Chapter 1234: Chapter 75: Sheng Men (1)
As he opened the puter, Chen Mingming suddenly had a feeling that perhaps a pair of eyes existed behind him… watching his every move.
Just like that day in the shop, facing the owner, ‘watching’ Zhao Le, Dong Shaofeng, and the others, experiencing everything, akin to the ‘God’-like perspective the owner had demonstrated before him.
He might also be part of the perspective of that owner.
Chen Mingming felt certain about this intuition; if it were him assessing someone, he too would spare no effort in observing—much like what he was observing now.
Since concluding that ‘Mr. Blank’ shares the same identity as him, leaving traces following his behavioral habits is not an impossible task.
Perhaps he left these not because he feared he would forget someday, but because he deemed it necessary…
Searching the files was not as difficult as imagined; they were not concealed in some plex root directories… Drive D, December 1st—Chen Mingming found the folder in an instant.
Only two video files… In chronological order, Chen Mingming clicked open the first video file.
As the first video file opened, a white wall instantly appeared… The lens was gently shaking, seemingly while the person filming was adjusting the direction of the lens.
Eventually, this tremor ceased, followed by a shadow slowly stepping into the lens, sitting down, facing the lens—Chen Mingming now faced the person in the video.
He could not see the features of the person behind the lens, only their gaze… because the person in the video wore a fully covering white mask.
With the mask on, the person sat quietly for a while, then ‘he’ moved, reaching toward the lens—finally, the lens shut off, the video ended.
A mere thirty seconds or so of video, void of any sound, offered only ‘him’ sitting while watching the lens quietly.
Despite ‘him’ wearing a mask, Chen Mingming felt a mirror-like sensation… the person in the mask was himself.
In the next moment, Chen Mingming opened the sequence of the second video.
This time, the first thing to appear was a dimly lit staircase, moving upward… Chen Mingming held his breath momentarily; this must be the corridor from Wang Liang’s old apartment building.
Still without any sound… The video’s time display showed it was 8:23 PM.
Finally, the camera paused at the entrance of Wang Liang’s rental unit.
Once inside, the camera flickered… that was the scene of ‘him’ removing shoes at the door, followed by ‘his’ gradual entry into the living room.
No freezer in the living room at the time, only Wang Liang lying on the sofa, motionless.
‘He’ walked to Wang Liang’s side, poked his neck for a moment before retracting his hand.
Eventually, the filming device was placed on the table, only showing the lens as ‘he’ dragged Wang Liang step by step into the bathroom.
Time passed incrementally, the timer on the lens ticking away second by second.
Finally, ‘he’ emerged from the bathroom, his clothes stained with blood. ‘He’ carried a large travel bag, heading back into the bathroom again—this was the item ‘he’ brought before ing.
When ‘he’ emerged from the bathroom again, the bag was still in ‘his’ hand.
‘He’ slowly left the room, not descending the stairs to leave, merely moving up one level, fixing the lens on Wang Liang’s apartment door.
The police have conducted an on-site inspection, confirming that the next level up would be the roof level, hence ‘he’ seemed to stay there without anyone ing from above.
Finally, after a long wait, another figure slowly approached Wang Liang’s door… He seemed hesitant, eventually pushing the door open—a figure identified as Zhao Le.
Half an hour later, a panicked Zhao Le quickly left.
“The truth is just hidden here.”
It was a processed voice, and the person before the lens pointed at the carried travel bag.
“If you’re lucky enough to find him, then he’ll be the only clue I leave for you. He will reveal my existence, for himself or his sister, he won’t hide me… yet even so, you’ll never find me.”
“The truth will always be hidden in the silence… and it will silently watch from a place you’ll never find.”
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—— The truth will always be hidden in the silence.
The video had already stopped, halted at the final second, but the phrase echoed time and again in Chen Mingming’s mind.
A long while later, Chen Mingming simply smiled, placing his hands off the table.
With eyes closed, he tipped his head back to gaze at the pure white ceiling… His mind did not recall anything, but he easily understood all that ‘he’ behind the lens did, for what reason.
“You want to forget everything, start over, and see if I’ll make the same choice again…” Chen Mingming murmured, “This is the real test question, isn’t it?”
There was still no one else in the room but him.
Yet, he seemed to know the answer already.
Until daylight came, Chen Mingming packed his things and left, “There’s still… twelve hours.”
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Chen Mingming returned to Zhou Yusheng’s home, carrying some breakfast. Last night, Zhou Yusheng and his wife fell asleep embraced on the sofa.
Waking during the night, they assumed Chen Mingming had returned to his room, undisturbed. Just now, Chen Mingming’s mother had woken and was preparing breakfast.
“Why did you go down to buy breakfast?”
“Went for a run.” Chen Mingming smiled slightly… He discovered that he seldom smiled at his mother in recent years, except in old photos.
“Oh, alright, I’ll call your dad.” His mother sounded in good spirits.
