Film and Television: My Cheat Code is AI

"Hello, Group Six."

Ji Jie answered the phone, listened for a few words, and then frowned.

"What? The scene has been disturbed?"

"Okay, I'll be right there."

She hung up the phone, grabbed her bag from the table, and said quickly, "Tian Rui, Zhang Yang, a girl was injured and has been taken to the 201 Hospital. Tian Rui, you go to the hospital with Bao Le, and Zhang Yang and I will go to the scene."

"Yes."

The crime scene was an old-fashioned two-bedroom apartment. As soon as you opened the door, you could tell how many people had been in there since the incident. Broken glass shards were scattered on the living room floor, magazines on the coffee table had been kicked under the sofa, and the wardrobe doors were wide open, with the clothes inside in disarray.

The forensic investigator was squatting next to the wardrobe, his gloves stained with dark red marks. He looked up and saw Ji Jie come in, then stood up and shook his head: "The scene has been completely destroyed. We can't collect fingerprints or footprints. At least ten people have come into this house since the incident—neighbors, relatives, people who helped carry people—they've all been there."

Ji Jie didn't say anything. She stood in the middle of the room and slowly walked around. Her gaze swept from the overturned chair to the computer desk in the corner. The computer case was lying on the ground, and the case was dented. The monitor screen was also cracked, with cracks spreading outwards from the center like a spider web.

The police officer added, "The injured girl's name is Xiaoyue. She died in the hospital ten minutes ago. When Xiaoyue's mother came home, she found Xiaoyue lying in the closet with a blunt object hitting her head. She fainted immediately and is currently being treated in the hospital. The computer main unit was also smashed by the blunt object."

Ji Jie's gaze fell on the floor next to the computer desk, where there was a cardboard box with the lid open, revealing a corner of a plastic bag inside. She walked over, squatted down, and used the tip of her pen to pry open the lid and take a look. It was a set of men's underwear, with the tags still attached, brand new.

Zhang Yang walked over to the fallen computer case, squatted down and looked at it. The dents on the case were deep, indicating that the person who smashed it had used a lot of force. He looked up at the technical investigation team and said, "After you finish collecting information on this computer, send the motherboard to Group Six. I'll handle it."

The technical investigation personnel nodded: "Okay, we'll send it over in a bit."

Ji Jie stood up and dusted off her hands: "Okay, then I'll trouble you."

Stepping out of the building, it was already dark outside, and a row of streetlights in the neighborhood were on. Ji Jie said as she walked, "I've checked the house thoroughly; there's no sign of a man living there. There's only one toothbrush, one pair of slippers, and no men's clothes in the closet. What about that set of men's underwear?"

Zhang Yang thought for a moment: "Could it be that it's for my boyfriend?"

Ji Jie glanced at him: "Don't talk nonsense, let's go to the hospital now."

"it is good."

Upon arriving at the 201 Hospital, before even reaching the ward door, a man's roar echoed down the corridor, making the entire corridor vibrate.

"Don't stop me! Don't stop me! I'm going to beat her to death!"

Tian Rui and Chang Baole each supported a middle-aged man's arms. The man's face was flushed, veins bulging on his forehead, and he was struggling so much that the two of them could barely stand. Tian Rui gritted her teeth and shouted, "Be rational! She's still very weak!"

The man pointed at the ward door, his finger poking at the air, his face covered in tears and snot: "How dare she lie here? The baby is gone! Xiaoyue, my Xiaoyue! I told you long ago that I couldn't give the child to her, she ruined Xiaoyue!" The last sentence wasn't shouted, but squeezed out from his throat, so hoarse that it was almost inaudible.

Zhang Yang rushed forward, grabbed the man's arms from behind, and helped him release his weight, pressing him down onto a bench in the corridor. Ji Jie stood in front of him, her voice not loud, but each word like a nail driven into the ground: "First, Xiaoyue's cause of death has not yet been determined, so don't make false accusations. Second, this is a public place; you can't make a loud noise. Third, you are obstructing official business, which violates public order regulations."

The man's shoulders slumped as the three weights pressed down on him, and he slumped into the chair as if his bones had been removed. He covered his face with his hands, his shoulders trembling, and his sobs were muffled in his palms.

Ji Jie gave Zhang Yang a wink, and the two of them pushed open the ward door and went inside.

Xiaoyue's mother was leaning against the hospital bed, her hair disheveled and plastered to her face, her eyes swollen shut, and an IV tube still attached to the back of her hand. When she saw Ji Jie come in, she struggled to sit up, but Ji Jie gently pressed her shoulder down.

"Big sister, we hope to catch Xiaoyue's killer as soon as possible. You have to cooperate with us."

She nodded very gently, as if she had to conserve even the strength to nod.

Ji Jie pulled her chair forward and sat down: "Who has Xiaoyue been associating with lately?"

"There aren't many people. My Xiaoyue has never liked making friends. She's quite introverted. Apart from a few friends she grew up with, she doesn't like to talk to anyone else."

"Have you been in any contact with her father lately?"

Xiaoyue's mother shook her head, her tone devoid of anger or resentment, only a weariness that seemed to have been worn down: "No, she's never liked her father since she was little, because he always beat her."

Ji Jie took the evidence bag containing men's underwear out of her bag and held it up in front of her: "Did you buy this set of underwear?"

She glanced at it, then shook her head: "No, there are no men in our family, why would I buy this?"

