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

The air in the basement was chilly.

Gu Tingchen held up his flashlight, the beam shining on the crosshairs of the candid photo taken in the cafeteria. The surrounding team members didn't dare to breathe.

Five hundred meters away, a high-magnification telephoto lens, sniping view.

Everyone knows what this means. If the other side were to switch to a real sniper rifle, the bulletproof glass of the Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau's canteen would be no match for a single special armor-piercing round.

"Captain Gu, should we immediately notify the SWAT team to conduct a thorough search of all high-ranking officials in the area?" Lin Wan's hand rested on her holster, her palms sweaty.

"Investigate what?" Gu Tingchen didn't even look up, putting the photos back into the evidence bag. "It's already ten o'clock at night. What sniper would lie in one spot for ten hours waiting to be caught?"

Song Qianxia was touching her chin, looking displeased.

"Pah! This composition is terrible! It even makes my double chin look like it's in the picture!"

Lin Wan rolled her eyes as she listened from the side.

"Is your heart made of stainless steel? Someone's aiming a sniper rifle at your head! What do you care if the photo looks good or not?"

"Looking good is important!" Song Qianxia declared confidently. "It just means this thing called Mirror is a crude, substandard product with absolutely no aesthetic sense. It's not perfect at all!"

Gu Tingchen listened to her rambling nonsense without saying anything, and simply waved.

"Let's go, back to the station."

On the way back, no one spoke, only the muffled sound of police car tires rolling over speed bumps.

Song Qianxia huddled in the back row, mentally cursing Night Owl and that guy named Mirror for eighteen generations.

It was already 11:30 p.m. when I returned to the main office of the Municipal Public Security Bureau's Major Crimes Unit.

Song Qianxia sat at her workstation, holding a half-cold cup of coffee in her hand.

I was just about to take a sip of coffee to calm my nerves.

A large hand snatched the paper cup directly from her hand.

Gu Tingchen walked to the center of the office and clapped his hands.

"Everyone, stop what you're doing."

Old Zheng looked up from the pile of documents while holding a cup of goji berry tea, and Xiao Wang and Xiao Zhang also took off their headphones.

"Starting today, the Major Crimes Unit will have two new rules." Gu Tingchen's voice was particularly clear in the empty office.

"First, starting today, Song Qianxia's office seat will be moved from the window side to the empty seat outside my office door."

"Secondly, effective immediately, Song Qianxia is not allowed to go out alone. Whether it's going to the restroom, the cafeteria, or going home after get off work, she must be accompanied by someone from our group. She must go out in pairs."

The office was completely silent.

This living Yama turned directly to Lin Wan and Zhou Zheng and began to issue orders.

"Lin Wan, you're inseparable from her at the station."

Lin Wan immediately stood at attention and saluted.

"receive!"

Gu Tingchen then pointed at Zhou Zheng.

"Zhou Zheng, arrange your men's shifts. Whenever Song Qianxia goes on field duty, she must be accompanied by a fully armed special police officer."

Zhou Zheng thumped his chest loudly.

"No problem, Captain Gu! I'll lead the team myself. Anyone who dares to lay a finger on Consultant Song will be taught a lesson the hard way!"

Song Qianxia's lips twitched violently, and she weakly raised her hand in protest.

"No, Captain Gu, I don't think there's any need to be so paranoid."

"If that sniper really wanted to kill me, he would have fired right there in the cafeteria. He was just using psychological tactics to see us fall into chaos."

Gu Tingchen didn't even glance at her out of the corner of his eye, and pointed to her desk.

"Move your workstation from the window to the doorway of my office."

Song Qianxia was really anxious now and hugged her monitor.

That window seat was her carefully chosen, perfect spot for slacking off!

With green plants blocking the screen, it's the perfect spot for playing games or reading novels.

"This is a prime location I chose based on feng shui! The afternoon sun at three o'clock will shine perfectly on the keyboard—it's very healthy!"

"Protest denied." Gu Tingchen looked at her coldly.

In the next ten minutes, the Major Crimes Unit staged a chaotic moving scene.

Without saying a word, Old Zheng rolled up his sleeves and called people over to move the table.

But Song Qianxia's desk was cluttered with too many things. Apart from a few files, it was all snacks.

Lin Wan helped her lift a cardboard box.

