She took a deep breath: "Oh, I understand, it’s because Mr. Guan has this particular skill, that’s why he was transferred from the patrol division to work with you and Mr. Jia on a case."
"No." He glanced up at him again: "There are many hackers in this world, why should I specifically choose him?"
Shi Nian choked a bit: "Then why?"
He finally gave a sly smile: "...You actually had a better impression of him than me. I have to have someone like that under my own watch before I can be at ease."
Shi Nian was successfully choked once again.
After Shi Nian coughed enough, he was already back to being serious, the light from the blue computer screen reflected on his black-framed glasses.
Seeing Shi Nian calm down, he turned the computer towards her: "Let’s test your observation skills, what do you see?" This content belongs to Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
He became serious, so Shi Nian dared not slack off, carefully examining each photo, she softly summarized:
"Firstly, the most obvious is: they’re all Asian girls, aged between 16 to 20. They all have delicate features and clear eyes, but are full of fear."
"Secondly... their eyes are filled with fatigue, and beneath the bright gaze lies numbness. When facing the camera, they all have obvious evasive actions like lowering their heads or turning their heads—this proves that even though Sean thought his shooting was very covert, and even if Zhou Guanghan didn’t notice, these girls did—they are quite alert to the camera and on guard early against those in police uniform."
Tang Yanqing nodded: "High alertness, especially towards the police; an instinctive sense of environmental awareness and caution—what does this make you think of?"
Shi Nian blurted out: "Nisha. Just like Nisha, Asian girls without legal residence status in this country."
Shi Nian paused slightly, then hesitantly added: "...Tong’s wife? Could it be, like Nisha, they are also child brides?"
Tang Yanqing said nothing, just quickly opened several web pages. Then he pushed them towards Shi Nian: "See, these are the posts Zhou Guanghan published before his death."
It was the forum and content Tang Yanqing had shown to the superintendent before.
Shi Nian’s mouth slightly opened: "Wow, it’s more comprehensive than my data."
"Exactly." Tang Yanqing’s eyes were calm as the night: "Because you only had one informant, Nisha, and you’ve only recently entered this topic. But Zhou Guanghan had many informants and had been involved in this topic for a long time."
Shi Nian suddenly felt a sense of urgency: "So, his death must be related to this."
Tang Yanqing nodded slowly: "He had seen too many child brides, done too many private investigations, but still posted all of them publicly on the forum—though this forum is a small-scale, non-public forum, at least within its circle, his actions were still too high-profile. He exposed all the secrets of child brides to these people."
Shi Nian responded: "So the manipulators behind the child brides couldn’t allow him to stay alive."
"But there’s still one intriguing detail." He raised his eyes to look at her quietly: "There were many candidates to get rid of him, yet they specifically chose Nisha."
Shi Nian tightened her grip and lowered her head: "Doesn’t that mean they already knew Nisha had private interactions with me, so they took the opportunity to punish Nisha, sending her in..."
Tang Yanqing’s eyes softened, he reached over and held Shi Nian’s hand: "But according to the coroner’s report, Zhou Guanghan’s cause of death was drug abuse. The killers were smart, they just used Nisha’s hand and wrong drugs to poison Zhou Guanghan. The clue breaks at Nisha, and Zhou Guanghan’s death is no longer connected to them."
Shi Nian took a deep breath: "...But I found that S was also using drugs before his death. But since Jack has already confessed, maybe this detail is no longer useful."
"Who says it’s useless?" Tang Yanqing encouragingly held Shi Nian’s hand, "Nisha was the medium that killed Zhou Guanghan, why can’t Jack be the medium that killed S? It seems Jack is the real culprit, but maybe they were just tools."
Shi Nian was startled: "So, just catching Jack, we’re celebrating too early!"
Tang Yanqing smiled knowingly as he looked at her.
She awkwardly tossed her head: "I was wrong. I celebrated too early; Mr. Tang, you knew all along there was a mastermind behind this."
Tang Yanqing softly sighed, reaching out to smooth her mischievous curls: "You’ve done very well, even better than many trained female officers."
Shi Nian then fixed her gaze on that forum: "Then have Mr. Guan hack into this forum to find all the replies and even the user identities who have browsed Zhou Guanghan’s name!"
The scum behind the child brides must have seen Zhou Guanghan’s posts and decided to take lethal action against him. So, there must be informants of those scum lurking in this forum.
Tang Yanqing shook his head: "The design of this forum was done by a master; all user information is encrypted with a multi-layer ascending encryption method, unbreakable."
Shi Nian was taken aback: "Then how do you know ’Han Haoniao’ is Zhou Guanghan’s?"
"Still behavioral analysis," Tang Yanqing slowly said: "I’ve been watching this forum for a while. You know, the regulars there are enthusiasts of the Spirit Mushroom, once they get high, they basically expose their innermost defenses. All their unspeakable deeds are treated as bragging rights, and I enjoy digging out their crime clues from there."
"During this time, I started to take note of Han Haoniao’s posts. His style of wording and the traces of ’China-style English’ in his language caught my attention. I talked to him online a few times... you know, if he is willing to temporarily leave the forum’s encrypted environment and use other online communication methods, our tech department colleagues could capture his address."
Shi Nian was so tense she struggled to breathe: "Could it be, you suspect that an informant lurking in the forum is also in room 507?"
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