Chen Mingming replied, “I’ll call him.”
He had called his father plenty of times to wake him.
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Another shout, followed by frenzied sounds, soon came the sound of doors shutting.
Nan Xiao Nan was now dressed and emerged.
On the table, Luo Qiu had already prepared breakfast, a much richer spread than yesterday… Nan Xiao Nan’s heart skipped a beat, fearing the ‘big eater’ impression had sunk deeply.
“Ms. Ren, does every morning begin in such haste?”
Nan Xiao Nan sat down, quite curious.
Luo Qiu was reading the newspaper; seemingly, it had been a while.
“More or less.” Luo Qiu smiled slightly.
Nan Xiao Nan didn’t immediately start eating but said, “Just two more chapters to write, should be finished tonight.”
“Thank you for your hard work.” Luo Qiu nodded, “Ms. Nan, take your time eating, I have to head out.”
After neatly folding the newspaper onto the magazine rack, greeting Nan Xiao Nan again, Luo Qiu vanished from her sight.
Only then did the cautious atmosphere dissipate… Nan Xiao Nan let out a slow breath, finally feeling relaxed enough to enjoy the prepared breakfast.
Perhaps he knew that lingering too long would leave her ill at ease… Nan Xiao Nan shook her head, picked up a piece of toasted bread, and began spreading jam.
Twisting the jam bottle open, the sweet aroma immediately wafted into Nan Xiao Nan’s nose.
“Is this… Kaluofu Fruit jam?”
Nan Xiao Nan was stunned for a moment, feeling inexplicably happy in her heart… but after the joy came more surprise. One time might be accidental, but being able to produce these things from her hometown consecutively was already unimaginable.
Her hometown had long since collapsed, civilization was no more, everything should have turned to dust…
Breakfast took a long time, and Nan Xiao Nan returned to her room reluctantly.
She shortened the original writing plan time so drastically, naturally because she was anxious, wondering if her involvement in the dismemberment case impacted Mr. Luo’s original plan.
“Hmm, why is he being so nice to me?”
…
…
Second interrogation session.
Zhao Le seemed to have adapted to the dim and cramped interrogation room environment, sitting calmly as he awaited his interrogators.
This time, however, it was not Zhou Yusheng who appeared, but Lin Feng—Zhou Yusheng, Officer Ma, Chen Mingming, and a group of colleagues were watching the interrogation room from the other side.
Seeing Lin Feng appear, Zhao Le was quite surprised… pared to other officers, Lin Feng was somewhat of an ‘acquaintance’ to Zhao Le.
From Lin Feng’s eyes, he could see a hint of regret—but Officer Lin still stirred himself up and began questioning Zhao Le about his statements from the day before.
“Why do you think ‘Mr. Blank’ wants to help you take revenge?” Lin Feng stared at Zhao Le. “According to your munication history, you’ve known ‘Mr. Blank’ for nearly a year; you should have some understanding of it, right?”
Zhao Le calmly replied, “Officer Lin, how much truth do you think there is in what someone says online?”
Lin Feng frowned slightly, “There’s a lot of virtual stuff online, but sometimes it can better reflect a person’s true self. Because you don’t have to worry about who the other party is, you can thoroughly conceal your real identity, so you can do whatever you want without apprehension.”
Zhao Le was silent for a moment before saying, “‘Mr. Blank’, as far as I understand, is a very pessimistic person… but only in the persona of ‘Mr. Blank’. You must have studied the content of our conversations over such a long period, right? ‘Mr. Blank’ has discussed the topic of death with me several times…”
Zhao Le paused, seemingly reminiscing: “It once said, only those who are dead can live forever, live in others’ memories.”
Lin Feng said, “So, you think he’s a pessimist?”
Zhao Le nodded.
Lin Feng said, “Even before this case started, you both knew each other… Your conversations seem quite open, so why haven’t you met in real life?”
Zhao Le replied, “Officer, if you met someone online and you clicked well with them, even having a sense of ‘soulmate’, would you gradually want to know the real side of this person? Would you be afraid that the actual them would be different from the person you’ve known online?”
Lin Feng shook his head quite helplessly; Zhao Le’s explanation was not unreasonable—in fact, it was very reasonable—as many people only know each other online and never plan to meet in person; such examples are aplenty.
The officer sitting beside Lin Feng suddenly said in a deep voice, “Zhao Le, you claimed that ‘Mr. Blank’ is your soulmate, so why did you betray it so easily? Doesn’t this show that your so-called friendship is quite cheap?”
“I was just making a parison, not saying it’s my soulmate,” Zhao Le said indifferently.
The colleague said coldly, “‘Mr. Blank’ helped you take revenge, orchestrating this case personally and even concocting the illusion that Wu Rong and Wang Liang were still alive. I think he truly regarded you as a good friend, but he surely didn’t expect you to betray him without hesitation as soon as you got into trouble. Isn’t there a sense of misplaced trust?”
