Chapter 250: Please Help

"Huang Team… do you remember when we last met?" Wan Baoming stepped farther away, clutching his phone, head bowed lower than his shoulders, back hunched.

Deputy Director isn't easy, and he has little to offer—but Huang Qiangmin's appetite is still large.

In Wan Baoming's eyes, there was clearly a glimmer of tears.

Doing something is just too hard.

Jiang Yuan couldn't see Wan Baoming's expression or gaze. He sat on the opposite side of his study, nearly twenty meters from the corner where Wan Baoming had chosen to stand, even struggling to hear him clearly.

Of course, Jiang Yuan had no interest in listening to him bicker with Huang Qiangmin.

He opened his computer himself and uploaded the fingerprint Wan Baoming had brought, beginning simple edits in Photoshop.

After handling fingerprints for so long, Jiang Yuan could already make his own judgments before matching them with software—whether a match was possible, how similar the matching fingerprint might be, all of it was predictable.

Generally speaking, fingerprints with excessive damage could yield any nonsense at all if not first processed with image software.

Of course, a correct match was still possible—but for a technician, playing probability games was pointless. Level-2 trace evidence officers might resort to this method when tackling ultra-difficult prints, but Jiang Yuan had long surpassed that tier.

He was at least level 4. ; even that extra 0. could crush a whole crowd.

The more high-difficulty fingerprints he handled—and the more consistently he succeeded—the more valuable that experience became. Like an ordinary person who serves long enough as president, he gradually learns a few insights.

The fingerprint Wan Baoming brought this time was excessively damaged; by Jiang Yuan's standards, feeding it directly into fingerprint software would yield a random result.

That wasn't surprising—if the difficulty hadn't exceeded level 3, why would Wan Baoming be so humble?

After Wan Baoming spoke with Huang Qiangmin for several minutes, he came over with the phone and whispered, "Jiang Yuan, Huang Team's on the line."

"Got it." Jiang Yuan took the phone.

"Jiang Yuan, how's your rest? Tired?" Huang Qiangmin asked cheerfully over the line.

"Fine. I spent the day laying bricks, broke a sweat." Jiang Yuan replied.

"Sweating's good—it makes the body feel better." Huang Qiangmin laughed. "Wan Baoming brought you another fingerprint? He's riding the wave. How hard is this one?"

"Hard. The chance of a direct match is low." Jiang Yuan said.

"Oh? Can you match it? Can you make it work?"

"That depends on whether the database has any matching prints." Jiang Yuan paused. "Even if it does, it depends on the quality of those prints…"

"Give me a number—what's your confidence level?"

"." Jiang Yuan glanced at Wan Baoming, not hiding much.

From keywords alone, Jiang Yuan guessed Wan Baoming had already consulted fingerprint experts at the ministry.

But honestly, even ministry experts weren't necessarily level 4. There were certainly experts above level 4—possibly even level 5 masters.

But experts still had to consider probability and resource allocation.

Could Wan Baoming even secure a strong enough fingerprint expert—and convince them to commit fully?

Probably not.

More likely, the expert would glance at it briefly, fail to match it quickly, and give up.

Ministry experts were extremely busy. There were over thirty provinces like Shannan, and even experts couldn't resolve more than one ultra-difficult fingerprint per week.

It was like during fingerprint campaigns: a normal provincial-level expert, over a 15-day campaign handling around 100, 00 prints, might match only a few.

The intensity and importance of a campaign were entirely different from routine assistance.

Jiang Yuan told Huang Qiangmin only: "If handled normally within the province, the chance of success is slim."

Huang Qiangmin immediately understood, chuckling: "Alright, hand the phone to Wan Baoming—I'll have him cover the cost of your last fingerprint."

Jiang Yuan smiled: "The last one only took two hours."

"I've been told that—calculate by computing power," Huang Qiangmin said confidently. "Hand the phone to Wan Baoming. Don't feel sorry for him. Changyang City is rich—just a drop leaking from their fingers could fund our small county for ten years."

Jiang Yuan laughed and handed the phone back to Wan Baoming.

Wan Baoming received it reverently, placing it carefully to his ear: "Huang Team, this is little Wan…"

As Wan Baoming spoke, he continued edging toward the corner.

