Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 73

“Discrete mathematics is a mathematical discipline that studies the structure of discrete quantities and their interrelationships. Discrete mathematics can also be said to be the basic core discipline of computer science as it’s the bridge between mathematics and computer science.”

This was what Xing Conglian had read aloud when he was reading the explanation for “Discrete Mathematics”, and then he was interrupted by Wang Chao.

“I’m familiar with discrete mathematics, Captain. Why do you still need to go to Baidu? Are you looking down on me?”

“Then do tell Mr. Wang, why did Jin Xiaoan look at the ‘Discrete Mathematics’ on the bookshelf when Fu Hao called out ‘Jiang Liu’s’ name?”

“How do you know she’s reading ‘Discrete Mathematics’?! It could also be ‘Everything Starts with an Encounter’ that’s next to it.” Wang Chao responded rhetorically.

“Because in Wang Shishi’s dorm, we also found the same ‘Discrete Mathematics’ book that belonged to Xu Haozhen…”

“What¹?” Wang Chao shuddered. “Unbelievable!”

“Speak properly!¹” Xing Conglian smacked the boy on the head.

¹Clarity: Wang Chao is saying (神马) which is an internet buzzword that’s a homonym for what (什么). The word Wang Chao is using is a reference to a flying god horse (Pegasus). Xing Conglian is telling him not to use slang (also, he says unbelievable in English).

“Shit, ‘Discrete Mathematics’ isn’t advanced mathematics. It’s not a compulsory course at a university. They’re not majoring in mathematics or computer science, right? Why are they suddenly interested in this?”

Listening to the chatter in his ears, Lin Chen lowered his head and looked at Professor Fu, who was chatting awkwardly with Jin Xiaoan on the screen. What they were saying in the conference room was passed through the mic and fell into Fu Hao’s ears, which made Professor Fu’s facial muscles stiff as he didn’t know what to do next.

“Professor Fu… Guess, will Jiang Liu’s name be written on the title page of Jin Xiaoan’s ‘Discrete Mathematics’?” Lin Chen said this through the mic, which caused an obvious shiver from Fu Hao on the screen.

However, the only way to verify the speculation was by hand.

This time, he didn’t tease Fu Hao anymore and said, “Don’t you have that file bag under your armpit? Pretend to read the book ‘Everything Starts with an Encounter’ while holding the cigarette case in your other hand, and then act careless and pull out the ‘Discrete Mathematics’.” When Fu Hao was facing girls, he could only use about 0.1% of his usual speaking ability, so all Lin Chen could do was instruct, “You can say to Jin Xiaoan, ‘You have also read this mystery novel’.”

In short, the instructor’s level wasn’t high either. Fortunately, Fu Hao’s movement had been awkward since the beginning, so whether he was to say this or take his next action of getting the books off the shelf, it wasn’t unexpectedly abrupt.

Several books fell to the ground, and Fu Hao squatted down, blocking Jin Xiaoan’s sight. He first put a certain reasoning book back on the table and then said, “This book is really good. Have you finished reading it?”

Then, pretending, he inadvertently quickly flipped over the book “Discrete Mathematics” and used his other hand to aim the cigarette pack to film the process of him flipping through the entire book in a dedicated manner.

“Is this ‘Discrete Mathematics’ the same as Wang Shishi’s?” Wang Chao manually slowed down the recording on screen and dragged the progress bar forward as he asked.

“The same.” Lin Chen stretched out his finger and gently drew a circle on the screen.

In the lower right corner of the title page, the name “Jiang Liu” was really there.

“Pay attention to the copyright information page and take a picture of it, then you can leave.” After Lin Chen finished speaking, he turned off the microphone.

The conference room was silent. Lin Chen didn’t speak, and neither did Xing Conglian. Even Captain Jiang, who was usually carefree, didn’t dare speak.

Therefore, the only one who still made a peep in this current situation was Wang Chao.

“Is this some kind of sorority where they send each other books and urge them to study hard?”

The teenager’s voice was still light and sweet. Although this question wasn’t too useful, just listening to Wang Chao’s voice made everyone inexplicably relaxed.

“Can you explain a little what Discrete Mathematics is?” Lin Chen asked.

“I can’t explain it to you. The subject is too big, and there’s so much content that it’ll be too difficult for you.” Although this state was equivalent to saying, “You mortal have too low of an IQ”, the sincerity in Wang Chao’s eyes made it hard for people to smack him in the head.

While they were talking, Xing Conglian watched Fu Hao as he read the original Discrete Mathematics seriously and suddenly said, “It’s a bit strange.”

“What?”

“Look, this book is a bit worn, but there are no marks in it…” Xing Conglian pointed to the curled corner of the book and said, “The book that Xu Haozhen gave to Wang Shishi was also in the same condition. Though it looks tattered, there were no obvious notes or writing in the book.”

“What’s wrong with no notes? A normal person can’t stand reading more than 10 pages of this kind of book,” Wang Chao interjected.

At that moment, the little comrade Wang Chao had a flash of inspiration and turned to Lin Chen and said, “A’Chen, the Captain is asking you!”

Lin Chen was amused by this. The original foggy situation suddenly became clear. “Seeing that the book is worn on the edges only proves that it has been flipped through many times, but it can’t prove anything else.”

“Can’t prove what?”

“It can’t prove that either Jin Xiaoan or Wang Shishi had read this book seriously.” Lin Chen glanced at Xing Conglian and continued, “Most people who read professional books like this would take notes while reading it…”

“But it may also be that this book is very precious to them and they’re reluctant to write in it!”

Seeing that Wang Chao was drawing inferences from this, Lin Chen nodded with satisfaction. “That is indeed the case, so now there are two possibilities. The first is that they didn’t read ‘Discrete Mathematics’ seriously and simply just flipped through the book over and over again, so the subject matter that’s in it doesn’t make any sense to them. The second is that they have studied ‘Discrete Mathematics’ seriously only because they cherish this book too much and have not written any notes in it… Which one do you think is more likely?”

Wang Chao scratched his head. “I don’t know! But to be honest, I’m not a math or computer major. It’s too hard to learn Discrete Mathematics. The founders of set theory are crazy…”

“So you agree that it’s the first point?” Lin Chen interrupted the teenager.

“A’Chen, I think everything you say is right!” Wang Chao said this to him shamelessly. “So the answer is that they really don’t understand shit and they are just flipping through the book?”

“Correct.”

“But how do you know?”

“Ah, because you just showed me Jin Xiaoan’s file, which contains her college transcript. She flunked math in high school,” Lin Chen said.

Upon hearing this, little comrade Wang Chao quickly took a breath and then said plaintively, “A’Chen, don’t learn from the Captain. It’s not good…”

“It’s important to be careful in the process of handling cases.” Xing Conglian knocked on Wang Chao’s head and continued, “And there’s nothing to brag about after learning discrete mathematics.”

“But why, ah, are they practicing qigong* or something? Are they flipping through the book to try and reveal its meaning?” Wang Chao asked depressingly.

*A system of coordinated body posture movement, breathing, and meditation used for purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training.

“If you add a few other keywords in this case, such as the ‘dark web’ and ‘drugs’, do you see any association with this?” Xing Conglian continued to ask.

In an instant, Wang Chao’s eyes changed. “Shit Captain, I’m getting the creeps. What’s wrong with you thinking about this kind of stuff at night!”

After the teenager said this, the entire room fell into an unbearable silence.

Lin Chen clenched his right hand and also fell silent.

A tattered book, a group of college students, a controlled group, a dark webcast, drug dealing, a jewelry heist…

If they connected these keywords in a series, it would look something like this: Someone has gained control of a group of college students through various means, not only using them to conduct various webcasts and make huge profits but also involving them in hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of stolen jewelry and transnational drug-related crimes. The only clue they had in their hands right now was that these students all have a strange ‘Discrete Mathematics’ book.

Then, the role of this book seemed obvious.

“What the hell is going on. I find that you don’t like to explain things in plain words.” Jiang Chao finally couldn’t help but break the tacit silence.

“Let’s put it this way, why did the mastermind behind the scenes use the dark webcast?” Wang Chao asked rhetorically.

“In order to not be found!”

“Yes, whether it’s the onion server or the dark web, it’s essentially a service to protect personal privacy. In other words, it’s an encryption method. Then if someone controls a large group of students, that person needs to give instructions to these kids, so they have to ensure that the information they sent is safe, right?”

“No way. Do you think that book is a code book? What age is it now that you still play with this kind of thing, and we haven’t found this book in the relics of the other deceased.” Jiang Chao reacted quickly, then continued, “And don’t they have the dark web? So wouldn’t it be more convenient to have a dark forum or something to communicate on the internet?”

“Oh, it’s simple. Don’t organizations take back such important things before they die? Are criminal organizations so stupid that they leave such obvious clues for you to investigate? It’s estimated that Wang Shishi’s book must have been destroyed for a special reason! And in fact, although this encryption method is very simple, it’s actually quite effective and elusive. First of all, even if your roommate sees it, few people would actually read a book like ‘Discrete Mathematics’, but if you’re looking at a strange webpage on the internet, that’ll make it look quite suspicious. Things like text messages and WeChat can easily be traced. As for this book, there are many formulas and strange characters. For example, if I report the number 1612, do you know if I’m referring to page 16 line 12 or page 1 line 6 and the 12^th word? If that word happens to be a minus sign, do you know if it means backspace, carry, or delete? Of course, in theory, this encryption method can be cracked, but it requires a lot of data and calculation analysis. Therefore, a math book can really be used as an ideal code manual… The reason why I think it’s ideal is because, except for my Captain, who the hell would associate a good book with underground cipher work!”

“I think you’re complimenting me,” Xing Conglian said coldly.

Finally, Team Leader Ren, who had been hiding in the corner, suddenly became interested in this topic. But it wasn’t so much interest in itself but rather his biggest concern was… “You mean, they use this ‘Discrete Mathematics’ as an encrypted manual to transmit information? I think the reason why you can think this is probably because this encryption method is used by underground criminal organization. To be precise, it’s a method that drug dealers love to use, which means I can suspect that these students, in fact, are being used to covertly smuggle drugs?”

“You can suspect this, but such suspicion is basically useless right now,” Xing Conglian said callously.

“You can’t stop my investigation just because of your own case!”

“I seem to have said that everything related to Fang Zhiming’s drug factory case is not in the general direction of our investigation for the time being.”

“This is a major clue. We can follow it!” Ren Xian suddenly raised his voice.

“Oh, then has Team Leader Ren intercepted any codes?” Xing Conglian glared at him, and with this one sentence, he made Ren Xian speechless.

“Not yet, but I can review the file and maybe there will be clues…”

“Well, if you’re lucky enough to intercept a string of passwords, and your conclusion is verifies that someone is manipulating a group of students to carry out countless illegal and criminal activities, including using them to deal drugs, and then, you can use this to catch the mastermind behind the scenes or save these children?” Xing Conglian’s voice was cold. He reached out his hand and pointed to Wang Chao’s laptop. The picture was fixed on the girl in the seat with her head slightly bowed. “You still don’t understand. Is there a difference between this case and the homicides we have encountered before?”

“I…” Ren Xian wanted to say something, but he didn’t understand the problem.

“What’s the difference?” Jiang Chao interjected.

Lin Chen looked at the captain of the criminal division, who was apparently angry at the two, and couldn’t help but pat the back of his hand and explain for him. “The difference is that in ordinary homicides, we only need to find the murderer, but in this case, even finding the person behind this isn’t the most important thing.”

“Isn’t it important to catch the person behind it?”

“Compared with the imminent bloodshed and a group of manipulated college students, the question of who’s behind it and what they are doing with these students isn’t important. How to solve the current crisis is the most important.”

After Lin Chen finished speaking, he looked at Xing Conglian again.

In fact, if he hadn’t explained for him, he would not have discovered that Xing Conglian’s thinking had always been clear and his priorities couldn’t have been more precise.

Quite honestly, it was so correct that Lin Chen had nothing to say.

“Then find the mastermind and stop him from acting. Isn’t this the fastest solution?” Jiang Chao asked again.

“We now have two available clues, a book and a person. Assuming that Discrete Mathematics is really a cipher sheet, right now we haven’t even intercepted any corresponding passwords. This clue is basically useless to us. As for Jin Xiaoan… Didn’t you try to pry open Cheng Weiwei’s mouth that day? Seeing as how Jin Xiaoan is exactly like her, do you think you can get her to open her mouth and extract any useful information?” Lin Chen continued.

Wang Chao raised his hand plaintively and asked, “Then aren’t we still at a dead end right now?”

“Who said that?” Xing Conglian twisted Wang Chao’s ears. “First of all, we can compare Wang Shishi’s Discrete Mathematics to Jiang Liu’s to determine whether they are the same version, and then check the copyright page and find out the publisher to see the print run and outgoing records to find out how many books are out in Yongchuan. Do I need to teach you this kind of thing?”

“I can handle this kind of trivial matter…” Wang Chao patted his chest, and his hands started flying. “First look at the edition!” As he spoke, he enlarged the copyright page picture on the screen, then said, “Congratulations gentlemen, this book is the first printed version in 2001. The print run was 5,000 copies. In other words, it’s really an antique!”

“The good thing about the old edition is that it probably hasn’t been sold online…” The boy clanked on the keyboard and then clicked his tongue. “Bingo, it really hasn’t been sold online. I don’t know how to evaluate your luck, sir.”

“So, is our luck good or bad?” Xing Conglian asked dryly.

“Since it hasn’t been sold online, it means it went through the publisher’s channel. The good thing is I can check the publishing house’s outbound records. The disadvantage is that the time period is too long. It’s very likely that multiple distributors have ordered this book in different batches, and any system can only find the primary distributor, no secondary ones, so…”

The teenager’s voice abruptly trailed off.

Although he made a lot of assumptions, after setting the search criteria and once the search was finished, only one dealer’s name appeared in all of Yongchuan.

[Yongchuan Siyuan Inspirational Book Distribution Co., Ltd. Chang Wei 139XXXXXXXX]

At this moment, Jiang Chao also handed the pictures on his phone to Wang Chao.

