Chapter 93 - 93 91 I Wait for You

93: Chapter 91 I Wait for You 93: Chapter 91 I Wait for You The fingerprint image, pale and proper, looked like a young lady who had just stepped out of the inner chamber. But Jiang Yuan knew that this seemingly perfect fingerprint had been a blur, like an African-American comedian, just a few hours earlier. He had painstakingly restored it to its current form using a computer borrowed from the provincial Intelligence Department, spending a considerable amount of time and employing LV4 Image Enhancement skills. This monumental restoration effort was akin to transforming a tabby cat into a ragdoll cat. If one were to detail the story behind the person to whom this pale fingerprint belonged, the image would turn dark and sinister. Jiang Yuan performed a routine feature point marking. After scanning 300 fingerprints without a match, he stopped. This fingerprint was quite special. It was obtained from the back of the deceased’s neck collar, a feat that would have required considerable skill from a forensics technician given the technology available a few years ago. Nevertheless, the technician who worked on the case at that time had still failed to find a match for this fingerprint. Staring at the fingerprint that seemed as if it had undergone cosmetic surgery, Jiang Yuan fell into deep thought. He could imagine the force applied by the fingers of the killer, the owner of the fingerprint, as they attempted to strangle the person beneath them, pushing their strength to the limit. Correspondingly, the deceased must have also struggled with all their might, tensing their muscles, tightening their skin to resist the killer’s assault. Therefore, this was a fingerprint that had undergone bidirectional deformation on a soft surface, and now that the characteristic points had been marked and didn’t yield results, the next standard step would be to adjust the deformation. Based on the pattern and structure, manual adjustments were typically made, essentially relying on trial and error to find a match. Some fingerprints could be worked on for months by a forensic investigator, while others, attached to major cases, could be experimented with for years. Jiang Yuan himself had matched fingerprints this way before, back when he had enough relevant information and circumstances to test with. However, after looking at this particular fingerprint over and over, he didn’t feel there was room for adjustment. It wasn’t that it couldn’t be adjusted, but because both the application and receipt of force involved deformation, the difficulty of trial and error was significantly increased. Moreover, the forensics technician of the current case was clearly an expert; Jiang Yuan figured that whatever he could conceive of trying, the other party had likely already attempted. Without resorting to conventional methods, which direction could he take to achieve an unexpected breakthrough? This was a fingerprint of only about one square centimeter that had been pored over and played with for months, even years, trying to come up with a new, previously unthought-of tactic—by no means an easy feat. Fingerprints involved in homicide cases are truly challenging. While Jiang Yuan was deep in thought, the system’s semi-transparent interface silently popped up in front of him. ... Task: Persistent Pursuit Task Details: During the fingerprint confrontation period, give your utmost to solve as many cases as possible. Current progress (8*2) ... Judging from the content, 8*2 probably referred to the total number of cases and the number of homicide cases. Jiang Yuan’s train of thought was briefly interrupted, and as he returned to his contemplation, he glanced at the fingerprint and couldn’t help thinking: actually, there was no need to consider the entire fingerprint. This specific fingerprint had been taken from the neck, and while the curvature of the neck might not be noticeable at ordinary times, when being strangled to death, it would likely become pronounced. Jiang Yuan boldly extracted a small section of the fingerprint and marked it. In other words, he had discarded most of the painstakingly collected fingerprint from the crime scene. He only kept the most stable part. After this small section of the fingerprint was meticulously marked for characteristic points and scanned into the software, the results gave Jiang Yuan a glimmer of hope. He now used the Qingdao Single-Finger Fingerprint Analysis Method to process this small section. The Qingdao Single-Finger Fingerprint Analysis Method and the Chongqing Single Finger Fingerprint Analysis Method each had their strengths and differences. A distinct feature was that the Qingdao method divided fingerprints into 68 subcategories, whereas the Chongqing method had 24. This difference made the Chongqing method more accessible to beginners, while the Qingdao method was more suited for manual sorting through large quantities. Scanning a fingerprint every few seconds, he quickly went through over a hundred of them. As he continued, Jiang Yuan sat up straight, focusing on one fingerprint, carefully comparing it. Li Zemin, sitting beside him, noticed and stopped what he was doing to observe Jiang Yuan’s operation. He was somewhat eager to learn from Jiang Yuan’s technique. However, Jiang Yuan had no intention of hiding his process. Fingerprint comparison is very personalized work, especially the handling of difficult fingerprints. After reaching this step, making a judgment involved more than just skill. Skills can be learned, but judgment encompasses a wide range of factors. While Li Zemin was still pondering Jiang Yuan’s thought process, Jiang Yuan moved his mouse and unexpectedly chose “Confirm as identical.” “That’s a match?” Li Zemin exclaimed in surprise. He was aware that Jiang Yuan was working on a homicide case. Jiang Yuan took a sip of tea, moistening his throat, then said, “Well, you can see if it’s a match or not.” “You have a point,” Li Zemin replied as he turned back to his own screen, surrounded by the continual “ding-dong” notifications. The morning was pleasant, with many eagerly awaiting the arrival of new messages. When they saw it, many clicked to take a closer look. Jiang Yuan’s name was like a refreshing cup of coffee poured over everyone’s heads. Comfortable. Alert. Full of energy. After carefully reviewing the fingerprint images several times, Li Zemin slowly marked his agreement under “confirmed identical”. Turning his head, Li Zemin looked at Jiang Yuan with utter surprise and asked, “This quickly? Is