"Goodness, did you open a convenience store in this drawer? Spicy strips, sunflower seeds, and even self-heating hot pot? You're living a more comfortable life than the bureau chief."

"I earned all of this through hard work using coupons!"

Song Qianxia looked at her throne by the window with heartache.

Now, the table has been forcibly dragged outside the glass wall of Gu Tingchen's office.

As long as Gu Tingchen looks up, he can see the contents of her computer screen clearly.

Be content.

Lin Wan lowered her voice.

"Captain Gu did this to protect you. Since that guy with the mirror dared to deliver the stolen photos to our door, it shows he doesn't take us seriously at all."

Song Qianxia handed over a bag of imported gummy candies.

He couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Actually, it feels pretty good to be protected like this.

In her past life, she struggled alone in the underworld. When faced with something like this, she could only stay up for several nights in a safe house with her gun.

Now, she's surrounded by a group of heavily armed police officers.

But you still have to save face when it comes to words.

"I'm just a low-paid intern consultant, is there really a need to waste police resources like this?"

Gu Tingchen watched her sit down in the chair at her new workstation, her hands resting on the edge of the desk.

"You are now an important witness for the Municipal Public Security Bureau and a technical asset for the task force."

"If someone else reimburses me for these expenses, how am I supposed to write a report?"

Song Qianxia rolled her eyes dramatically.

Alright, so after all this time, the living devil is just worried about not being able to write a report!

Old Zheng watched from the sidelines, thoroughly amused.

"Alright, Xiao Song, just stay put. We in the Major Crimes Unit never push our comrades out to take the fall."

Just then, Old Chen from the technical department rushed in.

"Captain Gu! We've found something!"

"Where's Lao Chen? Tell him to wake up everyone in the technical department."

Five minutes later, in the technical department office.

Xiao Wang's fingers flew across the keyboard.

"Captain Gu, I just made a 3D reverse model based on the angle of the window steel frame and the proportion of the cafeteria tables and chairs in the photo."

Xiao Wang projected the model onto the big screen.

A red simulated ray of light pierced through the cafeteria window, pointing directly at the residential buildings in the distance.

"The filming location was indeed on the roof of the residential building across the street. That's the old residential compound of Jiangcheng Cotton Mill, and the rooftop gate is usually locked."

Gu Tingchen stared at the screen.

"Have you checked the surveillance footage?"

"We checked. But the residential compound is too old; there's only one security camera at the main gate. There are so many people coming and going in the afternoon; we simply can't check them all."

Song Qianxia stood to the side, chewing on a mint.

"No need to investigate. People of this caliber wouldn't use the main entrance. They usually climb up from the air conditioner unit on the exterior wall of the building next door, or disguise themselves as plumbers."

"He's playing a countdown game."

Gu Tingchen turned to look at her.

"Countdown?"

"That's right. He chose the abandoned textile factory for the first act and left photos. The second act was in the underground library, where he left coordinates. He's guiding us step by step into the stage of his planned third act, and there are other clues in the photos."

Old Chen held a magnifying glass close to the bright light to study it.

"The paper used for the photos is very ordinary, the kind of photographic paper used in roadside photo printing shops. There are no fingerprints or skin flakes."

Song Qianxia took the tweezers and turned the photo over.

The back of the photo is blank.

"Old Chen, bring the UV lamp over here."

Old Chen quickly handed over a portable UV flashlight.

Song Qianxia pressed the switch, and a dark purple light swept across the back of the photo.

A line of fluorescent green numbers slowly appeared.

"Latitude and longitude coordinates?" Gu Tingchen recognized the format at a glance.

Behind the number, there is a simple iris drawing.

Song Qianxia's pupils contracted slightly.

Those are the personal imprints of a thousand faces!

That bastard practically shoved the provocation right in her face.

Xiao Wang immediately entered the coordinates into the computer's internal map system.

Zooming in on the map, the red location point is located on a wasteland in the northern suburbs of Jiangcheng.

"Captain Gu, this is in the northern suburbs..."

Old Zheng brought over his thermos, glanced at the screen, and his hand trembled.

Half a cup of hot water was poured directly onto his trouser leg, but he seemed not to feel the heat at all.

"How did I get here?!"

On the screen, a line of small text is marked next to the red dot.

Xiangyang Orphanage (former site).