The young man glanced at the photo, quickly copied the address of the bookstore, and sent it to his captain. “The two books are the same version. I sent the address to your phone, Captain. You can go now. Bye bye!”

The time was 8:31 in the evening.

Lin Chen first looked at the time displayed on Xing Conglian’s phone, and then looked at the address. He found that the location of the dealer happened to be in the bookstore of University City, so he said, “Phoenix Book Mall usually closes at 9. If we drive a little faster, we should be able to make it.”

Xing Conglian had already turned around and was ready to leave. When he heard what Lin Chen had said, he suddenly turned to Ren Xian. “It’s almost 9 here, which means it’s probably morning in the time zone across the ocean. Please keep an eye on it, Team Leader Ren. If there’s anything on the internet, just tell this kid to do it.” After he finished speaking, he pointed to Wang Chao’s head, then, as if he wasn’t at ease, instructed, “Don’t communicate with those people. If they provide useful information, we’ll pay. This will be the fastest way.”

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Kinky Thoughts:

Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that can be considered “discrete” (in a way analogous to discrete variables, having a bijection with the set of natural numbers) rather than “continuous” (analogously to continuous functions). Objects studied in discrete mathematics include integers, graphs, and statements in logic.

It is the branch of mathematics dealing with objects that can assume only distinct, separated values. The term “discrete mathematics” is therefore used in contrast with “continuous mathematics,” which is the branch of mathematics dealing with objects that can vary smoothly (and which includes, for example, calculus). Whereas discrete objects can often be characterized by integers, continuous objects require real numbers.

The study of how discrete objects combine with one another and the probabilities of various outcomes is known as combinatorics. Other fields of mathematics that are considered to be part of discrete mathematics include graph theory and the theory of computation. Topics in number theory such as congruences and recurrence relations are also considered part of discrete mathematics.

The study of topics in discrete mathematics usually includes the study of algorithms, their implementations, and efficiencies. Discrete mathematics is the mathematical language of computer science, and as such, its importance has increased dramatically in recent decades.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 72

Wang Chao was probably the kind of kid who could find excitement no matter what happened.

Lin Chen looked at the teenager running towards him from afar with his backpack bouncing up and down. He was treating this trip to the girls’ dorm as if it were a spring outing.

Lin Chen gave the teenager a slightly apologetic look and then winked at Xing Conglian.

Under the streetlight, the police captain grabbed his subordinate, who was about to run into the distance, and said with a smile, “Where is Mr. Wang going?”

“To investigate the case!” The teenager froze abruptly.

“Where are you investigating?”

“Isn’t it the girls’ dorms?” The teenager replied rhetorically.

As the police captain spoke, he knocked the cap that was on backwards on the teenager’s head clean off. “What are you thinking of going to the girls’ dorm at night?”

“You’re not taking me?” The teenager’s voice suddenly dropped.

Wang Chao’s expression was so aggrieved that Lin Chen couldn’t help but look at Xing Conglian.

“Adolescence, adolescence.” Xing Conglian explained to him with a smile, then knocked on the teenager’s head again and ordered, “Bring a pair of headphones and a pinhole camera.”

“…” Wang Chao’s eyes widened, and he slowly moved his head and stared at Xing Conglian, then said in shock, “Captain, you’re not thinking about secretly taking recordings in the girls’ dorm, are you? I didn’t know you were so perverted!”

“Extraordinary times require extraordinary means.” Xing Conglian paused, then continued, “We can’t enter the girls’ dorm with great fanfare. It’s too easy to arouse suspicion, and direct questioning may not be effective.”

“So you want to find an undercover agent to go in?” Wang Chao squatted down. Under the dim light of the streetlamp, he began to search for all kinds of messy gadgets in his backpack, and he muttered casually, “Then who are you asking to collect the benefits?”

At this moment, Fu Hao walked in front of them.

After listening to this question, Lin Chen raised his brows and looked at his shidi.

“Shi… Shixiong… I’m not suitable!” Professor Fu said stumblingly.

“Only you are suitable. It’ll be too conspicuous for us to go, but it’s appropriate for a teacher in charge of the psychological assessment to talk to students who are suicidal.”

“But when I lie, I blush, so I can’t lie to anyone. How can I do this?”

“It’s okay. You don’t need to lie. After all, even if you induce her to confess, she won’t let up. This should be just a visit to the girls’ dorms.”

“Yes, yes. Visit the dorm and take some footage!” Little comrade Wang Chao sprang up from the ground. He couldn’t help but interject, then press a pair of miniature earplugs into Professor Fu’s ears. He then casually handed over a file bag, stuck the miniature camera on it, and said, “Take this file and clip it under your armpit and pretend you’re using it.” As Wang Chao spoke, he dug into his backpack like he was digging into a treasure chest, pulled out a cigarette pack, and threw it to Fu Hao. “Put the cigarette pack on the bookshelf. Try to find a high position so it can capture the little sister’s face.”

When he finished speaking, he casually snapped his fingers and asked, “Do you understand?”

“How could I understand!”

“Haven’t you taken small videos before? The cigarette pack takes the objective perspective, while the document bag takes the subjective perspective. Simple!”

“Then after I finish filming, do I take back the cigarette pack?”

“We’re not making a spy movie, so of course you have to take back the things you planted. Can you have a bit more morals, alright?” Wang Chao interjected again and then slapped Professor Fu on the back, signaling the end of the undercover training.

Lin Chen looked at his shidi’s tearless face and said, “Building 7, 201. Thank you for your hard work, Professor.”

—-

In short, although he didn’t get to go to the girls’ dorms, Comrade Wang Chao showed greater interest in seeing Professor Fu go undercover.

They returned to the previous conference room. As soon as they entered, the teenager jumped into the back chair excitedly, turned on the laptop, and opened it for public view while he paid close attention to Professor Fu’s every move.

The office echoed with Jiang Chao’s stumbling voice. Vice Captain Jiang seemed to be cleaning up the scene where a stampede had almost occurred. Seeing them enter, he only nodded to them and continued on his phone war.

In the corner of the office, Team Leader Ren raised his head plaintively, showing heavy bags under his eyes. He shook his head depressingly as if he were no longer interested in anything happening in the world.

Lin Chen lowered his head and looked down at the screen.

From the conversation that came through, it seemed that Fu Hao had successfully finished dealing with the dorm auntie and entered building 7 of the girls’ dorm.

He was following the dorm auntie’s footsteps. Perhaps because the lights in the corridor were too dark, the picture showed a dark gray color, like glass that hadn’t been wiped for decades.

Wang Chao opened a new roll of bubblegum and another bag of potato chips, then said with some regret, “Without the night vision function, it’s not sharp enough. Captain, when will you get some high-end goods?”

Xing Conglian stood with his arms crossed and was too lazy to pay any attention to him.

The teenager adjusted his sitting posture. As if he suddenly remembered something, he said, “By the way, A’Chen, I sent you Jin Xiaoan’s file to your mailbox. You can take a look at it.”

When Lin Chen heard this, he took out his phone. The electronic file wasn’t actually that long. He quickly scanned it and found that it was nothing more than an unusual growth template, without any new ideas. Even so, it wasn’t a bad thing.

He retracted his gaze and looked at the laptop. Fu Hao was already standing in the girls’ dorm.

Three girls from the bedroom followed the dorm auntie to the outside room, while Fu Hao placed the cigarette pack on the bookshelf and stood next to the girl, as Xing Conglian had instructed.

For about a minute, no one spoke. Only the sound of breathing and the vague sound of a drama being watched in the room next door were heard. The atmosphere was tense and awkward.

On camera, Jin Xiaoan didn’t have the same feeling as Xu Haozhen. She appeared to be the girl next door type. She slightly lowered her head and didn’t say anything.

The girl’s face was round. Perhaps because of her short stature, it made her look a little chubby, and her skin was yellow. Her hair was neatly groomed, and her desk and bedding were tidy, without the slightest bit of dirt.

“Xiaoan, the school mainly sent me to have a chat with you. Don’t be nervous.”

Jin Xiaoan’s head was still looking down, and she didn’t react to Fu Hao’s words as if she were a dying old man or an autistic child living in her own world. She didn’t even have any changes in her breathing.

Although Fu Hao had done many of these types of heart-to-heart talks with students, he had never done so with such impure intentions. His words didn’t seem to get any response. As if he remembered something, he suddenly jerked his head and looked at the camera.

Across the screen, Lin Chen started at his shidi. Xing Conglian stood beside him as if he were aware of something and suddenly said, “Professor Fu is asking why there aren’t any instructions from you.”

Hearing Xing Conglian speak, Lin Chen hurriedly blocked the mic.

“Didn’t you say that we couldn’t spook the snake? If you ask any suggestive questions, Fu Hao’s purpose will be easily exposed, and it’ll be hard for us to predict what Jin Xiaoan will do. Besides, it’s good to be like this now, don’t you think?”

“I think so. Not only good, it’s also interesting.” Xing Conglian rubbed the stubble on his chin and then said maliciously, “It’s really rare to see such an innocent boy like Professor Fu.”

“He’s pretty good now. In college, he would blush as soon as he talked to a girl.”

They didn’t seem to care at all about Professor Fu, who was calling to them in front of the surveillance camera, and instead had a passionate talk about when Professor Fu would find a girlfriend.

Fu Hao’s intermittent voice came from the speakers. Professor Fu sounded awkward but was forced to take on the task of warming up. “Xiaoan, how are you feeling today? Have you encountered anything? If there’s anything going on in your life, you can tell teacher about it. Don’t keep it bottled in…”

However, no matter what Fu Hao said, Jin Xiaoan was completely silent. While it was strange, he couldn’t pinpoint what was strange about her.

“Fuck, these three sticks make me feel so suffocated. Why are they so similar to Cheng Weiwei?” After he finished his call, Jiang Chao stood behind Wang Chao as he looked at the picture on the screen.

“Cheng Weiwei was like this at the time?”

“No, after the jewelry robbery, we brought Cheng Weiwei back to the police station. She just kept her head lowered and didn’t speak, as if she were dead. No matter what we asked, she didn’t respond,” Jiang Chao replied.

Lin Chen frowned. “It seems that they have all received professional training to deal with interrogation. Once they are checked, it triggers their response mode.”

“What should we do? It took us several days to pry Cheng Weiwei’s mouth open. How can we have so much time now!”

On the screen, Fu Hao seemed to hear what was being said as he looked again at the camera. If he could speak, he probably wanted to say, “Shixiong, you really pitted me. What should I do next?”

“It only takes a moment for people to let their guard down.” Lin Chen grabbed the topic and instructed Fu Hao. “Well, your task is done for today. You can go now.”

Fu Hao seemed to be confused about the situation, but he still breathed a sigh of relief and then said to the girl, “We’re here for you. Teacher will leave his business card here. You can come to me if you need anything.”

As he spoke, he handed out a piece of paper and then walked to the bookshelf, preparing to take back the cigarette pack.

Seeing this, Lin Chen suddenly said, “Go directly to the door, open it, and don’t look back.”

The cigarette pack was still pointed at the girl’s face. In the picture, she was still calm, but at that moment, the tension almost overflowed the screen.

Fu Hao complied and walked to the door. Just as he was about to put his hand on the door handle, on screen, it could be clearly seen that the girl sitting in the seat had relaxed her shoulders and raised her head slightly.

“Jiang Lu!” Fu Hao suddenly turned his head and, following Lin Chen’s instructions, suddenly called out a name.

Jin Xiaoan seemed taken aback. Her eyes darted, but she quickly lowered her head again and returned to the previous silent posture.

Although people were autonomous individuals, they could never escape some subconscious reactions. Those reactions weren’t controlled by their minds, and often they could reveal hidden facts.

The emotional reaction time was short, perhaps only a tenth of a second, but it was perfectly captured on video and could be rewound and watched repeatedly.

“Go back to where you were just now and talk about something casually.” After Lin Chen finished speaking to Fu Hao, he patted Wang Chao on the shoulder. Before he could speak, the boy had already rewound the screen to the moment Fu Hao called out the name just now.

From the picture, it clearly showed the girl’s gaze was subconsciously looking to the left of the camera.

“Did she find the cigarette pack?” Wang Chao asked incredulously.

“I don’t think so. Her gaze is more to the left.” Xing Conglian leaned down and said, “Cut the picture to the subjective position that Fu Hao just took.”

Wang Chao moved according to instructions, and soon the desk by the bed and the bookshelf with the cigarette pack appeared in the center of the picture.

“There’s something on the bookshelf…”

Xing Conglian moved his fingers lightly, following the books on the bookshelf, then took the microphone in Lin Chen’s hand, and said to Fu Hao, “Lao Fu, go and take a picture of all the books on the second shelf of the bookshelf, behind the cigarette pack.”

After a while, the picture came through. Professor Fu had smoothly scanned the bookshelf using the cigarette pack.

Suddenly, Xing Conglian pressed the pause button causing the video to freeze.

It could clearly be seen that the among all the books on there, there was one that was a bit worn out and was a copy of “Discrete Mathematics”.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 71

“Sir, can I borrow a light?”

A weak voice came from overhead. Under the dim light, Lin Chen looked at the leather boots on the ground, took out a box of matches from his pocket, and handed it upwards.

“I thought you didn’t smoke.”

Xing Conglian’s voice sounded a little surprised, which made it sound like teasing or flirting.

“Matches from the hotel. I took it when I went out.”

“Why would you take matches when you go out?”

“Convenience.”

“I thought you did it especially for me,” Xing Conglian muttered casually, then sat down on the steps next to him. “I don’t know if it can still be lit…”

After speaking, he casually drew a match and swiped it on the phosphorus strip on the side. With a flicking sound, the flame floated up, releasing a bit of smoke.

“Can I still count this as a transfer?” Xing Conglian asked as he stared at the flame.

“Your luck has always been good,” Lin Chen said helplessly. He could feel a warm atmosphere around him.

“Huh?”

“Fortunately, it was raining heavily, so the students hesitated to rush out of the classroom, and we were able to buy some time.” Lin Chen thought for a while, then asked, “What did you find on the stairs?”

