National Forensic Doctor

Not only Huang Qiangmin, but Yan Ge and Wang Zhong, who had somewhat caught on, also followed into the forensic office.

Jiang Yuan's desk was to the side of the door, and with a turn in one direction, everyone could see the fingerprint images on Jiang Yuan's screen. Two dense clusters of black and white lines, one on the left and one on the right, resembled scrambled bundles of yarn, dizzyingly complex to observe.

Huang Qiangmin and the other two tacitly moved to stand behind Jiang Yuan, their movements light as civets and utterly soundless.

Across from them, Wu Jun lifted his head and noticed the three's actions, gave a start, then simply buried his head back in his own work. Compared with a rookie like Jiang Yuan, the old guard officers present were all cunning as foxes with keen instincts and mutual familiarity, knowing each other's gut feelings with the slightest shift of their seats.

Jiang Yuan was conveniently wearing headphones, listening to music inside, oblivious to the outside world while comparing fingerprints.

Fingerprint analysis is an extremely focus-demanding task. Especially when working with fingerprints from the database, seldom can one succeed on the first attempt.

The routine method of marking these old fingerprints usually proves fruitless, as the responding evidence officers have surely tried those same or similar steps before.

It's like a tough problem that can't be solved with textbook methods; one must deform the approach. Otherwise, it wouldn't be listed among the tough problems.

But how to modify, and whether the chosen modification is correct and equivalent, is a true test of one's skill.

Jiang Yuan, who had achieved a level 3 arch pattern identification, was far from being overwhelmingly powerful and still had much trial and practice ahead of him.

Having just finished a murder case, the workload at the forensic post was relatively light, giving Jiang Yuan the peace to focus intently on fingerprints.

In Huang Qiangmin's view, Jiang Yuan's actions were reminiscent of his daughter beautifying pictures: those black and white lines kept enlarging and reducing, at times shifting, quite complex in appearance.

Longing for answers, Huang Qiangmin couldn't help but look back at Yan and Xiao Wang.

The two evidence officers looked even more stupid and dumbfounded than usual, staring fixedly at Jiang Yuan's screen like a pair of dazed cats.

With just a glance, Huang Qiangmin understood what was going on.

It was like a wild beast beside its prey, tension seizing the prey's entire body; a boss beside a secretary, tension seizing the secretary's entire body; a wife beside a husband, tension seizing the husband's entire body; a teacher beside a student, tension seizing the student's entire body—Yan and Xiao Wang seemed to be bracing for some impending horror.

Clack, clack.

Jiang Yuan's fingers tapped twice more, confirming a new characteristic point.

Yan Ge and Wang Zhong stretched their necks to look, their expressions akin to elementary students tackling "the chicken and rabbit cage" problem for the first time, a mix of curiosity and apprehension.

Huang Qiangmin glanced at them, feeling an unexpected pang of sympathy. The economy of Shannan Province was average at best, and Ningtai County was a small county town. Yan and Xiao Wang, like many county-level criminal investigation officers, had conventional academic backgrounds, but their knowledge was both broad and shallow. After being assigned to evidence collection, they received little systematic training, at best attending some workshops, fumbling along behind their seniors in getting the job done.

In such an environment, some rely on self-study to grow rapidly, and the province's fingerprint experts have mostly followed a similar path.

However, most, like Yan and Xiao Wang, lacked learning opportunities and occasionally the motivation to learn, ultimately just becoming another cog in the police force.

By contrast, Jiang Yuan seemed more focused and confident.

Captain Huang cleared his throat softly, drawing Jiang Yuan out of his immersion.

"You helped Longli County with a robbery case's fingerprints?" Captain Huang waited for Jiang Yuan to remove his headphones before he asked.

Jiang Yuan paused for a moment and nodded in affirmation.

Captain Huang couldn't help but express his approval, "The college students nowadays are impressive, capable and educated. But... why are all the fingerprints you matched from Longli County?"

Huang Qiangmin drew out his words, his tone clearly hinting at something.

"Maybe they uploaded more fingerprints, I just downloaded theirs," Jiang Yuan couldn't very well admit that he had randomly picked one nearby within the easy targets.

Huang Qiangmin nodded: "Assisting our fellow departments is also good, hmm, are you currently matching fingerprints here?"

"Yes, I picked a cold case at random..."

"Where from?"

"Uh... Still from Longli County." Jiang Yuan was quite adept at reading people's facial expressions. After all, as a forensic doctor, he had to pay attention not just to the faces of the dead but also to the living.

Huang Qiangmin wasn't trying to hide his suspicions at all. He now suspected that Jiang Yuan had some shady connection with Longli County, so he directly asked, "Do you have family in Longli County?"

"No."

"Then... forget it, just process some fingerprint comparisons for our Ningtai County." Huang Qiangmin had a solid and straightforward style, and he directly made his request.