Jiang Yuan returned to his computer. Before the main unit began humming, he faintly caught a few mystical keywords:

"Please help."

"It's truly desperate."

"Huang Team~"

"Could you lend a hand…"

…

After a long while, Wan Baoming brought his overheated phone back to Jiang Yuan's side.

Jiang Yuan: "Hello. Huang Team."

Huang Qiangmin: "Take a look at it. I'll send two people over for training, and we'll borrow some old equipment too. I've left the door open—once you see anything you want, just tell me."

Jiang Yuan replied, slightly embarrassed: "Alright."

"Good. Turn on speakerphone." Huang Qiangmin said.

Jiang Yuan took off the phone and activated speaker mode.

Huang Qiangmin's voice rang out: "Jiang Yuan, handle Wan Director's task well. You still have two days of leave left—don't take it yet. Resume work. Finish this, then take your break. Changyang City's Forensic Center has helped us on many cases before; this chance at cooperation is precious—cherish it…"

"Yes." Jiang Yuan replied formally.

"Wan Director, I'm entrusting Jiang Yuan to you. He's young and inexperienced—if he does anything wrong, bear with him. Any problems, call me directly—I'll reprimand him." Huang Qiangmin droned on before ending the call.

Wan Baoming put away the phone and sighed: "Your Huang Team isn't as easygoing as he used to be."

Jiang Yuan only smiled, saying nothing.

Borrowing a big ox from someone to plow a field is very different from borrowing a cat to catch mice.

A mouse click, and the computer whirred to life.

No matter how high-end the computer, its sound during image rendering is always the same—like that, right?

"Director Wan, mind giving me a brief on the case?" Jiang Yuan asked, seizing the moment.

"This is last year's Maxin Electronics case. A female worker was pushed off the rooftop. At first, it was thought to be suicide, but eyewitnesses claimed they saw two people on the roof, with shoving…"

"The initial response had issues—since they assumed suicide, the scene wasn't well protected. Factory security and workers all rushed up to the roof."

"Second, only eyewitnesses, no surveillance footage. Everyone wore work uniforms, making it hard to identify the suspect."

"Third, workers didn't know each other. Maxin operated on a temporary hiring model: sign a big subcontract, hire a batch, fire them when done, and rehire when the next big order comes. Tracing social connections is nearly impossible."

Jiang Yuan listened, then asked: "So the only evidence is the fingerprint on the clothes?"

Wan Baoming sighed: "The problem now is the fingerprint on the clothes has become counter-evidence. The suspects questioned by detectives were all eliminated by the fingerprint evidence…"

Jiang Yuan chuckled slightly, then asked: "So fingerprints were collected from everyone at the factory?"

"Yes. When the incident happened, the factory sealed off immediately. All entrance and exit surveillance was intact."

Jiang Yuan nodded. That meant the fingerprint database issue was resolved.

From a trace evidence officer's perspective, this was a near-perfect environment for fingerprint matching—you just had to extract the print, then compare.

Thinking of this, Jiang Yuan frowned again: "So the core issue is matching the print. Last year, they couldn't match it—couldn't they just compare one by one?"

Wan Baoming's lips twitched, quickly suppressing a smile: "I mentioned Maxin, but you may not know—it was operating at full capacity, with nearly thirty thousand workers on-site."

Jiang Yuan finally understood.

A factory with tens of thousands of workers—comparing fingerprints one by one was impossible, especially with a print this degraded.

"What method did you use to extract the fingerprint? 502?" Jiang Yuan studied the print, gradually slipping into fingerprint comparison mode.

Wan Baoming understood Jiang Yuan's implication and sighed: "Yes. 502 fuming."

Similar to ninhydrin fuming, 502 glue fuming involves applying chemicals to reveal latent fingerprints from sweat.

But all such methods share a rarely discussed flaw: they're prone to imperfections during execution.

Criminals leaving fingerprints were already careless—but if the print gets damaged or incomplete during extraction, they won't come back to leave another.

Like this fingerprint—so badly degraded—and now trace evidence officers are stuck laboring to match it. They usually complain about whoever extracted it—usually the crime scene investigators.

Jiang Yuan adjusted the fingerprint slightly with image software, and gradually, a clear idea formed.

