now resembled the dung itself. Yang Ling frowned suddenly, “One computer will be enough. If we need more, we’ll come back for it.” As she spoke, Yang Ling started to walk back with Jiang Yuan. The technicians from the Intelligence Department were taken aback and quickly tried to convince them, “Don’t rush, the image isn’t processed yet.” “It’s okay, we’ll have someone come to move the computer later.” “The computer can stay here; Jiang can just work here. It’s just a matter of one workstation... And our team’s Xiao Yu makes excellent coffee...” “During the fingerprint operation, the experts are primarily working together in one place.” Yang Ling, without any hesitation, opened the door and urged Jiang Yuan to leave. “It could indeed be rather noisy to have the computer in the main office.” Jiang Yuan, in no rush, walked at a leisurely pace, making a new request. If possible, he didn’t want to disturb the other fingerprint experts. Yang Ling nodded in agreement, “Indeed. How about this: the pantry next to the big office is quite spacious. I’ll have someone clear out the print room and put this computer in there. We can temporarily move the printers out without affecting others. The only hassle is you having to move back and forth, Jiang...” “That arrangement will be best,” Jiang Yuan was quite satisfied. He hadn’t imagined having a private office as that would be too out of touch, but still, Jiang deliberately asked to save face, “Will it be too much trouble?” “No, if I explain it to everyone, they should be able to understand,” Yang Ling said as she took out her phone to make arrangements. Back in the large office, Jiang Yuan returned to his desk and, after waiting for a while, the computer borrowed from the Intelligence Department was installed. Jiang Yuan first went to retrieve the newly processed fingerprint images, then returned to his desk to begin marking the characteristic points on the fingerprint image. If he couldn’t produce results right away, he would go back to the break room to reprocess the image before returning to the large office to mark the characteristic points. The roar of the mainframe would occasionally sound off, but compared to before, it was much less disturbing to everyone and was within an acceptable range. It was only in the eyes of a few veteran forensic experts in the room that Jiang Yuan’s special treatment was slightly irksome. However, this thought simply flitted through everyone’s minds. Each expert in the room, being technically specialized and from different jurisdictions, received more than their fair share of special treatment at their own units, so it wasn’t as if Jiang Yuan had received his special treatment without reason. The reason for his special treatment was hanging on the wall. Three achievements tied for second place, one of which was an unsolved murder case. Even though the fingerprint competition’s ranking did not specifically distinguish murder cases, those in the police force inevitably held solving murders in higher regard. Time passed with the clicking of mouse and keyboard and the roaring of the mainframe. By the end of the workday, most people from the provincial office had gone home on time. But the detectives called in from various places were still busy with their own tasks. The fingerprint experts in the large office had no intention of returning to rest either. The provincial office provided everyone with single-room dormitories, but after traveling long distances to Changyang City, they surely didn’t come just to sleep in a single bed. Moreover, as of today, at least half of the experts had not matched a single fingerprint yet, and the majority of the rest had only matched one. With such results, naturally, everyone was not satisfied. In fact, if a few people started working extra hard, a whole group would join in. Weren’t they all experts? Even Jiang Yuan had no intention of going back. Three achievements were far from satisfying to him, especially after getting familiar with new skills, Jiang Yuan’s confidence had grown even stronger. The fingerprint that was blurred into a mess at noon had been processed repeatedly by Jiang Yuan without a match, but he was not discouraged. He took another thin-smeared blurred fingerprint and continued processing. After repeated attempts, in the early hours of the morning, a partially damaged fingerprint appeared before Jiang Yuan. “Identify as the same.” Jiang Yuan marked it without hesitation, but in the large office, there were only a few “ding-dong” sounds. Those who were still in the large office at this time were forensic experts intent on making a breakthrough; they didn’t want their own train of thought to be interrupted, nor were they particularly concerned with the achievements of others. After resting for about fifteen minutes and having a cup of tea, Jiang Yuan returned to his desk to see only two “agrees” in the corner of the screen. Seeing this, Jiang Yuan was neither anxious for others to “identify the same” nor in a hurry to go back to rest, and he started working on another fingerprint. Since everyone was working late, why not join them? After all, he was still the youngest among the dozens present. At 3 a.m., Jiang Yuan matched his fifth fingerprint in the current competition. At 5 a.m., Jiang Yuan matched his sixth. At 7 a.m., Jiang Yuan matched his seventh. By then, even the most committed experts had gone back to their dormitories to sleep hours ago; it was impossible to get the agreement of eleven experts. Looking around, Jiang Yuan saw that the large office was empty, and only the computer in the break room was still emitting its final roar. Only then did Jiang Yuan return to his dormitory, satisfied. Everything else would have to wait until tomorrow to be resolved.

Chapter 90 - 90 88 See the Outcome Tomorrow

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