Zhao Le’s expression changed subtly.
Once, he and Officer Lin had visited Zhao Le’s home together and had surveilled him; Lin SIR even lent 300 yuan to Zhang Xiaoqin… Originally, Officer Lin admired Zhao Le’s kindness greatly, yet for unknown reasons, he now harbored resentment.
Those words were somewhat excessive; Lin Feng couldn’t help kicking his colleague under the table.
Zhao Le took a deep breath, staring at the two in front of him, “So, am I supposed to take all the blame and even admit I’m the real culprit? Is this what you think I should do?”
“Oh, so you’re admitting to being the real culprit?”
Zhao Le sneered, “Officer, I think you should go back to school and brush up on what interrogation techniques really are.”
“You…” The colleague slammed the table, his eyes wide open.
At this moment, Officer Ma’s voice sounded from the interrogation room, his voice somewhat heavy, “Old Wang, watch yourself!”
The colleague took a deep breath and sat down again.
The interrogation room fell silent for the time being.
In the adjacent room, everyone shook their heads helplessly, realizing that continuing the interrogation wouldn’t yield any useful information, so they could only choose to send Zhao Le back to the holding cell.
“I think this kid’s behavior is inconsistent; he must be lying! I don’t believe his nonsense!” The colleague named Old Wang snorted coldly.
“We rely on evidence in our investigations, not subjective speculation,” Zhou Yusheng said indifferently, “Don’t bring personal emotions into the case.”
Old Wang remained silent.
The group began to reexamine the case details… As for tracking ‘Mr. Blank’, they’ve only found the custodian of the forum’s server, but haven’t made contact yet… If they can’t find anyone soon, they’ll have to consider using some illegal means to hack into the opponent’s server.
“I actually think it was smartest for Zhao Le to confess so quickly.”
A female colleague slowly spoke, “Think about it, what he said was actually correct. He kept it hidden due to a psychological gamble; but once exposed, saying nothing would be foolish. If he even took the blame for everything, that would be a real mistake… After all, he has a life ahead of him, and he has a sister to take care of. According to our understanding of Zhao Le, he cares deeply about his family, so between ‘Mr. Blank’ and his sister, it’s clear he’d lean toward the latter.”
“But the events surrounding the crime remain a plete blank,” said Officer Ma shaking his head, “We can’t rely solely on Zhao Le’s words… Oh, with this case, I’m going to lose ten pounds!”
The group smiled wryly; Zhou Yusheng realized Old Ma was trying to change the mood… In this aspect, he admitted he couldn’t pare to the other.
“By the way, where’s Mingming? I don’t see him,” Zhou Yusheng glanced around but didn’t see Chen Mingming and asked his colleagues.
“Oh, he said he went home to fetch something and will be back soon.”
Zhou Yusheng nodded and didn’t continue asking.
Not long after, Zhou Yusheng’s phone rang… He looked down to see a call from Chen Mingming’s phone, paused for a moment, then picked up.
“Hello, Officer Zhou.”
“Who are you!!”
In an instant, Zhou Yusheng stood up like an enraged tiger, pressing the table—a shout that startled everyone in the conference room.
Officer Ma began to ask but saw Zhou Yusheng gesture for silence, then switched the phone to speaker mode, increased the volume to maximum, and solemnly placed the phone on the table.
“… Officer Zhou, Chen Mingming is now in my hands.”
A second later, Zhou Yusheng received an email with a photo—Chen Mingming had his head lowered, mouth covered with a cloth strip, bound to an iron pole, with the background appearing to be some sort of workshop.
“What kind of person are you!” Zhou Yusheng’s face turned livid, his tone icy.
“Aren’t you looking for me now?”
“Are you ‘Mr. Blank’?” Zhou Yusheng shivered slightly, blurting out.
“I’m giving you two hours—after two hours, I hope you can bring Zhao Le to see me; otherwise, Officer Zhou, I can’t guarantee the safety of your son.”
“You want to see Zhao Le! Why!”
“Why… it’s to fix this imperfection. Everything I’ve done is flawless, but why was he seen? My judgment is spot on, but Zhao Le still ratted me out… This won’t do, won’t do at all; the plan won’t be perfect this way. Since he’s betrayed me, I certainly won’t keep him around… I helped him seek revenge out of pity, but now it’s time for him to pay interest. Remember, you only have two hours.”
“It’s impossible! This is contempt for…” Zhou Yusheng’s angry roar was cut short as the call was abruptly ended.
Zhou Yusheng called back but the phone was already turned off; before the phone shut down, he received a text message listing an address.
“What now?” Officer Ma asked urgently.
“No way…The time is too short; we can’t trace the signal origin.” The colleague shook his head, looking helpless.
“Brother Zhou?” Officer Ma now glanced at Zhou Yusheng.
Seeing Zhou Yusheng pale, seated, clenching his fists and shaking, he gritted through his teeth, “We can’t send Zhao Le out…”
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