Chapter 94 - 94 92 Shannan Province Fingerprint Exchange Group

94: Chapter 92: Shannan Province Fingerprint Exchange Group 94: Chapter 92: Shannan Province Fingerprint Exchange Group Two cigarettes later, when I returned to the large office, Yang Ling had come again. In Shannan Province’s department, the fingerprint post was actually a relatively marginal section compared to the office, police supervision, legal affairs, and finance and equipment departments. As a sub-unit under the criminal police corps, it was just a small division at the level of a section, comparable to a bleak fish in a reservoir. In terms of the entire ecosystem, its existence was necessary, and at certain times, it could even be said to play a significant role. But in terms of size and degree of attention, it really wasn’t worth mentioning. However, status was not immutable. When a bleak fish was hooked, the attention it received would peak, just as the value of a fingerprint expert who solved a case through fingerprints would also reach its peak. And when a bleak fish was hooked continuously, the situation would change again. This was just like a fingerprint expert constantly solving cases, continuously solving murder cases... Yang Ling now looked at Jiang Yuan as if he were a Taihe Baiqi Dolphin. If Jiang Yuan dared to die suddenly, she would immediately erect a stele for him. “Went for a smoke? Actually, we should have a smoking room in our building, but later there wasn’t enough space, so it was moved outside,” Yang Ling greeted Jiang Yuan and fervently said, “I came over to ask if everyone has any requests, whether you are comfortable with the food? How about the living accommodations?” She was looking at Jiang Yuan as she spoke, but if anyone else had the nerve to make a request, she could still... reject it. “Everything’s fine, no requests,” Jiang Yuan replied, sitting in front of the computer with processed fingerprint images laid out, ready to continue working. Indeed, he was preparing to resume work. If he were seeking comfort in life, the services in Jiang Village were better than those in the department. Seeing this, Yang Ling was even more pleased. As long as Jiang Yuan was willing to continue with fingerprints, she was in a good mood. This fingerprint campaign would be a successful one, one that the entire system would remember vividly. “Then let’s all continue working; I won’t disturb you anymore.” Yang Ling said this and walked to the front of the large office, then took out her phone and snapped a couple of photos of the leaderboard. At the moment, Jiang Yuan’s name was still at the top of the leaderboard for solving cold cases, with a score of “9”. Zhu Yaoguang, ranked second, had a score of “6” and had once again identified a fingerprint match. Frankly, given the technical strength of Shannan Province, this number was already quite impressive. In previous years, by the end of a fingerprint campaign, the number one fingerprint expert would have solved only about five or six cases—rarely would the total reach double digits. The reason it was consistently so was that identifying six or seven, seven or eight fingerprints usually meant working to the point of exhaustion. Zhu Yaoguang, for instance, would only work this exhaustively for the first two or three days. After establishing a lead, or after it was completely lost, his daily work time would drop to twelve or thirteen hours, rarely exceeding fourteen or fifteen hours. But this year, due to Jiang Yuan’s sudden emergence, Zhu Yaoguang had been working sixteen, even seventeen or eighteen hours a day for several days straight. With this level of intensity, once the fingerprint campaign was over, Zhu Yaoguang would need to rest for at least a month or two before returning to normal work at the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment. During that time, he would celebrate the New Year, write various annual summaries and reports, and after working normally for another month or two, he might have to go to Beijing to participate in the fingerprint campaign organized by the ministry. And the normal work of a fingerprint expert cannot possibly be focused on solving cold case fingerprints for such long periods of time. Thus, the number of cases an expert with high proficiency could solve each year was also limited. Of course, the number of solved ordinary cold cases could never be as thrilling as those involving murder. Yang Ling’s photo emphasized just that. Under the words “Murder Case Cold Cases Leaderboard,” Jiang Yuan’s three achievements were quite striking. Although below his name, the other two experts only had one achievement each, and farther down the list was empty, Yang Ling excitedly posted the photo to the “Shan Nan Province Fingerprint Exchange” group. The large group, with over 400 members, instantly boiled over with excitement. “Special murder case leaderboard for this year’s fingerprint campaign?” “Solved 5 murder cases? That’s impressive.” “Which unit is this ‘Jiang Yuan’ expert from? 3 murder cases? Or did he solve a series of cases?” Yang Ling watched the discussion in the group, smiled silently, walked out of the large office, stood in the corridor, and replied, “Jiang Yuan is a forensic doctor from Qinghe City Ningtai County, and he’s also very good at fingerprints. Quite young, but he has already matched several cases, and in this fingerprint campaign, he has outperformed. Jiang Yuan has consistently matched 3 murder case fingerprints this time, solving three cases accordingly.” There were leaders in the group, and Yang Ling didn’t care whether they saw it or not, she just released some information to test the waters. Of course, the majority in the group were ordinary forensic technicians, and most of them were more concerned with the numbers on the “Cold Case Solving Leaderboard” and “Murder Case Cold Cases Leaderboard”. But amid the vast number of chat messages, seeing Yang Ling’s reply, they paused for a moment. “How many days has it been, and he’s matched fingerprints in three murder cases already? Which cases were so easy to match?” “That’s a bit too incredible, and he’s a forensic doctor?” “When you say that, I take