Chapter 97 - 97 95 Persistent Pursuit

Words : 1323 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

97: 95 Persistent Pursuit 97: 95 Persistent Pursuit The central air conditioning unit hummed as it expelled air, providing little cooling but pretending to work hard, much like Zhu Huanguang’s son when he studied. The devil’s ivy on the windowsill was thriving, its pale roots pearly and plump inside the transparent bottle, tangled messily amid the water. The large leaves, stirred gently by the air conditioning, resembled buttocks being patted by a fitness trainer. Without realizing it, Zhu Huanguang’s gaze shifted to Jiang Yuan. Although still young, Jiang Yuan, a fingerprint expert, remained seated in his cubicle, eyes blazing as he stared at the computer screen, exuding an intense killing vibe. Just in the past week, Jiang Yuan had identified the killers in six homicide cases, four of whom had already been captured, and it was highly likely they would be sentenced to death. The remaining two probably could not escape either. Moreover, these homicides had all been matched within the last three or four days, implying that, in the last few days, Jiang Yuan had sent a person to their death each day. Such ferocity was truly terrifying and awe-inspiring. Zhu Huanguang trembled with envy. He couldn’t help but think how wonderful it would be if he could trade his son Zhu Xiaoguang’s college entrance exam scores for murderers. No need to talk about a one-to-one exchange—a ten-to-one bargain would net him twenty or thirty criminals, a tremendous contribution indeed. Creak. Jiang Yuan stood up and pushed back his chair. Not many people were left in the large office, and the sound of the chair was quite grating in the empty room. Some experts couldn’t help but look up, disgruntled, glancing over before realizing it was Jiang Yuan and quickly returning to their work with an indifferent pout. Jiang Yuan went back to his dormitory to rest. Zhu Huanguang noticed Jiang Yuan carried items like a water cup as he left, likely indicating he wouldn’t return to work further. For a moment, Zhu Huanguang also thought about heading back to the dormitory to rest. He could casually browse his phone, flirt with girls, call home, scold his son Zhu Xiaoguang, and sweet-talk his wife; it all sounded quite joyful. But just as he was about to stand up, Zhu Huanguang sat back down. Targets set shouldn’t be easily revised, otherwise, what difference would there be between him and Zhu Xiaoguang! Evening. Upon returning to his dormitory, Jiang Yuan couldn’t wait to get to bed and sleep. The pressure of the fingerprint challenge was overwhelming, bearable for a day or two but, after a week, it was exhausting both mentally and physically. It became clear why fingerprint challenges were only two to three weeks long. On average, two weeks were sufficient to drain an expert’s vitality, and one more week could even be enough for a vacation. There had to be some giveback. Jiang Yuan’s mind was too tired to think about much before he fell into a deep sleep. The following week was almost a repeat of the previous one. The difference was that Jiang Yuan’s case-solving pace slowed down, but all the cases he cracked were homicides. On the last day of the fingerprint challenge, Jiang Yuan had matched a total of 18 fingerprints on the large office’s leaderboard, of which 10 were from homicide cases. The expert with the next highest total behind him was Zhu Huanguang with 10 fingerprint matches, but none from homicide cases. The expert ranked second in the backlog of homicide cases had matched 2 homicide fingerprints, while the third place expert still only had one. The final count for matched fingerprints in backlog homicide cases came to 15, in the order of 10, 2, 1, 1, 1. That is to say, among the more than forty experts who participated in the fingerprint task force for half a month, a total of only five people matched the fingerprints found at murder scenes. Jiang Yuan alone matched the number of murder scene fingerprints, which was exactly twice that of the other forty or so people combined. These were highly exaggerated figures, which not only in Shannan Province but also across the nation, amounted to legendary proportions. As a result, the news spread very widely in a very short time. However, those in the police circles who heard of this were not surprised. In fact, all those who heard the news reacted with both astonishment and a sense of inevitability. The astonishment was due to the number of fingerprints Jiang Yuan matched, while the inevitability stemmed from the fact that legendary fingerprint experts were indeed capable of such feats. From a certain perspective, fingerprints are like solving puzzles; a puzzle is thrown out, and its difficulty propagates from no one knowing the answer, to a few knowing it, to a group knowing it, to many knowing it, and so on. The so-called experts are simply in the process of continually elevating their propagation level. When a fingerprint expert surpasses various levels and reaches the top tier within a province, he naturally dominates in the fingerprint task force of the provincial department. This is also true for national fingerprint competitions. Whenever a powerful fingerprint expert develops a new technique, he often achieves overwhelming results, solving many previously unsolvable fingerprint puzzles and thus matching a large number of fingerprints, which leads to cracking many cases that were previously unsolved. At the same time, as his fame and the new technique he developed spread, more people master the technique, and the number of matching fingerprints in the database quickly decreases, until balance is restored. Jiang Yuan’s “clarification battle” technique had already spread before the end of the fingerprint task force, including fingerprint experts like Zhu Huanguang who were in fact already researching and developing it. When the Director announced the end of this fingerprint task force session, there was a round of applause in the large office. Many people were clapping, while looking towards Jiang Yuan. Only those deeply entrenched in the field understand how difficult it is to achieve this level of success within it. The Director was also clapping as he walked up to Jiang Yuan, nodding at him with a smile, “Each generation has its own talents; I never expected to meet such a young fingerprint expert on this occasion...” He earnestly rambled on for several minutes, and Jiang Yuan’s emotions gradually shifted from excitement to calmness. Unlike team leader Huang Qiangmin’s promise, the Director’s offer was bigger and more well-rounded, not only buttered but sprinkled with sesame seeds, and it even seemed like you could smell it. Jiang Yuan was so impassioned and emotionally stirred that he felt like analyzing another hundred fingerprints on the spot. “Ding! Task Completed: Persistent Pursuit Task Content: During the fingerprint task force period, do your utmost to solve multiple cases. Current progress (18*10) Task Reward: Bloodstain Analysis (LV5)” ... The system’s voice helped Jiang Yuan regain some clarity. This was something tangible and more useful than the Director’s promises. His expression became more serious as he carefully reviewed the contents of the Bloodstain Analysis. It was a basic skill for a forensic doctor and a very important one. Theoretically, by using bloodstain analysis, one could reconstruct every action taken at the time of a murder. The more complex the situation and the more detailed the reconstruction, the higher the difficulty would be. Across the room, Minister Xu looked at the young man in front of him, so young, the same age as his eldest grandson who still stayed up late playing games every night. However, the young man in front of him, after receiving his praise, remained composed and calm, albeit slightly excited at first, and quickly settled down, truly a technical genius. He stopped making promises and patted the young man on the shoulder. This moment was also perfectly captured by the photographers who were ready.

Chapter 97 - 97 95 Persistent Pursuit

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