We asked you to solve cases, and here you are sharing your criminal experiences?

At 10 a.m. the next day, sunlight streamed through the blinds into the city bureau corridor.

Gu Tingchen had just assigned the city-wide investigation tasks when the internal phone on his desk rang.

"Tingchen, come to the technical department."

On the other end of the phone was Qin Zhenhai, the director of the Criminal Technology Division.

His voice was as mature and composed as ever, revealing no emotion.

Gu Tingchen pushed open the door to the office of the head of the technical department.

Qin Zhenhai was wearing reading glasses, looking at a thick analysis report in his hand.

"Director Qin, you wanted to see me?"

Qin Zhenhai took off his glasses, rubbed his temples, and pointed to the chair opposite him.

"sit."

Then, he pushed the report in front of Gu Tingchen.

"This is the supplementary autopsy report for the male corpse found in the ditch in the southern suburbs, namely Wang Lei, the operator of the Dark Night Maze."

Qin Zhenhai picked up his teacup and blew on the floating leaves.

"During the autopsy, forensic pathologist Chung discovered that the deceased's articular cartilage was severely worn, especially in the wrist joints and finger bones. These deformed calluses were not left from manual labor."

"It is caused by years of extremely destructive strangulation training."

Gu Tingchen opened the report and glanced at the photos on it.

"The training methods at Night Owl's training camp are bound to be brutal," Gu Tingchen said, his expression unchanged.

Qin Zhenhai sighed and took another document out of the drawer.

It was a stack of printed images taken from Lin Wan's body camera.

The image is very blurry, clearly taken in extremely dark conditions.

The photos show Song Qianxia dislocating Hao Hui's wrist in the basement of the Dark Night Maze, and earlier, a breakdown of her actions in knocking Zhou Zheng down in the police station corridor.

When Gu Tingchen saw these photos, his eyes darkened almost imperceptibly.

But he sat in the chair with his back ramrod straight, and not even his breathing rate changed.

"Tingchen," Qin Zhenhai said earnestly, leaning back in his chair.

"You've been in the Major Crimes Unit for so many years, you see some things more clearly than I do."

"This Song Qianxia, ​​her file says she was at the bottom of the police academy. But the grappling techniques she used..."

Qin Zhenhai pointed to the two reports on the table with his finger.

"The way he exerts force, the angle of his bones twisting, and the extreme training marks on that male corpse are practically from the same source."

"This isn't the kind of grappling and fighting we learn at police academy. This is a black market killing technique."

A brief silence fell over the office.

Qin Zhenhai did not continue speaking, nor did he draw a direct conclusion.

He is a seasoned forensic pathologist who values ​​procedure and evidence; he would not convict his colleague based on just a few photos.

But he had to remind Gu Tingchen.

"I don't care how much you value this girl's computer skills."

Qin Zhenhai stared at Gu Tingchen with a serious expression.

"Place someone of unknown origin, someone with traces of the underworld, at the core of the task force."

"Once the provincial inspection department investigates, or if she runs into any trouble later..."

"You're the person in charge on site. You're facing the prospect of being stripped of your police uniform and even going to a military court. Can you bear that responsibility?"

This was Qin Zhenhai's real purpose in summoning him today.

This is not a personal suspicion; it is a red line of the system.

In the world under the sun, what matters is a clean record and compliant procedures.

Song Qianxia is like a wild cheetah that has infiltrated a flock of sheep, carrying an indelible stench of blood.

Gu Tingchen looked at Qin Zhenhai.

Suddenly, a flawless smile appeared on his lips, even carrying a hint of smugness.

"Director Qin, your insight is as sharp as ever."

Gu Tingchen spoke in a serious tone.

"This is definitely not a standard grappling technique used in police academies."

Qin Zhenhai was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

Gu Tingchen placed his hands together on the table and began his performance without batting an eye.

"This is the latest version of the improved Krav Maga course that our provincial department sent people to overseas for exchanges last year."

"This set of moves was originally designed to deal with those ruthless drug traffickers on the border. The moves are indeed vicious, approaching black market tactics."

"Song Qianxia isn't good at academic subjects at police academy, but she has excellent flexibility. Last month, I gave her the internal instructional video for this set of movements and told her to figure it out on her own."

"I didn't expect her to learn it after just one look, and she even used it in real combat."

Gu Tingchen sighed, pretending to be both delighted and helpless.

"Would you call this a lucky accident, a stroke of genius?"

"As for the fact that the traces are from the same source as those on the male corpse, doesn't that just prove that this foreign police training program is highly practical and specifically designed to counter these underground thugs?"

Qin Zhenhai's hand, holding the teacup, froze in mid-air.

He stared at Gu Tingchen for a full minute.

The living Yama lies without even a draft, and his logic is so rigorous that no one can find fault with him.

Instructional videos? Exceptional talent?

This is utter nonsense!

But by bringing up this explanation, Gu Tingchen was clearly telling Qin Zhenhai—

I, Gu Tingchen, have memorized all of this girl's unusual behavior.

"Good, what a great modified version of Krav Maga." Qin Zhenhai put down his teacup, not exposing him.

The old man waved his hand, signaling him to get lost.

"I have approved the case file, and I will also seal the photos as part of the standard internal records of excessive self-defense."

"Gu Tingchen, just keep that in mind. If something goes wrong, don't blame me for not warning you."

"Thank you, Director Qin."

Gu Tingchen stood up, gave a proper salute, and turned to leave the office.

The smile on his face vanished the moment he stepped out the door.

A deep, unfathomable chill rose in his eyes.

What Qin Zhenhai could see, those nitpicking people from the provincial department's inspection office would never have been fooled.

Song Qianxia has revealed too much.

She was risking her life to fill what she considered to be the "bottom line of the underworld."

Gu Tingchen walked quickly back to the main office of the Major Crimes Unit.

Push open the door.

The scene of Song Qianxia frantically typing away on the keyboard to track down the criminal, which was imagined, did not occur.

The girl was lying face down on the computer desk, fast asleep.

The oversized hoodie wrapped around her body made her look like a pupa.

A strand of hair clung to the drool at the corner of his mouth, and drool dripped down to cover half the length of the Enter key.

On the screen next to it, the facial recognition progress bar is moving slowly.

Old Zheng lowered his voice and said, "She stayed up all night and couldn't hold on any longer at seven in the morning. I didn't dare to wake her."

Gu Tingchen stood in front of his desk, looking down at the woman whom Qin Zhenhai suspected of being an "extremely dangerous element."

Listening to her soft, extremely unrefined snoring.

Gu Tingchen raised his hand and pinched the space between his eyebrows.

If she truly controlled the underworld, those assassins would probably have gone bankrupt and begged on the streets long ago.

He grabbed a police coat from the back of a chair next to him and casually tossed it onto Song Qianxia's back.

It covered her dusty hoodie.

"Let her sleep. Wait for the identification results before waking her."