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

Song Qianxia was awakened by a tremor.

He groggily raised his head, rubbed his eyes, and focused his gaze on the screen.

The facial recognition system, which had been running all night, finally popped up a notification box.

[Comparison complete; three suspected targets identified]

She immediately sat up straight and clicked on the three target messages.

One was a butcher selling meat at the market, another was a temporary worker carrying bricks at a construction site, and the third was surprisingly an elderly woman leading a square dance.

It's impossible for him to be an assassin from the Night Owl Training Camp.

The system has been contaminated with junk data, or perhaps the Night Owls have already undergone plastic surgery and changed their identities.

"Awake?" Gu Tingchen walked in from outside, carrying two cups of coffee.

He placed one of the glasses on Song Qianxia's table, then casually picked up his coat that had slipped to the floor, his movements as natural as if nothing had happened.

"Captain Gu, the results from this lousy system are all useless."

Song Qianxia yawned and took a big gulp of her coffee.

The coffee was so bitter she stuck out her tongue, so she quickly opened the drawer and threw in three sugar cubes.

"As expected." Gu Tingchen pulled out a chair and sat down. "Since Night Owl dared to release people, he wouldn't leave any trace in the public database."

Just then, the office door was pushed open.

Old Zheng walked in carrying a square cardboard box, his expression strange.

"Captain Gu, this was just delivered from the mailroom. They said it's a same-city courier service." Old Zheng put the box on the table and took two steps back.

The box was wrapped in kraft paper, but there was no sender information.

The recipient's name was written in neat, elegant calligraphy: "To Consultant Song".

The entire Major Crimes Unit fell silent.

Lin Wan immediately placed her hand on the pistol at her waist, and Zhou Zheng stood up and strode over to stare at the box.

"Bomb disposal team!" Gu Tingchen made a decisive decision. "Everyone, step back three meters and open the windows for ventilation."

Five minutes later, two members of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Section of the Technical Department entered, wearing heavy bomb suits.

They scanned the box with a portable X-ray machine.

"Team Leader Gu, there's no metal fuse, no wire structure, and no trace of chemical evaporation." The bomb disposal team member glanced at the screen.

"Inside is a piece of paper and a semi-circular resin object. Safe."

Upon hearing the word "safety," Gu Tingchen waved his hand, signaling the bomb disposal team to withdraw.

He put on white rubber gloves, picked up a utility knife, and carefully cut open the sealing tape on the box.

Everyone held their breath and crowded around.

The box lid was lifted, and two things lay quietly inside.

A cheap white plastic half-face mask.

A black envelope sealed with sealing wax.

Song Qianxia only glanced at the mask, and the corners of her mouth twitched uncontrollably.

What the hell is this piece of junk?

The mask was as thin as paper, with rough edges from the injection molding machine, and even a few unpolished plastic burrs.

The white paint on the surface was pitted and gave off a strong smell of cheap industrial formaldehyde.

"Did these bastards buy up all the leftover stock at the Yiwu Small Commodities Wholesale Market?" Song Qianxia took a step back with a look of disgust.

"With this kind of material, wearing it on your face for less than two hours will definitely cause eczema, and you might even get heavy metal poisoning."

"Are assassins these days cutting their equipment budgets this drastically?"

Zhou Zheng was stunned and turned to look at her.

"Advisor Song, isn't your focus getting a little off track? This is a provocation from an assassin!" Zhou Zheng shouted a reminder.

"I know," Song Qianxia pouted. "But there has to be some aesthetic sense to provocation. This thing would be disliked even if given to a child for Halloween."

In her past life, she had a thousand faces when she went on missions, and all her equipment was custom-made by an old craftsman from Cyrillic Continent.

Not to mention the mask, even a hairpin for unlocking the lock is made of a special alloy.

This is a huge insult to her career!

Gu Tingchen ignored Song Qianxia's complaints. He used tweezers to pick up the black envelope and peeled off the dark red sealing wax.

Inside was a sheet of high-quality gold-flecked letter paper.

The text above was printed out, using the most common Song typeface, without any personal style.

Gu Tingchen unfolded the letter and read its contents aloud in a steady voice.

"To Jiangcheng City Bureau, Advisor Song"

"I heard you cracked the labyrinth's trick; you must be quite clever. They all say that Thousand Faces is an insurmountable legend, but in my opinion, he's nothing more than a remnant of a corrupt old era."

"I am the most perfect work of art."

"To prove this, I will put on a three-act show for you in Jiangcheng. I will choose the location, and you can guess the ending."

"If you win, I'll concede. If you lose, Jiangcheng will have many more unsightly corpses."

"Act One Stage: An abandoned textile factory in the West District. Tonight at 8 PM, no exceptions."

The signature is a hand-drawn mark.

A shattered mirror.

After the letter was read, the air in the office seemed to freeze.

Arrogant, extremely arrogant!

This is not only treating the police like NPCs in a game, but also treating human lives as chips on a gambling table.

"Mirror?" Lin Wan uttered the code name, gasping. "It's number 00 from the list we found last night!"

The assassin who was labeled as the "only perfect replica".

"That bastard's too arrogant!" Zhou Zheng slammed his hand on the table in anger. "Reporting enemy positions directly? Does he think our SWAT team is pushovers?!"

"At eight o'clock tonight, I'll bring my brothers to riddle him with bullets!"

Gu Tingchen didn't speak, but stared at the contents of the letter for a long time.

"Song Qianxia, ​​what's your stance?"

Song Qianxia was sulking while staring at the frayed mask when she heard Gu Tingchen call her, and she slowly raised her head.

"I think this letter is written in a somewhat schizophrenic manner," Song Qianxia said, launching into a serious-sounding lie.

"Look, in his letter he said he wanted to prove he was better than Qianmian, his tone was incredibly arrogant, like a conceited chuunibyou."

"But this site selection logic is completely unlike the style of an arrogant killer."

A glint of admiration flashed in Gu Tingchen's eyes, signaling her to continue.

"An abandoned textile factory in the western district. It stopped operating two years ago, and there aren't any residents around. There's no water or electricity, and the road conditions are very complicated."

"This kind of place is suitable for hiding corpses and for running away, but it's definitely not suitable for staging the stage play he's talking about."

Song Qianxia tapped her fingers on the table.

"Why would a killer who wants to show off and impress the police choose a ruin where there aren't even any spectators?"

"unless……"

Song Qianxia lowered her voice.

"He didn't choose this place; someone else chose it for him."

She felt it resembled the work of Cheng Yan, the sociology professor who sat in his university office drinking tea.

Testing the waters of the Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau?

Or was he testing her, the junior advisor?

Gu Tingchen put the letter back into the evidence bag and handed it to the technician sent by Qin Zhenhai.

"Check the source of the paper and the model of the printer toner," Gu Tingchen instructed.

"Old Zheng, go check the sender's surveillance route."

"Zhou Zheng, assemble the SWAT team. Set up a perimeter around the West District Textile Factory at 7 PM tonight, with riot shields and heavy firepower."

Gu Tingchen turned around and his gaze fell on Song Qianxia.

"You'll be in my car tonight. Don't wander off, understand?"

Song Qianxia quickly stood up straight and gave a non-standard salute.

"I guarantee I'll follow orders! I'll go wherever Captain Gu tells me to!"

On the surface, she was all smiles and laughter, but in her heart, she had already cursed this guy named Mirror eight hundred times.

They dared to use her reputation for being a woman of a thousand faces to cause trouble in Jiangcheng.

No matter how perfect your replica is, I'm going to break your legs tonight!