image processing really that useful?” Jiang Yuan smiled. How could he answer? Should he say that his speed was due to his truly strong skills, already at the provincial elite level? Or should he mention that the skills in image processing have to be combined with fingerprint techniques, and that his image enhancement abilities were also at the level of the weaker provincial elites? “Fancy a cigarette?” Jiang Yuan offered, pulling out a pack of Soft Zhonghua. “Let’s go.” As expected, Li Zemin was diverted by the change of subject and got up immediately, following Jiang Yuan out. In front of the building. Under the classical-style pavilion, several smokers from the provincial office were inhaling nicotine. Seeing Jiang Yuan and Li Zemin coming over, they smiled amiably. Jiang Yuan nodded as well, then lit up a Zhonghua with Li Zemin, claiming the other side of the pavilion for themselves. Among the provincial office smokers, one who saw the Soft Zhonghua in Jiang Yuan’s hand immediately frowned and, ignoring the looks from his colleagues, spoke up with dissatisfaction: “Got it so good? These days, what are all these lower units thinking? Every last one...” “I’m from Jiang Village.” Jiang Yuan didn’t let the man finish his sentence, passing a Zhonghua over with typical Jiang Village people’s sociability. The middle-aged man remained in his serious, frowning pose as he took the cigarette, slightly stunned. The expressions of the others brightened somewhat, but they were also quite surprised to receive the cigarettes. Li Zemin wasn’t too fond of the provincial office’s ways either. Watching the scene unfold, he couldn’t help but crack a slight smile. “From Qinghe?” The middle-aged man who had pocketed the cigarette wanted to confirm. “Yeah, from Jiang Village, Ningtai County,” Jiang Yuan replied nonchalantly as he lit his cigarette in front of the smokers. As the Soft Zhonghua was casually exhaled without much value, the men grimaced with pity. But thinking of Jiang Yuan’s identity as a Jiang Village person, they refrained from making any comment. “Jiang Yuan!” A policeman with all his shirt buttons tightly fastened, stepped out from the provincial office building with extreme seriousness in his stride. It wasn’t until he got closer that Jiang Yuan and the others recognized him and Jiang Yuan greeted with a smile, “Director Liu.” The fast-approaching man was none other than Liu Jinghui, the deputy provincial-level senior police superintendent known for his deductions. He entered the pavilion, gave a reluctant nod to the middle-aged men engulfed in smoke, and greeted, “Director Hong.” Then he turned to ask, “I just looked at the police alert, did you match the fingerprint on the collar of the Mount Wulong wild man?” From Liu Jinghui’s description, it was evident that he was highly attentive to the case, not only having set up related alerts but also having a clear understanding of the victim’s condition. Jiang Yuan didn’t hesitate to reply, “It matched with another homicide case. The victim was found at Mount Wulong.” “That’s the one, that’s the one...” Liu Jinghui tapped his finger twice, visibly becoming more excited. His colleagues from the provincial office meanwhile looked at Jiang Yuan curiously, expressing their surprise, “You matched a murder case? Are you here for the fingerprinting campaign?” “Yes. People of Qinghe.” Jiang Yuan reused the term that was just asked of him. The crowd all understood, and the first middle-aged man to speak laughed heartily, “Got quite the temper, but that’s to be expected from someone from Jiang Village. Sorry about earlier, I thought you were some young guy seconded here to mark time. I didn’t realize you were here for the finger-printing campaign, such a young fingerprint expert is rare to see.” “And you even matched a murder case.” Another person stood out, giving a thumb up. Li Zemin chimed in, “Three of them.” “Three what?” “Matched three murder cases,” Li Zemin said, holding up three fingers. The crowd murmured in amazement. The middle-aged man took a puff of the just-lit Zhonghua, grinning from ear to ear, “I truly didn’t recognize Mount Tai before me. Let’s get acquainted, my name is Hong Wanjun. The brethren all call me Hong Qi, Hong as in Hong Qigong, and Qi as in the Qi from Hong Qigong. It’s said that my temper, to put it nicely, is hating evil as if it was personal, but put bluntly, it’s that I manage to offend people everywhere...” Jiang Yuan shook hands with him and exchanged WeChat numbers. At that moment, Director Liu, who had been building up his emotions, took advantage of a pause to say, “Jiang Yuan, you need to come with me.” “Where to?” Jiang Yuan asked, puzzled. “To investigate the Wu Long wild man case. This case is definitely not a simple case of an outdoor corpse disposal,” Liu Jinghui declared emphatically. “I believe there’s more to this case; it’s very likely a series of murder cases...” “Are there more bodies?” Jiang Yuan asked in surprise, thinking he hadn’t seen that in the case description. Liu Jinghui seriously said, “No bodies, it’s possible that the other bodies were disposed of more effectively. But from the treatment of this one corpse, it’s evident that the murderer and body disposer has plenty of experience. Moreover, the discovery of this corpse was also quite coincidental; it was found by a lost hiker, not on the regular patrol route of mountain rangers, and the nearby area isn’t suitable for travel...” “Shouldn’t we go capture the suspect now that we’ve got a match?” “Too much time has passed,” Liu Jinghui shook his head slightly and explained, “You should be able to see for yourself, the matched suspect was released after serving his sentence six years ago. In six years, there’s been no trace of him, and he’s been involved in another murder. Such a person, it will be very difficult to find directly. However, the Wu Long wild man case has certainly opened a new direction for investigation, and now I’m inviting you to join me in setting up a new special case team...” “Director Liu, I’m currently participating in the fingerprint campaign,” Jiang Yuan interrupted Liu Jinghui. He didn’t like Liu Jinghui personally; to him, deductions were neither mysterious nor reliable. Liu Jinghui’s method of deduction before evidence was even less to his liking. Under such circumstances, Jiang Yuan naturally wasn’t keen to join Director Liu in forming any special case team. However, Liu Jinghui’s eyes were filled with sentiment as he looked at Jiang Yuan and enunciated each word, “I’ll wait for you!”