Chapter 96: Where is Dad?

After a dinner where the ceremony outweighed the content, fingerprint experts from various places left the venue one after another, returning to their dormitories, and some even went straight home.

Experts who had solved homicide cases, as well as experts like Zhu Huanguang who ranked high in fingerprint matching, were specifically kept behind for photos and interviews.

Some might receive merit and awards, but for now, no one was really discussing this topic.

Jiang Yuan was still eagerly studying the lv5 Bloodstain Analysis.

Bloodstain analysis was very useful, but the stimulation of lv5 was even stronger.

Thinking of Dazhuang's enthusiasm for dog food, one could almost imagine how the sprayed bloodstains would connect to the perpetrator in what form.

"Expert Jiang, please come this way." Another reporter appeared, grabbed Jiang Yuan, and started taking photos.

Then, the reporter asked a series of questions that previous reporters had already asked and asked Jiang Yuan to change into various police uniforms borrowed for the occasion to take a series of photos.

Li Zemin took the opportunity to hug Jiang Yuan and take many photos.

"Hey, you're going back already? This fingerprint battle ended really fast." Li Zemin, holding a Zhonghua cigarette, patted Jiang Yuan's shoulder with a worried face and made a reverse-V sign to the reporter in front.

Behind the two of them was the leaderboard printed out by the fingerprint station.

On the left was the "Homicide Backlog Leaderboard," with Jiang Yuan ranked first with 10 results; Li Zemin was ranked 35th with 0 results.

On the right was the "Backlog Case-Solving Leaderboard," with Jiang Yuan ranked first with 18 results; Li Zemin was ranked 35th with 0 results.

Both of them looked very happy, taking many more photos in front of the leaderboard. Li Zemin said he wanted to take them back to show his brothers, to show that he had participated in this fingerprint battle by "slaughtering" the competition alongside the number one ranked fingerprint expert.

As for his own ranking and number of results, that wasn't important.

Jiang Yuan also felt quite emotional, patting Li Zemin back. The 14 days of the fingerprint battle were a very simple and happy 14 days. He just did fingerprints, occasionally went out for air, chatted, and at night, slept soundly, never thinking about how many more perpetrators would die because of him.

The black and white of the world rarely appeared so clearly before Jiang Yuan, and he was influenced by it.

During this time, Jiang Yuan didn't have to worry about half-grown boys suddenly rushing out on the road to grab his arm and wanting to play, like he did at school. Nor did he have to wander around aimlessly with boring second-generation or third-generation rich kids at home, or be caught by strange people trying to sell him strange investment projects.

Li Zemin was also a very good companion. He wasn't as obsessed with fingerprints as Jiang Yuan, was almost always on call, could follow along just by opening a pack of cigarettes, and had a relatively easygoing personality—a rare type of "young-minded" person among the group of experts.

Good-looking romance

"If you have time, come to Liyuan City to play. Our side is near Pingzhou; there are big mountains and grasslands, and the meat is really delicious..." Li Zemin invited Jiang Yuan enthusiastically, saying goodbye with reluctance.

He had no results, so naturally, there were no interviews or merit awards. On the other hand, while being away from home for half a month was indeed quite cool, when it was time to go back, he still missed his family and friends. His clothes were smelly, he was tired of the food in Changyang City, and the cigarettes he brought out were... he needed to find a place to hide them.

Jiang Yuan saw Li Zemin off, pretending to be tough, stuffed two packs of 3-series Zhonghua cigarettes into his hand, and then watched the ride-hailing car drive away, suddenly feeling a little bit sad. The liveliness during the fingerprint battle and the celebratory liveliness of people coming and going at this moment felt completely different.

"Jiang Yuan. Congratulations."

Just as Jiang Yuan was feeling a bit lost, Liu Jinghui appeared behind him.

"Director Liu?" Jiang Yuan was a bit surprised.

To put it bluntly, Jiang Yuan didn't like Liu Jinghui as a person.

Especially his approach of using evidence while not trusting it, which was very rare in today's police force.

However, seeing an acquaintance like Liu Jinghui at this moment felt extremely comfortable to Jiang Yuan, even feeling just right.

"A gift for you." Liu Jinghui smiled and handed Jiang Yuan a bag: "Congratulations on ranking first in results. This time, it should at least be a second-class merit."

He pointed to the "Homicide Backlog Leaderboard" behind them: "In previous fingerprint battles, experts who could match four or five homicide cases would directly get a second-class merit. You're amazing this time—10 homicide cases. I see the leaders are all grinning from ear to ear. The criminal police teams in various places are also busy enough. Counting by person-times, thousands of people must have stayed up all night."

"Have they all caught the people?" Jiang Yuan couldn't help but ask.

"Pretty much. Unless they have other cases on their backs, basically, they can find the main culprit." Liu Jinghui seemed very familiar with such cases: "The characteristic of old backlog cases is mainly that they are difficult to solve; catching them is not a worry. After a long time passes and the case remains unsolved, many perpetrators start living ordinary lives of daily necessities. From what I've seen, the more suspicious the perpetrators of these major cases are, the more they like this kind of trivial, ordinary life. When the arrest team arrives, their anger... it's as if the life they dreamed of has collapsed; there's even little resistance..."

