The victim appeared to be in her early thirties, with a sweet appearance and well-dressed. The exposed half of her arm was pale, like a peeled radish.

Jiang Yuan observed her anxious expression and speculated that her injuries were not too severe.

He had seen many victims before, and when it came to life-threatening situations, they would always have a sad and desperate expression. Punishing criminals was done to alleviate their grief.

On the contrary, victims who appeared anxious were often involved in cases that the detectives were not too concerned about.

Of course, the two colleagues in the imaging office seemed quite anxious. If it weren't for his newly acquired skills, Jiang Yuan would have probably left the scene.

"Eat a red boiled egg and smoke a cigarette." Jiang Yuan approached with a smile, handing over a basket.

"Oh, Forensic Jiang. I heard you're back, too busy to spare any time." There were three people in the imaging office, one more than the forensic team. They were all young people wearing glasses. The one speaking was the original "Four Eyes" Zhuang Wei. When he first reported to the county bureau more than ten years ago, there were no detectives who wore glasses for a long time, so he earned the nickname "Four Eyes".

Now, after so many years, Zhuang Wei was still a young person in the detective team, but the nickname "Four Eyes" was no longer exclusive.

"I have to deliver some red boiled eggs to the first floor as there are many victims involved this time. I also used yellow paper to wrap the cigarettes and burned them." Jiang Yuan said while handing out the cigarettes.

The three people in the imaging office came over and took them. The two senior police officers picked up the cigarettes, but noticed the frowning woman next to them and quickly put them away.

The youngest police officer, San Dai Si Yan Gao Jian Sheng, leisurely lit a cigarette. Although he was young, he was a local and had already married. He had seen and experienced a lot, and was the least affected.

Unlike the two old bachelors in the office, who wouldn't even dare to smoke in front of a woman of similar age.

"What does it mean to wrap the cigarettes with yellow paper?" The woman saw the video pause and asked anxiously, but her curiosity got the better of her.

"It means rolling the cigarettes on yellow paper." Jiang Yuan took out a cigarette box, placed it on the table, turned it over, and rolled it again.

The woman understood a little, but also a little confused.

Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

"Do you want to enhance the image of this person?" Jiang Yuan asked, revealing his purpose.

In the days to come, if he wanted to conveniently work with the imaging office, he needed to establish a good relationship with his colleagues.

Zhuang Wei nodded and said, "This person is probably a habitual offender. He is very skilled at stealing and knows how to avoid surveillance cameras. We want to enhance the image and take it to the nearby police station. Maybe someone will recognize him."

"There aren't many thieves stealing things on the streets nowadays." Jiang Yuan commented.

Zhuang Wei agreed and sighed, "It's similar to the situation with elderly people left behind in rural areas. The younger ones with learning abilities either become involved in telecommunications fraud or withdraw from the circle. The rest of them are unwilling to learn new things, unable to earn money, and unwilling to find proper jobs. They don't even want to go to big cities."

"That's normal. Older people don't even like to travel, let alone steal things in other places." Gao Jian Sheng, the youngest police officer, spoke from his life experience.

"I can enhance the images for you. Would you like me to do that?" Jiang Yuan politely offered, stating his purpose directly.

Zhuang Wei furrowed his brows slightly. He had been working in imaging for over ten years and rarely had someone intrude into his professional field. So he looked at Jiang Yuan and asked, "Does a forensic expert also study imaging?"

"I learned it when I was doing fingerprint analysis before." Jiang Yuan said nonchalantly, revealing the trick, "Using image enhancement techniques to process fingerprint images, the efficiency and accuracy of fingerprint analysis can be improved."

"Is that true?" Zhuang Wei said and gave up his position in front of the computer.

He was curious to see what the famous rookie forensic expert Jiang Yuan wanted to do.

Jiang Yuan took the seat without hesitation, looked at the surveillance video in front of him, and asked, "Can I choose any image? Is it enough as long as the face is clear?"

"As long as we can recognize the person's face. We were following the clothes earlier." In fact, following surveillance videos and tracking was not an easy task.

First of all, surveillance videos were never all-encompassing. Most art galleries and museums couldn't achieve this, let alone on the streets.

Of course, certain streets in certain cities might be able to, but theft cases rarely occurred in such places.

Secondly, there would always be obstructions on the streets, sometimes tree branches, sometimes vehicles, sometimes too many people blocking the view. In addition, entering buildings and vehicles made it very difficult to track through surveillance videos.

Of course, this didn't apply to stalkers!

This also had to take into account the conscious precautions taken by the person being followed.

