After smoking two cigarettes, Jiang Yuan returned to the main office and Yang Ling was there again.

Find the original at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

The fingerprint department of the provincial bureau was actually a relatively marginalized department. Compared with the major departments such as the office, police inspectorate, legal system, equipment finance, etc., the fingerprint department was just a small unit at the department level under the criminal investigation team, which was equivalent to the white stripe in the reservoir. In the whole ecosystem, it was necessary to exist. Sometimes, it could even play a significant role. But in terms of size and attention, it was really not worth mentioning.

However, the status was not always the same. When a white stripe was caught, the attention it received would reach its peak. It was just like a fingerprint expert who solved a case through fingerprints. Then, his value would also reach its peak.

When a white stripe was continuously caught, the situation would change again. It was just like a fingerprint expert continuously solving cases...

Now, Yang Ling looked at Jiang Yuan like a white finless porpoise in the Taihe River. If Jiang Yuan dared to die suddenly, she would dare to erect a monument for him.

"Did you go smoke? Actually, we should have a smoking room in our building. Later, when there was not enough space, it was moved outside." Yang Ling greeted Jiang Yuan and asked kindly, "I came to ask if everyone has any recent requirements. Do you have any food or living habits?"

She was looking at Jiang Yuan. If other people were willing to make requests, she could still deny them.

"It's pretty good, no requirements." Jiang Yuan sat in front of the computer with processed fingerprint images in front of him, looking like he was ready to continue working. He really was ready to continue working. If he pursued a comfortable life, the services in Jiang Village were better than those in the provincial bureau.

Yang Ling was even more satisfied when she saw this. As long as Jiang Yuan was willing to continue doing fingerprints, she would be in a good mood. This fingerprint battle would also be a successful one, a memorable one for the whole system.

"Then everyone continue working. I won't disturb you." Yang Ling said and took out her phone to take two photos of the ranking list when she walked in front of the main office.

At this time, Jiang Yuan's name still ranked first on the fingerprint identification ranking list with a score of "9".

The second-ranked Zhu Yaoguang's score was "6", and he had once again identified a fingerprint. To be honest, with the technical strength of Shannan Province, this number was already very impressive.

In previous years, the number of fingerprints identified by the first-ranked fingerprint expert in a fingerprint battle was usually only about five or six, sometimes even reaching double digits.

The reason why it was always like this was that it was almost impossible to identify six or seven fingerprints that were already rolled up. Like Zhu Yaoguang, in previous years, he would only work for twelve or thirteen hours a day after the first two or three days of the fingerprint battle, and rarely worked more than fourteen or fifteen hours.

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

Rolled up to this extent, after the fingerprint battle ended, Zhu Yaoguang would have to lie flat for one or two months before he could work normally again when he returned to the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Changyang City. During that time, he would have to celebrate the New Year, write various year-end summaries and reports, and work normally for another one or two months. Maybe he would have to go to Beijing to participate in the fingerprint battle organized by the ministry.

Of course, the number of fingerprints identified by ordinary fingerprint experts would never be as exciting as the number of fingerprints identified in criminal cases.

Yang Ling took photos of this as well.Under the words "Ranking of Fingerprint Identification," Jiang Yuan's three victories were quite eye-catching.

Although the other two experts under his name still only had one victory each, and even no one else behind them, Yang Ling still excitedly posted the photos in the "Shan Nan Province Fingerprint Exchange" group.

The group of over 400 people instantly boiled over.

"Did they specially make a ranking for fingerprint identification battles this year?"

"Breaking five fingerprint identifications? That's impressive."

"Who is this 'Jiang Yuan' expert from? Three fingerprint identifications? Did he break a series of cases?"

Watching the discussions in the group, Yang Ling smiled and walked out of the office and into the corridor. "Jiang Yuan is a forensic from Ning Tai County in Qinghe City. He does fingerprints very well. He is relatively young, but has already solved more cases than most. In this fingerprint identification battle, Jiang Yuan consecutively solved three fingerprint identifications and broke three cases."

There were leaders in the group, but Yang Ling didn't care if they could see the information or not. She just wanted to spread the news.

Of course, most of the people in the group were ordinary trace examiners, and they were more interested in the results of the "Ranking of Fingerprint Identification" and "Ranking of Trace Identification."

In the midst of the many chat messages, after seeing Yang Ling's response, they all paused for a moment.

"He solved three fingerprint identifications in just a few days? What kind of cases are so easy to solve?"

"That's a bit too amazing. Is he really a forensic expert?"

"If you say that, I won't listen. What do you mean by 'what kind of cases are so easy to solve'? Let me post the picture."

The last person to speak was He Guohua, a trace examiner from Shui Dong District, Chang Yang City.

