Nominal: Hou Liangping blocking the door? He was slapped away!

Public Security Bureau of Handong Province.

In the large conference room, the main screen lit up, displaying footage from a ward in the military hospital.

The long table was filled with people on both sides.

Criminal investigation, economic investigation, technical investigation, supervision, and several veterans who don't usually show their faces—they were all there.

The case files were on the table, but no one was looking at them.

When something happens to someone in the same department, everyone feels uneasy.

Especially since Qi Tongwei is still in the hospital.

With him absent, who will oversee this meeting?

In the video, Qi Tongwei is leaning against the headboard with his left arm in a sling and a dark coat draped over his hospital gown.

On the bedside table were a medicine cup, a folder, and a fountain pen whose cap had been taken away by the nurse.

The nurse next to him, holding a notebook, stood at the corner of the screen, clearly ready to cut the wires at any moment.

Some people instinctively sat up straight.

Qi Tongwei looked at the camera.

"Today's meeting is chaired by Director Lu Yike, and her orders are my orders."

Several people in the room looked at each other.

Lu Yike sat on the left side of the main seat, wearing a dark suit, her hair neatly tied up, and the small key around her neck was tucked into her collar.

She closed the folder in front of her.

"Meeting."

An older colleague from the Criminal Investigation Detachment leaned back in his chair. He was in his fifties, with very short hair and deep wrinkles on his face.

He tapped the lid of the teacup.

Click.

"Director Lu, I have a question to ask first."

Lu Yike looked at him.

"Please speak."

The veteran detective put his pen down on the table.

"You bypassed the provincial department's internal surveillance system, specifically targeting the printer in the executive deputy director's office, and bypassed the branch's duty system. The confidential clerk has already been exposed; why haven't you arrested him yet?"

Several people in the conference room lowered their heads.

That's a direct and pointed question.

The veteran detective continued his tirade, "We follow procedures when handling cases. You're not making any arrests, nor issuing formal requests for assistance, and you're just staring at surveillance cameras all day, exhausting us. Is this handling a case, or is it a sting operation?"

Lu Yike didn't rush to reply. She raised her hand and tapped the desktop. Lin Huahua immediately projected the first document onto the screen.

A heart rate curve appeared on the big screen.

The time, location, and interrogation room number are all on it.

"Qin No. 2 Interrogation Heart Rate Record".

Lu Yike stood up, picked up the laser pointer, and wrote in the March 3rd command window: "He mentioned that his heart rate was 117 during the first external contact."

The red dot stopped at the peak.

"Mentioning the middleman in Haizhou, his heart rate is 102."

The red dot moved backward.

"When the provincial department's evidence room was mentioned, his heart rate reached 138, his breathing rate increased, and he swallowed four times in thirty seconds."

The veteran detective frowned.

Someone nearby muttered quietly, "Can this be used as evidence?"

Lu Yike turned her head to look over.

"No, it can't be viewed alone."

She pressed the remote control again.

The second image pops up.

The evidence outdoor corridor monitoring timeline, server access records, and administrator account login time are all overlaid.

"But it can point the way."

Lu Yike continued, "Qin No. 2 confessed to the evidence room, and Lin Huahua simultaneously verified the backup directory. At 00:42, the administrator account logged in again and accessed the evidence room backup directly."

The veteran detective remained silent.

Lu Yike looked at him, "Senior, you just asked me why I didn't close the net."

Switch the screen again.

A partial photo of the vehicle has surfaced.

The gray car with Haizhou license plate has scratches on the edge of the right front wheel mudguard.

Next to it was a transparent evidence bag containing small metal pieces.

"The gray car followed me and passed the intersection outside the hospital. The car didn't stop, and the driver wasn't arrested, because I wanted to see where he was delivering the message."

She turned to the next page of the security record.

"The metal sheet was taken from a bollard at the intersection outside the hospital. The entire chain of information, including the time of extraction, the person who extracted it, the person who sealed it, and the person who handed it over, is complete. It contained particles of paint from the same batch of vehicles and has been sent for testing."

The venue became much quieter.

