National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 96 - 96 94 Goosebumps

96: Chapter 94 Goosebumps 96: Chapter 94 Goosebumps Changyang City.

In the garden of the provincial office, the flowers were bright red and garish, as tacky as Chunghwa cigarettes.

Li Zemin glanced at the flowers outside the window without relish, then turned back, picked up a Chunghwa cigarette, and gently sniffed it.

“Why don’t you just go and smoke it?

I’ll be busy for a while.” Jiang Yuan saw Li Zemin’s actions but didn’t intend to leave his seat.

He had just re-marked the characteristic points of a fingerprint and felt hopeful about finding a match.

It was time to make significant progress.

Li Zemin shook his head: “No rush, I’m just smelling it.

I’ve got my own work to do.”

Since the fingerprint competition began, more than half the time had elapsed, yet Li Zemin hadn’t matched even one fingerprint.

And the number of fingerprint experts accompanying him had plummeted from several dozes to just a dozen or so.

If Li Zemin couldn’t match a fingerprint soon, he would fall into the final single digits.

Although it was said that the outcome of a fingerprint competition didn’t define a hero, nor did it require one to match a fingerprint, as a fingerprint expert, not matching a single one in fourteen full days couldn’t help but feel like wasted time.

Li Zemin took a deep breath, resolved to pay close attention this time, and strove to match a fingerprint.

Then he could go out and smoke, smoke as much as he wanted, even a whole pack….

Ding dong.

In the big office, the dispersed “good news” alert went off here and there.

Some people always liked hearing the sound of success, and whenever the “ding dong” was heard, it meant…

Li Zemin glanced at Jiang Yuan subconsciously and saw his computer screen was indeed devoid of the fingerprint image.

Then, he saw Jiang Yuan crack a slight smile and slowly unwrap a fresh pack of Chunghwa cigarettes.

“Care to step outside for a bit?” Jiang Yuan made a familiar invitation.

Li Zemin was taken aback, instinctively clicked on the new message, and sure enough, the fingerprint needing review had been submitted by Jiang Yuan.

“Alright, let’s step out.” Li Zemin stood up readily, knowing that smoking with Jiang Yuan meant being able to smoke however he pleased.

By that time, at the top of the “Cold Case Clearance Leaderboard,” Jiang Yuan’s tally had reached 12.

And on the “Homicide Cold Case Leaderboard,” the four contributory “captures” by Jiang Yuan also caught everyone’s attention.

Yang Ling was standing in the corridor and followed as soon as she saw Jiang Yuan come out.

As the head of the provincial office’s fingerprint department, her own level of fingerprint identification could only be considered mediocre; it might be decent compared with the average forensic technician at a county bureau, but compared to experts handpicked from the entire province, it didn’t stand out at all.

For that reason, even during the fingerprint competition, Yang Ling wouldn’t walk around the big office.

Fingerprint comparison is a private affair; one expert, one computer was sufficient, and there was no need for an additional leader’s presence.

However, in recent days, Yang Ling had received too many phone calls from around the province.

Given her position, requests from various places or calls for assistance from local authorities were normal, but the recent requests had been a little different.

Especially during the fingerprint competition, there were explicit requests for Jiang Yuan to examine certain fingerprints from their jurisdictions…

Had it not been for the frequency of such calls, Yang Ling would have initially ignored them.

“Jiang,” Yang Ling immediately emerged from the corner when she saw Jiang Yuan come out.

“Chief Yang,” both Jiang Yuan and Li Zemin greeted her.

“Taking a break?

Shall we walk together?” Yang Ling came over with a warm smile and said kindly, “Are you tired?

It’s been a week since you arrived in Changyang City; you should be getting used to it by now.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s your first time taking part in the fingerprint competition, right?

If there is anything you’re not used to, just let me know.

Matching 11 fingerprints is really quite astonishing…”

“12 now,” Li Zemin seized the opportunity to boastfully interrupt Yang Ling’s words.

Although he hadn’t matched any fingerprints himself, he was still proud of Jiang Yuan’s achievements.

Yang Ling was surprised: “You just matched another one?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s great, I didn’t have time to check my phone just now, but the colleagues in the office should have processed it…” Yang Ling slightly reorganized her thoughts; the points she prepared to say had been jumbled by their exchange.

Once in the elevator, few colleagues in police uniforms were present, so Yang Ling remained silent.

After stepping out, Yang Ling said, “Jiang, I’ve received a few calls; they’re self-recommended fingerprints from various police stations.

When you have time, you could take a look.”

“Self-recommended by the police?” Li Zemin interjected, asking, “Aren’t they in the current fingerprint database for the competition?”

Yang Ling said, somewhat helplessly, “They are.

But after hearing that Jiang has worked on several smudged fingerprints, they wanted him to look at similar ones they’ve submitted.

I feel that since Jiang is proficient with these types of fingerprints, having a few more options is pretty good.”

“These folks are quite adroit,” Li Zemin spoke up on Jiang Yuan’s behalf.

Yang Ling nodded in acknowledgment and continued, “Please help out a bit, Jiang.

It’s the leaders from various places making the calls.