Energized, he no longer cared about Wan Baoming: "Why don't you go play with your dog? I'll let you know when I have results."

"Alright." Wan Baoming replied, then realized: "Should I wait here?"

"Well… if you're busy, go ahead." Jiang Yuan didn't mind.

Wan Baoming hurriedly said: "That's not what I meant—I mean… will you have results today?"

"Possibly. Right now, the main task is image processing. This fingerprint came from cotton fabric. Cotton fibers are naturally twisted, their cross-section kidney-shaped, and prone to fuzzing—that's why latent fingerprints on cotton show poorly…" Jiang Yuan gave a brief explanation.

Wan Baoming looked at Jiang Yuan: "I've done trace evidence too—I understand the theory, but…"

Jiang Yuan paused, then said: "If you're bored, why not head back to Changyang City and deliver the people and equipment Huang Team requested? Go, come back, and I'll likely have results by then."

He had already processed half the image and judged the clarity acceptable. Since Changyang had collected fingerprints from everyone at the factory, the database was complete—matching probability had increased dramatically.

In fact, if under these conditions the fingerprint still couldn't be matched, the case itself would be highly significant—and valuable.

So Jiang Yuan's answer was firm.

Wan Baoming thought Jiang Yuan was arrogant—but from his expression, he saw no trace of arrogance.

"Alright. I'll head back and report to my superiors. I'll return for your good news." Wan Baoming suppressed all his petty emotions.

His philosophy: if you can deliver results, I'll respect you.

With this mindset, Wan Baoming himself was mediocre—but he earned the recognition of many criminal investigation experts, becoming Deputy Director of Changyang City's Forensic Center.

Internally, Wan Baoming was also a respected leader, precisely because he respected technical expertise.

As long as Jiang Yuan could deliver results, Wan Baoming could accept Jiang Yuan's partnership with Huang Qiangmin.

But if he failed, Wan Baoming would turn around and lecture both Huang Qiangmin and Jiang Yuan.

Outside the door, in the car, Wan Baoming immediately began speaking in the group chat:

Daily lethargy: 【He's picking up last year's cold case again and found Jiang Yuan. Super difficult fingerprint case—didn't expect Jiang Yuan to agree outright. Now he's going to brick-lay to earn fingerprint access…】

South-North Campaign: 【I've only heard of brick-laying for 30 days, then heading to the club on the 31st. What the hell is brick-laying for fingerprint access?】

Daily lethargy: 【Team Leader Huang set some conditions—I need to gather resources for him. Can't let people work for free. Wait, what the hell is this brick-laying-for-the-club thing?】

South-North Campaign: 【Brick-laying is so exhausting. If it's not for the club, it's just a tearjerker.】

Daily lethargy: 【What if there's no 31st?】

South-North Campaign: 【You're going to brick-lay, not rob a bank. Don't you need two months to save up enough?】

Daily lethargy: 【That makes sense…】

South-North Campaign: 【What conditions did Team Leader Huang set? Why do you need to gather resources?】

Daily lethargy: 【A few technicians, some equipment, and the techs take a crime scene vehicle over.】

South-North Campaign: 【That good? New vehicle again?】

While scrolling on his phone in the car, Daily Lethargy sat up and typed with a frown:

Daily lethargy: 【Wait, who the hell are you @South-North Campaign?】

South-North Campaign: 【I'm just a man who's traveled far and wide, gathered some experience, and enjoys sharing it.】

Ningtai County Criminal Investigation Team.

Sitting in the office, bored and chatting, Liu Wenkai let out a long sigh, then looked up at the squad's political instructor: "Let's pick out a couple of cold cases and launch a major push."

"Seeking trouble on your own? Finished your current cases?" the instructor scoffed.

Liu Wenkai chuckled softly: "I got a rumor—the team's getting a few new temporary workers, tech specialists."

"That good?" the instructor was stunned: "We've had no slots for years. Where'd you scam them from?"

"Support from Changyang City's Criminal Investigation Team. Probably."

"Reverse secondment?"

"Probably. Want them?" Liu Wenkai said calmly: "If you want people, you need projects."

"Alright, alright, let's open cold cases, open cold cases." The instructor said it twice. For a squad always buried in work, nothing was more welcome than more hands.