1995, Starting as a Criminal Investigation Expert

Cases cannot be solved by intuition.

Especially for technical police officers, in schools, this course is called Criminal Science and Technology. It is science; it is either yes or no, and it never relies on vague intuition.

However, this is a damaged, soiled fingerprint with insufficient features.

Even the fingerprints being compared were all extracted using unconventional methods. The remaining five fingerprints were meticulously crafted by Li Shu himself, stroke by stroke.

It can be said that it was based on intuition from the very beginning.

Since that's the case, Li Shu has no reason not to trust his intuition.

"The fourth one."

Before the results of the next two tests were even available, Li Shu spoke without hesitation.

Everyone present was taken aback.

Zhao Yong hurriedly asked, "Li Shu, are you sure?"

As they were talking, the results of the fifth fingerprint comparison came out, and it was someone else's fingerprint again.

Five fingerprints, five results.

Why did Li Shu immediately confirm that it was the fourth one?

Li Shu nodded: "That's right, my intuition tells me it's the fourth one."

Upon hearing this, everyone exchanged bewildered glances.

Especially Liu Weikun, a staunch materialist, who never believed in any metaphysical stuff like intuition.

However, after meeting Li Shu, whom he considered a fingerprint identification expert, his opinion changed. He had to admit that a person's work experience is sometimes very powerful.

And experience is actually intuition.

Han Jianjun and his team understand this best.

There weren't these messy technologies back then; it was all about experience.

A quick glance through the crowd revealed that the guy looked off; something seemed off about him, so he was probably a bad guy.

This is how cases have been handled for many years.

However, this kind of experience often belongs to veterans who have worked for many years.

For a newcomer like Li Shu, who has only been with the company for half a month, it's more like the ramblings of a child.

Logically speaking, it has no credibility whatsoever.

But Li Shu, this newcomer, is different.

In all these years, Han Jianjun has never seen such a strong newcomer.

That's what it means to be assertive!

Which new employee would dare to use their own homemade methods on their first day of work?

Which newcomer could get the director to make the decision to purchase equipment worth millions?

It also reassured an old man like myself that I could entrust the task of comparing half of the fingerprint to him with peace of mind.

It is important to know that this half fingerprint is very likely to be the key to solving the 9.5 case.

That's because, after a brief encounter, Han Jianjun recognized Li Shu's extraordinary qualities and knew of his abilities.

Under these circumstances, there is no reason not to trust Li Shu's intuition.

"The fourth one!"

Han Jianjun patted Liu Weikun on the shoulder and asked him to retrieve the comparison results of the fourth fingerprint.

Fingerprint access.

Because I was in a hurry to register, I didn't enter any information, only the fingerprint card code.

Zhao Yong quickly jotted down the code and turned to look for the fingerprint card.

The crowd followed in droves.

The fingerprint card was found quickly.

During the collection process, relevant information will be available.

"Released prisoners." Zhao Yong glanced at it quickly, but wasn't too excited.

The fingerprints collected all belonged to people who had committed crimes.

"Jin Zhenjiang, born on May 18, 1967..." Zhao Yong hurriedly read out the man's information.

This is a fingerprint collection record transferred from the local police station.

When a person commits a crime in another location and serves their sentence there, after being released, they need to return to their place of household registration with a certificate from the local public security system, register at the local police station, obtain a certificate, and have their household registration reinstated.

As is customary, fingerprints must be collected from such individuals.

Meanwhile, in accordance with regulations, the fingerprints collected by the police station will be transferred to the municipal bureau for archiving.

"Good heavens, that's hooliganism!" Peng Rong glanced at him a few times and exclaimed in a strange tone.

According to the records, Jin Zhenjiang was sentenced to three years in prison in Harbin, Northeast China, for hooliganism.

That's considered mild; it's probably something like whistling indecently at a woman.

You should know that hooliganism is punishable by death.

He was released from prison in August 1992, and this fingerprint was collected at the end of November of the same year.

There were no further records, indicating that he did not commit any further offenses.

Zhao Yong took out the fingerprint card, rushed outside, picked up the magnifying glass, and eagerly began the comparison.

Even after computer comparison, manual verification is still required.

"If you're asking if it's similar, it is, but not completely similar." Zhao Yong looked up and handed it to Han Jianjun.

Han Jianjun didn't even use his horseshoe-shaped glasses; he just squinted to look.

This perspective is about looking at the macroscopic, overall picture.

"You know what, it really does look like it."

He examined each of the six fingerprints for comparison.

Leaving aside the original fingerprint, it was a long, incomplete, and dirty fingerprint with some blurriness. They had studied it before and extracted three usable feature points.

Therefore, this comparison doesn't reveal much.

On the contrary, Li Shu himself speculated that the hand-drawn fingerprints, especially the fourth one, really did look somewhat similar.

Because Li Shu's work is hand-drawn, the blurriness has been removed, so even though it's still a long strip, it looks more intuitive.

"Let's look at the key features," Yang Caixiong interjected.

Ultimately, it comes down to the key features.

Han Jianjun nodded, quickly sat down, picked up paper and pen, and began to compare.

The three basic features they previously identified are quite clear and match up.

He used Li Shu's locator method, and the subtle lines showed some differences, which he speculated might be due to pressure deformation.

Then Li Shu tried to restore it himself and obtained two feature points.

Finally, I tried to speculate and drew an extra feature point by guessing.

Li Shu guessed five fingerprints and drew five sets of fingerprints.

The reason for this speculation is simply intuition.

Now, of the two restored features, one matches, while the other seems ambiguous.

The remaining feature I guessed actually matched up; it's a combination.

On the original fingerprint, this area is unclear. The clearer area in front shows two lines, but whether they eventually merged or one of them ended up is uncertain due to the blurriness.

Li Shu judged that this was a combination and gave this characteristic point.

"If we calculate it this way, then it matches 5." Han Jianjun frowned.

Seven died and eight survived; there were only five of them. They didn't even have a chance to die.

Moreover, the comparison of feature points emphasizes quality over quantity.

If we find a small stick or dot with an extremely low probability, then this one feature point is equivalent to ten feature points.

These five features represent the most probable endpoints, starting points, connections, and divergences.

Of the nine features, these four account for 80-90% of the probability of occurrence.

Normally, this level of accuracy is simply insufficient to determine if fingerprints match.

Li Shu took Jin Zhenjiang's fingerprint and examined it carefully.

The more I looked, the stronger that intuition became.

These past few days, I've been thinking about it day and night. It's as if that half of the fingerprint is branded into my mind. Now that I see the complete fingerprint, it just overlaps with it.

"Captain Han, I think it's him."

Li Shu remained steadfast in his judgment: "I know there aren't enough features, and they don't match, but the problem is that it's an incomplete fingerprint, so at least I think it's worth investigating."

If the match is correct, then there's no problem; we can directly confirm that it's this guy.

Since it's impossible to confirm right now, let's just treat him as a key suspect and let the task force investigate. Ultimately, we can make a judgment from other aspects.

Since the task force has already exhausted all its options, let's give it a try. What if it's him?

Han Jianjun understood what Li Shu meant.

After a moment's thought, he said, "In that case, retrieve the information from the other five results and let the task force investigate."

As he spoke, he beckoned Li Shu to come with him to find Xu Qiang.