Liu Jinghui took a deep breath, enjoying it, and smiled cruelly: "I like watching them cry and wail the most."

Jiang Yuan listened with fascination, feeling that he should also like watching it.

After a while, Jiang Yuan realized the bag he was holding and quickly picked it up, asking: "You even brought a gift; what gift is it?"

"A blackout eye mask, so you can be more comfortable when sleeping. A small token of my appreciation, please don't mind." Liu Jinghui smiled very sincerely.

Jiang Yuan opened it to see, and it was indeed a blackout eye mask; it didn't look very expensive. After hesitating for a moment, he accepted it.

Moreover, he felt a bit strange in his heart. He hadn't been resting well in the dormitory here and had thought about getting an eye mask every time, but he would forget when working and remember when sleeping...

As a result, he had thoughtfully sent it over?

No matter what, he was a fourth-level senior police officer of the provincial bureau. Since he had sent it over, the matter itself was more valuable than the blackout eye mask.

"What are your plans next?" Liu Jinghui asked.

"I'll wait for the superiors' arrangements," Jiang Yuan said.

"In that case, you'll probably take photos for a few more days, then be in the newspapers for a few days, then attend various meetings, participate in award evaluations, and perhaps go to some units to give speeches. The most troublesome thing is that you'll likely be sent to participate in some super-complex cases." Seeing Jiang Yuan's calm expression, Liu Jinghui continued: "The complexity I'm talking about isn't the complexity of the case, but very likely the complexity of interest distribution."

Jiang Yuan was stunned and asked: "What kind of case?"

"You should ask, why you?" Liu Jinghui gave Jiang Yuan a moment to think, then said: "We agreed, the Wu Longshan wild man case, remember? You said you'd wait until the fingerprint battle ended, and now the fingerprint battle has ended..."

"Director Liu, I didn't agree." Jiang Yuan shook his head with a laugh. Although homicides and such were high-end, Ningtai County certainly had plenty of homicides; there was no need to run around with the unlikable Liu Jinghui.

Liu Jinghui looked deeply at Jiang Yuan, seemingly guessing his thoughts, and said calmly: "The Wu Longshan wild man case is quite famous in our province; it's much more interesting than the homicides in your Ningtai County. Moreover, how many resources can the county bureau have? In the end, you won't be able to escape any of the meetings you're supposed to attend, and who knows where you'll be borrowed to..."

Jiang Yuan had to admit that this guy Liu Jinghui was not only good at reasoning but also a bit good at persuading people.

"Alright, I'll go make preparations. I'll handle your county bureau. Let's take a trip to Wu Longshan Mountain and come back; calculating the time, it'll be just right for you to be awarded medals and such, comfortably." After Liu Jinghui finished speaking, he turned and left.

Sleeping comfortably for a night with the blackout eye mask, the next morning, Jiang Yuan saw Liu Jinghui and a Great Wall Cannon at the dormitory entrance.

The blue Great Wall Cannon had a covered cargo box, with dirty paint, broken skin, and old tires, looking like it had long experienced wind and frost.

Jiang Yuan had called his master Wu Jun last night and had already decided to follow Liu Jinghui to Wu Longshan Mountain. But looking at the tragic state of this Great Wall Cannon, he had doubts about his so-called "abundant resources."

"The bureau is just like this; if there's something to use, they won't give you a new or good one." Liu Jinghui signaled Jiang Yuan to get in the car and drove off.

"Is it just the two of us?" Jiang Yuan asked helplessly.

Liu Jinghui looked ahead and said: "If we can find something, we'll call people; if we can't find anything, it won't be too embarrassing, right?"

Jiang Yuan... I believe your ghost.

Just as Jiang Yuan was following Liu Jinghui to Wu Longshan Mountain, criminal police from many places, and even experts from outside the province, had all run to Changyang City.

Things like "lake fingerprints" were not unique to Shannan Province. In one fingerprint battle, 14 days, 10 homicide cases were wiped out, shocking the police world while also attracting many experts to imitate.

But for well-known reasons, fingerprint experts were usually not very familiar with those image enhancement techniques, such as Fourier transforms for different categories, like non-periodic continuous signal Fourier transforms, periodic continuous signal Fourier series, non-periodic discrete signal discrete-time Fourier transforms, and periodic discrete signal discrete Fourier transforms, etc., and were not very proficient in mastering them.

Therefore, after trying for a few days, everyone ran to Changyang City, trying to find Jiang Yuan to learn.

And most experts thought that Jiang Yuan might have mastered a relatively simple technique that could relatively easily perform some transformations on lake fingerprints.

The thoughts of the criminal police and criminal police leaders who rushed here were even more direct: asking Jiang Yuan to do a few fingerprint comparisons, or helping to process fingerprints, were all excellent.

But no one expected that the fingerprint battle had just passed, and where was Jiang Yuan? Where was he? ===== CHAPTER 97 =====