At this moment, Tian Rui pushed the door open and came in, holding a transparent evidence bag containing a pager. The screen was cracked, but the body was still relatively intact: "Sister Ji, this is the pager we found on Xiaoyue."

Ji Jie took the pager and pressed a few buttons. The screen still lit up, and the last caller ID showed a landline number. Xiaoyue's mother glanced at the pager and seemed to remember something: "Oh right, Xiaoyue called me this afternoon and said she didn't need to cook. She and Shen Wei went out to eat together."

Ji Jie looked up: "Who is Shen Wei?"

"She's a very good friend of hers."

Back at the bureau, several people gathered in Lao Zheng's office to report on the situation. Lao Zheng leaned back in his chair, a cigarette between his fingers, listening intently.

Zhang Yang spoke first: "It has been found out that Xiaoyue's father did not have the opportunity to commit the crime. The mother and daughter have not had any contact with him for a long time. His behavior at the hospital today is more like transferring his grief over losing his daughter into resentment towards his ex-wife."

Old Zheng nodded: "A father probably wouldn't be so cruel to his daughter."

Ji Jie added, "After the incident, neighbors came in to help. They carried Xiaoyue out of the closet and took the mother and daughter to the hospital. Xiaoyue's head was smashed by a blunt object, but no money was stolen from the house. The cash and bankbooks in the drawers were untouched. The killer may not have been after money; he may have had a grudge against Xiaoyue." She pointed to the evidence bag on the table, "We found a set of men's underwear at the scene. Also, the last caller ID on Xiaoyue's pager showed a public phone booth, and the call time was yesterday afternoon."

Just then, Lao He pushed the door open and came in, his expression as if he had discovered something important: "Excuse me, everyone, someone came to the team and said she knows who killed Xiaoyue."

Sitting in the interrogation room was a pretty girl, around eighteen years old, with her long hair tied back. She held a paper cup in her hand, turning it slightly in her palm. She hadn't drunk any water from it. Zhang Yang stood behind the one-way glass and watched her for a few seconds. She was nervous, occasionally pursing her lips, but there was something else mixed in with this nervousness, something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

Ji Jie pushed open the door and sat down. Tian Rui opened her notebook. Ji Jie asked, "You're Shen Wei?"

Shen Wei nodded, her voice not too loud: "It's me. Xiaoyue and I have been very close since we were little. She tells me everything on her mind. At the end of last month, when we were shopping, she even bought a set of men's underwear."

Ji Jie took out an evidence bag and placed it on the table: "Is this it?"

Shen Wei glanced at it, her eyes already red: "This is it." Her tears came quickly, streaming down her cheeks and dripping into the paper cup, but Zhang Yang noticed that she paused briefly before crying, as if she had made a judgment that "it's time to cry" before the tears came.

Deep Blue didn't give any abnormal alerts. Human expressions can be faked, but heart rate, breathing, and pupil changes can't lie in front of Deep Blue's sensors. Shen Wei's physiological data did show fluctuations of sadness, and it wasn't all an act.

Shen Wei continued, "Xiaoyue said she bought it for her boyfriend, but I didn't know she had a boyfriend. I asked her, and she said they met online and that they'd be meeting in the next few days."

"Which day?"

Shen Wei's voice was interrupted by crying before she continued, "It was the day Xiaoyue died."

Ji Jie asked, "Did you two agree to have lunch together that afternoon?"

Shen Wei nodded and wiped her eyes with a tissue: "But I didn't go, because Xiaoyue lied to her mother. She didn't want her mother to know about meeting with someone she met online, so she said she was with me."

At this moment, Tian Rui raised her head, as if she had suddenly realized something, and blurted out: "I understand why the murderer smashed the computer. He did it to destroy the chat content on the computer's hard drive."

Ji Jie turned her head and glared at Tian Rui, the meaning in her eyes being "Don't reveal your hand too early when handling a case," but Tian Rui had already said it and couldn't take it back.

Zhang Yang leaned back in his chair and casually replied, as if discussing a technical fact: "That's wrong. The contents of a computer hard drive aren't irrecoverable just because they're smashed. The motherboard will be delivered soon, and I'll take a look and find out."

Shen Wei suddenly stopped what she was doing. She placed the paper cup on the table, slowly pulled her fingers back from the rim of the cup, and rested them on her knees. Her expression didn't change much, but Zhang Yang saw her shoulders lift slightly, pause for two or three seconds, and then slowly lower back down.

[Target Behavior Analysis. Shen Wei: Her fingers stopped spinning the paper cup, her hands withdrew from the table to her knees, her shoulders rose three centimeters and then slowly fell back down—a typical defensive contraction movement. Fine beads of sweat appeared on both sides of her nose. The room temperature was 23 degrees Celsius, and she was not engaged in any physical activity; the sweating was not caused by environmental factors.]

The orbicularis oculi muscle did not contract. The previous crying was driven by emotion, while the current tension was driven by cognition. The psychological state switched from "recalling sadness" to "assessing the threat". When the target, Tian Rui, mentioned "hard drive", Shen Wei's blinking frequency suddenly dropped to zero, remained for about two seconds, and then accelerated to blink six times, which was a neural compensatory response after sudden alertness.

When the host, Zhang Yang, mentioned that "data is recoverable," Shen Wei unconsciously dug her right index finger into the nail bed of her left thumb, a self-stimulating behavior of pain to suppress anxiety. [This person is hiding something.]