Lu Yike put down the remote control.

"You want the program, I'll give you the program."

She pushed the three copies on the table forward.

"The access to surveillance footage was made beyond the authorized level, based on a temporary order from the Provincial Department for the protection of classified evidence, issued by Qi Tongwei."

"Printer cache verification, based on the relevance review of Qin Erhao's confession, issued by Qi Tongwei."

"Regarding the control of delays for confidential personnel, in accordance with the online tracking work plan, the signatory is still Qi Tongwei."

On the other end of the screen, Qi Tongwei didn't interrupt, but simply raised his right hand and tapped the bedside table with his knuckles.

笃.

The sound came through the loudspeaker and was very clear.

The veteran detective looked up at the screen.

Lu Yike continued, "Now let's talk about the chain of events."

She opened a flowchart.

The first section contains Qin No. 2's confession.

In the second section, the evidence room backup directory is accessed.

The third issue is a cache error in the printer used by the Executive Deputy Director.

The fourth point: The confidential staff member left his post four times in the morning.

The fifth section contains a seven-second news item about an unregistered device.

"The target didn't take the bait. Request to clean up the traces."

When this line of text is enlarged, it can be clearly seen throughout the entire conference room.

Someone's hand holding a pen stopped.

The veteran detective sat up a little straighter.

"Where is the original SMS message?"

Lin Huahua immediately replied, "Three copies: one sealed, one sent for testing, and one offline backup. The sampling device serial number, base station time, and unregistered device identification code are all attached."

"Who sealed it?"

"I sealed it."

"witness?"

"Zhang Jian from the Technical Investigation Team 2, Hu Ming from the Inspection Department, and the meeting recorder."

The veteran detective looked at Lu Yike.

Lu Yike met his gaze. "Which one would you like to choose?"

The veteran detective picked up his teacup and took a sip.

The tea has gone cold.

He put down the cup. "Continue."

Someone in the room let out a soft sigh.

Lu Yike brought up the next page.

"The confidential staff member's unusual behavior this morning included leaving his post four times, checking his drawer three times, and having hot water spill from his cup once. A square object was found in his trouser pocket, but it wasn't recorded during the building security check."

The screen displays a split-screen view.

The confidential staff member sat at the desk in the outer room, repeatedly opening and closing the drawers.

Click.

Click.

The sound from the monitor wasn't loud, but it sent chills down your spine.

"The old-fashioned device he was carrying came from inside the building, indicating that someone placed it there beforehand. The placement point hasn't been moved yet, to prevent the power line from being rerouted."

The veteran detective remained silent for a moment.

"You left that placement point there, but didn't catch them?"

Lu Yike looked at him, "If you capture a drop point, you can only capture one errand runner. If you leave the drop point, people will think the passage is still usable when they log in."

"What if he runs away?"

"They can't escape."

Lu Yike pushed the operation deployment map on the table to the center, "Two groups in the parking lot, two groups in the stairwell, one group outside the restrooms, one group at the takeout lockers, and one group for the elevator surveillance. Do not use police lights or reveal identification outside the building, only block the routes."

She looked at everyone.

"This is called not taking action, not being unprepared."

Qi Tongwei tapped again with his right hand.

笃.

This time, no one looked down at the documents.

Another veteran, standing next to the old criminal investigator, spoke up.

"Director Lu, we were not notified of these deployments in advance."

Lu Yike looked at him and said, "Because the wider the scope of the notification, the safer the confidential staff will be."

The man's expression was rather unpleasant.

Lu Yike's tone remained unchanged, "There's a mole in the department. I'm already taking a risk by laying out every lead now. You are all seniors, and I respect you for handling major cases and getting through bloodshed, but today's matter cannot be decided based on seniority."

She projected the last page onto the screen.

The evidence room, Qin No. 2, gray car, printer, and unregistered equipment are connected by a red line to form a closed loop.

"This chain connects Haizhou at one end and the provincial department at the other."

"The outer room of the executive deputy director is sandwiched in the middle."

"Going further up, we might encounter people we wouldn't normally dare to approach."