Dark Light Chaser.

The connecting clues in Chapter 22

Seeing Shi Feng busy, Ai Liang seized the opportunity to speak again, saying, "If there's nothing else, I'll head back now. I have tutoring this afternoon."

Shi Feng wanted to persuade him to stay, but then he suddenly realized that Ai Liang was just an ordinary student, not a new graduate of the police academy. Even if he wanted to train him, Ai Liang would have to be willing to do so.

"Then you go back first."

Shi Feng sensed Ai Liang's reluctance and picked up the document, saying...

Thinking about it that way, it makes sense. Who would want to sit in an interrogation room all morning?

"Boss."

Gao Bin sat in the driver's seat and greeted Shi Feng listlessly.

He had just packed his things and was about to go home for a nap when Shi Feng called him back before he even left the branch office.

"Ha. You promised to let me go back and rest. Even the donkeys in the production team aren't treated like this."

Gao Bin yawned repeatedly as he spoke with Shi Feng.

"That's because the donkeys in the production team do easier work than we do."

Shi Feng took out a bar of extra-strong coffee-flavored chocolate from his pocket and handed it to Gao Bin: "Eat this, or we'll be laughing at us when we get to the traffic police station."

"Yawning is a sign of dedication and hard work, proving that I'm working day and night."

Gao Bin tore open the packaging and put the chocolate in his mouth. The strong bitter taste rushed through his mouth and he almost couldn't help but spit it out.

"Team Leader Shi, could you give me the milk flavor next time? I can't stand your taste."

Shi Feng urged, "Stop talking nonsense and drive quickly."

After the captain gave the order, Gao Bin had no choice but to stuff the chocolate into his mouth, chew it haphazardly, swallow it, and then start the car and leave the criminal investigation team.

Gao Bin, looking straight ahead, chatted casually with Shi Feng: "What about Ai Liang? Weren't you planning to be his recommender?"

Shi Feng was holding a folder and continuing to look at the materials compiled by the technical department. After taking a short nap in the interrogation room, he, who hadn't slept all night, became energetic again.

"Bringing a student along on a case? Do you think this is a TV drama?"

Shi Feng frowned and reprimanded him.

Gao Bin, seemingly unfazed by the captain's tone, continued, "So you really intend to be his recommender?"

Shi Feng did not answer, and continued to flip through the documents.

The recommender Gao Bin mentioned is a talent selection system of the Asia Union.

The recommendation system has existed for thousands of years, and this system has continued to this day since the establishment of the public security department.

People like Shi Feng, who are at the level of detachment captain or deputy detachment captain, have one nomination quota.

As long as the nominee has not committed a serious criminal case and is not a heinous criminal, they can directly join the nominator's unit.

The primary purpose of this system is to identify and cultivate talent.

Back then, Shi Feng was an informant who mingled in the gray area and loved smoking and fighting.

He repeatedly committed crimes thanks to his keen observation and counter-surveillance abilities, and was eventually caught by Xia Qiyuan. After some training, he became Captain Shi of the Nevada Criminal Police Detachment.

Of course, the vetting process under this system is extremely rigorous, even more so than interrogation by spies.

If the person nominated commits a crime, the person who nominated them will not only be implicated, but their sentence will also be increased by one level, from a fixed term to life imprisonment, and from life imprisonment to the death penalty.

If the nominator and the nominee are related by blood within three generations, the review requirements will be doubled.

For example, when Xia Qiyuan recommended Shi Feng to join the criminal investigation team, he only needed to increase the crime rate and the speed of case solving by 10%. If it were Xia Qinian, he would have to increase it by at least one-third to prevent nepotism.

People will associate the nomination system with shady dealings and deals.

In reality, very few people are willing to profit through this route. The nominator must first undergo a disciplinary investigation, and their entire background will be thoroughly investigated. If others commit crimes, the nominee will not only be implicated but also have their crimes compounded.

This shows how appalling the vetting process is; only someone with nothing better to do would recommend someone.

In the past few decades, only Xia Qiyuan has recommended Shi Feng to join the criminal investigation team in Nevada.

Because Shi Feng had a criminal record, it was difficult for him to enter the criminal investigation team through normal channels, so Xia Qiyuan, this old bachelor, resorted to this method.

If he hadn't used the recommendation system to bring Shi Feng into the criminal investigation team, this system might still be unknown to most people and long forgotten.

Returning to the topic, seeing that Shi Feng didn't want to answer the question, Gao Bin changed the subject: "Captain Shi, why are you in such a hurry to take on apprentices? Can't you find them from within the team?"

"Look at how many capable people you have in the team. If you don't find good candidates to take over, what will you do after I'm gone?"

Shi Feng's sharp eyes gradually showed a hint of irritation, a helpless feeling of having no successor.

Every detachment has its own pillar of strength; ten years ago it was Xia Qiyuan, and now it's Shi Feng.

Shi Feng is about to be promoted and transferred. Although it sounds a bit boastful, he knows that the speed of case solving will definitely slow down after he leaves, so he has to leave something behind.

As Xia Qiyuan's apprentice, I cannot be careless in accepting disciples, lest I bring shame upon my master.

