Chapter 92

In the time it took to smoke two cigarettes, he returned to the main office; Yang Ling was there again.

The fingerprint unit at the provincial bureau was, in fact, a marginal department—compared to major divisions like the General Office, Police Inspectorate, Legal Affairs, and Equipment & Finance, it was merely a small section under the Criminal Investigation General Team, like a whitebait in a reservoir: ecologically necessary, sometimes even crucial, yet insignificant in size and attention.

But status isn’t fixed. When a whitebait is caught, its attention spikes—just as a fingerprint expert who solves a case through fingerprints reaches his peak value.

And when a whitebait is caught repeatedly, the situation changes again—like a fingerprint expert solving case after case, murder case after murder case…

Yang Ling now looked at Jiang Yuan as if he were a Baiji dolphin from Taihe River. If Jiang Yuan dropped dead right now, she’d immediately erect a stone monument in his honor.

“Went to smoke? We should’ve set up a smoking room in the building, but there wasn’t enough space, so we moved it outside.” Yang Ling greeted Jiang Yuan warmly: “I came to ask if anyone has any requests—do you find the food okay? The accommodation?”

She spoke directly to Jiang Yuan; if anyone else dared to make a request, she’d still reject it.

“It’s fine, no demands,” Jiang Yuan said, seated before his computer, fingerprint images processed and ready before him—he was clearly preparing to resume work. Indeed, if he sought comfort, Jiangcun’s services were far better than those of the provincial bureau.

Seeing this, Yang Ling was even more satisfied. As long as Jiang Yuan kept working on fingerprints, her mood improved; this fingerprint campaign would be a success, one that would leave an indelible memory across the entire system.

“Everyone, keep working—I won’t disturb you.” Yang Ling said this, but as she reached the entrance of the main office, she pulled out her phone and took two photos of the leaderboard.

At that moment, Jiang Yuan’s name still ranked first on the case-solving leaderboard, with a tally of “9.”

Zhu Yaoguang, in second place, had solved “6” cases—again matching a single fingerprint. Frankly, given Shan Province’s technical capacity, this number was already impressive.

In past campaigns, the top fingerprint expert typically matched only five or six cases, sometimes seven; reaching double digits was extremely rare.

This was because matching six or seven fingerprints already meant working at maximum capacity.

Zhu Yaoguang, in previous years, would only push himself like this during the first two or three days; once he gained or lost his advantage, he’d work only twelve or thirteen hours daily, rarely exceeding fourteen or fifteen.

But this year, due to Jiang Yuan’s sudden emergence, Zhu Yaoguang had been working sixteen, even seventeen or eighteen hours daily for several consecutive days.

At this level of exhaustion, after the campaign ended, Zhu Yaoguang would need to lie flat for one or two months before resuming normal work—then spend the New Year writing year-end summaries and reports, and possibly be sent to Beijing again for another ministry-organized fingerprint campaign.

Fingerprint experts couldn’t sustain such prolonged, immersive work on cold cases; thus, even top experts could only solve a limited number of cases annually.

Of course, the number of solved cold cases could never match the excitement of solved murder cases.

Yang Ling was photographing exactly that.

Beneath the heading “Murder Case Cold Case Leaderboard,” Jiang Yuan’s three solved cases stood out sharply.

Though beneath his name, the other two experts still had only one solved case each, and those behind were empty, Yang Ling still excitedly posted the photo into the “Shan Province Fingerprint Exchange” group.

The group of over four hundred members instantly erupted.

“Did this year’s fingerprint campaign introduce a murder case leaderboard?”

“Solved five murder cases? That’s impressive.”

“Which unit is this expert Jiang Yuan from? Three murder cases? Or did he solve a serial case?”

Yang Ling smiled faintly as she read the group’s chatter, then stepped out of the main office and replied from the corridor: “Jiang Yuan is a forensic doctor from Ningtai County, Qinghe City—he’s excellent at fingerprints. Young, but has already matched multiple cases; this campaign, he’s performed outstandingly. He’s matched three murder case fingerprints consecutively, solving three separate cases.”

There were leaders in the group; Yang Ling didn’t care if they saw it or not—she just wanted to test the waters.

Of course, most members were ordinary trace evidence technicians, all focused on the numbers in the “Cold Case Leaderboard” and “Murder Case Cold Case Leaderboard.”

“Stepping on the Stars”

But when they saw Yang Ling’s reply, the flood of messages paused abruptly.

“In just a few days, he matched three murder cases? What kind of case is this easy to match?”

“This is a bit too miraculous—is he really a forensic doctor?”

“You guys are talking nonsense—what do you mean ‘easy to match’? Wait till I post the image.”

The last speaker was identified as He Guohua, Trace Evidence Technician, Shuidong District, Changyang City.

He, having been among the first to handle this fingerprint, had stored the image on his phone for years and spent years attempting to match it.