“You really didn’t sneak onto the scene?” Xing Conglian turned his head slightly and asked in a skeptical tone.

“No, I have always listened to the captain,” Lin Chen replied.

“Tsk…” At the last moment, when the match was about to go out, Xing Conglian finally lit a cigarette. He took a deep puff of tobacco and spoke slowly. “Plastic beads, glass, nails…”

From Xing Conglian’s voice, Lin Chen couldn’t hear much emotion. At this time, the rain had eased so much that it was almost inaudible.

“Things like that.”

Lin Chen didn’t feel surprised. If he wanted to incite students to riot and cause a stampede, then sprinkling objects on the stairs would be the perfect choice. The constant emergencies of the past few days had stretched the students’ nerves thin. After they suddenly relaxed, they didn’t even have the strength to be afraid, leaving only tiredness.

The state of affairs wasn’t good, and time was tight. Even the time to breathe had become a luxury. Even so, he didn’t talk and waited quietly for Xing Conglian to finish smoking his cigarette.

“Let’s talk about it. What’s the collective unconscious*?” Xing Conglian put out the butt of his cigarette and turned to look at him.

*Refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts. It’s generally associated with idealism and was coined by Carl Jung. You can read more about it by clicking the Wikipedia link.

“Why do you have such a good memory?” Lin Chen looked at the dark night sky, where there wasn’t even a ray of starlight. It was dark to the extreme and seemed wider and far-reaching. If it weren’t for the ground being too wet, he almost wanted to lie down on the steps.

“I remember a lot of what you say very clearly.”

Xing Conglian’s tone was so natural that it made Lin Chen laugh lowly and simply lay down on the steps. He rested his head on his hands and said, “For example, under normal circumstances, would students resist the school’s arrangements, yell loudly, and try to rush out of the classroom in complete chaos?”

“Of course not.”

“Then have you ever thought about what caused them to suddenly become like that just now?’

“Isn’t it because it was dark, and someone took advantage of the chaos to deliberately incite them?”

“In fact, fans of rock concerts would also riot, and sports fans are also prone to riot after their team loses. This has nothing to do with time, environment, or location. It’s only about people. If you look deeper, the question becomes this—why do humans become easily instigated by trivial things and take extreme actions?”

“Consultant Lin~” Xing Conglian spoke as he suddenly lay down. He raised his pitch a few times higher as he listened lazily. “Don’t ask questions. Just say it. I’m listening.”

“This involves the issue of mob psychology*. We often find that in a group of passionate collectives, people dare to do many things they wouldn’t do when they’re alone. They will burn, kill, and loot. They have no shame, no sense of morality, and even no sense of law… Because at that time, they have lost themselves…”

*Also known as crowd psychology, is a branch of social psychology. Social psychologists have developed many theories for explaining the ways in which the psychology of crowds differs from and interacts with that of the individuals within it. Crowd behavior is heavily influenced by the loss of individual responsibility and the impression of universality of behavior, both of which increase with crowd size.

After Lin Chen finished speaking, he paused deliberately, waiting for Xing Conglian to follow his words.

But this time, it was different from the previous situation. By his side, Xing Conglian was calmly breathing with his eyes closed tightly as if he had fallen asleep.

The night was quiet, and the rain had stopped.

Lin Chen had the illusion that he was being used as a hypnotic instrument. He raised his brows, sat up, and put his hands on his lap. He turned his head back and quietly looked at Xing Conglian as he spoke slowly. “If you hadn’t fallen asleep, you would probably say, ‘Well, losing themselves. This seems similar to what Wang Shishi, Xu Haozhen, and Jiang Liu…’”

“In fact, this is the case. The collective unconscious is a terrifying and real psychological phenomenon. Under normal circumstances, humans are rational and know how to think, but once rational humans enter a group, their individual personalities will quickly disintegrate. Reason and self-control will be gone, and the nature of human impulses will be released. The majority of genocide tragedies stem from this. If you have to find a term related to hypnosis, think of this as group hypnosis.”

“So, how similar is Wang Shishi’s and the others suicide to what happened tonight?”

Suddenly, Lin Chen saw Xing Conglian move his lips slightly as he spoke in a low voice that was like a cello string being plucked, poking the night away.

Lin Chen’s heart inexplicably trembled. He felt like he was caught red-handed doing something bad. He rubbed his forehead and continued, “Tragedies like this are largely similar because people are inertial in thinking. Even criminals will repeatedly choose the same technique to commit crimes. In fact, we should be grateful. At any rate, we have resisted this wave and found a lot of clues…”

“Wang Shishi and the others are in a certain group, and that group is controlled by someone, so that all the students in the group have lost themselves?” Xing Conglian concluded.

“Sounds like a fantasy novel, right?” Lin Chen said. He stood up from the steps and continued, “If this is a group of students committing violence against another group of students, just like the atrocities of a foreign fraternity or sorority, it’s easy to see that this is a brutality caused by the collective unconscious. But they chose to commit suicide, which can only mean that…”

“Hmm?”

“The faith and cohesion of the group they are in are far beyond our imagination, and we know nothing about those things.”

“So like a horror novel.” Xing Conglian seriously corrected him.

Lin Chen sighed, stood up from the steps, and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to take a nap?”

“Didn’t you stay awake too?” Xing Conglian asked rhetorically with a smile as he leaned on the steps.

“But you overused your brain today.”

“Consultant Lin, are you feeling sorry for me?”

The surrounding area was silent and devoid of sound in the darkness of night.

Xing Conglian was drenched all over and was basking in the lights from the corridor, which cast a thin layer on him. It was so faint that Lin Chen could hardly see his face clearly, but his voice and breath were all too clear.

“That’s right,” Lin Chen replied seriously.

“Hey, I feel sorry for Consultant Lin, but it seems we have to stay up all night tonight.” As Xing Conglian spoke, he stretched out a hand to Lin Chen.

He pulled him up and then watched as Lin Chen rubbed his face indifferently, then said, “The failure to lure students to riot tonight is more like a whim than a well-planned action. There are no casualties among the students today, which may lead to two situations tomorrow. First, they will abandon their original plan and stay dormant. Second, something big will happen tomorrow… Which situation do you think is more likely to happen?”

“We can’t afford to gamble.” Lin Chen shook his head. “There are less than 40 hours left, and something may happen every second after now.”

“Terrible…” Xing Conglian put his hands in his pockets and walked in front of Lin Chen. “The only hope for finding the needle in the haystack has been destroyed. Is there any way to find the members of that group?”

“Actually, it’s not a complete failure.” Lin Chen looked up. There were still some lights in the teaching building in the distance. It was the computer test group that was specially arranged by Xing Conglian. “Have you forgotten? We still have two classes of data available.”

“I haven’t forgotten. I brought it up specifically, waiting for you to praise me.”

As Xing Conglian spoke, he took out his phone and shook it. “Professor Fu just texted and said that the test is over.”

Lin Chen frowned, quickly took out his phone, and wanted to make a call, but Xing Conglian moved faster. He pressed the call button on his phone and handed it over.

“Lao Xing, did something happen to you? I just heard a lot of noises.”

“It’s me,” Lin Chen said on the phone.

“Shixiong! Are you okay? I heard that there was a power failure in the teaching building and that there were students making trouble. Where’s Lao Xing? What’s going on with him?”

On the other end of the phone, Fu Hao couldn’t stop becoming a chatterbox.

Lin Chen immediately interrupted, “I’m fine. He is too. Did the results come out yet?”

There was a rustling voice from the receiver, as if someone snatched the phone away. After a while, a brisk voice came through. “A’Chen, I have processed the data according to the conditions you gave me before. The only one who meets your filter criteria is a girl named Jin Xiaoan. I think the name is quite cute.”

“Jin Xiaoan… Is there any social connection with the deceased?”

“There’s no obvious connection. After all, the departments are too far away. Jin Xiaoan has never participated in any school clubs as a medical student.”

“School of medicine?” Lin Chen thought for a while then said, “When I was in college, the students from the psychology department and medical school students had common classes together. For example, we took ideological and political courses together. Check their schedule.”

“Okay, give me thirty seconds!”

After the sound of keyboard tapping, Lin Chen heard Wang Chao suddenly take a deep breath.

“Shit, Jin Xiaoan and Jiang Liu took Politics 2 together. What the hell is Politics 2, A’Chen?”

“The type of course that can easily foster friendship among classmates as well as extracurricular reading skills.” Lin Chen patted Xing Conglian as the two stood under the streetlight. “Which dorm does Jin Xiaoan live in?”

“Building 7, 201.”

“Your captain and I are now in the open space downstairs in the computer room. You and Fu Hao come down together…”

“Are we going to the girls’ dormitory to play? How fun!” Wang Chao said gleefully.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Mob psychology, or more commonly known as mob mentality, is the idea that individuals are influenced by larger groups. Regardless of their class, ethnicity, race, ect. anyone can be affected by it. Sometimes you can get caught in a mob mentality without even realizing it.

What Lin Chen is proposing is a combination of the collective unconscious and mob mentality. The collective unconscious refers to the idea that a segment of the deepest unconscious mind is genetically inherited and not shaped by personal experience that mankind as a whole shares. For example, everyone (generally) longs for a mother or feels fear when they think of death.

Mob mentality influences your action because, once you fall into that mentality, your personality is no longer yours but that of the mob. This is why when a group of people riot, others, who normally wouldn’t break the law or destroy property, are compelled to do so because everyone around them is doing it. In this case, rather than rioting, these people are committing suicide.

Personally, I just think these students joined a cult and got brainwashed into committing suicide. It’s not like there aren’t plenty of examples in the past. The characteristics of the deceased also fit the bill (vulnerable people are usually more susceptible to joining a cult). They seemed isolated from others except members of the cult, and the cult uses groupthink (which is similar to mob mentality) on its members.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 70

It was raining heavily outside the window. Although he couldn’t hear what Xing Conglian was saying, the vibration on his phone grabbed all of Lin Chen’s attention.

He lowered his head. In just a few seconds, countless messages poured into the WeChat group, and new messages kept appearing one after another.

[The students are leaving, and we can’t stop them.]

[When will the electricity come back on?]

[They’re starting to tear up the exam papers.]

[I’m scared too… Why did the power go out all of sudden?]

[Excuse me, what’s going on? When will the electricity come back on?]

[Shit, shit, shit. Too scary.]

[Can we really not let them go?]

[Our door is blocked. What do you want us to do next?]

—-

The screen showed a faint green light. Xing Conglian came over, took a look, and said, “They’re tearing up the exam papers… Are these kids crazy?”

“But this kind of thing makes people’s blood boil, no?” Lin Chen hugged his arms and looked coldly at the dark night in front of him.

“Blood boil?”

Lin Chen put his fingers on his lips and motioned for Xing Conglian to be silent. “Listen.”

Outside the window were muffled screams, sometimes high, sometimes low, and sometimes completely silent, as if there were no sound at all.

“You mean the screaming?”

As soon as Xing Conglian’s voice fell, there was a loud bang that sounded in the rainy night.

The sound was booming, as if something heavy had fallen from the sky, and the tail end had a metal-specific vibrato.

Lin Chen shook his head and looked into the depths of the night, but there was nothing in the distance except for the rain curtain and the unextinguished streetlights that looked like duckweed under the heavy rain.

The torrential rain was accompanied by roars that seemed to envelope the campus.

The sound that was similar to a heavy object falling reminded the students of the suicide incident today. Those cries became more manic, like those of ghosts buried underground who were trying to overturn the soil so they could rush into the world.

Lin Chen’s phone began to vibrate non-stop, with continuous messages pouring in like it was cursed.

[The door can’t stop them!]

[Did someone jump off the building again???]

[Someone is calling for help!!!]

[What should I do?]

[What should I do???]

[Is it okay to let them go? Besides, there’s a power outage!]

[I really can’t stand it anymore!]

—-

The text on the screen flowed frantically as Lin Chen spoke as if he were talking to himself. “Yes, the collective unconscious.”

After he finished, he glanced at Xing Conglian and rushed out without even having time to explain.

[Be sure to guard the door and prohibit any students from leaving.]

[Tell the students that it’s raining right now, so they need to wait to see if power will be restored.]

It was just a three-story building but was so long. Lin Chen typed as he ran.

The moment he stepped out of the eaves, the torrential rain instantly soaked him. Suddenly, a powerful force pulled from behind. Lin Chen staggered and was yanked back violently, stopping in his tracks.

“Is it useful for you to rush out right now? Calm down.” Xing Conglian held his hand tightly as he stressed his words.

“I’m calm!” Lin Chen panted heavily. The rain felt as if it were hail at this moment. “There’s a power outage and the sound of falling objects. All the while someone is inciting students to rush out of the classroom!”

“You mean someone is trying to make the students riot? I doubt you alone can control those crazy students. Okay, tell me. If the students rush out of the classroom now, what are the worst consequences?” Xing Conglian’s voice was as calm as ever. His breathing wasn’t even the slightest bit chaotic.

“Casualties, stampede…” Lin Chen’s mind spun as countless possibilities circled through his thoughts.

Xing Conglian said suddenly, “Stairs?”

“Yes, the stairs. I’m afraid someone has tampered with them.”

“Okay, I see. You go back for now. I’ll send someone to check the stairs.”

Lin Chen was about to speak when he felt his shoulder get heavy. Xing Conglian was pressing down on them as he said in an extremely calm voice, “It’s also possible that someone set up this trick to lure you out, so it’s best if you give instructions here.”

After Xing Conglian finished speaking, he let go of his hand and ran into the depths of the rainy night in Lin Chen’s place.

Lin Chen’s vision was blurred from the rain.

“I understand,” he said this to Xing Conglian’s back.

The sound of rain continued. Lin Chen walked back and sat on the steps of the stairs. Although he was dripping wet, he couldn’t feel the slightest bit of coolness.

The sound of thunder and lightning still alternated, but perhaps it was because Xing Conglian’s figure running into the rain curtain at the end was a bit too righteous that it made him feel a strange sense of calmness in his heart.

He suddenly felt that the heavy rain seemed to be a blessing from God.

[The teacher is in better condition now.]

