Chapter 95: Persistent Pursuit

The central air conditioning emitted a wheezing sound, failing to deliver much cool air, yet it still acted as if it were working quite hard, much like Zhu Huanguang's son when he studied.

The pothos on the windowsill was growing well, its pale, tender roots inserted into a transparent bottle, looking plump and swollen. The thin, soft root hairs grew in a tangled mess, swirling chaotically in the clear water. The large leaves were gently swayed by the air conditioning, looking exactly like buttocks being slapped by a fitness coach.

Zhu Huanguang looked at Jiang Yuan unconsciously.

Jiang Yuan, who was already a fingerprint expert at a young age, was still sitting in his cubicle chair, staring at the computer screen with burning eyes, his whole body filled with killing intent, his ferocity palpable.

In just the past week, of the six homicide cases Jiang Yuan had matched, four of the perpetrators had already been caught, and they were highly likely to be sentenced to death.

As for the remaining two, most likely they wouldn't escape either.

Moreover, these homicide cases had all been matched within the last three or four days, which meant that in the past few days, Jiang Yuan had sent one person to the afterlife every single day.

How fierce, how terrifying this was.

Zhu Huanguang trembled all over with envy.

He couldn't help but think, if only he could exchange his son Zhu Xiaoguang's college entrance exam scores for these perpetrators, how wonderful that would be. He wouldn't even need to talk about one point for one perpetrator; even ten points for one would allow him to trade back twenty or thirty perpetrators—what a contribution that would be.

Creak.

Jiang Yuan stood up and pushed his chair back.

There weren't many people left in the large office; in the empty room, the sound of the chair was quite jarring.

An expert couldn't help but look up, glancing over with dissatisfaction, but upon discovering it was Jiang Yuan, he curled his lips, lowered his head as if nothing had happened, and continued his work.

Jiang Yuan went back to the dormitory to rest.

Zhu Huanguang noticed that Jiang Yuan had left with his water cup and similar items, which meant he most likely wouldn't be coming back to grind.

For a moment, Zhu Huanguang also wanted to go back to the dormitory to rest. He could scroll through his phone, flirt with young ladies, call home, scold his son Zhu Xiaoguang, and please his wife—thinking about it, that seemed quite happy too.

But just as he was about to stand up, Zhu Huanguang sat back down. He couldn't easily change the goal he had set; otherwise, how would he be any different from Zhu Xiaoguang!

Evening.

Jiang Yuan returned to the dormitory and couldn't wait to get into bed and sleep.

The "fingerprint battle" was too intense; one or two days were fine, but lasting for a week, he felt exhausted not only mentally but physically as well.

At this point, he could understand why fingerprint battles were always two weeks, or three weeks at most. Generally speaking, two weeks was enough to drain an expert's energy and spirit; another week, and it might just be for sightseeing.

Something always had to be given back.

Jiang Yuan's brain didn't have the space to think about much else before he fell into a deep sleep.

The following week was almost a repeat of the previous one.

The difference was that Jiang Yuan's case-solving rate had clearly slowed down, but the types of cases he solved were all homicides.

By the last day of the fingerprint battle, on the leaderboard in the large office, the total number of fingerprints Jiang Yuan had matched reached 18, with 10 of them being homicide fingerprints.

As for the experts ranked behind him, Zhu Huanguang, who had the highest total number of cases solved, had matched 10 fingerprints, but not a single one was a homicide fingerprint.

The expert ranked second on the homicide backlog leaderboard had matched 2 homicide fingerprints. The third place still only had 1.

The total number of matched homicide fingerprints was finally locked at 15, with the rankings being 10, 2, 1, 1, 1.

In other words, out of more than forty experts participating in the fingerprint battle for half a month, only 5 people in total had matched homicide fingerprints.

The number of homicide fingerprints Jiang Yuan alone had matched was exactly twice the sum of the other forty-plus people.

This was an extremely exaggerated number; not only in Shannan Province, but even on a national scale, it was exaggerated to the point of being legendary. So much so that in a very short time, it spread widely.

However, police professionals who heard about this didn't feel strange; in fact, everyone who heard about it showed expressions of surprise and acceptance.

The surprise was at the number of fingerprints Jiang Yuan had matched, while the acceptance was because legendary fingerprint experts were actually all like this.

From a certain perspective, fingerprinting was like solving a puzzle; when a puzzle was thrown out, its difficulty was transmitted down from "everyone can't do it," to "a few can," to "a group can," to "many can."

Being an expert was the process of constantly raising one's own level of transmission.

And when a fingerprint expert crossed a level and reached the top tier of a province, in the provincial bureau's fingerprint battle, they were naturally in a state of "slaughtering" the competition.

It wasn't just the provincial bureau's fingerprint battle; the national fingerprint battle had the same environment. Whenever a powerful fingerprint expert developed a new tactic, they would often achieve overwhelming results, solving many fingerprint problems that couldn't be solved before, thereby matching a large number of fingerprints and subsequently solving many cases that were previously difficult to crack.

At the same time, along with the spread of his reputation came the new tactic he had developed. After more people mastered this tactic, the number of matching fingerprints in the database would rapidly decrease, eventually returning to equilibrium.

Jiang Yuan's "lake-solving" tactic had already spread before the fingerprint battle even ended. Fingerprint experts, including Zhu Huanguang, were actually already studying and developing it.

When the director announced that this year's fingerprint battle had ended, there was a round of applause in the large office.

Many people were looking at Jiang Yuan while clapping.

Only those who had deeply cultivated this field knew how difficult it was to reach this level.

The director also walked up to Jiang Yuan while clapping, nodding with a smile: "Each generation brings forth new talent; I didn't expect to see such a young fingerprint expert this time..."

He rambled on for a solid few minutes, and Jiang Yuan's emotions gradually began to calm down from his initial excitement.

Unlike Captain Huang Qiangmin, the "pie" the director drew was bigger and rounder; it not only had oil but was also sprinkled with sesame seeds, and he could even smell the aroma.

It made Jiang Yuan feel passionate and excited for a moment, wishing he could solve a hundred more fingerprints on the spot.

"Ding!"

Task Completed: Persistent Pursuit

Task Content: During the fingerprint battle, solve as many cases as possible. Current progress (18*10)

Task Reward: Bloodstain Analysis (lv5)

The system sound made Jiang Yuan sober up a bit.

This was something real, more useful than the director's pie. His expression became composed, and he carefully viewed the content of Bloodstain Analysis.

This was a basic skill for a forensic doctor and also a very important link. Theoretically, using bloodstain analysis, one could reconstruct every movement during a murder; it was just that the more complex the situation and the more detailed the reconstruction, the higher the difficulty.

Opposite him, Director Xu looked at the young man in front of him—young, too young. His own eldest grandson was this age, but his grandson was still playing games and staying up late every day. The young man before him, after being praised, remained calm and composed; although a bit excited, he quickly calmed down. He was truly a technical genius.

He stopped drawing the pie and patted the young man on the shoulder.

This scene was captured by a reporter who had been prepared. ===== CHAPTER 96 =====