Ever since Lu Chuan acquired advanced fingerprint identification skills, he actually hadn't really utilized them properly.

After the Song Kun murder case was solved, Lu Chuan joined the Li Donglin special task force.

For nearly two months, most of his energy had been focused on the task force.

This time, being able to sit down and seriously work on fingerprint identification analysis was sure to prove significantly useful.

"Officer Lu?"

Lu Chuan, who was reviewing the unsolved case fingerprint database, was startled by a voice nearby.

"Hello, Officer Lu, my name is Gao Wenxiang, and I'm with the High-tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team."

Lu Chuan nodded. The High-tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team...

Lu Chuan only knew the team leader, Yuan Shaokang, and Song Kun's apprentice, Li Kai.

He hadn't interacted with this Gao Wenxiang before.

"Old Song's case... thank you for your help."

Although everyone participating in the fingerprint campaign knew Lu Chuan was from the Criminal Investigation Team, few knew his specific achievements.

But Gao Wenxiang was different. Song Kun himself was from the High-tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team.

The Song Kun murder case being solved was thanks to Lu Chuan.

"No need to thank me, it's what I should do."

The two shook hands, now acquainted.

"Ah... Old Song..."

Gao Wenxiang obviously had a good relationship with Song Kun and lamented his death.

"Right, last time the fingerprints from our team, the ones from the Gao Sheng disappearance case, I collected them, but the identification analysis didn't work out, so we had to ask Supervisor Liu for assistance."

Lu Chuan nodded, realizing that the fingerprints on the electric scooter in the Gao Sheng disappearance case were collected by Gao Wenxiang.

To be honest, the collection standard needed improvement.

"Is this your first time participating in the fingerprint campaign, Officer Lu?"

Gao Wenxiang glanced at Lu Chuan's computer screen and leaned over.

Lu Chuan nodded: "I only started working last year, so yes, it's my first time participating in the fingerprint campaign."

Started working last year?

Gao Wenxiang knew Lu Chuan but didn't know he had only been working for a little over six months.

"Then Officer Lu is truly young and promising!"

Lu Chuan smiled without explaining.

Gao Wenxiang's social skills were more than Lu Chuan expected.

"Let me tell you, brother, this fingerprint campaign... isn't something you play like this."

Hm?

After chatting for a while, getting fairly acquainted, Gao Wenxiang called himself brother: "Brother Gao, what more is there to say?"

"It's nothing much, just a little tip."

Gao Wenxiang pointed at his screen and then Lu Chuan's: "The cases in the unsolved case library are sorted by time."

"Cases from before last year have basically appeared in the fingerprint campaign every year, but they never matched successfully."

"So, it's best to focus our efforts on this year's cases, as there's a higher chance of matching."

"And..."

Gao Wenxiang paused, taking out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket: "Shall we step outside?"

Evidently, Liu Guodong hadn't shared these little tricks with Lu Chuan, who nodded: "Let's go, I'll offer mine."

Saying so, he took out a pack of Chunghwa from his bag, leaving Gao Wenxiang momentarily stunned.

It seemed that newly recruited criminal investigators were something else these days.

They had already reached the status of smoking Chunghwa?

Silently returning his pack of Baisha, Gao Wenxiang and Lu Chuan got up and left their desks.

Clack!

Lighting a Chunghwa cigarette for Gao Wenxiang, who squinted his eyes slightly, somewhat pleased.

"The taste of Chunghwa is indeed quite pleasant..."

Lu Chuan lit one for himself, holding it in his hand without taking a puff.

For Lu Chuan, the social function of smoking clearly outweighed his need for nicotine.

"What were you saying earlier, brother?"

"Oh, you mean that," Gao Wenxiang took another drag: "Our organized fingerprint campaign rarely solves major cases like homicides or other big unresolved cases, so to make the results look better, the city bureau includes some relatively simple cases of theft, arson, or other minor incidents each year."

"So, when you go back to match, focus more on these kinds of cases; they're easier to match successfully."

After finishing their cigarettes, the two returned to their desks.

In the quiet conference room, only the whirring of computer fans could be heard.

Everyone was in the zone.

The most important thing in a fingerprint campaign was not how strong your fingerprint identification analysis skills were.

Since everyone's level was about the same, in Liu Guodong's absence, whoever succeeded in matching was somewhat a matter of luck.

So, for everyone, the most important thing was selecting the fingerprints to match.

This resulted in an interesting phenomenon.

Among the eighteen participants in the campaign, aside from Lu Chuan's computer screen, everyone's screens displayed cases from this year.

Moreover, everyone focused on three arson cases, four theft cases, and two robbery cases.

Choosing the clearest fingerprint from these cases was the top priority.

Of course, no one was in a hurry.

Selecting fingerprints wasn't something that could be done quickly.

Even after selecting, further preprocessing of the fingerprints was required, which took more time.

While the city bureau might include some simple cases to ensure there were results from the fingerprint campaign, they weren't cases you could solve at a glance.

There was still a level of difficulty.

Lu Chuan wasn't too concerned about this.

The advanced fingerprint identification analysis gave Lu Chuan great confidence.

Thus, from the start, Lu Chuan didn't intend to compete with the other seventeen colleagues for those few simple cases.

Lu Chuan directly focused on homicides in the unsolved case library.

Thirteen homicides, that was the total number of homicide cases for this fingerprint campaign by the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau.

Of course, this didn't mean that there were only thirteen unsolved homicide cases in the history of Haizhou City; rather, there were only thirteen cases with fingerprint evidence.

Others didn't even have fingerprints at the scene.

The first case Lu Chuan selected was a homicide from seven years ago that occurred in the High-tech Zone.

The specific details of the case didn't concern Lu Chuan; his focus was on the fingerprints collected at the scene.

The fingerprint was only half the size of a normal one, with heavily worn edges and distorted ridge lines.

Although the clarity was acceptable, due to excessive pressure, the fingerprint was severely twisted and deformed, making identification difficult.

The homicide fingerprint, and a case from seven years ago, had definitely undergone multiple rounds of investigation by the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau.

It might have even been assessed by experts from the provincial department.

If it remained unsolved, there were two possibilities.

First, the owner's information wasn't in the fingerprint database.

Second, the pre-processing of the fingerprint wasn't thorough enough, leading to unsuccessful identification analysis.

"This is it!"

Thirteen homicides, this was the challenge Lu Chuan set for himself in this fingerprint campaign.

Of course, Lu Chuan's goal wasn't to solve all thirteen cases but to conduct identification analysis on all the involved fingerprints.

As for how many could be successfully matched, that would depend on fate.

PS software was Lu Chuan's main weapon in this endeavor.

Compared to other image processing software available on the market, PS was relatively powerful, especially in layered image processing, offering significant advantages.

However, this software also had its own drawbacks: being overly integrated, leaving little room for personalized adjustments by users.

Image processing, in essence, is a form of data processing.

Noise reduction, sharpening, adjusting contrast up or down; sometimes Lu Chuan needed to manually set the parameters.

At such times, PS software wasn't as user-friendly as some more open image processing software.

Then, the quiet conference room was filled with the rapid sound of keyboard typing.

Many people turned to look.

Gao Wenxiang glanced over at Lu Chuan, witnessing an unforgettable scene.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.