Chapter 223: Document Examination

Surveillance room.

Huang Qiangmin smoked while watching Lei Xin interrogate the suspect, constantly commenting:

"The pre-interrogation guy really puts on a show."

"This kid's lucky."

"There's actually something here."

Then, Bai Yuequn casually revealed the involvement of Yuan's eldest and second sons.

Huang Qiangmin froze, nearly leaping to his feet.

Was the case coming back to him?

And now, the Yuan family had shifted from victims of burglary to suspects in a planned murder?

Huang Qiangmin felt like a wild boar darting through a melon patch, happily feasting—until he looked up and saw a boy of about twelve, wearing a silver collar, clutching a steel trident…

Huang Qiangmin clutched his chest, gasped twice, and looked at Jiang Yuan: "This is trouble."

Jiang Yuan now had full confidence: "If there's a case, we solve it. What's the problem?"

"Instructing someone to kill—that's the most complicated kind of case. You can only break it with confessions," Huang Qiangmin said, his mind full of legal entanglements. He glanced around at the surrounding officers and added: "And it involves Yuan Jiansheng's two sons—no doubt, it'll drag in the succession issue at Jianyuan Company. Ugh, complicated mess."

What Huang Qiangmin didn't say was that this was no longer just a pure investigation and case-solving matter—it inevitably touched on other issues as well.

Jianyuan Company was a major taxpayer in Qinghe City, especially a standout among private enterprises, and had been rooted in Qinghe for twenty years—it wasn't something Huang Qiangmin, a detective captain from a remote county bureau, could touch.

Solving the case was fine, but the related issues—honestly—he had no authority to even touch.

"I'll report this to the higher-ups," Huang Qiangmin said, like a freshwater crocodile faced with a salted situation, utterly out of his depth.

For Qinghe City, Jianyuan Company, on the verge of going public, was at its most flourishing moment—everyone wanted to stand under the fruit tree during harvest and eat their fill, never imagining the tree would fight so fiercely over fertilizer.

Jiang Yuan continued listening to the interrogation, but his thoughts had already shifted from proving guilt to identifying the mastermind behind it all.

From the information they currently had, Yuan's eldest, Yuan Yutang, and second son, Yuan Yulang, were both suspects.

And unlike committing murder themselves—requiring opportunity and capability—instructing someone else to kill was far easier.

As Huang Qiangmin said, instructing someone often required only words—so confessions were essentially the only way to solve it; without them, proof was nearly impossible.

Financial motives were one path, but only applicable if payment was made upfront. In this case, the eldest and second sons of the Yuan family likely paid more in information fees.

Their promises to Bai Yuequn could be paid out slowly over the coming years.

But neither had anticipated that after Bai Yuequn's alibi collapsed, his mental state had shattered—he no longer cared about the next few years.

Not long after, Bai Yuequn's camera was brought over.

Huang Qiangmin took it directly to the Image Investigation Team, where technicians plugged the camera into a digital forensics analyzer.

Bai Yuequn had thought his camera password mattered—yet modern police forensics used such devices to directly copy data, auto-generate lists, produce analysis reports, and operate directly on computers or PDAs.

Recent photos were quickly pulled up.

Indeed, they showed Yuan Yutang engaged in high-intensity sports, at birthday parties, and bound in photos.

Finally, a single note: Bai Yuequn had taken multiple clear shots of it.

WeChat:

Without Huang Qiangmin saying a word, a technician nearby immediately entered the WeChat ID into the system.

Today, cyber security units had interfaces directly linked to WeChat, Alipay, and other messaging apps—authorized officers could input a number and view chat logs.

With telecom fraud rampant, cyber security units used similar methods to track down scammers.

The WeChat ID that contacted Bai Yuequn was clearly newly registered.

Its entire contact list was just Bai Yuequn; after he added the account, it sent him a flood of images.

The image investigators immediately saved all the images.

Scrolling further, they found several messages from the WeChat ID pressuring Bai Yuequn and reporting Yuan Yutang's location.

The image investigators recorded the timestamps.

Although many people knew Yuan Yutang's whereabouts, someone still had to track him or find a way to learn his movements.

Even Bai Yuequn himself didn't clearly know Yuan Yutang's exact state at the time.

From here, perhaps something could be uncovered.

After the final location report, once Bai Yuequn executed the plan, the WeChat ID stopped sending any messages.

After reviewing the images, several image investigators fell into deep thought.

Or rather, into silence.

Using images to find the killer was a line of thinking that fit ordinary intuition.

But for image investigators, choosing any path to track the killer meant enormous time and effort.

It's like using surveillance footage to catch a thief—people often report lost phones hoping to view the video, but most of the time, police or forensic investigators just don't bother to watch it.

Because police don't just stop when they see a thief's face in the footage. First, they must confirm the crime actually occurred—that the phone was truly stolen, preferably with clear footage.

This means if the thief knows a little, and slightly obscures himself, the main nearby cameras won't capture the act.

Of course, the victim often already knows and shouts, "It's him!"—but for police, that's insufficient.

Second, once the crime is confirmed, they must track the thief.

If they don't want to stake out, they must follow the surveillance route to find the thief's residence or vehicle. But if the thief lives in a village within the city, or there's a gap in surveillance, or he avoids vehicles with clear license plates, that trail is dead.

Finally, if the phone's value is under 3, 00 or 5, 00 yuan, it usually doesn't meet prosecution standards…

Of course, this murder case must be pursued.

But choosing which investigative path remained a constant source of frustration for the image investigators.

Jiang Yuan walked over: "Can you copy a version of that note's photo to my email?"

"Oh, sure," the image investigator replied quickly, operated the system for Jiang Yuan, and asked: "Are you asking for document examination? Just a few characters—probably hard."

"Yeah, I'll take a look myself first," Jiang Yuan said. He knew Qinghe City had no famous document examiners—but he himself had LV3 Document Examination skill, and didn't think few characters meant difficulty.

For documents, fewer characters have their own perspective.

More characters have their own perspective.

Like this photo—"WeChat:" had only two characters, one symbol, and a string of numbers. Most people would compare them by stroke structure.

Jiang Yuan's focus, however, was on the Arabic numerals.

Arabic numerals seem simple, especially compared to Chinese characters, with seemingly few points for identification—but in modern document examination, they provide immense information.

Modern people write less and less; in economic cases, available text is scarce, yet numbers appear with high frequency.

Not just Chinese criminal investigators study Arabic numerals—any country's forensic experts dealing with document examination inevitably study them.

Extensive research and contributions from global experts have built rich theories and established techniques for Arabic numeral examination.

For example, the way circles are drawn is the most basic form of numeric symbols. In shape, 0, 6, 8, 9 are fully enclosed; 2, 3, 5 are semi-enclosed. In stroke direction, clockwise strokes appear in 2, 3, 5, 8; counterclockwise in 0 and 6.

Just analyzing circle formation can reveal an individual's writing habits.

Also, starting and ending strokes, whether they extend beyond baseline, the tilt angles of different numbers—all are identification points.

For strings of numbers, spacing between digits, connection methods, relative heights—all are identification criteria.

In short, few characters? No problem—there are always methods.

Jiang Yuan sent a message to Huang Qiangmin: "Captain Huang, I need some handwritten materials from Jianyuan Company for document comparison."

Huang Qiangmin: "Who's doing the document examination?"

Jiang Yuan: "I can do it myself—I'll try first."

Huang Qiangmin: