[{"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-156":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},2326851,4551,"Chapter 156: Sneakers","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-156",156,"\u003Cp>Wu Junhao stood at the stairwell above the 28th floor, watching Jiang Yuan below methodically scanning every inch, and soon grew bored.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d been to plenty of crime scenes before, but he’d never seen such meticulous forensic work.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today’s situation was unusual, and Wu Junhao couldn’t even slip away easily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What if he went out on some errand and came back to find Jiang Yuan lying in a pool of blood? How would he explain it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s such a pity, isn’t it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A tall, lanky man with long limbs, like a giraffe, smart too—but if stabbed, his struggling posture would probably resemble that of a short, squat deer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, despite the boredom, he had to stick by him—Wu Junhao’s mind couldn’t help conjuring scenes from movies: bodyguards who slipped off to the bathroom, guards who ran off to bet on horses, mercenaries who sneaked off to screw a woman, only to return and find everything cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Qiangmin, beside him, waited patiently enough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could’ve gone home long ago, but he stayed at the scene, so everyone else had to stay too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Junhao shuffled over to Huang Qiangmin’s side and said, “Forensic work is truly boring.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Qiangmin glanced at him. “You’re the one who’s bored.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he weren’t bored enough, why would he come chat with the team leader?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Junhao didn’t answer, only asked, “Are we just waiting here?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s your idea?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let me take a team to search the building floor by floor—we might catch the killer.” Wu Junhao just wanted to get out and move around; overtime was fine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Qiangmin said, “Someone’s already searching.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They don’t search as well as I do. I can find anything in the corners and crevices.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This building’s huge. There are public areas, restrooms, lounges, storage rooms…” Huang Qiangmin droned on, refusing to let Wu Junhao leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Three squads were already deployed across Wanghe Tower and its surroundings—Wu Junhao wasn’t needed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides, the First Squad was already working outside; adding Wu Junhao would just cause chaos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Junhao frowned down at the scene, feeling even more miserable than Jiang Yuan, who was actually working.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright. Let’s go back.” Jiang Yuan had collected over a hundred evidence bags, concluding the inspection of the fire escape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Junhao instantly relaxed, as if freed, walking as he asked, “Did you find anything?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t know. Mostly trace evidence—can’t see anything back here; it has to go to Changyang.” Jiang Yuan could conduct meticulous crime scene investigations, but trace evidence analysis required a professional lab.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t even know how to do it himself, and even if he did, Ningtai County couldn’t afford the equipment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forget equipping a full lab—even upgrading to slightly better gear, Huang Qiangmin would get his feet broken by auditors the moment he approved it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, Huang Qiangmin had never even considered such a thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He directly picked someone and said, “You go with Lu Jianfeng, deliver the evidence to Changyang, and wait there for their analysis. I’ll call them later.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Jianfeng was the captain of the Criminal Science Squad, Jiang Yuan’s direct superior, now sent off to deliver evidence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But within the Criminal Brigade, the operational model was like this: squad captains were merely group leaders—normally collecting homework and leading small tasks, but during major cases, they became frontline fighters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Changyang City was the provincial capital; its Criminal Brigade outranked Ningtai County’s by more than one level. Asking them to run tests required some polite words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But just polite words were enough. The Tan Yong case had happened only months ago; Ningtai County’s Criminal Brigade had sent a dog and several officers—including Jiang Yuan—to support Changyang’s Criminal Brigade. The favor hadn’t even been repaid yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t go home tonight,” Huang Qiangmin called out to Jiang Yuan. “Sleep at the unit. I’ll have the police station keep an eye on your place—it’s usually fine. This is safest and least effort.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright,” Jiang Yuan agreed immediately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he insisted on going home now, he’d probably need bodyguards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even then, his home wouldn’t be safer than the unit. Better to stay and pull an all-nighter here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most importantly, there was still no proof that a killer actually existed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Jiang Yuan, after being comforted by his master Wu Jun, had learned to accept humiliation, he still hoped to minimize the impact for now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>County Bureau.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the main gate, you could see bright lights and bustling activity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For police officers, standing three stops away, you could already smell the scent of murder in today’s bureau.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Forensic Office, Wu Jun had already laid out a mattress and slept for a while.