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

Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau, sixth floor of the main building, interrogation room number one.

The incandescent light was stark and glaring, shining directly onto the interrogation chair.

The judge was tightly handcuffed to the chair, his forehead covered in sweat. His once neatly combed hair now resembled a bird's nest on his head.

Gu Tingchen sat across the long table, holding a thick stack of files in his hand.

Zhou Zheng sat next to him, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he took notes.

In the monitoring room.

Song Qianxia pulled up a swivel chair and slumped unceremoniously in front of the one-way mirror. Holding an ice-cold can of cola in her left hand and a few spicy snacks in her right, she watched the interrogation inside with great interest.

Lin Wan and Zhao Ming also stood beside them, their expressions solemn.

"Name." Gu Tingchen's voice rang out in the quiet interrogation room, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"Liu Jianguo," the judge replied listlessly, his head drooping.

"Do you know why we arrested you?" Gu Tingchen turned to the first page of the file.

Liu Jianguo suddenly raised his head, and that fanaticism fueled by his chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) resurfaced.

"I did nothing wrong! Those three bastards from Dacheng Construction have killed so many people. The police can't handle it, so I will!"

He struggled to shake the chains on the chair.

"I am the judge in the darkness! My court is the last line of defense against evil!"

Looking at him like this, Gu Tingchen didn't even bother to give him any extra expression.

He slammed a financial statement onto the table and slid it down in front of Liu Jianguo.

"Three months ago, you were fired from Shunda Auto Repair Shop in the south of the city for stealing auto parts."

Gu Tingchen looked directly into his eyes, his tone icy and chilling.

"You only have 320 yuan in your bank account. You can't even pay next month's rent."

His long, slender fingers tapped on the files.

"The high-pressure water pumps imported from Cyrillic continent on the fifth floor of the Great World Shopping Plaza are priced at 80,000 on the black market."

"The custom-made explosion-proof tempered glass water tank costs at least 150,000 yuan."

Gu Tingchen leaned forward slightly, looking at him with an extremely imposing air.

"And those three wealthy businessmen from Dacheng Construction. They have bodyguards when they go out and live in high-end security villas. How did you, a half-baked mechanic who can't even install the wrong spark plug in a car, manage to kidnap those three without anyone noticing?"

The fervor on Liu Jianguo's face froze instantly.

He opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.

"You think you're some kind of judge acting on behalf of Heaven?" Gu Tingchen sneered, his words piercing to the heart.

"You're nothing but a knife in someone else's hand. You're being used as a pawn to distract the police, and you're still gloating over it!"

These words completely shattered Liu Jianguo's psychological defenses.

His most prized identity as a punisher shattered into pieces in the face of police evidence.

Liu Jianguo's shoulders slumped completely, and he looked like a deflated balloon.

"I...I really don't know who that person is."

Liu Jianguo's voice began to tremble, and he finally told the truth.

"About two weeks ago, I was playing games at an internet cafe when a encrypted pop-up webpage suddenly appeared."

He swallowed hard, seemingly recalling that strange incident.

"There was a letter on the webpage. The person said they knew I hated rich people and knew I wanted to do something big."

"He said that as long as I do as he says, he will take care of all the equipment and venue for me."

Gu Tingchen's eyes sharpened: "You haven't seen him before?"

"No! Absolutely not!" Liu Jianguo shook his head frantically.

"All communication was done through that encrypted webpage! The water pumps and tanks were delivered directly to the back gate of the mall by the freight company. I didn't even get a good look at the delivery driver."

Gu Tingchen tapped his pen twice on the table.

"What does the webpage look like? Does the other party have any obvious logos or codes?"

Liu Jianguo closed his eyes and tried desperately to recall.

"There is no code name. The webpage is all black with red text."

Liu Jianguo suddenly opened his eyes, as if he had remembered some important details.

"Yes! There's a very strange icon in the bottom right corner of that contact interface!"

Zhou Zheng immediately stopped typing: "What pattern? Describe it."

"It looks like a bird. But it's drawn very abstractly, made up of twisted lines."

Liu Jianguo gestured in the air with his handcuffed hands.

"That bird has no eyes. Or rather, its eyes are closed. It looks particularly eerie, and staring at it for too long can give you the creeps."

A bird with its eyes closed.

In the interrogation room, Gu Tingchen's brows furrowed into a tight knot.

Meanwhile, Song Qianxia was in the monitoring room.

The moment I heard those words, the spicy snack I was holding fell to the ground.

The red oil left several twisted lines on the clean floor, but she didn't notice at all.

Song Qianxia stared intently at Liu Jianguo across the one-way glass, her heart pounding uncontrollably in her chest.

Night Owl...

This name, deeply etched in a thousand memories, was like a thunderbolt, striking directly into the seemingly secure present life.

"Xiao Song? What's wrong? You look terrible. Did you eat something bad?"

Zhao Ming noticed Song Qianxia's sudden paleness and asked her with concern.

Song Qianxia immediately came to her senses.

She suppressed the turmoil surging in her heart and forced a smile.

"It's nothing, Deputy Captain Zhao. It's probably because the crabs at that seafood buffet weren't fresh. My stomach is indeed a little upset."

She bent down, picked up the spicy snack from the ground, and threw it into the trash can, trying to hide her slightly trembling fingers.

In the interrogation room, Gu Tingchen had already stood up and closed the case file.

"Zhou Zheng, organize his statement. Notify the cyber police to conduct deep filtering on the dark web based on the characteristics of the websites he described."

Gu Tingchen pushed open the door to the interrogation room and walked out.

He glanced at everyone in the monitoring room.

"This case isn't over yet. The Dacheng Construction case is just a smokescreen. The real mastermind is using Liu Jianguo to test the Jiangcheng police's response speed."

Gu Tingchen's gaze swept over Song Qianxia, ​​lingered for a second, and then looked away.

"Everyone, go home and rest tonight. The task force will meet at eight o'clock tomorrow morning to analyze the situation."

The police officers dispersed.

Song Qianxia grabbed her backpack and hurried out of the municipal bureau building.

The night breeze of Jiangcheng brushed against my face, bringing a touch of coolness.

She looked up at the dark sky, her palms already damp with cold sweat.