[Holy shit, that was too dangerous just now. Crazy.]

[Can you believe that our class tore up all their exam papers?]

[Luckily, it was raining, so they were hesitant. Otherwise, I definitely couldn’t stop it.]

Lin Chen took a deep breath. His breath was filled with the coldness of the rainy night. He wrung out his shirt and wiped his hands, then touched the phone screen and typed:

[Inform the students who want to leave that it’s raining too hard right now. If it doesn’t get better after ten minutes, have them go downstairs in an orderly manner from class 1 to class 10.]

—-

When Xiao Conglian rushed to the bottom of the teaching building, he was greeted by paper scraps all torn up like confetti all over the floor.

There were also scattered pieces of paper upstairs that were mixed with the rainwater.

However, most of the students’ cries had stopped, and what remained was a dark building that stood quiet and empty in the rainy night.

Xing Conglian thought it was probably due to Lin Chen’s arrangement that played a role in this.

School security had already heard the news, and there were a few figures in the distance running through the rain curtain. It should be the police officers he called Jiang Chao to find just now.

Because of the multiple suicides, the security guards were familiar with Xing Conglian, so he didn’t even need to flash his police badge for them to recognize him and call out to him in the pouring rain.

“Captain Xing, what’s going on?”

Xing Conglian looked up at the floor. The students were testing on the fifth floor, and some were poking their heads out looking at something. The teaching building had two staircases; one on the east and one on the west, and time was tight.

He pointed to the five security guards in front of him and said solemnly, “Have you checked this building? The five of you, check the first through fifth floor of the east stairs. Try to be as thorough as possible and strive to complete the inspection within five minutes. The rest of you will follow me…”

As he spoke, he turned to the last security guard left behind. “Give me your radio and headset.”

In the corridor, only the emergency lights were on after the power failure. Standing on the bottom floor and looking up, the entire corridor was shrouded in a vague dark green light.

The sound of hurried footsteps sounded behind him. Xing Conglian quickly turned around and made a silent gesture to the three police officers that rushed over.

“Five minutes to check the stairs. Silence your phone and keep the noise as low as possible…” After he finished speaking, his phone vibrated gently.

Lin Chen had sent a text as if he had calculated it right on time.

[If there’s no electricity in 6 minutes, the students will start to leave the venue. Be careful.]

Xing Conglian turned on the flashlight of his phone and bent down to touch the ground. The light in the upper and lower stairs were dim. Because of the rain, the ground was extremely slippery. He grabbed on to the handrail and walked upstairs.

The touch of the handrail was stable. Xing Conglian shook it hard, and there still weren’t any problems.

A drop of cold water fell on his forehead. He frowned as he noticed fine drops of water condensing on the iron rail. He quickly looked down at the floor of the corridor, which was a common imitation marble color that became even more blurry in the dim light.

He moved his flashlight down, and at the edge of the stairs, something vague had fallen there.

He took a few steps forward, crouched down, and found two small plastic beads.

One was yellow, and the other was pink.

At this moment, a depressed and nervous voice came from the radio.

“There are nails on the ground. Everyone should be careful.”

Although there was no wind, in an instant, Xing Conglian seemed to feel as if the air around him was so cold it could freeze.

Nails, plastic beads… If this was coupled with students running wildly down the stairs…

He seemed to imagine blood covering the floors and the cries of painful screams as students wandered the corridor.

After stabilizing his breath, he whispered on the radio, “Pay attention to safety. Quickly clean up the stairs and leave in five minutes as originally planned.”

After speaking, he leaned down, picked up the two plastic beads on the ground, and sealed them into an evidence bag.

The crackling sound of heavy rain echoed in the empty corridor. Listening to the sound of rain, Xing Conglian felt lucky that they managed to avoid a catastrophe.

—-

For the students in the teaching building, tonight was just a small attempt to rebel against the school’s occasional stupid decisions.

Besides, it was dark, and everyone was making trouble together. The simplest truth was that the law would not blame the masses.

Moreover, it was tearing a few papers, which wasn’t a big deal. Who made the school mentally ill and summoned them out to take a psychological test on a rainy day?

On top of this, the school was truly inept. From the time they started to leave the teaching building one by one, the power never came back on.

Xing Conglian stood in the dark without an umbrella as he watched the last student leave the teaching building safely, then took out a cigarette and lighter.

“Captain Xing, don’t you need to stop the students so we can investigate?” The police officer in front of him asked in a low voice.

“Can you stop 500 students?”

Perhaps he was really unlucky. Despite flicking the lighter a few times, he was unable to ignite the sporadic flame from it.

The police officers under Jiang Chao glanced at the backs of the students leaving; their eyes were looking at them as if they were terrorists. Xing Conglian frowned and patted one on the shoulder before reaching out his hand.

“Captain Xing… I… I don’t smoke…”

After being tossed all night, he had completely lost his temper. Like his luck today, if a lighter appeared in front of him, he would be willing to thank God.

He took out the sealed evidence bag from his pocket and handed it over. Then he said, “Together with the things you found on the ground, take them for inspection and focus on fingerprints.”

After he finished speaking, he turned and left.

The rain was still falling. Despite being a spring rain, there was a sense of bleakness in the air. Xing Conglian was walking under a tree when suddenly his phone began to vibrate.

On the other end of the line was Jiang Chao’s tense voice.

“Lao Xing, the power failure was man-made. I just discovered a timed power failure device. It seems that the power can’t be restored for a while. Are you okay?”

Perhaps it was because Jiang Chao’s voice was too loud, but Xing Conglian felt that the sound of rain around him became a bit quieter.

“Ah, okay for the time being.”

Xing Conglian glanced at the shimmer of the building in the distance. There seemed to be a thin figure sitting alone at the top of the steps.

He put down his phone and walked to where he just came from.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 69

Towards the evening, the sky was overcast, which wasn’t a good omen.

After dealing with his men, Ren Xian returned to the conference room upstairs as promised.

In fact, as a veteran of the severe crime squad, he knew that there was a set of internal procedures for dealing with a mole. Whether it was to kill them or use them as bait, there were different considerations, and it was hard for outsiders to ask.

However, Lin Chen thought that Ren Xian would probably choose to keep everything that happened today in his heart because now he had a hard time trusting anyone else. At least in the case of Fang Zhiming, he had lost the ability to trust.

It was like having to label seeds that were unsuitable for planting and seal them in a corner of the storage room, then wait for the spring breeze to bring suitable soil.

This kind of thing, by and large, wasn’t something that couldn’t be told, but if it had never reached such an appropriate time, it had to be kept secret. Lin Chen knew this feeling all too well.

Just like now, his conversation with Xing Conglian ended naturally after they finished talking about getting a drink.

Xing Conglian, on the other hand, didn’t confirm it and didn’t even respond.

After developing a deeper friendship with Xing Conglian, Lin Chen discovered that this person was extremely cautious, which was inconsistent with his appearance. This caution came down to small details, which showed it was difficult to detect any obvious attitudes or tendencies he had before he really started to deal with things, and it only made it difficult for others to guess what he was really thinking.

The reason for this kind of caution was, of course, a secret.

Lin Chen finished writing the last subject post and handed it over to the other party for review.

After Xing Conglian finished reading it, he was surprised and said, “Consultant Lin, with just these few subject posts, I have the urge to handcuff you.”

His tone and expression were very natural, as if they hadn’t had that private conversation earlier.

Lin Chen almost sighed inaudibly.

Although he said this, Xing Conglian quickly translated the dirty and morbid posts Lin Chen had written and entered them on the laptop. Ren Xian only had to complete the work by copying and pasting them.

Before that, the captain of the criminal division had completed the planning and arrangements for the psychological test for thousands of people, including a series of tasks such as specific classroom arrangements and sequence. He seemed to be naturally good at arranging and organizing, and he was terribly efficient when he got down to business.

So much so that when Fu Hao came after class, he almost had nothing to criticize about such arrangements, and this was someone who specialized in psychometrics and had presided over many large-scale joint tests, so one would expect him to have many words regarding the test plan.

“Computer testing and pen-and-paper testing are conducted at the same time… Although it’s not advisable to control the measurement error, it’s not a big problem if you’re in a hurry. I’ll wait for our computer room to prepare, but why is there a detailed rule here that allows students who take the computer test to gather in the cafeteria first without notifying the test location in advance and then have me lead them to the computer room?”

“Just in case.”

—-

Just in case had almost become Xing Conglian’s new motto recently.

Rather, perhaps it was a catchphrase.

When night fell, it began to rain.

There was no regularity to the spring rain. From time to time, the entire campus was shrouded in thin rain and mist and exuded a quiet light.

But for students in the psychology department, school of medicine, and chemistry department of Yongchuan University, their night was destined to be quite the opposite of quiet.

After all, they were college students who were used to being undisciplined. No one wanted to go to the teaching buildings to answer 500 personality test questions when they should be heading back to their dorms to chase dramas or play games. They all had to fill out the answer carefully as well, which only added to the torment.

The rainy night was cold and humid, and the air was filled with the sizzling sound of electronic equipment.

For the purpose of concealment, Lin Chen could only sit in the surveillance room and observe every move in the 10 classrooms.

Like a picture that had been copied and pasted, the scene in each classroom was almost exactly the same.

At the front and rear of the classroom, there were grad students Fu Hao hired to preside over the test. After explaining and distributing the test papers, they began to play on their cellphones out of boredom.

At this moment, most of the students were bending over and holding pens as they flipped through the test booklets page by page. Some of them were yawning, and others were answering the questions at extraordinary speed. The problem was, from the angles with their heads down and their backs curving, one couldn’t tell who among them was different from the others.

“Hey, your school is really great. Even the classrooms are equipped with cameras.”

The door of the surveillance room was pushed open. Lin Chen turned his head and saw Xing Conglian walking in slowly with two cups of coffee.

“Do you see anything?” Xing Conglian asked.

Lin Chen shook his head. “The angle isn’t good. The cameras are mainly used to monitor the teacher’s class, so they’re all installed on the back wall. Just looking at their movements, it’s difficult to see anything suspicious.”

Lin Chen felt a little depressed looking at the neat backs of the students.

“Also, there are too many students,” Xing Conglian tried to comfort him. His voice was low, as if he were saying something casually.

But when these words reached Lin Chen’s ears, it was as if there had been a thunderclap in the middle of the night. He raised his head slightly and frowned, only to notice that the air around him was becoming irritating.

“What’s wrong?” Xing Conglian asked.

“You just reminded me just now the most dangerous part of the whole incident.”

“What?”

“We can’t see it.” He folded his hands on the table and stared at more than 500 students on the screen and said, “Even if some students can be screened out, there will still be those that we can’t see because they have perfectly transformed into another person.”

It was like using a single fishing net and never catching any fish in the pond. What they were doing now was fishing out species that just matched the size of the fishing net, but the remaining fish would still be swimming freely.

“It’s not easy to find some people, but at least this is a breakthrough,” Xing Conglian said.

“Have you ever thought that even if there’s a breakthrough, it may be difficult for us to touch the essence of the problem? That is, what can cause them to do such a thing?”

“But you said it’s not drugs or hypnosis. How can people lose themselves for no reason? This isn’t some kind of curse, right?”

Hearing this, Lin Chen raised his head and was speechless for a while.

The window of the surveillance room was half open. From there, they could see the vague lights in the teaching building in the distance.

Unconsciously, the sound of rain gradually became dense, and their conversation seemed to be obscured by it.

“What’s wrong now?” Xing Conglian asked.

“You’ve given me a very bad idea. I hope I won’t be caught by your unbelief.”

“Consultant Lin, there’s no need to turn to feudal superstition…” Xing Conglian shuddered and asked in a low voice, “This isn’t really sorcery, right?”

“Does psychological sorcery count?”

Lin Chen had no intention of scaring Xing Conglian, but from the man’s expression, he saw a trace of consternation that quickly blinked away. It was as if something illuminated his entire face, and when Lin Chen noticed it, it was due to a flash of lightning from outside.

“It’s not good to say it now. Let’s wait for the results to come out,” Lin Chen said before the thunder sounded.

“I hope things will be smooth sailing,” Xing Conglian said.

In short, Lin Chen felt that Xing Conglian’s recent rebellious spirit seemed too accurate.

Because after Xing Conglian finished his “praying for success”, the sound of thunder fell from the sky and was so loud that the glass window of the entire building seemed to tremble. He even heard some screams coming from the teaching building in the distance.

Then the sound of rain became violent and fell indiscriminately.

Spring rain and spring thunder were both unreasonable occurrences that came with incomparably powerful vitality. It overwhelmed the sky, and even the air began to stir.

Lin Chen stood up, looked out the window, and after another strike of lightning, the lights suddenly went out.

This was more unreasonable than a spring thunderstorm in a drama. There was no warning, as a large area of the campus in the distance was plunged into darkness. It was as if someone wiped out the chalk on the chalkboard. Including the teaching building where the psychological test was being conducted, dozens of other buildings all had their lights shut off, while other parts of the school were still brightly lit at this moment.

Through the shimmering lights, Lin Chen said to Xing Conglian, “After this matter is over, you really have to go bye-bye.”

As he said this, he took out his phone.

Due to the careful and thoughtful work from Xing Conglian, before organizing the personality test, those grad students, who were responsible for the specific implementation of the test were uniformly dragged into a WeChat group.

[Calm the students and guard the front and back doors.]

[No one is allowed to leave the classroom.]

Lin Chen sent these two lines to the group.

The students, who were still sitting in the dark classroom, were all stunned. There was a second or two of silence before cries sounded.

Then thunder exploded again, causing the timid girls to start screaming. The shrilling sound began to tear through the entire dark building like a torrential rain.

However, not all students were shouting. Most of them fell into silence as they listened to the shouts around them. First they looked left and right, and gradually, under the sharp screams, they started to anxiously whisper to each other.

“I’m so scared.”

“Not those who committed suicide…”

“Is this place haunted? Why did the power suddenly go out?”

The students exchanged their unfounded theories, and in the heavy rain and darkness, these theories existed truthfully, as if they were three-dimensional.

