National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 92 - 92 90 The Wind Rises

92: Chapter 90: The Wind Rises 92: Chapter 90: The Wind Rises The wind was picking up.

Li Zemin clutched a Baisha cigarette, standing in the corridor, gazing at the sky with a melancholic expression.

Above was a dusty yellow sky, thick dirt swirling in the air; the world seemed muddied as if a horde of demons was dancing.

Sands flew, pebbles rolled, fine dust filled the space between the buildings, blurring them as if specters were roaming…

A figure emerged from the distance, slowly making its way forward, step by step.

The pace was firm, the movements slow, leaving footprints like a giant, like a titan, like the descent of Thor, or rather, like Section Chief Yang Ling.

“Whoa, take it easy,” Li Zemin quickly tossed away his cigarette and steadied Yang Ling, who was about to fall.

“Thanks,” Yang Ling brushed the dust off her body, to no avail, and could only offer a wry smile, “The wind is too strong.”

“Indeed, it even blew away my cigarette,” Li Zemin said with some regret, mourning the loss of his 11-yuan Baisha, which he had bought himself.

Thinking so, he couldn’t help saying, “I thought it was Jiang Yuan coming back just now.

His computer has stopped; I wonder if he got the timing right.”

“He should be back soon, he’s eating.”

“Huh, food at the canteen now?” Li Zemin exclaimed in surprise.

“He ordered takeout, but they wouldn’t let the delivery in at the gate.

I went to pick it up,” Yang Ling explained, shaking the sand off her clothes before adding, “He even ordered a Japanese set meal, either 398 or 388.

He’ll probably arrive after he’s done.”

“Didn’t you join him for a bite?

No, I mean, didn’t he invite you to have some?”

“Heh,” Yang Ling knew Li Zemin was trying to tease her and replied openly, “I’m not used to eating sashimi, and I don’t dare get used to it either, since my house hasn’t been demolished.”

Li Zemin laughed heartily, “I could get used to smoking Zhonghua, I just feel too embarrassed to take it outright.”

“You have your shy moments,” Yang Ling wasn’t very familiar with Li Zemin, but she knew this group of fingerprint examiners; they were the kind with a thieving heart but no guts – steadier than seasoned detectives, speaking less frivolously, and liking to be overly familiar and particularly intimate.

True enough, Li Zemin seemed pretty happy with the banter.

Walking into the large office, Yang Ling glanced at the “Cold Case Clearance Ranking Board,” seeing Zhu Huanguang’s name having climbed up to 5 victories.

However, the gap between him and Jiang Yuan’s 7 victories was still quite apparent.

Yang Ling wandered through various thoughts, not saying a word, turned on the computer connected to the projector, inserted a USB drive, and began to operate.

Soon after, another ranking appeared beside the “Cold Case Clearance Ranking Board.”

“Homicide Cold Case Ranking.”

At the top of the list was still Jiang Yuan, with 2 cases solved.

Yes, besides the bloody handprint taxi robbery and homicide case, there was another murder case in the files Jiang Yuan had sifted through the night before.

In the 2nd and 3rd spots were two other experts, each having solved one murder case, also unraveling them from the previous night into today.

Zhu Huanguang’s list of solved cases included no homicides; he was tied with the vast majority of other experts far down the list.

The entire “Homicide Cold Case Ranking” only listed three people with achievements, yet Yang Ling was quite pleased with this.

She had not publicized this ranking earlier, fearing that the low number of solved homicides wouldn’t look good.

Now that she released it, the fact that 4 homicide cold cases had been solved filled her with satisfaction.

In the past, solving even a single murder during such a fingerprint blitz would qualify as a success.

Even when the ministry organized a fingerprint blitz that gathered the nation’s top fingerprint experts, not many unsolved murders were cracked.

The provincial department’s goals for such a blitz were typically lower.

While it would be ideal to solve murders, they couldn’t just chase after that alone…unless the number of cases met a certain expectation.

For instance, four murder cases?

Yang Ling gazed joyfully at the “Homicide Cold Case Ranking” on the wall, not needing to say a word, as all the experts in the office could surely understand her thoughts.

Woo woo woo…

The computer in the break room called out again, its voice growing from soft to loud; after a brief groan, it escalated to an unabashed howl.

