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

It's 9:30 p.m.

Police cars were parked outside the Blue Ocean Villa District.

Security here is indeed very strict. The property security guards were so frightened when they saw the fully armed special police that they dropped their walkie-talkies.

"Open the door. This is a case handled by the Municipal Public Security Bureau." Gu Tingchen showed his identification.

Several cars drove straight in and stopped directly in front of the iron gate of No. 9 in Area A.

Just like in the photo, the door was spray-painted with that smiling face with a red line across its throat.

However, the court seal on the gate was intact, showing no signs of being tampered with.

Zhou Zheng took the hydraulic shears and cut the large lock on the door.

The villa was pitch black.

Due to the lack of water and electricity for more than two years, the air was filled with a strong musty and dusty smell.

Lin Wan and several team members, holding flashlights, began searching floor by floor.

"Captain Gu, the first and second floors are completely empty, there's barely any furniture left," Lin Wan reported as she ran down the stairs.

"The houses of bankrupt bosses like this have already been emptied out to pay off debts long ago." Old Zheng shone his flashlight on the bare walls.

"Go to the basement." Gu Tingchen said with absolute certainty.

Since it's an empty house, the easiest place to hide secrets is underground where sunlight can't reach.

The group walked down the dusty stairs to the basement.

Push open the heavy security door to the basement.

The moment several powerful flashlight beams swept in, everyone gasped.

This is no ordinary underground storage room.

The space is a full 200 square meters. The walls have all been transformed into huge solid wood bookshelves that reach the ceiling.

The bookshelves were densely packed with thousands upon thousands of books, neatly arranged.

In this villa that has already been emptied, these books are perfectly preserved, with dehumidifiers and mothballs on every row.

"Is this homeowner a bookworm?" Zhou Zheng walked in and casually pulled a book from the shelf.

The beam of light hit the cover.

Tracing the origins of the underground arms trade network in Cyrillic Asia.

Zhou Zheng was stunned, then pulled out another book.

A Psychological Analysis of Money Laundering Channels on the Dark Web.

Draw another one.

"A Deep Dive into International Headless Case Files of the Past Decade"

Not a single book in this room is a casual read. They are all non-fiction and insider information about criminal psychology, modus operandi, underground networks, and various unsolved mysteries!

Gu Tingchen's face darkened.

"This house doesn't belong to Liu Wei." Gu Tingchen's gaze swept over the bookshelves. "Liu Wei is just a custodian. This is an intelligence database for Night Owl."

Or perhaps it was the private study of Cheng Yan, the "Night Watchman".

Song Qianxia stood in front of the bookshelf, looking at the rows of book titles, feeling a chill run down her spine.

Do these people have some serious illness?

Treating crime as an academic discipline?

She walked along the bookshelf, and the light from her flashlight illuminated a small, independent bookshelf at the very back.

Song Qianxia almost stopped breathing after just one glance.

That entire row of books was all about her.

No, to be precise, it's about "a thousand faces".

"Analysis of the modus operandi of a thousand crimes".

Physical deduction of the old theater bombing in Cyrillic State.

The blind spots in the defense logic of top hackers.

There was even a beautifully printed hard copy with the title "The Survival Rules of a Thousand Faces" handwritten on it.

Song Qianxia felt a chill run down her spine.

I lived such a secretive life in my past life, and as a result, it was placed on a shelf and repeatedly studied by people like a blind box.

Even the detail that she liked to retreat through the sewers was written into a case study!

Perverts. They're a bunch of indescribable freaks.

"Captain Gu, there are too many books." Lin Wan looked at the vast bookshelves. "If we're looking for clues, even if we brought the entire technical department here, it would take three days and three nights to search through them."

Wearing gloves, Gu Tingchen casually flipped through a few books.

"The dust on these books is very thick, which means no one has been here for a long time. Since the mirror left clues tonight, there must be something unusual about it."

"Everyone, spread out. Don't flip through the books; just look at the bookshelves and the placement of the books. See if there's anything out of place."

The group immediately dispersed.

Song Qianxia stood in front of the "Thousand Faces Counter" and stared at the rows of book spines.

She doesn't need to flip through the books one by one.

Her eyesight is better than any scanner.

In this enclosed basement, the dust settles naturally. The thickness of the dust should be uniform across the top and spine of each book.

Song Qianxia's gaze swept across the bookshelf inch by inch, like a searchlight.

Stop.

Her gaze fell on a thick, black book called "The Code of Conduct in the Underground World".

There was dust on the top of the book.

However, there were obvious breaks in the dust at the spine and where the books meet on both sides.

It looks like a mark that was just pulled out and then put back in exactly the same way.

Due to the re-adhesion of dust, this fault is extremely difficult to detect with the naked eye.

"This one." Song Qianxia stretched out her gloved hand and pulled out the black book.

Because the book was so thick, the pages loosened slightly when I pulled it out.

A thin sheet slipped from between the pages of the book and fell to the floor.

Gu Tingchen immediately shone a flashlight over.

It is a color photograph.

Zhou Zheng leaned over for a look and immediately exclaimed, "Holy crap!"

The photo shows a girl sitting at a table in the cafeteria, eating a piece of braised pork rib.

It was Song Qianxia.

Moreover, this photo was taken at noon today while she was having lunch at the municipal bureau's canteen.

What's chilling is what's above this photo.

Using a red marker, a crosshair was drawn on Song Qianxia's temple.

Next to it was written a line of small characters in the thin gold script.

Found it.

"Is this some kind of blatant provocation against the Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau's security?!" Zhou Zheng cursed angrily. "The cafeteria is full of internal staff. Who took this photo? Is there a mole within our bureau?"

Lin Wan's face also turned pale.

They sent threatening letters directly to the bureau, and now they're producing photos they secretly took inside the bureau.

This is tantamount to putting a knife to the police's throat.

Song Qianxia looked at the photo and sighed with heartache.

That was the last piece of sweet and sour pork ribs in the cafeteria today. She had a hard time getting it, but the way she ate it was photographed looking so ugly.

Gu Tingchen didn't say anything; he bent down and picked up the photo.

Stare closely at the background.

In the photo, Song Qianxia is standing behind a glass window on the south side of the cafeteria. Outside the window, a section of gray steel frame structure can be vaguely seen.

"Not an inside man." Gu Tingchen's voice was as cold as ice. "The window on the south side of the cafeteria faces the wall of the city police station's backyard."

"This steel frame is a high-voltage power tower located 300 meters outside the wall."

Gu Tingchen raised his head, his gaze sharp.

"It was taken from the top floor of the staff quarters opposite the Municipal Bureau, using a high-magnification telephoto lens."

How many floors does that building have?

"The 24th floor," Old Zheng replied.

"That means it's at least 500 meters away from the city bureau's canteen as the crow flies." Gu Tingchen put the photo into a bag, his expression serious.

"He was telling us that if he had wanted to, that bullet would have pierced Song Qianxia's temple."