Most trace evidence technicians had similar habits—they carried fingerprints of important cases with them, studying them in spare moments, even glancing at them while riding the bus.

When working on other cases and encountering similar patterns, they’d pull them out for comparison.

Though most attempts ended in failure, this behavior was never taught or promoted—it simply existed, inexplicably, nationwide.

No authority could interfere with it. Despite how authoritative police leaders seemed, how many could make their subordinates work this passionately? How many could stop them?

He Guohua posted the bloody fingerprint image and began typing furiously: “Here’s the fingerprint from Jiang Yuan’s latest solved case—a taxi robbery-murder. The bloody print was lifted from the rear window. See if you can match it.”

He Guohua tossed the blood fingerprint image into the group and started typing furiously: “All suspects in this case have been apprehended today. Interrogations went smoothly—they confessed everything. I’ve seen plenty of cases solved purely by fingerprints, but how many of you have ever matched a fingerprint of this level?”

After a pause, someone replied: “Even with this level of blurring, he still made it work—impressive.”

This comment unlocked something—the group erupted again.

More than impressive—I think special processing was used. Did he obtain the original stamp card?

“Just seeing this image matched is exaggerated.”

“The suspect probably didn’t even believe it—his fingerprint was this blurred and he still got caught?”

As more people asked, He Guohua added: “The image was processed multiple times before the match was marked. The difficulty is obvious to anyone who sees it.”

A user named Wang Yulin, Trace Evidence Technician, Criminal Science Team, Wanshang City, also replied: “We deployed several vehicles yesterday and arrested a suspect in another case—also matched by fingerprint. Jiang Yuan’s match was confirmed by the provincial bureau’s official notice.”

Then another chimed in: “Jiang Yuan matched a fire-setting case for us too—the suspect confessed immediately in prison.”

“Show us the fingerprint image.”

“Yeah, post all the matched fingerprint images!”

The topic shifted quickly; the group was full of trace evidence technicians, and soon everyone was requesting fingerprint images.

Yang Ling considered stopping them but decided against it—this group existed precisely for provincial trace evidence exchange; sometimes, even before issuing official notices, she’d notify people via WeChat.

Fingerprint images weren’t frequently shared in the group, but it was common enough.

Several fingerprint images were posted one after another.

Blurred, smeared, blob-like fingerprints appeared timidly, chaotically, stupidly in the group, instantly dousing the group’s rising excitement.

Fingerprint images, clustered in blobs and smears, appeared timidly, chaotically, and dumbly in the group, instantly dousing everyone’s rising chat enthusiasm.

“Specializing in blurred fingerprints?”

“You know what? I actually have two fingerprints I’d love Jiang Teacher to look at—is Jiang Teacher in the group?”

If one or two high-difficulty fingerprints were conversation starters, the continuous stream now made Jiang Yuan’s image vivid and substantial.

Who in this day and age didn’t have a few fingerprints smeared like feces?

Clear, well-preserved fingerprints might not match, but blurred, blob-like ones were even harder to pair.

Yet, some critical case fingerprints were always left behind, passed down, and endlessly attempted by trace evidence technicians.

Yang Ling’s phone rang, as expected.

“Director Yang, our county’s robbery-murder case—the fingerprint is completely blurred. Could you ask Jiang Teacher to take a look? If he can solve it, it would fulfill our deepest wish.” The voice on the other end was stiff but reasonable.

Yang Ling smiled slightly into the phone: “Director Ren, I know this case—it’s in our database… Yes, I specifically highlighted it during this campaign, but we couldn’t match it… Whether Jiang Yuan handled this case, I’m not entirely sure—I’ll check for you… Okay, okay, I’ll notify you as soon as I have news.”

Yang Ling smiled slightly into the phone: “Captain Ren, I know this case—it’s in our database too… Yes, during this fingerprint sweep, I specifically highlighted your case for everyone’s attention, but we still couldn’t match it… I’m not entirely sure if Jiang Yuan, Teacher Jiang, handled this case—I’ll check for you… Alright, alright, I’ll let you know if I get any news.”

Before she could fully breathe, another call came in.

“Alright, I’ll tell Jiang Teacher.”

“No problem, I’ll pass it on to Jiang Teacher.”

“Yes, yes, we’ll definitely give it serious attention…”

Yang Ling answered call after call until her phone grew hot, and the number finally dwindled.

Her mood, however, was soaring.

“If only every day were a fingerprint campaign,” Yang Ling thought naturally.

Inside the main office, Zhu Huan nearly slammed his head into the screen—he was so exhausted, if he didn’t sleep now, he’d truly drop dead.

Zhu Huan drank some water, stood slowly, and before leaving, glanced at the leaderboard again—only to find Jiang Yuan’s tally had quietly risen to “10.”

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