Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

The investigation continues to face numerous obstacles: the victim's identity remains unknown, the suspect's whereabouts are elusive, existing clues are scattered and fail to form a coherent chain, and investigations and review of surveillance footage have yielded no substantial breakthroughs. However, none of the personnel involved in the investigation have lost heart. They perform their duties diligently and wholeheartedly, continuously expanding the scope of the investigation and refining their work based on existing clues. They firmly believe that as long as they maintain a rigorous and meticulous work attitude, leaving no detail overlooked, they will surely overcome the difficulties, identify the suspect, solve the case, and bring justice to the deceased.

The following morning, Wang Shuai led his team to various heavy metal-related enterprises throughout the city, launching a new round of missing persons searches, according to the established plan. Despite the unknowns and difficulties ahead, they had only one goal: to identify the deceased as soon as possible, apprehend the suspects, and bring the truth to light. Meanwhile, other teams within the Criminal Investigation Division were also simultaneously advancing their work; a race against time and a battle against the suspects continued unabated.

While Wang Shuai's team conducted peripheral investigations and Yang Lin and Yang Sen delved into the analysis of physical evidence, investigator Zhang Hui was leading four team members in a long and tedious "tug-of-war" with tens of thousands of missing persons records in the data analysis room of the Criminal Investigation Detachment. As per Lu Chuan's plan, Zhang Hui's team's core task was to connect to the national missing persons database, comparing the deceased's key characteristics—male aged 34 to 36, height 175.3 cm, medium build, long-term heavy metal-related manual labor, dental features, and DNA data—provided by forensic doctor Zhang Kai with the information in the database one by one, striving to quickly identify the deceased and pave a crucial step in solving the case.

Zhang Hui has been engaged in criminal investigation data analysis for six years. He has solved many cases of unidentified corpses by accurately comparing information and has a thorough understanding of the operation procedures and comparison techniques of various databases. However, the difficulty of this task far exceeded that of the past: the deceased had no identification documents, and comparison could only be made based on physical appearance, age, occupation, and biological samples. In the national missing persons database, there are tens of thousands of records that meet the basic condition of "male aged 34 to 36". After adding more detailed conditions such as occupation, height, and dental characteristics, although the scope can be narrowed down, manual verification and cross-validation are still required one by one, which is a huge amount of work.

The data analysis room is a small space of less than 50 square meters. Six high-performance computers are placed against the wall, their screens constantly glowing with a cold blue light. The air is filled with the slight hum of the computer towers cooling the heat and the faint smell of coffee. On the afternoon of the day they received the assignment, Zhang Hui led his team to set up the comparison framework: first, the team members uploaded the deceased's DNA data and dental X-rays to the database, and then started the system for automatic comparison; at the same time, the four of them were divided into two groups, one group was responsible for screening missing persons records that matched the age, height, and occupation characteristics, and the other group was responsible for checking the suspected matching results pushed by the system. Zhang Hui coordinated the overall situation, processed difficult data, and ensured that no one was missed in the comparison work.

"Everyone, give it your all! The deceased's identity is the key to the case. The sooner we identify them, the sooner we'll have the upper hand," Zhang Hui instructed his team members, distributing the compiled list of deceased characteristics to each of them. The team members responded in unison and immediately began working. The sounds of keyboards clicking and mice clicking instantly filled the room. Everyone stared intently at their screens, their eyes rapidly switching between photos, identification information, and details of the missing persons, not daring to relax for a moment.

Team member Xiao Li, who had only been with the company for two years, was handling such a massive comparison task for the first time. In less than three hours, his eyes were sore and his shoulders were stiff. He rubbed his throbbing temples, staring at the dense text and blurry photos on the screen, and couldn't help but complain under his breath, "Brother Hui, this is too exhausting! We have to check five or six pieces of information for each record, and cross-check the place of residence, the location of disappearance, and social relationships. At this rate, when will we ever finish?"

Sitting next to Xiao Li, Lao Zhao sighed, rubbed his aching back, and chimed in, "That's right. My back was already bad, and after sitting and staring at the screen all day, I can barely straighten up now. And a lot of the missing persons' information is incomplete; some only have names and ages, no photos, no occupational records, making accurate comparison impossible. We can only temporarily mark them and review them later, which is such a waste of time." Lao Zhao has been working in analysis for eight years and is very experienced, but even he finds the massive amount of non-standard information challenging.

Zhang Hui was checking a set of suspected matches when he heard this. He looked up at his team members and saw that everyone looked exhausted, their eyes were bloodshot, and their fingers were typing much slower than before. He got up and poured everyone a cup of hot water, saying in a gentle tone, "I know you're all working hard, me too. My eyes are almost blurry. But this is our job. Without the victim's identity, we can't track down the murderer or give the victim's family an explanation. Let's hang in there. We'll filter out the records that match the core criteria first, and then we'll refine and check them one by one. We'll eventually find clues."

Even so, Zhang Hui himself was under immense pressure. He not only had to coordinate the work of the entire team, but also personally verify the most difficult match results, sitting from afternoon until late at night, only managing a quick takeout dinner. The blue light from the screen reflected on his face, clearly showing the bloodshot eyes and the stubble on his chin. He repeatedly checked the deceased's dental X-rays against the suspected individuals' data pushed to the database, fearing that even the slightest oversight would cause him to miss crucial information.

As night deepened, the Criminal Investigation Detachment's office building gradually quieted down, and the lights in other departments were turned off one after another, except for the data analysis room, which remained brightly lit. Team member Xiao Wang yawned, rubbed his eyes, and said, "Brother Hui, it's almost midnight. How about we rest for a few hours and continue tomorrow? I'm starting to see things a bit double, and I'm afraid I'll make mistakes if I keep going."

Zhang Hui glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen; it was indeed 11:40 PM. He pondered for a moment and nodded: "Alright, everyone take a four-hour rest and come back at 4:00 AM sharp to continue working. Xiao Li and Xiao Wang, you go back and rest first; Lao Zhao, Xiao Chen, and I will stay here to do a preliminary marking of the two hundred or so suspected records we screened out today, to lighten your workload a bit."

"Brother Hui, why don't we stay and help out? More people means more help," Xiao Wang said somewhat embarrassedly. Zhang Hui waved his hand: "No need, you young people can't handle this. Get some rest and conserve your energy. We have a lot of information to verify tomorrow, and we can't afford to make any mistakes." Xiao Li and Xiao Wang gave Zhang Hui a grateful look, packed their things, and left the analysis room wearily. (End of Chapter)