Jiang Yuan walked into the office; his tall figure briefly cast a shadow over the projector, and then he moved past it, nodding to Yang Ling before returning to his seat.

He plugged in a USB drive and copied the images that the computer had processed in the past few hours.

Jiang Yuan looked over each image following the annotations.

Yang Ling came over and smiled at Jiang Yuan, “Jiang, are you tired?

You could have rested a bit more.”

Not far away, Zhu Huanguang felt the same way and even nodded subconsciously.

Jiang Yuan, with the casual demeanor of a young man, simply said, “I am quite tired, but it’s okay.

I see everyone is working late…”

“You’re not as late as you.” Li Zemin pointed to the leaderboard and said, “You’ve taken the top spot in both lists; what are you rushing for?”

Yang Ling cleared her throat and turned to Li Zemin, “Expert Li, for each fingerprint Jiang matches now, a case is solved, a victim and their family receive comfort, and one or several criminals are punished…”

“I spoke wrong, I’m sorry,” Li Zemin quickly apologized.

Yang Ling then resumed her smile and said to Jiang, “Jiang, let me update you on the progress of these cases.”

Jiang’s attention was indeed captured.

Regardless of how busy they are, no criminal investigator is uninterested in their cases.

The same is true for fingerprint experts; they all strive for the resolution of cases.

On this point, all the experts present were in agreement—everyone hoped that their work would contribute to the advancement of a case, and if it could become a key breakthrough or piece of evidence, the sense of achievement was even greater.

Yang Ling didn’t talk about honors or bonuses—she had neither prepared nor necessarily expected any, but she knew that just mentioning the cases was enough to satisfy these forensic experts.

Even the strongest fingerprint experts in the province were no exception to this mundane desire at this moment.

Standing in front of Jiang Yuan, Yang Ling spoke in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, “Let’s start with the second murder case you matched.

This one could likely be a premeditated murder.

The fingerprint you matched is currently suspected to belong to the deceased’s wife’s lover.

The local criminal police have gone to apprehend the suspect; further news is probably not coming until tomorrow…”

“A crime of passion?” Jiang learned only now about the direction the matched fingerprint pointed.

Yang Ling nodded and said, “This case is 6 years old.

I caught up on the situation when I came here; it’s very likely the deceased’s wife and her lover have already broken up.

So it’s as if someone died for nothing…”

She then talked about three other cases, which took less than ten minutes in total.

By the time she finished and left, Jiang had accumulated boundless energy.

“Let’s roll it up,” Jiang straightened up and began to finely edit the copied fingerprint images.

He was now fairly adept at it, and since the images were fingerprints that had been basically cleaned up, the fine editing took about ten to twenty minutes and then they were ready to be used.

Similar to the marking of ordinary fingerprints, the finely edited fingerprints were first marked for features and then compared by the system…

The difference was, if the comparison yielded no results, the image was pulled back for further fine editing, followed by re-marking…

Compared to ordinary fingerprint images, the ones that required additional processing were somewhat more complex and time-consuming.

But precisely because such blurry images were complex and difficult to handle, once they were clarified, the chances of a match increased.

After all, the local forensic units at the municipal and county levels seldom had the capability to process similar fingerprints, which meant they also lacked the foundation for comparison, unlike the clearly imaged ones that have been compared countless times: if they don’t match, they just don’t match.

After examining fewer than 1000 fingerprint images, Jiang matched the first fingerprint of the day.

Seeing the number behind “Outstanding Case Solving Ranking” change to 8, Jiang showed no sign of stopping.

Not just continuing with the smooth procession of fingerprint analysis, he scanned the case details and picked out a homicide fingerprint from the latter images.

This was a dumpsite murder case; the victim had been strangled to death, the killer had not been found, nor were there any suspects.

The fingerprint was lifted from the neck of the corpse, too smudged to be of any use, but as it was a key piece of evidence, it had been compared by several experts before they finally gave up.

As mentioned before, fingerprint comparisons in homicide cases are always held at a higher standard.

Jiang, feeling a sudden relaxation in his spirit, had the urge to challenge another homicide fingerprint.

Aim for a new high!

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