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

After Song Qianxia slipped out of the interrogation room, Gu Tingchen sat behind a stainless steel table and pushed the forensic report in his hand directly in front of Chen Hu.

The report was opened, and several key data points were circled in red.

That was an analysis of clothing fibers and trace chemical substances extracted from Chen Hu's fingernails.

Chen Hu was still annoyed by his failed attempt to sow discord, and glanced at the report.

In that one glance, the arrogance on his face froze completely.

"This special fiber containing hydrogen sulfide is only found in the warehouse of an abandoned paper mill in the North District of Jiangcheng." Gu Tingchen interlaced his fingers, resting his elbows on the table. "Our people have already searched it."

Chen Hu's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"That van with the fake license plates also came from the paper mill." Gu Tingchen's voice was extremely cold, without the slightest inflection. "You changed your clothes there and picked up the car. Other people were also at the scene."

The air in the interrogation room was unusually oppressive.

Cold sweat finally broke out on Chen Hu's forehead.

The biggest fear for this kind of swindler who works on the periphery is that the police will find his hideout. Once his superior finds out that he led the police to the safe house, even if he goes to jail, he'll be dead when he gets out.

"I've never seen them!" Chen Hu finally broke down under pressure and spoke up. "I swear I've never seen them! They have very strict rules and regulations."

Gu Tingchen didn't speak, he just stared at him coldly.

Chen Hu panicked. With his hands handcuffed to the chair, he could only desperately lean forward.

"I genuinely don't know who the employer is. It's a bounty on the dark web," Chen Hu explained repeatedly. "I'm just going through the motions at the mall, taking that kid to the underground parking garage. Someone will meet me there."

Gu Tingchen tapped the table. "What's the code word?"

Chen Hu swallowed hard and spoke in a trembling voice.

"There was no code. Just a note. I put it under my car seat when I accepted the mission."

Gu Tingchen stood up and took Chen Hu's sealed bag of personal belongings from the corner of the interrogation room. He poured it directly onto the table.

"Where's the note?"

Chen Hu gestured with his chin towards the cheap leather belt. "It's in the lining on the back of the buckle."

Gu Tingchen picked up the belt and pulled out a tightly rolled piece of moisture-proof oil paper from inside.

Upon unfolding it, I found only a line of random English letters and numbers.

There is absolutely no pattern to it.

Zhao Ming, who was outside the one-way glass, quickly pushed the door open and came in, taking the evidence bag and putting the note inside.

"Send it to the technical department," Gu Tingchen instructed.

Ten minutes later, in the Technical Department office on the third floor of the Municipal Bureau.

The room was filled with the sounds of keyboard clicks and the beeping of instruments. Xiao Wang sat in front of the computer and entered the characters from the note into the decryption software.

The progress bar was moving very fast. But all that popped up on the screen was the red message "Decryption failed".

Song Qianxia was taking a nap at her workstation when she was woken up by the noise.

She yawned widely, holding a Garfield-themed mug, and slowly swayed behind Xiao Wang.

Gu Tingchen and Zhao Ming also stood to the side.

"What is this thing?" Song Qianxia peeked at the screen.

Xiao Wang was clutching his hair, his face contorted in pain.

"The cipher strip Chen Hu brought back. I tried the Caesar cipher, the Virginia cipher, even the oldest Morse code conversion," Xiao Wang pointed to a bunch of gibberish on the screen. "None of them are right. These guys are definitely using their own invented encryption algorithm."

Zhao Ming was so anxious that he paced around in circles.

"This is the only clue we have to catch the contact! If we can't crack it, all our work tonight will have been for nothing!"

Song Qianxia took a sip of hot water and her gaze fell on the string of characters on the screen.

"XQ9-B7-K4-M1..." Song Qianxia muttered softly.

This isn't some sophisticated algorithm at all. It's just the most common nine-square grid shifting algorithm used in the underworld, combined with reverse pinyin abbreviations.

Night Owl and his gang are too lazy to even change their passwords; they're still using this outdated trick.

Song Qianxia cursed Night Owl's action team a hundred times in her mind.

She simply couldn't stand seeing Xiao Wang wasting his time on those complicated decryption software programs.

"Brother Wang, do you usually type using Pinyin or Wubi?" Song Qianxia asked casually.