They even felt that the wind that passed through the hall became cooler, as if some sharp fingers had pierced the darkness and were about to strangle them.

It seemed like countless ants were crawling all over them. The students started to protest one after another.

“It’s so scary. Teacher, how can we do this with no power!”

“Can we go?!”

“Teacher, let us go!”

Anxious and irritable voices slowly fermented and rose.

Lin Chen stood in the surveillance room, overlooking the dark night in the distance.

At this moment, Xing Conglian also put down the phone in his hand. “It seems that just those few buildings suddenly lost power. School security is rushing to the power room now. This is quite strange.”

Another thunder smashed through the sky, rumbling in the distance making it hard for Lin Chen to hear what Xing Conglian had just said.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 68

“How are you going to do that? Are you going to screen everyone?” Jiang Chao sighed. “To be honest, I don’t think there’s enough time to visit and investigate everything.”

“Yes, so I need to find some people to come out and talk.”

“What?”

“If we are sure that there will be a live broadcast, which means in this school or this city, there are still people who want to commit crimes. We can use a method to find out who these people are and talk to them.”

“The question is, do you have any quick ways to find someone psychologically?”

“To be precise, we’re using math.”

Lin Chen took out three pieces of paper from his pocket. Those were the three things he had been carrying around with him today, and now it seemed he was glad he hadn’t thrown them away.

“Lend me Wang Chao,” he said to Xing Conglian.

“Why are you being so polite? As long as you don’t kill him, you can use him however you want,” Xing Conglian replied with a smile.

The teenager sitting on the side raised his head from the front of the screen while chewing on a pen in his mouth, obviously still trying to figure out how to catch these perverts. “Captain, you know I can easily mutiny, right?”

Lin Chen spread three pieces of paper flat on the table and said, “In fact, through the results of the MMPI, we found that Wang Shishi, Xu Haozhen, and Jiang Liu all have similar personality traits, so we can use this to screen for possible candidates who have similar characteristics.”

“Find people who might be interested in participating in the next live death broadcast.” Wang Chao leaned back on the table. “There are 30,000 teachers and students at Yongchuan University, and you want to find three people who will participate in the next live broadcast? A’Chen, this is truly a needle in a haystack.”

“You mean, first filter out people with introverted personalities greater than or equal to 70 points?”

Lin Chen nodded. After what happened just now, he didn’t feel surprised that Xing Conglian actually remembered the key words and scoring criteria.

He glanced at Wang Chao, causing the boy to spit out the pen in his mouth, and wiped the area that was bitten with his t-shirt.

After taking the pen, Lin Chen drew a circle on the paper and explained, “Suppose this is a group of people with introverted personalities in society…” Then, he drew a small circle intersecting it on the edge of the big circle. “These are the possible perpetrators,” he said as he blacked out the intersection of the two circles. “This is the potential group of people we may find.”

“I got it! You’re asking me to hit the library first and get out the information about this test, then screen the students who scored more than 70 on it. How many people are there?”

“What library?” Xing Conglian knocked on Wang Chao’s head. “We can transfer the data through due process.”

“70 points is probably two standard deviations from the average, so it’s conservatively estimated that there will be 4% abnormal people,” Lin Chen replied.

“Then, if you only screen Yongchuan University, there will be only about 1,200!” Wang Chao exclaimed.

“Is there any way to narrow that down?” Xing Conglian asked.

“Yes,” Lin Chen answered. “Have them take another personality test.”

Several suicides in this case all showed characteristics of major changes in their personalities, which meant that if the student showed major changes in their scores on the second personality test, it would look suspicious.

“I get it,” Xing Conglian said.

“However, there’s still a small problem.” Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian. “Assuming we conduct the personality test on the students with great fanfare, won’t we spook the snake?”

“This isn’t a big issue. Now that there’s such a serious suicide incident at the school, isn’t it normal to check on the students’ mental health?” Hearing Lin Chen’s concerns, Xing Conglian continued with a smile, “And, when you really identify the suspicious students, doesn’t this provide enough justification as an excuse to interview them?”

Xing Conglian’s words made Lin Chen a little speechless. “You’re really…”

“What?”

Lin Chen shook his head helplessly.

“An old, crafty scoundrel. He’s insidious, treacherous, and shameless!” Little comrade Wang Chao answered righteously.

Xing Conglian didn’t seem to care about these labels. He frowned slightly and asked, “How long will it take you to complete the initial screening?”

“Very fast.”

“How much time does it take to implement a secondary application?” He asked Lin Chen.

“The test time will only take about an hour, but from organizing manpower, arranging the test location, to notifying the students, the process will be relatively long, and the student base is huge…”

Hearing this, Xing Conglian glanced at the time. “It’s 16:37 right now.”

“Yes, it’s almost time for the university to close for the day. Even if the counselor is notified now and the test is arranged, it will probably be around 19:00 before the first batch of students are tested.”

“Do you have an estimate? Which department and grade are the students we are looking for most likely to appear in?”

“Well, there’s no significant difference in the scores of the students in each department, but the proportion of psychologically unhealthy students that are majoring in psychology is relatively high…”

Xing Conglian couldn’t help but laugh. “Isn’t this self-criticism?”

Lin Chen hooked the corner of his mouth and continued, “According to the data of our school, there are also students from the school of medicine and the chemistry department…”

“About how many students total?”

“Reporting Captain, a total of 3,158,” little comrade Wang Chao quickly replied.

“It means that no matter what, the test can’t be completed today, right?”

“Even if 20 classrooms are opened, only 800 students can take the test at the same time, which will take 5 hours to complete.”

“So it’ll be tomorrow morning at the earliest.”

But even if it did take until tomorrow morning, 20 hours had already passed.

Xing Conglian nodded and continued, “Can you narrow it down even more?”

“From the grade level, freshmen have just taken the entrance test, so there’s no need to take another one. Many senior students have started internships and are no longer on campus. They are directly excluded. Therefore, it’s best if we target the sophomores or juniors.”

As soon as the two of them spoke, they heard Wang Chao press a button.

“Yooooo, there are only 1,342 people total!”

It was indeed extremely pleasant to work with efficient partners. “I need to trouble you to pick out the sophomore and junior students from the psychology department, school of medicine, and chemistry department, and compile them into a list for me,” Lin Chen said.

“That’s but a trifle.” When the teenager heard this, he knocked on the keyboard a few times. He looked at the generated data for a while, then said to Lin Chen, “A’Chen, I have to say, your psychology department is really special, huh.”

“Yes, I’ve been wondering about that too.” Lin Chen shrugged his shoulders and said, “Send me the list of these people, their resumes, and their test results.”

“Sent.”

Lin Chen probably understood why Xing Conglian had taken Wang Chao with him. His work was simply too outstanding.

After the boy finished speaking, he took out a tablet from his backpack and handed it to Lin Chen. “You can use this to look at it.”

“If we have this list in hand, can’t we cross-compare the circles of friends of the six deceased in this case to see if there is any overlap?” Jiang Chao asked suddenly.

“Yes, we can.” Wang Chao pulled out a piece of candy and tossed it into his mouth. “You can find someone to do it. I still have a lot of things to do.”

Even though Wang Chao looked relaxed and carefree, it had been an extremely stressful investigation so far for him.

Large-scale population screening with a tight time limit was naturally contradictory.

He continued to connect to the dark web and pressed the refresh button every few seconds, irritably, as if he were waiting for a response from someone on the other end at any second.

“If Captain Jiang has a directory, can you help him with the comparison analysis?” Lin Chen patted the teenager’s hand and spoke in a gentle voice.

“The comparison will take a while, and there hasn’t been any response over there yet, so I have to keep an eye on the post.”

It was rare that the teenager would refuse Lin Chen. He was probably eager to play a role as if he were trying to defeat something because his own abilities were almost useless in the dark web.

As if seeing through the teenager’s mind, Lin Chen shook his head and said, “You should do more important things.”

“Did you hear that? Let Ren Xian come and look at the post later. At any rate, since you were the one who taught him, his level shouldn’t be bad.” It was rare for Xing Conglian to sound so tough. “However, if we haven’t received any response within half an hour, we need to take some more extreme measures.”

“What do you want to do?” Lin Chen asked.

“Our current fishing nets are too small…” Xing Conglian looked at Lin Chen. “Mainly because you inspired me to find a needle in a haystack, assuming that the mastermind behind the scenes is using the live broadcast to make money, they can’t be too exclusive to newcomers. There are many underground forums on the dark web. We can write some topic posts and…”

“Are you trying to say that I should imitate the tone of a psychopath, write a topic post, distribute it on major websites, and widen the fishing net?” Lin Chen keenly noticed the trap.

“You’re more professional.” Xing Conglian looked a bit embarrassed, so he took the initiative to say, “I can be responsible for the translation.”

Although he was speechless, he had to admit that Xing Conglian’s opinion was still reliable. He was just about to reply when he heard the other party say, “Does Consultant Lin know where the bathroom in the office building is? Please take me there?”

Even if he was probably looking to talk to Lin Chen alone, he had to consider the mood of everyone present in the room.

Lin Chen went out with Xing Conglian. Sure enough, the captain of the criminal division didn’t have any intention to solve his physiological issue at all. He walked towards the window, opened it halfway, and then lit a cigarette.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Lin Chen was a little surprise. He didn’t expect Xing Conglian to specifically call him out to ask about Wang Chao’s psychological problem.

“He must be nervous.”

“Are you nervous?”

The question changed so quickly that Lin Chen couldn’t react.

“Not yet.”

The pale smoke rose as Lin Chen stared at it uncomfortably.

“No matter what, I hope you don’t feel too much pressure. If you have any questions, you can tell me.” Finally, Xing Conglian spoke.

At that moment, Lin Chen suddenly understood Xing Conglian’s intention, and he shook his head almost helplessly. Xing Conglian really understood.

From start to finish, Xing Conglian didn’t ignore the most critical issue. He was aware that Zheng Dongdong and Butler Chen had grievances against him and was able to use these two people to set up a massive trap. Such a mastermind seemed to be too familiar with everything about him.

“If you’re eager to know, you can buy me a drink after this case is over.” Lin Chen raised his head and looked into Xing Conglian’s eyes as he said this.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 67

“Lao Xing, did you set it up early in the morning?” Jiang Chao asked in an uncertain tone, as if he couldn’t imagine how someone could plot such a deep trap.

Xing Conglian seemed to have guessed that the problem was inside the crime squad long ago. What he did was just rule out the possibility that it was Zheng Dongdong or the Chen family tipping off the culprit and give the ICPO officer time to deliver the news. After all, if there really was such a shadowy creature like a mole, they most likely couldn’t wait to tell their master that the game was almost over.

However, since the start of the game, it was completely unreasonable for anyone to plan to counter their opponent at the very last second.

Ren Xian was still stunned. Wang Chao pulled out a USB flash drive from his notebook and threw it at Xing Conglian. “This is the surveillance video just now. It monitored the emotional reactions of your subordinates throughout the entire process. Find some micro-expression analyst or something and have them take a look.” The teenager grinned while blinking slowly, showing off his white tiger tooth. “You’re welcome. This is what I should do.”

Looking at the small USB flash drive, not only Team Leader Ren but also Vice Captain Jiang, who was watching, felt goosebumps all over. He looked at Captain Xing, who was sitting at the table, and thought about whether he wanted to smoke another cigarette. “Why the hell didn’t I realize that you’re so scheming?”

“It’s all a ruse. Just a ruse.” Captain Xing smiled.

Perhaps it was because Xing Conglian’s smile was so hateful that Ren Xian finally woke up.

He got up in a daze, bowed to the other party, and said, “Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome.” Xing Conglian nodded. The sinister aura on his face that wasn’t pleasing to anyone had long since disappeared.

Ren Xian looked him up and down. He felt like a prey being pursued by a hunter the entire time. Just when he was about to feel another chill down his spine, he heard the other party say, “There is a small matter that I have to trouble Team Leader Ren about.”

Since it was a small favor, it shouldn’t be too much trouble. “Please,” Ren Xian replied.

“Whether there’s a real mole or not, I would like to ask you to pretend to investigate Fang Zhiming’s murder during this period of time so that it can buy us some time.”

Xing Conglian was very polite in his phrasing.

Hearing this, Ren Xian nodded, feeling relieved. They probably wanted to confuse the other side and set a trap to catch the mastermind, which in and of itself was already a handful. “No problem. Please rest assured.”

When he finished speaking, he saluted them, then turned around and walked out, preparing to go downstairs to deal with a dirty matter.

Just as he pressed his hand on the door handle, he suddenly remembered something and turned around and asked, “Can I take the liberty to ask for your name?”

“Captain of the Hongjing Police Criminal Division, Xing Conglian.”

Although he knew that this was probably the other party’s name and position, at this moment, Ren Xian felt like he was being prevaricated.

Ren Xian frowned. In a trance, he looked at his young instructor. The 18-year-old was hiding behind the laptop screen while secretly making a gesture of cutting across his neck at him.

Ren Xian felt the creeps and was ready to leave without hesitation, vowing not to ask a word more, when suddenly, he heard the Hongjing Police Captain speak again.

“Team Leader Ren, it’s hard on you. You have to deal with internal matters and also have to help us.”

Ren Xian turned around and felt that he was missing something.

“With your full assistance, I believe we should be able to solve the case soon.”

“Wait, what do you mean?”

“Welcome to the Yongchuan University mass suicide case task force.” Under the sunlight, Xing Conglian smiled brightly.

—-

Ren Xian disappeared behind the door in a daze.

Jiang Chao felt some dissatisfaction. “Lao Xing, what do you mean? We have plenty of people we can transfer. Why are we getting Interpol involved? Those haughty guys have eyes that look above while they look down on us…”

Xing Conglian smiled and said, “Be prepared.”

“What?”

Xing Conglian glanced at Wang Chao.

The young man turned his laptop upside down and faced Captain Jiang.

A tragic triple jump video started to play without warning.

Jiang Chao stared at the opposite side in a daze. His eyes were slightly confused, but soon, his pupil dilated, and his face stiffened. The surrounding air seemed to become stagnant again.