He probably had the fingerprint image stored on his phone, and in just a moment, he posted a bloody handprint from the back window of a taxi that Jiang Yuan had just solved for robbery and murder. He said in the group, "This is the fingerprint image that Jiang Yuan just solved. See if you can match it."

As a district trace examiner, He Guohua was one of the first technicians to come into contact with the fingerprint, and had been comparing it for several years. Most trace examiners have similar habits. They carry the fingerprints of cases they attach importance to with them and study them when they have free time. Sometimes, they even take them out to look at them when they are bored on the bus.

Although many people's attempts ended in failure, this behavior is prevalent throughout the country, and even authoritarian institutions cannot interfere with it. Despite the fact that leaders in the law enforcement system always seem to be decisive, how many leaders can make their subordinates work so hard on something? How many leaders can stop their subordinates from working so hard?

After He Guohua threw the bloody fingerprint image into the group, he began typing, "The suspect in this case has already been arrested today. The interrogation went smoothly, and he basically confessed everything. I have seen many cases solved purely by fingerprint identification, but how many of them were matched at this level?"

The group remained silent for a while.

After a while, someone said, "To be able to do this in Hucheng, it's really impressive."

This comment opened the floodgates, and the group became lively again.

"It's not just impressive, I think they need to do special processing, or maybe they adjusted the original ink pad."

"Just looking at this picture and matching it is a bit exaggerated."

《Treading on Stars》"I bet the suspect never thought he'd be caught, with his fingerprints all messed up like that, right?"

As more people joined He Guohua's question, he continued, "It was only after the image was processed multiple times that the match was made. It was so difficult, but still visible."

A person with the title of Wang Yulin from Wanxiang City's Criminal Science Investigation Team spoke up, "We also sent out several cars yesterday and arrested a suspect for a case. The fingerprints matched as well. Jiang Yuan made the match, and the provincial department sent a letter."

Immediately after, someone else chimed in, "Jiang Yuan also matched a fingerprint for us in an arson case. The suspect confessed in prison."

"Let's see the fingerprint images."

"Yeah, let's see the images of the matched fingerprints."

The topic quickly shifted, and the group was filled with forensic investigators. Soon, everyone was asking for the fingerprint images.

Yang Ling thought for a moment but didn't stop them. This group was created for the exchange of information among forensic investigators within the province. Sometimes, she would even notify people through WeChat before sending out official letters.

Sharing fingerprint images wasn't a frequent occurrence in the group, but it happened often enough.

Several fingerprint images were posted one after another.

The messed-up, clumped, and puddle-like fingerprints timidly, sizzlingly, and foolishly appeared in the group, instantly deflating everyone's chatting mood.

"Is it really that exaggerated?"

"Specializing in messed-up fingerprints, huh."

"You know, I actually have a couple of fingerprints that I wanted to show Teacher Jiang. Is Teacher Jiang in the group?"

If it were just one or two difficult fingerprints, people would treat them as conversation pieces. However, the continuous release of fingerprint images made Jiang Yuan's image in the group more well-rounded.

Who doesn't have a few messed-up fingerprint images in their possession these days?

It's not guaranteed that clean, easy-to-process fingerprints will match, and the difficulty of matching messed-up, clumped fingerprints is even higher.

Even so, some crucial fingerprints in major cases have been left behind, or even inherited, and continuously sent out for attempts by forensic investigators.

As expected, Yang Ling's phone rang.

"Director Yang, can we show that messed-up fingerprint from our county's robbery and murder case to Teacher Jiang? If he can figure it out, it would really put our minds at ease." The very stiff but reasonable request came from the other end of the phone.

Yang Ling smiled slightly and said into the phone, "Captain Ren, I know about the case you're talking about. It's in our database too... Yes, I specifically mentioned this case during our fingerprint competition, but we couldn't find a match... I'm not exactly sure if Jiang Yuan or Teacher Jiang has handled this case. Let me ask for you... Alright, I'll let you know if there's any news."

After hanging up, Yang Ling took a deep breath.

Before she could catch her breath, another call came in.

"Alright, I'll let Teacher Jiang know."

"No problem, I'll pass the message to Teacher Jiang."

"Of course, we'll definitely pay more attention to it..."

Yang Ling answered several calls in a row, and her phone became hot from the continuous calls.

Her mood was at a high point.

"If only there were fingerprint competitions every day," Yang Ling thought to herself.

In the large office, Zhu Huanguang nearly bumped his head into the monitor as he dozed off. If he didn't sleep now, he might actually die from exhaustion.

Zhu Huanguang took a sip of water and slowly got up. Before leaving the room, he glanced at the leaderboard and saw that Jiang Yuan's achievements had unknowingly become "10."

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