I was just telling a story, why is the whole internet urging me to turn myself in?

"You...you're talking nonsense!"

Su Qing bit her lip, her intense stress causing her to lose her usual composure. She blurted out, "That wasn't my mistake at all! The 'ghost ledger's' financial chains were too clean! If it weren't for..."

The words came to an abrupt halt.

Su Qing snapped her mouth shut as if she had been electrocuted, her pupils trembling violently.

The melodious violin music continued to flow in the French restaurant, but the air between the two at their table seemed to have frozen into solid ice.

Su Qing's back was instantly soaked with cold sweat. What had she just said?!

In a fit of extreme emotional distress, she blurted out the code name of a cross-border cryptocurrency money laundering case that the Jiangzhou Defense Bureau's Economic Investigation Division was secretly investigating in front of a suspect who was classified as an SS-level dangerous target!

Looking at the woman trembling slightly with extreme regret and fear, Shen Feng inwardly cursed, "Ma'am, you're a criminal investigation captain! How can your mental fortitude be so weak?"

"I was just randomly trying to trick you based on the micro-expression prompts the system gave me, how come you're spilling the beans about even classified projects? I don't want to know anything about this ghost ledger!"

Although he was panicking inside, Shen Feng didn't even flinch.

With the passive boost of his "aura of authority," he elegantly picked up a pure white napkin from the table and handed it to Su Qing: "Captain Su, wipe your sweat. The steak was cooked perfectly tonight, but unfortunately, the wine was a little too acidic."

He didn't ask any further questions about the "ghost ledger," nor did he even glance at Su Qing. He simply waved to the waiter to pay the bill.

This attitude of completely disregarding the other party's mistakes was perceived by Su Qing as the ultimate contempt and control.

He didn't need to ask any questions, because he probably already knew everything!

Even after Shen Feng got into the armored SUV and left, Su Qing remained seated, her hands and feet ice-cold.

With trembling hands, she took out her phone and sent a message to Director Zhou Weiguo: "Director, I messed up..."

……

Half an hour later, on the 68th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Shen Feng kicked open the door to the chairman's office, ripped off his tie, and let out a long sigh of relief.

Having dinner with the police is more tiring than doing an eight-hour live broadcast; every second feels like walking a tightrope.

"Xiaoyu!" Shen Feng called out.

"Here I am, Master!" Xiao Yu, with messy hair, glided in from outside on his Segway, his eyes gleaming with fanaticism. "What are your orders? Do you want me to hack into the city bureau's traffic surveillance, or to infiltrate the firewall of a Swiss bank?"

"Watch less Hollywood blockbusters." Shen Feng rolled his eyes, walked to the large mahogany table, sat down, picked up his thermos, and said, "Look up the term 'ghost ledger.' See if there's any news about it on the dark web."

Although Shen Feng didn't want to cause trouble, since Su Qing had linked this thing to the sacrifice of her colleague and involved the Defense Agency, he had to find out the details so that he wouldn't be caught in the crossfire one day.

"receive!"

Xiaoyu immediately rubbed his hands together excitedly, his ten fingers flashing across the keyboard like afterimages.

Just fifteen minutes later, green data streams began to frantically appear on the three curved screens in front of Xiaoyu.

"Grandmaster, we've found it!" Xiao Yu gulped down a Monster Energy drink, his eyes shining brightly. "This isn't an ordinary ledger; it's an extremely large cross-border money laundering network! They have tens of thousands of transaction nodes on the dark web, using the most typical 'ant moving house' method."

"Speak like a human being." Shen Feng frowned.

"They break down large sums of illicit money into countless small transfers of no more than 50,000 yuan each, distribute them through hundreds or thousands of secondary encrypted wallets, and after circling around on the high seas, finally converge in several shell company accounts in the Cayman Islands." Xiaoyu pointed to a complex chart of fund flows on the screen. "The method is very professional, leaving almost no physical trace. The Economic Investigation Detachment of the Jiangzhou Defense Bureau has been monitoring them for half a year, but they haven't even gotten to the bottom of it."

Xiao Yu paused, lowered his voice, and said with a hint of excitement, "However, I used a zero-day vulnerability to trace the IPs of several initial wallets and discovered a strange phenomenon. The initial funds for this illicit money seem to have come from the 'equipment import procurement fees' of several large manufacturing companies in Jiangzhou!"

"Fictitious trade for money laundering?" Shen Feng raised an eyebrow.

"That's right! Master, this is absolutely a nuclear-level clue that could trigger a financial earthquake in Jiangzhou!" Xiaoyu rubbed his hands excitedly. "As long as you give the order, I can expose their dirty laundry in the Cayman Islands tonight and send it directly to all the major media outlets! Let these capitalists in Jiangzhou see what a true dimensional reduction attack looks like!"

Seeing Xiaoyu's troublemaking look, Shen Feng slapped him on the back of the head without hesitation.

"Stop!" Shen Feng glared at him. "I'll say it one last time: we are a legally registered and tax-paying cultural media company! We're not some heroes, much less cyber terrorists! Don't meddle in this kind of thing. Shred all the data you just found and erase all traces."

Xiao Yu clutched the back of his head, stunned. But then, as if he'd suddenly understood something, he gasped, his eyes widening in awe: "I get it... Grandmaster, you're planning to 'raise bandits to enhance your own importance'? Let these money launderers continue to draw the Defense Agency's fire while we secretly set up a bigger scheme? Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

Shen Feng: "..."

Let's destroy this, we can't talk about this anymore.

Just as Shen Feng was considering whether to deduct Xiao Yu's performance bonus for the month, his phone, which was on the table, suddenly vibrated.

It's a push notification news item.

Breaking News! Harbin Defense Bureau cracks five-year-old Class A top-secret cold case, the "Red Plum Villa Serial Murders"! Suspect Zhou Haisheng was apprehended tonight!

Shen Feng's pupils contracted slightly.

……

Meanwhile, in Harbin, 3,000 kilometers away.

In the freezing wind of minus twenty degrees Celsius, Han Lie, the captain of the criminal investigation branch of the Ice City Defense Bureau, stood outside a dilapidated bungalow in an urban village, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, his breath instantly turning into frost.

"Captain, the man has been brought out." Two fully armed special police officers escorted a man with gray hair and a gaunt face out of the building.

It was Zhou Haisheng, who had been on the run for five years.

Han Lie looked at this man, his heart churning with turmoil.

After Shen Feng's live stream ended last night, Han Lie immediately changed the direction of the investigation. Since the murder weapon was "heating to melt ice," the murderer must have been very familiar with the villa's heating system and internal structure.

They investigated all the logistics staff at the resort overnight and discovered a detail that had been overlooked—an elderly woman who had worked in the kitchen had moved away with her family shortly after the incident.

Following this lead, they found the old woman's son, who was none other than Zhou Haisheng.

"Zhou Haisheng, you've been hiding for five years, but we still managed to find you, didn't we?" Han Lie stared at him coldly.

Zhou Haisheng did not struggle, nor did he show the slightest sign of panic.

He simply raised his head calmly, glanced at the snowflakes falling above, and a bittersweet smile of relief appeared on his lips.

"Captain Han, I didn't intend to hide forever." Zhou Haisheng's voice was hoarse like sandpaper rubbing. "I'm just curious, how did you break my 'Ice Block'? Back then, I calculated the time difference down to the second, and even the forensic doctor couldn't see anything unusual about the ligature marks."

He paused, his gaze fixed on Han Lie: "You guys... came here because of that Jiangzhou streamer's live broadcast, right?"