"Okay." Jiang Yuan obediently agreed. Then seeing Huang Qiangmin seemed interested in watching, he said, "Fingerprint comparison might take quite a long time, it's not something that can be done in a moment. Do you have any requirements for the type of case?"

"Prioritize cold cases. Do it well, and when you have results, report directly to me!" Huang Qiangmin wasn't too sure about Jiang Yuan's ability, but in a place like Ningtai County, it was easier to find a man with a six-pack than a forensic doctor with technical know-how.

After giving Jiang Yuan his phone number, Huang Qiangmin nodded to Wu Jun and said, "Tell him about our force ranking."

Then, without paying any mind to Yan Ge and Wang Zhong, Huang Qiangmin left the room.

Jiang Yuan looked at Wu Jun with a face full of curiosity, "Force ranking?"

The name sounded a bit too fantastical.

Wu Jun smiled and said, "It's the performance assessment chart created by our Shannan Province's Public Security Department. It's called that. It ranks each of the prefecture-level cities within the province, then the counties and districts within the cities, and even the towns and villages within the counties. The items assessed are all the same and quite detailed. Just open your police terminal, and you can see it. To use a trendy term, it's our police KPI."

Jiang Yuan was somewhat stunned and said dumbfoundedly, "KPI isn't as 'trendy' as 'force ranking'. They really call it that?"

"Yeah." Wu Jun nodded emphatically and then continued, "The force ranking is now our guiding beacon. Do well, and the leadership gets promoted and awarded collectively. Do poorly, and the leadership has to give a self-criticism at the staff meeting, make guarantees, and if they still don't meet the requirements, they face reassignment or dismissal. And it gets tougher at each level, with specific demands."

Unlike other government departments, the performance assessment mechanisms within the public security system are notoriously complex. Apart from Shannan Province, other provinces and autonomous regions also have similar ranking systems, although the names may vary; for instance, Zhuhai has a "Police Force Capabilities Ranking." (Note)

Qinghe's force ranking is extremely detailed with more than 30 police departments and over 600 sub-items, all assigned different weighted scores, updated in real-time, and subject to competition. For criminal cases alone, there are various categories ranging from homicide to property crimes.

Wu Jun roughly introduced it and then said, "At the level of the county criminal investigation brigade, you might have a total of around 1000 points for the year. Solving one robbery cold case or any of the other seven major types of cold cases can get you about 30 points, and there are additional bonuses for serial cases. Homicide has the highest points; solving a homicide cold case and apprehending the culprit can get you from 70 to 100 points. Property crime cases, like theft, solving one case might earn you about 0.1 to 0.5 points; solving serial cases or apprehending the culprit gives you a bit more..."

"You just mentioned homicide and robbery cases as cold cases, what about current cases?" Jiang Yuan couldn't help but ask.

"Current cases for the eight major crimes have a penalty system," Wu Jun paused and said gravely, "This is truly terrifying. For instance, for a current homicide case, it's 100 points. If a murder occurs and you solve it and catch the person, that's the full 100 points. Two or three cases happen, and you solve them and catch the persons, still, you get 100 points. But if there are two cases and one remains unsolved, you lose 70 points; if both are unsolved, you lose 140, three unsolved takes 210 points, and so on..."

"So, if there are 10 unsolved murder cases, wouldn't you lose 700 points?"

"In theory, yes."

"And in practice?"

"In practice, the city will tolerate up to five unsolved cases, at the county level a maximum of three; if those aren't solved, the criminal investigation brigade captain is due for replacement."

"So if you successfully solve a homicide cold case, doesn't that mean you earn as much as a tenth of the entire brigade's score?" Jiang Yuan was surprised.

Doctor Wu laughed with a "heh": "Don't be modest; you could make up a fifth of the score and even get commended for meritorious service. Our team last year had just over 700 points, including some basic points. Do you know when our team last solved a homicide cold case? Two years ago. And yes, fingerprints are important, but they have limitations and not every case will have crucial fingerprint evidence, and not all matches are guaranteed. Even for other serious crimes, if you can match one, you're the biggest donkey in the production team, the one that gets to choose the female donkeys first."

"No wonder..." Jiang Yuan now somewhat understood Captain Huang's mood; he had practically earned Longli County thirty or forty points.

Wu Jun explained generously: "Helping other units solve cases also earns points; this falls under cooperation. If one plays a key role, you could get a quarter or a fifth of the points... Essentially, solving cases is good, but it's always more satisfying to solve cases for your own unit than for the neighbors."

A quarter was still a lot less than solving a case on your own, but it allowed you to outdo other counties.

Jiang Yuan started to catch on; no wonder Captain Huang wanted his master to introduce him to this force ranking. But next, he didn't know how to choose the cases.

Wang Zhong cleared his throat at this point and said, "I know of a case..."

Note 1: Indeed, some provinces have created "force rankings" with identical names and functions as described, with slight differences.