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

"He didn't just not lie..." Old Li swallowed hard, slamming the stack of faxed investigation notices stamped with a red seal onto the long table in the conference room.

"These are all the verification materials that the Pengcheng police just urgently retrieved with the highest level of authority."

"On May 12th, three years ago, during the crucial period of the disappearance of that rich second-generation, Shen Feng was indeed in Nanshan District of Pengcheng, more than 5 kilometers away from our Jiangzhou City!"

"Not only that, he wasn't even at the company at the time; he was spending the whole night surfing the internet at a large internet cafe called 'Speedy Star Network' next to the technology park!"

Deputy Captain Liu Jianguo suddenly stood up, his brows furrowed in a deep frown: "An internet cafe? Can't anyone just hire someone to AFK and rack up playtime? What kind of irrefutable evidence is this!"

"No, Captain Liu, that's irrefutable proof that he's dead." Old Li gave a bitter smile and pushed several high-resolution printed photos in front of everyone. "That internet cafe was just a pilot site when it installed dynamic facial recognition cameras connected to the public security system."

"These are screenshots taken automatically every half hour from 9 PM that night to 6 AM the next morning by the surveillance camera. The person sitting in camera position 37 in section C is clearly Shen Feng himself!"

"And this data list," Old Li said, turning to the second page, his voice growing increasingly hoarse. "At 2:15 AM that night, this machine's IP address sent an order request to the internet cafe counter, purchasing a bowl of pickled cabbage noodles and a bottle of iced cola. The transaction code of the payment record matches perfectly with the MAC address of the mobile device registered under Shen Feng's name!"

Looking at the alibis documents on the table, accurate to the second, Liu Jianguo felt his worldview being violently shaken.

Internet cafe surveillance cameras, facial recognition, transaction records, MAC device lockouts... these lines intertwine to form an impenetrable wall of logical lamentation!

"This is absolutely impossible!" Liu Jianguo clutched his hair, nearly collapsing. "Absolute physical isolation of 1,300 kilometers! He hadn't even returned to Jiangzhou back then, how could he possibly know there were aquatic plants at the bottom of the mine lake? How could he possibly know the Porsche's trunk was full of stones?! Does this kid have clairvoyance?!"

All the officers looked at each other, a sense of eeriness, unlike anything they had ever felt before, gripping their hearts.

Since there was no time or place to commit the crime, could it really be that the wrong person was arrested? Was he really just an unlucky guy who happened to come up with a perfectly similar plot while writing a novel?

"Captain Su..." Liu Jianguo hesitated, looking at Su Qing who had remained silent. "Since the alibi has been verified and there is no direct physical evidence to convict him, according to the case-handling procedures... shouldn't we lift the summons and release him immediately?"

"Release is definitely going to happen, but it's not that simple!"

Su Qing, who had been standing in front of the whiteboard, suddenly turned around, her beautiful face seemingly covered with an eternal frost.

"You're all like Captain Liu, trapped in a blind spot of conventional criminal investigation thinking!"

Su Qing strode to the whiteboard, picked up a red marker, and drew a heavy circle on Shen Feng's lazy, cold-smiling surveillance screenshot. Then she drew a long red line connecting to a black silhouette representing the "real culprit" on the edge of the whiteboard, and put a huge question mark in the middle!

"Haven't you all figured it out yet? This is what makes him so terrifying!"

"Would a monster with such terrifying knowledge of criminal psychology, capable of masterfully using montage and perjury, be foolish enough to get his own blood on his hands and engage in such low-level murders and body disposals?!"

"He couldn't possibly be the direct executor!"

"He's the 'mastermind' behind this elaborate scheme! The 'architect' of this perfect crime!"

boom!

"Three years ago that night, the real killer fell into extreme panic and despair after the crime. Then, through some clandestine channel—most likely an encrypted dark web forum—the killer contacted Shen Feng, a high-IQ criminal genius hidden deep within the internet!"

"The murderer spent a fortune to buy the script 'Sheep Without a Shepherd,' which Shen Feng had tailored specifically for him!"

Su Qing's speech quickened, her eyes gleaming with increasingly intense deduction: "And our suspect, Shen Feng, was sitting in that noisy internet cafe a thousand miles away! He was sipping iced cola while typing away, using completely anonymous communication methods, like a director rehearsing a play, methodically directing the murderer in Jiangzhou to complete that textbook-perfect body disposal and staged scene!"

"This perfectly explains why, Lao Li, your cyber police couldn't find any search records on his computer. For a top-tier hacker and mentor like him, capable of orchestrating everything, erasing such low-level data traces is a piece of cake!"

"The case remained unsolved for three whole years, and we police had absolutely no clue. He thought we were all useless; that extreme arrogance typical of highly intelligent, psychopathic criminals made him unable to restrain himself any longer!"

"That's why he deliberately went live today. On the surface, he was telling a suspense story, but actually..." Su Qing took a deep breath and said, word by word, "He was publicly 'inspecting' and exhibiting his most prized criminal artwork to the entire internet and to our Jiangzhou police!"

The only sound in the conference room was heavy breathing.

Following Su Qing's train of thought, the officers recalled Shen Feng's arrogant, lazy, and even condescending mockery in the interrogation room, and collectively felt a chill run down their spines.

If Su Qing's deduction is true, then this man's cunning and scheming are simply unfathomable!

"Captain Su... what should we do now?" Liu Jianguo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Even if we know he's the mastermind, we don't currently have any direct physical evidence that he's teaching criminal methods or having financial transactions with the real culprit. According to procedure, once the detention period is over, the summons should be lifted."

"Follow procedure, release him!" Su Qing slammed the case file shut, gritting her teeth as she said, "But before the detention cell door opens, the field team must immediately change into plainclothes! From the moment he steps out of the police station, keep a 24/7 watch on him!"

"Since he enjoys playing games, then I'll play along with this 'Grandmaster of Crime' and see what a grand scheme he has to offer!"

……

Meanwhile, in the zeroth major offender's detention cell.

Shen Feng leaned against the wall, bored, counting the cracked pieces of soundproofing foam on the wall to pass the time.

Just now in the interrogation room, facing that Porsche that had been salvaged, he felt like he wanted to die.

If the system hadn't forcibly taken over his micro-expressions and body language, he probably would have burst into tears on the spot.

Just when he thought he was destined to spend the rest of his life working on a sewing machine here.

With a "click," the heavy iron door was pulled open from the outside.

Two special police officers with complex expressions walked in and immediately unlocked the metal handcuffs on his wrists.

"Shen Feng, your alibi has been verified. With approval from higher authorities, the compulsory summons measures against you are temporarily lifted. You can leave," the SWAT officer said coldly.

"call--"

Shen Feng breathed a long sigh of relief; he had just escaped death.

After flexing his wrists, which were marked with red welts from being bound, Shen Feng didn't say anything more, turned around, and strode out of the detention area.

However, as he walked down the corridor, passing the brightly lit public office area of ​​the Criminal Investigation Division, a noisy discussion caught his attention.