For example, if someone disappeared in a blind spot, it would likely take the imaging police officers one or two hours to find them.

It could be said that Zhuang Wei and the others chose to follow the surveillance videos and search for high-definition cameras along the way to capture suitable high-definition images. This method, whether right or wrong, was a waste of manpower, time, and energy.

Many people who lost their phones would go to the police station hoping to find them by watching surveillance videos. Most of the time, they overestimated the abilities, patience, and determination of the police officers handling the case.

But for Jiang Yuan, this process was completely unnecessary.

Zhuang Wei and the others chose this clumsy method because of their lack of technical skills and insufficient ability to pick up girls.Jiang Yuan kept it simple. He found a video clip that revealed the suspect's full face, enhanced the entire video, then examined it frame by frame. He selected a dozen or so frames, aligned the images, performed super-resolution fusion, and finally, denoised and deblurred the images.

In just fifteen minutes, using a few software programs already installed on his computer, he was able to gradually reveal the suspect's facial features and expressions in Photoshop.

The entire process took less than five minutes.

The victim, a woman, clapped her hands in delight and nodded vigorously. "This is exactly how they do it on TV. I knew they were wrong when they said it couldn't be done."

Zhuang Wei and the others watched in awe, their mouths agape.

This was something they had seen on TV but never in real life. It was like watching the Dakar Rally. You know how they drive, but how does that relate to your everyday driving? Is your car good enough? Are your skills exceptional? Or is your co-driver obedient enough?

The same goes for image processing.

In recent years, image investigation has become a prominent field. A slightly skilled image investigator could solve a case.

The last time something like this happened was before the concept of DNA became widespread.

Even the image investigation team at the provincial department was dumbfounded when they saw Jiang Yuan enhancing images during a fingerprint competition. At that time, Jiang Yuan was only at level 3 in image enhancement skills.

In other words, level 3 image enhancement skills were enough to outperform the provincial department's image investigators. Level 5 image enhancement skills... Jiang Yuan couldn't even fully demonstrate them this time.

This was because the skills required for image investigation were too hardcore and too mainstream.

Being hardcore meant it required a high level of basic knowledge, which in turn required a high level of education. And with a high level of education, there were many job options. In this era of mandatory exams for promotions, even those who enjoyed coding might not choose to become a police officer.

On the other hand, if you wanted to make money, mastering top-notch image technology, or level 3 skills, could earn you a hundred times more in big internet companies or professional firms than being a police officer.

Even if you were determined to devote yourself to criminal science and technology, working for a company that sells surveillance equipment would be easier and more profitable. If you were even more skilled, working with big data would be more meaningful. In a small county like Ningtai, where the main streets were not fully covered by surveillance, only two image investigators were needed. In larger cities like Changyang, or even bigger ones, a large team of image investigators would not be enough.

Even image investigation teams at the district level were becoming common in many cities. But ultimately, as the number of surveillance cameras increased, it was impossible to keep up with the workload just by watching. Whether it was data processing or identification, technology was needed to solve the problem.

Under these circumstances, it was impossible for the image studio at Ningtai County Bureau to have any high-level talents.

It was like everyone was a draft animal, and image investigators, the draft animals of their profession, were like horses.

Other professions might use donkeys, mules, or oxen, and they could all produce hardworking, dedicated, and outstanding individuals.

But the profession that used horses couldn't. Whether they were fast, beautiful, long-legged, busty, long-haired, hairless, or had a big butt... any outstanding quality would get them poached by other places. Even dwarf horses could be kept as pets.

So, to put it nicely, whether it was Zhuang Wei in his thirties or Gao Jiansheng in his twenties, they were all nags.

Age might increase, but their breed wouldn't change.

"Print it out?" Jiang Yuan, the racehorse with long legs, finished the image and turned to ask the others.

"Oh, okay, print it out." Zhuang Wei was still a bit stunned.

With a clatter, a photo of the suspect, complete with nose and eyes, was printed out.

The clarity of the photo itself was average, and the printer was subpar, but the face in the photo was clear. It should be sufficient for identification purposes.

Jiang Yuan picked up the remaining eggs and said, "I have to go to another office," before leaving to attend to his own business.

The people in the image office looked at each other, still not fully recovered from the realization that they were all nags.

The woman who reported the case stood up, revealing her pale yellow pencil skirt and even whiter legs. She called out enthusiastically, "Officer, can I add you on WeChat?"

"You can contact them if you need anything. I'm a forensic." Jiang Yuan handed the woman a red egg and left.

The woman held the egg, taking several seconds to understand what being a forensic meant. She loosened her grip, and the egg shattered.