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing this, Jiang Yuan directly pulled Wang Zhong and reassembled his “high-end computer” in the adjacent Trace Evidence Office, then powered it on to enhance the video.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Ge, also working overtime in the Trace Evidence Office, first stared blankly, then sighed helplessly: “If you won’t disturb your master, you’re using this engine to torture us?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My master’s already asleep. Waking him again would be cruel,” Jiang Yuan said, offering Zhonghua cigarettes. “Smoke one, wake up your brain—I’ll be quick.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I told my wife the same thing last time,” Yan Ge muttered, lighting a cigarette, quickly cheered by the nicotine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan pulled up the video uploaded today from the internal network, sat down, and began working intently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Video enhancement was far more difficult and complex than image enhancement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The simplest video enhancement was enhancing each frame individually; an even simpler method was extracting a few frames, enhancing them, then analyzing the target directly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan didn’t know what he’d find, so he enhanced the entire video—using software and algorithms to amplify everything, then checking the results.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So far, the three squads had collected six phones, each with one video.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each video captured the incident window for only a short time; the first Jiang Yuan saw was only three seconds, the longest was barely over ten seconds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The shooting angles and distances varied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two videos shot from below were nearly useless; two shot head-on from other buildings were decent; the remaining two showed little.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan extracted the two head-on videos and enhanced them separately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Video enhancement algorithms could be run repeatedly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And unlike what most people imagined, once you chose an algorithm, you could run it many times—but switching to another algorithm was rarely helpful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because different enhancement principles often conflicted; running one, then another, wouldn’t make things clearer—it usually just blurred everything completely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan pushed hard: he picked a suitable algorithm, ran it for over an hour, saw little improvement, then switched to another and ran it furiously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While the algorithms ran, Jiang Yuan returned to his office to sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sleep one or two hours, then come back to check.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Ge and Wang Zhong, driven mad by the noise, finished their tasks and moved their cots to the Forensic Office to sleep too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Running until morning, Jiang Yuan then took the best-quality video and played “spot the difference” frame by frame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Enhancing single images at this point was already barely possible, but faintly, something began to emerge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is that a pair of shoes?” Jiang Yuan pulled Wang Zhong over to look at the screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From dozens of meters, maybe over a hundred, the phone lens zoomed to maximum, the person in the image was tiny—then through a glass curtain wall, to see if there was a pair of shoes…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But under high magnification, Wang Zhong actually saw a pair of sneakers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Real or fake? Really a pair of shoes?” Wang Zhong couldn’t believe it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And they’re two-tone or multi-colored,” Jiang Yuan tapped the screen hard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He trusted his own result completely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Call Team Leader Huang?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Call him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan answered, relaxing slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Qiangmin arrived quickly with others to view the images.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The enhanced images and videos weren’t fully comprehensive enhancements—they were more like beauty filters: enhance one part, lose another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So the images didn’t look good at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that single pair of shoes, from Huang Qiangmin’s view, revealed nothing clear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe it was the killer. Maybe a witness. Maybe just an image error…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Qiangmin said nothing, only nodded and offered two compliments, then added, “The victim’s social connections are complicated—we’ll start tracing them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tracing suspects through social ties was a classic method in murder investigations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially with a hidden, elusive killer, it was often someone the victim knew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan had no say in this traditional investigative method.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He thought for a moment and said, “The trace evidence will take a few more days—let me go check out shoe markets.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Qiangmin immediately understood: Jiang Yuan wanted to find shoes matching the footprint impressions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he found any, it would definitely advance the case.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Qiangmin had seen other footprint experts do similar things—he agreed at once, adding, “You must always have someone with you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan didn’t refuse; after all, he had to work anyway—two people together meant he could chat.\u003C\u002Fp>",1493,"2026-06-20T18:55:00.150Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","b413bdf45dc952532ad156862a44e67b95361fd7196db3c2fab7c8228e009f23","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-157","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-155",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-cover.jpg"]