In fact, the video was quite short, but watching it felt as if it were infinitely elongated. Jiang Chao used nearly half a minute to adapt to the chill on his body.

This time, it was Jiang Chao who smiled bitterly. “You can’t warn a brother first?”

“There’s no time.” Xing Conglian sighed.

“Someone is using this website to broadcast the students’ suicides?”

“Not only was it live suicide, there’s also a sex stream, and it’s simply not just broadcasting. They are also using this content to make money.”

Jiang Chao took out another cigarette. When he heard this, his hands shook. “Can’t you shut down the website?”

“Well, in theory, this website is already closed because it’s a one-time thing,” Wang Chao interrupted.

The voice of the young man calmed Jiang Chao down. It was as if he caught a lifeline, and he hurriedly asked Wang Chao, “You—you’ve been with Lao Xing for so long and are good with technology. Can you find the IP address of the live broadcast so we can catch them?!”

Like a rose petal beaten by frost, the teenager gloomily lowered his head and explained unhappily, “This is the dark web. The live broadcast uses Tor¹. Even if you find the world’s top hacker, red hacker, or white hacker², you can’t find them. Ah, unless you get an AI to do it, but then you must wait for over a decade.”

¹The Onion Router. It’s a free, open-source software for enabling anonymous communication. It directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer overlay network, consisting of more than seven thousand relays to conceal a user’s location and usage from anyone performing network surveillance or traffic analysis. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace a user’s Internet activity.
²See Kinky Thoughts for a full explanation.

“Then, can you find out who hacked the school’s surveillance?”

Hearing this, Wang Chao couldn’t help but lay flat on the table. “Please reflect on what I just said, thanks.”

“Then, can you at least take back control of the surveillance?”

Wang Chao sighed. He poked his captain with his thumb and said to Jiang Chao, “That’s a piece of cake, but this iron wall won’t let me do it.”

“Why Lao Xing?”

“Well, the two live death broadcasts occurred on the campus of Yongchuan University. If we shut down the surveillance here, can you guarantee that the culprit won’t go to a different place to commit their crimes?”

“Wait, you mean there’s a possibility of more suicides?” Jiang Chao’s scalp suddenly went numb.

“It’s not a possibility. Within 48 hours, there’s certainly going to be another case.” As if afraid Jiang Chao panic wasn’t high enough, Xing Conglian glanced at Lin Chen inadvertently before he continued. “And, according to the mastermind who set us up, I’m afraid that the next live broadcast will be much more serious than the previous two.”

“Don’t scare me, Lao Xing. How serious is much more? Do I need to put Yongchuan University under martial law?”

Roughly receiving the meaning conveyed from Xing Conglian’s eyes, Lin Chen pursed his lips and said, “I suggest you don’t do this.”

“Why?!” Both of his suggestions were rejected twice. Jiang Chao slammed on the table, feeling that the two in front of him were too cold-blooded. He said coldly, “You know something is going to happen, but we’re not doing anything to stop it?”

Both Xing Conglian and Lin Chen didn’t speak.

Seeing the two of them being secretive, Jiang Chao seemed to have thought of something, then suddenly realized. “Oh, you don’t want the mastermind to know. You have checked this website and know that a more serious incident is going to happen.” He instantly figured out all the details. “You just told Team Leader Ren to pretend to keep investigating Fang Zhiming’s case. If he doesn’t do it, won’t the mastermind behind the live broadcast know that their plan is exposed and then give up on their next operation? Why do we have to see more bloodshed? In case something happens, you and I can’t bear the responsibility, Lao Xing!”

Jiang Chao said this bitterly, but such persuasion had no effect on Xing Conglian or Lin Chen.

“Facing one possibility is better than guessing what will happen in the face of two,” Lin Chen said.

“Now is not the time to discuss philosophical issues.”

“Yes, if we want, we can make the mastermind terminate their plan within 48 hours…”

“Then why not do it?!”

“Jiang Chao, have you ever thought about it? He took such a big risk and was even ready to sacrifice the ICPO mole, just to delay a little time. What does this show?”

“This means the stakes for the next live broadcast will be fucking high, and they can make a lot of money from it!” Jiang Chao felt the chill on his skin, which had just now completely turned into anger. “This means that many people may die!”

“But theirs is only one such opportunity.” Lin Chen used a less intimidating tone to calm down the person in front of him.

“Yes, Lao Jiang. If we don’t catch them this time and make them stop, can you guarantee that they won’t think of doing something bigger next time?” Xing Conglian continued, “And I promise, the reason why they dare draw this timeline means that in 48 hours, all the clues we found will be wiped. You know that there’s a group lurking in the shadows, but you can’t find them, and you don’t know when they will commit their next crime. This is more uncomfortable than having something stuck in your throat.”

“But… But now is not the time to be a hero.” Probably because Xing Conglian’s words were too convincing, Jiang Chao’s tone softened.

“Don’t worry, we will not risk the students’ lives.”

“Then what should we do next?”

“First, you have to arrange for manpower to be deployed at Yongchuan University. However, we can’t be sure that the next live broadcast location will be at the school. After all, there’s a big commotion now, but it’s still best to keep a watchful eye here…”

“Then what?”

“Then, I don’t know.” Xing Conglian spread up his hands and casually admitted, “We don’t have any obvious clues now.”

It was like knowing that there was a bomb that was going to explode in front of you, but there was an endless quagmire separating you from it.

Xing Conglian continued, “It’ll take a lot of time to investigate the social relations between the deceased. We can’t find the person behind the website. The only way we can find it is through the audience by means of phishing, but whether we’ll be successful can only depend on fate.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Lao Xing?!” Jiang Chao was so angry that he felt his blood pressure soar.

Seeing that his old friend was about to die from a heart attack, Xing Conglian turned his head and looked at Lin Chen. “So, now I can only rely on Mr. Lin. After all, he’s an expert.”

“You make me feel like I’m the lifeline.”

“So, Mr. Lifeline, what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to find a needle in a haystack.”

---

Kinky Thoughts:

“Hackers” are broken down into different categories in China:

1. Hackers, generally referred to as “crackers”, are your standard hackers that you and I know them as. They engage in hacking/cracking software, websites, etc. and have malicious intent.
2. Red hackers are people who safeguard national interests and don’t use network technology to hack others (you can think of them as anti-hackers for the country). They’re called red hackers in China because the color red is associated with justice and love for one’s country (China).
3. White hackers are people who have the ability to compromise computer security but do not have malicious intent. Usually they are ex-hackers. They generally work with enterprises to improve their security weaknesses.
4. Not mentioned, but gray hackers are known as saboteurs in the eyes of hackers, red hackers, and white hackers. They used a series of sabotage methods to deliberately destroy systems and malicious attacks.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 66

“Oh, the still image capture system.” When it came to technical issues, Wang Chao suddenly became energetic. “The case isn’t small and has gone through this procedure, but if it’s an internal photo of a drug manufacturing factory passed on by an undercover agent, it should be top secret. Could it be that Zheng Dongdong just happened to use this packaging bag? In fact, looking at his appearance, he probably just wanted to lock us up for a few days, but he didn’t expect things to be so serious.” As if suddenly possessed by a detective, comrade Wang Chao’s eyes lit up. “There’s also the possibility that someone knows that this packing bag will definitely be captured by your filtration system!” At the end, Wang Chao placed emphasis on his tone and even pushed up his nonexistent glasses. “So, is this all a coincidence or a conspiracy?”

“If this problem is too complicated, then go back to the original point and look at the planting case. What would happen if Zheng Dongdong only reported the case to ordinary police?”

“We’d be taken back to the bureau for a cup of tea, and then Lao Jiang would come and fish us out.”

“Now, replace that person with an Interpol officer who wants to track down clues regarding drug smuggling. How will the results differ?”

“We would be arrested by the ICPO and tortured?” Wang Chao looked at Team Leader Ren in horror. “You didn’t really have this plan, did you?”

“Why do you think he brought the entire special forces? To come play mahjong?” Xing Conglian slapped the boy on the back of the head and motioned for him to be quiet.

“Is there any difference between the two outcomes for you?” Ren Xian asked.

Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian. This was indeed something he couldn’t understand. Assuming that there was really someone working behind the scenes, why did they take such a huge risk and use the photos returned by Fang Zhiming to lure Interpol into taking action?

“This difference lies in time.” It seemed that the answer to the mystery had already been guessed. When Xing Conglian answered the question, he didn’t even pause to think about it.

Lin Chen frowned.

“If we’re taken away by the local police, we can probably see the sun again within an hour.” Xing Conglian kept his lip tight and let go of his analysis as he spoke his opinion on the dark and treacherous thoughts behind this scheme in a frighteningly calm tone.

For a moment, the coldness and silence returned to the room, as if the warm sunlight that was overflowing through the glass window had become ineffective.

No one spoke. Lin Chen thought that he needed to ask the question again. “So, what if it was ICPO?” He looked at the team leader and asked.

“I would’ve detained you as much as I could to limit as much of your personal free time as possible,” Ren Xian replied.

“How long would that be?”

“According to regulations, 48 hours.”

“So all this is to delay us in our case?”

This conclusion was inconceivable.

A trivial crime like hiding marijuana wouldn’t cause them any real substantial harm, so whether it was the local police or the ICPO that was dispatched, the most important difference was that the latter would interrogate and detain them in spite of everything until the end of the 48-hour detention period.

So in retrospect, who on earth would want them to stop for a cup of tea and slow them down?

The answer was almost as obvious as it could be.

Of all the people sitting here, only Wang Chao and Xing Conglian understood the meaning behind this. Wang Chao chewed his gum more slowly. As if he couldn’t understand the mastermind’s brain circuit, he raised a point. “This is too risky. If we were in the process of being interrogated and we talked about Fang Zhiming or content related to the previous case, then wouldn’t the truth come out?”

With a puff, the teenager blew a bubble with his gum.

“It’s simple. The so-called Fang Zhiming and his unfinished undercover case are just two different stages of the same trap.” Regarding people like Xing Conglian, when they say their important conclusions, they would be calm, as if they were introducing a food stall on a vendor street that was the most delicious. “Stage one involves us being arrested, interrogated, and released after serving our full detention. During this period, if Team Leader Ren is lucky enough to talk to us about Fang Zhiming or some other clues, the story will automatically enter stage two…”

“What is stage two?”

“Just like what you did, you would analyze the relationship between the live suicide broadcast and Fang Zhiming’s murder and be led astray.” Xing Conglian ignored the cigarette in his hand and instead yawned.

“Captain, can you please explain clearly?” The teenager closed his laptop, took off his cap, and scratched his head furiously. What he was doing was probably what everyone in the room wanted to do. “According to you, the boss behind the scenes deliberately guided us to investigate the connection between the two cases. But why? If they dare do this, doesn’t it mean that the people who framed us and the drug dealer who killed Fang Zhiming aren the same people? Then, does Yang Dianfeng have anything to do with the jewelry robbery where the vehicle’s time was modified and the subsequent death of the witness, Cheng Weiwei? What the hell is going on?”

The teenager’s questions were like an unstoppable barrage of bullets, but the questions that came out of that small bag seemed to raise far more questions than what the teenager had just asked.

There seemed to be countless strands of fine spider silk in the air that were so sticky that they prevented people from moving or even breathing. Suddenly, Lin Chen saw a lax smile on Xing Conglian’s face.

“You’re making me dizzy by asking so many questions.” The captain of the criminal division bent his finger and tapped the head of his young subordinate. He struck harder this time, which caused the teenager to arch up and grimace in pain. “Captain, it’s very unfair for you to bully the weak like this, do you know that?”

“Do you know why I hit you?” the perpetrator asked.

“Because I asked you a question that you can’t answer, so you feel embarrassed…” The teenager seemed to be courting death.

“Then let me ask another question. Do you know why your grandfather can live to be 90 years old?”

“Because he eats vegetables every day and insists on exercising!”

“No, it’s because he never meddles in his own business.”

The teenager’s eyes widened, and he looked incredulously at his captain, who was still teasing him.

“But, Captain, there are so many clues. The bag that came from the drug manufacturing factory, Fang Zhiming’s death, Yang Dianfeng’s time modification, the entire story of the jewelry robbery, and the background of the witness, Cheng Weiwei. We have too many things to investigate!”

“Stop talking.” There was a rare stern look on Xing Conglian’s face.

Wang Chao quickly silenced his rambling.

“Think about it from another perspective. Why is that bag not a suspicious case set up by the mastermind behind the scenes? In fact, Fang Zhiming’s death may have nothing to do with the case we’re investigating now.” The surrounding air seemed to stagnate, but Xing Conglian’s words were like sharp blades that broke through the sticky spider silk. “You see, we can make countless inferences, but the only certainty is that because there are too many possibilities, we can’t pursue this clue. This is definitely a dead end and will waste countless hours and ultimately lead to no success…” He looked at the teenager solemnly, but his gaze seemed to be cast on everyone in the conference room. “So, stop your thoughts and don’t think about it in this direction, okay?”

This was an order, not a discussion.

For a moment, Lin Chen felt that this order was too uncomfortable.

For people who wanted to solve the case, there was nothing more tempting than the clues in front of them. It was like ripe fruit exuding a sweet aroma or a suspenseful novel that was about to reach its climax. It was difficult to control oneself and pull back the hands reaching out for the fruit or put down the book.

This was because, long ago, people had developed the habit of analyzing and studying various things. The inertia of their thinking made them want to uncontrollably dig up the entire street, even if they knew that this could be a maze laid by the murderer, because they wanted to see what was hidden underneath the maze.

But now, it seemed that Xing Conglian had clearly drawn a line on the ground, telling them that they must bypass it. No matter what was buried in front of them, it had nothing to do with them for the time being.

This was truly unacceptable.

But in the next second, Lin Chen felt as if cold water had poured on top of his head, and the wet and cold feeling instantly woke him up.

He was fortunate that the person sitting next to him was the yawning Xing Conglian.

After all, most people in this world were constantly analyzing and judging. Only a few people could break through the fog and clearly see the truth of the matter. It was even more amazing for people who wouldn’t bother talking nonsense and would just directly state things.