To put it bluntly, he just looked down on the bunch of freaks in the team.

"That Ai Liang might not even want to be a criminal police officer. You can't force a relationship."

Gao Bin, holding the steering wheel, said, "Who knows, maybe he was so angry for a woman that he was locked up for more than ten hours. It's quite normal for a kid to do something like this out of anger."

Shi Feng said irritably, "You, a young man, are not even as good as other children. You're always so lazy in the team!"

The thought of Gao Bin's work attitude made him so angry that his liver ached.

In the detachment, Gao Bin was known for his kidney problems, having to go to the toilet more than a dozen times a day, each trip lasting more than ten minutes.

During work, he would rather lie down than sit, and rather sit than stand, always putting things off until the last minute.

If someone hadn't spoken to Shi Feng on his behalf, he would have been assigned to sweep the courtyard long ago.

Therefore, Shi Feng usually has Gao Bin as his driver, just so that he won't be idle.

Gao Bin parked the car, shrugged, and said with a sullen face, "There are bound to be some things when you reach middle age. Not everyone is as energetic as Captain Shi."

"Alright, once you're on someone else's turf, be more alert. Don't look like you're about to die."

Shi Feng, too lazy to listen to his nonsense, simply put down the documents and got out of the car.

"Sigh, didn't the higher-ups say I was just here to make up the numbers? Why am I so tired every day?"

Gao Bin sighed, locked the car door, and caught up with Shi Feng.

Meanwhile, when Shi Feng and others arrived at the traffic police station.

Ai Liang has arrived home.

After washing the pan used to fry eggs and the plates used for breakfast that morning, Ai Liang returned to her room and sat down at her desk.

The word "Pandora," uttered by the detective from the technical department, kept echoing in my ears.

In fact, Ai Liang did not come away empty-handed from the report given by the criminal investigators in the technical department; he did indeed make some connections.

Pandora comes from Greek mythology, a story that is widely known.

Coincidentally, the novel Wang Zi was reading was called 'Narcissus,' which also comes from Greek mythology.

Wang Qiang held Pandora's box in his hands, while Wang Zi read a novel titled "The Narcissist."

One father and son were imprisoned for murder, while the other died tragically in a park.

There must be an unknown connection between the two.

Ai Liang sat at her desk, tapping her fingers lightly on the surface as she sorted through the clues in her mind.

The supermarket flyers are placed in a wooden box, which implies that the supermarket is a disaster in a Pandora's box.

Now that it has been confirmed that the supermarket was a hush money payment from Gao Fuye to Wang Qiang.

In other words, the murderer could very well be a family member of the victim in the car accident three years ago.
Thinking of this, Ai Liang paused. Given Gao Fuye's high regard for Gao Jiajia, the possibility that he might have hired someone to kill her in a fit of extreme anger could not be ruled out. Ai Liang retorted expressionlessly, "If you're going to kill someone, just kill someone. Why play this word puzzle game?"

Ai Liang originally had no intention of getting involved in Wang Qiang's case; he didn't even want to bother with such a scoundrel.

However, this case seems to involve the hidden story behind Wang Zi's murder of Gao Jiajia.

Adhering to the principle of seeing things through to the end, Ai Liang began to search her memory again, especially the memory of that novel.

Looking back now, that novel was indeed full of doubts.

I happened to find a stack of novel manuscripts, and coincidentally, I had the same personality, family situation, and even interpersonal relationships as the protagonist. I also happened to experience the same romantic journey as the protagonist, and coincidentally, the manuscripts contained records of murder methods.

There are no such coincidences in the world.

Now it seems that they were clearly using the role effect to guide Wang Zi to commit murder.

Ai Liang shook her head: "There's still too little information."

With the existing information, we can't draw any useful conclusions. We still have to wait for Shi Feng to investigate and find out who the victim was three years ago.

Ai Liang let out a long sigh of relief, then picked up the novel that Yang Xingyue had given him yesterday.

They agreed to meet at the bookstore in the afternoon, so Ai Liang planned to spend the morning reading novels.

The novel and the black notebook were placed together. When Ai Liang picked up the novel and saw the notebook, it was as if a thunderbolt had struck her mind.

Ai Liang pushed the novel aside, picked up her notebook, and opened to the last few pages.

Can the former king of Crete judge himself?
The allure of desire led those who were only now to collect Pandora's box of calamity.

The orchard's spirits were adorned as the embodiment of the god of beauty and love.
Goddess who loves to stir up trouble

Why don't you avoid the self-indulgent narcissism?
Earth Goddess who nurtures all things

The mother of monsters, the source of all evil, shall perish forever!

"A Pandora's box of calamity, a self-absorbed narcissus"

Ai Liang read the poem aloud, and two lines of it corresponded exactly to those of Wang Qiang and Wang Zi.

"The recycling station owner once said that the woman with glasses' sister died in a car accident three years ago."

Is this a coincidence?

Ai Liang stared at the notes for a long time without saying a word.

He flipped back to the previous pages of his notes and began to look at the mathematical formulas and equations.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Ai Liang appeared at the entrance of a waste recycling station carrying a laptop bag.

