[{"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-182":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},2326877,4551,"Chapter 182: The Old Trade","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-182",182,"\u003Cp>Using fingerprints to solve cold cases has always been Jiang Yuan’s specialty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The plaque honoring him as a Second-Class Merit recipient still sits outside his front door, polished daily by his father until it gleams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having processed so many cold-case fingerprints, Jiang Yuan immediately saw matching potential in the blood print on the leather jacket.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was confidence rooted in personal ability.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, the clarity of blood fingerprints is usually acceptable. Though this print was lifted from a leather jacket and slightly degraded, it was still far superior to most latent sweat prints.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second, though the fingerprint covered only one-third of the area and lacked a core, it included the fingertip—a highly individualized feature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In standard forensic work, if a fingerprint lacked a core or had a blurred one, investigators would abandon it outright, as such prints were nearly impossible to match.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But for Jiang Yuan, as long as he could accurately determine the core’s position and the surrounding ridge lines were clear, he could extract a match. His success rate was only slightly lower than with prints lacking a core entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For active cases, naturally, the better the fingerprint quality, the easier the match.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after handling so many cold cases, one basic truth had long been clear: for cold cases, the clearer the fingerprint, the less meaningful it was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A fingerprint anyone could match was like a dog that licked everyone—it had no owner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, the difficulty of this fingerprint was obvious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan downloaded the fingerprint image onto his computer and stared at it without moving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, a system message flashed before his eyes:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Task: Crack the Cold Case\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Task Content: Solve Case 405—Xu Hai\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan cross-checked: Case 405—Xu Hai was precisely the case he had just selected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This saved him the trouble of worrying whether to switch cases if he hit a wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He would focus entirely on smashing this one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan rubbed his hands. Old habit: regardless of fingerprint quality, start with image enhancement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the saying goes: Photoshop three times, and even beauties can’t stand steady.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A fingerprint after enhancement was like a leader who’d drunk Maotai—it was bound to reveal something real.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan didn’t need much: on a full fingerprint, you’d mark fifteen features; on this one-third print, if he could extract eight, he’d have a basis for comparison.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The old high-performance host hummed to life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun lifted his head: “You picked a case?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Case 405—Xu Hai,” Jiang Yuan said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Tell me about the body, and I’ll know,” Wu Jun said, standing and lighting a cigarette.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan cut straight to the point: “The body was found beside a rural road in Litang Township, about eight meters from the road, blocked by trees and vines. The corpse was highly decomposed, with stab wounds to the abdomen and chest…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, I get it—the victim was a street vendor who sold clothes?” Wu Jun’s tone carried the weight of history.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan grunted. “I noticed a blood print on his leather jacket. I want to compare it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fingerprints, huh? That’s doable,” Wu Jun said, then couldn’t resist adding: “This case is tough.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Where did it stall back then?” Jiang Yuan asked, curious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun didn’t answer. Instead, he asked: “What’s your take on the nature of this case?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan was focused on the fingerprint but had skimmed the case file. He thought a moment. “Roadside robbery that escalated to murder?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then why eight meters from the road? The crime scene photos include a close-up of the roadside vegetation—look at how dense it is. Getting there wasn’t easy. If you were forcing someone at knifepoint, it’d be risky.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan pulled up the internal network photos—the cold case images, digitized clearly. The plants just two or three meters from the road were thick; reaching eight meters meant pushing through, not walking. If the killer had forced the victim there at knifepoint, it’d be prone to mishaps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, that mishap might’ve been the trigger for escalation?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan didn’t fully grasp it, but understood Wu Jun’s point. “So back then, you thought it wasn’t a robbery?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun shook his head. “I thought it was. Many thought it was. But the leadership didn’t.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Because if it was a robbery-turned-murder, this case couldn’t be solved,” Wu Jun said, spreading his hands and sighing. “And there’s logic to it. Back then, investigations relied on three moves: inspect, screen, interrogate. Out here in the wilderness, labeling it a robbery-murder made the case nearly impossible.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Inspect, screen, interrogate” meant crime scene examination, door-to-door canvassing, and surprise interrogation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This method relied on a stable social network.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the founding of the PRC, the household registration system drastically reduced population mobility. Most crimes were committed by acquaintances; screening could yield satisfactory clearance rates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those outside the system—migrant workers—were labeled “blind flow” by police, routinely detained, interrogated, and repatriated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As social mobility increased, police effectiveness plummeted, and public security deteriorated further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun hadn’t told Jiang Yuan this: back then, roadside robberies were fairly common, so leadership had little motivation to solve them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan asked curiously: “What did Chief Huang say back then?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He was chief of the police station then,” Wu Jun paused, recalling. “This case probably got him promoted to head of the Criminal Investigation Unit.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan couldn’t help pressing: “Was the previous head replaced because of this case?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Something like that. There were plenty of unsolved cases those years.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Wu Jun wasn’t inclined to elaborate, Jiang Yuan returned to the case. “So you think the main issue is direction?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The victim’s social network was thoroughly screened—no results,” Wu Jun said, shaking his head. “Focus on the fingerprint. That’s the only thing left that might yield something.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Random crimes were hard to solve back then; now, impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Over the years, most solved cold cases relied on fingerprints and DNA—same reason.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many leads were untraceable then, and now, utterly lost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan had hoped his mentor could offer more insight. Much of what matters isn’t written in case files.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What Wu Jun just described—discarded investigative directions—fell into that category.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But for now, it was useless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan stopped overthinking and turned back to the fingerprint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just like during the provincial fingerprint blitz in Changyang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back then, no one helped you—you simply worked fingerprints. Match it, and you succeeded; fail, and you went home empty-handed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Half the provincial fingerprint experts, all LV3-level trace analysts, returned home with zero matches.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan processed one fingerprint—and it was already quitting time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun stood on schedule. “Leaving?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m staying late,” Jiang Yuan sighed, pulling out his phone to text his father.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Jun smiled. “Balance work and rest. Take a break.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You break the flow,” Jiang Yuan said, shaking his head helplessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why did fingerprint experts perform better during the provincial blitz? Partly due to attention, but mostly because they could focus entirely on fingerprints—even skip going home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Yuan wouldn’t take this blood print lightly. Returning to his blitz-state mindset was his best advantage.\u003C\u002Fp>",1174,"2026-06-20T18:55:00.150Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","07ef2a71783d086fe06000796b66f3d6c6e6d1313c92aa10bb182185f00bc2fd","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-183","the-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-chapter-181",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-nation-s-forensic-medical-examiner-cover.jpg"]