The entire planting case was a sinister thoughtful trap from the start. It wasn’t fatal, but it was cold and vicious. Under the ingenious arrangement of the mastermind, one wouldn’t realize that they were stepping into a well-designed quagmire.

In fact, there were too many ways to delay time and create accidents, such as murder, arson, car accidents, and the likes… but those methods were too heavy-handed, and it would be easy for them to perceive the intent behind them. A case of drug smuggling was the most appropriate. 48 hours was as trivial as a nail piercing a tire. It made you want to stop and address the immediate problem. If you were lucky, you could repair the tire and move on, only to find a few bear traps and iron nails sprinkled on the road ahead. You would grimace as you tried to make your way around these hazards, wanting to increase your speed so you could catch whatever brats set up these traps. By that time, you would be further away from what really mattered.

And what really mattered was the direction and time.

“If all this was done to delay our investigation, it means that the next live death broadcast will happen soon,” Lin Chen said.

“Yes, but that’s not a bad thing.” As Xing Conglian spoke, the stern look in his eyes had disappeared, and Lin Chen found that he was looking at him with a helpless expression. “At any rate, we know the time limit.”

“What the hell do you mean? What’s the time limit?” Wang Chao started to become impatient. It could be because his A’Chen’s face became as ugly as the captain’s, or maybe he couldn’t keep up with all this detective work. After all, he was simply a technician!

“I’m afraid we have at most 48 hours left.”

48 hours was the longest time that Ren Xian could detain them, and likewise, it should be the ending time of the death carnival that was yet to come.

—-

For Lin Chen and Xing Conglian, they had already clarified their direction and knew the worst possibility for the future. However, for Ren Xian, after experiencing all the absurd drama, he couldn’t avoid the most important questions: why did the poorly printed marijuana bag reappear after a lapse of 11 months, and despite the fact that the internal information of the crime squad was kept strictly confidential, how did an outsider know about the photo Fang Zhiming sent back?

Just as he was confused and thinking about whether he should speak, the door of the conference room was opened again.

The vice captain of the second division, who was always carefree, stood at the door. His face was full of joy at the successful interrogation.

“Fuck Lao Xing, you’re like a god. Chen Ping recruited that guy. He said the marijuana and goods were all given by his second assistant.”

Hearing this, Ren Xian’s eyes lit up. He didn’t expect Xing Conglian, who acted like he didn’t know about their case, to have already secretly sent someone to interrogate the suspect.

“Has the arrest been carried out?” Xing Conglian took out another pack of cigarettes like magic and threw it over.

Jiang Chao reached out and caught it, then said, “According to what you told me in the text message, someone was sent to the Chen’s company in the early morning. They were just arrested after Chen Ping gave his name, but when Lao Huang and the others rushed to the assistant office, it was empty. There was coffee on the table that was still hot!”

Ren Xian’s mood was like a roller coaster. When he heard Jiang Chao’s words, he instantly slipped into the abyss. All he could feel was cold and darkness, without a single trace of light.

“It seems as if someone tipped him off.” Jiang Chao opened the cigarette pack, took out a cigarette, and stuck it in his mouth.

Hearing this, whether it was from the residue of tobacco or something else, Ren Xian felt only bitterness in his mouth.

Xing Conglian’s net was closed tightly enough, yet that person could still get away in such a short amount of time, which only proved that there was a mole among the people who were in the conference room.

Ren Xian recalled that there was a signal jammer just now, so the people inside had no chance to inform others on the outside.

Of all the people who went out, Zheng Dongdong was already detained, and Chen Ping and the Chen patriarch were being interrogated, so the only ones who could leak the information were his subordinates, who had just left.

“Team Leader Ren.”

In the bone chilling cold, Ren Xian suddenly heard someone calling to him.

He raised his head and looked at the window, where the bright sunlight was overflowing, creating a dazzling sight.

In the sun, he saw a vague, lazy smile.

Then he heard someone say, “Now, you can go search all the phones and communication devices.”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 65

Ren Xian didn’t know how anyone in the world could switch their minds so quickly. In just a few seconds after the Chen family left, the police officer who had been in control of the situation turned his head and targeted him.

Ren Xian was reluctant to admit it, but the moment those green eyes swept toward him, he involuntarily trembled a bit.

“This can’t be disclosed according to regulation,” he replied under great pressure.

Xing Conglian wasn’t prepared to accept such procedural prevarication. Unlike his polite and humble demeanor in front of the victims, he suddenly became forceful and strong.

“I think Team Leader Ren should be clear. If it weren’t for my friend, who happens to have such a little hobby, I’m afraid I would be in an interrogation room in the Yongchuan branch under 48 hours of uninterrupted interrogation, then be punished for drug smuggling, lose my police badge, and lose the job that I need to support my family.”

Xing Conglian spoke extremely slowly, with a strong sense of threat. When he finished, he paused for a while, as if to give Ren Xian plenty of time to think.

Ren Xian felt that it was actually he who was sitting in the cold and narrow concrete room and being pressured to spill his secrets. Even though he had two groups of special forces officers behind him, he didn’t feel a sense of security.

Although he served as a backdrop from start to finish, he was constantly thinking about the situation as he sat by the long desk. For example, the oddity in the drug smuggling case today. Was ICPO being used as a tool to catch someone who was framed, or was there something else going on?

But as the incident progressed, he realized that the muddy water he was wading in today was much deeper than in the past. If he could reverse time, he would prefer not to have seen the live photo that was sent to him, which was the start of all this trouble.

However, how could time possibly reverse?

Ren Xian raised his head and suddenly noticed the simple surveillance camera glued to the wall with duct tape. It looked like the eyes of a beast, recording everything that happened in the room.

Camera, signal blocker… He seemed to be catching on to something.

“Actually, it’s because of a clue.”

“What clue?” Xing Conglian’s face leaned forward slightly, giving people a strong sense of oppression.

“Regarding the drug smuggling case.”

Ren Xian brushed back his black hair from his forehead. His hair wasn’t long, but the roots were damp with sweat. He looked like he was finally unable to resist the pressure and was ready to explain things clearly.

He turned his head and looked at his team members, who had been sitting quietly in the corner behind him, and said, “You guys go and wait for me in the car.”

This signified that they were going to talk about important matters. The special forces officers looked at each other. They didn’t know why their boss would choose to break regulations and cooperate with these people.

However, an order was an order. They stood up in turn, ready to go out and wait in the car.

Just as one of them was about to reach the door of the conference room, Xing Conglian suddenly spoke.

“We’ll end soon. The conference room downstairs seems to be empty. You can rest there for a while.”

He raised his head, and a smile appeared on his originally slack face, showing a look of sincerity and politeness.

When the yawning Second Branch Division officers guarding the door heard this, their eyes suddenly lit up. They stretched out their hands and leaned slightly, as if indicating they would lead the way.

Looking at their backs, Lin Chen counted silently in his heart. These special forces officers were the fifth group to leave the conference room today.

Seeing the door close, Xing Conglian was like a ball that had suddenly deflated or like a youth at the end of a banquet. He suddenly relaxed, and no longer sat up straight and rigid. He lazily pulled out a cigarette and lit it without hesitation. After a flash from the lighter, he took a deep breath and then tilted his head.

As if he had received some signal, he stood up like he was boneless, stretched out his arms, climbed onto a chair, and took off the surveillance camera that was attached to the wall.

Xing Conglian took another cigarette from his pack and threw it in front of Ren Xian along with the lighter.

When the smoke rose, Ren Xian suddenly realized that today’s truly secret and most important topic was finally about to start.

“Does this drug case have anything to do with Fang Zhiming?”

Ren Xian felt a buzzing in his ears for a moment, as if someone had fired a shot right next to it, and his brain became like paste. He suddenly lost his ability to think, and his emotions would gain the upper hand. He quickly became agitated and nervous. His conditioned reflexes were fast as he quickly drew out his gun and confronted the person at the long table. “Why do you know about this?”

Xing Conglian was still smoking and didn’t have any intention of surrendering. “Your reaction tells me that it’s relevant.”

Ren Xian’s brain churned quickly. The file should be top secret. Even if it was a director or above, they didn’t have the authority to access it. Every unfinished big case had its own internal encryption method, so it was impossible for outsiders to crack it. What the hell is going on? Many possibilities circled his mind. He suddenly looked at the teenager drinking water in the corner, as if coming to a realization.

Wang Chao became so angry when he was stared at that he couldn’t help but yell, “What are you looking at me for? Am I that kind of person who just breaks laws and rules when I have nothing to do or hacks into other people’s systems when I’m in a bad mood?”

“Answer my question.” Ren Xian still held his gun and insisted.

“Hey, why are you so nervous… No wonder why you went gung ho when you caught a little clue and casually spilled the beans just from a slight press.” Little comrade Wang Chao didn’t mean to hold back his punches as he continued to provoke the team leader.

“A little clue?” Ren Xian’s voice was extremely cold, like crushed ice. Seeing his piercing gaze, Wang Chao couldn’t help but shrink his neck a little.

“I have been waiting for this clue for 326 days.”

“Oh, so about eleven months,” Wang Chao casually stated.

At that moment, he felt Lin Chen pat him on the back. “326 days ago was May 11^th of last year.”

On May 11 of last year, a fully loaded bus crashed into the Yongchuan River. All passengers aboard, including a narcotics officer named Fang Zhiming, died.

Wang Chao quickly realized that this was related to death and revenge. He quickly scowled and apologized sincerely, “Sorry.”

Ren Xian still maintained his action of preparing to shoot, but everyone present knew that it was impossible for him to pull the trigger. He felt that everything that happened today was ridiculous. He went out in the morning and bought a cup of coffee from the shop downstairs like usual, then went upstairs to continue analyzing files. Like many long and hopeless stories that suddenly encountered the God of Fate, he saw the alarm go off at noon.

It wasn’t an alarm of a terrorist invasion from the Interpol of the Yongchuan Branch, but a red dot in the lower right corner of his computer that was flashing. This meant that the interception network they had set up had intercepted some important intelligence.

And the ostensibly important intelligence was actually a low-resolution cellphone photo. The photo showed a suite at the most luxurious hotel in Yongchuan. Under the large, snow-white bedding, dark green leaves were scattered like piecemeal. Just when he thought it was just another silhouette of some young, rich master’s lascivious life, he suddenly saw a colorful bag. The bag was disguised as a certain global milk tea brand. The font was blurry, and the plastic quality was poor, as if it came from an underground factory.

When he saw it, Ren Xian trembled with excitement. The subsequent plot was like the cops and robbers in movies that could be seen anywhere. He mobilized his men, determined not to let such a clue slip away. The team split into two groups and launched a surprise arrest, with one targeting the residence and the other the workplace, but this movie turned out to be a vulgar comedy. After that, he sat and watched the underhanded planting and framing by a stupid pawn, which was then followed by a boring feud between the wealthy. This all made him drowsy, until just now, when the plot had jumped back to the main story and was unexpectedly advancing forward at an extremely fast speed.

In fact, if time permitted, Ren Xian would have discovered that the people sitting in front of him had just saved the life of one of his colleagues’ daughters not long ago. Although, for protection reasons, the truth of what happened in that reed forest was recently sealed, there was nothing in the world that was impervious. He had actually filled out the reports for access to the documents and submitted them to the local police in Hongjing. He just needed to wait for approval, and he would get all the details of the whole hijacking case.

But everything now was still right, and it wasn’t too late yet.

Such a wonderful arrangement didn’t always necessarily come from the hands of fate.

Xing Conglian knew this very well. “The case we’re investigating has little significance to Fang Zhiming’s case.” He finally finished smoking his cigarette. As if he had just finished a long period of reflection, he finally decided to give a glimmer of hope to the team leader, who seemed to be in quite a predicament. “The case we’re investigating involves a deceased person who was a witness and the only survivor of a jewelry robbery. Her name is Cheng Weiwei.”

“So?” The team leader was somewhat bewildered. There was a deceased witness, a jewelry robbery, and a drug case. All these elements seemed to be a bit too messy.

“You see, there’s a story that’s connected through people. The criminals used a method in the jewelry robbery that Cheng Weiwei experienced, which was the same method used to murder Fang Zhiming.”

Ren Xian’s brows finally furrowed. His finger holding the gun relaxed, and he stuffed it back into his holster. He bent down and picked up a cigarette that had been previously thrown on the ground, lit it, and began to take a puff, like a vagrant.

“Fang Zhiming is an undercover police officer under me. A year ago, his participation in the investigation finally made progress. Then, because his identity was leaked, he was forced to terminate the mission and return to the country.”

“Fang Zhiming’s undercover location wasn’t in the country?”

“Yes.”

Ren Xian took another puff from his cigarette. Both he and Xing Conglian knew that what they were exchanging wasn’t information, but trust.

Xing Conglian nodded and said, “I won’t ask about the details of that case. I only doubt one thing. From Zheng Dongdong’s planting to your reaction to carry out an arrest, the time it took was less than an hour and a half. It’s impossible for Zheng Dongdong to report directly to Interpol. He has no such means. Your reaction speed is too fast. So, what exactly made you so nervous?”

Xing Conglian’s words made Ren Xian’s face completely pale. Indeed, a dark case would remain dark, but if a bright light were to suddenly appear, then the first thing one had to do was hide and study carefully to find out what this light was.

Ren Xian took a deep breath and replied, “During the mission, he sent back some internal photos of the drug production factory, including the packaging bags, which are exactly the same as the marijuana bags found in your bedroom.”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 64

Lin Chen suspected that there were problems with his hearing and memory.

If he remembered correctly, last night, the melancholy teenager was sitting in front of the laptop. It wasn’t until late at night that he fell asleep like an insecure child. The only one who had the opportunity to install those cameras was Xing Conglian.

And right now, said person was basking under the sunlight with a pleasing smile in his eyes. When he blinked, his long eyelashes brushed against the surrounding light, making it as sweet as honey.

Lin Chen sighed but found that he didn’t have any resentment after being deceived. He felt as if he had become accustomed to all kinds of strange reasons.