The man with the mustache surnamed Sun was cleaning up a pile of junk.

"boss."

Ai Liang walked into the recycling station and called out.

The man with the mustache turned his head and saw that it was the student who had called the police earlier.

His face immediately fell, but his attitude changed instantly when he noticed that Ai Liang was carrying a laptop bag.

"Oh, young man, are you here to support my business? Actually, I also buy second-hand goods here. We're practically acquaintances. I promise I won't rip you off."

The man with the mustache enthusiastically pulled Ai Liang into the office.

Ai Liang neither confirmed nor denied this, but she knew the truth perfectly well.

Some people specialize in recycling second-hand electronic products, refurbishing them, and then reselling them. An old laptop might be bought for a couple hundred yuan, but after being refurbished, it can be resold in the second-hand market for a couple thousand yuan.

The man with the mustache is part of the profit chain. He is responsible for recycling usable electronic products, then special people will come to refurbish them and then transport them to the second-hand market to sell.

Don't ask Ai Liang how he knows; he did this in his past life.

There's a lot of profit to be made here.

The high-end printer on the desk was actually a refurbished product; the guy with the mustache thought it worked perfectly and took it himself. It wasn't bought from a secondhand market at all.

However, Ai Liang didn't bring her computer here to discuss business with him.

"I'm not here to sell anything, I'm just here to ask some questions."

Ai Liang put the computer bag on the table and, before the man with the mustache could perform his magic trick, pulled out a few banknotes from his pocket and stuffed them into his hand.

The man with the thin mustache, who had been listless, suddenly perked up again as he gripped the banknotes.

He patted his chest and assured them, "You're here to help the police with a case again, right? You're really young and promising. Ask me anything, I promise I'll tell you everything I know."

Ai Liang opened the computer and moved aside, saying, "Could you please enter the password? I need to look something up."

This request put the man with the mustache in a difficult position.

"Uh, what's there to investigate about my garbage dump? Can I ask what you're planning to investigate?"

The man with the mustache stood to the side without moving, his gaze towards Ai Liang carrying a hint of wariness.

Selling refurbished goods is not illegal in Asia Union, but it is a gray industry on the verge of being illegal, and you will inevitably be fined if you are caught.

The man with the mustache started this line of work precisely because he was short of money; he didn't want to lose all his savings before earning much.

"Check the printer usage records."

Upon hearing this, the man with the mustache's expression changed drastically. Could it be that his upstream supplier had been wiped out in one fell swoop? Impossible.

The items were secondhand anyway. It's normal for things you buy from the secondhand market to break after a few days of use. Who would bother to report that?

Besides, doesn't the supplier have connections with the urban management department?

Ai Liang ignored what the man with the mustache was thinking, and just stared at him intently, urging him to turn on the computer with her eyes.

"Although I'm just a scrap collector, I still have trade secrets, and some things are among my peers."

The man with the mustache kept changing the subject and dawdled, refusing to enter the password.

"I'm not here to investigate the secondhand market. What I need to investigate involves two murder cases. Either you turn on your computer now, and I'll pretend I didn't see those secondhand market transaction records, and I'll leave after I've finished my investigation; or you wait for the police to come and investigate in person, and while they're at it, they can take a look at your recycle bin to boost their performance. The choice is yours."

The man with the mustache, who had been an "honest man" for most of his life, panicked when he heard that two murder cases were involved. What if the investigators discovered his true identity while investigating the cases? He would be in big trouble.
"I was just selling some secondhand junk to people, how did it involve a murder case?"

The man with the mustache was on the verge of tears. He was terrified when the last time they came with a bunch of police officers, and now they're coming again? Why is my shabby recycling center so unlucky!

The man with the mustache had absolutely no doubt about Ai Liang.

In Xiao Huzi's eyes, Ai Liang was mistakenly considered a ruthless character who had connections in both the legitimate and criminal worlds, so his family must be quite powerful.

Not long ago, he called a whole carload of police officers right in front of me, and it was related to that guy (Xia Qinian) who dared to lay a hand on the police and looked like he was not to be trifled with.

He always has a cold and aloof demeanor, which is very intimidating.

The man with the mustache shakily entered the password, while constantly trying to gain sympathy from Ai Liang, hoping he would talk his way out of the situation. He knew that if some things were exposed, it wouldn't just be a simple fine.

There are no messy programs on the computer desktop; it's almost like a brand new computer.

There aren't many folders; you can look them over in a couple of glances.

Ai Liang entered the date from two years ago into the search bar, and as expected, there were no search results.

Ai Liang was not discouraged. He went to the printer, turned it over, and found a slot on the base.

Ai Liang removed the memory card and inserted it into the computer.

The man with the mustache was stunned; he himself had no idea there was a slot under the printer.

This advanced printer has an automatic backup function that is independent of the computer; if a record is deleted on the computer, a backup is still stored on the printer's memory card.

Ai Liang sighed as she looked at the search results. Sure enough, there were records here.
The text displayed on the computer screen was the stack of novels 'Narcissus' that Wang Zi had picked up.

(End of this chapter)