offense. What do you mean by ‘which cases were so easy to match’? Wait till I post the image.” The last to speak was He Guohua from Changyang City – Shuidong District – Forensic. This person must have had the fingerprint image saved on their phone, as it only took a moment to send out a bloody palm print and to declare in the group, “Come on, this is the fingerprint image from a robbery and murder case involving a taxi that Jiang Yuan just solved, a blood palm print collected from the rear window; let’s see if it’s easy to match.” As a district forensic technician, He Guohua was one of the first technicians to encounter this fingerprint, and he had stored it in his phone for several years, having compared it for just as long. Most forensic technicians have a similar habit; they carry with them the fingerprints from cases they deem significant, studying them whenever they have time. Sometimes, while on the bus with nothing else to do, they’d take it out and look it over. When working on other cases, if they encounter a similar situation, they would also compare them. Although many attempts by many people ended in failure, this behavior was universally prevalent across the country without anyone teaching or promoting it; it just inexplicably existed. This behavior was even beyond the reach of authoritative institutions. Despite the leaders of the police system often appearing to have absolute authority, how many leaders could genuinely inspire their subordinates to work wholeheartedly on something? And which of them could prevent their subordinates from doing so? He Guohua tossed the blood fingerprint image into the group chat and began to type furiously, saying, “The suspect in this case was apprehended today. The interrogation went smoothly, and the basic facts have been confessed. I’ve seen my fair share of cases solved purely by fingerprints, but how many of you have seen a match at this level of difficulty?” There was silence in the group for quite a while. After a moment, someone said, “To make it out when it’s smeared like that is indeed remarkable.” That comment, like opening Pandora’s box, livened up the group chat once again. “Remarkable? I think it must have needed some special treatment, or did they adjust the original fingerprint card somehow?” “Claiming a match just from looking at this image seems a bit exaggerated.” “The caught suspect probably never expected it. Who would’ve thought that with fingerprints this smudged, they’d still get caught?” As the questions piled up, He Guohua added, “The image had to be processed multiple times before marking a match. Everyone can see just how difficult it was.” A person who went by the name “Wan Xiang City – Criminal Investigation Division – Forensic Wang Yulin” also spoke up, saying, “We deployed several vehicles yesterday to arrest a suspect in a case, who was also caught because of fingerprint matching. It was Jiang Yuan who made the match, following a directive from the provincial office.” Immediately after, someone else spoke, “Jiang Yuan also made a match for us on an arson case, with the criminal already in prison who then made a full confession.” “Let’s see the fingerprint image.” “Yeah, show us the matching fingerprint images, let’s have a look.” The topic shifted quickly, and as everyone in the group was forensic, they soon began sharing fingerprint images. Yang Ling thought for a moment but did not stop them. The group was created for forensic experts within the province to exchange information, and sometimes, she would notify people via WeChat before sending out official letters. Exchanging fingerprint images within the group wasn’t a frequent occurrence, but it was still common practice. Several fingerprint images were posted in the group one after another. The distorted, lumped, and smeared fingerprints timidly, loudly, and dazedly appeared in the group, immediately quelling everyone’s enthusiasm for chatting. “Is it really that exaggerated?” “Specializing in smudged fingerprints, eh?” “You know, I’ve got a couple of fingerprints I’d like to show to Jiang, is Jiang in the group?” If one or two challenging fingerprints were usually just fodder for conversation, the continuous posting of images solidified Jiang Yuan’s reputation in the group. Who didn’t have a few smudged fingerprints lying around these days? Clean, easily processed fingerprints might not always find a match, while blurry, messy ones presented an even higher difficulty in matching. Despite this, some fingerprints from major cases were left behind, or even inherited, to be continuously sent out by forensic experts for examination attempts. As expected, Yang Ling’s phone began to ring. “Director Yang, the smudged fingerprint from our county’s robbery-homicide case, can you show it to Jiang? If it can be processed, it would fulfill a long-standing wish of ours,” came a very blunt yet logical request from the other end of the line. Yang Ling smiled slightly and responded to the caller, “Captain Ren, I’m aware of the case you’re talking about, it’s also in our database... Yes, I’ve specifically mentioned your case in this fingerprint contest, but unfortunately, it didn’t match... I’m not entirely sure whether Jiang Yuan, or Jiang, has handled this case, but let me ask for you... Alright, I’ll inform you if there’s an update.” Yang Ling hung up the phone and let out a sigh. Before she could catch her breath, another call came in. “Alright, I’ll mention it to Jiang.” “No problem, I’ll relay the message to Jiang.” “Yes, of course, it will definitely receive extra attention...” Yang Ling managed several phone calls in one breath, her phone growing hot from the activity, before the flow of calls finally started to dwindle. And her spirits were high. “If only every day were a fingerprint contest,” she thought quite naturally. In the large office, Zhu Huanguang was momentarily dazed, nearly hitting his head on the monitor. At this point, if he didn’t sleep, he feared he might literally drop dead. Zhu Huanguang took a sip of water and slowly stood up. Before leaving, he glanced at the leaderboard once more. There, he noticed that Jiang Yuan’s achievements had silently increased to “10”.