Xiao Wang paused for a moment, without even turning his head. "It's in full pinyin, what's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Song Qianxia pointed to the letters. "I just think these letters look a bit like a keyboard layout on a mobile phone."

Xiao Wang ignored her.

Gu Tingchen suddenly turned his head and looked directly at Song Qianxia.

Song Qianxia felt uneasy under his gaze. She quickly took a half step back, holding her water glass and feigning innocence.

Gu Tingchen walked directly to Xiao Wang's side. "Switch your input method to the nine-key layout. Deduce the letters in reverse order based on the positions of the numbers."

Xiao Wang dared not delay and immediately did as instructed.

The sound of keyboard typing echoed in the office.

"Captain Gu, it's out!" Xiao Wang shouted excitedly.

The rearranged letters on the screen, after a simple combination of pinyin, finally transformed into a coherent Chinese sentence.

It only has eight characters.

The entire room fell silent.

Zhao Ming stared wide-eyed at the screen. "The bird with its eyes closed, observing?"

Xiao Wang scratched his head. "What does this mean? A bird can observe with its eyes closed? These criminals must have misunderstood Chinese."

Song Qianxia, ​​standing behind, almost spat out the water in her mouth when she heard those words.

This isn't because I didn't learn Chinese well.

This was Night Owl's top-level operational order. Those lunatics were announcing that they had their eyes on Jiangcheng and were watching every move the task force made.

Gu Tingchen's face instantly turned extremely cold.

He ignored Zhao Ming and Xiao Wang's questions and strode back to his office.

Less than half a minute later, Gu Tingchen returned with a manila envelope in his hand.

This is a top-secret file from the previous cruise ship case.

Gu Tingchen pulled out one of the photos and slapped it directly onto Xiao Wang's computer desk.

The photo shows the defused composite bomb in the cruise ship's engine room. A concealed symbol is engraved on the bomb's metal casing.

It was an owl with its eyes closed.

That is, the totem of the night owl.

"A bird with its eyes closed." Gu Tingchen pointed to the logo in the photo, his voice cold. "This is a transnational criminal network hidden in the shadows."

Zhao Ming gasped.

"Captain Gu, are you saying that this organization was behind everything from the cruise ship case to the building materials money laundering case, and now this kidnapping rehearsal?"

Gu Tingchen nodded.

"This bird is secretly observing all the movements in Jiangcheng. They are plotting a huge conspiracy."

The atmosphere in the office suddenly became extremely heavy.

Everyone knows that facing an organized, premeditated opponent with even professional armed forces, the days ahead will definitely not be easy.

Song Qianxia quickly tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible. She planned to sneak back to her workstation and continue sleeping when no one was looking.

She had no desire to get involved in such a deadly duel.

As soon as she turned around, a large hand grabbed the back of her collar.

With a slight pull, Gu Tingchen dragged her back to her original position.

"Where to?" Gu Tingchen asked, looking at her.

Song Qianxia chuckled twice. "I'll go back and organize the internal reports, Captain Gu. This kind of high-IQ analytical work is really not suitable for an intern like me."

Gu Tingchen released his grip. His gaze lingered on her face for a few seconds.

"Are you scared?" Gu Tingchen suddenly asked.

Song Qianxia immediately stood up straight, her neck stiffening.

"What am I afraid of! I'm a proud prospective police officer!" Song Qianxia retorted stubbornly. "I'm just afraid these criminals are too hard to catch, and it'll prevent me from leaving get off work on time!"

Zhao Ming, listening from the side, rolled his eyes. Did this girl have anything else on her mind besides getting off work and eating rice?

Gu Tingchen looked at Song Qianxia's self-righteous demeanor, and a very faint smile appeared on his lips.

"Since you're worried about not being able to leave work on time," Gu Tingchen said calmly.

"Then let's catch them as soon as possible."

Song Qianxia mentally ranted and raved.

Makes it sound so easy! You think it's like buying cabbage at the market? That's a night owl! A night owl that eats people without spitting out the bones!

But on the surface, she could only obediently nod.

"Captain Gu is right. I will definitely do my best in the logistics department, serving you tea and water!"

Gu Tingchen ignored her nonsense and turned to begin planning the next phase of the comprehensive investigation.