[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner":3,"chapter-the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-123":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Nation's Forensic Medical Examiner",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2326818,4551,"Chapter 123","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-123",123,"\u003Cp>“Been gone that long?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun sat by the window in his office, calmly smoking Zhonghua, a potted spider plant beside him already filled with three or four cigarette butts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To be honest, a week ago, Wu Jun hadn’t been in such a relaxed mood to smoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Doing the work of a county forensic officer alone is truly exhausting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan placed the remaining red eggs on the desk and said, “I went to the imaging office to help them with the image processing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Imaging work is troublesome too,” Wu Jun acknowledged, then offered Jiang Yuan a cigarette. “Take it easy, don’t be so anxious. We work in the county—we don’t chase money or fame. All we have is a slower pace of life, a bit more of a normal existence.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan chuckled slightly at the phrase “normal existence” and said, “We’re forensic officers now—we can’t really live a normal life anymore.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“About that…” Wu Jun glanced warily around, then stood up to close the door. He pulled out his Guan Yu statue from the drawer, hung it on the door, lit incense, and took a slow drag of his Zhonghua. “In my life, I’ve never had any regrets. I’ve feared what needed fearing, bowed to what needed bowing to. But I don’t know about your generation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun pulled Jiang Yuan over to the Guan Yu statue. Jiang Yuan had no choice but to bow as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good. You’ve seen enough dead bodies this time. Next time, if you encounter a case with eight or ten corpses, just bow to Guan Yu.” Wu Jun paused, then settled on a number: “If it’s eight dead, bow once. Let’s play it safe.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan laughed: “Where would we even find a case with eight dead people now?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Didn’t you just encounter one?” Wu Jun said. “There are plenty of psychopaths. Look hard enough, you’ll find them. Take this case—if Li Sanqiu hadn’t happened to meet that hiker, when would it have been found again? In what condition?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan bowed to Guan Yu again and said, “Alright, let’s put it away before someone sees it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let them see it,” Wu Jun said, though he carefully put the statue away anyway. “Twenty years ago, murders were still common. Famous cases like the one in the central region—the killer wanted to retaliate against society, built his own gun, randomly killed people, then stole official weapons and killed many.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Anti-social personality?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Maybe. But the things this guy did back then? People today could still do them. He built his own firearms in a machine shop, only using his relative’s hunting license for the gunpowder…” Wu Jun began to ramble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan brewed tea and listened, glanced at the newspaper, and then it was quitting time!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sun rose as usual.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Work proceeded normally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan appeared in the office as usual.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Zhenguo appeared in the office unusually.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You did this, right?” Wei Zhenguo was too familiar with Jiang Yuan to beat around the bush.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his hand was yesterday’s printed suspect portrait: a middle-aged man wearing a hat, standing under a tree, gazing blankly upward—captured perfectly by the camera.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan glanced at it and nodded. “I made it for the imaging office yesterday. It got passed to you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yeah. Our Team Six used to handle mostly theft and burglary cases. I just came back, and the captain let me take it easy for a few days, so I took this case.” Wei Zhenguo explained casually.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How’s Mu Zhiyang?” Jiang Yuan had returned earlier than Wei Zhenguo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Zhenguo nodded. “His arm function is fine, just needs more rest. Wen Ming will bring him back soon—he’ll stay a few more days in Ningtai Hospital and be good to go.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No lasting damage?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No.” Wei Zhenguo said, then glanced at Wu Jun. “If you’re free, why don’t we work on this case together?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan’s guilt faded quickly. He asked curiously, “Didn’t we already finish it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“For imaging, yes. For us, it’s just beginning.” Wei Zhenguo smiled bitterly. “First, we need to solidify evidence. Ideally, we’d have video or photos of him committing the crime. Second, we need to prove he was in the area during the time of the offense. Third, we need to find where he discarded any related items and get photos proving he handled the stolen goods. Only then is the case even close to complete.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan said “Oh,” and asked, “So if I hadn’t helped find it, how would you have cracked this case?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Either leave it unsolved, or catch one piece of evidence and dig deeper. Or if you really want to solve it, stake out the scene and wait to catch him in the act.” Wei Zhenguo listed the options easily. “But I want to catch a big one.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A big one?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thieves spread news fast. If we use imaging to catch and convict this old hand, the others will pay extra attention to cameras. Key cameras might even get destroyed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Destroying cameras can get you arrested too.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t want to waste two or three months on this case.” Wei Zhenguo, now someone who’d handled major cases, clearly looked down on petty theft in the county.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan looked at Wei Zhenguo, waiting for him to continue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Zhenguo organized his thoughts. “There are only five traditional pickpockets left in the county. One hardly even goes out anymore. My idea: use imaging to gather evidence on all five, then arrest them all at once. After that, the streets of Ningtai will be clean.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun, curious, asked, “Only five left? How do you know? Why haven’t you arrested them yet?