For example, a house that was suddenly replaced by the government or a street that was supposedly bought by someone and then suddenly renovated. So, compared to the behavior of some people who always gave credit to the government for good deeds, this kind of ridiculous excuse of “being in the business and feeling insecure” seemed like a distraction.

The sun was shining beautifully in the afternoon, filled with the sounds of students running and playing outside.

With the interruption of the two, the haze of betrayal and framing by an old classmate had also vanished. Lin Chen thought it wasn’t a big deal. After all, it was impossible to be liked by everyone in the world.

However, Zheng Dongdong wasn’t as relaxed.

The conference room was quiet. Only the sound of someone’s mechanical watch ticking filled the room.

The chubby hotel manager resembled a pig awaiting lingchi*. His face was deathly ashen as he waited for his final verdict, but Xing Conglian didn’t say anything and kept gazing at him with a slight smile in his eyes.

*Death by a thousand cuts. It describes an act of execution that slowly kills the victim so they will suffer as much as possible.

Only the most experienced hunter could perfectly control the rhythm of hunting from beginning to end. He would sometimes give a little hope, then cruelly extinguish it. Little by little, he was driving Zheng Dongdong towards the edge of the cliff, torturing his fragile nerves. If he went any further, Zheng Dongdong wouldn’t be far from being sent to a mental hospital.

When the sound of a car engine came from outside the window, the sudden noise made Zheng Dongdong tremble violently.

Xing Conglian knocked on the table three times before he slowly spoke. “Manager Zheng, can you explain?”

In face of absolute evidence, there was nothing Zheng Dongdong could say.

But Xing Conglian wouldn’t let him off the hook so easily. “I really can’t understand why you want to sprinkle marijuana on my bed. Is this a special service that the Cohen May Hotel provides now?” He chuckled suddenly, and his lips were slightly raised. “Did you come up with such a great idea?”

Perhaps it was because Xing Conglian’s question was too enticing that it looked like a strange light appearing in the vast darkness. Zheng Dongdong suddenly raised his head. He looked around and finally fixed his gaze on the butler sitting at the end of the long table.

Like a madman, he stood up and knocked over all the objects in front of him as he ran towards the butler and lunged at his lap. He pleaded, “Butler Chen, Butler Chen, you have to save me! Didn’t you say there wouldn’t be any problems? Isn’t it just marijuana? Why are the people from Interpol here? Please help me!”

At that moment, Lin Chen saw cracks in the face of the Chen’s butler. He could hear it sounding like porcelain cracking.

Butler Chen’s normally combed hair was now a tangled mess. Although he was still pretending to be calm, the panic in his eyes gave him away. His lips quivered, as if he were resisting the desire to kick away the creature that was grabbing onto his leg while howling inexplicably.

However, his opponent was Xing Conglian, an experienced hunter who wouldn’t give him a chance to make a comeback.

Xing Conglian smiled a little wider, as if he had finally received the long-awaited answer, but there wasn’t much shock or surprise on his face. He deliberately ignored the two people in the corner who had staged the framing scene and turned to the other side of the long table and said to the leader of Severe Crime Unit C, who had been pretending to be air, “Team Leader Ren, can you confirm now that the so-called drug possession is purely a planted case?”

“Yes.” Ren Xian looked at Xing Conglian and thought to himself, ‘Don’t ask me to confirm this kind of trivial matter!’

Xing Conglian nodded, turned to face Vice Captain Jiang, who was stunned from start to finish, and said, “Then can I trouble Captain Jiang to detain the suspect to prevent further collusion?”

He placed emphasis on his last words, as if he were deliberately targeting them at someone.

Jiang Chao stood up when he heard the words. Lin Chen saw that as soon as he did, his cellphone seemed to be vibrating. Wang Chao smiled at the vice captain, showing his cute tiger teeth.

Jiang Chao lowered his head and looked at the text message he had just received. He still thought it was unbelievable, but he was an experienced police officer. He instantly controlled his expression and walked out of the room to call for someone. As a result, the two “doormen” he posted to guard the door followed him in and dragged out the sobbing Zheng Dongdong.

Lin Chen calculated that Zheng Dongdong was the third group of people to be taken away from the scene.

Although there was only one less person missing, the conference room seemed a lot emptier than before. The clouds had covered the sun, making the room look horribly gloomy, and the sound from the watch kept incessantly ticking. Butler Chen seemed to have aged by almost a decade within this period.

“Captain Xing, how skillful.” A hoarse voice came from the butler’s throat, like the slight and harsh sound of stone rubbing against glass. “Are you going to arrest me too?” He was still pretending to be arrogant, but his quivering lips and fingers betrayed him.

“Of course not.” Xing Conglian leaned back in his chair and said in a casual tone, “Since the suspect identified that you instructed him to frame us, then you still have a chance to defend yourself, just as you gave me the opportunity just now.”

Xing Conglian’s slightly smiling tone carried a kind of mockery that penetrated deep into the bones.

Chen Ping swallowed, not ready to accept such kindness. “I have nothing to say. Since you were framed, can’t I be as well?”

Seeing Chen Ping slightly raise his chin and listening to his quibbling words, Lin Chen suddenly felt disappointed. Even Zheng Dongdong knew what fear was. He cried bitterly, perhaps because he was afraid of legal sanction, but in the moment of collapse, he probably regretted it with all his heart. He hoped that he could reverse time, praying that nothing like this would happen. This was the emotional response that a person should have after doing something wrong.

Unfortunately, Chen Ping, the serious and stereotypical butler, the one who appeared at his doorsteps for the past three years to drive him into a dark life, still didn’t know what remorse was after his dirty methods were exposed. Looking into the butler’s eyes, Lin Chen knew that he wasn’t forcing himself to pretend, but he truly believed that he did nothing wrong.

In fact, for a long time, Lin Chen had never resented this middle-aged man who had been carrying out the will of the Chen family, because loyalty wasn’t an evil virtue. But now, he suddenly realized that those days where he was driven away or when he got fired had all become meaningless.

“Chen Ping, I don’t think you have figured out your current situation.” Finally, Lin Chen felt he should say something.

Hearing his name being called by the person he had been suppressing all this time, the butler’s face flushed from humiliation.

“Lin Chen, you don’t understand at all.”

“It is you who don’t understand!” Lin Chen couldn’t help but slam the table. He simply couldn’t use his normal speed of speech to communicate with the person at the end of the long table. “Marijuana? Do you think this is irrelevant? Do you think that as long as Zheng Dongdong bites us to death, we will lose our reputation and end up with nothing? I don’t care if you actually contacted Interpol intentionally or not. This matter is far more complicated than you can imagine. Tens or thousands of times more. Do you think Chen Zhengxue will thank you for your loyalty after he finds out about this?”

Lin Chen didn’t know why he was so angry, but this was something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Perhaps it was because his voice was too loud, or maybe he was too immersed in his emotions, but he didn’t notice that the door of the conference room was opened at some point.

A cold voice came into his mind ahead of the picture.

“Yes, I’m very happy.”

Xing Conglian also heard the voice and looked at the door faster than Lin Chen.

There, stood a middle-aged man. He was wearing a long black windbreaker, his belt was tightly buckled, and he stood straight. His hair was combed back, just like Chen Ping’s, and his black eyes were gloomy, as if there was a dead silence in them.

With almost no need to think, Xing Conglian had already guessed the identity of the visitor.

He then looked at Lin Chen, who was stunned for a few seconds. Lin Chen finally came back to his senses and slowly moved his gaze in the direction of the door and said, “Hello, Director Chen.”

The current situation had turned even more interesting.

Perhaps the head honcho of the Chen family had rushed here because his most valuable subordinate was being detained, or maybe he was just waiting nearby to watch Lin Chen being led out in handcuffs and shoved into a police car. In any case, it was quite bizarre that the head of the Chen family would be present in this conference room that had already been through quite a few dramatic scenes.

‘What an interesting coincidence,’ Xing Conglian thought as he watched the head of the Chen family step into the room, approach Lin Chen with a compelling aura, and say to him, “It’s been a long time since I saw you, murderer.”

His words were spoken with an undertone unique to paranoia, and when he addressed Lin Chen, there was a deep hatred that seemed to be forcibly repressed.

Hearing Lin Chen’s address like that, Xing Conglian subconsciously looked at him. He saw Lin Chen take a step back, lean on the long table, then finally firmly stand up, seemingly unbothered by this. “Are you an idiot? In order to frame me, you did this kind of thing. If you’re a little careless, your Chen family business will be ruined.”

Unlike the rare anger of questioning Lin Chen had done to the butler, he had calm down at this point. He spoke calmly, with the same seriousness in his tone that even if he was cursing, it would still hold the same solemnity.

“Even if the Chen family is trafficking drugs, what does this matter have to do with you, Lin Chen?” The Chen’s patriarch asked in a slow tone.

At that moment, he leaned extremely close to Lin Chen and gazed at him with vicious eyes that looked like a beast about to tear apart its prey.

Xing Conglian felt that he should stand up, but in an instant, he saw Lin Chen’s gaze cast at him. The gaze was bright and cold, as if it were tempered steel. Xing Conglian instantly understood the meaning behind it: It doesn’t matter. I’ll be fine.

The clouds had dispersed, allowing the sun’s rays to shine again. Xing Conglian wanted to laugh a little. He suddenly realized that the feeling of fighting side by side was much better than one side protecting the other.

“So, is the Chen family trafficking drugs?” Lin Chen asked rhetorically.

This question was quite shady and too direct, so the Chen’s patriarch was suddenly left speechless.

Like a regular who didn’t play cards according to the rules, Lin Chen asked, “Not only did you instruct your subordinate to frame us, you also involved the Chen family in drug dealing, is that right?”

Lin Chen was truly good at making people speechless.

All the momentum accumulated by the Chen’s patriarch was instantly dissipated. He could only grit his teeth and speak with great emphasis. “What can be done? Now that you have a protective blanket, I can hardly make a move on you. Do you want me to cut your throat with a knife?”

“A murderer must pay with their life,” Lin Chen responded.

This was a declarative sentence in the form of a confession. The underlying meaning was: A murderer has to pay with his life, but since I’m still alive, it means I’m not a murderer.

“How do you even have the face to appear in Yongchuan and right under my nose again?!” The Chen’s patriarch was finally angered by those words. He reached out and yanked on Lin Chen’s collar, pulling him closer to him.

“Because I’m investigating a case at Yongchuan University.”

It was another calm declarative sentence, but there was a hint of sarcasm in the tone.

Lin Chen was an expert among expert in getting under someone’s skin.

The Chen’s patriarch shoved him away and pointed to the door as he sneered, “My school doesn’t need your help. Immediately get the hell out of here and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of!”

After he said these words, the conference room fell silent again. However, the reason for the silence wasn’t because of the Chen’s patriarch but because of the old man who had been sitting in the corner the whole time and who had so far only said one sentence.

Now, he said a second sentence, “Huh?”

It wasn’t until now that the Chen’s patriarch, who had been in a fit of anger, finally saw the old man sitting in the most inconspicuous corner.

The old man’s eyes were half open, as if he had just awakened from an afternoon nap. Before Chen Zhengxue could react, he stood up from his chair and spoke in an extremely calm tone. “Zhengxue, businessmen like us, no matter how big our business is, must abide by the law. The police are investigating the case, and we have to follow their arrangements.”

The Chen’s patriarch hadn’t been addressed like this in a long time. Even if the old man’s voice was warm, the underlying meaning of his words were terrifyingly deep.

“It turns out to be Steward Xing.” Chen Zhengxue withdrew his hand and quickly calmed down. He asked, “What do you mean by that? Are you expressing your opinion on behalf of the Xing family?”

Based on Chen Zhengxue’s understanding of the Xing family, although they had deep roots, they were mostly orderly and neutral businessmen. They would never show any obvious attitude in any disputes. This was simply a manager from a branch family, so Chen Zhengxue thought to himself that this old man should just sit down and keep his mouth shut.

As he expected, the old man shook his head, got up, and walked towards the door, as if he wanted to leave this mess of a place.

But when the old man reached the door, he turned his head and looked at Chen Zhengxue and said casually to him, “Actually, this is not a statement. This old man must’ve misheard you when you said that Yongchuan University belongs to you…” The old man paused for a moment as he looked at the vast campus outside the window, as if he was recalling something. “After all, this is a university. Although we hold shares in the school, it doesn’t belong to any family. It belongs to all the former, present, and future Yongchuan teachers and students. This is something that our families agreed upon when we divided our shares in the early years.”

As soon as Chen Zhengxue was about to speak, the old man changed the subject, and the arrogance in his words overflowed. “If you want to get semantic and say who owns Yongchuan University, then it can only be said that it was built with the money of my ancestors hundreds of years ago. Yes, my master injected ten times the capital, but in the end, the main shares of Yongchuan University can only belong to our young master.”

As the old man spoke, he leaned slightly outside the window, as if he were saluting the void. After he finished speaking, he took his subordinate and left the room.

The Chen patriarch’s face was as ugly as a gray wall, resembling alopecia areata.

Standing in the corner, Xing Conglian inexplicably wanted to smoke a cigarette as the old man was speaking, but this thought was fleeting. Given the current situation, he didn’t have time to miss this chance. He looked at the Chen’s patriarch and said helplessly, “So I take it that what you said just now was a confession that you instructed your subordinate to frame us?”

“Oh? What do you think you can do to me?”

“Ah… Nothing.” Xing Conglian scratched his nose. At this moment, Vice Captain Jiang had just pushed in the door when he met Xing Conglian’s smiling eyes. “Captain Jiang, I have to trouble you again. These two people… Can you please take them to the police station for some tea?”

Jiang Chao made an expression of: What the hell did I miss? He depressingly waved his hand, and another police officer from outside entered and escorted out the two people, both surname Chen, who didn’t appear to willingly leave.

As the door of the conference closed again, there was no longer a relaxed smile on Xing Conglian’s face.

As if in a hurry, he looked at the leader of the severe crime unit, who had been watching the entire show, and quickly said, “Alright, now that everyone is gone, let’s talk. What the hell is going on?”

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Kinky Thoughts:

So are people just queuing up at this conference room to get face-slapped?

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