If not for the monk’s face, then for Buddha’s sake…”

Both she and Li Zemin seemed to take the matter seriously, whereas Jiang Yuan appeared indifferent; he was still emotionally caught up in the state of fingerprint comparison.

Human attention is limited, and this also applies when utilizing Level 4 fingerprint identification skills.

It wasn’t until Li Zemin reminded him that Jiang Yuan realized, and said, “There’s no problem in examining fingerprints, but I can’t guarantee a match.”

“That’s for sure,” Yang Ling sighed with relief, and went on to explain, “I also think that Jiang is quite strong at handling blurry fingerprints, which is why I specifically referred him to you…”

She did have a point there.

In terms of fingerprint identification expertise alone, Jiang Yuan might be leading the expert group, but that didn’t necessarily translate into overwhelmingly better results than everyone else.

The results he had achieved so far had much to do with his adept use of Level 4 Image Enhancement technology.

As is well known, Image Enhancement involves techniques such as Fourier transform, Walsh-Hadamard transform, gray level histograms, gray level point operations, spatial smoothing filters, and sharpening spatial filters.

However, these techniques are often confusing to fingerprint experts.

One confused face against another, the advantage is naturally considerable.

Jiang Yuan actually appreciated Yang Ling’s recommendation.

The fingerprint database in the fingerprint contest was huge, totaling more than tens of thousands—for dozens of counties and several dozen municipal districts across the province, each submitting hundreds of cold case fingerprints.

And indeed, the software system lacked an option for “blurry” fingerprints.

On the way back, Li Zemin reminded him, “The fingerprints referred by Yang’s department are likely from murder cases; otherwise, they wouldn’t bother making such a call.

Some of the fingerprints might even be in the national database.”

“Let’s see how it goes,” Jiang Yuan couldn’t make any promises, but the fingerprint work over the past few days had certainly boosted his confidence.

In the large office, the competitive atmosphere persisted.

The air was laden with the strong scent of caffeine, the subtle aroma of tea mixed with the lingering smell of smelly feet—a distinctive feature accumulated over a week in a bustling office.

The messy desks also bore no relation to their initial tidiness.

The most noticeable change was in the appearance of the experts, whose once neatly pressed uniforms had reverted to their most practical form.

The alterations at the collar, cuffs, and even the chest were telling of the experts’ self-management abilities.

Those who were good at internal affairs and took good care of their clothes, those who gave up, were lazy, and complained of illness every day, couldn’t become experts or participate in the fingerprint contest.

And even if they did enter, they were unlikely to achieve good results.

Those who did get good results, like Zhu Huanguang, were bursting with competitive spirit and full of self-confidence.

Even with half the results of Jiang Yuan, Zhu Huanguang showed no sign of relaxing.

His approach was simple: use every moment others spent resting, sleeping, smoking, or even going to the bathroom for fingerprint comparison.

Even if his efficiency was a bit lower, there was a chance to catch up bit by bit.

That’s what Zhu Huanguang thought, and what he did.

He even secretly resolved that starting today, as long as Jiang Yuan didn’t return to the dorm to rest, he wouldn’t rest either.

Even if Jiang Yuan did go back to rest, he would work on fingerprints for at least an hour more before returning; if he felt good, he could even do two more hours.

That way, he could spend an extra hour or two on fingerprints every day, yielding more than ten extra hours over the course of the week.

Rounded up, that was the equivalent of two extra days compared to the average expert.

Zhu Huanguang made up his mind, turned off the software notifications, put on headphones, and focused on working on fingerprints.

Time ticked away, second by second.

As night fell, one by one, the experts in the office started to leave.

Zhu Huanguang, however, managed to match his eighth fingerprint of the trip, averaging more than one match per day.

This achievement would have been considered top-notch in previous years.

After waiting for a moment for his results to be confirmed, Zhu Huanguang lifted his head satisfied and looked towards the leaderboard at the front of the office.

On the “Cold Case Resolution Leaderboard,” the number of matches next to Zhu Huanguang’s name had been updated to “8.”

Zhu Huanguang smiled slightly, then adjusted his mood and, with a positive mindset, looked at Jiang Yuan’s tally.

Jiang Yuan—14.

Zhu Huanguang inhaled deeply.

Actually, it was within his expectations.

Jiang Yuan was outstanding and worked hard, and he had not gone back to rest until now.

It seemed perfectly normal to have two more matches—a total of three matches a day.

Without wanting to dwell on it, Zhu Huanguang glanced at the “Murder Case Cold Case Leaderboard.”

On this ranking, Zhu Huanguang’s name was absent, which was related to the type of fingerprints he had chosen in the past few days.

As for Jiang Yuan…

Jiang Yuan—6.

Zhu Huanguang couldn’t help but rub his eyes.

Beneath the “Murder Case Cold Case Leaderboard,” the number of matches next to Jiang Yuan’s name remained at “6.”

At this moment, Zhu Huanguang realized that the additional two matches achieved by Jiang Yuan were both murder cases.

To solve two murder cases consecutively?

Six murder cases in a week?

The thought of this number gave Zhu Huanguang goosebumps all over.