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We’ve been busy lately.” Wei Zhenguo continued, “They’re all seasoned thieves. Even though they’re all in their forties or fifties, their skills are poor, their courage low. Some even tried making it in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou—couldn’t make it, so they came back. They can’t do anything else, so they spend all day thinking about how to steal. And they steal next to nothing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan had already learned a bit about these middle-aged thieves yesterday. He found it slightly amusing, but felt no sympathy. He thought for a moment and said, “Why not just copy the files over to me? If there’s a lot of footage, it’ll still take some time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Got it. I’ll go get them.” Wei Zhenguo replied and dashed off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a moment, he returned with the first, second, and third-generation “four-eyes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They’d heard Jiang Yuan was working on imaging and came to watch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Where do we start?” Gao Jiansheng, the third-generation four-eyes, was even more eager than Jiang Yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s first look for existing footage of the crimes themselves. If we find any, clarify the suspect’s face enough to identify who’s who.” Wei Zhenguo also looked to Jiang Yuan for confirmation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s start looking,” Jiang Yuan said without delay, opening the video files and beginning his search.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao Jiansheng leaned close to Jiang Yuan, eyes fixed on the screen, as if trying to absorb a secret manual.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yesterday, Jiang Yuan’s image enhancement had left him confused. Today, seeing Wei Zhenguo, he recalled Jiang Yuan’s actions from yesterday—and his perception changed completely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a young third-generation four-eyes, Gao Jiansheng had only been in the county bureau a short time and still held illusions about technology. In this, he was somewhat like Wang Zhong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Jiang Yuan didn’t believe Gao Jiansheng could master image enhancement. The technical value of this skill far exceeded fingerprint matching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fingerprint matching demands talent, but its ceiling for diligence is high. With careful effort and guidance, reaching Level 2 is normal. With some natural aptitude or exceptional endurance, Level 3 is possible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But image investigation doesn’t work that way. Fundamentally, it’s mathematics, then physics, then demands knowledge of algorithms and computer technology.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without strong foundational theoretical ability, an ordinary person will exhaust themselves at Level 1—never even touch Level 2.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though it’s true someone can achieve minor success starting math at thirty, how many ordinary workers can afford to devote themselves to learning math at thirty?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Based on this, Jiang Yuan sat at the computer and simply reviewed the videos himself, offering no explanations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Precisely because he didn’t explain, Gao Jiansheng found the process enjoyable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As everyone knows, terms like “Fourier” can induce depression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you don’t mention them, you won’t think about them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan set up a six-screen display and, with Wei Zhenguo, each watched three screens. Soon, they caught the silhouette of a pickpocket stealing from a bus station camera.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan pressed a few shortcuts and captured the entire video of the crime.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this point, the thief’s face was indistinct. As before, Jiang Yuan first processed the full video, then extracted ten or so frames for high-definition enhancement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This entire process had established routines and ready software. To Gao Jiansheng, Jiang Yuan simply pressed a series of shortcuts—just like yesterday.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This delighted Gao Jiansheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first- and second-generation four-eyes also looked excited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This method looked complex, but not entirely unlearnable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they learned this technique, capturing clear images from video to catch thieves would become far too easy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan noticed their expressions but pretended not to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, his methods weren’t fixed. When he continued processing other videos, they’d soon realize that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This kind of thing is like a hacker using software.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Normal hackers use software daily—they don’t write their own programs from scratch. But when you get to real technical depth, the complexity multiplies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What Jiang Yuan was doing now focused mainly on human faces. Blurry license plate enhancement, for example, used an entirely different method.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, knowing a few tricks is better than knowing none.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan remained silent and kept working, hunting thieves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, Jiang Yuan helped Wei Zhenguo solidify evidence against three thieves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Zhenguo started with a broad smile, but gradually his expression turned somber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s Old Wei thinking about?” Wu Jun asked curiously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Zhenguo sighed. “I’ve spent half my life catching thieves—especially pickpockets. I once organized plainclothes teams just to catch them. Now, these pickpockets can’t even survive. Those who could’ve switched careers already did. Only these five fools remain. If we catch them all now, there won’t be a single living pickpocket left on Ningtai’s streets.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan was just finishing the fourth. He asked, “Want me to leave you one as a seed?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, no!” Wei Zhenguo quickly apologized. “I was just talking. Catch them all. If I ever miss pickpockets, I’ll just go to Qinghe to see them.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1761,"2026-06-20T18:55:00.150Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","0f342b7134898018e1a0703ea7988408cba777ab177200ed3d707dff5cfdcab5","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-124","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-122",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-cover.jpg"]